Three Quarters Through
During this phase, the Moon is three quarters of the way through her lunar cycle. As she appears to grow smaller, we’re encouraged to mirror her journey: to let go and surrender, just as she is releasing and surrendering her light.
Watch her in the sky, half illuminated, half shadow. She’s neither holding onto fullness nor rushing towards darkness. She’s simply allowing the natural progression, the inevitable return, the necessary completion.
She teaches us how to surrender with grace.
Creating Space
If we want to bring something new into our lives, we must first create space. Nature abhors a vacuum, but she also cannot fill what’s already full.
This is an ideal time to declutter our homes. Letting go of objects that surround us but no longer spark joy or serve a purpose can feel uncomfortable. We attach meaning to things, memories to possessions, identity to accumulation, but the space that decluttering releases is invaluable. Our homes become lighter. Energy flows more freely. We can breathe more deeply.
Image by Minh Ca – Pixabay
Inner Decluttering
More challenging still is letting go of what no longer serves us in the stories we tell ourselves. These internal narratives about who we are, what we’re capable of, what we deserve, can be even more cluttered than our physical spaces.
Releasing these outdated stories can feel deeply unsettling. We don’t like change. We find comfort in familiar patterns, even when those patterns hurt us. We cling to old beliefs like security blankets, even when they’ve worn threadbare.
But newly created mental space allows us to speak more kindly to ourselves, to be less critical and more encouraging as we face life’s complexities. It allows us to see ourselves as we actually are, not as we once were or as others told us to be.
The Practice of Change
Changing takes time and practice. Transforming our lives for the better is fraught with mistakes, false starts, backward slides into old patterns. We’ll forget. We’ll revert. We’ll catch ourselves speaking in the old, critical voice or acting from the old, fearful place.
This is normal. This is human. This is part of the process.
These mistakes can help us see how to move forwards rather than backwards. They show us where the old patterns still have hooks in us. They reveal what needs deeper release, greater attention, more compassion.
What Surrender Really Means
Surrender is not easy. The word itself carries connotations of defeat, of giving up, of weakness. But true surrender is actually a profound act of courage and trust.
We have to lean into it and trust that it will take our weight. We have to release control and believe that we’ll be held. We have to stop clinging and have faith that we won’t fall.
Surrender will show us our outdated stories and beliefs and has the potential to shake us to our very core. It will ask us to release identities we’ve worn for decades, patterns we’ve relied upon, ways of being that once kept us safe but now keep us small. This can be terrifying. But it’s also liberating.
Surrender ultimately enables us to create the space to forge something new and more beautiful. It shows us where to say yes and where to say no. It gives us back our power in an authentic way and reveals how we can be more truly ourselves.
Standing at the Crossroads
At this point in our journeys, the Waning Last Quarter Moon asks us to pause, look back and try to see the paths we’ve been treading. Not to judge, but to understand. Not to regret, but to learn.
It’s time to own our journeys. Take responsibility for our choices. Use our insight to organise ourselves and plan for our next steps.
Image by Antonio Feregrino – Unsplash
The Beauty of Winding Down
There’s a particular beauty in the waning phases that our productivity-obsessed culture often overlooks. We celebrate beginnings and peaks, but we resist endings and releases.
The Waning Last Quarter Moon teaches us that winding down is as sacred as ramping up. That completion matters as much as initiation.
That learning to end things well is a crucial life skill.
Image by Ravi Pinisetti – Unsplash
The New Moon is coming. But first, create the space to receive her gifts.
