Moon phase
A thin bright rind low in the west after sunset — the first evidence that something has started.
These are associations the community holds, not settled fact — the more a reading is shared, the bolder it sits.
The waxing crescent is the stretch between the new moon and the first quarter, roughly seven and a half days. It is the first phase you can actually see: a slim lit edge low in the west shortly after sunset, sinking within an hour or two, growing a little thicker each evening. Catching it is a small skill, since the window is short and the moon sits close to the horizon glare.
Which side is lit depends on where you are standing. From the northern hemisphere a waxing moon is lit on the right; from the southern hemisphere it is lit on the left. Neither is more correct, and every mnemonic in every book assumes one hemisphere without saying so — worth knowing before you trust a rhyme about a "D for developing" moon.
Work at this phase is the work of early momentum. Small deliberate increases, a habit kept for a third day, courage lent to something barely begun and easily abandoned. Practitioners who find the full moon too loud often prefer this part of the cycle, on the grounds that most things fail here rather than at the peak.
Readings practitioners have offered, ordered by how many recognise them. Take what serves, leave the rest.
Carried forward
Common in contemporary practice
Candles lit for a few minutes each evening while the crescent is up, adding a little to the working each night rather than doing it all at once. The method suits people who overcommit, which is most people.
Credit what you carry. Much of this comes from living traditions, and some of it from traditions that are closed — held by particular peoples and not offered for general use. Where you know whose practice a reading came from, name them; where you don't, say that too.