← Encyclopedia of Astrology · lesson 143/235
Waning Moon
What it is
The Moon is waning for the two weeks or so between a Full Moon and the next New Moon, while the lit part of its face shrinks. In astrological terms the Moon is more than 180° ahead of the Sun — or, put the other way round, less than 180° behind it — and is closing in on the Sun from the far side. The older phrase is that the Moon is decreasing in light.
A waning Moon is a late-night and morning Moon. After the Full it rises later each evening; by the last quarter it rises around midnight and is still high in the south (in the northern hemisphere) when the Sun comes up; in the balsamic days it is a thin crescent low in the east before dawn, until it vanishes into the Sun's light. In the northern hemisphere its lit edge is on the left; south of the equator, on the right. The phase itself — the angle between the two lights — is the same everywhere.
In the tradition
In older astrology a waning Moon is a weakening Moon. Ptolemy has her producing dryness in her third quarter and cold in her fourth. Lilly lists decreasing in light among the Moon's accidental debilities, worth two points against her, the mirror of the two she gains when increasing. Nicholas deVore sums up the general view: decreasing in light is "generally accepted as weakening the planet's influence".
In elections that weakness can be used. Where the waxing Moon suits what should grow, the waning Moon has been chosen for what should shrink, stop or stay small. William Ramesey's seventeenth-century rules for cutting hair are a homely example: for hair that should not grow back quickly, take the Moon decreasing in light; for hair that should grow, take her increasing. The same logic has been applied to clearing land, weeding, ending agreements and anything meant to diminish. A venture meant to prosper was traditionally not begun with the Moon past the Full.
The idea is not limited to the Moon. Any planet moving from its opposition with the Sun back towards conjunction is decreasing in light in the same sense, and Mercury and Venus have their own waxing and waning phases around the Sun.
How it is read
Modern astrology, after Dane Rudhyar, gives the waning half a meaning of its own rather than only a loss of strength. If the waxing half builds a form, the waning half asks what the form means. After the illumination of the Full Moon, the disseminating phase shares what has been learned; the last quarter turns away from what no longer fits; the balsamic phase lets go and distils a seed for the next cycle. Rudhyar compared it to a plant's autumn: the energy withdraws from the leaves into the seed. The tone is reflective, social and conscious — understanding first, acting from what has been understood.
- Born under a waning Moon. Rudhyar's four waning types (Full Moon, disseminating, last quarter, balsamic) are read as people who tend to work with ideas, meanings and what has already been lived: teaching, reforming, completing, preparing what comes next. It is a tendency, not a fixed character.
- Waning aspects. In the "full-phase" view of Michael Erlewine and others, an aspect formed as the faster planet returns from the opposition towards the conjunction is a waning aspect, read as harvesting and releasing rather than building. The waning square (last quarter) is the classic example.
- Day to day. Many people use the waning fortnight to finish, simplify, clear out and rest, and keep new starts for after the next New Moon. That is a rhythm, not a prohibition: plenty of good things begin under a waning Moon.