Phases of the moon
12-23-2024 12:18:00 -third quarter
12-23-2024 12:18:00 -the beginning of the fourth lunar phase
12-31-2024 12:26:00 -new moon
12-31-2024 12:26:00 -the beginning of the first lunar phase
01-14-2025 12:26:00 -full Moon
The deity of the night, the Moon constantly influences our emotions, no matter what phase it occupies in the sky. In any life situation, we cannot do without its watchful eye. Sometimes, in the hours of fullness, its eye is bright and round, and sometimes barely noticeable in the sky, but that does not mean the ever-watchful lunar eye has disappeared from us. In the days of the waxing and waning Moon, too, it noticeably affects us.
The first quarter of the Lunar month, or the young Moon, is a time for new beginnings. The energies of the Sun and Moon combine and move in one direction, giving an extra push to new life. Beginnings at this time happen as instinctive or intuitive actions. Since during the period of the dark Moon (the last days of the last quarter of the Lunar month) everything is hidden from its light, dreams or ideas inspired by dreams may contain answers to questions that interest a person. Our inner essence tunes in to the rhythm of the cosmos and perceives what is inaccessible to our eyes.
Shortly before the arrival of the young Moon, I had to speak with the owner of an esoteric bookshop. Apparently, she was so busy with her work that she rarely had time to read the books she sold. This woman shared with me the observation that in the time close to the young Moon, her intuitive abilities sharply increase, and she can recommend to her customers those books she has not read herself. Tuning in to the person and to a particular book, she senses how well this reader and the book match each other. Customers are satisfied.
By the end of the first quarter of the Lunar month, the Moon and the Sun are no longer in alignment. The influence of the Moon intensifies; its energetic influence continues, but it is no longer reinforced by the Sun. The energies of the Sun and Moon will unite again at the full Moon when the two luminaries will be positioned opposite each other in the sky. But until then, the new waxing Moon shines, becoming increasingly visible in the sky, nourishing all positive beginnings. It’s time to finish planning and start taking real action! Gather your energy and direct it towards achieving your goals.
The second quarter of the lunar month is a time to work on already started endeavors. Direct your energy towards continuing, completing, or refining existing projects or affairs. Under the influence of the steadily waxing Moon, your movement towards achieving your goals will be stable and successful. Closer to the full Moon, it is worth adding the final finishing touches, bringing what is desired to perfection.
A friend of mine is engaged in delicate handwork – he custom makes personalized knives. In his work, he pays close attention to the phase the Moon is in. He forges, tempers, and sharpens the blade and handles the knives only in the first and second quarters of the Lunar month. In the last few days of the second quarter, he polishes the blades, decorates the handles, sews cases, and completes work on the knives before the full Moon.
The third phase of the Moon, or the third quarter of the lunar month, begins with the full Moon. The full Moon is a signal for completing work. What was started with the new Moon has now reached full maturity, completion. The full Moon personifies the peak of lunar energy that gives life, and when this energy intersects with the solar energy, which by that time emerges from the opposite side of the Moon, we receive all the blessings that nature bestows. It’s a time when our efforts reach their ultimate goal. Our work is done, and now it’s time to utilize what we’ve been diligently working on all this time. As the last quarter of the Lunar month approaches, the main focus of the work should be the full realization of our plan. Let our initial idea finally come to fruition!
The last quarter of the Lunar month is a time for release, destruction, and purification. It’s time to remove everything unnecessary from our lives to make room for the new. Having already enjoyed the successful completion of our work, we must now free our inner space from all old thoughts and plans to make way for new inspiring ideas. It’s time to thoroughly dismantle everything that has served us well in this Lunar month so that fresh, fertile ground is prepared for the birth of the new. As we approach the waxing Moon, the strength of light diminishes, giving way to the influence of darkness. During these days, in the last quarter of the lunar month, my acquaintance carves handles and cleans the forge.
If there is a need to destroy, liquidate, or annihilate something, it should be identified in the third quarter of the Moon, and action should be taken in the fourth. Let the unnecessary fade into oblivion along with everything that dies in the last two quarters of the lunar cycle. The Dark Moon – the time when the queen of the night hides from our sight – teaches its own lesson. The Moon hides in the last days of the final quarter of the Lunar month. During this time, all of nature rests and regains strength.
Similarly, the human soul, having completed the cycle of birth, life, and death, remains in darkness for some time to fully assimilate the lessons of this incarnation. What the soul has learned comes to the forefront of its consciousness, is concentrated upon, and embodied into the concept upon which its next life will be based. In this phase of the lunar cycle, the past passes the baton to the future. The key word of the Dark Moon period is self-analysis. Since much of the activity during the Dark Moon period is intuitive, the new intentions and attitudes that arise during this time are best suited to help you permanently part ways with internal negativity that hinders your further development.
The transition from light to darkness and back is a completely natural phenomenon. After all, the Moon invariably revolves around the Earth, which, in turn, revolves around the Sun, so there are always periods when the Moon is hidden from the Earth and invisible to us. It’s already a tradition that darkness is associated with evil, with something incomprehensible, invisible, and therefore frightening. And light in our perception represents openness, clarity, warmth; it embodies the best qualities of everything that exists.
There is no need to fear or reject the period of the Dark Moon, just as there are hidden, secret sides of our psyche. It should not be forgotten that in every person there is a dark side – this is not evil, but rather the hidden inner essence that can be understood through meditation. Meditation provides access to the unexplored dark side of our inner world and raises awareness to a level where we can understand how its dark and light sides are intertwined.
In astrology, the Moon symbolizes the temple of the soul. Like the teachers of antiquity, modern mentors emphasize the importance of maintaining balance in everything. The soul is no exception, and in it, too, the light and dark sides must balance themselves. Each of these aspects carries its necessary charge of life energy for us: light represents the energy of the Sun, and darkness – the energy of the Moon. The Sun and the life energy received from the hot luminary manifest in the external aspect of our personality, in our activity in the physical world. Our “solar” part interacts with everyday life and governs us during the hours when we are not asleep. The Sun gives us energy and life. It fills the physical body with life force.
Scientists have proven that insufficient exposure to sunlight on the human body leads to the development of depression, a condition known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Dr. Robert M. Giller and Katie Matthews in their book “Natural Prescriptions” talk about how seasonal affective disorder is depression associated with insufficient stimulation of the retina of the eye by sunlight. This form of depression is four times more common in women and affects five percent of the population in northern regions. Unlike other types of depression, this one mainly affects people in the winter months. Those suffering from seasonal affective disorder typically complain of lack of energy, increased anxiety, significant loss of sexual desire, excessive sleepiness, tendency to overeat, and weight gain.
Therefore, the Moon personifies the “dark,” unknown side of our existence. This side is usually invisible; it emerges at night, like the Moon, when our analytical mind falls asleep. Our lunar essence consists of the subconscious and the superconscious. In numerology, the Moon is associated with the number “two” because this number embodies both sides of life, light and darkness, and reflects the dual nature of the soul.
This dual energy is the soul itself. It nourishes everything we are and everything we will become in the future. Deep within the depths of the soul lie our secrets, memories, fears, and experiences of past incarnations in all their fullness. The soul can be likened to an ocean. It is boundless. Within it, echoes of countless lives lived by us in the past can be found. Similar to the ocean, which extends its waters everywhere, each individual soul contains within it the collective subconscious, which connects it to all humanity.
Physiologist Carl Jung put forth the theory of the collective unconscious, which explains the existence of subtle connections between people, as well as between us and our past lives. His studies showed that the astrological compatibility of many of the family couples he researched went far beyond the bounds of ordinary chance. According to his theory, we are all connected to each other at the subconscious level. The truth of this theory can only be verified by arming oneself with the necessary courage and honesty.
Past lives often make themselves known. For example, when we meet someone for the first time and feel as if we have known this person all our lives. At this moment, our subconscious connects to the collective subconscious and recalls the history that connects us to this person. But at the level of consciousness, we cannot remember this history; we simply feel that we are deeply connected to this person, that perhaps they resemble an old friend, that they possess qualities that we highly value in people.
Our inner world is that invaluable realm where we retreat to replenish our life force. We do this every night when we sleep. In dreams, we work through our problems on a much deeper level than what we allow our consciousness to perceive. Such recharging of energy occurs with the soul even after death, when the living being that has left the physical body analyzes everything it has achieved in its last life and makes plans for the next.
Just as the ocean is the source of all life on Earth, the energy of the soul is the source of our inner strength, without which our external manifestation would not exist. A brave personality can only draw strength from the feminine inner essence. We are the creation of our own soul, which has accumulated experience and various qualities over many, many life cycles, and our ego, which masks our true essence from most of the outside world. This protective mechanism is crucial for life in the physical world, but sometimes it hinders us from feeling our wholeness. By becoming truly honest with ourselves, we could balance our ego and show ourselves and the world our true, beautiful personality hidden beneath the mask.