The square on the way down
About three weeks into the cycle the Moon reaches the Last Quarter — half-lit again, but now waning, losing light on its way back to darkness. Like the First Quarter it is a square, a 90° right angle to the Sun, the tense aspect that demands action. But a waning square turns the other direction: where the first quarter built, this one clears. If the showed the harvest, the Last Quarter is the work of cutting back the spent growth so the ground is ready again. The half now rises after midnight and hangs in the morning sky — a phase that does its work quietly, off the main stage.
Releasing in fixed earth
When the Last Quarter Moon falls in Taurus, the Sun stands in Leo — the same fixed-earth-meets-fixed-fire square as the First Quarter, but read in reverse, toward release. This is the anchor: Taurus is the single most reluctant sign to let anything go. Fixed earth's whole instinct is to keep — to hold the possession, the routine, the comfort, the relationship that has gone stale but still feels safe. And the Moon is exalted here, so the emotional attachment to comfort is at full strength. Asking a Taurus Moon to release is like asking a hand that has held something warm for hours to open.
The Leo Sun adds the friction. Leo wants to keep what flatters it — the role, the recognition, the version of the story that looks good. So the release this lunation asks for runs against both comfort (Taurus) and pride (Leo). What you are clinging to is probably something that once nourished you and now mainly reassures you that nothing has changed.
How to let go without overturning everything
Taurus does not release well in bulk; a clean sweep just triggers the sign to dig in harder. The craft of this Moon is to loosen one specific grip. Choose a single thing you have plainly outgrown but keep out of familiarity — an object you no longer use, a way of spending, a routine that no longer serves the body it was built for. Then take one concrete, physical step toward releasing it: give it away, cancel it, end it. Let the act be small enough that fixed earth can actually complete it, and finished enough that there is no path back.
The invitation
The Taurus Last Quarter is not a demand to empty your life. It is permission to set down one comfortable weight you have been carrying past its season. Loosen that grip now, and the next will find your hands a little more open — which, for fixed earth, is the whole victory.