Moon phase today: what the Moon is doing right now

The box above shows the Moon phase today, worked out for this minute. You can see the phase name, how much of the Moon is lit, the sign it is in and when the next phases fall.

The eight moon phases

The Moon takes about 29.5 days to go from one new moon to the next. Astrologers and sky watchers split that cycle into eight steps.

Phase	What you see	Common meaning in astrology
New Moon	Nothing, the Moon is dark	Start something, set a plan
Waxing Crescent	A thin curve after sunset	Take the first small steps
First Quarter	Half lit, growing	Deal with what gets in the way
Waxing Gibbous	More than half lit	Adjust and polish
Full Moon	The whole disk	See results, feelings run high
Waning Gibbous	Shrinking from full	Share what you learned
Last Quarter	Half lit, shrinking	Let go of what failed
Waning Crescent	A thin curve before dawn	Rest and clear space

What the Moon sign means

The Moon changes sign every two to three days. Its sign sets the mood of those days. A Moon in Taurus favors a slow dinner and a tidy budget. A Moon in Gemini fills the group chat and sends you out for errands you forgot. Read the Moon in astrology guide for the full picture.

The Moon sign in the sky today is a different thing from the Moon sign in your birth chart. Yours was fixed the moment you were born and stays with you for life. Today’s sign passes through and moves on.

New moons and full moons by sign

Each new moon and full moon falls in a particular sign, and that sign colors its theme. When the table above lists one, open its page for what it asks of you:

• New Moon in Aries, and the other new moons from there through the year
• Full Moon in Aries, and the other full moons

A full moon always sits opposite the Sun, so it falls in the sign across from the one the Sun is in. The new moon falls in the same sign as the Sun.

How we work out these numbers

The figures come from a standard astronomy calculation that runs in your browser, so nothing about you is sent anywhere. The phase comes from the angle between the Sun and the Moon as seen from Earth. An angle of zero is a new moon, and 180 degrees is a full moon.

Astrology here uses the tropical zodiac, the system most Western astrologers use. The sign is based on the seasons, and it differs from the constellation you would see through a telescope.

Using the Moon in daily life

Many people treat the Moon as a simple planning rhythm. Start things near the new moon, push through at the quarters, and finish or review near the full moon. Others just notice that sleep and moods shift around a full moon.

The Moon does not make events happen, and the chart makes no promises. If you want to try this, keep a short note on your phone for two or three cycles and see what repeats. Your own notes will tell you more than any table.

To see where the Moon sat on the day you were born, open the birth chart calculator.