#what about new moons when the moon is closer to apogee

[classicintp]

Do you just Google images of the moon on cloudy nights or what

[chairteeth]

Okay but consider: ASTRONOMY LESBIANS

This specific post is going to be me gushing over the astronomy potential Touka and Nemu have with each other and why it makes me feral, it's more me pointing out some things than any actual analysis. Still, here you go, have fun!

So, this is the thesis: Touka is the sun/day and Nemu is the moon/night.

First of all, night and day are intrinsically connected. The sun's light gives the moon its glow during the night and the moon remains present and visible during the day, if a little harder to see in the full light of the sun. The former sounds an awful lot like how Touka gave Nemu visibility to the general public through the website for her books and continues to do so on the regular, dutifully, and the latter is to me the same effect as any scene they're in together; everyone in-universe and outside of it always pays more attention to Touka, because she's the more boisterous one, louder, etc. The radiant sun, too bright to ignore compared to the soft glow of the moon.

Now, I love the moon's effect on the oceans on Earth. Its control over the tides is due to its gravity being strong enough that the tide is pulled slightly closer to it. If you look at when the tides are highest, you'll see that tides are always highest when the moon is directly overhead, but there's also another high tide on the opposite side of the planet. If you mapped it out, you'd get this oval shape of the tides, where a "tip" of the oval is always pointing at the moon. Well guess what, the SUN also does this! It's just less noticeable, but it's why low tide doesn't always happen when you think it would. And since they both do this, their effects can be combined! This is why the highest of tides always occur around full and new moons, with the effects being even stronger during lunar eclipses, and with solar eclipses being the strongest of them all, which probably added to the effect of ancient civilizations freaking out during them cause the tide was so high, it just added to the chaos of the sun being blocked out too. Tides are highest about the full and new moons because that is when the moon and the sun are lined up. Gee doesn't that sound familiar and like it could apply to a certain pair of idiots who work really well together (as per Ui's words).

Here's a helpful visual gif for the tide thing and some quotes from the National Ocean Service:

Together, the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun affect the Earth’s tides on a monthly basis. When the sun, moon, and Earth are in alignment (at the time of the new or full moon), the solar tide has an additive effect on the lunar tide, creating extra-high high tides, and very low, low tides — both commonly called spring tides. One week later, when the sun and moon are at right angles to each other, the solar tide partially cancels out the lunar tide and produces moderate tides known as neap tides.

And as a fun extra:

Once a month, at perigee, when the moon is closest to the Earth, tide-generating forces are higher than usual, producing above average ranges in the tides. About two weeks later, at apogee, when the moon is farthest from the Earth, the lunar tide-raising force is smaller, and the tidal ranges are less than average. When the Earth is closest to the sun (perihelion), around January 2 of the calendar year, tidal ranges are enhanced. At aphelion, when the Earth is furthest from the sun, around July 2, tidal ranges are reduced

So like. I don't think I need to point out the moon's distance from the sun and its effects here. Now let me go to something else: Touka and Nemu have a dual unit, the attribute of which is darkness. Here's a tidbit about it that I yoinked from another post:

Your pupils contract in response to visible light, but not all of the sun’s light is visible. During an eclipse, your pupils widen because it’s dark, but there’s an outer layer around the sun that mostly only puts out light that’s not visible to us, but that can still damage your retinas. Thus, looking at an eclipse makes your pupils open up like it’s dark, which lets more of the invisible damage beams in. The sun doesn’t get a critical multiplier on its damage when HP is low. Equipping the moon gives the sun a bonus to backstab.

And then I pointed out the dual unit and its attribute, like an eclipse. Such an apt metaphor. Now, this isn't all, though the astronomy rant is far less connected and organized than the other more essay-ish posts, but I just wanted to cover at least some of the bond things before I yell about why each of them fits their assigned astral body/time so well. Actually... Let's consider the solar wind for a second.

So, for those with less astronomy knowledge, here are the basics. The sun releases a continuous outflow of particles and radiation that we call the solar wind. The solar wind washes over the planets, moons and other bodies in our solar system, and every object, planet or person traveling through space has to contend with this. Our moon in particular has the scars (or bad tan) to prove it. Ever wondered what gives the moon that distinctive pattern of darker and lighter swirls? That would be the sun over there. Or, well, research suggests that the solar wind and the moon’s crustal magnetic fields (bubbles of "sunscreen") work together to give that pattern. See, here on Earth, we’re largely protected from the damaging effects of the solar wind, because it's magnetized, therefore Earth’s natural magnetic field deflects the solar wind particles around our planet so that only a small fraction of them reach our planet’s atmosphere. The moon however has no global magnetic field. It's magnetized rocks near the lunar surface that create those small, localized spots of magnetic field that I referred to as "bubbles of sunscreen" up there, because they kinda are acting like sunscreen by deflecting solar wind particles on a much smaller scale than Earth’s magnetic field. The surface of the moon isn't really made of "just rock" (it's called regolith, actually), and so as those particles flow toward the moon, they are deflected to the areas just around the magnetic bubbles, where chemical reactions with the regolith darken the surface. And there is Something To Be Said about this, something intimate about it... Something something accepting every part of someone else, something something being permanently marked and irreversibly changed by another (I've called them twin flames before)...

Here are some points to consider, particularly for Nemu:

They spend more time under the light of day (Touka, early riser, "rise with the sun" is very likely literal for her since she gets up long enough before school time to have more than enough time to do Things as per her quotes) vs awake at night (Nemu habitually staying up late to read and write, we have many lines about it particularly from the quotes, and a visual from the anime).

Nemu has been depicted dramatically in front of the moon twice, once in her intro in Arc 1 Chapter 7 and once in the anime, I believe final season's first episode? The flashback, right after they put Ui in Mokyu and have the whole exchange about it on the roof of the hospital.

In relation to the phases of the moon: as the moon goes around the Earth, different parts of it are illuminated by the sun, and we see a different amount of light reflected back at us, and I have decided that relates to how Nemu adapts seamlessly to whatever Touka's mood is because she just knows her that well (gestures vaguely at that sunset scene in Touka's MGS or any of the other times when Nemu knows it's not the right time to take a jab at Touka and so on and so forth), but honestly there's a huge number of gay interpretations of it. AND it's accurate to the way Nemu acts as a Magius, kind of, when it comes to the Feathers at least. People normally remember her as the Magius who was kindest to the Feathers (full moon, brightest guiding light), but she was also the one doing the brainwashing, giving the massacre orders, and delighting over her suggestion of using the Feathers as a shield (new moon, known as the dark side).

Feelings of being neglected/ignored/not noticed by passersby or people around her could be related to how the new moon is, literally Not Visible™️ to the naked eye except when it is silhouetted against the sun during a solar eclipse (COUGH). Plus, you could argue the fact that people love Nemu most when she's giving them something (light, full moon).

In terms of giving, let's hop over to Touka for a second:

The sun is constantly giving off energy. Light, heat, life. It's quite impossible to forget the sun is there, unlike the moon (or well it's more like you always sort of actively notice the sun, but not the moon due to its subtler presence). Aligns pretty well with Touka's.......... everything. Including the compulsion to take center stage. There is nothing else in the sky besides the sun during the day, it is alone in the heavens save for the subtle presence of the moon, which nobody else notices.

Then there's this post which I will quote here:

Big fan of sun motifs in characters not necessarily being about positivity and happiness and how they're so "bright and warm" but instead being about fucking brutal they are. Radiant. A FORCE of nature that will turn you to ash. That warmth that burns so hot it feels like ice. Piercing yellow and red and white. A character being a Sun because you cannot challenge a Sun without burning alive or taking everything down with them if victorious.

ALIGNS PRETTY WELL WITH TOUKA DOESN'T IT. Almost a little bit too literal in some senses! Being bright and warm does apply to her as well, mind you, she's bright in the intelligent sense and to some extent the temperament sense (though she is a lot less bright than she pretends to be with the very eerie cheerful mask she likes to wear), and she's warm and nurturing towards the people she cares about. Speaking of warm and nurturing, the sunlight makes plants grow, Nemu is a forest attribute in-game and has forest magic, nurtured by the fire of the sun (Touka, a flame attribute magical girl with the corresponding fire magic).

I've compared these two to binary stars in a fic before, but I really love their sun/day and moon/night possibilities! You can even interpret a few things like this:

Under a scorching sun, you are blinded, and in deserts caused by its rays you are likely to experience hallucinations, mirages. I can relate this to Touka's mask-wearing habits, for example. The sun is unyielding and you will never escape its effects completely no matter how hard you try. It's what allows life to exist and simultaneously also a force of destruction, much like fire itself. I could go on a related rant about how TouNemu's attributes really really fit them- I will stop myself before I do however.

Back to Nemu's side of things again. The night is often considered the most dangerous time of day pretty much everywhere around the world, but that's not quite right. It's because the night is obscured in darkness, quiet, secretive. You cannot know the night. It's fully possible that something will jump out at you at any point (assuming you're out and about), and you can never be 100% sure that nothing will. You have a higher chance of slipping, and good god if you've ever been outside in bumfuck nowhere with no lights around in the mountains or something on a new moon, you know very well how difficult navigation becomes without the moon's guidance

But, the night, especially in the East, is often considered shelter as well (from what I've gathered). The quietness aspect is retained over there, but it's seen in a more positive light, and the different attributes of the nighttime are more appreciated and respected compared to the West, in my experience digging into stuff at least. The night can easily be what soothes people after enduring the flames of the day. Whether literally because of the heat or just because for most people, daytime is work time, it's Getting Things Done time. Nighttime has always been more… for the self, to relax and to think. More intimate. Humans don't really work according to nature these days, but pieces of it are still present in how the night remains much quieter than the day, in how a teenager might feel safer, more raw and more connected with their true self in the dead of night on their phone under the covers than at any other time of the day, etc. It's a time of rest for a majority of living beings. Slower and less hectic than the daytime.

"What about those who are up at ungodly hours of the night still having hours-long conversations?" That's meaningful. It's necessary for the human mind, for our hearts. That's rest. It constitutes a "shelter" for the people in question. Those convos I'd bet are not about work or about stressors in their lives, but rather about things they find genuinely interesting and/or things they love. Or, alternatively, venting, yes, but even that counts as "unwinding" and reaching something closer to peace.

There's also something to be said about how Touka relies on Nemu so often (she says as much in her regular Tap 8 quote), and looks to her for guidance like the sailors of old looked up at the night sky for directions. Nemu is drawn to Touka like the moon is affected by the sun's gravity, and Touka loves her and studies her (she REALLY pays attention to Nemu, as I've pointed out before) like humans have always studied and observed the night sky.

AND also Touka = lantern, light. Nemu = sleep. Just saying.

COUGH. Yes. So. This has been my series of thoughts on TouNemu astronomy lesbianism. I'm pretty sure you can see how each point relates to the characters pretty clearly.

[pujapujari]

Full Moon In June 2023: Meaning, Significance, and Astrology

Full Moon In June 2023: Astrology, Spiritual Meaning, and Effects on Zodiac Signs

Humanity has long been fascinated by the celestial bodies, with the moon occupying a special position in our collective psyche. Particularly the full moon has fascinated societies all around the world for ages. Let’s examine the full moon day in June 2023, its significance, and the astrological ramifications accompanying it as we get closer.

Guide to Full Moon June 2023

Meaning of the Full Moon: The full moon denotes a period of light and climax. When the moon is at its fullest, it represents the end of a lunar cycle and embodies satisfaction and realization. Our intentions, feelings, and desires are illuminated by the full moon’s bright brilliance, which acts as a metaphorical spotlight and brings them into clear focus.

Moon Phases and Astrology: In astrology, the moon significantly impacts how people behave and feel. Astrologers have meticulously studied and examined the moon’s phases throughout history, especially the full moon. According to legend, the full moon’s energy is strong, heightening feelings and enhancing the impact of other planetary alignments.

Full Moon in June 2023: The June 2023 full moon, sometimes called the Strawberry Moon, got its name from the Algonquin tribes, who connected it to the strawberry crop. It will fall on Saturday, June 3. In many traditions, there is a specific place for this bright and promising moon. Gemini is the sign that rules the June full moon in astrology, giving it traits like flexibility, communication, and intellectual curiosity.

Astrological Implications

The planets’ configuration will impact various facets of our lives during the full moon in June 2023. The moon will form important aspects with other heavenly bodies as it reaches its apogee, weaving a unique cosmic tapestry. This time frame could result in heightened feelings, more intense relationships, and a greater need for intellectual and artistic expression.

Utilizing the Energy: The full moon offers a chance for reflection, letting go of what no longer serves us, and establishing new goals for development and progress. Influenced by Gemini, the June full moon’s energy urges us to embrace diversity, have important talks, and investigate novel viewpoints.

Rituals & Customs: Many cultures have created customs and rituals connected to the full moon. People can connect with the moon’s energy and use its power through these rituals, ranging from moonlit gatherings to meditation and journaling. Connecting our energies with the universe’s regular cycles during this time can be helpful by pausing to think, give thanks, and establish intentions.

Summing Up

In conclusion, the full moon day in June 2023 has astrological importance and a sense of fulfillment. You may check out PujaNPujari to know more about it. Embrace flexibility, communication, and intellectual development as we immerse ourselves in the energy of the Strawberry Moon. Let’s seize this opportunity for celestial brilliance and set off on a quest for introspection and change.

Article Source: Full Moon In June 2023: Meaning, Significance, and Astrology

[sofarfarout]

Me: I should find some new games to play

Brain: play NiGHTS Into Dreams again

Me: okie doke

NiGHTS Into Dreams has a dope aesthetic, sue me. This lovely lunar lass isn't a NiGHTS oc, just inspired by the game.

Name: Adrastea

Gender: female

Height: 6'8"

"I wonder if man appreciates Mother as I do. Who is she in their young, ambitious eyes?"

"Fear not, what you are witnessing is not real. I must ask that you forgive me; I'm afraid I cannot help myself at times. I have heard this referred to as a 'prank'."

"W-Whereabouts did you come from? Have you...always been there? D-Do not come closer. Not a step closer, not even a small fraction of a step. You...You stay put."

This is Adrastea, a mysterious but benevolent figure from beyond our stars with a strong connection to our moon. Her ability to create lifelike illusions and distort reality is at its peak when the full moon is at its perigee and a new moon at its apogee will have her at her weakest. She specializes in distorting how we view faces and figures and could turn your best friend's familiar visage into that of a horrifying beast with ease. On the night of a blue moon, Adrastea's power reaches new, terrifying heights, to the point where even she can't distinguish reality from illusion. As her powers intensify with the everchanging moon, so do her emotions, slowly shifting from stone faced stoicism to a wild and irrational whirlwind. Adrastea is most like her true self on the night of the waxing half moon: an insightful, wise and compassionate being with some whimsical and neurotic tendencies. She's willing to share her vast knowledge of the cosmos, as long as you're willing to listen. She's a little jumpy and doesn't like surprises or sudden change, preferring to stick to a strict routine. While she's aware of her magic growing more powerful with the moon, she's unaware of the emotional changes that come with it. One thing remains constant: her attachment to the moon and the stars. Adrastea refers to the moon as her mother and the stars her family. She wants to know everything there is about these wonderful celestial bodies and as the universe is continually expanding and new stars are born, there will always more to know. She doesn't like big cities or towns where all the lights make it difficult to see the sky. As a nocturnal creature, Adrastea seems to vanish entirely during the waking hours and only ventures out in the cover of night.

[transhuman-priestess]

@terrierror

So, we’re going to have to first explain some basics about orbital mechanics. This is very non-intuitive but if you trust me, I promise it will make sense.

Firstly, I’m gonna explain what an orbit actually is. If you already know the physics of orbit, feel free to skip ahead.

So, imagine you throw a ball. The ball doesn’t travel in a straight line, it falls to the earth. You can throw it harder and it will go farther, but it always comes back to the earth.

But let’s say you could throw the ball really really really fast, so fast that as the surface of the earth curved away from where you started, the ball stayed roughly the same altitude? It would just keep falling “past” the Earth, at least until drag from the air slowed it down enough.

Rockets don’t work the way you imagine them to work. The first thing a rocket does when it takes off is it pitches over to an angle. By the time it’s going supersonic (and beyond) it’s already at an angle of 45° or less to the ground. Altitude is not nearly as important as raw speed.

The rocket then goes somewhat past its target altitude and points down at the horizon, and trades its altitude for speed. By firing partially with gravity, it can gain enough momentum to finally reach orbital velocity. Orbital velocity is lower the further away from the surface you are. In low earth orbit, which goes up to about 800 kilometers, your orbital velocity is somewhere in the region of 8 kilometers per second.

When you’re traveling that quickly, changing direction is really really hard. If you’ve ever played with a spinning gyroscope, it’s like that.

It’s also fundamentally easier to achieve orbit the closer you are to the equator. The measure of how much fuel you need to get from here to there in rocketry isn’t gallons or liters, but something called “Delta-v”, which means “change in velocity.” Delta-v is often shorted just to “dV”, which I’ll be using for the rest of this post.

You may think that the rocket sitting on the pad is standing still, but it isn’t. It’s moving at the speed the earth is underneath it. The closer you are to the equator, the faster that starting speed is, and the less dV you need to make it to an equatorial orbit

Now I’ve gotta introduce you to the concept of orbital inclination.

Orbital inclination is the angle of an orbit’s plane, relative to the equator of the earth. If you are flying directly above the equator heading east around the planet, you have an orbital inclination of 0. It’s equatorial.

If you launch a rocket perpendicular to the rotation of the earth, that’s called a polar orbit. Because you don’t have the running start of the earth’s rotation working in your favor, you need proportionally more dV. Back when the plan was to use the shuttle to launch spy satellites, nasa had to create an entirely new version of the shuttles solid rocket motors that were lighter and had 20% more fuel, in order to get the shuttle to polar orbit. Nowadays, you use the same sort of rocket to get something to equatorial geosynchronous orbit (35,786 kilometers) as you would to launch a similar satellite to polar low earth orbit (<800km)

The moon has an orbital inclination of about 30° to us, and luckily, the earth has an axial tilt of about 30°. Now we gotta learn about transfer windows.

The easiest way to travel from one body to another (or at least, the most fuel efficient) is to use a Hohman transfer. This is where you fire your engines prograde (in the direction of travel) at the lowest point of your orbit (the perigee) in order to raise the highest point of your orbit (the apogee) to the altitude where you will be captured by the gravity of the target body.

It looks like this kinda.

Changing orbital inclination is the single most fuel-expensive operation that a space ship can perform. When the space shuttle Columbia was on its last mission, it was about 10 degrees off the inclination of the International Space Station. It would have had to burn more fuel and oxidizer to change go to the space station than it weighed, in total, with both SRBs at launch.

So manned missions to the moon can only be launched every two weeks or so, when the moon’s orbital plane aligns most closely with our axial tilt.

To go to the pole of the moon, you basically must start at a polar orbit around earth, you then must wait until the moon is in position for you to capture it with a hohman transfer that has a much, much smaller window for capture.

What does all this mean then? It means that there’s a functional upper limit to how big one craft can be if it wants to go to another body without refueling. There’s a whole formula called the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation that describes this in much more precise detail than I can articulate. Check it out on Wikipedia.

And so you have to launch multiple rockets to deliver a manned ship to the lunar South Pole with enough supplies for people to survive a mission.

That being said

This is a truly harebrained scheme with so many moving parts. China will almost certainly use two or three rockets to build its lunar ship in earth orbit (a process known as Earth Orbit Rendezvous, analogous to how the ISS was built). Using 9-12 is insane.

Anyway yeah it’s gonna be a disaster and I’m really fucking scared of that. (Hell, that Boeing capsule is going sooooo well)

Hope this all made enough sense. I know it’s a LOT of information.

( @nasa I realize that it’s probably a PR Nono to respond to this post given my skepticism about it, but if one of yall wants to check my work, I’m a high school graduate who plays too much kerbal space program and you guys are actual rocket scientists whom I adore)

Oh they're not getting back to the Moon

[fink-le-freak]

Me: I should find some new games to play

Brain: play NiGHTS Into Dreams again

Me: okie doke

NiGHTS Into Dreams has a dope aesthetic, sue me. This lovely lunar lass isn't a NiGHTS oc, just inspired by the game.

Name: Adrastea

Gender: female

Height: 6'8"

"I wonder if man appreciates Mother as I do. Who is she in their young, ambitious eyes?"

"Fear not, what you are witnessing is not real. I must ask that you forgive me; I'm afraid I cannot help myself at times. I have heard this referred to as a 'prank'."

"W-Whereabouts did you come from? Have you...always been there? D-Do not come closer. Not a step closer, not even a small fraction of a step. You...You stay put."

This is Adrastea, a mysterious but benevolent figure from beyond our stars with a strong connection to our moon. Her ability to create lifelike illusions and distort reality is at its peak when the full moon is at its perigee and a new moon at its apogee will have her at her weakest. She specializes in distorting how we view faces and figures and could turn your best friend's familiar visage into that of a horrifying beast with ease. On the night of a blue moon, Adrastea's power reaches new, terrifying heights, to the point where even she can't distinguish reality from illusion. As her powers intensify with the everchanging moon, so do her emotions, slowly shifting from stone faced stoicism to a wild and irrational whirlwind. Adrastea is most like her true self on the night of the waxing half moon: an insightful, wise and compassionate being with some whimsical and neurotic tendencies. She's willing to share her vast knowledge of the cosmos, as long as you're willing to listen. She's a little jumpy and doesn't like surprises or sudden change, preferring to stick to a strict routine. While she's aware of her magic growing more powerful with the moon, she's unaware of the emotional changes that come with it. One thing remains constant: her attachment to the moon and the stars. Adrastea refers to the moon as her mother and the stars her family. She wants to know everything there is about these wonderful celestial bodies and as the universe is continually expanding and new stars are born, there will always more to know. She doesn't like big cities or towns where all the lights make it difficult to see the sky. As a nocturnal creature, Adrastea seems to vanish entirely during the waking hours and only ventures out in the cover of night.

Always happy to answer questions about her, her bio could use some fleshing out lol

[finkmakescharacters]

NiGHTS Into Dreams has a dope aesthetic, sue me. This lovely lunar lass isn't a NiGHTS oc, just inspired by the game.

Name: Adrastea

Gender: female

Height: 6'8"

"I wonder if man appreciates Mother as I do. Who is she in their young, ambitious eyes?"

"Fear not, what you are witnessing is not real. I must ask that you forgive me; I'm afraid I cannot help myself at times. I have heard this referred to as a 'prank'."

"W-Whereabouts did you come from? Have you...always been there? D-Do not come closer. Not a step closer, not even a small fraction of a step. You...You stay put."

This is Adrastea, a mysterious but benevolent figure from beyond our stars with a strong connection to our moon. Her ability to create lifelike illusions and distort reality is at its peak when the full moon is at its perigee and a new moon at its apogee will have her at her weakest. She specializes in distorting how we view faces and figures and could turn your best friend's familiar visage into that of a horrifying beast with ease. On the night of a blue moon, Adrastea's power reaches new, terrifying heights, to the point where even she can't distinguish reality from illusion. As her powers intensify with the everchanging moon, so do her emotions, slowly shifting from stone faced stoicism to a wild and irrational whirlwind. Adrastea is most like her true self on the night of the waxing half moon: an insightful, wise and compassionate being with some whimsical and neurotic tendencies. She's willing to share her vast knowledge of the cosmos, as long as you're willing to listen. She's a little jumpy and doesn't like surprises or sudden change, preferring to stick to a strict routine. While she's aware of her magic growing more powerful with the moon, she's unaware of the emotional changes that come with it. One thing remains constant: her attachment to the moon and the stars. Adrastea refers to the moon as her mother and the stars her family. She wants to know everything there is about these wonderful celestial bodies and as the universe is continually expanding and new stars are born, there will always more to know. She doesn't like big cities or towns where all the lights make it difficult to see the sky. As a nocturnal creature, Adrastea seems to vanish entirely during the waking hours and only ventures out in the cover of night.

Always happy to answer questions about her, her bio could use some fleshing out lol

[sciencespies]

What's the deal with the 'supermoon'? There's a clever illusion going on

https://sciencespies.com/space/whats-the-deal-with-the-supermoon-theres-a-clever-illusion-going-on/

What's the deal with the 'supermoon'? There's a clever illusion going on

No matter where you are in the world, and no matter how light the skies are, the Moon is always there. Our only natural satellite has inspired literature, art and science for thousands of years.

As the days lengthen in the northern hemisphere, it gets harder to spot some of the fainter stars in the sky. But our Moon is still there, and every few months we have a special sighting.

Not only is the Moon on 26 April a full Moon, it’s also what is known as a supermoon – and the first of the year. To understand why it is a supermoon, it’s important to understand a little more about why different parts of the Moon are lit up at different times of the month, and also a little more about the Moon’s orbit.

Phases of the Moon

The reason we see different proportions of the Moon illuminated at different times of the month, or in different phases, is that the Moon is at different points in its orbit around Earth relative to the Sun.

When the Moon, the Earth and the Sun are all lined up together with the Earth between the Moon and Sun, sunlight shines on the whole lunar surface and is reflected back to Earth. On Earth, this is known as a full Moon.

When the Moon is between Earth and the Sun, no sunlight can reflect off its surface, and this is a new Moon. In between, only part of the Moon’s surface reflects sunlight, giving it different phases, as you can see in the diagram below.

What’s more, the Moon’s orbit around the Earth isn’t perfectly circular – it’s a very slightly squashed ellipse. This that means sometimes the Moon is closer to the Earth than at other times. The Moon’s closest approach to Earth is called its perigee, and a full Moon at or close to perigee is called a supermoon.

More technically, it’s also known as a perigee syzygy. The opposite phenomenon – when the full Moon is furthest away from Earth in its orbit – is called an apogee syzygy or micromoon. Obviously the supermoon is not a new phenomenon, but its name is quite new – the word doesn’t appear before the 1970s.

Since the Moon is so big and bright compared to other objects in the night sky, it’s not hard to see on a clear night. To see the supermoon, the issues are working out when it rises and sets.

In the UK, the Moon rises in the east just before 7:30 pm on Monday April 26 and sets in the west just after 6:00 am on Tuesday April 27. It’ll be low in the sky, so try to get to a high place like a hill to see the supermoon.

If you don’t mind staying up late or getting up very early, look south around 4:40 am. The Moon, Jupiter and Saturn will all be low in the sky and visible to the naked eye – a treat for early birds or night owls.

Phases of the moon. (Shutterstock/Redsapphire)

The Moon illusion

There’s one catch to all this supermoon business. The Moon doesn’t actually look that much bigger in the sky compared to a normal full Moon. But it sometimes looks bigger when it’s closer to the horizon. Why is this, when its size in the sky doesn’t change very much when it orbits closer to Earth?

This is known as the Moon illusion, and it really is an illusion. If you cover the Moon with your thumb, you’ll always be able to block it out, whether it looks tiny high up in the sky or whether it looks huge closer to the horizon.

People have known about this optical illusion for thousands of years, but we still don’t completely understand how or why it comes about.

We do know it’s a psychological illusion, and probably at least partly due to the brain thinking that objects near the horizon must be closer to us. There are dozens of competing explanations, and most of them are to do with how our brains process information.

So although Monday’s supermoon might not objectively look much bigger in the sky, being low on the horizon could subjectively make it look much bigger to us anyway. Whatever the cause of the Moon illusion or the size of the Moon in the sky, here’s hoping for clear skies.

Osnat Katz, PhD Candidate in Space History, UCL.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

#Space

[gg-astrology]

Moon Phases in Astrology | pt. II

Hello! 💕❤️ Since we talked a lot about -- how to find what phase the moon’s in w/ ur chart, w/ part 1 -- i figured today we’ll go into some expositions on each phase and what it means. As well as where this is all coming from, hopefully it can shed some light on what it means when your moon is positioned the way it is on your chart. As always, I hope you enjoy this lil trip we’re doing together! 💕❤️ 

Note: Text Heavy, feel free to skim or have some time slot out to read before going to bed? 

Note pt. 2: This part is going to be about the New Moon, Waxing Crescent Moon, First Quarter Moon and Waxing Gibbous Moon. ❤️💕

The next part will be the Full Moon + Waning Moon phases. But I hope you enjoy and maybe give it a read anyways!  ❤️💕

Moon Phases in Astrology | pt. I

*How to find: Moon Phase with a Natal Chart

Moon Phases in Astrology | pt. III

*Astronomy: How to identify what Moon Phase you’re in + Time/Location in the Sky (without a chart)

Context, Sources, Premise - A little ramble? 

Ok so!!! ❤️💕  Before we start, I just want to lay down some thoughts. 

I’ve been having contemplations about this topic for a while now, because there’s not a lot of sources about Moon phases. 

I think that in a way, we’ve always had some sort of idea on how big the topic might be in our civilization. Agriculture, customs, traditions and harvesting. Lores and oral tradition/history, making of the universe stories. The Moon and perhaps some of it’s phases have always been part of how we align ourselves with the world around us.

Shifting to adapt and navigate ourselves through space, time, life. Why wasn’t there much of a collected studied investigation based around the Moon phases and it’s importance in astrology? Did we lose some information, haven’t uncovered significant studies around this topic? Was it lost through wars and history?

Since astrology is a subject about the stars, the constellations and the things around us. I actually felt somewhat unsure of whether or not to talk about this topic at all -- since we focus a lot more on the concrete things that we have. 

The planets, the signs, the houses. Even if we argue amongst ourselves a lot sometimes about different things that should be taken into consideration, I’ve always wondered if somewhere along the line of passed-on tradition, maybe there was evidence of us studying/investigating moon phases more before. But maybe it’s not available to us now? 

Or maybe it just wasn’t a big deal.. nah, it doesn’t seem likely? does it? that it hasn’t been a big topic even from way before. It’s always been a thing to study and observe. So us not having a lot of information/sources/studies on Moon phases now, I guess it’s making me feel some type of way and unsure about how to proceed with this, because there’s not much to grasp and study on.

With that said, we do have some more modern resources that has been talking about Moon Phases and Lunation Cycles. Dana Rudhyar’s ‘Lunation Cycle’  published in 1967 has been one of the most recommended one on the topic. 

I’ve also been reading the more recent ‘Moon Phase Astrology’ by Raven Kaldera (published in 2011) in conjunction to that. Rudhyar’s text is still a little hard for to digest, but if you’re into the topic -- I highly recommend you check both books out

Hm. Well. For the premise on this 2nd part -- I just wanted to let you all know this is based around some of the more modern sources we have. Part of the reason I felt a little weird about doing it is because by all premise, it SHOULD be a part of ancient astrology as well. But if there’s very limited expansion on the topic -- I don’t know how much I should infer to the modern sources for the information we have.

Regardless, I’ll keep an eye out for it. If anything were to come by, I’ll try to navigate it as thoughtfully and honestly as possible. I think in a way -- our relationship with the moon has always been our source of purification and comfort. It’s root runs deep, even to this day, maybe to certain people even more so than others. But to all of us, it’s a natural force and pull that affects our very environment. 

I’ll be mindful of what information I talk about and I hope to wrap this up nicely for all of us w/o feeling dissatisfied or uncertain about the topic, I hope you enjoy the topic anyways! ❤️💕

Different Phases of the Moon

So last time, we talked about identifying moon phases on the chart (link to part 1 at the top). As well as going through briefly how to differentiate and remember the names from each other. Hopefully that was helpful. 

For today I kind of want to talk about what significant it may have. As well as pulling from some of it’s significance and what it’s used for. 

Moon Phases - What does it mean?

Terminology

Since I try to be as beginner friendly as possible -- I’m sure some might’ve heard of the terms disseminating moon or balsamic moon, rose moon, Super moon etc. And had gotten confused about what it all means. I figured it might be nice to clear this up a little, so here we have a name for all the different phases, but with a little more alternative adjustment-- with the corresponding phases/names:

NEW MOON

Waxing Crescent/Crescent Moon

First Quarter/Waxing Quarter

Waxing Gibbous/Gibbous Moon

FULL MOON

Waning Gibbous/Disseminating Moon

Last Quarter/Waning Quarter

Waning Crescent/Balsamic Moon

I know a lot of people get confused about the terminology. But it’s really nothing to worry about much -- when we understand the core of it as it is.

Waning Gibbous and Disseminating Moon

Between the Waning Gibbous and Disseminating Moon for example, once we go ‘ah the disseminating moon is the waning gibbous’. We can essentially choose what purpose we look at the Moon for, what we want to call it.

Disseminating essentially means spreading, so when the full moon becomes the waning gibbous or disseminating moon -- its losing it’s light from our perspective (even if technically it’s moving closer to the sun)

It’s called the disseminating moon because of that nature. To disassemble and dismantle, to let things go. As part of the passage or starting to do so. In relation to human-lunar cycles. 

It’s a reminder of what we have to do, albeit - the name is much more straight to the point of what our purpose here should be, rather than the waning gibbous which is more of a terminology for what the Moon is.

So, you see. It’s kind of like, purposeful. Each name is purposeful, and there’s no need to be scared or confused over what it is. Because technically, you can choose to go the astronomical side and say it’s a waning gibbous (which would be true and very technically specific) -- or you can say it’s a disseminating moon. Which is the same thing, but with a different purpose/signification in mind.

Waning Crescent or Balsamic Moon

Just like the above, the Waning Crescent and Balsamic Moon is also one of the same. The Moon is a sliver in the sky, about to become a new moon. This is a crucial point at the end of a cycle -- since the new moon, as the name implies, ‘begins’ a new cycle all over again. 

Balsamic -- contrary to the salad dressing (and deliciously simple dipping sauce for bread) means to restore, soothe, and is of nature -- to be at peace/yielding to the end of the cycle. It’s a reminder for us that this period is a liminal space, meant for us to come to term with the end of a cycle in order to enter a new one.

Since this post is catered to astrologers, we’d probably be more familiar with the concepts of critical or anoretic degrees, or void of course moon when it enters a new sign/travelling to the next phase/transitioning phases where sun-moon doesn’t make an aspect currently. It’s important to note that these things aren’t the same, nor are they interchangeable. Even if the idea of liminal space/time is similar.

Anyways, so just like the above. You can see how certain names have significations that are different from each other. But the core is essentially the same. It is a phase of the Moon, illuminated a specific percentage (for this moon it’s 0-15% illumination)

I hope this helps you not panic when you see these terms/names for certain moon now ❤️💕 It also gives us a great lee-way into talking about the different phases of the Moon in more details

Some little other things...

This is unrelated, but I kinda want to talk about the Super Moon and Micro Moon for a second. You’ve probably heard of the Super Moon before -- when it’s BIG BIG in the sky and you’re just like!! wow!!! look at THAT moon!

Isn’t it so cool to think about the SIZE of the moon sometimes? This can be important too. The reason why we have a Super Moon is because the Moon is technically orbiting the earth right? But one side is closer to use than the other!

The side closer to us is called the perigee, and the furthest point away from us is the apogee. This is because the Moon’s orbit is ecliptic, it isn’t a perfect sphere like we think it is! In terms of speed, the Moon typically makes its meeting with the perigee and apogee around once a month. However, the travel time between perigee to perigee is a little longer. This is in between perigee to perigee (anomalistic month) but during the perigee period-- the moon orbits a little faster around the earth, while it’s rotational speed remains the same (moon orbits the earth, but it rotates around the it’s own axis.) At the same time, it orbits a little slower during the apogee moon. Typically we call it a Supermoon or Micromoon when we’re looking at Full or New Moons.

Another cool thing about this is when we say Blue Moon or Red/Blood Moon -- a phenomenal where we’re usually talking about the Full Moon, but in different colours. It’s more likely to be because of the dust particles in our atmosphere rather than the Moon suddenly shifting Blue rays or Red light from the Sun. 

Did you know that when you can see-- not just the crescent, but a little bit of the darker side of the Moon itself - that it’s probably because of Earthshine? The earth’s surface can reflect light onto the Moon, but because we’re not emitting of our own sunlight-- this is a double reflection (sun -> earth -> moon) and thus the lights are a little dimmer. But it’s a cool phenomenal to see! 

Usually the best way to see this is around 5 days before or after the New Moon, where you can perhaps (*depends on your location as well) observe it when its nigh!

I just wanted to talk about nifty things here.. also! void of course that we mentioned before, I think we might’ve heard of it. We often think of it as period where things can should take a break technically, it’s separating from it’s prior aspect to form a new one - but it’s the period where it’s not forming aspect, so it’s a good cue to take our rest here. During this period, we may take cue to just relax a little, in case we get befuddled, confused, forgetful or in that transitional period where it’s best to focus on what we’re doing and continue doing something familiar. 

Sometimes I think of it as a break time whistle, where it’s essentially telling us to take a little walk meet up with friends or spend some time journalling instead of embarking on a new project. Just take sometime getting ready to go into the new sign, finishing up and tying the ribbon on something we’ve held off doing for a while now/our general upkeep. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, just a reminder that life goes on and we forget to take breaks sometimes. 

We’re gonna begin talking about the different phases now. Starting with the New Moon.

New Moon

As we’ve probably figured out, the New Moon occurs when the Moon conjuncts the Sun. To get the logistics out of the way - they are also astrologically in the same sign (*there may be out of sign conjunctions if it occurs when the signs are close to the start/end of it’s cycle)

From the earth’s perspective -- the Moon is in complete darkness. By conjunction, the Sun - Moon - Earth (in that order) is sandwiched. The Moon -- in longitudinal degree, is approximately touching the Sun (from our perspective). Hence, the side of the Moon that is illuminated is actually facing the Sun. We (earth-bounds, hello nasa ) gets to see it’s shadows. 

We know this because of scientific studies, but from our everyday, earth-bound perspective-- we often just see the Moon -- the constant presence in our sky-- disappear for a few days along with the Sun. Clueless as to where it went we may look for it, maybe hidden under the clouds. Is it over-casted tonight? Not realizing where it went or when it’ll come back, until the first sliver of the crescent starts to rise up again in 3-4 days. Reassured, we continue on with our lives. Perhaps not even realizing that we’ve just started another cycle. Yet somehow- the idea of the Moon not being here and not being completely physical to our sense -- a constant presence in our existence on the earth -- unnerves us somewhat. Kinda similar to what we might find if the Sun suddenly disappears, even though it’s improbable if it hasn’t exploded.  

It’s pretty curious to think about it like this -- with the New Moon. There is little to no visibility sometimes. How are we supposed to sow our seeds if we don’t know what direction we’re planting, landing or what’s out there to manifest? Thus, a certain part of the New Moon period is to make space/room for things we might not have known, have seen or have figured out yet. 

For the New Moon Born 

New Moon people (sun-moon conjunctions) didn’t start out all typically all-knowing -- they know what they know, and they’ve experienced what they’ve experienced. Things aren’t as foreseen as others may perceive them to be, New Moon (Sun/Moon conjunction) natives strength lies in their ability to be themselves, but also grow and learn as they experienced different phases of their rhythm/cycle.

Nothing ever comes easily to anyone, even if to our eyes it is fortunate that they do. Being a New Moon native would also mean they’re catching the tide throughout their life-- learning, discovering and facing every new rite of ritual every time it comes around. Life, in essence, is all about knowing what you do know about yourself, your experience and your core-- sticking by your guns in essence -- and taking things as it comes to you. Making you experience, integrate, and change/adapt some of your beliefs to further add to the narrative/growth as a person.

It’s interesting to think about how each sign would help colour the expression of each moon differently -- say an Aquarius Sun/Moon conjunction in the 11th, would be different from a Cancer Sun/Moon conjunction in the 2nd. Each New Moon babies would have different sets of expressions and things they are ‘ready’ to face-- yet, it’s emotional growth and consciousness is something that they will still have to try and connect to the world with, from within themselves, outwards. As this set of Moon phase specify.

The journey is different, the varying perks and strengths of each signs still signifies different things within Sun-Moon conjunction. Yet, the journey and what they have to consciously experience in order to get there- the ultimate lesson is still the same. Manifesting outwards, learning in a similar yet totally different way. It’s quite exciting to contemplate, how much they may have in common-- despite being of completely different experiences.  

Perhaps because New Moon natives are Sun-Moon conjunctions, they might have to come later into realizing that certain things, might not have been as simple as they seen/thought. There are complexity and nuances, but certain things are overlooked in the casted shadow of the Moon.

Because the moon is casted in shadows, part of the psyche, intuition and feelings may be heightened. It is how they navigate through the dark, with the Sun structuring the conscious, and the Moon as our receptive (receptive to the light of the Sun, but is it a good thing or a bad thing if it’s to the point the Moon from the earth is casted in shadow?) 

These aspected to each other in conjunction, certain self-awareness are focused solely on the core nature of the person, the sun, whilst those perhaps, around them are often something they will continue to learn and balance between. To grow, learn and perhaps gather/develop into receiving/knowing of the world around them. 

Even with Venus/Jupiter aspected to it, the Sun/Moon luminary conjunction holds a stronger characteristic of the person. Perhaps they can share that, but in doing so - what do they receive back? How will they balance between themselves/the world around them, as to not be taken in as part of the larger community, or lose part of themselves? The strength that others see in them, the steeled backbone and pillar of strength-- others see but perhaps, not them.

It’s curious to think about New Moon in this way, because in a sense -- these natives may often feel somewhat individualistic sometimes. It’s not a bad thing, inherently-- what we see of those with Sun/Moon conjunctions may not always be what they often see of themselves. Emotionally to say the least, there may be dissatisfaction sometimes, or maybe complacency in certain signs. This may have to do with the native and how they’ve inherently grown, have they received lessons as the tide of the moon, the chances and experience -- or has it yet to come for them. 

If you think about Sun-Moon conjunction a tiny bit further, not all is as it seems sometimes. Certainly in terms of how emotionality is perceived, it’s somewhat tied to the ego/core of the person themselves-- the Sun. For most other people around them, we tend to feel grounded in the nature and characteristics of our Sun-Moon conjunction friend. Our New Moon native buddies certainly bring something solely them into our lives, giving us the emotional reassurance and satisfaction in seeing them just represent-- and unapologetically be themselves, as who they are.

However, for the Sun-Moon conjunction native. Perhaps sometimes, there are disrupencies. Like the mentioned above, experiences and challenges can be unexpected from our pre-planned ideas formed before. But taking it in strides, growing and adapting as these challenges fuse into us, and making the best direction out of these growth period, is certainly helpful for us in the long run.

Perhaps one of the most characteristic and unified idea about New Moon native is that they are often innovative, often up for brandishing new and interesting ideas. But the follow up that happens can be disrupted, either by their own doing or by nature. Unexpectance happens, because essentially we don’t really know where we’re going/following along or doing in the very end. The cycle is to grow and learn, the journey is an experience we can’t plan -- but instead, New Moon natives may often go in sincerely facing the journey, with pure heart that it will turn out well. Because they believe in the core of themselves.

For Those Not Born During the New Moon  

We may walk around aimlessly for a while during the New Moon period, certain interpretations takes New Moon as a reasonable period to cast seeds, sown into the ground, pre-plan for what is to come. But what’s to realize for most of us is that what we’ve casted may or may not come with unexpected changes/upheaval we didn’t account for. Things pick up-- the conjunction between luminaries are particularly powerful. This can come with unexpected change and opportunities, realizing that ‘taking a chance/change’ can be something that happens to us instead of being controlled by us is something the New Moon might talk about-- particularly if you think about how we cannot control the rise in tides-- yet it happens, and we have to be open to that. To opportunities and changes that aren’t preconceived or seen, but come to us whether we’ve seen it, liked it, or not.

Because it is (let’s call it) backlit by the Sun, during the New Moon period -- the darkness of the moon means we get a better time observing other cosmic entities. There are things to do during the New Moon! The tide rises, as well as a fortunate time to casts new seeds. Constellations as well as other planets may be something we choose to look at during this period where the illumination of the Moon is weaker -- with the Moon being casted into shadow and the Sun illuminating space, it’s a beneficial time to see what we’d like to cast, new beginnings, as well as promising things for ourselves that we’d like to do/look at during the new cycle (onwards). 

For those of us NOT born during the New Moon period -- take this energy with you. Yes it’s a good idea to start thinking about what you might want to manifest, grow and plant accordingly to it. But also keep in mind that it’s entire journey is to learn, accept and grow through the experience that is faced/given as well. We may think making changes consciously helps, sometimes for us to feel like we’re diverting and controlling where change is going to come. But ultimately sometimes--- changes occur where we need it most, changes can ask us to touch on the things that we’ve kept in the dark, hasn’t seen or isn’t expecting. During the New Moon period-- perhaps it’s also wise to keep an eye out and an open-heart/mind to the possibilities of new happenence. Even if we can’t see any big/major manifestation yet. It is -- after all -- in the dark. For a while. 

  Waxing Crescent/Crescent Moon

We move onto the waxing period, the next period of the lunation cycle. Coming fresh off the stem of the New Moon’s gestation -- the Waxing Crescent becomes the entering stage of where we start to see things takes shape, walk, form, shape. And perhaps, take actions in accordance to the logic we’ve placed before, pointed in a direction as we march towards it.

The sliver of the moon appears on the sky, the first glimpse that she hasn’t left us. The earth and moon co-exists in more than just orbital plane. The Moon brings time, space, brings shape, natural occurrences on our plane. The earth reflects the sun light back into space, onto bodies like the Moon (‘earthshine’)  

Isn’t it curious to see the semi-square aspect with the Sun-Moon? It’s not typically seen as a harmonious thing, but in essence, taking your first step is new and unnerving, but it doesn’t always mean it’s a bad direction/thing to do all the time. Brimming with energy and a new sense of direction, sometimes attempting to do something, is the first foundation in practicing that and becoming proficient in it. 

Everyone probably took their first step as a kid somehow, in different ways. I’m not gonna mention how walking is a universal thing everyone did, because perhaps it’s not? But essentially, maybe it’s in learning to talk, eating food, developing in some capacity -- is how we grew into learning how to grow further from there/then on. 

Without trying, or reaching out to do the things we deem desirable/want to do-- how would we have achieved anything? Whilst the New Moon period may be more about processing the feelings/experience that has come to us, the Crescent moon is building onto that but in a different way -- taking steps, pointed direction. The things that we see fit, the semi-square brings us into action even if we’re not completely far-sighted enough to calculate all the result to our manifestation.

In a way, the Crescent Moon period could also encompass those with Sun-Moon sextile. Which is curious to think about, especially with the analogy above. There an air of innocence and purity of will, in wanting to do something/go somewhere from just how we thought about it. If we think about the word ‘cresere’ -- it’s to increase/grow (thanks google). Isn’t it curious that whenever we start something, the natives may have a general good-will, a desire to do something with it- that’s refreshing to see somewhat.

One more thing to think about, doesn’t it feel scary to have been crawling, been doing something-- and then changes happen and you can finally do something else-- but then also having to face the possibility of falling as well? 

Consequences are something that we may have to deal with/talk about. Unlike the New Moon above, now is the time for consequences that perhaps-- stem from our actions/lack of judgement as well.

Sometimes it’s about the unnoticed, the doors we close without realizing. When the world gets too loud/too much, sometimes those with Crescent may not realize they resort back to their emotional support- numbing all of that because we may have grown bored of it already. Too much of the excitement, the stimuli -- also comes with consequences, whilst we may tend to be careful and practical in our proceedings (Crescent Moon natives especially) - we may tend to do that with our actions/the things we think we control. Yet, when it comes to mental fortification and truly balancing out our receptive health-- sometimes the Crescent Moon’s consequences comes in the form of defense mechanism, closing up, in, not realizing that change won’t come if we don’t open our doors or learn how to navigate it thoughtfully as well. 

From the New Moon to the Crescent 

Falling almost always comes with the territory of -- y know, learning how to do something. In a way, once we set off in something and has moved past the initial we don’t consciously tend to think about it, because it’s natural in a way. The natural relation to things. We like to be prepared for our journey, what should we pack, what does it entail, what is it about/like.

Just like how if you fly up, you have to also land. If you learn how to eat different food, there’s always a possibility of learning what you’re allergic to, what you don’t like. Learn a language, realizing there’s social/cultural thing you’re unfamiliar/not a part of. There’s always, unexpected circumstances/nuances that we didn’t realize.  

We don’t really think about the consequences before we do it -- because that’s not really motivation is it? In a way, perhaps native of the crescent/waxing moon nature sees opportunity and takes them, consequences will come-- but whats the point in ruminating on what’s unseen/not known when you could manifest/show what you have now, and cross the bridge when you get there later.

With Crescent Moon, it’s a great thing to adapt - at least to the benefit of these people. In a way, there’s a natural order of things. And in that order, it’s natural to expect things to be balanced/have consequences. Not in a negative way-- but kind of like, if something only has positives, why wouldn’t it have negatives? Shouldn’t we be prepared and informed? Readied and somewhat, able to take some of what to expect when it comes?  

Crawling doesn’t leave as much of an impact in the fall as when you’re further away from the ground - much like how something won’t hurt as much, if you’re mentally and emotionally prepared for it for sometime. If something doesn’t manifest (hasn’t manifested) during the period, it wouldn’t hurt as much as if it did, or has shown signs of being successful but also has to face with realities of consequences?

It’s the unexpected happenance, the things we couldn’t account for that might have hurt us most. It hurts even more sometimes-- to realize that it was all from our own doing. Our actions, the way things were handled or the procession of how things have played out. The hardest part of it all is to make changes happen, because it’s much harder to do so flexibly when you were prepared, walking in a certain direction all along. And now you’re having to make some changes/adjustments and address things within yourself.

For the Crescent Moon Native (continuation from above) 

Isn’t it so interesting to think about the Crescent Moon though? A period where we’re manifesting, but in order to make happenence happen -- we also have to consider that it doesn’t always come in the things we want it to be.

We can be so prepared for something, but it’s not the right period. We can want new changes, ideas, opportunities -- yet we aren’t making ourselves open and available to all choices in what’s required for it. We see an empty cup, and perhaps it’s an opportune time to fill it with what we want to do. That’s new and exciting, it’s do-able. Yet when it comes to editing/working out the kinks of why it may not be good to carry it with you -- we cling onto our defenses. The will (sun) and our receptivity to it (moon) aren’t always entirely aligned-- even when it’s harmonious, if we THINK we’re prepared to make those changes happen, reality of the practical aspects -- what our emotions would have to endure and work through with sincerity, can be feeling like warning to our ego/who we are sometimes.

It’s relationship is rather interesting, because in a way-- if the Crescent Moon increases in will but isn’t as readily to hear/receive or reflect as much, they can be rather callous/dismissive of what was heeded or given/warned to them before. If they are too receptive and has little will, they become prone to inertia and let opportunities slip away. It’s a crucial period during the lunation cycle-- just like how those of us who gets really hyped up and excited about New Moon tend to not go through/manifest what we said we will back then during the Crescent.

In a way-- the Crescent Moon period is just as crucial to the continuation of our journey, learning to adapt and balance between navigating the tide is helpful. Particularly because from here on out -- there’s increase in happenence until the full-moon. We’re in our waxing period now, this is where things will be coming more and more, and how we are going to receive/accept that, the manifestation of things that comes to us, whether we like it or not. 

Another thing about the Crescent Moon native is that often times-- contrary to New Moon natives who often has so many things they want to do, has done, but has let go of. The Crescent Moon often has a pointed idea of where they want to go -- not in a literal sense of material things mostly. 

But in terms of surpassing challenges and bigger things. Immigrant parents, and Crescent Moon natives reclaiming back roots. Becoming people who are -- more than the precedents, surpasses expectations. There’s a natural pointed focus to them that become more pronounced in the long run, although nuanced in everyday situation-- they may not always pull attention to it, as it’s something they may think are just the part of their organic nature, nurture, upbringing and being. But as a bigger picture (i.e. becoming good in a language, being able to do this or that proficiently) and thus-- are capable of implementing and helping their everyday life, is a part of how these Crescent Moon natives serves to find ways in surpassing everyday expectations of other Moon phases, and may often bring joy/gratuitous from others around them.

They may also often be cynical in a way, not all is positive when you’re balanced precariously on the nature of good/bad and seeing it all before you work on something. Because the will/receptivity is somewhat sharpened, they may in a way tend to be those who has seen luck fail on them, despite being quite proficient and adept at what they do. Challenges and adapting, doing and getting back on the feet. Proving time and time again that they are deserving, worthy and capable in their own rights.

For those with Crescent, and Not with Crescents

Isn’t it so curious to think of Crescents as being a sharp semi-square? But also those who may be in sextile, a part of the moon transitioning through the phase into the next major phase? With this, we can kind of understand the frustration Crescents may feel. When happenence don’t happen in their favour, when often our big dreams are hit sometimes, with subconscious or consciously acute, dreaded fear of consequences. Insecurities or simply -- looking in the wrong place sometimes. Opportunities occur but do they turn out well for us? And rather, how do we work through them and come up mightily above them?

Remember that semi-square isn’t a major aspect, in most cases we are able to override them if we know what we’re doing/what to do (in the context we need it for). But when we pay so much attention to what is holding us back, we also tend to let it get to us. And make us lose opportunities/our initial hope/dream/optimism that’s presented to us at the New Moon as well.

So just think about it. In a way, Crescent Moon natives lives quite comfortably being receptive to familiarity. But in a way, they are those who wants to keep a critical eye out for changes and reforms, those who wants to take steps into making it a possibility - the reality for us. But if the first path is with challenges, why should we walk? It’s because if we don’t take a stance or step in what we want to manifest/believe in, then we’re stuck in inertia thinking and drowning in our own conscious/consequences. I think this is something we could take with us, and also to sooth us at the same time. That sometimes-- it’s a lot more complicated and won’t come at us all controlled-- sometimes the first step requires 15 more steps, or 30 more steps, in order to actually be our ‘first step’ to something. 

First Quarter Moon

Finally here with our first quarter moon. This is one of the major phase, or it’s making one of a major aspect from the Sun and Moon. Rudhyar calls this the ‘crisis’ time -- but the word in the english language is often associated to the idea of change happening (which we often don’t like to disrupt/change things, if something could make us fall) -- inevitable or somewhat negative.

The idea of crisis has begun to sound more like ‘the purge’ -- at least to me. Nobody likes a ‘crisis’, but we often can’t help but feel exhilarated -- physically, mentally, emotionally-- when we know something is about to happen.

A shift. But also an unexpected splash of sea water to our face, little moisture and drop of mists in our hair that we can wipe off as it accumulates. What creases and rises with the tide, it’s a chance to turn things around, maybe that’s what’s been on our mind for so long. Or perhaps, maybe the tide is here to swallow us altogether. The ‘crisis’ here is more of both of those, a chance in happenence. Even more so, maybe the tension before it happens as well as the action and post action itself. 

Whether it is a consequence coming through, or an opportunity to be made. We may associate certain it to a rising in tension- the palpable sense that something has to be done, made, in order for something to shift here. 

In a way, the squares really do bring out a major dynamic huh? Especially if you’ve seen/read about Sun-Moon squares before. I’m sure you might’ve heard how the core/will of the person isn’t entirely aligned/balanced with their emotional response/receptivity to things. Which can be a part of it, in a sense. 

But what does this mean in terms of Lunar Phases? From the progression of our Lunar Cycle -- now may be the time/period where we reassess how we’ve managed to do since the New Moon -- what we promised ourself, did it go as planned? 

Since this is the First Quarter Moon, we’re still in the middle of waxing period -- what do we want to do to continue to manifest? What do we have to do, in order to do so? And what do we actually want to manifest now that we know a part of it’s cycle? What we idealized, walked and faced along the way, how much does it matter and how much could we use? In what ways?  

The First Quarter represents a reality check point where we should begin to acknowledge, ascertain, or weigh whether something has been worth it - whether to strike out a new path, whether the path we’re on has been exhausted, what to do with the past experiences - cleanse it, use it, or renew/reuse it? What changes has to be made in order to do so, what to take and what to let go. 

Change is inevitable, but more so -- it’s done through reaching that point that most Sun-Moon square would face-- where we have to make that choice for ourselves. What we feel that is at the end of what we set out to do, the path could no longer go on. Or whether we’ve been led unexpected down a path we did not desire nor expect, how much we want to actually continue. 

Whether we should refocus ourselves somewhere again. This is where chance and opportune happen -- as those who are native of the First Quarter would also realize - you have to save yourself from drowning if you want to survive.

For those born during the First Quadrant Moon

There’s no going around the Sun-Moon square, even if the signs in questions are out of sign (i.e. Capricorn Sun at 27′ square Taurus Moon at 2′). I think most of these individuals know how taking responsibilities for their actions a huge part of their conscious/rationality as well -- it weighs on their mind, their core self-esteem. If they don’t feel proud of who they are, their actions often being met with what they know, what they’ve experienced and what they expect themselves to do vs what they’re doing matching up to that or not. Instinctual in a way, strong fronted in how they are, and perhaps-- the feeling of validation, the true ‘conquer’ of the square, is what drives them forward. 

When it ebbs and flow like the tide, meeting and colliding, clashing with each other-- those that are born during the First Quadrant Moon comes with a chance to change - either succeed, or fail in their own ways. Depending on how they to go forward about it from there, build up from it or is weigh down by themselves/their conscious - going further the path is either something that is dreaded, or something to look forward to for those who are First Quadrant born. 

Squares in general, is the meeting of two planets that wants the same thing/similar thing but has a way of going about it differently from each other. This may often cause conflict, since often there are tension and arguments between which expression gets to be shown. The problem usually lies in how they can’t compromise, or see value/nurture or support each other’s expressions properly before having to insist on their own vision first. Thus the expression/action presented are often one that is not in favor of either of those placements. Something that is a by-product of the block of proper expression/compromise - an internal problem may become external, hurting those around it without realizing as well.

First Quadrant Moon talks about addressing this issue, in a way-- we also think of the square as the weight of expectations, capabilities and desire. What do we have till now? Our expectations and knowledge of what we can do, who we are, what we desire. When those things are weighted during this half-time -- we either drown under the crushing weight of disappointment/not enough in ourselves -- expectations that aren’t met. 

With the slower moving body in the aspect -- we may often find it setting us goals and expectations that we see fit to want. What we want, what we desire, what we need (in this case, it’s the sun, our ego) -- but because it is squared to our moon -- the faster moving body neither care for the goals, nor do they feel they are capable of achieving it. Tension and exhaustion builds, frustration and resistance. The sides talk and understands, but fate is simply not working in their favours when it comes to profit and execution. 

As the slowing moving planet sets up more goals - and the faster moving planet somehow fails and fails all over again in some way shape or form.  Or feel like, in some ways, certain things are being done that it’s overlooking it’s own needs/wants/discover. 

Once the faster moving body has had enough of it -- in this case, our emotional needs/wants/desire, our psyche and a part of our health. When frustration and inhibition mounts to a level in this square aspect-- a confrontation happens, actions are taken. And things are set loose, chances are made- taken, hoped to happen. Emptying the glass in order to refill it again, but thinking about what we want to fill it with, and to what proportion. 

It’s having to gone through the change, responsibility for it’s action. For the Moon (or any faster moving body in the aspect) - it’s for the sake of discovering itself, putting itself first. For the slower moving body -- it’s so that it doesn’t have to put up with constant disappointment all the time. Get to planning/working on what it could do.Something that the Sun-Moon square brings. 

Part of this isn’t all doom and gloom, in fact-- the faster moving body goes on it’s own pursuit and adventure. Freed from the chain of prior expectations it can discover itself and it’s needs/want. 

Does this sound familiar to the section above when we talk about re-evaluation of goals/experience? If we say the Sun-Moon conjunct of the New Moon is setting those expectations together, having talked and process it together. Whilst the Sun-Moon semi-square/sextile during the Waxing Crescent is experiencing the journey, walking along the path. Then this Sun-Moon Square is the result of the journey, what becomes of it. Is it successful? Should we continue? What is the profit/loss of whats happened? Is it worth it? Can we take this some more? 

Eventually the faster moving body would have to look forward to the future as part of their past. What they’ve set up, the foundational growth and development we went through. Without realizing, because we were constantly put to trials and on tests, we’ve become experienced and better at it. New trails we’ve faced that is a repeat of the old ones are succeeded, completed.  

Squares are directional forces that push us to develop in life, whilst we weren’t grateful for it at the time where we were being bullied, pressured. Eventually, we’ve become more experienced and taken subconscious knowledge of it that we are able to surpass trials ourselves now. This is because through these trails, we’ve built endurance and stamina. We’ve learnt the hard way how to discern and be more careful. To teach and survive. We become more confident once we grow into ourselves-- despite how harsh it was before, it did pay off. We’ve gained valuable skills - that helps us move forward through life, and sustain ourselves through it. 

The First Quadrant is satisfying because it requires us to take action -- the confrontation, and acknowledge our experience and skills. Those born during this period may often have remarkable base to their operations, their fundamentals down. But the decision to take action or inaction is one that will shape them and change them in the future.

Because squares are always re-occuring pretty regularly throughout our lives, I don’t necessarily think there’s one big moment and then it ends. We go through this as part of our operation module, we make the changes happen. We have to, otherwise nothing will be satisfying for us once the results arrive. 

The trials and endurance we go through are all an intricate part of how we embrace ourselves and use to push us forward. Nothing can manifest outside if we struggle with our own feeling of being trapped, pressured, forced under the expectations of who we are. 

Without nurturing/support from ourselves as well -- we are bruised from the journey and take more damage than we should. Learn to heal, as part of the First Quadrant or Sun-Moon square, that we have to step forward gently and take care of ourselves, our body our energy and health. Whenever it occurs, be thoughtful and treat it preciously -- instead of sustaining large amount of damage (accumulated) and then healing at once -- that won’t work. 

For those who aren’t born on the First Quarter Moon - and Those that Are Too

Courage isn’t something that can be done once and called it a day. To actually manifest something from it, or call it courageous -- we’d have to face these challenges again and again. 

In regards to the First Quarter Moon, often times we choose the path that is self-protective, despite saying ‘oh this is my choice that’s going to make a change for the situation!’  -- it may be lacking, or cowardly because we already know the choice that truly evoke fear/trepidation in us is the one we are consciously looking away from. If the weight or value that choice is smaller than the other, do we truly believe that the compensation will be enough? Do we make goals/resolution for new year, set up the foundation -- but don’t willingly put in the value/effort so that the consequences are little to no impact on us. And thus, we don’t fulfill the goal we’ve made-- because we refuse to take chances and actions-- to make it worth the value for ourselves? What it truly mean for us long term?

We want positive long-term benefits without the conscious trepidation of lost and going through changes. But how do personal changes happen if it doesn’t have an impact on us? Vulnerability is something Sun-Moon squares will constantly have to work through-- squares are temporal forces after all. And we will have to face it again and again in order to utilize it’s source and power, and direct it into achieving something truly fulfilling for us (*whatever sign or houses that it’s in can point to what the affair/matter is. For transit and natal as well) 

Decisions that we choose may be hesitant, but still would rather choose it to be the sacrificial lamb, instead of the true one. No matter what justification or ‘oh but this has more percentage of succeeding!’ -- truly isn’t it just a self-preserving excuse for another self-comforting action? To choose the fear that we know rather than the one that we truly fear, but desperately wanted to make a change in. To know that if we were to make ourselves vulnerable, put ourselves out there -- we would have that, could get it. But we don’t -- instead we fall into habit and comfort instead? Doing the bare minimum to get by, for our own internal growth. Instead of the ones we should be doing-- when given the opportunity instead? 

The true choice of our own beneficial development is buried under our consciousness, we willingly place it into the subconscious -- so that we don’t feel guilt over not being courageous or not having to see/choose it in the first place. During and for those with the First Quadrant Moon, try to be courageous and choose the one that truly evoke your fear instead. 

It doesn’t happen overnight, but it happens when repeated exposure to the process of putting ourselves out there-- vulnerably. It does pay off, as of most things. Truly the path of the square is to learn that changes has to occur. Decisions and actions have to be made. Ones that are hard for us to do -- because the consequences are harsh. But it’s necessary, for us to reap the reward of our effort and gain more confidence later. 

We may often think of ourselves as failure if we don’t see ourselves succeed directly at the task we’ve set up or is given, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t learnt skills during the process. Often times, those in and born with the First Quadrant will have to realize this -- you’re not useless. You’re laying down and learning the foundation to something that would prove useful in the future. All you have to do, is make conscious choices to be courageous and choose your path, take actions in said path. Make your decisions yourself. 

 The conditions of Mars -- sorry this is the last bit-- the condition of Mars is also something to look at. Since we’re often talking about actions when we’re talking about squares, often times, those with First Quadrant Moons are the ones who likes to see through the development of projects/things at the beginning phase-- but may leave once they’ve grown bored or want to start another venture afresh. Just like the progression of New Moon, Waxing Crescent to here -- it’s about the project and seeing how it goes till we are satisfied with what happened. And then reassessing what we want to do from there, once we’ve grown some stability from it as well.

Waxing Gibbous 

Gosh, we’re finally here at the Waxing Gibbous! You know how we talk about surviving in the First Quarter Phase? Well now perhaps this is more like living. But it’s the stage where we are in-between that surviving and living, not well-off but perhaps trying to get to where we can live comfortably and just mind our business without getting wrecked over again. 

To survive and to live are different in motivation right? One is with a sense of urgency, of panic. An awareness of our past action that may have lead us to there, or something that requires combating immediately because there’s resistant force. Living is more in-tuned with our desire and need to get better. A desire for a truly fulfilled life, at the end of the day. Pushing still, and without a truly harmonious aspect it can be something that is motivational in purpose -- a need to be psychologically in-tuned with the world, using our emotional bases/foundation as the core of how we make sense of it and grow from there as well. 

With more luminary to the moon - some have said the more illuminated the moon is, the more our emotions heightened. This kind of reminded me of why people say the full moon is when werewolves turn. So in return, perhaps the waxing gibbous is when they may start the stage of pre-turn/pre-feral. Or maybe it is when they’re mostly going through that ferality? 

During this period, we’re still increasing in our waxing-- thus, not all is good yet. We haven’t reaped the rewards of our efforts, not until we’ve reached a trine/sextile while the come-down becomes much more enjoyable process for us. However, now that we’ve done our *wriggle hands* emotional crisis ‘sink or swim, live or die’ kind of deal. Here’s the part where we pick up and clean off, see where we go from our tantrum from here.

For the Waxing Gibbous Moon Native 

With the kind of aspects the Gibbous has (sesquiquadrate) -- perhaps the native of these Moon may often find it difficult to join/smash their will and emotions together well. If their will are at the forefront, perhaps sometimes it requires emotionally shutting down in order to do so, or engaging with their emotions-- then sometimes the will may be lacking/scattered to do so properly. It’s not usually as dual as this, but rather because it’s happening all at once-- sometimes they fall into either side hard without realizing - and thus, becomes detriments to themselves when they can’t pull themselves up each terrain (transitional phase).

Because the Moon isn’t quite ‘full’ -- we’re almost there, but we aren’t yet. That’s important to realize, because this is a period that requires a lot of tolerance and patience for themselves/others/what they want to manifest as well. 

As most Waxing Gibbous will learn - sometimes they can be their own detriment due to losing patience or motivation for something or their circumstances. Worrying or anxiously waiting on productivity to arrive. Often impatience to get things done/worked out can be part of why they are stuck in a hard place in the first place - most of the things they wish to work out, acceptance and compassion for the circumstances/whatever frustration it was aimed at -- quelling the heart and mind can be helpful for them. 

We’re in a place where we aren’t there yet -- but because they think they see the finish line so close, they may sometimes act brashly/rashly that they lose out on the footing. Thus why it’s in-between surviving and living, we aren’t there yet. Plus, understanding that-- even though it is difficult and life has difficulties (which these people would have a deep understanding of) -- there are solutions, and you can come out of the other side safely is important to know, as they tend to be worriers sometimes when faced with a problem, anxiety inducing, putting themselves through emotional pain/turmoil sometimes when caught off-guard with ‘unexpected’ situations 

Think about the Moon, it’s nearly full - which puts us at a false sense of security sometimes. We think we’re nearly there, but we do have that small percentage of darkness that we often get ‘ambushed’ by - certain awareness of this darkness and vigilance can be the lacking in Waxing Gibbous people. As they may tend to focus on earning/achieving that higher percentage of luminosity, the threat of darkness blindside them. 

Although the minor darkness percentage is something to note, as most of the time-- it’s minor devils that you can win in a fist fight if you’re emotionally prepared for it. It’s just a matter of whether or not you want to engage in a fight with them and is fully concentrated to win, or are you going to take that first punch and realize you’re not well-equipped for it and lose?

Basically, our attitude towards realizing our miscalculation, mistakes and minor mishaps that becomes troublesome on the bigger scale of thing is important. We can often let it put us in vulnerable position, let it pass us by without realizing it’ll become a thorn in our side-- or we can take an active position and vigilance in our humble position of trying to move through this slippery terrain.

Often times, Waxing Gibbous individuals may find themselves ‘oopsie’ falling into slippery slopes because of their own miscalculation, lack of vigilance, purposefully ignoring a minor problem that seems to not have a large impact for the sake of it being ‘fun and just my personality’ (sometimes) -- which eventually becomes a bigger problem to solve when it’s set in a bigger context, or has escalated to the point where it worsened/involves others. 

This is why it’s sometimes not advisable to go overlook certain things. But yes, attitude towards these helps. Particularly if we learn from them and make changes in our awareness for it. See it as a problem, see it as something to resolve. Rather than ignore. 

Another thing about Waxing Gibbous is that they can often - hm, crop up at unexpected times with unexpected problems. Often times we recall a moment where we pay the repercussion, a fall-out, a conflict (square) - and then if we put a semi-square on top of that. We are blindsided, overlooking our own involvement at the problem at the time. Our lack of foresight or patience, significance of that minor thing that in turn escalates into a major thing. We feel like things came unexpectedly, caught off-guard at the last moment. Because we couldn’t forethought/foresight it to have came earlier. But only through introspection do we realize what truly caused it.

‘It’s not our fault, technically.’ - yes while that may be true. No one can truly predict the future! But that’s also part of the sesquiquadrate isn’t it? Things tend to crop up and challenge us, makes us lose out on opportunities or certain experience. 

But we can always see it after, assess it and revise, re-edit, rework the process on our own terms. Most Waxing Gibbous may tend to do this-- reworking things when they have certain distance from it. As it tends to help then see clearer/not be as ‘unexpected’ anymore, when things finally clear up. What they do need to realize however, is that the things that they think are ‘beyond our control’ when it happened sometimes- a part of them may have also been responsible for a seed of it too. And of course, putting that on themselves and taking accountability for it can sometimes be the hardest to do on softer soul/emotions and ego of the person. Which is self-protective at best. But is necessary to do.

Being a Waxing Gibbous is moving forward from the First Quadrant stage, but it’s so curious to realize how much Waxing Gibbous individuals may wish to go back and pay attention to the lessons First Quadrant brings. Callous, impatient, other small minor insignificant that becomes blown into a larger thing-- these  would benefit from the stages of having to realize and make choices for survival. As much as ‘living’ is a nice position to be - the lesson of the First Quadrant is important to learn in order to move forward into the Full Moon as well. And those stuck in between may want to revisit lessons from both ends in order to make the best of their situation.

For everyone else, and them

The Waxing Gibbous, although a transitional stage with a ‘minor’ aspect-- can have a very interesting impact on us. Because we’re forced to face with irritations, we become adept at seeing and solving situations/problems around us.  It’s inevitable, but you have a blindspot on you that makes you constantly learn that you are somewhat prone to self-indulgence and sometimes, things ‘slip up’ on you. Emotionality over willfullness, willfullness to force the dull of emotionality to be over. Again and again, we’ve reached a blindspot where we cannot get out of the confusion and find balance between the two. A 145′ is literally a semi-square, on top of a square. How do we go about resolving that?

We burn it off, smoke it out. Again and again, until things become clearer to us. Where we can take responsibility for our action - move past the helplessness and useless actions we do and actually accept life on life’s term. 

Emotionally, it would feel like finally being freed from a cycle. Seeing something as what it is, and not feeling agitated, irritated or responsive to it anymore. Our ability to handle the thing freely and thoughtfully, thoroughly and freely. We become more reliant on our experience with it and our familiarity, we know we’re now comfortable with the unfamiliar/unexpected. We resolve it through our emotional cornerstones, as most Waxing Gibbous tends to want to align themselves and manifest with the external world. What is our identity, our sense of purpose to the external, what we want to express with our internal that desire to make an impact externally. The cravings we’ve had for validation and success, the choice we made in the First Quadrant starts to manifest into more solid values and morals here. The corner stone is set for us to start expressing, living, and gaining experience/wisdom in. 

You start to get better at learning how to discern and work through impossible tasks, one bit at a time. Often times, we are gifted in working things through tenaciously. Thoughtfully and thoroughly, but again-- this is when they are concentrated and focused. When things are focused in one pointed direction, we can align our will and receptivity to operate/function in order to solve it all at once. But when we do it without the knowledge, the foresight and clarity that we often miss due to our blindspots. We tend to make mistakes, and then we repeat that cycle all over again - until we finally get it, until we attain wisdom and truly move past it. 

Perfectionist tendencies (somewhat) and self-analyzing is a large part of this Moon phase’s mode of operation. But that’s because it’s necessary to work through seemingly ‘impossible’ missions. 

Curiously, sesquiquadrate and quincunx sun-moon are considered ‘auspicious’ days in the Tibetian lunar cycle. The method is different, therefore they don’t have the 8 cycles of the Moon. But the day is an auspicious day because it is the right time to gain knowledge. Wisdom, comes into play. And it may be a part of the Waxing Gibbous cycle to learn this over and over again. Attain it and attune it, so that it could be used. And is represented in their cycle. 

During these times, it’s advised to look thoroughly for blindspots and smoothen out our otherwise, perhaps shaky manifestation at the beginning. We’ve came a long time from the New Moon, and now into the last phase of Waxing before the Full Moon. We are putting the final touches, combatting the last demon before we face the Stage Boss in the next phase.

A little to add about New Moon + Waxing phases

Phew that was long.. I hope this was enjoyable for you to read! I don’t have a lot more energy but thankfully I wrote this conclusion in the middle of working through this, before I came back and finish the post..

Hm in the next post, I’ll talk about how to identify the Moon in the sky (w/o the chart) so you know when something is Waxing/Waning, or whether it’s the First Quarter or the Last. Hopefully that’ll be nifty to read!

As a little conclusion, here’s what I wrote: I honestly find it so fascinating, how these periods and phases alludes to almost a lifetime of journey-- stretched over our own personal growth/development with how we go about the expanse of our years and future -- checking our natal moons, our lunar charts, our lunar returns/new moon chart -- but also happens over small period of time, 3 to 4 days of phase throughout the month -- and shifting, constantly, in the sign that it appears in. 

Being so subtle and subliminal that we often overlook it in someway -- but certain rhythm and tides to the phases of the moon, particularly when we mention ‘oh new moon in leo!’ or ‘full moon in libra!’ -- we make note of, we take notice. And our focus shifts to pay attention to the manifestation that it brings, when we’re constantly going through the motion of progressing towards aspects -- minor and major, throughout our chart with our moon phases. We just need to look at how it could possibly focus, ebb and flow together, into causing the cycle and changes that its making to us?

It’s just.. such an interesting thing, how in smaller bits and pieces we can pick out what this thing mean and then the other. But looking at the bigger picture together, of this particular context and component -- we haven’t been paying much attention to?

It’s all about the temporary forces that it brings, the synergy between conjunction to semi-square to sextiles to squares. We know what Sun/Moon conjunction is, then what Sun/Moon sextile is separately. We know what Sun/Moon squares are like, and then Sun/Moon trine right after. But when we put it together to study Lunation Cycle -- we start to realize that these energy progress and move to a rhythm that tells a story, and makes an influence on us. 

Each phases and period has it’s own dimensionality and life. It’s own stories and personal hardship/challenges stories. It’s never about ‘oh this is the one Moon you can relax in’ because there’s never truly a time where you’re just idle. If you think about floating in the sea - the ebb and flow of the ocean keeps you working with your buoyancy even if you’re not technically doing anything. With how the Moon functions and controls the ocean’s tides, it’s so interesting to note how Moon Phases in the same manner- brings lessons and motions into our lives that if we perceive it thoughtfully, could bring and help us manifest changes as we progress through each sign as well. 

Also, isn’t it interesting how time is a construct that is -- somewhat, relevant to how we perceive ourselves as ‘this period where i do nothing’ versus ‘this period where everything is happening and i have things to get done/do!’ -- when time is happening everywhere, every time. The Moon being quite fast in it’s orbit and shifting of signs, and then the shifting of phases that happens a little after that-- would that have an influence on how we gestate and then get up to go do things? Different ideas, stories, interpretations. Every New Moon in Aries is different of a signature than a New Moon in Taurus. Every cycle and period of what’s to be expected of the motion is different, relevant to the expressions of the sign it’s in.

Anyways I’ll let you off with this, thank you for skimming through!💕❤️ I know it’s a lot to read ksksks so I hope you had a good time!!  💕❤️💕❤️

[nasa]

The Moon in Motion

Happy New Year! And happy supermoon! Tonight, the Moon will appear extra big and bright to welcome us into 2018 – about 6% bigger and 14% brighter than the average full Moon. And how do we know that? Well, each fall, our science visualizer Ernie Wright uses data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to render over a quarter of a million images of the Moon. He combines these images into an interactive visualization, Moon Phase and Libration, which depicts the Moon at every day and hour for the coming year. 

Want to see what the Moon will look like on your birthday this year? Just put in the date, and even the hour (in Universal Time) you were born to see your birthday Moon.

Our Moon is quite dynamic. In addition to Moon phases, our Moon appears to get bigger and smaller throughout the year, and it wobbles! Or at least it looks that way to us on Earth. This wobbling is called libration, from the Latin for ‘balance scale’ (libra). Wright relies on LRO maps of the Moon and NASA orbit calculations to create the most accurate depiction of the 6 ways our Moon moves from our perspective.

1. Phases

The Moon phases we see on Earth are caused by the changing positions of the Earth and Moon relative to the Sun. The Sun always illuminates half of the Moon, but we see changing shapes as the Moon revolves around the Earth. Wright uses a software library called SPICE to calculate the position and orientation of the Moon and Earth at every moment of the year. With his visualization, you can input any day and time of the year and see what the Moon will look like!

2. Shape of the Moon

Check out that crater detail! The Moon is not a smooth sphere. It’s covered in mountains and valleys and thanks to LRO, we know the shape of the Moon better than any other celestial body in the universe. To get the most accurate depiction possible of where the sunlight falls on the lunar surface throughout the month, Wright uses the same graphics software used by Hollywood design studios, including Pixar, and a method called ‘raytracing’ to calculate the intricate patterns of light and shadow on the Moon’s surface, and he checks the accuracy of his renders against photographs of the Moon he takes through his own telescope.

3. Apparent Size 

The Moon Phase and Libration visualization shows you the apparent size of the Moon. The Moon’s orbit is elliptical, instead of circular - so sometimes it is closer to the Earth and sometimes it is farther. You’ve probably heard the term “supermoon.” This describes a full Moon at or near perigee (the point when the Moon is closest to the Earth in its orbit). A supermoon can appear up to 14% bigger and brighter than a full Moon at apogee (the point when the Moon is farthest from the Earth in its orbit). 

Our supermoon tonight is a full Moon very close to perigee, and will appear to be about 14% bigger than the July 27 full Moon, the smallest full Moon of 2018, occurring at apogee. Input those dates into the Moon Phase and Libration visualization to see this difference in apparent size!

4. East-West Libration

Over a month, the Moon appears to nod, twist, and roll. The east-west motion, called ‘libration in longitude’, is another effect of the Moon’s elliptical orbital path. As the Moon travels around the Earth, it goes faster or slower, depending on how close it is to the Earth. When the Moon gets close to the Earth, it speeds up thanks to an additional pull from Earth’s gravity. Then it slows down, when it’s farther from the Earth. While this speed in orbital motion changes, the rotational speed of the Moon stays constant. 

This means that when the Moon moves faster around the Earth, the Moon itself doesn’t rotate quite enough to keep the same exact side facing us and we get to see a little more of the eastern side of the Moon. When the Moon moves more slowly around the Earth, its rotation gets a little ahead, and we see a bit more of its western side.

5. North-South Libration

The Moon also appears to nod, as if it were saying “yes,” a motion called ‘libration in latitude’. This is caused by the 5 degree tilt of the Moon’s orbit around the Earth. Sometimes the Moon is above the Earth’s northern hemisphere and sometimes it’s below the Earth’s southern hemisphere, and this lets us occasionally see slightly more of the northern or southern hemispheres of the Moon! 

6. Axis Angle

Finally, the Moon appears to tilt back and forth like a metronome. The tilt of the Moon’s orbit contributes to this, but it’s mostly because of the 23.5 degree tilt of our own observing platform, the Earth. Imagine standing sideways on a ramp. Look left, and the ramp slopes up. Look right and the ramp slopes down. 

Now look in front of you. The horizon will look higher on the right, lower on the left (try this by tilting your head left). But if you turn around, the horizon appears to tilt the opposite way (tilt your head to the right). The tilted platform of the Earth works the same way as we watch the Moon. Every two weeks we have to look in the opposite direction to see the Moon, and the ground beneath our feet is then tilted the opposite way as well.

So put this all together, and you get this:

Beautiful isn’t it? See if you can notice these phenomena when you observe the Moon. And keep coming back all year to check on the Moon’s changing appearance and help plan your observing sessions.

Follow @NASAMoon on Twitter to keep up with the latest lunar updates. 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

[gov-info]

NASA Gov Doc: 3/21/19 Supermoon @Dial-a-Moon

As the Moon orbits Earth, it goes through phases, which are determined by its position relative to Earth and the Sun. When the Moon lines up on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun, we see a full moon. The new moon phase occurs when the Moon and the Sun are lined up on the same side of Earth.

The Moon doesn’t orbit in a perfect circle. Instead, it travels in an ellipse that brings the Moon closer to and farther from Earth in its orbit. The farthest point in this ellipse is called the apogee and is about 405,500 kilometers from Earth on average. Its closest point is the perigee, which is an average distance of about 363,300 kilometers from Earth. During every 27-day orbit around Earth, the Moon reaches both its apogee and perigee.

Full moons can occur at any point along the Moon’s elliptical path, but when a full moon occurs at or near the perigee, it looks slightly larger and brighter than a typical full moon. That’s what the term “supermoon" refers to.

Activity: What’s a Supermoon and Just How Super Is It?

[chironwcentaur-blog]

The Lunar Calendar

The Lunar Calendar – What is the actual meaning for us?

Full moon over the mountain. No doubt, the history and the meaning of the lunar calendar is a very complex topic for discussion, as its importance for human beings is not so clear and understandable. The lunar calendar became the basis of the calendars of the ancient Chinese, Babylonians, Greeks and Jews. Unfortunately, the humans of modern times have forgotten the lunar calendar. During antiquity, the lunar calendar that best approximated a solar-year calendar was based on a 19-year period, with 7 of these 19 years having 13 months. In all, the period contained 235 months. Still, using the lunation value of 29 1/2 days, this made a total of 6,932 1/2 days, while 19 solar years added up to 6,939.7 days; a difference of just one week per period and about five weeks per century. Even the 19-year period required adjustment, but it became the basis of the calendars of the ancient Chinese, Babylonians, Greeks and Jews. This same calendar was also used by the Arabs, but Muhammad later forbade shifting from 12 months to 13 months, so that the Islamic calendar now has a lunar year of about 354 days. As a result, the months of the Islamic calendar, as well as the Islamic religious festivals, migrate through all the seasons of the year. (For review please see: History of the Lunar Calendar, Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/calendar/lunar.html#ixzz2ZY6fA9ab This website will provide you with more explanations and features of the lunar calendar.) What is a lunar calendar? A lunar calendar is a calendar that is based on cycles of the lunar phase. Because there are about twelve lunations (synodic months) in a solar year, this period (354.37 days) is sometimes referred to as a lunar year (for more information please visit http://www.infoplease.com/calendar/lunar.html#ixzz2ZY6fA9ab). A common purely lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar, or Hijri Qamari calendar. A feature of the Islamic calendar is that a year is always 12 months, so the months are not linked with the seasons and drift each solar year by 11 to 12 days. It comes back to the position it had in relation to the solar year approximately every 33 Islamic years. It is used mainly for religious purposes and in Saudi Arabia it is the official calendar. In other systems, a lunar calendar may include extra months added that synchronize it with the solar calendar. Most lunar calendars are in fact lunisolar calendars. That is, months reflect the lunar cycle, but then intercalary months (e.g. “second Adar” in the Hebrew calendar) are added to bring the calendar year into synchronization with the solar year. Some examples are the Chinese and Hindu calendars, and most calendar systems used in antiquity. All these calendars have a variable number of months in a year. The reason for this is that a year is not evenly divisible by an exact number of lunations so, without the addition of intercalary months, the seasons would drift each year. This results in a thirteen-month year every two or three years. Well, the Pagans and some other religions and spiritual traditions know about this phenomenon. Some lunar calendars are calibrated by annual natural events which are affected by lunar cycles as well as the solar cycle. An example of this is the lunar calendar of the Banks Islands, which includes three months in which the edible palolo worm gathers on the beaches. These events occur at the last quarter of the lunar month, as the reproductive cycle of the palolos is synchronized with the Moon. Even though the Gregorian calendar is in common and legal use, lunar calendars serve to determine traditional holidays in parts of the world such as India, China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Nepal. Some examples include Ramzan, Diwali, Chinese New Year / Tết (Vietnamese New Year), Mid-Autumn Festival / Chuseok and Nepal Sambat. Lunar calendars differ as to which day is the first day of the month. For some lunar calendars, such as the Chinese calendar, the first day of a month is the day when an astronomical new moon occurs in a particular time zone. For others, such as some Hindu calendars, each month begins on the day after the full moon or the new moon. Others were based in the past on the first sighting of a lunar crescent, such as the Hebrew calendar. The length of a month orbit / cycle is difficult to predict and varies from its average value. Because observations are subject to uncertainty and weather conditions, and astronomical methods are highly complex, there have been attempts to create fixed arithmetical rules. The average length of the synodic month is 29.530589 days. What does it mean? This requires the length of a month to be alternately 29 and 30 days (termed respectively hollow and full). The distribution of hollow and full months can be determined using continued fractions, and examining successive approximations for the length of the month in terms of fractions of a day. In the list below, after the number of days listed in the numerator, an integer number of months, as listed in the denominator, have been completed: 29 / 1 (error: 1 day after about 2 months) 30 / 1 (error: 1 day after about 2 months) 59 / 2 (error: 1 day after about 2.6 years) 443 / 15 (error: 1 day after about 30 years) 502 / 17 (error: 1 day after about 70 years) 945 / 32 (error: 1 day after about 122 years; expressible exactly in binary: 11101.10001₂) 1447 / 49 (error: 1 day after about 3 millennia) 25101 / 850 (error: dependent on change of synodic month value) These fractions can be used in the construction of lunar calendars, or in combination with a solar calendar to produce a lunisolar calendar. The 49-month cycle was proposed as the basis of an alternative Easter computation by Isaac Newton around 1700. The tabular Islamic calendar’s 360-month cycle is equivalent to 24×15 months minus a correction of one day. A lunar phase or phase of the Moon is the appearance of the illuminated (sunlit) portion of the Moon as seen by an observer, usually on Earth. The lunar phases change cyclically as the Moon orbits the Earth, according to the changing relative positions of the Earth, Moon and Sun. The half of the lunar surface facing the Sun is always sunlit, but the portion of this illuminated hemisphere that is visible to an observer on Earth can vary from about 100% (full moon) to 0% (new moon). The lunar terminator is the boundary between the illuminated and unilluminated hemispheres. Aside from some craters near the lunar poles such as Shoemaker, all parts of the Moon see around 14.77 days of sunlight followed by 14.77 days of “night” (the “dark side” of the Moon is a reference to radio darkness, not visible light darkness). The Lunar phases are the result of looking at the illuminated half of the Moon from different viewing geometries; they are not caused by the shadow of the Earth or umbra falling on the Moon’s surface (this occurs only during a lunar eclipse). The Moon exhibits different phases as the relative position of the Sun, Earth and Moon changes, appearing as a full moon when the Sun and Moon are on opposite sides of the Earth and as a new moon (dark moon) when they are on the same side. The phases of full moon and new moon are examples of syzygies, which occur when the Earth, Moon and Sun lie (approximately) in a straight line. The time between two full moons (a Lunar month) is about 29.53 days (29 days, 12 hours and 44 minutes) on average (hence, the concept of the timeframe of an approximated month was derived). This synodic month is longer than the time it takes the Moon to make one orbit around the Earth with respect to the fixed stars (the sidereal month), which is about 27.32 days. This difference is caused by the fact that the Earth-Moon system is orbiting around the Sun and, at the same time, the Moon is orbiting around the Earth. The actual time between two syzygies or two phases is quite variable because the orbit of the Moon is elliptic and subject to various periodic perturbations, which change the velocity of the Moon. When the Moon is closer to the Earth, it moves faster; when it is farther, it moves slower. The orbit of the Earth around the Sun is also elliptic, so the speed of the Earth also varies, which also affects the phases of the Moon. It might be expected that once every month, when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun during a new moon, its shadow would fall on Earth causing a solar eclipse. Likewise, during every full moon, one might expect the Earth’s shadow to fall on the Moon, causing a lunar eclipse. Solar and lunar eclipses are not observed every month because the plane of the Moon’s orbit around the Earth is tilted by about five degrees with respect to the plane of Earth’s orbit around the Sun (the plane of the ecliptic). Thus, when new and full moons occur, the Moon usually lies to the north or south of a direct line through the Earth and Sun. Although an eclipse can only occur when the Moon is either new or full, it must also be positioned very near the intersection of Earth’s orbit plane about the Sun and the Moon’s orbit plane about the Earth (that is, at one of its nodes). This happens about twice per year, and so there are between four and seven eclipses in a calendar year. Most of these are quite insignificant; major eclipses of the Moon or Sun are rare. There are numerous websites related to lunar cycles; their significance and meaning in our everyday life. Personally, I like the website http://www.lunarium.co.uk/ I think it is professionally done and it provides you with some important data, such as: the current phase of the Moon, the current position of the Moon in the Zodiac, the current Moon void-of-course status (personally I like this kind of data very much since I would not do some important things in that particular period), the recent and coming Apogee and Perigee of the Moon, the recent and coming Solar and Lunar Eclipses, and finally the recent and coming Retrograde Motion of Planets. There is a universal Lunar Calendar which can provide you with the beneficial information regarding the lunar status at any time, as well as a lunar conception calendar and gardening calendar. Of course, there is Moon phase software and you can find information regarding the software on http://www.moonconnection.com/quickphase Also, there is one more website that I personally think would be beneficial to get more information and that is http://www.moonconnection.com This website will provide you with “the zillionth” information and almost everything you need to know at introductory level regarding the Moon, its phases, mansions and much more. These websites will guide you into the information regarding the Moon. The question is, if we have so many resources and sources related to the Moon, why do humans not use the lunar calendar for their everyday activities any more or less than it should be or to solve major and minor problems in our lives. For example, such as finding a new job, getting over some financial problems, to improve our everyday life on all plans and dimensions, to cure diseases, to alleviate some symptoms and signs of major and minor diseases, or simply to prevent diseases and illness, to better understand our individual physiology and psychology, or to improve our circadian rhythms… All these questions and possibilities for improvement can be and could be nicely managed by the lunar calendar and using the lunar calendar in our everyday life. Let’s be more practical and less descriptive. Here is the status of the Moon of one my client at her birth. At the birth, there was a lunar eclipse, a full moon, void-of-course, just started prior to the birth and the void-of-course ended after birth. The Moon was in Cancer, in the lunar station (mansion) 8, perigee and the person was born on the 17th lunar day. This is all necessary information which I have needed to make analysis, as well as to develop some strategies for improvement for this particular person. Read the full article

[toxicdigest]

Altair's best friend, Adrastea.

Name: Adrastea

Gender: female

Height: 6'8"

"I wonder if man appreciates Mother as I do. Who is she in their young, ambitious eyes?"

"Fear not, what you are witnessing is not real. I must ask that you forgive me; I'm afraid I cannot help myself at times. I have heard this referred to as a 'prank'."

"W-Whereabouts did you come from? Have you...always been there? D-Do not come closer. Not a step closer, not even a small fraction of a step. You...You stay put."

This is Adrastea, a mysterious but benevolent figure from beyond our stars with a strong connection to our moon. Her ability to create lifelike illusions and distort reality is at its peak when the full moon is at its perigee and a new moon at its apogee will have her at her weakest. She specializes in distorting how we view faces and figures and could turn your best friend's familiar visage into that of a horrifying beast with ease. On the night of a blue moon, Adrastea's power reaches new, terrifying heights, to the point where even she can't distinguish reality from illusion. As her powers intensify with the everchanging moon, so do her emotions, slowly shifting from stone faced stoicism to a wild and irrational whirlwind. Adrastea is most like her true self on the night of the waxing half moon: an insightful, wise and compassionate being with some whimsical and neurotic tendencies. She's willing to share her vast knowledge of the cosmos, as long as you're willing to listen. She's a little jumpy and doesn't like surprises or sudden change, preferring to stick to a strict routine. While she's aware of her magic growing more powerful with the moon, she's unaware of the emotional changes that come with it. One thing remains constant: her attachment to the moon and the stars. Adrastea refers to the moon as her mother and the stars her family. She wants to know everything there is about these wonderful celestial bodies and as the universe is continually expanding and new stars are born, there will always more to know. She doesn't like big cities or towns where all the lights make it difficult to see the sky. As a nocturnal creature, Adrastea seems to vanish entirely during the waking hours and only ventures out in the cover of night.

[gmessy30]

Perigean Spring Tide First of all, I know it's autumn. That's not what a spring tide is. It is a tide that springs up, more than normal. The tides in the week or so following a new or a full moon are spring tides. Those preceding them are neap tides. The moon has an elliptical orbit, that is, at times it is closer to the earth than at others. The nearest and furthest points of an orbit are perigee and apogee. When there is a new moon it is between the earth and the sun, the illuminated side facing away from us. If it is directly in line, we get an eclipse. When this occurs at its orbit's perigee, there is a greater effect on the tides. Sort of a super new moon, but instead of seeing the moon, we see the tidal effects. All of the things that cause a high tide can add up and reinforce each other, compounding the effects. On Friday it was about a foot higher than the day before at the bridge. The path beside the river was barely even a noticable path in the river. Where the caribou were laying down the other day was submerged. The Flats where the soil is red was submerged. The pier was once again nearly a dock, and the dock was just about at its maximum. The stairs leading to the bank at Cunningham Park lead straight into the river. From the observation platform there you could clearly see the river through the trees. #sonydschx400v #sonydsc #sonycybershot #SonyCameras #alaska #alaskaphotography #warrenamesbridge #kenairiver #kenai #kenaialaska #hightide #kenairiverbank #cunninghampark #cunninghamparkkenai #perigeanspringtide #kenaicitydock #springtide #newmoontide (at Kenai, Alaska) https://www.instagram.com/p/CU2uU5ivZQh/?utm_medium=tumblr

[orbemnews]

Pink Moon time UK: What time will the Pink Supermoon rise tomorrow? April’s Full Moon is traditionally known as the Pink Moon, thanks to Native American time-keeping traditions. But you may also recognise it as the Fish Moon, Sprouting Grass Moon or Egg Moon. More importantly, however, this Full Moon will arrive near its closest orbit of Earth and that means we are about to witness a beautiful Supermoon. What is a Supermoon? As the Moon races around the globe, its elliptical orbit brings it closer or farther from us every night. If a Full Moon appears near or at lunar perigee – lowest orbit – astronomers refer to this spectacle as the Supermoon. The opposite is true when the Full Moon is at apogee – highest orbit – and we get to witness a smaller Micromoon. Supermoons can appear up to 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than a Micromoon. READ MORE: Time traveller claims WORLD WAR 3 breaks out in the future NASA’s lunar expert Gordon Johnston explained: “This Full Moon is the first of two Supermoons for 2021. “The term ‘Supermoon’ was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979 and refers to either a New or Full Moon that occurs when the Moon is within 90 percent of perigee, its closest approach to Earth. “Since we can’t see a New Moon (except when it passes in front of the Sun), what has caught the public’s attention in recent decades are Full Supermoons, as these are the biggest and brightest Full Moons for the year.” Another Supermoon will appear this year on May 26, appearing about 0.04 percent or about 98 miles (157km) closer to Earth. In strictly astronomical terms, a Full Moon only lasts a brief moment when the Moon and Sun are lined up. When viewed from London, the Moon will set in the west-southwest tomorrow by 6.04am BST. The Moon will then reappear in the east-southeast by 8.59pm BST. Viewed from Glasgow, the Moon will set by 5.57am and reappear by 7.54pm BST. Astronomy enthusiasts in Belfast, meanwhile, will see the Full Moon set by 6.20am and rise again by 9.35pm BST. What is the meaning behind the Pink Moon’s name? Many of the Moon’s unusual names are said to derive from the time-keeping traditions of Native American tribes. After being adopted by colonial Europeans, the names were popularised in the 20th century by publications like the Maine Farmer’s Almanac. The names are believed to reflect seasonal changes in the landscape, such as the appearance of certain flowers or the ripening of wild fruit. Mr Johnston said: “According to this almanac, as the Full Moon in April, this is the Pink Moon, named after the herb moss pink, also known as creeping phlox, moss phlox, or mountain phlox. “The plant is native to the eastern United States and is one of the earliest widespread flowers of spring.” if(typeof utag_data.ads.fb_pixel!=="undefined"&&utag_data.ads.fb_pixel==!0)!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod?n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments);if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window,document,'script','https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');fbq('init','568781449942811');fbq('track','PageView') Source link Orbem News #Moon #Pink #Rise #Supermoon #Time #tomorrow

[swearwolfremuslupin]

fauvehoof​:

With a big breath, Lily thanked Remus inwardly for allowing the subject to move on. She always felt self conscious showing weakness, guilty that she was putting her troubles on others- especially when it was something she was at fault for. When left unchecked or unprovoked, Lily could usually carry on somewhat well, it was when people she loved started acting concerned that she’d break down. The caring attention always flustered her, and Remus’s coy and sweet friendliness always shot straight to her heart.

She smiled as Remus picked up the vial, feeling at once like they were back in Hogwarts, and she was helping Remus not fail potions. It was always so comedic to her that he was so good with everything else. “Of course I’m going to tell you!” she chuckled, pulling parchment out from her robes. “I know that what I’d been making you up till this point wasn’t very strong, but I had to be careful cause.. well- I’d rather not poison you. But I’ve been working on some new ideas and they are ready, so you’ll have to tell me how these work for you, alright? It’s a little involved, so I wrote out this-” Lily withdrew a piece of parchment from her robes that described the potion routine carefully in 8 steps per month. “I think that what potioneers have missed regarding lycanthrophy is that it’s affected your blood, you’re composition on a molecular level? Maybe its because magical healing is more intuitive than scientific, but I like both so I’m using both! Based on what I’ve been studying, I think that if I can make a potion that responds to your blood composition and the phases of the moon we will be in the right ballpark. So.” Lily tapped the bottle in Remus’ hands. “I’ve made a time table for each of the next four months, I think after that amount of time we can edit this routine based on how its making you feel. 8 moon  phases in a month means you switch to the next potion roughly every 3 to 4 days, depending if the moon is in apogee or perigee. But you don’t have to worry about all that! It’s all written out for you here. Just put this on your kitchen wall or something. “It will sting going down, I tried to make it less unpleasant but I didn’t want to dilute the potency now that I’ve finally, finally gotten these components to work for me. Don’t ask me what’s in.” she warned, eyes widening. “Just take it.” “Pay attention how it makes you feel for the next three weeks, you’re taking it orally so it shouldn’t be very strong to start. These first few bottles have a greater dilution, but it will become more potent as we get closer to the full moon. If its going well, if your feeling less sickness, lethargy, brain fog, changes in mood- then on the full moon, you’re going to take this one ophthalmically, like eye drops. It’ll be a lot stronger and the effects will get into your bloodstream more quickly, but I only want you to go through with it if these other potions, taken diligently each day, aren’t making you feel worse, okay? Promise me?”  

Reaching over, Lily gestured for Remus to open his mouth and, taking the vial from his hands, shook it before using the dropper inside to press three drops of the potion onto his tongue. Wincing, she watched as he suffered through the stinging sensation she knew it would leave in his mouth.

“I’m sorry for not keeping it together, Rem.” she murmured, “I’m- I’m trying but the rest of you seem much better at not showing how- how fucked up all this is. I’m angry- all I want to do is keep us, you understand? I just want to hold all of us together. And I’m prepared to do whatever it takes to make that happen. But I’m also scared, and I feel so ashamed to say that I am but, I don’t want to be the target on our backs. I don’t want to be the reason why any of you get hurt. And most of all- I’m scared to mess up. What if I do something horribly wrong? What if I- I already have?”  Lily leaned against the couch, her hair falling over the other side of it as her eyes stung with tears again. “What if I’m not enough? How could you forgive me for only making things worse?”

Raising his eyebrows when Lily pulled a folded piece of parchment from the pocket of her robes, Remus quickly began to realise this wasn’t the same as the other times she had insisted upon making him potions. There was more to this now, a goal in mind, a determination he so often admired in her. Even before she began to explain he felt overwhelmed with gratitude, but that gratitude was accompanied by the familiar guilt that always came with realising just how much of her life she spent trying to help him. He supposed it was no different to the Marauders using their skills as Animagi. Lily wanted to use her skills as a Potioneer, and he couldn’t exactly tell her to stop. That wouldn’t be fair. If he was being entirely honest with himself, he was also too selfish to try anymore. Maybe once upon a time, he used to push back, before coming to understand what a difference her medications made to his quality of life. Now that he knew, there was no turning away from her, no refusing her aid when it was offered, because how could he? “A little involved?” He echoed, moving closer so that he could read her handwriting. “Merlin, Lils... you wrote an actual essay.” He was undeniably impressed, as always, by her comprehensive understanding of potions, and the properties of their ingredients. He was curious, as she began to talk about Lycanthropy, and also a little uncomfortable with being forced to imagine the wolf quite literally being in his blood. It was the very thing he tried so hard to escape, tried so hard not to be, and it was in every single cell of his body. There was no escaping the fact. But the way she spoke was fascinating. It made him wonder how much progress could be achieved if only the wizarding world genuinely wanted to understand his kind. Repressing a shudder, he forced himself to stay focused. “Or they just don’t care enough to properly study us.” He muttered. 

Leaning closer still to stare down at the hand drawn timetable, it looked complicated at first, and part of him wanted to give up before even trying to follow it. But he knew the moment he began to take his potions, the routine would fall into place. He did what he could to clear his head, to not let the abundance of text distract him from how it might make things easier, more bearable over time. “I wasn’t worried about what was in it until you said that.” He teased, though he wasn’t being dishonest. He’d seen enough potion ingredients during his time at Hogwarts to know they were almost always unpleasant. Imagining the Potions cupboard in the dungeons, overflowing with glass jars, and wooden boxes, a thought suddenly occurred to him that hadn’t previously. He caught Lily’s gaze, a blush creeping to his cheeks. “This must have cost you a fortune.” He said, his voice small as he tried to grapple with the realisation. It wasn’t fair that he couldn’t afford to give her the money she needed to fund her experiments, not when they usually worked so well for him. “Okay...” He said finally, after a few beats of silence had passed. He nodded in agreement, mentally filed the directions away. He was comforted to know he would have them all in writing because the details were already slipping away from him. It felt dangerous to imagine a full moon that wasn’t accompanied by the symptoms she listed, to have any semblance of hope for normality, but he so wanted to believe she was onto something, that she had made the breakthrough she so obviously suspected she might have. “I promise, you have my word.” 

Begrudgingly opening his mouth so that Lily could apply three drops of her potion to his tongue, the stinging she had mentioned hit him before he could fully prepare himself for it. He was more than used to powering through when it came to self medicating, but it was an incredibly unpleasant sensation. He wrinkled his nose, struggling to swallow as his throat closed against the onslaught of sensation. After when felt like an age, the discomfort began to subside, and he took a shaky breath, scrubbing at his mouth with the sleeve of his sweater. “That was awful...” He admitted, seeing no reason to pretend otherwise. It was only as the distraction of the aftertaste began to fade that he noticed the sudden shift in Lily’s expression. He frowned to himself, trying to think of what might have caused it, turning to look at her properly. And then she spoke, words pouring out of her as if in spite of how previously guarded she had been. “Lily..." His voice was barely louder than a whisper. "Merlin, Lily... you never have to be sorry for that.” He insisted, hurrying to assure her even as she continued to confess how she was feeling. He understood, probably better than she might think. He had never been more terrified of losing his friends, after everything Peter had put the Marauders through, having the people he loved ripped away from him seemed to become a genuine possibility. Something he could no longer convince himself wasn’t possible. “I’m scared too... we all are.” He admitted. “This is a war, Lily. We’re all going to mess up, or do things we aren’t proud of. I don’t think any of us have much of a choice. What matters is that we’re fighting. We’re fighting for what’s right- for each other. I mean... what else can we do?” Taking her hands in his own, he held them tightly, the glass of the potion vial cool against his skin. "Listen to me, okay? You are always, always going to be enough. And you will never have to ask me for forgiveness. Never."