COSMIC COLUMN September 15 2019 - Yasmin Boland
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We are now in the waning cycle

So what does that mean?

Although the Moon appears to change shape in the sky as she moves through these phases – from New to Waxing, to Quarter to Full Moon, and back again – in fact, it’s her position in relation to the Sun and the Earth that’s changing.

Here’s a bit of technical stuff…

Think of it like this: the Moon orbits the Earth, and the Earth orbits the Sun, and the Moon phases are a result of the changing angles between the Earth, Moon and Sun, as this takes place. The angles between the Moon and the Sun as the Moon orbits the Earth cause different amounts of the Moon to be ‘lit up’ from our vantage point here on Earth. Which is why sometimes we see the whole face of the Moon lit up (the Full Moon) and at other times the Moon resembles a ‘Half Moon’ (the Quarter Moon).

Many, many Moons ago, humans noticed the repeating light-play of the lunar cycle, and gave each phase a different name. We also studied the energies that the different phases brought to bear on us, and enshrined that wisdom in astrology. The illustration below shows how the phases change over the course of the Moon’s 29½-day cycle. (Note that the angles shown are those created when we trace a line from the Earth to the Sun and from the Earth to the Moon. So 0° is the New Moon and once the Moon has moved 180° around the Earth, that’s the Full Moon).

The eight Moon phases

Gibbous
First Quarter
Third Quarter
The earth and moon spin and orbit together around the sun
Waxing Crescent
Balsamic
Full Moon New Moon
Disseminating

It’s also useful to know the following:

• A waxing Moon is moving from New to Full and getting bigger and bigger in the sky.
• A waning Moon is moving from Full back to New and getting smaller every night.
• We can think of the Moon in terms of the Chinese philosophical concept of yin-yang. The New Moon is a very yin time, but as the days that follow it unfold, it becomes more and more yang. The Full Moon is a very yang moment but as the days pass, the energies become more and more yin. (Isn’t it beautiful, the way the Moon is in a constant state of flux, as we are, in life?)

– This week’s Cosmic Column comes to you from my best-selling book Moonology.

New York! New York!

Are you going to be anywhere near the Big Apple at the end of October? I will be do a one-off Moon Manifesting workshop there at the Open Centre. Book your tickets this week to go into the draw to win a free reading with me there too! Info is here.

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