Tendency and Tension — Last Quarter Moon

The last quarter Moon at 12:37 am EDT tomorrow initiates a good day to catch up with your tendencies. Initiate, because the Capricorn Moon and Aries Sun will be cruising cardinal signs, where new seasonal patterns begin. Catch up, because the Moon is getting closer to the Sun every day. Your tendencies, because that’s where the last lunar quarter takes us, inside where your habits live.

Astrology by Len Wallick

Many of your habits serve you well. Brushing after eating, for instance. Some of your other dispositions are maintained simply because you are attached to them.

Attachments are powerful. So powerful, that it is sometimes difficult to tell where you leave off and where they begin. As with your tendencies, many are good for you. Family and/or community ties encourage mutual support, for example.

At other times attachments, as the word implies, are only a burden. An unfortunate attachment can lead to a confusing crisis. That’s because consciously releasing the attachment itself can feel more difficult than the problems you can consciously associate with it. 

Dane Rudhyar corresponded the last quarter Moon to a “crisis in consciousness.” That does not mean you are fated to suffer. Instead, the observation is consistent with what you see of this lunar phase on a zodiac chart, in the sky, and the symbolic implications of both.

The lunar last quarter is a square. A square aspect represents two or more objects separated by 90 degrees on the zodiac circle. Much like the hands of an analog clock when it’s 9 or 3 o’clock. Astrologers consider square aspects to connote tension within you (rather than between you and another) corresponding to the nature of the objects involved.

Among other things, the nature of the Sun and Moon in astrology correlate to consciousness. The Sun corresponds to your conscious self, illuminating the world of your presence. The Moon is different. It correlates to a more subtle self, less often seen or known. It’s also where your attachments are probably strongest.

At the last quarter, the lunar light is diminishing. It’s half way gone and going. You cannot stop the progress of the sky. You have to let Luna go for another cycle. To be in harmony with the sky, you must also do something akin within, and consciously so.

Think of a tendency you may have started after the Pisces New Moon back on March 11. Or even in the previous season that ended with the vernal equinox on March 20. Something you have recently come to believe or feel strongly. Possibly something you need to release in order to be less tense inside.

It may be an unaccountably strong conviction about what or who somebody is, or is not. It could be that something needs to be just so for you to relax, but which never lets you relax for thinking about it. Possibly it’s a habit that you firmly believe gets you through the day, or night, but which also exacts its own toll you could live without. Look inside tomorrow. Search for things like that. You will know what they are.

Once you have found those tendencies, please think about this. The tension of releasing your attachment to them is over once the release is accomplished, but the tension of holding on for no good reason never goes away. If you think of it that way, tomorrow’s experience could be the best crisis you never had.

Offered In Service        

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

12 thoughts on “Tendency and Tension — Last Quarter Moon”

  1. Thanks Len for your very attractive article on the last quarter of the moon. As suggested by Dane Rudhyar this phase of the Moon marks the end of the soli-lunar cycle a “crisis of conscience” required before receiving the new cycle of the Moon
    And a last quarter under the energy of Mars and Venus… 🙂

  2. It sounds like time to use some candles and aromatherapy. The non prescription route to relaxation. Let’s see, if I put the aroma in bath water and add a clay mask, all the elements will be covered.

  3. Oh, Len – your words are like a great hug at the end of an emotionally charged day that began so well and spiraled downward into feelings of… yep – crisis. A life in endless crisis, all the relentless, institutional pressure – medical, financial, legal, familial – that takes over my time so much I can barely breathe! Which in turn leaves me spent, and too wound up to be my best creative self – which is what I am supposedly here for.

    I need a break. I’m going back for a second read, and maybe even a third. Thank you, thank you.

  4. Oh Len you always speak to what I am going through. I have been trying to relax about my grandmother; she is 98 and living alone and is starting to need more care. She hasn’t a lot of money and she won’t want to leave her home so I have been feeling torn by the issue of finding some way to keep her there (to make her happy) but also not spending her small savings to the point that she won’t have it when her needs get higher. I feel a strong urge to bring her here to live with her son; they are very close and I could keep an eye on her easier. Her great niece is saying mean things to her because she is slow and though this woman helps her, my grandmother doesn’t trust her and I dislike it that she is treating my grandmother like that. Everything in me wants to bring her here so I can protect her better.

    I have been so tense about all that until this morning when I read your words and reminded myslf that this isn’t at crisis level yet and I have time to work behind the scenes to resolve the issues…with some help from her local Area Agency on Aging and her input. Thanks, Len, for helping me put things in perspective.

  5. DivaCarla: Please accept my own thanks in turn for letting me know my service was useful to you.

    Alex: Your kind and generous appraisal is deeply appreciated. It comes at a good time as well. Please accept my sincere gratitude.

  6. “…tomorrow’s experience could be the best crisis you never had.”

    A sublime culmination to a powerful and eloquent piece of astrological prose. Bravo Len.

    I really do appreciate the mundane aspects of the luminary dance in general and your unpacking here and relating to the natural daily rhythms of our subjective, yet somehow collective, cycles is crystal clear and full of very useful material.

    Thank you for your steadfast contributions to the guidance Planet Waves offers every day FOR FREE, Len. Great writing. Period.

  7. In my dream I asked, How do I survive this? do I hang on or let go?
    Crisis: moment of decision. Once the decision is made, the crisis is over.
    Oh. thank you Len, for the reading that tomorrow is such a day.

  8. Daniel: It is for me to thank you. To have spoken to your experience honors my service.

    be: Thank you so very much for your valuable insight (which i believe Dane Rudhyar would agree with) on the term “crisis”. Thank you also for sharing your own Spring of experience.

    wandering_yeti: Speaking of insight and honor, you have generously conferred both to this space today. Your experience with tobacco informs my own and has helped to strengthen my resolve to refrain – i can’t thank you enough for that.

  9. Mmmmm…yes. Quitting tobacco…again. My new singing practice emerged into my most recent tobacco spell and the effects on my voice feel so good it gives my desire to quit more power. The little demon likes to make you think it’s relaxing as it overstimulates the adrenal glands and dries out your cells. In retrospect I re-remembered recently that the first time I started a tobacco habit coincided with the first time I crashed my musical practice; my inner critic succeeded in forcing me to stop singing in part cause he didn’t want to be judged for tobacco’s affects on my voice. This time around the singing has become a powerful force and seems to be helping me eject the habit in favor of voice, undoing the previous bad mojo. Singing can be a healing force when you pay attention to how it feels and not just whether or not the notes are in tune. Tobacco is seen in some magical systems a the herb of Mars- but as a personal trip as opposed to sharing it in a pipe with ritual and community the smoking of this sacred herb diminishes the power symbolized by Aries and Mars. One needs air to make fire and water to avoid burning down the house.

  10. I’m glad you put it that way Len, a crisis “does not mean you are fated to suffer”. In print or conversation, the word crisis is so often used to frighten the reader/listener, when really crisis can just as well denote a turning point or the timing of a change in a process. There’s enough scary stuff happening without anticipating every crisis has to mean life or death. Personally, I’ve grown weary of believing I need to grab the winter coat everytime I step outdoors, but, finally, the sunshine and warm temperatures have released me from that tension, and that’s a GOOD thing!

    Of course there are other habits less easily separated from, like certain TV programs habitually watched. But now it’s time for Spring cleaning and those attachments must cease and desist. Now isn’t that a Capricorn Moon for you!
    be

  11. thanks Len. You spoke of my experience this past week. It’s still lingering, though perhaps settling into more conviction. They say that when a Scorpio makes a decision, it’s done and cut away. But I can’t help but be so sad about it.

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