How to interpret the Moon in a chart

To interpret the Moon in signs, there are various layers. 

First layer: Like the Sun, the Moon is a luminary. If the Moon is in Taurus, Taurus is in the spotlight. So just Taurus. 

Second layer: the light of the Moon is not the same as the Sun’s. It’s an intimate light. 

Moon is mother, family, early environment. It’s the inner you. 

To the Sun you may say “ I’m so proud of you” but to the Moon you rather go like: “baby, you’re my baby”.  

There is more to it. If you look up Moon in the Penguin Dictionary of Symbols there are five or six pages. Fundamentally, the Moon reflects, and is always changing. Interpretations follow.

For now, let’s just stick to mother, family and early environment. 

If you make a new friend, for them your Taurus traits are just you. Let’s say you love nature, it’s a stereotype, it doesn’t have to always be true, but often it is. One day you invite your friend to a family gathering.  A few little chats later, they understand that your love of nature is a trait of family culture. 

Things may be a bit more subtle than in my exemple, but you get the point. Traits associated with the Moon make you belong where you belong. You’ll feel at home when you meet the same. 

Imagine that as a Taurus Moon you fall in love with a Taurus Sun. 

Sun and Moon conjunct in synastry is a match made in heaven on principle. (Unfortunately, the best connections don't cancel other conflicts that may exist between charts). 

Keeping to a standard stereotype for the sake of clarity, the Taurus Sun wants to be a farmer. This will mean more than making a living to them: this will be a question of becoming who they want to be. You’ll be naturally supportive. 

With your Taurus Moon, you’ll just feel at home on the farm. You’ll recharge your batteries joking with the donkeys. You’ll want your children to grow up there. That’s the “normal” life for you, but it’s not enough for you to be you.

Suppose you have a Gemini Sun, let’s take another stereotype, you’ll want to be a writer. This will mean the world to you.

If, by chance, your Taurus Sun partner has the Moon in Gemini, you’ll read them your papers and they’ll appreciate your style. They may love reading and writing, but that’s just like breathing to them, their success at life is not at stake. 

A third level of interpretation is that the Moon rules over Cancer, and through Cancer, over a house, maybe two, and possibly over planets placed in Cancer. Whatever happens with the Moon happens indirectly - but surely - to these houses and planets.  

In my own chart, the Moon rules over my Cancer Ascendant, is in Libra and in the fourth house. It may be more fundamental to the interpretation to consider the houses: ruler of first house in fourth house. I am a rat. I love my basement. 

My Cancer personality style must be combined with Libra. Juggling with key words always helps: Emotional balance is needed. Sensitivity in search of artistic harmony. Social needs. Feeling two sides. I am a good listener, it’s an airy way to care… I am not saying everything, just showing you how to elaborate.  

Beyond key words, feel the world of Cancer, then the world of Libra, and let the vibes interact in your inner space.

Thinking in pictures can be a funny game:  two crabs on a sea-saw, when one is up the other is down, it could be a nursery rhyme and it is a way to invite inspiration. Two crabs on a sea-saw, one wants to eat you, the other is scared by you, which one will you pick up, which one will you throw away?

A fourth level of interpretation, but it could have been the third, is to follow the ruler of the sign in which the Moon is placed. 

If you have the Moon in Sagittarius, you may carry your home like a rucksack on your back, drive a camper van or settle abroad. Wherever you live is a camp base and/or a library. Maybe it’s near a temple, not far from the city hall. It’s rather open, compared to a Cancer cocoon.  It’s the place you shoot arrows of consciousness from. 

With the Moon in Sagittarius, Jupiter says more. Let’s say it’s in Leo. No doubt, it’s a fiery Moon! Expect a combination of adventure and creativity, of exploration and let-me-show-you; her way to nurture is to take by the hand and lead beyond the familiar environment. 

Don’t worry, she says, I’ll take you back home, you’re safe with me. 

I won’t talk about the Moon in the twelve signs, sorry. 

There are enough cookbooks out there. Moon in Aries, Moon in Taurus, Moon in Gemini, Moon in Cancer, it’s nice, it’s good order. It’s boring like Saturn doing admin. My Uranus in the third house doesn't want to live like that.  

If we wanted to be systematic, then we would also need to write about Moon in Aries with Mars in Aries, then Moon in Aries with Mars in Taurus, followed by Moon in Aries with Mars in Gemini… and all the possible combinations.  

And we would have to do the same with the Sun, then going through all the possible combinations with rising signs… 

I am not going to write a crazy cookbook like that. Beyond the most elementary combinations, we’re all alone in the jungle! 

What I wish to convey is a sense of how to juggle. 

Jean-Marc Pierson

Astrologer, Storyteller and Philosopher a bit. Why don’t you have a look at my homepage?

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Moon in Aries

Once I saw a hen charging a dog. It was a young and  playful dog, it was three times as big as the hen. Behind the bird was a string of cute little chicken. Mother-hen doubled up in volume and charged. I was so impressed. The dog ran away.

Since I got this vivid picture as an answer to the question of what a Moon in Aries is like, I can’t see anything else. Yes, Moon is mother, but not only, and even though a mother hen charging like a ram to protect her progeny is a wonderful illustration, there must be more to an Aries Moon than the odd heroic moment…  

I know a woman with an Aries Moon. She  doesn’t look like it though. Her own mother had an Aries Moon among a few other Aries placements. The daughter must have inherited something of her primary role model. 

I don’t know her well enough to see far beyond her Pisces rising, so I am not able to dissect her privacy for the sake of astrological knowledge.  The Moon is on the private side, that’s my point.

If her Sun wasn’t conjunct the Ascendant, her Aries Moon in the first house would be much more apparent. but even an Aries Moon can’t steal the show to a Rising Sun. 

Some people wear their moon on their sleeves, others don’t. 

She told me she was embracing the Aries Mooness through her Pisces veil! f you’re curious, here she is.

Now, let’s leave her alone and let the symbols speak. 

Aries mothers aren’t constantly charging potentially dangerous individuals or animals to protect their little treasures.

There are times when they turn towards them and say things like: 

“Look in my eyes and tell me. What did you just say? I want to hear it again.” 

There is no getting away with it.

“This is not acceptable, do you understand why? Say it!”

Or

“But there is nothing to be ashamed of, child, come here, we need to talk about it!” 

Or

“Do you know how important you are, for me? You are my child. I love you.”

You don’t have to be good at guessing with Aries!

Moon is mother and more. Moon is also family and early environment: she is mother plus father (hopefully), plus siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and even neighbours, if the fences are not too high between the grasses.

There may be many opportunities to literally bang into one another with the Moon in Aries. Expect energy, running, climbing, jumping and crawling. 

Expect Can-you-do-its?  And Bet-you-I-cans! Followed by First Aid kits.

Expect the opposite of avoidance when it comes to conflicts.

The Moon describes our early environment. We are plants with roots in her soil.

Now, we must take the rulers into account to interpret planets. The sign feels the state of its ruler. If Mars is winning, Aries is winning, and the Moon in Aries benefits from a winning environment.

Is Mars, ruler of the Aries Moon, strong and healthy or banging into a wall? Does he have to fight a hard battle to break through a carapace?

We usually imagine Mars with a sword or a spear, but a shield is a weapon as well. Not all people with Aries placements appear fearless.

Is courage the victory over fear? Aries doesn’t mean victory, it means the fight. It’s not won in advance. Courage is fighting the fight, no more no less.

Mars in Aries may be a flamboyant warrior. It may also be a little sprout fighting its way between stones and clumps to appear as a new little plant, so cute, just above ground level. Hop! Grazed by a rabbit. Starting again. Beginnings are tough…

Mars in Aries may be the small boy playing with the big boys. He will look more like a stereotypical Mars in Aries when he is back with the small ones, but he would rather not.

It’s the subjective experience that matters, not what other people think.

Back to the Moon. In the beginning (of the post)  she was mother, then family,  and environment… She also means the child within us. 

There is more than one child in our inner gallery of subpersonalities. The Moon is the inner baby. It’s vulnerable,  emotional and needy. In Aries he may be loud. 

Later baby will be told to grow up. The Moon rules over instincts and emotions, they are strong in Aries. Have you got a heavy Saturnian lid weighing on your impulses? Bang bang bang! There is something powerful inside that wants to exist!

Imagination belongs to the Moon. In Aries, I let you imagine at what speed images may come and go.  

Imagination is doing mentally what children and artists do when they draw. 

With paper and pencils as a metaphor for a Moon thing comes astrological embarrassment: creativity and self expression are of the Sun, on principle.

 Reality is always playing tricks onto our labels and categories, because in reality, all the energies are always collaborating. When children and artists are drawing, the accent is on creativity, therefore the Sun rules.

 But when the process is internal, we call it imagination; the Moon rules, because the focus is now on the quality of the paper and pencils,

The Moon is receptive;  the quality of the paper is a fitting symbol.

A Pisces Moon may have a watercolour paper pad. A Libra Moon, a pastel paper pad. As for Aries… scrap paper!

Something fit to receive first sketches, rough drafts and unprocessed strokes of genius.

Drawing made of three lines, only three, but straight to the point: imagine this as a kind of imagination.

Let there be sparks! 

That’s enough. What’s next? 

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How to read a chart. Where is the Earth? Why is it the Moon?

The Moon is mother, says the astrologer. 

The Earth is our mother. Traditional cultures with roots have been saying it since ancient times. In Greece she was called Gaia.

Where is the Earth in the chart? The usual answer is that it’s at the centre, half way between Ascendant and Descendant, where the horizon crosses the meridian.

 The Earth is where we are looking at the Heavens from, we can’t see it over our heads moving from sign to sign! 

Some chart types, for instance on Astrodienst, include a small circle at the centre. That’s where we are.

Here is another answer: Where is the Earth? It’s the Moon! 

This is not to be taken literally. I’m not that confused. 

Let me explain:

Traditional cultures with roots have been saying, since ancient times, that we are children of Heaven and Earth. 

There is a fundamental duality in us. We are spirit and matter, we are body and soul, we are from above and we belong below. The planets must express this fundamental duality if they are talking about us. But, of course,  the Earth is nowhere to be seen up there! 

But look. The Sun is a Sky wanderer. The Moon is close to the Earth. The Sun is Father, the Moon is Mother. They are the Yin and the Yang, they tell us about the fundamental duality. 

So, is it Sun and Moon, or Heaven and Earth? 

Such a question could be asked by someone with an overactive left-brain, and a sleepy right-brain, the one that understands metaphors. It’s both! It depends on the mood of the storyteller.

The Moon changes, she waxes and wanes, she dies and is reborn. Her phases reflect the phases of mortal life. She is our mirror. Nature, tides and plants do what she does.  She means home, influence of the environment, emotions and instincts, generation. Along with the first house, she means something about our body. Yes, she means Earth. 

The Sun looks immortal by comparison. Always round, always radiating light and warmth, it’s the most potent source of life and energy we know, and if it’s a source, it’s like God. It’s  Spirit bursting out in Heaven.

Now, when we are reading a chart, it doesn’t help to think that the Sun is a symbol of the Ultimate Source… unless we connect it with the idea that there is a divine spark within us, a creative spark that is busy creating ourselves from within. For more about the Sun, read The Sun is the Heart of the Chart.

All the efforts and aspirations to become who we want to be, our dreams and ideals, our callings belong to the Sun. This immortal part is not vulnerable. Only its creation is, that lives in the flesh, in the Moon’s realm.    

In another post, “Self or Ego, what is the Ascendant?", I used the metaphor of a submarine -a metaphor for the Ascendant - driven by a pilot - The Sun - used to explore the depth of an ocean - a metaphor for life on earth. 

Seen from the lightness and freedom of the spirit world, incarnating on Earth can be compared to getting down to the bottom of an ocean; the soul in the body can feel imprisoned, like in a submarine. 

How we appear on earth, with a body and a temperament, is shown by the Ascendant and the First House. Our goals and intentions, our life purpose and the heroic journey of becoming who we want to be is shown by the Sun.

Thus, the fundamental duality can be symbolised by the Sun versus the Ascendant, or by the Sun versus the Moon. Symbols are flexible. What if we consider the three of them together? Ascendant, Sun and Moon are the “Big three”, the most fundamental indicators in a birth chart.  

As part of a Sun-Moon-Ascendant Trio, the Moon is the soul, or psyche.

The psyche is an intermediary. She has a foot in the eternal world of Spirit, and a foot in the changing and mortal world of Nature. She is a medium. She rules over dreams, not the solar dreams of who we want to be, but the watery dreams, the messages. The Moon rejoices in the Third House. In our sleep, in our daydreams, in the flow of our thoughts and feelings, sometimes in a blurred way, sometimes clearly, we are connected with the great sea, whilst living in this body. 

Jung would talk about the function of intermediary of the Anima or Animus between the conscious ego and the collective unconscious. 

Again, the left-brains may be irritated, and ask: “So, the messenger, is it the Moon, or is it Mercury?”

They can work together! The Moon provides a flow of emotionally charged pictures, and Mercury articulates words to describe them. Thot, the Egyptian God of learning and writing, to which Hermes became assimilated in Hellenistic times, was God of the Moon. 

In this body, energies flow, or get blocked at times, causing diseases. If the Sixth House is more powerful than the First and the Moon, we may need some healing. Check also the Sun for the heart, upper spine and vitality. 

The Moon is Mother. Mothers are women, and women are witches, aren't they? They gather in a clearing in the middle of the woods to dance bare feet under the Moon when she’s full. They know the plants and they know how to bind, because they care for tribes and families.

They belong to the Earth and they extend invisible roots into the psychic dimension, where the light of the Moon reflects that of the Sun. 

Applying this to the metaphor of the submarine, the Sun is the driver, it is us, with individuality,  intention and purpose. It is the Heart. 

 The Ascendant is the submarine, with an emphasis on its outermost layer. The Ascendant says something about how we appear, with our body and face, behaviours and temperament, and how we interact with the surrounding world.  

The Moon is the flesh of the submarine and its Mama. (You know how submarines reproduce). The submarine’s Mama is outside and inside. Outside, it’s another submarine, which belongs to a whole family of submarines sharing characteristics, and it’s the environment where sustenance is found. Inside, it’s all the maintenance, health and safety systems, including the desire to have babies. 

The Moon is the psychic world that mediates the Sun-Ascendant connection. She is Earth and more…

Jean-Marc Pierson

Astrologer, Storyteller, etc.

To know more about me, about astrology readings, classes, active listening, visit my homepage

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Pluto square Moon

Moon square Pluto. Ouch, it’s a difficult one. 

Caveat:  Planets and aspects may be strong like big blows in the face, or soft like shoulders clad in velvet rubbing. Every planet comes with an invisible dimmer switch. So do aspects. How intense was the light at the moment you were born?

The Moon square Pluto that worries you may be a mere skeleton in a well forgotten closet, or a cohort of demons making your life hell day in and day out. 

In general, with this aspect, expect rubble. 

“Rubble” is an evocative way to say: “destruction followed by regeneration of something that means home to you”. 

Followed by regeneration, yes.  “This too will pass” is a valid mantra, it applies to rubbles. Keep calm and carry on is a relevant exhortation. (When you need to hear that, you’re in trouble)

The optimistic word in “destruction followed by regeneration of something that means home to you” is “something”. It may not be the end of your entire world. Only something. 

“What means home” is more subtle than just home. Our interpretations can be literal only once in a while. An earthquake, a landslide, bombs falling or damages caused by time and neglect can cause roofs and walls to collapse, literally. Then you’re dead, or homeless. 

However, we are symbolic beings. The Moon means home, home means environment, environment is family, tribe, village, city, nation, environment is nature, it’s the little piece of land we belong to (rather than the opposite) and it’s the blue planet that owes us… 

When transiting Pluto squared my natal Moon, I left France and came to England. It was my decision, it was a good one, it was time to close a chapter and get a fresh start. I needed to shed my old skin and leave it behind. I had spent eighteen years of my life in Drôme Provençale, in the South-East of France. I loved it so much there. My heart had made roots. When Pluto squared, I left. I hope I’ll get another life and live there again. I want another youth. I loved it so much but it’s all over even though still living in spirit. 

Rubble can be metaphorical; other related pictures can be relevant, the snake tearing its own skin apart, the uprooted tree… 

As a Scorpio Sun with Cancer Rising, I could only be especially sensitive to a Pluto square Moon transit.

The Moon rules over the inside world, which contains our most vulnerable side. There is a need for wrapping and warmth. Nurturing, nourishment, safety… 

We are spirits in the material world. We inhabit bodies, courtesy of the Moon-Mother. Our body is our home. It is a home that needs a home. For some, this home feels like a prison. A future butterfly must feel trapped in the cocoon. One day, it will break open. Transformation is permanent. 

Our spirit is wrapped up in layers of soul, like an onion. There is an etheric body, an astral body and many other bodies. We are made of inner layers and we belong to outdoor layers, family, natural habitat, village or city etc.  

When Pluto squares the Moon, the question is: what layer, or what layers are being torn? Is it physical, emotional, social, mental…? 

We may dream that our house is falling apart, the earth shaking and trees being uprooted.  Then wake up, sweating and feel so relieved that it was “just a dream”.

But what is happening in our dreams, isn’t it a real psychic event?

The world of dreams could erupt and overwhelm our consciousness, people with white blouses would call our case a “psychosis”. Our mental world is also a home. (Who lives in it?) 

Pluto squaring the Moon may simply find us struggling with insecurities. We may feel tormented by inner demons. In the outer world, our house could stand still, as if nothing was going on. Neighbours won’t know anything about our underground fight for mental survival. 

In my understanding, when we go through hell consciously, in the world of our own feelings, we are diffusing the destructive energies. We are sparing ourselves painful manifestations in the physical dimension. Paying attention to our inner life is worth a thousand talismans. 

I with you fertile daydreaming and cogitations!

Jean-Marc

PS Check this: Astrology Retreat in Turkey 2004

PPS And for readings, classes, more about my book, contact etc, welcome to the homepage

Moon in Aquarius

I have been studying a chart where Cancer is Rising and the Moon is in Aquarius. 

As a rule, the Moon is always one of the top indicators. She is the Queen.

As another rule, the ruler of the Rising sign is also very important. It’s the Prime Minister so to speak.

 Mama Mia! For Cancer Risings, the Moon holds the two functions! Don’t ignore the Sun, but ignore such a Moon even less!

How can I picture an Aquarius Moon? 

When a planet is in a sign, it doesn’t become another planet. Even in Aquarius, the Moon is the Moon, and what it means is a Moon thing.

With the Moon we often talk about cocoons, homes, roots, burrows, places of safety where moms take care of children, and in Aquarius, the sign ruled by Uranus, God of the Sky, the Moon might well be a nest. 

Traditionally Saturn rules Aquarius. It opposes the Sun, ruler of Leo. Nature is the Great Metaphor that holds the door to Spirit. What is able to obscure the Sun and cast shadows? A big dark cloud. A water bearer. An Aquarius.

As a child, I used to wonder why birds build their nests without a roof. Chicks are safe from below, but when it rains, they get drenched. If there is a storm, they feel it to the full. That’s how birds live. They can’t go knock at the foxes’ door to ask for shelter. The little chicks live under the big wide sky, soaking in immensity. As they grow, they train flapping their wings on the edge of the nest, preparing themselves for the big jump. 

How do these images translate in terms of human life, for someone who has Cancer Rising and the Moon in Aquarius?

I belong to the Placidus tribe: for me, an Aquarius Moon in a Cancer Rising chart is not necessarily in the eighth house; it may be in the ninth and be born to be alive and migrate, or in the seventh and be born to fly along with their mate without being able to hold hands whilst doing so.

However a good deal of Aquarius Moons in Cancer Rising charts will be in the eighth house, which is fitting to the sign of thunderstorms and flashes of lightning disturbing suddenly the peace of wide blue skies or starry nights. 

In his “Traité Pratique d’astrologie” André Barbault, who had the Sun, Moon and Jupiter in Libra, describes the psychology of the signs as dialectics between two types.

About Aquarius, he tells us that one type is the wise type, detached, taking some distance from down to earth reality and the world of instincts, loving clarity, ideas and ideals; to the extreme it may even be completely spaced out… the other type is the adventurous type, the eccentric, the rebel, who lives in a state of high tension. It’s the one who plans to steal Fire from the Gods, for the benefit of humanity. The first type loves humanity as well, but would rather suggest meditation. 

Following my own thread of the birds in the nest and the weather forecast, I would call these two kinds the Great Blue Sky Type and the Thunderstorm type; I would expect an Aquarius Moon in the eighth house to belong to the storm, especially if there are tense aspects to the Moon or other placements in the chart, like a Scorpio Sun for instance.

In human life, such storms may be arguments between the parents, separation, divorce, fight over questions of money and custody, sudden loss of loved ones (“Child, they are in Heaven now”), it can be falling from the nest, not finding the strength to fly with one’s own wings, or maybe too much space, too much freedom at an age when we need to feel contained, held, supported and given boundaries… 

It may mean being exposed to anything that is too wide, too open, too unpredictable for a child to feel safe. Finding about porn on the internet at the age of five, becoming aware that Mother Earth and the climate are dangerously changing at six, or being suggested that you may not be a girl after all at seven are possible illustrations; human madness is not limited to nowadays creativity…

Now, what if this Moon in Aquarius and the eighth house was a happy one? Even in the eighth house, it may enjoy the benefit of harmonious aspects and the chart all around it may be full of happy promises. No challenge means doom anyway. 

A Moon in Aquarius could be a home full of friends, a family well integrated in the community, a flock of birds, an uncle who is an inventor, exciting holiday camps, open minded parents, intellectual opportunities… and, for the eighth house, a natural perception of otherworldly realities, transparent friends, choirs of angels, animal spirits, telepathic communications, the ability to fly out of the physical body... Why not? One day we will get there. 

This was my way to follow the thread for today. 

Symbols are magical doors. Another day, you may come across a Moon in Aquarius in a chart, go for a walk to empty your head and daydream, and find another thread, which may, for instance, emphasise more the community and future oriented traits of Aquarius, and start with Mother rather than home. Enjoy the flight! 

Jean-Marc

Margory Orr, a seasoned astrologer and author, has written a wonderful review of my book: Magical Doors.

You can read it here: https://star4cast.com/astrology-a-gateway-into-a-magical-universe/

You can also go back to my homepage (yes, you are on my website here!) and contact me for a reading, a class or an astro story.