Born Under a Waning Moon: Full, Disseminating, Last Quarter, Balsamic

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Births from the exact Full Moon until just before the next New Moon have a waning natal Moon: the Moon is closing the gap to the Sun again. Measured as Moon minus Sun, counted forward through the zodiac, the value lies between 180° and just under 360°, split into Full, Disseminating, Last Quarter and Balsamic, 45° apiece.

Waning does not mean weaker or worse. In the scheme popularised by Dane Rudhyar, the second half of the cycle is about what happens after something has reached its fullest form: understanding it, passing it on, revising it and clearing space for what comes next. The readings below are patterns astrologers often describe, offered as tendencies to test against your own experience. Your Sun and Moon signs come first; the phase adds a background rhythm. To work out your phase, see how to find your natal Moon phase.

Calculator note: The Astrologist.com birth chart does not calculate or label Moon phases. It shows the Sun and Moon by sign, degree and minute, and the phase described here is worked out by hand from those two positions. Without a birth time, the chart places the Moon at local noon as a date reference only, so a phase read from that position is not established until the whole birth date has been checked.

Ranges and timing

Counting eleven signs forward is the same as one sign back, so in the Last Quarter and Balsamic phases the Moon often sits a sign or two behind the Sun's sign, or in the same sign. Timings are approximate: the Moon's changing speed made individual phases between 3.17 and 4.17 days long over 1900 to 2099.

Full phase (180° to under 225°)

This phase opens at the moment of the Full Moon, the Moon exactly opposite the Sun. A common reading is awareness through contrast: seeing yourself more clearly through other people, holding two sides of a question, and wanting what you feel and what you aim for to make sense together. In practice that might look like objectivity, or like a sense of being pulled between two poles.

Dublin, 11 January 1990, 12:00 (fictional person; positions from the free chart's routines): Sun 21°00' Capricorn, Moon 24°47' Cancer, elongation 183.8°, about seven hours after the Full Moon, with an opposition line on the wheel. Leeds, 23 November 1983, 14:10: Sun 0°42' Sagittarius, Moon 9°55' Cancer, elongation 219.2°, about three days after the Full Moon and close to the end of the phase. The Leeds chart has no Sun-Moon aspect, yet it is a Full phase birth all the same. Up to an elongation of 188°, the two are also in opposition within orb: the waning side of Sun opposite Moon.

Worth reflecting on: where do you see yourself most clearly through others, and how do you hold two sides together?

Disseminating phase (225° to under 270°)

The Moon is past full and its light is shrinking. Astrologers often read this phase as sharing: passing on what you have learned, explaining, teaching or putting an idea into wider use. Some people with this phase notice a need to communicate what they believe, and sometimes frustration when others do not take it up.

Glasgow, 11 June 1993, 21:00: Sun 20°53' Gemini, Moon 16°30' Pisces, elongation 265.6°, a little over seven days after the Full Moon and under ten hours before the Last Quarter Moon. The wheel draws a Sun-Moon square line, but the phase is Disseminating: a waning Sun square Moon falls in this phase until the Moon reaches 270°. Every waning Sun trine Moon (232° to 248°) belongs to this phase too.

Worth reflecting on: what do you most want to pass on, and to whom?

Last Quarter phase (270° to under 315°)

It opens at the Last Quarter Moon, when the Moon is 270° ahead of the Sun, or equally 90° behind it. A common reading is reorientation: questioning beliefs or structures that no longer fit, and turning away from them, sometimes before others are ready to. That can look like a talent for seeing what has run its course, or restlessness with forms you have outgrown.

Edinburgh, 9 July 1996, 07:30: Sun 17°19' Cancer, Moon 5°14' Taurus, elongation 287.9°, about a day and a half after the Last Quarter Moon. Counted forward from Cancer, Taurus is ten signs ahead, two signs behind. No Sun-Moon aspect is in orb here. Waning sextiles (294° to 306°) sit inside this phase, so a Sun sextile Moon with the Moon behind the Sun is a Last Quarter birth; waning squares join them from 270°.

Worth reflecting on: what are you ready to stop doing, and what are you making room for?

Balsamic phase (315° to under 360°)

The last phase before the New Moon, when the Moon is a thin waning crescent and finally disappears into the Sun's glare. Astrologers often describe it as completion and release: finishing, letting go and preparing for something not yet visible. Some people describe it as comfort with endings and quiet, others as a sense of being slightly out of step with the present.

Bristol, 20 July 1990, 09:00: Sun 27°21' Cancer, Moon 3°12' Cancer, elongation 335.9°, a little under two days before the New Moon. Both lights are in Cancer, and the Moon is behind the Sun, so this is Balsamic, not New. In the London noon charts of 1900 to 2099, half of the dates with the Sun and Moon in the same sign (50.2%) were Balsamic. From 352° on, the Moon is also conjunct the Sun within orb, the waning side of Sun conjunct Moon.

Worth reflecting on: what are you completing, and what helps you rest before starting again?

Keeping the waning phases in proportion

Three cautions apply to every reading above. First, a phase is shared by roughly one birth in eight, so your Moon sign and Sun sign remain the more specific placements. Second, no phase ranks above another; a waning phase says nothing about health, luck or energy levels. Third, check how firm your phase is. If the elongation lies within a few arcminutes of 180°, 225°, 270°, 315° or 360°, both neighbours stay possible until the crossing is checked: for 180°, 270° and 360°, with the exact time of the Full Moon, Last Quarter or New Moon; for 225° and 315°, which phase tables do not list, with more precise Sun and Moon longitudes or an ephemeris calculation of that elongation rather than an estimate from the nearest principal phase. If the birth time is missing, remember that the phase changed during the local date on 27.1% of London dates between 1900 and 2099; Moon phase without a birth time explains how to check yours.

For the four phases before the Full Moon, go to born under a waxing Moon. Phases and Sun-Moon aspects are compared on Moon phase vs Sun-Moon aspects.

Finding your own waning phase

Copy the Sun and Moon positions from the planet table on the free birth chart. If Moon minus Sun comes out at 180° or more, your phase is on this page. The chart will not print a phase name, so bring the number you calculated if you decide to ask the Astrologist about it.

Related articles

• Born Under a Waxing Moon
• How to Find Your Natal Moon Phase
• Sun Opposite Moon
• Moon Phase Without a Birth Time