Manifesting Through the 8 Moon Phases: A Monthly Cycle for Creating Your Reality

June 27th, 2022

By Nikki Harper

Staff Writer for Wake Up World

If you’ve ever watched the lunar phases in awe, felt the pull of the astrological moon or been enchanted by the ebb and flow of nature’s cycles, you’ll understand why so many people around the world choose to use the moon’s phases for manifestation rituals.

Tomorrow’s New Moon in Cancer awakens the mystical spirit in many of us, so this would be a brilliant time to begin your manifestation journey.

It’s common to use the New Moon or the Full Moon for manifestation rituals, but in fact all eight of the lunar phases have their own symbolism – when you use all eight phases together in a logical progression, lunar manifestation can become part of your regular spiritual practice.

Moon manifestation serves as a regular roadmap, helping you to create your own reality whether that’s in love, prosperity, health or your career. Moon manifestation also puts you in deeper touch with nature, attuning you to your natural environment as a fully conscious being. The more you tap into the moon’s cosmic energies, the more your spiritual development will be enhanced.

Why Use All Eight Moon Phases for Manifestation?

Manifesting anything is a journey – a process, not a one-off. Just like anything else in life, it takes time, it takes intention and it takes practice.

Crucially, you will have noticed that when you set out to achieve something in your everyday life, you go through different stages – from the initial idea, to the first steps, to having to work around obstacles, to perhaps changing your mind or your direction, to the first signs of success, to realising you’re not quite there yet, and then rinsing and repeating until you finally reach your goal.

This is what the lunar phases gift to you – each a distinct step in the manifestation process which accounts for all of the natural twists and turns along the way.

Note that technically speaking, each lunar phase is just a moment in time – there is an exact moment of the New Moon, the Full Moon and so on. However, for manifestation purposes we tend to think of each phase as lasting for 2-3 days; a good lunar calendar is easy to obtain and will clearly delineate the phases for you to work with.

Here’s a rough and ready guide to what each manifestation stage in the lunar cycle involves – but as you start to work with lunar cycles, you’ll quickly get into your own rhythm.

If you move through each of these eight steps every lunar month, you’re not guaranteed to manifest that new job, the perfect partner, the yacht or the lottery win every month (or any month!) – but you will be, almost by default, manifesting a clearer understanding of your spiritual self and of how the manifestation process actually works.

Gradually, over time, you will see real, practical results – and you’ll have grown as a person too.

Step 1: The New Moon – Intention Setting

The true New Moon brings us a moment of darkness and peace. Use this moment to open up your awareness and allow an intention to come to you.

Note that this is very different to deciding what you want to manifest. The New Moon energies will help you discover what you need to manifest, not what you want.

A good way to use this energy to help set intentions is to journal – writing down your stream of thoughts will help you cut through your conscious desires to get to the bottom of what you truly need during the coming lunar month.

Step 2: The Waxing Crescent Moon – Seeding Your Manifestation

The Waxing Crescent lunar phase is a time for nurturing your goals, plans, dreams and ideas. This is where you take the intention you set during the New Moon and work out how you can turn it into a reality.

Note that you’re not yet acting on the intention; you’re caring for it, carefully seeding it and getting ready to act. Do this by creating a list of steps you will need to take, ideally broken down into very small, doable chunks.

The act of working out what you need to actually do can be quite emotional. You may feel daunted, or you may doubt yourself – that’s why this stage is important, as it gives you a chance to work through these complex feelings ahead of taking action, so that your eventual action is not tainted by doubt or negativity.

Step 3: The First Quarter Moon – Action Begins

The First Quarter Moon occurs roughly a week after the New Moon and that week, via the Waxing Crescent, has given you some valuable time for inner work. Now, however, it’s time to get moving.

Look at the list of action steps you created during the Waxing Crescent. Get going with them! Focus mindfully as you work through each step.

Astrologically, the First Quarter Moon marks a square between the Sun and Moon, which creates tension. So your first few action steps will not necessarily go smoothly. Forewarned is forearmed – expect some obstacles and setbacks, but trust your intuition to find ways to work around them. During this period, just keep moving forwards.

Step 4: The Waxing Gibbous Moon – A Waiting Game

During this lunar phase, patience is extremely important. You may already be seeing some results from the action taken during the First Quarter phase – that’s brilliant! But wait. Don’t get over-excited. You need to wait to see what is working and what may need changing or refining. You do not yet have the full picture, so resist any temptation to go charging ahead.

Indulge in meditation or relaxing hobbies, and try to take your mind off your specific manifestation goals. Pushing too hard, too fast is a major mistake at this time – allow events to develop around you, while you watch.

Step 5: The Full Moon – Celebration and Gratitude

A common misunderstanding with lunar manifestation is that what you choose to manifest during the New Moon will be completed by the Full Moon – that’s just two weeks!

Realistically, it could take many months or even years to fully manifest something major in your life. So not every Full Moon is going to be that a-ha moment for you.

Instead of looking for an end event and fulfilment of your wish, look instead for major signs of progress. These may be external, with events falling into place as you had hoped, or internal, in terms of a shift in your own attitude and personal growth.

There often are breakthroughs in manifestation during the Full Moon phase, but they can be quite emotional or dramatic and not necessarily what you expect; they may even feel like a failure. Not so – but the cosmos may be sending you a message.

During the Full Moon phase, pay attention to your dreams, your psychic insight, synchronicity, coincidences and other ways spirit might try to get your attention.

Above all, focus on celebration of the progress you are making, whether or not it has been what you expected. Gratitude will go a long way during the Full Moon manifestation phase.

Step 6: The Waning Gibbous Moon – Teach and Inspire

During the Waning Gibbous Moon, your focus should shift temporarily away from helping yourself and towards helping others. What have you learned during this lunar month so far which you could share with others?

Allow yourself to be inspired by others too. By talking about what you’re trying to achieve and how you’re doing it, you may get useful information, tips or insight from others, especially others on the same spiritual wavelength as yourself. Talk to family and friends too, and open up your heart towards receiving advice they may offer.

Through the process of talking about or inspiring others with your manifestation process, you are likely to uncover some truths about yourself – and especially about the emotional, abundance or prosperity blocks which are holding you back. This is very valuable insight to have.

Keep talking, keep sharing during this phase. Write, talk, learn, teach.

Step 7: The Last Quarter Moon – Take Out the Trash

This lunar phase is an excellent time for getting rid of things which have held you back in life. This might be self-limiting beliefs, outdated ideas, restrictive or unnecessary time wasting activities, or even people who do not have your best interests at heart.

You probably already know what you need to ditch during this time – even if you don’t want to consciously admit it.

Remember that you may also need to let go of the blame game. By choosing to move on from or away from certain issues or people, it’s important not to throw allegations or to imply that you haven’t always had your own power. Forgive yourself too, for actions in the past which have held your own self back.

You can embody the spirit of letting go physically if you wish, by writing a list of things you want to move on from and then burning it symbolically.

Step 8: The Waning Crescent Moon – Psychic Intuition

Symbolically, the Waning Crescent Moon is very meaningful, as the last little sliver of light before the darkness of the actual New Moon moment. This is a time to access your own intuition, your higher consciousness, your innate wisdom and your spiritual self.

Manifestation during the Waning Crescent Moon is about clearing your mind – and your environment. Do the inner work necessary to tie up loose ends from all of the previous lunar phases this month. Clear your physical clutter and finish up odd jobs. The goal is to prepare yourself, mentally and spiritually, for the beginning of the next manifestation cycle.

You can do this physically too by giving yourself plenty of rest and sleep. In your waking hours, this is the most psychic time of the month, and working on your own psychic abilities is a sure fire way to gradually improve your manifestation skills as you move forwards.

Look forward to the New Moon with a sense of optimism, and begin your manifestation cycle afresh.

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About the author:

Nikki Harper is a spiritualist writer, astrologer, and editor for Wake Up World. She writes about divination, astrology, mediumship and spirituality at Questionology: Astrology and Divination For the Modern World where you can also find out more about her work as a freelance astrologer and her mind-body-spirit writing and editing services. Nikki also runs a spiritualist centre in North Lincs, UK, hosting weekly mediumship demonstrations and a wide range of spiritual development courses and workshops.

Say hi at Questionology.co.uk or on Facebook.