The Fire of Refinement

Waxing Crescent in Scorpio
August 1, 2025

The waxing crescent moon is a spark catching in the dark. The new moon’s seed of intention is still tender, but it has found its first breath of energy. This is the phase where we commit—to tend the spark, to feed it, to stay with it until it grows strong enough to sustain itself.

Today the moon is in Scorpio, a sign of depth, intensity, and transformation. Scorpio doesn’t skim the surface—it dives straight to what is hidden, stirring the waters of the psyche so that what is stagnant can be brought into the light and changed. In the Vedic tradition, Scorpio’s connection to Ketu points toward karmic release—burning away what no longer serves so that the essence can remain.

This brings us to our philosophical focus: tapas.
In the Yoga Sūtras, tapas is one of the niyamas, often translated as discipline, heat, or austerity. But at its heart, tapas is the friction that generates transformation. It is the alchemical fire that purifies—not through destruction for its own sake, but through intentional intensity that burns away what is inessential.

The niyamas are the second limb of the eight-limbed path of yoga. They follow the yamas—our ethical actions in the outer world—and mark the shift inward to personal observance. Tapas comes after saucha (purity) and santoṣa (contentment), reminding us that refinement is not always gentle. Sometimes growth requires us to sit in the fire long enough for change to occur.

In sādhanā, tapas is not punishment—it is presence in the heat of transformation. It asks: Can I remain steady while the fire does its work? Can I trust that this process is shaping me into a vessel for deeper wisdom?

Scorpio’s waters and tapas’ fire may seem like opposites, but together they form a potent alchemy: water holds memory and emotion; fire transforms it. In the waxing crescent phase, this alchemy becomes a call to refine our intentions—not by making them softer, but by giving them the disciplined heat they need to take form.

So today, we practice holding steady in the flame.
Not to burn ourselves out.
Not to prove our strength.
But to let the fire reveal what is true, and to release what is not.