Cycle Phases
(holding the breath) is analogous to the zodiac sign
Cancer, the Full Moon phase, and the I.C. (4th house).
The breath is all breathed in (inhaled and expanded) or
the breath is all breathed out (exhaled and depleted).
If we want to analyze the cycle of the breath using four
phases instead of the two, then we add a phase for the
process of inhaling (the air coming in) and a phase for
the process of exhaling (the air going out). Then, the
four phases being considered are: exhaled, inhaling,
inhaled, and exhaling. These are at the four corners of a
square, as far as position. We could easily turn this into
an eightfold phase analysis by adding four more phases
at the 45-degree points, and this is frequently done,
particularly with the lunar cycle; moreover, each of these
phases has a meaning, something to tell us. Let's go
over a simple cycle.