The Moon and Her Phases: A Dance Through Nature and Time

The Moon, silver-veiled and ever-changing, is Earth’s quiet companion. She rises and falls not by whim, but by rhythm—a pulsing, celestial breath that weaves through the tides, the womb, the seeds in the soil, and the hearts of those who look up. Her phases are not just stages in the sky; they are metaphors etched into the body of nature, mirrored in us. The Moon’s face changes in her waxing and waning as she pivots with the Sun, reflecting the life giving light in the darkness, the luminaries forever together in their cosmic dance. Her Temple is Cancer the Gateway of Soul into the material the last point before embodiment for all that resides on the earth. Her waxing and waning tells of the earth from birth to death to rebirth she is the cosmic storyteller. Like a giant magnet she pulls the water of the sea’s backwards and forwards like a cosmic breathe in and out just as she pulls the waters of our our bodies. The rhythmic rise and fall of the menstruation cycle offering each cycle the potential of life. She is the waters above to our waters below. She is dark and mysterious, bright and illuminating in her phases, she is the within and the without our deep and hidden unconscious our emotions and our body. She is the hidden life of gestation, home and mother of us all. She is the Tripartite Maiden, Mother and Crone mirroring our journey from birth to death, she initiates us into the Goddess mysteries of the Dark Moon and provides a path of rhythm a drum beat to watch and to follow. She is our nearest cosmic object and can be seen in detail but her dark side requires contemplation and seeking to fully understand her changing faces. She is the High Priestess in her Temple displaying her symbols to entice us into her mysterious magic she is the rhythm of life. Her Temple is the water to the Suns fire she is part of the Alchemical mystery of the masculine and feminine, Yin and Yang, action and receptivity, fire and water, she does not dance alone. She is the cold and moist to the Sun’s hot and dry. To enter her Temple is to align to her rhythm, mystery, to allow reflective illumination to wax and wane, to become part of her cycle within cycles to learn the mysteries of her cosmic dance with the Sun and her gift of embodiment the rise and fall of fortune in our circumstances.

🌑 New Moon — The Seed Beneath the Soil

Theme: Initiation • Intuition • Hidden Potential
Nature Mirror: A seed in the dark earth
Suggested Practice: Set quiet intentions. Journal or meditate. Plant seeds (literal or metaphorical).
Affirmation: "In the dark, I dream anew."

In the hush of the New Moon, the sky is bare. She hides her face, not in shame but in sacred retreat. This is the phase of beginnings—quiet, invisible beginnings. Like a seed buried deep in the dark earth, unseen but full of promise, the New Moon holds potential yet to be expressed. The forest floor, damp with decay and life, cradles seeds that dream of roots and bloom. No one sees the moment the seed stirs, just as we may not yet see the dream forming in our hearts. But it is there. In the dark, everything begins.

At the New Moon there is darkness it is the transition from the dark moon of the old cycle to a rising of light. Here is her darkness and in the earth seeds germinate under the soil out of sight. At this time we can allow our imaginations to collect seeds of intention and plant them for this new cycle to grow, flower and fruit during the month ahead lunation cycle. Seeds which contain the sweet berries we can later savour or the imagined outcome for a relationship, job, purpose or project. Along with intentional seeds there are some which contain weeds, unintentionally planted or dropped by birds and the winds. So it is with our imaginal seeds, our memories, shadows and conditioning can plant the unintended which will grow alongside.

🌒 Waxing Crescent — The Sprout Reaches for Light

Theme: Hope • Action Begins • Courage
Nature Mirror: A sprout breaking through soil
Suggested Practice: Take a small step. Start something new. Visualize growth.
Affirmation: "I move forward with hope and purpose."

As a sliver of silver curves into the night, hope is kindled. This crescent, like a young sprout breaching the soil, is tentative but determined. It leans toward the sun not knowing what lies above, but drawn by instinct. A deer learning her path through the woods, a child’s first steps—these are the Waxing Crescent moments. Small movements with great meaning. We name our desires now. We begin to move toward them.

As the light quickens and the Crescent moon appears, it is a period of creation and birthing with the soil requiring water, nutrients and nurture as the roots reach downwards and the first stems appear above the soil. Our imaginal intentional seeds require nourishing with emotion, visualisation and faith. We can not at this moment see the full plant just the tender stems which are difficult to determine from the stems of weeds. Embrace them all allow them to grow until their true form becomes apparent. Pulling them out now endangers the real plant, they require strength and definition to separate the wheat from the chaff. Our seeds for our month ahead may also be unclarified at this point we may have sown self-doubt or delusion alongside and only after the first quarter moon has appeared that we will see with clarity which stems we need to sift and lift out.

🌓 First Quarter — The Sapling Takes Root

Theme: Decision • Momentum • Overcoming Resistance
Nature Mirror: A sapling facing wind
Suggested Practice: Make a firm commitment. Break through inner or outer obstacles.
Affirmation: "I grow stronger through action."

Half-formed in light, half-held in shadow, the First Quarter Moon stands for decision. There is tension here—action and resistance locked in a silent duel. Like the sapling facing its first storm, this is when growth demands effort. Rivers carve stone with persistence. Vines twist toward sun through crumbling walls. The First Quarter calls us to commit—to push through the doubt that creeps like moss on bark. It is not yet easy, but it is worthwhile.

The first quarter moon brings light and dark into balance, she is half way illuminated. We can visibly see the promise of the Full Moon and the shape she will take, just as the stems are now forming shape and colour enabling us to see which is the plant which will eventually bear the sweet fruit. Our imaginal seeds now will have taken shape, they are no longer a visualisation but solid and we will need to be present in the now of our circumstances to understand what has grown. If we have taken on a project an art piece for example, this is the point where we have put onto the canvas all our inner vision, the composition the underpainting. Only by standing in front of the painting can we see if our work has physically taken shape in the way we imagined. We will see if our ideas in reality were too many or too few. If the canvas is overloaded we instinctively understand what will overshadow the full painting with all its’ details loosing the main thread of the original vision we experienced whilst imagining. The same is true for any intentions we had visualised for our lives, we will be able to see the shape they are taking in the physical realm. If we are wholly present in the moment we will be enabled to understand the nuances, the light and shadow of what we have created. An understanding of what we have under done, avoided or left out due to self-doubt and where we have taken on too much due to over exuberance or many ideas. It is at this point that the shape and balance of our creation is apparent we will know what will be too much as the project comes into its fullness and what will be unfulfilling by what is left out. It is at this point we weed out and tend to the true fruitful plant focusing all our attention and action on what we wish to become full and illumed.

🌔 Waxing Gibbous — The Bud Before the Bloom

Theme: Refinement • Adjustment • Patience
Nature Mirror: A bud swelling with life
Suggested Practice: Reassess and refine goals. Tend to your dreams with care.
Affirmation: "What I nurture will soon blossom."

Now the moon swells toward fullness, like a bud fat with life. All of nature leans in. There’s a hush before the blossom breaks—a pregnant pause. The caterpillar is almost butterfly. The fruit begins to blush. We are so close to the goal, and it is tempting to rush. But this phase teaches patience. Trust the timing. The blossom will unfurl when the sun is right.

The space between the first quarter and the full moon is that of light ascending the waxing gibbous moon on it’s way to fullness. It is during this time that the strong stem and leaves begin to produce buds, a time when plants need regular nourishing with food water and warmth, the fuel to grow healthy flowers which will produce the best fruit. So too with our creations, they require time and attention. To the painting, colour and texture will be added, bringing elements from flat two dimensional compositions to three dimensional aliveness. To the skeleton of our projects, be that inner or outer work, we will add depth, flavour and content the flesh which rounds the structure bringing meaning and purpose to our outlines. This involves all our capacities our minds, emotions, imaginations our learned and remembered skills in action to accomplish. This is a time of motion and illumination a fleshing out of our thoughts, ideas and dreams.

🌕 Full Moon — The Bloom and the Wolfs’ Song

Theme: Illumination • Celebration • Clarity
Nature Mirror: A flower in full bloom, the ocean’s high tide
Suggested Practice: Celebrate progress. Release what's no longer serving. Perform rituals or gather in community.
Affirmation: "I am radiant. I see clearly."

In her fullness, the Moon is a mirror to all things. The ocean bows in great tides. Wolves lift their heads and sing. Owls take flight with eyes wide open. Under the Full Moon, all is revealed. The garden is in bloom. The harvest ripens. Energy peaks. It is a time of celebration, but also clarity—what has grown must be seen for what it is. The Full Moon does not judge. She illuminates.

The Moon in her full illumination as she shines in her full glory reflecting the brilliance of the Sun in the dark of night. The manifestation of what lay hidden, her flower, laid bare at the Full Moon. The full flower which determines the fruit that will be produced is now visible as the bud has fully opened to reveal the quality and possible quantity of a later harvest. The canvas is now full of the image which was hidden in the imagination the process not yet complete, lacking the varnish and the selling or hanging on the wall but complete as the flower. The decision for varnish and hanging subject to what has evolved from paint, effort and vision. Is the flower as beautiful and complete as you imagined or a different variation which metamorphized in your process of painting? Your project, relationship or circumstance, has it evolved has it taken the shape you had hoped for or do the clouds completely obscure the results? The beauty of the full Moon can be partly or fully obscured by thick clouds and there will be waiting for another month to view her in her glory it is a matter of fortunate weather that determines what we see. So to with our circumstances and efforts, we may have to enter another cycle to perfect our creation, there will be another glimpse of the Moons partial illumination as she wanes.

🌖 Waning Gibbous — The Falling Petals

Theme: Gratitude • Sharing • Integration
Nature Mirror: Blossoms falling to earth
Suggested Practice: Express thanks. Share lessons learned. Pass wisdom forward.
Affirmation: "I give thanks for the harvest of my effort."

After the bloom, petals fall like soft rain. The Waning Gibbous teaches gratitude. The feast is being shared. The forest quiets. Leaves begin to curl. The fruit has ripened. This is a time of giving back, of sharing wisdom. The bear prepares for hibernation. We begin to reflect.

The waning gibbous moon is a time of the first stirrings of dark as her cosmic dance moves positions and she is partially obscured from sight. However it is the time of fruiting and harvesting of the seeds we planted both in the ground and in our imaginations. There may be an abundant harvest or we may have been distracted by our circumstances and unable to put the time and effort into the nurture and preservation of the seeds we planted. It could be we grabbed the wrong packet of seeds which were out of date and all that came was a stringy plant in the corner of our garden or the time of weeding was overlooked and our plants and creations became entangled unable to grow fully. Or maybe the seeds that were planted were not what we expected and we grew a different variety of fruit! Whatever the outcome the fruit needs to be harvested and if it is not fit for eating straight from the plant there is always jam and pickle to be made. It is at the time of harvest as the dark increases that we can understand the results we have produced and learn from them whether those results were what we expected or not, nothing is wasted. Our expectations may have been too high or low of ourselves and our circumstances, we may not have figured in adequate spaces to for the volume of work required, perhaps a focus on one plant, painting or idea may have enabled us to nourish and sustain our creation? There may have been an abundant harvest in which case the processes and skills we learned along the way can be repeated or passed on to others to co-create abundance. A harvest always brings a judgement which will inform us to repeat, skill up or change the process completely we will always learn adapt and change what is necessary for the next cycle of growth.

🌗 Last Quarter — The Composting of the Past

Theme: Release • Transition • Letting Go
Nature Mirror: Leaves returning to soil
Suggested Practice: Declutter. Cut cords. Make space for the new.
Affirmation: "I let go to grow anew."

Once again half-shadow, half-light, the Last Quarter is a place of release. The tree lets go of its leaves without sorrow. What is no longer needed falls away. This is a phase of pruning, of clearing space. The field is turned under. The compost pile steams with decay and transformation. We begin to make peace with what was.

After harvesting comes the last quarter Moon with the balance of light and dark but unlike the first quarter, we are witnessing the diminishing of the light of illumination and the prospect of darkness. It is time to prune and clean up what has decomposed, the fruit the leaves and any other debris as we cut back and regenerate, both the seeds shed and the soil, for replanting on the next cycle. This may be time to tie up any loose ends to clean down your workspace, finalise your work. It is a natural time time of regeneration and destruction, literally and metaphysically. To see both the light and shadow of the cycle both inwardly and outwardly. It is apparent at this point and time to decide if your painting needs to be hung on the wall, sold, repurposed or put with the recycling.

🌘 Waning Crescent — The Silence Before the Stir

Theme: Rest • Surrender • Inner Listening
Nature Mirror: The still forest in winter
Suggested Practice: Retreat. Reflect. Sleep more. Dream deeply.
Affirmation: "I honour the wisdom of stillness."

The Waning Crescent is the hush before rebirth. A winter’s morning where breath is frost and the world waits. Nothing stirs—but everything listens. The snake sheds its skin. The moon becomes a whisper. Here, we dream again. Rest is not emptiness. It is the gathering of strength, the coiling of potential.

Within a day after the last quarter, the Moon moves to the ever diminishing Crescent into the eventual dark Moon of the last three days of the cycle. During this time cleanse, surrender blockages and beliefs that impede the natural flow of abundance, heal and make room for the next cycle of planting and growth. No creation is without its’ destruction, no joy is without frustration and no accomplishment is without effort. Just as the Moon appears from the darkness she returns to the darkness. This is a time of rest, reflection, self-care and contemplation particularly during the three day period of the dark Moon. It is not a time of action it is a time of magic where you will be replenished and regenerated for the next cycle as organically as the seed capsules are released and lay dormant underground. Be open for the whispers of the Dark Goddess laying imaginal seeds in your soul.