Last Quarter
Half dark. Traditionally a release point — the phase for letting go of what did not work rather than forcing it to work.
What This Phase Suits
Letting go, clearing out, forgiving
Half Lit, Three Quarters Through
The last quarter shows half the disc lit, the opposite half from first quarter, and marks three quarters of the way through the cycle. Some sources call it the third quarter, which means the same thing.
The Sun and Moon are again ninety degrees apart, a square, but now closing toward the new moon rather than opening toward the full.
It rises around midnight and sets around midday, which makes it the phase best seen in the early morning — visible in the western sky well after sunrise.
Reckoning
The tradition reads the last quarter as the point of honest assessment: what the cycle produced, what did not work, and what should not be carried into the next one.
Where the first quarter square is about pushing through, this one is about deciding what to stop. The associations are release, completion and clearing rather than effort.
It is the phase most associated in folk practice with finishing tasks and closing accounts, which is a straightforward reading of a cycle nearing its end.
Good Viewing, Awkward Hours
Like the first quarter, this is an excellent phase for looking at the Moon properly. The terminator throws long shadows across the craters and the surface reads as genuinely three-dimensional.
The difficulty is timing. Best viewing is between midnight and dawn, which is why far fewer people have looked closely at this phase than at the first quarter.
It is also perfectly visible in the morning sky after sunrise, which surprises people who assume the Moon is a night object.
What It Does Not Do
Does this phase affect anything? No. No phase of the Moon affects health, sleep, mood or behaviour, and the evidence on this is settled.
The completion reading is symbolic, describing a stage in a cycle rather than making a claim about the world.
This is an account of a phase in a cycle, not advice, and nothing about it should inform a real decision.
Common Questions
Is it called last quarter or third quarter? Both, interchangeably. Last quarter is the more common in astrological writing, third quarter in astronomical.
Which side is lit? In the northern hemisphere the left; in the southern the right. It is always the opposite side from the first quarter.
When can I see it? From around midnight through the morning. It is often still visible in the west a few hours after sunrise.
Where It Sits In The Cycle
Three quarters through, with the Moon now closing on the Sun rather than separating from it. The next visible phase is the thinning waning crescent and then the new moon.
In aspect terms the Sun and Moon have returned to a square, the same ninety-degree relationship as the first quarter but approaching from the other direction.
That symmetry is why the two quarters are read as a matched pair: one asks whether to push on, the other asks what to let go of.