Your lunar phase can help you better understand who you are and help you grow into who you want to be. 

Your Guide To Your Moon Phase
& Lunar Type

You may possess certain similar qualities as the phase of the Moon you were born under. It might reflect  states you feel more “at home” in. This is your lunar type. Your lunar type could also suggest where your natural talents lie, and certain challenges you could encounter.* It could also reflect what stage of creation you  feel most comfortable in.

Knowing the phase that the Moon was in when you were born can help you  explore where these themes hold true in your interests and patterns. The opposite phase to your natal lunar phase could feel deeply uncomfortable or incredibly balancing. 

If you want to find out what phase of the Moon you were born under, below are three places on the internet that can help. You need your birth date. 

https://www.almanac.com/astronomy/moon/calendar*  

https://stardate.org/nightsky/moon 

http://www.moonsigncalendar.net/moonphase.asp  

*Please note that the Moon Phases and Lunar Calendar by The Old Farmer’s Almanac can only calculate for those born in Northern America.  

Once you know what lunar phase you were born under, you can start noticing any correlations between themes of that Moon phase and experiences you’ve had. Notice how you feel when the Moon is in that phase. Look to the opposite phase for balance, and work towards integrating some opposite concepts in order to feel more whole.  

The New Moon Lunar Type

This is a phase for planting seeds, tending to the underground, intentions, new cycles, imagining, dream ing, visioning and visions, hope, rest, renewal, recharging. The energy of a New Moon baby may shine best around those themes. If you were born during the New Moon, (the day of, and possibly the three days following it) you might be naturally optimistic, hopeful, and love a fresh start. You could be a morning person. Beginnings aren’t difficult for you, but endings could be. Be careful not to hang on to the remnants of a dream that isn’t working.

New Moon types might have no problems with sustaining hope and cheer, but a harder time with discipline and practicalities. New Moon types are innovative, inventive, and brimming with ideas; follow-through can be a challenge. A New Moon type does well with brushing themselves off and trying again. The time of the Full Moon could be balancing for this lunar type.

Inventors, consultants, folks with a flair for pitching and presenting, and roles where you are a cheerleader and/or idea maker could be successful vocations for you. You may feel young at heart, and usually are open to other viewpoints.
You may feel energized or calm around the time of the New Moon cycle. The Dark Moon, and Waning Moon phases could be more challenging for you. The Full Moon, your opposite Moon phase, could be either/or.

If you can find the excitement of newness in your everyday, whether that be in something you are learning, a different route to work or while running your errands, or cultivating different clothing or aesthetic styles. Figuring out systems where you are rewarded often, and being able to break larger projects down could be helpful to build momentum for you. Your inclination to reinvent frequently and create change is a positive—embrace it!

Challenges could include: bringing your ideas into form, trust, consistency, and patience. Seeing projects and dreams all the way through, into completion could be something to work on.

 If you were born in a Moon phase up to three days after the New Moon, you may “feel” like a New Moon type. Use your intuition to decide.
 

The Waxing Crescent Lunar Type

This phase corresponds to beginnings, optimism, creating better habits, tangibility, action, breaking the surface, visible new life, starting the process. The personalities and proclivities of Waxing Crescent babies may correlate with these themes.

If you were born while the Moon was Waxing Crescent to just before the First Quarter, you may feel most at home when you’re in pursuit: goals, relationships, ideas, or the next “thing,” whatever that may be. Think: Artemis on the hunt, dogs chasing after a ball. Expansion and growth need to be evident in a Waxing Crescent person’s life in order for them to feel fulfilled. You may wish to steer the ship; the authority of others could be difficult for you. Recognition and positive feedback is important for you to continue feeling mobilized; you could fall prey to compliments masquerading as fulfillment.

Those born under a Waxing Crescent phase must recognize their need for consistent encouragement, affirmation, and mirroring—if not from the external world, then most certainly from within. You are an action taker and solution maker. You feel at home when they are doing something different—it can be a challenge for you to reflect on your past and learn from your mistakes, as you are generally focused on the future.

Focus on giving the same amount of care to wrapping up projects and archiving them as you do beginning them. If you have a tendency to avoid doing internal work, use the time of the Waning Moon to meditate, rest, reflect, or journal. Channel your ambition and drive properly: having many different pots on the stovetop is fine, just be sure you can give them all the proper attention.

Challenges could include: slowing down, dealing with people who tell you it can’t be done, comparing yourself to others, finding inner peace, and defining success on your own terms.

The First Quarter Lunar Type

This phase is conducive to choices, pivoting, changing course, refining, balance, overcoming hurdles and blocks, discipline, will, healthy habits, boundaries. The energy of First Quarter babies may correlate with these themes. If you were born on a First Quarter moon, you could experience tension around making decisions. When First Quarter moon types harness their remarkable ability to see both sides of a situation, their wisdom is unmatched. There is usually some kind of obstacle that they perceive or that is actually in their way to get ting what they desire.

This is the lunar phase that correlates to a crossroads; shadows and light must be in balance. Weaving internal work with external work yields great results. This could be the secret key to this lunar type’s success. Over time, this creates remarkable resolve and resilience. If you are born during the First Quarter Moon, structure and organization can help you keep going. Find ways to remind yourself where the glass is actually half full. There could be struggles between the comfort of the known and taking risks.

You may feel energized or calm around the time of the First Quarter cycle. The New Moon and Full Moon phases could be more challenging for you. The Last Quarter Moon, your opposite Moon phase, could be either/or. Recognize that there may always be some sense of liminality in your life. Part of your work is finding stability and confidence while not feeling exactly one way or another.

Challenges could include self-doubt, making decisions, and self-sabotaging behaviors.

The Waxing Gibbous Lunar Type

If you were born under the Waxing Gibbous Moon, you will most likely live a life with a focus on the external world, because external accomplishment is important to you—your resume is always up to date and you don’t shy away from action-items. You could feel at your best when you are growing and expanding tangibly. You are happiest when the fruits of your labors are easy to see; patience isn’t always a strong suit. Sensuality, self-care, and putting consciousness into tangible practice could figure into your life as a Waxing Gibbous type.

If you are a Waxing Gibbous natal moon: define what contentment, success, and happiness means to you, especially outside of the external. Being in the present moment and remembering to appreciate what you have is a practice to cultivate. Sink into the Waning Gibbous phase—and those energies and qualities that correspond—to find balance.

You may feel energized or calm around this time of the lunar cycle. The Last Quarter to Dark Moon phases could feel most challenging. The Waning Gibbous phase, your opposite Moon phase, could be either/or. Working with the energy of the Waning cycle—making time for rest, space, and letting yourself coast from time to time—will bring you balance. Your gifts are that you can often see opportunities for building and growth. You must feel appreciated in tangible ways; buy yourself gifts, give yourself treats, and encourage others to do so as well!

Challenges could include rest, workaholism, not feeling like you are “doing” enough, and stagnant situa tions. Generally there are not enough hours in the day for these types. Consciously resting and slowing down needs to be a priority.

The Full Moon Lunar Type

Full Moon babies generally have no problem being seen and no problem leading. You want to share and you want to connect. Being understood and being seen accurately is an important value; in order to feel whole, you need to explore and experience a multitude of your gifts. It is through experiencing the variety of life, and your desires, that you can access wholeness.

You can be a bit of a wild card; you can be intense and nurturing. You can be both powerful leaders, and overly sensitive. Part of your gift is your changing nature: embrace it. You can have a tendency to mirror those around you—sometimes unconsciously, sometimes for approval. If you are this lunar type, themes of identity may take an especially prominent place in your life path. If you’re born under a Full Moon, you tend to be especially psychic and empathetic. You need to be careful about the company you keep and what energy is coming into your space. (Advice for everyone, really!)

You may feel energetically at home during the Full Moon. A Dark Moon or New Moon phase, and/or correlating Dark or New activities, can help to balance your energy.

Challenges could include over-investment and over-giving, which leads to depletion and resentment. Boundaries are especially important for those born under a Full Moon.

The Waning Gibbous Lunar Type

Anyone born a day or two after the Full Moon, to just before the Last Quarter Moon is a Waning Gibbous type. Those born under a Waning Gibbous Moon are incredibly observant, and really good at communicating big picture ideas. Learning and connecting different dots—which you are naturally astute at—both fulfills you, and inspires others. Your ability to distill the knowledge you’ve gained truly helps others. Your natural ability to take a lot of different ideas and weave them together into new, easily understandable forms is not a gift to waste: service to the collective will give your life meaning. Prioritize your own needs, especially those related to abundance and recognition, as much as you do to the cause/group/loved ones. Connecting to many others, in a more public role, may also be in your best interest.

You may feel energetically at home during the time just after the Full Moon and the Last Quarter Moon. Lean into the hopeful self-care of a Waxing Crescent to shed some of the pragmatism that sometimes bogs you down. Remember: you don’t have to do it all by yourself. The Waning Moon type is interested in imparting wisdom and lessons through your own learning and experience. 

You are interested in your life’s legacies and greater meanings and that interest is one of your many gifts. It is vital for you to be involved in relationships and activities that support and remind you of your path.

Challenges could include self-doubt, and self-lessness. Because you can easily see how everything can be improved upon, you may veer into crippling perfectionism.

The Last Quarter Lunar Type

The Last Quarter/Third Quarter Moon is the counter to the First Quarter Moon. If you are born under a Last Quarter Moon, you may feel similar to those born under a First Quarter moon, with a twist. Instead of focusing on the Waxing Moon themes of growth and expansion, you may be preoccupied with updating existing systems. There is a revolutionary quality to your interests. Dane Rudhyar refers to Last Quarter natal Moons as “the reformer.” You are here to change systems: whether that be your family constellation, how the world perceives your chosen vocation, or the collective culture. You are discerning and tend to have very good instincts on how to improve just about anything, and how to make things work in general. There’s a tension between your rich, internal world, and the actions you must take to bring your ideas into form. You may have to work on self-doubt and anxiety around your intuition, which is your secret weapon for a lot of the projects you birth, and the journeys you take.

You may feel energetically at home during the Last Quarter phase. The First-Quarter phase can be a time for you to connect to feelings of optimism.
Your gifts include the ability to spot trends as well as create them. You may root for the underdog, or feel like the underdog yourself. If it is not the “underdog” feeling you connect to, it is the role of the constructive critic. Your ideas and innovations may threaten the status quo. 

Challenges could include finding persuasive ways to get your ideas across, as well as certain inflexibilities or rigidness — particularly involving matters of great importance to you. Deferring to others is a struggle and picking your battles may take constant effort.

The Waning Crescent Lunar Type

If you were born during the Waning Moon, you could feel most comfortable behind the scenes: research, education, and intense study may be spaces and activities where you shine. Waning Moon babies can be more private and interior, needing more space and trust to figure out their communication. Time spent alone is refreshing and recharging—this is where you connect to nature, this is where you get downloads, this is where you let your mind wander. The Waning Crescent type could be interested in themes of the self, human development, psychology, the mythological, and what happens within and underneath.

This feeling of “aloneness” may extend to aspects of your life in various ways. In your childhood you may have felt like the odd one out. This is part of your path, you are a unique individual. Cultivating your own talents will eventually lead you to connect authentically with those who appreciate you. You may have a career where you reach many, but a lot of the work you do is in solitude or with a few others. A theme of your life may be reconciling your past with your present self —with reconciliation of the self comes abundance.

Your intuition is naturally strong, as is your emotional life. One of your gifts could be using your intuition and strong empathy to create art, to motivate others, and to reflect the interior aspects of the human experience back to others.

Challenges could include self-consciousness, trouble taking actions, as well as a particular ability to be hard on yourself. Show yourself as much empathy and compassion as you do others.

The Dark Moon Lunar Type

Dark Moon types are anyone born in the three day period before the New Moon. This type is rebellious, and  interested in bringing innovative ideas to the collective. Those born during this time may experience intense circumstances that force them to understand trauma, the occult, or lean heavily on a spiritual practice.

You often feel misunderstood. This is because you are  a visionary and often are answering to a future that others can’t comprehend. You may find yourself ahead of  your time.  

Part of your path on Earth is to birth radical new ways of living and relating. This is often met with challenges,  particularly from the status quo. Dark Moon lunar types can be seen as “old souls”. You may have been very serious  as a child, and may be learning how to play as an adult.  

When in alignment, Dark Moon types are brilliant and brimming with inspiration. Give yourself the space and time you need to develop all of the projects you will birth into the world. Cultivate a few very close relationships with like-minded people. Death and rebirth will be a constant theme in your life; as well as  intense, extreme endings and beginnings. In order to function at your highest self, you may have to lean  heavily on spiritual practices. 

You may feel most comfortable during the Dark Moon time. The time of the Full Moon, or the Waxing Gibbous could be a time of balance for you. Your gifts include a strong spiritual connection, and being able to do work that aids and guides the collective. You are a visionary  

Challenges could include anti-social tendencies, alienation, isolation, not feeling understood, martyrdom, and addiction.  

If you happen to be born during an eclipse, or eclipse season, you could have frequent experiences of  breakthroughs, sudden beginnings and endings, and intensity. Eclipse babies are given the gift of being  able to master change, and also be change initiators.  

As you can see, knowing what lunar phase you were born under can inform so much of who you are. But just like the Moon, you don't stay in a single phase. As your life ebbs and flows you will evolve into different phases. 

*The concept was first introduced to me by the astrologer Dane Rudhyar — I’ve presented my own interpretations here, based on my own observations, and noted any ideas that are his.