It is always enriching to re-visit a major premise with which we have become very familiar and perhaps have taken for granted. For example, we have the Sun and its energy -we know that cold– and, gosh! that Moon over there is really important too; but look at this: over here, we have Saturn square Pluto … That “Moon over there” can get lost. –Let’s revisit this symbol and appreciate its pervasive significance.

The Sun-Moon BlendPlease review in the Archives of “Analytical Techniques (see below) the essay on Sun-Moon blends posted 8/21/99. I just revisited that essay, and it was a refreshing reminder of a major observation for our analytical facility: we can’t see, appreciate, or work with the Sun’s light directly. Its light is too great, our vision will be blinded. We can’t manage the isolated energy source without noting its application to the rest of our universe.

It is well established now that the Moon symbolizes the reigning need of the personality, reflecting -using-the Sun’s light and focusing it within motivation for fulfillment of needs symbolized by the Moon in its Sign. Indeed, all of this will be conditioned and adjusted in terms of aspects with the Sun and Moon, just as pipes lead energy from the furnace throughout the 12-story building in terms of what is called for by the building’s need for energy, by the thermostat.

My reigning need symbolized by the Moon in Leo uses Capricorn Sun energy to get the job done. Anything that stands in the way of this will work against me in development. My personality is shaped by the interplay and dynamic balances among the following: rewards from the environment as I traffic with the environment to fulfill my reigning need, frustrations from denials by the environment, and changes dictated by the environment. [Please see the full study of the 144 possible Sun-Moon blends in Synthesis & Counseling in Astrology, pages 65-102, especially the easy-remember chart on page 76.]

House Placement of the MoonWe spend most of our lifetime working; building up fulfillment of our needs. Easily 10 hours of our day every day are dedicated to the work effort in one way or another -and raising a family is work indeed. The House position of the Moon focuses our reigning need profile in a particular zone of life experience in this effort.

There is little doubt about the do-your-own-thing nature of a 1st House Moon placement; a take-charge Moon in the 10th; a behind-the-scenes, consultant Moon in the 12th or 8th; a sales/persuasion/communication orientation for the Moon in the 3rd etc. [see pages 430-550, Synthesis & Counseling.] I know that the Moon’s House position (perhaps the most overlooked dimension of Moon orientation), adjusted in expression by aspects to the Moon,is going to flavor the personality development obviously, significantly. I look for it in the client. I know it is a strength. I want to help the client gain reward for that focus through efficiency and strategic growth planning.

Isn’t it interesting -and so clear– that Karl Marx, Hitler, Descartes, Johnny Carson, Jonathan Winters (and I) all have the Moon in the 3rd? –Imagine the frustration to life if this communication channel were deprived these people!
Isn’t it interesting that Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Alan Leo have the Moon in the 8th, the adjusting, reorganizing, reforming dimension, with healing and sexual overtones?

Isn’t it interesting that Ralph Nader, Marilyn Monroe have the Moon in the 7th? That the Vatican, Israel, and the United States, and Charles Manson have the Moon in the 10th?

Madonna and Ross Perot have the Moon in the 1st.

Spend an hour looking through compendia of celebrity horoscopes, thinking about the presence of the Moon by House position within established public image. -The orientation to experience, fulfilled most through work, symbolized by the Moon, is a key dimension of developmental analysis of the personality.

The Moon Oriental Please see “Notebook”, the essay dated May 30, 2001, in the Archives.

Special Aspects to the Moon Whenever Pluto squares, conjoins, or opposes the Moon we can expect a heightened significance of the mother (specifically: the mother or a female influence like the grandmother, an aunt, even a much older sister, that is eventually projected onto the spouse, male or female!). The intrusion/influence of the mother is often extreme, even aberrant.

A female client yesterday: Moon in Pisces exactly conjunct Mercury-retrograde, opposed tightly by Pluto and the Node; Uranus quindecile the Moon-Mercury conjunction. -There is no doubt about it. At the first mention of the word “mother”, my client made these successive replies, first with tightly guarded inflection and then, rapidly developed, intense quivering feeling: “I totally submitted to her. There was enormous estrangement between us. My life was ruined!! She was a total wreck” …and more. Here the Moon ruled one arm of the parental axis as well.

This illustration takes us to an “advanced” consideration in analysis: it is NOT the specific aspect that is so telling; rather, it is the intense (harsh; fourth harmonic) contact between an outer planet (Saturn through Pluto) with the Moon symbology that molds it, usually in terms of initial stricture (Saturn), unrest (Uranus), bewilderment (Neptune), or power struggle (Pluto). Our objective is not to describe the condition in detail (and therefore “prove” astrology or astrologer); it is to stimulate knowingly a conversation of meaning with our client, en route to gaining objectivity about development and eventually re-framing any problematic structures that have endured and been routined throughout development.

**We must always remember -neither forget or take for granted– that the Moon is our way for the Sun to shine.