An explanation of the phases and their energies
In today’s post, I’m going to talk about something that I’ve been doing in my business for a while, and it’s using the lunar cycles to plan out things in my business and my life. The energy of the moon is an ongoing cycle, kind of like the seasons.
It has a beginning middle and end with all these in-between awesome energies that you can use to really know when, to step on the gas, full throttle, or when to hit that break. And It keeps you right out of overwhelm and burnout and exhaustion.
So I’m really excited to share this with you. And today, I just want to talk about using the moon for life and business planning, what the energies are in each phase, and what to focus on in the different phases.
The visibility of the moon and the phases are dependent on its position in orbit, in relation with the earth and the sun. That’s how we see how the moon is lit up on different days in different weeks in the sky.
What is a lunar cycle?
It’s the time that the moon takes to orbit the earth going from the new moon, through all its phases, and back to a new moon. And it lasts about 29 days a little over that. And it’s really where we get our calendar month from.
There are eight phases in a lunar cycle.
There are four major phases, which are the new moon, the first quarter moon, the full moon, and then the last quarter moon. And then there are four minor phases stuck in between there, they call them the waxing phase and the waning phase. Waxing is growing energy. It’s getting bigger. It’s going from the new moon to the full moon. And then waning is going from the full moon to the last quarter moon back into the new moon. So it’s decreasing. So the four minor phases are waxing crescent, waxing gibbous, waning crescent, waning gibbous. You may be saying…WHAT? But I just wanted to lay this foundation for you so that you could have some context into what the heck I’m going to be talking about next, which is breaking down these phases and then helping you understand what energies to focus on in which phases.
Working within these moon energies has helped me to be very intentional. It’s helped me to plan out my month in a lot of ways, like, when am I going to create content? When am I going to record podcast episodes? When am I going to launch, when am I going to do all these little different things that we do all the time as entrepreneurs that can be like this ridiculous list of stuff? And we’re like, Jesus, when are we ever going to get this done? And, you know, do all this other stuff that we have to do in our actual life, right. And how do we balance it all? This helps you balance it all. So I’m really excited. So let’s just dive in.
The first phase of the moon is the new moon.
This is when you can’t see the moon in the sky, it’s totally dark. So we’re all lined up, earth, sun, moon. There is no sunlight hitting the moon, reflecting back to us.
And what does this phase mean? And what are the energies behind it?
It’s new. So it’s a new beginning. It’s a clean slate. This is where you should set your intentions. You can learn more about setting your intentions here. The basic gist of it is thinking about what you will focus on this month? This is not a goal. It’s not you wanting to make $10,000 this month. It’s what intention, what feeling, what do you want to bring more of into your life in this, in this cycle? Plant the seeds of your intentions in this phase. You also want to reflect on the past month and think about what you want to call in more of, and then what you want less of, or what you want to let go to help you set your intention.
We need to do this because this helps us focus on our month going forward. And with this intention, we’re seeding it to the universe and we’re seeding it to ourselves.
My entrepreneurial brain can get scattered, and it can go in all different directions, and setting an intention helps me focus on what I am moving towards.
The New Moon energy lasts about 3 days.
The New Moon Meet every month inside my membership Moon Circle Magic and really helps to clarify and set intentions for this new cycle. Having a group of women to bounce things around with helps immensely!
The next phase is called the waxing crescent.
And it’s three days after the new moon. You’ll start to see the moon in these three days. It’ll look like when you hold out your thumbnail sideways, it’s that crescent shape that your thumbnail makes. This phase is three days after the new moon to seven days after the new moon, so it lasts for about four days. This energy is a drawing in energy, it’s growth and increasing energy for manifestation and planning. So this is where you will really anchor into your intentions and clarify them. It’s a time to gather information and tools to help you plan out your month. These are the days where planning is in your benefit.
Ask yourself some questions, like, how will I enter my intention here? What do I need to accomplish this intention? What do I need to think about? What kind of support do I need? Do I need support? Whatever your intention is, think about how you are going to bring yourself back in when you get to that place where you’re scattered.
This is also the time to tweak your intentions if necessary. You want to make sure that your intention is very clear, because you’re not only seeding it to you, you’re seeding it out into the universe and you are asking for this to come into your life this month
This is also really the perfect time to practice visualizations and affirmations and to be acting and being as if your intention is already done.
If you have tips on how you manifest and what you do to manifest things into your life, please share them with me in the comments, I would love to hear them.
So to sum it up, waxing crescent, growing, drawing in energy, increasing things, manifestation, and planning.
The first quarter moon is the next phase.
This is when the moon is a half-moon. You’ll see exactly half of the moon in the sky, and this is also growing, but this is allowing, abundant, creative, and self-healing energy. Your own energy levels are going to be higher. And new ideas are going to come flooding in, tap into this every month.
During this time I get all these creative ideas and all this new stuff comes in and I’m like, Whoa, like what’s happening right now. And it’s so easy when I get all those new ideas flooding in, to just want to just do them. Here’s my advice. Don’t, don’t do them all, write them down, write them all down, and put them aside so that you can look at them later and keep your focus on your current intention and goals.
Because this is growing abundant energy, you want to take massive actions towards your intentions and your goals to make really great progress and allow the right people and opportunities to come to you and attract the important things that are aligned with your intention.
So, it’s a lot of energy, it’s growing, the moon light’s growing, and in the midst of it all we can forget to take care of ourselves sometimes.
So in this phase, make sure that you are taking care of yourself emotionally and spiritually. Take time out. If you need to take a few hours to yourself, five minutes, whatever it is that you can take, and just take a breath. Go take a bath, a walk, do some yoga.
Usually every week I take a bath like 20, 30 minutes at night and just relax. And it’s just time for me. And it’s like a renewal and reminder that we’re in this and we’re doing it, we’re doing the work and we’re doing all this stuff and we also need to take care of ourselves. So do that. However, that looks for you.
The next phase is waxing gibbous.
And gibbous just means that moon’s getting bigger, you’re seeing more of the moon and the waxing is growing so waxing gibbous just means growing light, growing energy. And this is 10 days after the new moon until the full moon. And it usually lasts about three days.
Energy is increasing, momentum is happening and now it’s time to settle in, stay consistent, and watch it roll. This is steady, patient, observant energy. So waxing gibbous is like, Whoa, we’ve done all this work in the last few weeks to anchor into our intentions and do the things and take the actions, to think about and pull in what we want and the waxing gibbous, although it’s growing energy, this is where you’ve got this momentum happening and you want to stay the course and be consistent. So it’s like you rolled this Boulder all the way up the hill in the previous phases, and you just tipped it over the other side. And now you’re standing at the top waxing gibbous is you standing at the top, watching it start to roll down, watching the momentum that’s happening, like what’s going to happen next. So it’s time to pause and check-in and be patient and let the universe do its job. You’ve told it what you want, you’ve given it all of your actions and thoughts and visualizations and affirmations in the last 10 days, you’ve said, this is what I want, this is what I’m focusing on, this is my intention and have taken actions. Now it’s just time to wait.
This is a great time to write an appreciation or gratitude list. Keep practicing visualizations with more clarity. Like really, if you’re a visual person visualize with as much detail as possible in your visualizations if you’re more of like the feely type, feel those visualizations when you’re in them, what does it feel like? What does it feel like to have and live in that new house, what does it feel like to step on the floor? What does it feel like to go from room to room? Another great thing to do is taste it, like, what does the air taste like? What does being outside smell and taste like? Try to use all your senses in your visualizations if you can.
But the most important thing about the waxing gibbous is because you’re kind of waiting and you’re being steady and you’re patient, and you’re observant, is that you gotta have faith and you got to remain open because, even if it doesn’t seem like it’s happening right now, or it’s not happening the way you want it, you have to be open and have faith because the universe knows the fastest way to bring you the place you want to be. It’s all working in your favor. You set it into action and now you’re waiting for it to come back. So these few days might be the hardest time if you’re not a patient person. Just keep being consistent.
At this point you’ve gone through all four waxing phases, the new moon, the waxing crescent, first quarter, and waxing gibbous.
Next comes the full moon
This is the mother load, massive energy of the whole cycle, where mother moon brings the party! I love the full moon, especially I love looking at the full moon. This is usually just about two weeks after the new moon.
This is one of my favorite moon-meets in moon circle magic because we get to celebrate and we get to really congratulate each other on our actions and all of the awesome stuff that we’ve done in the last two weeks and lift each other up and just the vibe.
This energy actually lasts three days and the most powerful days are the day before the full moon, the day of the full moon, and the day after. And this is like full, powerful energy that can make you feel wonky if you don’t focus on it.
We’ve all heard of the word lunatics, right? And that comes from Luna which means moon. The full light of the moon can make people feel or do or say weird things sometimes like you can feel off during a full moon. So if we learn how to focus that energy and use it to the best of its ability, then it’s like this manifestation goddess.
This is amplifying energy. So anything that you’re saying or doing or speaking or anything during this time is going to be amplified. So it’s super important to be intentional during the full moon and know how to focus this energy. It’s also a very celebratory and gratuitous energy. So this is where you’re going to start to see things come together.
All of your work from the past two weeks starts paying off and it’s all coming together and you’re like, Oh my gosh, it’s all working. Your intention or whatever you’re manifesting into your life. Your intention isn’t going to be like, Hey, here I am on the full moon, it’s more of a, wow, like this is really happening, this is it’s coming and I can see it. I can feel it. It’s, it’s working.
This is an awesome time for communication, social interactions, and forgiveness. We don’t think very often to go back in our month and be like, what do I need to forgive? It could be you, it could be you or somebody else. It doesn’t make any difference. But think about that, forgive and, and release.
So if you do live challenges or launches, do them now, this is a great time to network and to be very giving generous and in service to your people, what you do will be amplified, what you do will come back to you, tenfold. This is big energy.
So three days after the full moon until the seventh day we move into the waning phase.
The waning phase is decreasing. The moon has come all the way to full. And now the light’s going back the other way. This is the time to turn your energy inward. Your own energy will probably start to slow down a little bit at this point. It’s like the after-party, You planned the party, you took all the actions to get the party together, you had the party, and had a great fricking time at the party. And now it’s time to be like, okay, the party’s over. Like now we have to take care of ourselves and rest. So that’s what the waning part of the phase is. It’s slowing down and it’s actually asking you to just start slowing down and it reminds you that it’s a necessity to do so.
The waning gibbous phase is a two-way street of releasing and receiving.
It’s just a time to reflect on any blocks or obstacles that came up either energetically, mindset related or something that just didn’t work for you and take stock of it, acknowledge it, accept it, release it, and make space for something better. The energy that’s happening in these three to four days is turned back on yourself so you can look at yourself and look at what’s happened in the last few weeks and be like, okay, like, this was all amazing.
What came up though? Because it does, right. It always does. This energy helps you to look at those things because we often will not, right. We often will not look at those things at all. We’re like, Oh, uh, I don’t want to admit that, you know, I have a block or there is a mindset issue that I need to work through or that I did anything wrong, That’s what comes up in our heads. So what is coming up for you, you need to really take stock in that, think about.
So far in the cycle, did anything random happen, which could be good or bad, right. It could be weird or not weird. And what were your biggest blocks?
What do you see when you’re like, okay, here was my intention, here are the little things I did. What was blocking me or what stopped me or what kind of made me feel off or weird, or I know I should be doing that, but I didn’t. What were those things?
Really start following in this phase, start following what feels good, because excitement and ease are the universe’s breadcrumbs. And they lead you exactly where you want to go. So start looking at the opportunities that came up and go with what feels good.
Now we’re going into the last quarter and this is also a half-moon.
So this half-moon is going the other way. And this is seven days after the full moon to the 10th day. So it’s about another three days and this is a finishing easy energy.
This is where you want to start buttoning up unfinished things. So if you have a monthly task list of unfinished things, it’s time to either finish them or delegate them. So you wanna make this as easy on you as possible because this energy is you slowing down. It’s time to rest, and it’s time to clear out negative energy.
So no matter how your month has gone so far, we all pick up negative, right? Whether it’s on social media, from the grocery store, from the news, from loved ones, sometimes even from ourselves. Clear out your negative energy, however, that works for you, whether it’s meditating, whether it’s doing some kind of a ritual, whether it’s doing something fun and just shaking off the crap, whatever it is, clearing out that that stagnant negative energy is very important.
Next comes waning crescent.
This is the last phase right before a new moon. This is when the moon is almost dark again, a sliver in the sky and is the 10th day after the full moon to the night before the new moon, this is closure and reflection.
So this is where you’re going to look back at what you’ve accomplished. You’re going to look at what you could improve. And you’re going to start thinking about what your next new moon intention is going to be. It can be the same one. If your intention didn’t fully manifest during this cycle, it’s okay. You can create the same intention again, you can create the same intention with some tweaks or you can create a whole new intention. It’s totally up to you.
This is an important time to really write that gratitude list and a thank you list and get ready for the new moon. And this is a really, really good time to write down a release and let it go list. What are you letting go of?
Sometimes in a cycle, you’ll have an intention and then you’ll go through the cycle, and then you’ll be like, Oh, I guess I didn’t really need to call that in or I didn’t need to call this piece of it in. So in setting your intention for the new moon, you could tweak your intention and leave this part of it out.
Or was there something that you just want to let go of? It doesn’t have to be part of your previous intention either, it could be like, okay, I want to let go of that piece of stress or I don’t want to have stress around this thing anymore. I don’t want to keep having this type of mindset around this thing. It could even be a relationship or circumstance. It could be feelings that you have around a certain situation or feelings you have around yourself. You can let go of that crappy self-talk, this is an amazing time to do that. This is a time to release. Let it go, like banish the crap in the Waning Crescent.
Also relax and renew your own inner energy. Fill up your cup. Go do something fun that fills you up. It is your time right now.
So that is it. Then we go back to the new moon and start all over again.
So I’d love to hear your thoughts on this post, and I’d love to hear any questions or whatever you got for me. Just drop them in the comments!
If you’d like to grab a free copy of the Moon Magic For Business Guide, just click here!