Void of course Moon

As the Moon travels through a sign, which takes about two and a half days, it forms a run of aspects to the planets. At some point it makes its last major aspect before it reaches the end of the sign. From that final aspect until the Moon crosses into the next sign, an ingress, it is void of course. The gap is a real, calculable interval, and its length swings from a minute or two up to nearly a full day, depending on where the planets happen to sit.

Tradition, especially the older horary and electional strands, reads the void of course Moon as a time when things started tend not to develop. The classic phrase is that nothing will come of the matter. So the window is treated as one for rest, routine and finishing rather than launching. It is not the hour to sign a contract, propose or kick off a project, though it is a fine time to tidy up and wait.

Say the Moon makes its last aspect at ten in the morning and does not enter the next sign until six in the evening. Those eight hours are void of course. In the traditional approach you would hold off on the big decision, send the important message a little later, and let the Moon change signs before committing to anything that needs to grow.

The void of course Moon is not the same as a retrograde. One is about the Moon waiting between its last aspect and a sign change; the other is about a planet appearing to move backward. A void period is not unlucky, only inconclusive. And astrologers differ on which aspects count as the last one, so published void times do not always match to the minute.

The NovaOracles lunar calendar tracks the Moon through the signs, and the moon and eclipses guide sets the void of course idea inside the Moon's larger cycle.