Moon

Origin and myth

Lunar deities are as old as solar ones and almost always feminine, though there are exceptions like the Mesopotamian Sin and the Egyptian Thoth. The Greeks worshipped a triple lunar goddess: Selene the full moon driving her chariot across the sky, Artemis the waxing moon hunting in the forest, and Hecate the dark moon at the crossroads. The Roman Diana absorbed these aspects. In ancient Mesopotamia, Sin was the patriarch of the gods of light, his daughter Ishtar the planet Venus. The Egyptian Isis was associated with the moon as the mother who searches and gathers the scattered pieces of her beloved.

In Hellenistic astrology, the Moon was given rulership of Cancer and exaltation in Taurus. The Moon governs the night chart in the system of sect; people born at night are said to have a lunar emphasis. The Moon's phases were used universally for calendar-making, planting, and ritual long before the development of horoscopic astrology. The lunar month of about 29.5 days from new moon to new moon underlies the months of every traditional calendar. The Moon's nodes, the points where its orbit crosses the ecliptic, give us the eclipses and the karmic axis of the natal chart.

Meaning and function

In your natal chart, the Moon describes how you feel, what you need to feel safe, and how you receive and give care. The sign of your Moon shows the emotional climate of your inner life, and the house shows the area of life where your feelings most readily find a home. A Moon in Aries needs autonomy and quick discharge of emotion; a Moon in Scorpio needs depth and rarely shows what it feels. The Moon also represents the mother, the early caregiver, and the body itself, particularly the belly, the breasts, and the digestive system.

The shadow of the Moon, when over-active, is reactivity, mood-driven decisions, and the regression to childlike states under stress. When under-developed, the lunar function shows up as a person who has lost contact with their own feelings and needs, who lives only from the head. The Moon in hard aspect to Saturn often describes an emotionally austere or absent mother, and an inner sense that one's own needs are too much. The integration of the lunar function is the work of becoming a good parent to yourself.

In practice

The Moon transits through each sign about every two and a half days, creating a fast-moving emotional weather. New moons are good for setting intentions; full moons are good for harvest, release, and seeing what has been hidden. Eclipses, which occur when the Sun and Moon align with the lunar nodes about every six months, intensify these themes and are often turning points in personal lives. The progressed Moon, which moves slowly through the chart at about one degree per month, takes 27.5 years to complete a circuit and marks the maturation of emotional themes through the houses.

In synastry, Moon contacts are the deepest relational glue. A Moon-Moon trine often makes home life feel easy; a Moon-Venus contact can produce instant attraction and tender care. To work with the Moon, track its phases for a single cycle, notice what happens in your body and mood at the new moon, the first quarter, the full, and the last quarter. Cook for someone you love at the full moon. Keep a dream journal during the dark moon. Use the daily horoscope to follow the Moon's passage through the signs in real time.

Symbolic depth

In alchemy, the Moon is silver, the receptive consort of solar gold. The Moon represents the soul, anima, in contrast to the spirit of the Sun. In the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, the Moon is assigned to the sephira Yesod, foundation, the storehouse of images and dreams. In the tarot, the Moon corresponds to The Moon, card eighteen of the major arcana, which shows a path between two towers under the moon's changing face, with a dog and a wolf howling and a crayfish emerging from the water, an image of the unconscious depths the soul must cross.

Jung read the Moon as the anima, the inner feminine in a man's psyche, and as the great archetypal mother, both nurturing and devouring. The Moon's phases encode the rhythm of all psychic life: birth, fullness, decay, dark, and renewal. Many spiritual traditions are built on lunar disciplines: the menstrual rituals of indigenous cultures, the Ramadan fast tied to the new moon, the contemplative orders that pray the hours through the night. To work with the Moon is to honour rhythm, body, and the slow turnings of the heart. Continue through the glossary for the other planets.

Also known as

• Luna (Latin)
• Selene (Greek)
• Mond (German)
• Chandra (Sanskrit)
• Yareach (Hebrew)