I must point out that phases are literally cyclic, like phases of the moon. By a “passing phase” I presume you were actually referring to a “secular variation”, that is, a long-term, non-periodic variation, like how the moon is gradually going away from earth, and not coming back.
Also, another common misconception is that phases much necessarily be sinusoidal. In fact, any periodic variation has a phase (so it is only defined up to diffeomorphism on $\mathbb{RP}^1 \simeq \mathbb{S}^1$). For example, the brightness cycle of Betelgeuse is irregular, but still periodic, so we still refer to it by a phase.