Waning Gibbous Moon
Release · Letting go · Acceptance
The Waning Gibbous phase covers the roughly four days right after Full Moon, when illumination is still above 50% but decreasing each night as the Moon heads toward last quarter. In the Northern Hemisphere, the fading light sits on the left side of the disc — the mirror image of waxing gibbous, which is lit on the right — a useful visual shortcut for telling the two apart without checking a calendar. Because it's only recently past full, Waning Gibbous rises later in the evening than Full Moon did and is still visible well into the night, though it now shares more of the sky with true darkness as its rise time shifts progressively later each night. This is the first stage of the waning half of the cycle, the mirror phase to Waxing Gibbous on the growth side — both are "more than half, less than full," just moving in opposite directions. From here, illumination continues dropping through Last Quarter, Waning Crescent, and finally New Moon roughly eleven days later.
