Disseminating Moon

The Disseminating Moon is the astrological name for the waning gibbous phase — the roughly four days right after Full Moon, when the disc is still more than half lit but dimming each night. The name comes from the eight-phase lunar system popularized by astrologer Dane Rudhyar, where "disseminate" means to scatter or spread — sharing outward what the Full Moon brought to light. Astronomically it is simply the first stage of the waning half of the cycle. In the Northern Hemisphere the fading light sits on the left of the disc — the mirror image of the waxing gibbous, lit on the right — a quick way to tell the two apart. Having just passed full, it rises later in the evening and stays visible well into the night. From here illumination keeps dropping through the Last Quarter and Balsamic (waning crescent) phases to the next New Moon about eleven days later. MOONX shows exactly how illuminated tonight’s Moon is and where it sits in the cycle.