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Title:

Our Natal Moon Sign's Meaning Date Published: by Bil Tierney
Bio: Bil Tierney

Bil Tierney has been certified and licensed for professional astrology since 1972. He has written two books, including Dynamics of Aspect Analysis, and has written several articles for astro-journals and newsletters. Bil has lectured and given workshops across the USA and Canada. He has just completed a new book about Saturn.

Dynamics of Aspect Analysis is all about aspects and aspect configurations (T-Squares, Yods, Mystic Rectangles), plus excellent information about retrograde planets, unaspected planets, and more. Dynamics of Aspect Analysis is recognized as a unique source of ideas found nowhere else in astrology. Bil's clarity and precision make this a classic appreciated by beginners and professionals alike. It is published by CRCS Publications, and retails for $13.95. It is a 277 page soft bound edition (first published in 1983), and is now published in five languages.

 

 

What is the meaning of the Moon in our natal chart? Some older books have said it represents our "personality," which for me is too vague a term. I'd say the Moon at least describes that sense of "past" we bring with us into this current incarnation. The Moon's sign specifically symbolizes character traits we have sensitively developed in such a past (thru a series of not necessarily consecutive past lives). They now instinctively work on our behalf in this lifetime. These are ingrained, innate qualities that function in a protective manner for us, sometimes defensively so. We are at home with these built-in behavioral patterns, at least upon a subconscious level. Whenever we are uptight about our lives or are feeling insecure and vulnerable, we can and often do revert to our Moon sign's gut-level way of coping with issues, while our developing Sun sign's traits are put on hold for a while.

We might assume that we will grow further (become more spiritual) by pulling away from our Moon sign's way of behaving to instead focus more intently upon our Sun sign's development. If our Sun and Moon form tensional aspects (squares and oppositions), we are inclined to see the Moon as the problem planet, the one making us regress to former ways of dealing with life that we are nonetheless trying to outgrow as we further unfold our solar potential. However, I'd rather think that our Moon's natal condition (sign/house position/aspects) describes the best psychological back-up support our natal Sun can have. The Moon can be a deep, wise, and knowing part of ourselves. Therefore, we need our Moon sign's qualities to play an active role in nurturing our Sun sign's potential for ongoing consciousness development.

Why is this? Perhaps because the Moon is a part of us that is very familiar with earthbound experience and with the natural ways and rhythms of living life in a body. The Moon has a feel for cycles that are very much part of our physical day-to-day experience. The Moon helps us psychologically make contact with the ground we walk on. We feel safe when we have secure support. The Sun doesn't start off feeling as solid; it symbolizes a vital part of us that belongs to the more abstract realm of spirit; a part that can operate at an ideal level of expression but needs to be made more real and concrete for us during our life span.

Our Moon sign can help offer our Sun the proper grounding support it needs to connect its energies to the rest of our inner and outer life experience. We shouldn't try to abandon our lunar traits (plus they never go away, no matter how much we try to suppress or repress them). Maybe here is where a study of our Moon's phase at birth (our astronomical Sun-Moon relationship) can prove enlightening; we may not have been born with a specific Sun-Moon aspect like a trine or square, but all of us came into this world under one of eight recognized Moon phases.

Moon sign traits are usually well reinforced by our childhood experiences and our family conditioning.

Our Moon sign can define what we are all about even more accurately than does our Sun sign, at least in the early years of our life. Moon sign traits are usually well reinforced by our childhood experiences and our family conditioning. We may not see ourselves as behaving according to our Moon sign psychology, due to its subconscious influence, but others who know us can more readily see us acting this way (since we habitually use our Moon energy all the time to make contact with the outer world; it becomes our initial style of making personal connections, even before our Venus kicks in). Some of our lunar qualities can manifest thru the way we instinctively react to stimuli in the environment, and that may involve body language (which others pick up on more easily than we do).

Also, someone with the Moon in a certain sign is a better example of that sign's traits than is somebody else with the Sun in that sign: a Moon in Scorpio person, for example, will be more Scorpionic than will a Sun in Scorpio individual. At least up until a certain point of development. Sun in Scorpio people are learning to recognize how and when they can effectively plug into Scorpio energy; and they are learning to "will" themselves to turn this energy on and apply it in fully conscious ways. Moon in Scorpio folks ("I don't manipulate anybody!") won't always sense when they are doing their self-protective Scorpio stuff (even when they are doing it very well and it just flows out of them into the world for better or worse; this can be said of any Moon sign). Plus the touchy Moon can get defensive if not approached the right way, suggesting we can block our awareness of how we actually express our lunar self. Yet, in some astrological literature, the Sun sign traits detailed sound like a given, as if we do them effortlessly and automatically. Not so. It's our Moon sign that reveals qualities which come forth easily.

It's only when our Moon sign becomes the constant way we deal with our development, to the exclusion of the Sun sign, that we can have a problem. Too much emotional Pisces Moon behavior will not help the intellectual development of a Gemini Sun; an overly-cautious Virgo Moon can impede the fiery development of courage and spontaneity needed by an Aries Sun, etc. While we are at home with our Moon sign (not necessarily our Moon's aspects), that doesn't mean we should always stay cocooned at home. Excessive dependency upon Moon sign behavior could lead to stagnation. If our habitual response goes unchallenged, we stifle the growth of our Sun sign. Our lives thus feel incomplete and without a central purpose due to this. We'll need to make sure these two parts of our nature work together by finding something complementary about the signs in question, pulling their energies together for our ultimate benefit. Both luminaries then forge an empowering alliance benefiting our psycho-spiritual growth.

 

 

© Copyright: Bil Tierney

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Other articles by Bil Tierney

Tierney, BilOur Natal Sun Sign's Meaning

Tierney, BilReflecting Upon a Neptune Transit

Tierney, BilReflecting on a Saturn Transit

Tierney, BilReflecting Upon a Uranus Transit

 

 

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