After reaching its maximum splendor on Wednesday the 10th, the Moon started losing presence and luminosity, as nights went by. In only one week (Thursday the 18th) it will have lost half of its illuminated face, then turning into a Half-Moon. That night it will initiate its waning phase in the pursuit of the Sun, until disappearing completely, on the night of May the 25th, when it will come together with the Sun.
In its constant movement through the zodiacal sphere, our only natural satellite shows us each night, in its double process, a different face of growth and dwarfing of its spherical figure. Within the lapse of four weeks, it returns to its initial appearance and, in its incessant movement, it will need 48 weeks to repeat —12 times— the same procedure.
In its perennial movement, the Moon accompanies our planet’s constant sidereal transit and, through its multiple faces, it becomes a glowing nocturnal reference. Humanity has always revered its mysterious charm, attributing extraordinary powers to its mutable and radiant image.
The most varied cultures and civilizations of antiquity identified our moon with a feminine divinity, source of the most diverse myths and legends, having strength sufficient to influence the lives of human beings, especially with regard to produce from the earth. Because of this, the Moon was linked with motherhood and nutrition and was thus assimilated among the earliest astrology scholars.
In the territory of the symbolic, the Moon represents the passive principle (it receives and reflexes solar light), sensibility, emotions, mystery, humidity, receptiveness, the unconscious, the night, the imagination, intuition and transiency, all of which are elements belonging with femininity. Its fickle character is highlighted by the persistent modification of its appearance.
During the Moon’s 29-nights-long synodic cycle, from its first conjunction with the Sun to the next, its 26 faces can show themselves (Each month there are 3 successive nights when the Moon cannot be observed, due to its zodiacal position being close to the Sun.) Such many lunar faces could be summed up in four, corresponding with the Moon’s respective phases: new, growing, full and waning.
Each of the lunar phases can be associated with a different way of displaying femininity: innocence, seduction, fertility and wisdom; or with the four ages of a woman: the virgin girl, the juvenile awakening to sexuality and sensuality, maternal fertility, and the internalization of maturity.
In human processes —both personal as well as social— four fundamental moments can be identified: emergence, development, fullness and decay; comparable to the four phases of the Moon. According to the principle of synchronicity, or according to the law of analogy, there seems to be a correspondence between terrestrial and sidereal events, in which each lunar phase represents a certain behavior pattern.
When the dynamics of natural life and human actions coincide with the manifestation of a lunar phase, the possibilities grow of results being similar to the meaning of the respective cycle. That is why it is usually recommended that projects or tasks be commenced on New Moon-days; that the development or growth of actions, be stimulated in times of the Fourth Crescent; that exploiting potentialities and exposing achievements be done during the Full Moon; and that evaluating results or finalizing operations be done in the week of the Waning Quarter.
As this week is imbued with the decreasing condition of the Moon, and same is headed towards its Waning phase, it is foreseeable to observe a declining state in the processes that have been widely manifested in the preceding week. Between the 18th and the 25th of May it is advisable to execute actions facilitating the elimination or finalization of that which damages, or has been left over. It will be a time propitious for pruning plants, cutting nails or hair, detoxifying procedures or dieting, reflecting on achievements, or considering changes that ought to be undertaken.
The Moon‘s continuous illuminating function, regardless of how visible it is to our eyes, will be always stimulating and promoting of unconscious processes attuned to the energy flowing throughout the cosmos. Being aware of this can help us direct our capacities, efforts and actions in the most convenient and beneficial sense towards our own development, in its most varied aspects. Instead of fighting against the current, it will always be more beneficial to conform to and synchronize with it.
Translated by Jorge Pardo Febres-Cordero, Certified Public Translator (Spanish-English-Spanish) – [email protected]
Photo Credits: Stephen Rahn