Moon Astrology The Lunar Journey
Also, called Soma, Chandra, on the Divine level, the Moon represents Prakriti, the divine female energy that nourishes the world. As the Sun is the cosmic masculine force, Shiva; the Moon is the Divine Feminine: the Goddess or Devi; Shakti. The Sun is the divine Creator; the Moon is the divine Creatrix. The Sun is Fire; the Moon is Water. We are mostly water, and like the sea, we are moulded by the tides created by the waxing and waning of the phases of the Moon.
The Sun is the Self, also light and clarity, who we are: our Divine Charioteer who drives the Chariot of Self, our character and individuality. The Sun Shines. The Sun is constant. The Sun is Will and Achievement. The Sun can create consciousness positively. The Sun stands alone. The Sun is action, achievement, ambitions and goals. The Sun is Yang. The Sun is the seed. It is a matter of polarity, not sexual gender: Moon Gods include Vedic Chandra, Norse Mani and Sin of the Mesopotamians.
The Moon is the Mind or Manas = Consciousness, emotion and feeling, intuition, musing, dreaming and imagining. And of course our Unconscious; our Memory, our patterns, scripts and Karmas from our past lives. The Moon is our relating. The Moon is reflection and vulnerability.
The Moon fluctuates. Her phases are Virgin, Mother and Crone:
Artemis/Diana/Persephone
Cerridwen/Ceres/Demeter. Persephone’s mother Demeter: goddess of the harvest and presides over grains and the fertility of the earth.
Hecate. Epona.
In Vedic Astrology, a whole Zodiac is derived from the position of the Moon: the wonderful, beautiful and powerful 27-Moon Signs, The Nakshatras: supreme guidance to our emotional selves.
The Vedic sign ruled by the Moon is Cancer. The Vedic Nakshatras ruled by the Moon are: Nakshatra 4: Rohini, Nakshatra 13 Hasta and Nakshatra 22 Sravana.
Time to include some Moon analysis data:
The Vedic sign ruled by the Moon is Cancer. The Vedic Nakshatras ruled by the Moon are: Nakshatra 4: Rohini, Nakshatra 13 Hasta and Nakshatra 22 Sravana.
In terms of the Moon’s Friendship with other planets, here is the position:
Mercury, Venus and Saturn are friends, because they are rulers of the air and earth signs.
The Sun, Moon, Mars and Jupiter are also mutual friends, because they are the rulers of water and fire signs.
Moon: Friends with Sun and Mercury, neutral to Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn, and enemies to no one.
In terms of the Vedic Predictive Priods called Dasas, here is the Moon’s position:
Planet Dasa
Sun 6 years
Moon 10 years
Mars 7 years
Rahu 18 years
Jupiter 16 years
Saturn 19 years
Mercury 17 years
Ketu 7 years
Venus 20 years
TOTAL 120 years
Moon’s Exaltation and Fall:
Sun exaltation 10º Aries fall 10º Libra
Moon exaltation 3º Taurus fall 3º Scorpio
Mercury exaltation 15º Virgo fall 15º Pisces
Venus exaltation 27º Pisces fall 27º Virgo
Mars exaltation 28º Capricorn fall 28º Cancer
Jupiter exaltation 5º Cancer fall 5º Capricorn
Saturn exaltation 20º Libra fall 20º Aries
Rahu exaltation in Taurus fall in Scorpio
Ketu exaltation in Scorpio fall in Taurus
The Moon is Mulatrikona in Taurus
Some Goddesses are more associated with the planet Venus, for example: Inanna and Ishtar is the Mesopotamian East Semitic (Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian) goddess of fertility, love, war, sex, and power.
And some Goddesses are Sun Goddesses, for example: Egyptian Sekhmet and Norse Sunna
The Moon floats in a sea of inchoate unconscious, positive and negative past influences. The Moon is dependent consciousness. the Moon relates. the Moon is emotional patterning and deep-seated fears. The Moon is yin. The Moon is the womb that gives birth.
Anciently the Moon is Soma, the desert cactus divine hallucinogen of the Vedic seers that brings inspiration, the nectar that calms and rejuvenates.
On the level of human Mind, the Moon represents mind, the soul, the family, hereditary qualities. imagination and memory, daily fluctuations in emotions, Mind, Consciousness and communication. The Moon is our emotions, the past – our unconscious intellect.
The Moon also signifies the Mother and childhood and consciousness arising therefrom, females, liquids, attraction and beauty. The good home-maker. Religious devotion. Grasp of knowledge. Love and friendliness. The Moon signifies incoming emotions and stimuli. The Moon is sensitive and devoted, and enemy to none, feeling love and friendship for all.
The Moon relates more to the Feminine signs of Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces.
A negative Moon gives personality disorders, emotional disturbances, torn relationships. It will manifest as poor heredity, educational torsion and emotional trauma. The Moon can easily be overcome, especially by Saturn.
If the Moon is unsupported or Kemadruma, then the person must maintain regular mantra and continuity.
The Psychological correspondence of The Moon in our birth chart is:
+ Motherliness, domesticity, prudence, mobility, changeability, adaptation, sense of form, memory
– repressed motherliness, love of comfort, impressionability, a care-free attitude, moodiness
The Biological correspondence of the Moon in our birth chart is:
fertility
blood serum
the lymph
The Moon represents:
Emotions, feelings, a feeling response to life rather than later developments related to mind, responses, habits, our subconscious predisposition, conditioned reflexes, spontaneous and habitual response patterns that we build up, psychological protective barriers that we erect.
The Moon exerts a pull towards the past, The Moon relates to our roots, from which arise our image of self, our collective roots in which we can be submerged.
The Moon is associated with our personality and emotions. Compare the moon to:
The Sun is associated with our Atma, our individual and special Divine Spark that we incarnated to especially work with and achieve, our Ego, our individuality.
Moon issues centre on emotional peace, feelings of belonging, positive self-image, a sense of inner stability and support, domestic and emotional security, self-protection, self-nurturing, feeling wanted by others, social and intimate relationships, family, love and adaptation to the outer world. The Moon symbolizes the emotional happiness and style of our relationships
The Moon may be expressed by us in two different ways:
A self-centered perspective, where self-satisfaction is paramount; possessive relationship is present, grasping affection, fear of loss, jealousy
and
A need for relationship, merging of identity
The Moon (Chandra or Soma, In Vedic Astrology)
The Moon is one’s own emotions: ‘heart’; ‘Mind’; mother; understanding; intuition; instinctual behavior; subliminal self; memory; imagination; Fluctuation, fertility; femininity; fluids and watery things; sensitivity; Ayurvedic constitution.
Occupations and activities related to our Moon involve groups or families; female pursuits; nurturing or nursing; educators; training of beginners in a task or children); tutors; psychic abilities; cooks, food preparers; clothing; homes and shelter; hotels and hostels.
Lunar Astronomy:
Since the Moon is such an important component of astrology, it is important to be familiar with a little bit of lunar astronomy.
The Movement of the Moon
The Moon transits one sign of the zodiac in about two and a half days. So, the Moon traverses the whole Zodiac in about 30 days. The Moon’s path is divided by 12 zodiac signs, or the 27 Nakshatras, the Lunar signs.
Sidereal Month: The Moon moves through all 12 Sun signs in about 27.32 days (this is one sidereal month).
Moon Phase: The Moon phases take about 29.5 days from one new Moon to the next.
The Cycles of the Moon
A Waxing Moon, or the bright half (Shukla Paksha), is strong and benefic. It is moving from New Moon to Full Moon (Purnima) taking 14 days. The Moon begins to get stronger and more favourable as it moves away from the New Moon position, moving toward the Full Moon (this is the opposition of Sun and Moon).
Generally, events that happen during the bright half of the lunar month get more favourable support than during the dark half.
The 14th Day is Full Moon
A Waning Moon, or dark half (Krishna Paksha), is weak and malefic. It is moving from Full Moon to the Dark or New Moon (Amavasya) during its second 14-day cycle. The Moon begins to weaken and become unfavourable when it approaches the New Moon position (this is a conjunction of the Sun and Moon). A weak Moon is called Ksheena (emaciated). Some say it is at its worst when the Moon is within 24 degrees or less of the Sun.
It makes a great difference to your life which tithi or lunar day or Moon phase day you are born under. Western astrology too has a conceptualisation of the impact on your life of the Moon Phase you were born under.
Parent indicators in the Birth Chart:
Parent indicators as planets:
The Moon symbolizes the influence of the mother
and
The Sun symbolizes the influence of the Father
This is of course to an extent a cultural construct.
The impact of the relationship from the parents to the child, will be symbolized by the aspects between the Sun and the Moon and their Sign and House positions.
Parent indicators as Houses:
In western astrology, the Sign on the 10th. House cusp is also reflective of the mother and the sign on the 4th House cusp reflects the father (though this can sometimes be read the other way round). The inner life of each parent is also suggested through this perspective.
In Vedic Astrology, the parent indicators are used for the Vedic birth chart only, as follows:
Father is Sun and 9th House (and take a glance at Mars)
Mother is Moon and 4th House (and take a glance at Venus)
In western astrology, also, please take note that: Venus tells us something about the love life of a man; his wife. Mars tells us something about the love life of a woman.
THE MOON AS MOTHER
It is from our earliest experiences of mother that our deepest instinctual and feeling patterns develop, for it is to her we turn for life, for food, identity, satisfying our needs and the root of our security. From her we seek comfort and nourishment.
The Moon in a woman’s chart signifies the image of mothering and womanhood with which she is likely to identify.
In men’s charts it represents his inner feminine image – anima, or the type of woman he may be especially attracted to.
The nature of our Astrological Moon is modified by signs, houses, aspects to the other planets, etcetera:
If there are many challenging aspects, then there may be innate stresses and tensions within the deeper foundations of the individual which require integration.
Challenging Moon aspects are the ghosts of the past, family traditions and established patterns which are unduly powerful
To have one of my worldwide astrology readings see: www.starwheelastrology.com
And see my worldwide western astrology courses on that website.
I look forward to hearing from you
Michael
