The phase of the Moon on August 16, 2025 was a Last Quarter.
The Last Quarter is for closing loops before the next cycle starts. Whatever hasn't worked over the past two weeks doesn't need forcing any further. Tie off what's finished and clear space instead of starting anything new.
Taurus resists change by nature, and the Last Quarter tests how tightly you hold on anyway. This phase rewards loosening your grip on a routine or a relationship that stopped giving you anything back. Ask what you're keeping out of comfort rather than value.
Today’s recommendations for haircuts, gardening, and surgery are on the Moon Phase Today page.
Length is the wrong goal today. Regrowth runs at its slowest through the second half of the cycle, and most lunar calendars steer bigger cuts away from these days. Spend the time on the things that don't involve scissors: a deep conditioning treatment, or a wash that clears out product buildup. Taking damaged ends off is still worth doing, and arguably better timed here than in a waxing phase, because what you remove stays gone for longer.
Under Taurus the regrowth comes in slow and dense. That suits a short cut which has to hold its shape between appointments, and it's the traditional advice for hair that goes limp a week after the salon. Length is not what these days give you.
Nothing new goes in the ground. The old reading is that the soil is at its emptiest now and won't carry new growth, so the month's maintenance gets done instead: weeding, mulching, cutting out dead or diseased wood. Pruning is well timed here, since a cut made while the plant is quiet bleeds less and heals cleaner than the same cut in a waxing phase. Leave the beds tidy and they're ready to sow the moment the next cycle starts.
Taurus is a root day, and the steadiest of the three. Carrots and beets go in now, along with anything else that matters below the soil line. Earth days are also read as the ones that settle a plant fastest, so this is a good afternoon for transplanting.
The almanacs mark this stretch down. Healing capacity is read as dropping off and the cycle as favoring rest, so the old advice is that an operation which can wait should wait for a waxing phase. Note the condition in that sentence. It applies to elective procedures with a movable date and to nothing else, because an operation scheduled for medical reasons should happen when your surgeon scheduled it. Small work that can't be postponed isn't something the tradition objects to either.
Taurus takes the neck and the throat, which puts thyroid and tonsil work on the list the tradition wants moved. Nothing else is affected by the rule. A Taurus day is only awkward if the operation happens to fall in the wrong place.
* Lunar timing is folk tradition, not medical advice. No research supports scheduling surgery by moon phase. Always follow your surgeon's recommendation on when to operate.