Astro Basics: Know Your Moon Sign

Dear Fellow Traveler:

We’re into that phase of the month when Tuesday editions are something other than monthly horoscopes — here is the July long monthly and here is July Inner Space. We also have interesting coverage of Sunday’s solar eclipse on Daily Adventure & Adventure, our main blog — which today includes coverage of the point Lilith.

Planet Waves

Today I have an astrological self-study project for you, which is looking up your Moon sign and house placement. This is a new idea for a Tuesday edition — let’s see how it goes.

If you are interested in astrology, knowing the placement of your Moon is basic. In truth, it is essential. The Moon represents your core personality: the child self that grew into an adult role. The Moon also speaks to your basic needs, and it describes your mom.

I bring this up now because the Sun is in the sign Cancer, ruled by the Moon, and we are about to have a total eclipse in that sign as well. So that places emphasis on the Moon.

If you seek understanding of yourself through astrology, you want to know about your Moon. It can help you explain a lot of things that are not covered by your Sun sign, including aspects of your personality that you don’t like to reveal to others or, alternately, that you overemphasize because they are so familiar. The Moon can also tell you how your mom’s personality transferred into your own, and where your mom’s influence is sneaking into your life.

Finally, the Moon can be understood as the “child self” because it describes our most basic needs for nourishment and attention.

An accurate Moon position depends on knowing your birth time. If you don’t have your time of birth, you can get your Moon sign or something close to it, though not the house your Moon is in (which changes about every two hours). So, step one, as with any astrological project, is look up your birth time. I don’t suggest you believe the “about dinner time” kind of description; go for your birth certificate, or get a more detailed description from a parent or other relative. You may need to call your local health department, which will advise you on how to get a certificate with the time, if it is available. Note that many replacement certificates lack the birth time.

The next step is to go to Astro.com, where they have a nifty, convenient system for casting your chart. I just did it — it’s easy and the programming is smooth, cheers to Astro-Dienst. This is going to give you the basic data, not an interpretation. That second portion, how to work with your Moon placement, I will cover one week from today.

If you take these steps, you’re also going to know the rest of your planets. Many of you will be seeing your natal chart for the first time. I would suggest you look at it with wonder and not “confusion.” Astrology is based on a language, and it takes time to learn even the basics, but you can get good information straight away, if you know where to look.

Please let me know how it goes. We have posted this letter to a discussion page. To use this discussion page you will need to create an identity in our blogging system or use the one you have. Creating an identity takes about 30 seconds. There, you may discuss your findings and state your questions. I’ll check that page tonight and ask other Planet Waves astrologers to check in as well. Let’s see what we learn.

Yours & truly,
Eric Francis

102 thoughts on “Astro Basics: Know Your Moon Sign”

  1. Eric, thanks for this open forum. Everyone, thanks for sharing your moons and your voices. It’s a great learning experience- all these squiggles and numbers on my chart are starting to make more sense. Truly, the explanations here trumps all the astrology books I have read.

    I have Moon in Taurus (18 degrees) In Koch system, it’s in 8th house, close to cusp of 9th. In some other house systems, my Moon lands in the beginning of 9th house (which I understand a little more now what that can mean).

    I read Taurus Moon as: emotionally needing security and tangible comfort when I feel troubled. I could be stable/stubborn/plodding/stuck/ a homebody. I need solid substantial quality (hearty meat and potatoes over perfume of lilacs for dinner, please). I need my fix of beautiful things and a nice piece of land to stomp around. Emotionally, it’s about values, values, values (and only recently realizing that one’s self-worth is a value that counts here too).

    When reading my moon in 8th house, I had trouble “getting it”: ok, I can be a bit of the quiet, depressive type, but did my moon here mean that I need sex, death, secrets, power?

    Eric addressing Neil Armstrong’s moon in 8th house (“…is edgy and daring…it’s always on the brink of something different, exciting, and potentially dangerous…”) did not feel like it resonated with my moon until the article later said, “some 8th house moon people are addicted to crisis.” Aaah, lightbulb went off: I feel that I have to be steady and helpful in a crisis, that I need to be the strong one that could fix problems, particularly when dealing with my mother.

    If I use the Whole House system, and swing that moon into the 9th house, I read: needing to travel and foreign cultures (check: my wanderlust is legendary), needing to explore spirituality (check: always felt at odds with organized religion and have been searching for God in my own way), and needing the astrology (check check). This feels more “me” and a moon that I can relate to.

    It’s interesting seeing my chart using the Whole House system- almost all of my planetary bodies are in different houses! Almost like reading a new chart…

    About my mother: This woman once taught me that if the number “1”stood for “health” and it was followed by a series of “zeros,” each “0” representing “wealth,” “fame,” “career,” etc., then to remember that those “zeros” were worth nothing, without that number “1” proceeding it. That money was nice but not to be greedy or selfish. Taught me how to shop for a good bargain. Yet this is the same woman who does not understand why I chose to freelance instead of wanting a menial salaried job with retirement/ health benefits (regardless of how overqualified I was for the job). Who complains that all people are out to rob her or take advantage of her because they thought she had money. Believed that people constantly were comparing themselves to you and would be jealous if you were successful. When I was living with her, she had wanted me to stay home more often and take care of things around the house. She shopped a lot and hoarded stuff even if she didn’t need it. She said she DIDN’T marry for money, and how now she regrets it. I’ve been working now to distinguish and recognize her voice and judgements in my head.

    BTW: Good ol’ Moon is in comfy trines with a lot of planetary pals including:
    Sun in Cappy (in 4th house, cusp of 5th)
    Mercury in Cappy
    Jupiter in Cappy
    Ascendant in Virgo

    My moon is comfy, but maybe it’s also complacent. Will look at my moon now, and see what else it truly needs.

    With gratitude,
    Winnie

  2. Hi Eric, Len and all who have posted, This is the first time I have had to play with Eric’s invitation, and found my Cancer moon (2 degrees) in the 7th house, with a Scorpio sun (1 degree) and a Sag rising (2 degrees).

    I work for myself, mostly alone, as a used bookseller and as an appraiser of books, documents and manuscripts. I love my work and my life in a tiny village, away from crowds and noise, where people just drop in with stories, and the phone or computer contact me for interesting work in the larger world that I visit.

    In doing this, I also did a basic chart for my brother and sisters. My siblings share many of the same signs, in different places and this may account for the feeling that I have always had of their importance in my life — which early in my adulthood transcended the importance of mother and father. We live across the country and are always in contact with one another. I have learned to have great compassion for the people that choose a relationship with one of us, for they have a relationship with all of us to a stronger degree than other families that do not live in the same geographic area.

    So — a quiet researcher who uncovers secrets in an out of the way place, with a global side. Single since 1996 (marriage just didn’t work for me), but with a strong sibling connection, several deep friends, and a great set of acquaintances with lots of quirky stories. Oh — a big garden, a sewing nook. A cross between Aunt Bea and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

    Thanks for the opportunity to think about this for an hour or so, and to write some of what it brought to my mind. Also, thank you Eric for this special place to read, to discover and to hear the news I need to hear everyday. Your website is part of my everyday routine, and as I told Chelsea when I renewed, it was the first thing I resubscribed to after weathering some of the economic blizzard that blew through life in 2007-2009. With your writing, I feel that I am not alone, and really on the right path for me. Though I do know this internally, it is so pleasant to hear another voice for sanity in your ear.

  3. Sun = 25 Sag 10 in the 12th house = a Galactic Center girl

    Asc = 5 Cap 15 = now with Pluto parked right on it! yay.

    Moon = 29 Aqu 39 in 2nd house = I’ve never understood what to make of that Moon perched at the edge…

  4. What a generous enlightened soul you are Eric. Thank for inviting us to explore this topic under your wise tutelage.

    I’m a bit cautious to put out my findings (soooo Virgo!) as initially I found it daunting to explore my chart. However I am grateful for the second posting you made on Tuesday explaining the house system which have given me the necessary confidence to write now.

    I find I have Sag. moon 25 56 21 (how does one get the symbols of degree etc onto the page……?) conjunct (I think) Saturn 0 29 in early Capricorn, both in the first house. This alignment explains a fuck of a lot about me and frankly I been quietly digesting it these past 48 hours……again in typical Virgo fashion! (and a nod to Mr Armstrong with whom I seem to share a similar moon placement…..yikes)

    I’ve been asking myself “Who I Am” forever and a day and before I knew about moon placement and ascendant etc, I could not make sense of what seemed like conflicting energies warring inside me. My natal Virgo and Sag. moon are conflicting energies (one needs to root and the other needs to fly) that have finally learned to marry and team up, now that I also “get” the influence of Saturn! I need structure in order to support my desire for change.

    The ringed planet rocked my world right when it entered Virgo three years ago, around the same time my father died and I simply had to retreat inward and sort myself out and my identity crisis, once and for all. It’s been a very VERY difficult spiritual birthing, because for so long, my world seemed to insist that I fit into it and not the other way round…..! The later is much more a fit for me, not that I feel that I demand it to be so, more like I need for me to accept these energies and work them out along with a entirely new thought process for the rest of my time here on planet earth.

    I think Saturn gave me a raw deal (!) in that my early environment did not fully support nor understand me. My darling Mother was never fully plugged into her potential, spending her lifetime grieving a mother she lost shortly before her third birthday and was simply not available. My sister and I suffered both losses profoundly being motherless and grand-motherless daughters. Thankfully though, I can praise the Universe that nearly eight years ago my Mother and I had an amazing deathbed experience that set both of us free and it was a monumental turning point in my life. I put myself to learning the art of loving. Pure and simple.

    But back to my Father and Saturn and the fact that at the moment of my birth, my Father became owner of his business that was to be both the bread and butter of our family while unfortunately also sucking the soul out from him. He and I had a soul connection that was severed early on due to his inner demons creating conflict between us, around the time of my sixth birthday, and I never forgave him for it. His last words to me, a year before he died were: “I let you down. I didn’t do enough for you.” My reply was “I wish it could have been different Daddy.” They were not words of forgiveness as I wasn’t ready but words of great sadness for a relationship that could have been so much more. Still, those words have also been another huge turning point that taught me to allow my self to simply be.

    There is so much more I could write, but this is it for now. So much is happening for me these days and none of it would be possible without Eric Fwancis (!) and the amazing team of people that make up Planetwaves. How happy I am to be part of this unique cyber family.

    Some of the comments and soul revelations here on this topic have moved me to tears.

    In gratitude and with blessings galore.
    Ursula

  5. Late to the party but attending and if I type slowly enough I may be the 100th commenter — and the winner of?

    *smile*

    Aquarian moon in close conjunction with Sun in the 10th house. The duo star in both a grand cross and a grand trine — and my Mother’s sun was in Aquarius. Yes, this all pretty much makes me “an Aquarian”. While I love having all that marching to my own drummer energy, I am also very grateful to my Taurus ascendant as well as those other planets scattered throughout my chart.

    I have known this info for a few decades so no homework was needed, but synchronicity is very much a part of my life and reflecting on the Mother’s sign section of the exercise led me on a journey of its own.

    Astrology offers us a window into who we are, who we plan to be, how we interact with the world; but it is only a part of the puzzle. All Aquarian Moon folks share energies inherent in the placement, but not only are the rest of their charts different, they are also a product of their times with the outer planets setting the stage. An Aquarian moon gal may have burned her bra in the 1960s; she may have marched with the suffragettes in the teen years of the same century. We express ourselves within our personal framework and within our piece of time.

  6. Hi all,

    I cannot put bits of my chart up because it is all interrelated. Fixed Grand Cross. Cancer rising, moon conj plu within a degree and part of a stellia in the 3rd involving mercury and the south node. Sun on i.c. at 26.55 degrees trying to escape the other stuff (degree of the astrologer in Leo). Also born on an eclipse! I was definitely sent here for a purpose!

    Great to piece together other people’s charts, ideas, humour etc.

  7. Dear Eric and/or Len,

    I love the descriptions of the houses that Eric posted, I’ve been using it for a year or two now. Perhaps this is a little bit of an elementary request (though I have no fear asking such things around here) — have either of you ever written a description of the energy of each of the signs? I know this information is in fact very much there in the thick of all of your writing, but a guide similar to this house info would be fantastically useful in getting a knack for interpreting my own chart. Heck, a description of the major planets would be pretty great too!! Actually, I’ve found that in reading both of your writings, I feel more clear on the planets, but the signs can often still be quite fuzzy. If there is something like this buried in the archives I’d love to see it, and probably there are some other novices like me out there too 🙂

    Thank you gentlemen.

  8. Regarding house systems, I second Eric on that; Koch houses. My astrology teacher said that in her experience Koch houses “ran on time like the German trains of Koch’s native country.” In my experience, if you want to know the timing of things, use Koch house system but if you want to deal with the psychological/emotional stuff, use equal house system. That’s what has worked for me. YMMV.

  9. I might agree with Prince. It suddenly occurred to me yesterday that the internet would slow down as a source of merchandise and probably information too. Why purchase a dress from California when you can buy it at a local store and help someone keep a job? Hopefully the seamstress will live within a few hundred miles too. The information on line is so totally controlled by the owners of the media, there is no way you can trust what is said, and it gets recycled a gazillion different ways. Too many liars everywhere you turn. Give me a National Geographic photographer any time, one that uses real film please, along with a writer who writes on a yellow legal pad. Had a boyfriend that wrote poems to me on a yellow pad. He was a cancer, and hopelessly schizo.

    I’m not even buying the tapes with Mel Gibson right now – the chick was too saavy, asking just the right questions so she’d get everything on tape. I feel sorry for him for some reason, although he probably has it coming – whatever it is. His breakdown didn’t need to go public.

    Cancer Moon, Pisces sun. Moon in the 9th and sun in the 5th. Saturn at 29 Virgo in the 12th, sniffing out the reasons for all the bs.

  10. Thank you for this super-opportunity to share MOON TALES.

    My moon is 18 degrees Taurus in my 12th house.
    I am a Pisces Sun 10 degrees in 11th house, Mercury Pisces 18 degrees in 11th house and North Node in Pisces 0 10th house (Taurus asc 23)
    Hmmm — I am seeing how Neptunized I am.
    12th house – Big Dreamer in both senses of “dreaming” also continually absorbing what is going on in external world (and World) and reflecting it back sometimes through physical and emotional reactions inside me (have had odd uncharacteristic rashes ever since Gulf Distaster started)

    As a child I believed that everyone knew that upon waking in the morning, they were to consider and contemplate their dreams as a first priority of the day. I thought my mother was being purposely annoying by trying to talk to me first thing in the morning and interrupt my flow of downloading dreams — took a long time for me to get up to speed in our culture about what the priorities are — still really am not quite aware or certainly not on the same page. 🙂 Kidding, but not.
    Always been clairaudient, clairvoyant, clairsentient, etc… which I think of as being connected to the 12th house and Pisces/Neptune

    The Taurean side – I am super-attached to beautiful growing things and would love to have land — but with the Pluto in my 4th house in such challenged configuration, as I like to say: The bad news is If I LOVE where I live, I will be moving and the good news is, if I don’t like where I live, I will be moving. I think I am supposed to be like a hermit crab and carry my home as an energetic shell and be a good sport about it too, which I am, sometimes.

    That Taurus moon gives off a good vibe of emotional stability (perhaps the downside can be stuckness rather than stability). 🙂

    My Moon at 18 Taurus is opposite 15 Mars Scorpio 6th house, squared by 19 Pluto 4th house, and 11 Venus 10th house. (Almost a Grand Cross)

    My birth mother was a huge challenge for me! She challenged me always, threatening me with abandonment and sometimes throwing me out of the house when I was just sitting quietly (4 years old), belittling me, humiliating me, shaming me, over-controlling me (wouldn’t let me touch the piano, because I was “already too talented and needed to leave music for my sister”) and provoking me to battle with her and/or to collapse and breakdown from early childhood. I am the middle daughter of three. I was “the voice of reason” in addition to being “the voice of the Dreamer” — I often tried to help her and to get her to accept help for her pattern of mental illness (which I accurately diagnosed as manic depression during elementary school — I was motivated to learn about psychological labels, as I was designated a “Mentally Gifted Minor” at school, and actually enjoyed spending time being tested by shrinks, so I could observe them 🙂 — always liked getting to know adults — always seeking to find the creative and sane ones, and spoonfuls of their attention were one of the best medicines I had. My father (who was a beneficent influence, a loving man) died when I was two.

    NATURE saved me to a great degree — I grew up at the Pacific Ocean — just a few blocks away. Would sneak out at night as a girl, to go down to a small cove which had caves, where I would watch the moonlight dance on the water. The sand, the tide pools, the reef, the waves, the creatures who crawled and swam and flew — all contributed to my sense of belonging — an antidote to my turbulent home life. Also, at that time the land was undeveloped around us, and was sacred Native American land — I held the oldest skull ever found on the North American continent in my hands when I was five years old! “Laguna Man” (later discovered to be a woman 🙂

    Right now I am going though a 40 day ancestral ritual to honor my deceased mother — praying for her, asking for blessings for her, releasing what needs to be released karmically and being willing to embrace what needs to be embraced, receiving insights about our relationship, and about who she was and what she wanted, as they come along.

    I write, sing and conduct rituals honoring the DIVINE MOTHER, especially as The Mother of Nature. This was motivated by a series (it seems on-going) of miraculous experiences, related to bringing forth wisdom, courage, balance, harmony, and healing for all-living-things, for earth herself.

    Thanks again for offering this topic to explore!

  11. Hi all,

    My sun is in Cancer, Moon in the 1st degree of Libra, in the 6th house and conjunct Jupiter and Uranus. I can answer the trivia question about what sign the moon was in when Mr. Armstrong set foot on the Moon — Libra! — because it was a few hours later on the day of my birth.

    So lots of crazy vibrations in my life as the current conjunctions of Jupiter / Uranus oppose their location at the time of my birth. I’ve not seen any Libra moons in this discussion, nor many with the 6th house placement…Eric, I was wondering if it is reasonable to use the Cosmic Confidential / annual horoscopes for our moon signs as well as sun and ascendent?

    xx
    r

  12. Note — I confused Venus and Serena Williams — so I pulled Venus’ chart from the Web editions and will compare those charts next week. If there are any pro tennis wonks in the audience, would you please drop me a note, if you would like to do some research?

    Thank you….

    ef

  13. Eric, thanks so much for the charts and explanations – so generous of you and so very, very helpful.

    I’ll go and play around with the charts, Koch etc, though I find the solar houses do work well, since I started viewing chart that way. The 4th house moon for me, explains a great deal about the odds I find myself at between the leo ascendant and the gemini/jupiter in the 10th calling for being more out there, particularly at work it seems, when the scorp 4th moon calls for solitude and connecting with self.

    It also helps me understand more about those who meet me and struggle with the leo ascendent thinking I’m outgoing and extrovert (which a part of me is), yet can’t quite follow why I am not out at a lot of social events. I can only be around groups of people for a short while before I feel jangly and overwhelmed – my private space or at least alone, is where the peace and contentment is. Thankfully, I eventually learned that I need people (and they me) so I do make a point and the effort to go find them and connect. When I was younger, the moonchild, I didn’t. Sad little rabbit.

    Anyhoo – this is terrific. More, More…xxx

  14. hi,
    just getting around to this… it’s been a busy week.

    my planets are clustered mostly in the 10th & 11th houses –

    Moon is 22 degrees Pisces, 10th house
    Sun is 7 degrees Aries, also 10th house
    rising is 0’23” Cancer, though I have also been told Gemini

    sun and moon putting a lot of pressure on each other, or supporting?

    career and urgency with a lot of dreaminess/fantasizing. outwardly driven but need a lot of alone time. things get really emotional and feel sort of life-or-death sometimes.

    (also in 10th – Mercury , Venus, and Chiron, and Vesta)
    (11th house, Mars, Saturn, and also Eris and Lilith)

    Jupiter in 3rd house
    Uranus, Pluto, in 4th
    Neptune in 6th (Scorpio)

    Mom is a Sagittarius.

  15. Eric – thanks for the heads up about Koch houses. It really helps make sense of my chart. And Grafitti Grammarian, your insights are greatly appreciated. What I’ve found is that using Koch, my Sun and Venus together are both in Leo in House 5, albeit near the end, and that makes great sense to me if house 5 is really about children and self-expression, as well as romance. Would have been nice to figure this out about a decade ago, but fortunately I have managed to work through the craziness the placement seems to have represented for me. The service aspect of House 6 with my Virgo Moon and cluster of other plants also makes sense – GG – I view service karmically and dharmically, so view my role as the breadwinner for my family of six as a gift, now I’m old enough (46) to stop resenting it and learn to appreciate it. It is also how I have put the pieces of the family back together with my Libran husband (in my house 7 in all house systems) after my wild side was worked through. You mention productivity and making the most of time – this aspect has been expressed almost to a fault in my adult life, something I have worked assiduously to bring into balance these last five or six years, to allow myself to view non-productive time just being present rather than doing anything as equally valuable, not just the daily meditation session or yoga practice, but the moment to moment pauses, long or short, to reflect and breathe. Also to view myself as one of those deserving of my service and my compassion. Most fascinating of all to me about this whole exercise though is how my Virgo moon and my Leo Sun and Aries ascendant have been in not so subtle conflict for the greater part of my life so far, and how it manifests in my extroverted hermit personality, the follower who leads from the back, or the leader who likes to follow, as my astro.com quick birth profile pointed out. Eric, Len and all the Planet Waves community, again, you are a great gift in the process of awakening and I send you love, joy, gratitude and presence from my perch within the jealous god realm of Wall Street. All is not lost down here by the way – we are still raising money for cities and states to build schools, roads, bridges and affordable housing!

  16. Hi, I’m Gemini w/Aires Moon @14-45 in the 12th House, there’s a wide conjunction of Saturn at 26 Aires also in the 12th and Jupiter at 5 Aires in the 11th. Taurus Rising conjunct Uranus and Venus.
    Somehow I find it easier to read other people’s charts than my own. I try to pay attention to the negative aspects of the 12th house moon kicking at my self esteem and make a large effort to avoid negativity. Recently decided that happiness is a choice and to look at the positive and seek positive change and avoid toxic people. Aires can be selfish, self centered, and impulsive, I admit to having all 3 traits at times in my life. I am so well known among my friends as “Mimi” that it now almost embarasses me since it sounds so much like Me me. Fortunately my grandson calls me Amah who is “one who takes care of – like a Nanny. So, lots of people have started calling me Amah which is more like the ME of now, although I had a psychic tell me that I helped people I knew so much that she compared me to an acrobat who bent over backwards and picked up a cup with her teeth.
    I am a bit nervous about all these planets in the Cardinal signs and the approach of Uranus to my Moon at some point.
    Eric Francis is the most generous person alive, I have never met or been on an astrological website where they actually TEACH you things. Eric teaches us constantly and so very generously.
    Oh, another thing that worries me (12th house Moon) is that Saturn is always in negative aspect to either my Sun, Moon or Ascendant, I can’t seeme to escape him.
    My Mother was a very negative person, I don’t think she knew any better she did not have much education and had a lot of emotional issues. She had 5 planets in Gemini including Moon and I married a man with the exact same Gemini stellium. Not good!
    Needless to say not anymore.
    If anyone can give me some insight, I’d be happy to return the favor. I agree with Eric that the house system for readings is the best, and I will look at the whole houses when I get a chance.
    Don’t you think that this is the greatest gift ever?
    Namaste, Mimi

  17. Hi Again,
    It is interesting to read all the comments.

    And one quetsion came up in my mind meanwhile, which I keep thinking about lately.

    Compared to my place of birth (Budapest, Hungary), I have moved twice in my life to about 1200 km west, Bonn, Germany. Once 20 years ago and second time one year ago when I was 39. The interesting is that things keep repeating themselves now in many ways. I also notice a change in my personality.

    Can it be that if I relocate, also my birth chart gets “adjusted” to my new location? Has anyone experienced anything similar?

    For example, I tend to feel the change of my ascendant from Aquarious to Capricorn. Discipline and being consequent with daily routines has never been my strength but now I am challenged by having to organize our international patchwork family with 2+2 children, a dog and a cat, plus a full time international job. Believing that now I have the support of a capricorn ascendant, already in itself helps a lot. (I have to be more discpilined and I must learn to be much more consequent with the people around me)

    As a Libran, my moon is 1.53 of Aries and in both countries in the 2nd house. I feel the full attention of the current astrological alignments…

    have a great day!
    Dora

  18. OK……. Moon update 7/13/
    I was disappointed you didn’t give an example of a 6th house ( how you work, & in what field) moon personality.
    However..I pondered………My moon scorpio, depth digging for info, my Mother is an RN dietition/pediatrics. I learned nutritional info along with numbers & ABC’s from infancy on….It was wartime rationing, and she may have been reinforcing to herself, her not too distant nurses training, while trying to prepare nutritious meals for us…as she went along. My Father, was exempted from the military for bad eyesight, so left the family v business to “enlist” as a manager at the largest food producer in the WORLD AT THE TIME, SEABROOK FARMS, LATER BIRDSEYE. No lack of fresh veggies no matter the
    sugar/meat/dairy rationing. Learned healthy eating habits, have kept me healthy & energetic longer, for the physical work I do.
    I am an Artist, so emotion plays a big part in what I produce. Flat emotion paintings don’t sell! And painting is not a quiet, neat, little occupation, it is an energetic sporting event .( double up on what Tiger puts out!)
    Scorpio moon 6th has also given me the intuitive ability to ferret out what a client wants to pay for & possess, when they don’t have a clue, just a vague idea they want something painted on their wall or something catchy to advertise their business.
    Conversly, it’s really awful for painting portraits, except children. People don’t want to see their soul & or shadow side, hanging on the living room wall! And I can’t help it I nail them everytime! 🙂

  19. When I first discovered my moon sign (and my ascendant), I became truly enthralled with the potential of astrology as a tool for self-discovery. I’m a Sagittarius, my Jupiter is stationary in Aries, and my neptune and my mercury are also in Sagittarius. From this, I mean to say that sun sign astrology always resonated for me as I have a whole heck of a lot of adventurous unstoppable excessive Jupiterian energy running through me. On top of that, I have venus, uranus and my north node in scorpio and pluto in my first house. The darker scorpio energy which runs decidedly through me as well never really made me question that the supposedly more optimistic sagittarius was incorrect — my mother, and my mother’s mother, and most of my mother’s family are scorpio. So I could always make the case for environment over stars even before I understood that I too had a fair dose of the scorpion (or eagle/phoenix as I’d prefer to think of it) running through my own chart.

    BUT some things never made sense. For one thing, I am a hopeless perfectionist. And very very self-critical. When I was seven I tore up a math test that I’d gotten a 99 on and jumped up and down on it in a crying fit while still at school. I had to go to the nurse’s office because I literally made myself sick over it. I hardly even need to mention what happened when a doctor suggested I was 5 pounds over weight when I was 13. 5 pounds over huh? Fine. I’ll show you 15 pounds under next time. None of this made much sense with Sagittarius. But with virgo? Aaaah. Yes. I see. And now after a reasonable stint in finance, I’m working as a jewelry designer/fabricator. Craftsmanship. Virgo again. And trying to start up as an astrologer as well (ah jupiter hello again, there you are.)

    But to get to the point at hand — my moon. my moon is at 1 degree pisces in the sixth house. The sign makes perfect sense to me. Despite having been a math prodigy as a child, I have always wanted to be an artist and have finally taken steps to make that a reality. I went through years of being so depressed that the possibility of reincarnation being a reality scared the daylights out of me. The wall street world of traders and testosterone and the quest to make nothing but money was possibly the worst place I could have landed psychically for my moon. It has only been through making things that I have been able to crawl out of that dark cave. And of course by leaving those jobs behind. Its house position befuddles me a bit more, but I’ll get back to that in a minute.

    I have three nearly perfect aspects in my chart: 11th house Saturn in Leo squaring 2nd house Venus in Scorpio. Venus in Scorpio trine 6th house moon in Pisces. and Moon inconjunct Saturn back up there again in the 11th house. Perhaps because I was always very precocious in school and went to college at a very early age, friendships and relationships were always difficult for me until the age of about 30 (saturn return, anyone?). I believe that my pisces moon in the 6th house of service has endowed me with the sensitivity and empathy to be able to be of service to friends and lovers and that is one way that i was able to get over my earlier loneliness.

    Another conflict that arises with the saturn square venus is that though i have a fiery need for some kind of recognition of having attained my goals (saturn, leo, 11th house), it is frustrated by me need for more intimate, intense relations and friends (venus, scorpio, 2nd). Again, I think my moon may be the mediator. It’s possible that by the sixth house being virgo’s natural house, it is also the house of craftsmanship, and as such may show that my jewelry work can act as the mediator between the need to be a relatively private person and the need to be recognized.

    Anyway – still very much a work in progress! But fire earth and water all represented in my sun, moon ascendant trio, I thought it worth sharing.

    Thanks as always Eric for a very stimulating discussion.

  20. Hi Eric: Interesting discussion–glad you started this. Wonder what you make of a moon-sun opposition: 12th house moon 22.50 degree Aquarius, sixth house sun 22 .08 degrees Leo. How’s that for an opposition? balanced by a T-square to 25 degrees Mars in Tarus second house. My mother was an elemental force of nature who raised me by herself. I never knew my father (KIA WWII). I had a love-hate going with my mother. I’m a writer and I’m still writing about it and trying to make sense of her.

  21. A Note About Calculating Charts

    In the West we use the tropical horoscopes: the Sun enters Aries the first day of N Hemisphere spring.

    There are many house systems, but no matter what system you use, the four most meaningful houses stay the same: the 1st cusp and therefore the 7th cusp (that is, the horizon is NOT dependent on the house system) and the 4th and therefore the 10th (the meridian is not dependent on the house system).

    All a house system does is tell you where to divide houses 2 and 3 and 5 and 6. This implies the opposite houses of those.

    The upshot is: the house system does not affect the ascendant.

    I use Koch houses, one of the newer systems (developed in the 20th century). For a long time I used Topocentric houses, also a 20th century development, very similar to Placidus houses. Topocentric does better holding up at extreme latitudes than Placidus.

    Different things change when you switch house systems, so I suggest you cast your chart in Koch and Topocentric and see which one feels more like you.

    e

  22. Joining in late but …

    Sun aq, rising libra (1deg) Taurus moon 11deg 1.28 smack bang in the middle of my 8th house.

    It has been noted that whenever I’m shopping I tend to go for the most expensive model and then work my way down from there.

    Mum’s always struggled financially (she’s a true blooded Cap) for various reasons (not generally her fault in terms that she’s ‘very’ careful / organised with money but has been ‘blessed’ with a series of family issues…) but will make marked comments about those who spend money – and I imagine that includes me behind my back.

  23. My 23o59′ scorpio moon in the 6th house, is a real workhorse in my life, in mutual reception ( ruled by each other ) with pluto 29o 19′ Cancer in the 2nd House. They trine jupiter 28o 35′ in pisces in the 10th ( a little activity there lately!) and then they all sextile the earth trine planets, neptune 20o 45′ R virgo 4th, ( & conjunct the USA neptune, BTW) mars 22o 22′ capricorn 8th, ( I just don’t give up until I get it right!) sun/uranus taurus 13o 28′ 17o 38′ 12th tropical/ 11th Koch; but 12th feels more authentic.
    ( very karmic life, so far have avoided institutionalization! LOL!)
    The neptune in 4th house has heightened the ability to intuitively anticipate trends & “read” clients deepest desires, for professional success,( trine sun uranus beefed that up) but has also deprived me of the longed for, “home” support, due to addiction, illusion, confusion…………& each of my 3 homes has had a structural problem in the FOUNDATION.
    Within those lovely trines, is a T square……pluto cancer , 2nd, mars capricorn 8th, , saturn 23o 50’ aries 11th house. That has caused difficulty with relationships especially with Neptune 4th opposed jupiter 10th. I am a female artist, wife ( until I divorced), Mother………..so I had to muffle my spirit to get along. It caused difficulty in several subsequent relationships……..Picasso had a wife & several mistresses..why not me?
    Numineus Gemini ASC dazzles the eye & ear with sales spiel, assuring the capricorn mars of plenty of work.

    My Mother ooooooyyyyyy!
    She, beautiful blonde dimpled ( think Ingrid Bergman) managed to hold her own, by being charming and manipulative masked her great intelligence behind a dumb blonde act. She is a Libra with venus widely conjunct sun, drawing people to her, and getting away with major misbehavior. Dad adored her! He had high integrity and moral ethical code,& since my physical attributes didn’t lend themselves well to the role my Mother played, I took him as my role model. Also my Mother’s mars 27o cancer conjuncted my 29o pluto, 2nd house, causing occasional tsunamis! She was envious of my innate talents………but after a lot of years we woprked that out.
    I did the whole house chart. Nothing chanmged except my part of fortune moved from the 7th to the 8th. Good I could use a pile of someone else’s money about now!

  24. I don’t know if I did this right, but I entered my birth data and got a natal chart with method web style/placidus There seems to be a lot of different methods of calculating this stuff. Sun sign aquarius, ascendent aquarius and the chart says Sun 15 aqu 23′ 4″ and Moon 11 Can 44′ 52″

    So, since the eclipse is in cancer that means it is eclipsing in my moon sign, right? House?

  25. hi wandering_yeti. I have a Gemini moon and it’s in the 12th house. With its ruler conjunct Pluto in 4th. So I almost never talk about it (or remember it?) but here I am sharing it with you and the other Gemini moons. Love to the moon children.

    Oh… one of my moon-feeding functions is to post on message boards. 🙂

  26. Eric, I like what you say down below about the houses, and about planets feeling “cuspy”.

    Here is a quick read I got on myself this morning while in the shower:

    Using the Placidus system, my Moon/Mars/Vesta stellium in early Scorpio falls at the end of the 4th house (home, roots, culture, subconscious habitual patterns). Moon in its Fall in Scorpio often has difficulty finding an outlet for its deep emotions. Being female, I have not had easy expression of things like anger, assertiveness, a strong sex drive – Mars’ type male energies – in the home/culture I was raised in.

    Shifting to the whole house system places my stellium in early 5th house of creative self-expression and playful sex. This house positioning liberates my duality. Here, these energies can be free to explore my inherent bi-sexuality (female receptive moon/male assertive mars contained in my core passion, or fire vesta).

    Here, in the 5th house, where my Neptune resides nearby, I can imagine and experience sex as being fun and playful, an expression of my essential self, stripped of the negative messages I received through my cultural heritage, passed down from generations of mothers.

    Here these energies can find creative outlets for expressing my deep emotion (scorpio moon), and for creating myself anew, even over and over again! I can tie this back to my Sun/Mercury who reside in late Virgo. In the shift to whole house, they remain in 3rd house (communication), but near the 4th house cusp. I must write my experience and transform everything that I learned growing up… nice…

    this is great!! WE are great!

  27. Thanks for the opportunity to give something back as an outside reader. I’ll preface my comments by saying that I don’t have a piece of paper that says I’ve studied astrology. My knowledge of astrology is from a past life (meaning I don’t have a conscious, intellectual reservoir, but a sub-conscious one accessed through channelling). I’ll try to keep it educational, rather than about me personally, even though I’m commenting on my own chart.

    Anyway, here goes. My moon is in Scorpio in the 2nd House, which indicates difficulty controlling emotions, especially where issues of self worth and money/possessions are concerned.

    It is also conjunct Mars, Venus and Ceres (plus Lilith I think) all in Scorpio as well – Hints at jealousy, money issues and deep sexual power that doesn’t have an outlet. Result – anger, frustration, guilt, loneliness. Hard to shift in Scorpio. Mars is great for earning money, but requires great effort first. Also great for hanging in there when really under pressure psychologically. Connection to God is deep, but requires learning detachment in order to release the emotions when they come to the surface.

    I like to work with Rulerships and look at what’s going on in the houses/signs that are related to particular planets. Here is where the dynamics of the energy can really be revealed. Moon and Cancer go together. For me, it is the South Node in the 11th House. It tells me I’m in past life territory with my emotional issues and that I won’t be able to manifest my hopes, wishes and dreams until I’ve mastered and let go of my past emotional pain.

    The first thing I ask when looking for past life clues is, “Where’s Chiron?” More fun than Where’s Wally? For me, it is the 7th House in Aries. Bingo, we’ve just hit paydirt on the self-worth issues. Working relationships with others are very important as the Moon is in the 2nd House.

    O.k. Now where’s Pluto? 1st House in Libra. The feeling of being judged. Virgo rising. Self-judgement as well. A very noisy ego self to transform into the higher self.

    The next thing I look at to unlock the past life issues is the 12th House and sign/s. 12th House is empty for me. Phew! So the past life issues are not karmic or deep in the subconscious. Let’s move on.

    Following that, the answers to the past are wherever there are retrograde planets. This shows me where I’ve got lessons that I haven’t quite nailed in past lives and that it probably goes back more than just my previous life. (9 months of past life emotional clearing later, I can verify the retro/past life connection. Still at it but nearly there. Not only that, the self critical energy is what I never forgave myself for, which went back the furthest of all).

    For me, Chiron is also retro, but no planets in the 12th, which means it isn’t so deep I can’t nail it this time, instead of allowing others to nail me.

    I’m drawn to Mercury in Scorpio in the 3rd House next. Why? Other action there, because there is a Sun/Neptune conjunction very close to it in Sagittarius. It explains how I allowed others to define me instead of defining myself. It shows the difficulty I had with the illusions of life. It also reveals my ticket to freedom: connection to spirit, to the divine. That’s where I find out who I AM. A divine soul, as we all are.

    Saturn is also retrograde in a 10th House Gemini placement. Positive use of (personal) power, requiring expression through the Higher Self using communication in the public arena. It means Being who I AM. It’s that, or better luck next time. The choice is mine. It is down to how I respond emotionally and how well I learn detachment and letting go.

    Not even looking at aspects, these retros are all linked dynamically back to the moon. Actually, the whole chart is. Why? Because the soul can only release past emotional baggage through the consciousness (consciously experiencing and understanding our emotions) and conscious development is how we grow spiritually (learning how to let the emotional energy go). Why is that important? It’s our soul purpose, whether we (at a soul level) intend to fulfil it this life or in a future life.

    The moon is so important in the birth chart. Why? Because emotions are a gift. If we don’t experience emotions, we can’t release the negative energy that is trapped in our souls. If we can’t release the emotional energy in our souls, we keep accumulating negative energy. This pushes us further away from union with the higher self, not closer. Further away from consciously experiencing Love. Not just any Love. Unconditional Love. For ourselves and for each other. That’s what our souls really want. That’s why we have the birth charts we have. That’s why we’re all here now (Aquarian Age). We can allow our emotions to work for us or run from them. It’s in our hands. We are each free to choose. Whatever we choose, it’s perfectly o.k. It really is.

    Thanks for the opportunity to share. I hope this is helpful.

    Love Scott.

    P.S. Love is all and love is for all.

  28. Golly gee, my head’s spinning a little.

    Moon at 2 degrees 32 Cancer in the 11th house (trines Chiron at 10 degrees 14 Pisces in the 7th & Jupiter at 8 degrees 5 Pisces in the 7th).

    Sun at 16 degrees 39 Taurus in the 9th house conjunct my midheaven, opposes Neptune in Scorpio at my nadir (toward end of 3rd house), with several other aspects

    I was born on my mother’s 40th birthday. Not a planned pregnancy (3 other kids already). She died at 56 from cancer & had multiple illnesses/physical issues thruout her life. A psychic once told me that my mom had been somewhat abandoned and not so well liked by her mother, and had to begin taking care of younger siblings at an early age and therefore dropped out of school after 8th grade. She was one of 15 children. This same psychic also told me that my father had had an affair while married to my mother & that this crushed my mother. Both of these things ring true to me.

    On my father’s side, there are 2 of his relatives who gave birth to daughters on their birthdays. There is also a significant number of twins on both sides of my family. Not sure where all this figures in, but it seems important to me.

    As for how my mother’s personality & influence are in me…I’d say that like her I have tended to guard my emotions & emotional life. In some ways I wasn’t extremely close to my mom; there was always some kind of distance between us.

    I’ve felt that I need to be able to take care of myself and that it’s always up to me, alone, to handle my challenges. This last thing has been peeling away as I’ve grown older & wiser and have improved my diet 🙂 But I’m still pretty independent.

    There is an element of mistrust of men for me, and I don’t know how much of my mother’s influence is in there.

    She had type II diabetes as an adult, though I don’t know that she ever “took care” of it. I have a similar biochemistry/physiology but don’t have diabetes and follow a no-sweeteners, no-refined-grains diet (and no alcohol, drugs, caffeine). I think she was likely depressed much of the time, something I have dealt with (mostly in the past now).

    She was also quite verbally inclined (as I am). She had strong life-long relationships with several women friends, and they all used to play poker together regularly. I have fewer close friendships with women who live near me….that’s partly because I’ve moved across the country whereas my mom always lived within a 5 mile radius.

    Another important similarity between us has been the attitude toward people who are different from us. She was always interested in people from other places & cultures, she was not at all racist/bigoted. I always was quick to make friends with the “different” kids in my school — the black ones (in an overwhelmingly white suburban area), the foreign ones, the nerdy brainy ones. I still find “different” people to be the most interesting to me.

    I’m enjoying everyone else’s posts and can’t wait to hear more on this subject! Thanks, Eric, for opening this can of metaphysical worms.

  29. Hi ! Im a bit confused about the whole sign method! I’m somewhat familiar with my chart but don’t understand how to recompute it this way. Any suggestions or help? 🙂

    Thanks!

  30. Hey Martha!

    Glad you took another look at the ascendant.

    So your first house cusp falls on the 8th degree of Aries. Sweet.

    Now for the 45 part — those are the minutes.

    Each degree is divided into 60 minutes, for really precise chart work, in case you are so inclined.

    So the houses get divided into 30 degrees each, then each of those 30 degrees is subdivided into 60 minutes.

    Your first house cusp which is at 8 degrees, 45 minutes, is a little bit closer to 9 degrees than to 8. But honestly, most of the time you’re not going to think about that 45 degree stuff.

    You are now well on the way to figuring out how charts work. You have got a lot of the big basic stuff down.

    It sounds like your Venus and Sun are conjunct in late Leo. The fact that they are in different houses is not as important as the fact that they are quite close to each other.

    I am not an expert in venus-Sun conjunctions but I’m thinkiing this is a nice aspect to have. The things that are Venus matters will color your personality strongly, because the Sun represents the core personality, and venus has merged with it.

    Venus is concerned with music and the arts, and likes to socialize with others. She likes harmony and cooperation.

    In Leo this could lead to lots of strong self-expression and I’m guessing you are outgoing rather than shy.

    Don’t worry that you have lots of planets clustered in one house; that does not mean you are lacking in anything. It means that your experiences are going to be focused around the activities of that house, in this case the 6th house.

    I also have a strong 6th house (not so emphasized as yours, but still….). The 6th house gets overlooked as being sort of dull but I actually think it’s a very cool placement….It’s an ideal placement for anyone involved in healthcare or healing, or anyone with an interest in alternative medicines or any kind of therapy.

    It’s traditionally called the house of “service” which may make it seem unglamorous, but I think there is a spiritual vibe to it if you look at being of service to others as a kind of fulfillment of karma.

    It’s also the house of one’s daily work routine, and with strong planets in the sixth you are someone who can, over time, come to master things like being productive and making the most of your time. Many many people struggle with these issues, they procrastinate or can’t organize themselves and as a result they have trouble pursuing their goals, whehter in the workplace or just in life in general.

    However you should be able to transcend those kinds of issues. I don’t know your age or experiences but if you have not reached that point yet in your life you may very well reach it later.

    I also think it’s a nice house placement for a teacher of some kind. There is a fair amoutn of wisdom tied up in the sixth house.

    peace, GG

  31. By the numbers: Sun – Aquarius @ 22d 03’17”, Moon @ Aries 10d 57’4″. Ascendant is Leo @ 2d 52′. The Moon is on the edge of my 10th house, and it would seem that I have elements of both houses present.

    My mother has always been there for me, and still is. She inspired me to learn all I can about everything, and to be tolerant of everyone. She’s Cancer (the 3rd – so she’s a crablette!), and has had to deal with her mother’s legacy her entire life. Grandma was very aloof and cold, and for not being Catholic could lay on a guilt trip that the Pope would envy. A huge amount of anguish there.

    For me, the Grand Cross marks a continuance of a period of much needed positive change for me. I’m moving, changing climates (from northwest coast to southwest desert), and generally re-establishing my persona as an independent person. For various reasons, the last few years portions of my life have been shredded completely by change, and it’s actually all been good. The current stumbling blocks have been small and easily dealt with, and the positive events have been huge. Inside I am filled with a sense of incredible ‘good,’ a feeling of the storm before the calm if I may.

    Thanks EFC and all, I’m learning much here…

  32. I am now seeing how it’s all connected:

    I did a little more research into the 10th house, which for me is Taurus, and also where my moon lies. I found that the 10th house is ruled by Capricorn, which happens to be my mother’s sun sign, and also rules over reputation, appearances, honor and your word.

    My mother is a capricorn to the core and with an Aries Sun, it was always a challenge for me. We clash on many levels and she has always been my vision of what should be. Of course this has created huge levels of angst in my life, because that vision seems so unattainable. I think if I stop perceiving her as what should be then quite a few blocks would be lifted for me. I have always felt like I had bricks strapped to my feet, that I am stuck to the ground unable to move. I have very little air and water in my chart, mainly fire and earth. (Sun-Aries, Ascendant-Leo, Merc, Mars, Moon and Venus Taurus).

    I feel like the aha moment is in my peripheral vision…yet I’m not seeing it yet.

  33. Hi, I’m a nervous newbie on blogs, astrology etc so here goes… Interested to find out about my moon & how it has related to my life & Mum’s role. In a nutshell, poor Mum has suffered with mental illness, my childhood pretty horrendous. Come thru it all & think I’ve turned out ok but have given my own daughter the childhood I wished I had – lots of love, affection, happiness, stability etc. (Very proud of her, she’s stellar!) Forgive me if I’ve given too much detail here below but here are some details (none of which I understand):-

    Sun Taurus 1°49’30 in house 5 direct
    Moon Gemini 8°51’10 in house 6 direct
    Mercury Aries 22°23’10 in house 4 retrograde
    Venus Pisces 15°59’59 in house 3 direct
    Mars Aquarius 26°35’17 in house 3 direct
    Jupiter Libra 26°07’39 in house 11 retrograde
    Saturn Sagittarius 25°27’18 in house 12 retrograde
    Uranus Leo 7°33’21 in house 8 direct
    Neptune Scorpio 3°27’40 in house 11 retrograde
    Pluto Leo 29°52’24 in house 9 retrograde
    True Node Scorpio 1°15’38 in house 11 retrograde

    House positions (Placidus)
    Ascendant Capricorn 7°10’17
    2nd House Capricorn 28°36’22
    3rd House Aquarius 21°58’29
    Imum Coeli Pisces 20°18’30
    5th House Aries 25°08’15
    6th House Gemini 2°56’19
    Descendant Cancer 7°10’17
    8th House Cancer 28°36’22
    9th House Leo 21°58’29
    Medium Coeli Virgo 20°18’30
    11th House Libra 25°08’15
    12th House Sagittarius 2°56’19

  34. btw-great idea. I guess maybe especially for the Gemini writing about my lunar sign helps me understand how those parts of my real experience work together/step on one another’s toes.

  35. Only 3 Gemini moons so far. Maybe they just aren’t speaking up. After all, that lunar placement is as likely to listen and absorb as speak. It’s different than sun in Gemini for sure. Bla blabla. Mine’s ruler is conjunct the sun, so there ya go.

  36. Hi, Eric. My moon is in Leo in the 2nd house. I’ve a Libra sun sign and Cancer ascendant.

    The weekly articles that you email to subscribers are helping me to understand the relationship challenges and dynamics I’m undergoing currently, both within myself and with others. However, I’ve never fully understood the influence of the moon in Leo and how its influencing me currently. I do know that Leo likes attention, an audience and appreciation for efforts made and can like the spotlight. With this being my moon sign, and the moon is emotional, I wonder if on some level, I get emotional satisfaction when I’m acknowledged by the group dynamic …..or what???

    For us all, I sure would like you to write articles of interpretation for the moon placements in one’s chart. These days, we can use all the help we can get. Thanks

  37. I am Sun in Leo, 5th house, Moon in Cancer, 4th house, Aries Rising.
    I’ve always wondered about the strength of each of these and how they relate to each other. I’m pretty maternal to all but my own mother has not been my role model, to put it mildly.

  38. Hey Eric, Just for fun, I did my whole house chart today – an engrossing displacement activity when I ran out of work inspiration! Went through it fairly forensically (virgo, virgo, virgo..). It didn’t resonate with me as much as the Placidus chart I already had. Am I doing something wrong?! ; -)

  39. Hi Everyone,

    Sun – Scoprio 6° 8’36” House 11
    Moon – Capricorn 10°48’48” House 2
    Mercury – Scorpio 17°49’54” House 12
    Venus – Sagittarius 11° 7’54” House 1
    Mars – Capricorn 17° 9’32” house 2
    Jupiter – Capricorn 8°24’31” house 2
    Saturn – Scorpio 17°31’58” house 12
    Uranus – Sagittarius 11°36’49” House 1
    Neptune – Sagitarrius 29°18’35” House1
    Pluto – Scorpio 2°14′ 4″ house 11
    Mean Node – Taurus 28°30’56” house 6
    True Node – Taurus 27°35’21″D house 6
    Chiron – Gemini 7°27’30″R House 7
    ASC – Sagiattius 3°40’18”

    My chart casts the most odd shape (pretty much just one line all across the ASC), and opposing Chiron and my node right on the other side. I once heard that I am bringing a lot of stuff into this life from past lives and trying to heal through this.

    Interesting, the lunar eclipse occured with a conjunction of my natal Neptune and Jupitar (with orb), I guess this has something to do with expansion of my creativity/spirituality? A year ago I did something called the Hoffman Course, which basically develops on eliminating learnt patterns from childhood so that one can live their life more fully and the way that they want to, with love. After a year of practicising all that I have learnt, I only now starting to feel the benefits. One has to get rid of all that anger first, and then, once that hole where the anger was is left, love and compassion come sweeping in. It’s marvellous!

    Solar Eclipse weakly opposes my natal Mars and weakly trines my natal Saturn and Mercury – Goodness knows! – need to look that one up.

    As a scorp, I myself am having a bit of a ball. Opportunities are coing out of the woodwork and I find myself going for them in a way I never have done before. I also feel like the scaffolding that’s holding everyone else (who isn’t having such an easy time) up.

    Inky xx

  40. Moon at 16 Sag with no significant aspects. Placidus puts it in the 11th but like other Moon ladies (and gents) the whole house system bumps everything on one so Moon in 12th and my Aquarian Sun is now in my 2nd house. Will have to research that change and see what comes up.

    I’d certainly be interested in Eric’s comment about “…how your mom’s personality transferred into your own, and where your mom’s influence is sneaking into your life.” That’s because she has lived with me for the last 23 years!! So not really sneaking more like in my face…lol!

    There have certainly been issues with the maternal line with my grandmother abandoned by her mother at 3 years of age she was brought up by a very Victorian father. Not one to show affection, he didn’t know how which was typical of his generation. She beacme an intellectual but no emotional intelligence and her relationships with my grandfather and her 2 sons were the most important in her life probably because she related better to them. Same went for my father and her other son-in-law. Big flirt around men and I learnt early on that the best way to handle her was through flattery which she couldn’t resist.

    So my Mum and 2 sisters were left out in the cold. Mum and her siblings all have issues with relationshps particularly the emotional aspects. One sister married a Kiwi (a man she didn’t love) just so she could get away as far as possible and unfortunately passed away 12 years ago from breast cancer with a lot of unresolved issues as none of the girls were allowed to have a relationship with their father due to my grandmothers jealousy and favouritism. The other is a maiden aunt, never married or even lived with a man.

    My Mum met my Dad when too young, got pregnant with me and had the proverbial shotgun wedding. Turned her back on him on their wedding night which set the pattern for the next 28 years. She blamed him (still does) for “ruining” her life and hated me as the living embodiment of that for the first 8 years or so of my life.

    Mum hates sex and I would put money on it for her two sisters being the same. Mind you it didn’t stop her going back for more, with my sister arriving 2 years later and a still born after that. It has always seemed like “one for you, one for me”. So my main relationship emotionally has been with my father. The only way to describe it is that my Mum is emotionally autistic, though I love her and try to understand her as much as I can.

    I don’t really have any outstanding issues with my Mum, my aunt or grandmother (still alive at 98). Their legacy has largely bypassed me, possibly thanks to my father. It’s my sister who has carried on with the emotional insecurities (married a man who is the same) and is now doing the same with her children. It’s hard to watch knowing that she has to deal with it her own way. And she has no relationship with our mother for the same reasons. She blames Mum as Mum blames her Mum.

    For what it’s worth, Mum is a Gemini Sun, Cancer Moon in 1st house. Sister is Cancer Sun with Capricorn Moon in 9th and my grandmother is Capricorn Sun with Cancer Moon 3rd house.

  41. ::::off topic::::

    Eric said: “Stephie — please send me your birth data to dreams@planetwaves.net — I won’t publish it, but today or tomorrow I’ll calculate your ascendant. Please tell me the time zone in which you were born. Since you were born in late autumn there won’t be summer time — correct?”

    That’s why I admire you so much, Eric. You are also a joy-giver and information-sharer.

    :::back to your regularly scheduled discussion::::

  42. This is useful as others have joined with some explanations (I know little of this subject!).

    Cancer Sun – Asc Leo

    With the whole house system, my Moon is in the same place Scorpio 16 in the 4th. It’s Trine Sun, Trine Saturn, Trine Chiron, Conj Neptune, Sext Pluto, Square Merc, Square Venus.

    Absent father – before I was 5. Then v little relationship with him through the years. Father relevant to 4th?

    Mother – close, almost psychic bond. Not so good for me as she had depression, and was almost as absent as my father, though not in a physical sense. I parented her from when I was 7. Years of therapy have helped me greatly here!!!

    Home – I work from home, happiest working from home. See clients at home, or on phone from home. Counselling/mentor role. However, not socially. I love people however there would never be crowds of people in my house, at least not for long – inner sanctum, private space, peace and quiet, alone-time – MUST HAVE.

    Happy connecting/working in and around deepest, darkest of others, including my own. Need for DEEP connections with people. So it’s my work.

    Move house a lot. 34 times and I’m 45, got another one due any minute. Make home wherever it is. Detach easily when need be – absolute cut off and cut out emotionally. I suspect that was learned about age 5 – 7.

    Partner is Aquarius but don’t know his birth time, so don’t know his Moon – but he gets along very well with mine. Aqu is where my 7th is. We get on great; he’s a breath of fresh air. Always had a big crush on Aquarians from afar (my Dad;s sign, interestingly enough) but this is the first time romantically speaking that I’ve dated/lived with one!

    Fascinating stuff on here. Great to read more, and know more about PW chums.

    Much love, H.

  43. Hi GraffitiGrammarian … and thank you! I was mis-reading the chart … the ascendant is Aries, but it is 8 degrees 45′ whatever the ‘ means. Astro.com puts my planets such:
    Sun 27 Leo 17’17”
    Moon 18 Virgo 0’10”
    Ascendant 8 Aires 45’
    Also, I have a cluster of planets in my 6th house: Sun, Uranus, Pluto, Moon, Mercury … all but the sun being in Virgo, and many houses empty: 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, whatever that means! Per Eric’s comment about signs versus houses, My venus is at 24 degrees Leo at the end of the 5th house, and my Sun at 27 Leo is at the very beginning of the 6th house. Thank you for replying and helping me figure this out … and MoonMusic … I too am ringing like a tuning fork … so thank you for that lovely image. Blessings to all

  44. i’ve got my moon in cancer (10) in 5th house, but my rising is aquarius so i guess that make it 6th house? mom’s a triple pisces, heavy (yet strong) opposite my virgo sun.

  45. I suppose, as a novice, the question of the relationship of all these placements to each other is most interesting. I see a large cluster in Pisces, Aries and Taurus.

    Quite apart from my chart, in recent years I’ve noticed that the vast majority of people in my life are earth and water signs with a smattering of Librans and virtually no significant Fire signs. My sun is in Taurus.

    Interestingly, my most solid friendships are with earth signs and my emotional sparks fly with real depth with the Water signs – it’s truly incredible how pronounced this is in my life.

    I recently took on a lodger who is one of my closest friends – he is Capricorn (my strongest friends all seem to be Capricorn). However, we both realised recently that much that we have in common comes from our moon placements as men – we both have Moon in Pisces. That whole intuitive, emotional, visionary, creative bent with music transporting us to heaven seems to reflect our Moon in Pisces kinship as men more than our Taurus/Capricorn axis of earth solidarity.

    So, it’s all very interesting stuff about one’s core personality and the moon! My friend split from his wife a year ago and as we pondered her Moon in Capricorn placement vs his Moon in Pisces many things became much clearer!

    Although I have Jupiter in Leo, Uranus in Virgo, Neptune in Scorpio and Pluto in Virgo which is my outer planet configuration the inner planets, Chiron and my ascendant are all clustered in Pisces, Aries and Taurus.

    I have Mercury and Mars joining my Sun in Taurus, my Ascendant and Moon in Pisces and then Venus, Saturn, Chiron and the True Node (whatever THAT is!) in Aries.

    Quite a cluster but quite a mystery too. Is there any major significance in this strong clustering in Pisces, Aries, Taurus I wonder?

    Great article and idea, Eric. Moon sign research is truly fascinating!

  46. Hello moon people.
    I have moon as sole dispositor, so to say in in 17,33 Cancer. There he/she/it is conjunct Mercury 18,15 in my Eight house. They also share house with Sun 23,47 Conjunct Venus 24,42 Gemini. Eight house cusp is at 26,31 Gemini.
    Both Mercury and Moon forms a square 0,8 and 1,5 to Pluto in Libra, Tenth House.
    Scorpio Rising 24,32. Conjunct Uranus at 22,20.
    Sun is in T-Square with Mars and Saturn in Virgo to Neptune (conjunct pof. in Sagg.)
    Mercury and Moon formes sextiles with Mars and Saturn. And Chiron, focus on my Funnel in 16,11 Taurus.
    I just turned 30, and yep, Saturn did indeed Return.
    Planets are Lovely.
    People are something else.

  47. Hi Everyone

    I need your guidance… I am suffering an identity crisis. astro.com indicates that my ascendant is in Gemini 28 degrees when all of my other resources state that my ascendant is in Cancer. Can you suggest somewhere for me to research and confirm either way?

    Thanks

    =========

    Stephie — please send me your birth data to dreams@planetwaves.net — I won’t publish it, but today or tomorrow I’ll calculate your ascendant. Please tell me the time zone in which you were born. Since you were born in late autumn there won’t be summer time — correct?

  48. Moon: Scorpio 1°11’25”, 11th house
    Asc.: Sag 8°21’46”

    Sun, Merc, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn all in Aquarius.

  49. Hi all!

    Aries Sun, Scorpio Moon and Scorpio Ascendant. The trick about the whole house system is pretty cool. It might take me a bit to figure out the impact that really has. In the ‘normal’ system, my moon is in my 12th house, this way it bumps it into my 1st. Also moves my sun from 5th to 6th house. In fact sends Venus from the edge of my 5th house into the first part of 7th house. So far in my exploration of astrology the houses as it related to me and my chart hadn’t made much sense. I suspect that will change greatly now.

    For a long time now I have read both the Aries and Scorpio horoscopes. I find the Aries gives me insight into the how and where of things, the Scorpio always hits the darker murkier parts of whats going on with me.

    The part about the correlation between Moon and Mom is intriguing. My mom and I always connected deeply on an emotional level, I attributed it to her being a Pisces sun – not sure I can find out now what her moon was.

    Fun stuff!

    Love y’all!
    Lizzie

  50. 23 Scorpio 11′58″ in the second house but very close to the begining of the 1st house.

    This is interesting as my sun and rising sign are both in Libra. In addition, my mother is also a Libra–has me wondering how my relationship to my mother is related to this dark undertone.

  51. Oh I’m sooo excited…Just tried Eric’s suggestion of “whole house” or whateveritscalled method of laying out the houses in natal chart which threw a couple planets into different houses than astro.com chart places them.

    Most notably my Sun moved from 7th house to 8th.

    Zap! Wham! WOW! Suddenly a whole lot makes a whole lot more sense.

    Totally worth playing around and exploring with this stuff.
    Sooo cool.
    xo

  52. So whole sign houses puts Luna in 9th house for me. That makes sense too. Whole sign houses also put my sun and Jupiter on “hot spots” at 14 and 15 degrees of their respective signs. In fact my ascendant is late enough in Libra (21) that Uranus is the only one of my planets that doesn’t change houses when you do the whole sign trick. The strange thing is the whole sign houses seem to describe me better after 30 while the more mathematically tricky way of calculating cusps reflects the lack of focus I had for most of my life sans martial arts to give me a solid ground for practice. Does that work for anyone else? Maybe it’s a reflection of the trance of Modernism within astrology, amplifying noise in its attempt to chop everything up into mathematical bits.

  53. The very first degree of Gemini, 8th house. Rules my midheaven. Capricorn sun has been taking awhile to wrassle with squares to Pluto and Chiron without wrecking the Libra ascendant. Luna wanders and collects data or just spaces out when Sol isn’t looking. Sesquiquadrate to sun is something like a seemingly random path stimulating the focus of a goat sun who grabs things that stick out of the storm of thoughts stirred up by childhood memories that almost all contain a car or a television. “A glass bottomed boat reveals undersea wonders” is the sabian symbol. That’s kinda how the TV and internet function in my perception. 8th house means there’s been plenty that freaks my shit out. Capricorn and Libra conspire to create discipline and grace, but they’ve got roots in a retrograde Saturn in the first degree of Cancer. That’s why moving meditations like internal martial arts are necessary for me to find a root. The whirling circles of Baguazhang change with the lunar flow while maintaining solid structure and deep root sensation while in motion. Emotional discipline without tension and repression takes some strong medicine to maintain in this media saturated world to which I’m so sensitive by lunar nature. When the electronics are off the glass bottomed boat is more like a symbol system such as astrology or trained perception from the martial arts that allow me to interpret my sensations sensibly so that her ruler, Capricorn Mercury can understand. It’s also important to maintain internal practices, interact face to face with others regularly, spend time surrounded by non-human life to avoid seeing nothing but projections of the images I’ve been subjected to throughout the years via electric media.

  54. My moon is 22 libra 39’21” in the 7th house; sextile Jupiter and Saturn, trine Uranus.
    How do you get to the information of how “your mom’s personality transferred into your own, and where your mom’s influence is sneaking into your life”?

    I really like this as a basis for Tuesday topics – and it looks like I’m not alone in that endorsement!

    Cheryl

  55. My moon is in Cancer in the ninth house. I’m just starting to learn a wee bit of astrology, so am wondering about my placement. Since the eclipse is going to occur with the moon in Cancer, does that make it especially intense for me? Thanks

  56. lemme see:
    gemini sun
    virgo moon in the 2nd house
    Anything more complicated than that and I get confused.

  57. Lovely! Like sending in thumbnail snapshots of ourselves Eric style!

    Aries moon 8 degrees exactly conjunct Eris 9th house

    Pisces 2 Sun 7th house

    Leo Ascending

    Thanks Eric for your guidance on our journeys!

  58. Hi everyone, this moon sign stuff is mighty fun, like: Astrology 102.

    Sun – Leo – 12 degrees, house 11

    Moon – Leo – 4 degrees, house 11

    Mercury – Cancer – 24, house 11

    Jupiter – Leo – 14, house 11

    Wish I knew much much much much More.

    Thank the G. for Virgo ascendant & Venus in Virgo 13, house 12/1 cusp.?

    I am more or less resisting the interpretation of Moon (sign) as Mother. She’s been competitive since I can remember (4yrs), violent, volatile. Conditional love to this day. Her ascendant is Leo, big clue I believe. Leo ascendants tend to want to thumbtack me to a map.

  59. Hi everyone,

    My Moon is in Pisces in the 12th house. I seem to recall Eric mentioning that it is also square Nessus which from what I remember means “the buck stops here”. I am also Taurus Sun so strong and brave on the outside and complete mush and watery on the inside rings pretty true for me. I would be interested in some interpretations of Moon in the 12th house.

  60. Hi Martha,

    Good for you for exploring astrology!

    The first taste that everybody gets of the art of astrology is when they start to analyze their own natal chart, and you never stop learning about it.

    Here was your post:

    I have only just begun to work with my chart, and most of it is truly Greek to me at the moment. I am learning, and greatly appreciate the clarity of the writing and information presented. My sun is 27 degrees in Leo in house 6. My ascendant is 45 in Aries. My Moon is 18 in Virgo in house 6 as well. It is apparently conjunct Mercury (+6) and Pluto (+6) and in opposition to Fortune, which is 18 in Pisces in house 12. The interstices between the eclipses has been, er, rather challenging so far. Working always towards greater awareness. Blessings for what you do and looking forward to next Tuesday.

    First thing Martha, take another look at your first house cusp. Each house is divided into 30 degrees — no more, no less. So I’m sure that your first house cusp can’t be 45 degrees Aries.

    And since your sixth house is split between Leo and Virgo, I’m guessing Virgo is on the 7th house cusp. The 7th house will usually have the opposite sign from what sign is on the first house. So I’m guessing that you might have Pisces rising instead of Aries, if Virgo is on the 7th house cusp.

    In general, when you look at these houses, the most important thing is the sign that’s ON THE CUSP OF THE HOUSE. A sign might start in the middle of the house — say it’s Aries at degree 22 of the 11th house — but the important thing in terms of the houses is WHAT SIGN IS ON THE CUSP.

    So in the example I just gave, the sign on the cusp of the 11th would be Pisces, even though Aries makes an appearance in a later degree of that house. So this person’s 11th house would be a Pisces house — Pisces would color that house and give it its “flavor.”

    Take another look at your first house cusp. Is it Aries? In that case, can you tell what degree of Aries? I’m sure it can’t be 45 degrees. It would be a number from 1 to 30.

    Have fun.

  61. I forgot to add that my Moom (with Saturn sitting by it) is next to my fifth house cusp so it affects my fifth house as well. I had a lot of difficulty conceiving my first three children (all girls) and I felt the Saturn limits on my fertility. Capricorn (I was told) runs like a backwards life; responsibility and a body of an older person when you are young and less responsibility and a body of a younger person when you are older. Funny thing that; I was infertile (didn’t ovulate) my entire life (from first menses at age 14) until I turned 40. After 40 I suddenly became regular in my cycles (monthly ovulation) and got spontaneously pregnant at age 41. The doctors are completely stumped because my hormones (based on tests) never changed but for some reason, I am backwards so that just when most women are entering peri-menopause in their late 30’s and 40’s, I became fertile and normal. I am still pretty normal, despite the fact that I am fifty and starting to show some small signs of peri-menopause.

    The Moon in Capricorn and Saturn sitting next to it by my fifth house cusp also means that in that house (which I was told is the house of children and how you have fun in life) I feel the limitations of Saturn and I “don’t know how to have fun.” This is true; my current husband met me when I was 26 and he often has said I that I am “too serious” and “uptight” and unable to enjoy life in a relaxed manner. I always feel like life is so serious though I have loosened up because of being with him. He is good for me because he has helped me enjoy life more. I feel secure with him, too because he is not in a hurry, is not competitive or controlling and loves me for myself.

  62. My moon is 13 degrees 41 minutes Capricorn, conjunct Saturn (15 degrees 14 minutes Capricorn) in my fourth house. It was last over Jupiter which is partly why I seem to have an underlying deep (often hidden) optimism, despite my outwardly pessimistic personality. It sextiles Neptune (in Scorpio in the 3rd house) and trines my ASC (in Virgo). It forms a semi-square to Chiron (in Aquarius in the 6th house) if I am reading the little squiggle correctly.

    I am a Pisces sun with Virgo rising. Lots of earth but when planets in houses and aspects are taken into acount, I come off as a talkative Gemini. I was raised by a talkative Gemini mom and a secretive Aquarius dad and an overbearingly controlling and mean Libra older brother.

    Moon in Capricorn (I was told) means a person who had to grow up too early, who had too much responsibility at an early age, and who felt restricted and held back from the normal carefree ways of childhood. Conjunct Saturn intensifies these things. In the fourth house means it affected my home life and meant I had to be the mother. If I remember correctly, my Mom’s sun sits in my 9th house so she affected my philosophy of life, my love of long distance travel, and my spirituality.

    My Mom pushed me into being her therapist way before I ever wanted to. When I was seven, my parents divorced (my mom caused it by cheating on my dad, getting pregnant, having an illegal abortion, and then she chose to get out of the marriage). By the time I was eleven, I had to do most of the household work because of my mother’s difficult pregnancy. I also helped raise my little brother.
    I was told (by my mom) when I was nine that my dad might molest me so I felt afraid of him (he never did, despite many opportunities to do so so my mom was wrong on that count). The damage my mom did to me and the family resonates to this day.

    Yet my mom also taught me to think for myself, to follow my own inner heart, to question everything, and to see that I didn’t have to be like everyone else in society. She helped me see that I was intelligent, encouraged me to be intelligent and rewarded my smarts instead of punishing me for them like my peers in school and elsewhere did. Her love of long-distance travel rubbed off on me as well. I can “go native” in just about any foreign place pretty easily.

    My mother limited me and yet set me free in ways not usually seen. Yet I am most like my Dad in many ways. My mom is a type A personality where everything is a crisis and she creates them. She is very competitive and was even competitive with me from the very beginning for my father’s attention. She had to always have the best, the greatest, be the best because of her alcoholic mother and her parents’ divorce when she was 11. I am not competitive, I don’t feel this drive to always be “the best” in any situation or in a group of people. I don’t need the spotlight like she does; in that I am again more like my dad. I don’t mind being the hard worker (think Radar from the program “MASH”) behind the front-person. I don’t seem to have the intense need for adulation that my mom always has.

    I feel my mother’s influence in my insecurity. She was a page-turner; never satisfied and always saying one thing but doing another. By the time I was 11, I saw that her actions didn’t match her words and I began to distrust and dislike her. Even now, I can only stand to be around her for about 2 weeks and then she must leave because she is always in a hurry, wants everything done yesterday, is demanding of my attention (as though she were the child and I the parent) and is very controlling.
    When she is around, she is intrusive into my peaceful life and is demanding my attention even to the point that she resents my attention to my children.

    I always hurry in life as though I feel like I have no time; my mother had no patience so as kids, me and my siblings had to do things FAST or face her sudden, explosive, angry (and sometimes physical) outbursts. Her influence on me was so strong for so long that even in my thirties, I was very much the “guilted daughter.”

    I am sure there’s a lot more but it has been over 25 years since those astrology lessons I took so I can’t think of anything more right now.

  63. I have my moon exactly conjunct chiron at 26 degrees Virgo in my 6th house. does this explain my verbally abusive mother and my need to analyze everything?

  64. Born with moon direct in Virgo, 1st house, 14 degrees, conjunct Venus and Ascendant, with Sun conjunct Moon (in a stellum of six planets in Virgo splayed across 1st and 12th houses)… although don’t really understand what any of this means…

    Experienced my mom as suffocating and overbearing…she saw life as a glass half empty… forever demeaned my visions of a world that could be…debased my impulses toward social justice…hated that I placed such little value on climbing the economic ladder and that I railed against the status quo… despite that, I have lived a life she now actually envies, yet I continue to feel constrained by the realist lens that is so deeply connected with Virgo (despite the strong influence of Jupiter in Scorpio, 3rd house and Uranus in Leo, 12th house). When I say “realist” lens I mean the part of me that focuses on practical considerations rather than strikes out boldly… It is this part of me that I feel is hindering my ability to create the kind of life and world I want… to bask in the freedom I crave…

    I moved to Asia several years ago and am clearly moving closer towards my visions but am not there yet… I would like to know how to take the shadow side of a Virgo moon (and my mom’s legacy) and make it my companion… befriend it so that it can help bring greater clarity and movement towards new visions of self and society…

  65. I am a Capricorn Sun (10.37) Aries ascendant (14.06) with my moon at 23.Pisces.52 in the 12th house. (Jan. 1, 1963, 12:21 PM CST, 98.26W, 32.06N.).

    In discussions with other astrologically-minded folk, some of them have speculated that my Pisces moon “smooths out” expression of the solar/ascendant energies in my chart.

    I feel like I understand something of how both the ascendant and the sun in capricorn play out in my life, but I wish I had more of a handle on how to use information about the moon placement. I don’t feel like I fully understand the 12th house (which is, maybe, the point of the 12th house). I am pretty emotionally intuitive (often to the point of great discomfort), and at the same time, I am kind of “psychically blind”.

    I believe my mom’s own personal “injuries” have affected my life greatly, and a large chunk of my life so far has been spent trying to figure out how to be loving to and respectful of her without being overwhelmed by (or even becoming/existing as) her anxieties and fears. This is all complicated by the fact that I think that she, herself, has worked hard to not deal directly with much of her own “stuff”. I think one of the ways that I understand how the 12th house Pisces moon has played out is that, from an early age, I saw and was aware of family dynamics that I was not SUPPOSED to “see.” For quite a while, I went to work trying to make some of these issues “better.” After years of failure, I began trying to detach.

    The stuff that Eric and Co. have been writing about Capricorn and Aries (my mom is a solar Aries, by the way at about 11*) has been pretty useful to me recently.

    …the first time I ever got a chart done, the woman who erected my chart (by hand, I think) got the moon WRONG — she put it in Aquarius. Having her interpret the chart to me was one of the most powerful things I had been through up to that time. I wouldn’t send anyone else to her, though.

  66. Ahhh, the north node, forgot about that!

    I have my moon conjunct my north node, trine my ascendant, and also in sextile to Chiron (Pisces).

    in addition to: Moon at 24 Taurus in 9th. Sun (Cancer) sextile Moon, Moon trine ascendant (Virgo), sextile Saturn (Pisces), opposite Neptune (Scorpio).

    I see a few of us at 24 Taurus or very near! Cool.

    MoonRose

  67. My Moon is in the 7th House 56′ 25″
    Sun in Taurus 11th House 12″ 53′
    Gemini Ascendant 13″ 02′

    Tthese past few weeks have been very confusing for me, I feel as I have lost my marbles..

    Mother’s Moon was also in the 7th House 26 saggy 01..I haven’t got her birth time, as she passed away years ago..as Eric said no time on birth certificates back then 1909…

  68. Ha! I meant to say Virgo in my ‘chart’ not my ‘heart’ – talk about a Freudian slip! Forgot to mention Mercury in Scorpio as well. Sigh…

  69. Moon 8 Virgo (with Pluto and Venus a few degrees either side) in my 8th house. Sun 3 Scorpio (jammed alongside Mars, Neptune and Juno). Capricorn ascendant. Do I feel like I’ve been riding through the spin cycle of my washing machine for the last few years? Yes! I don’t pretend to understand my chart as well as everyone else here appears to; I have never studied astrology. But I’ll have a go: I wonder if, with Virgo moon where it is (and all the other Virgo in my heart), this is why I’m often conflicted in my reactions to the inevitability of life, death, rebirth, transformation etc. There is this part of me that desperately wants to let go and step into the flow and another part of me that wants to control the experience (Definitely Mum stuff there). The dynamism between the two certainly makes life interesting. On the one hand it is a drag, and I sometimes curse myself for being so ‘uptight’, but on the other the Virgo side doesn’t always ‘win’ and I like the awareness that it bring to situations. I like to dig for the meaning of things, make some ‘sense’ of them, and I like where it takes my mind and the kind of off-centre way that I end up looking at things – and the attention to detail! Maybe I’m talking rubbish but that is what I got from reviewing my chart. NB: What fascinates me about charts is the geometry of them. Most of my planets are concentrated heavily between Leo and Sag, with Eris lurking alone in 9 Aries. So on mine there are all these lines radiating from Eris to the planets at the ‘top’ of the chart making all kinds of interesting triangles. One of these days I hope to understand it a bit better.

  70. My moon is in Aries in the 8th house. My moon opposes Pluto in the 1st house and squares my nodes (North in Cap, South in Cancer). And I’m a Cancer Sun. These eclipses feel like the culmination of something that has been playing in the background for a long time. I’m ringing like a tuning fork.

    Needless to say, I’m feeling my moon placement viscerally these days.

    Transform….or transform.

  71. My Moon is in Capricorn, in my first house at 27 degrees, trine my Sun in Taurus at 27 degrees and Jupiter in Virgo at 21 degrees – a rather wide Grand Earth Trine. The Moon also is opposite Uranus in Leo, and square Neptune in Scorpio. There appears to be a lot going on there…

  72. Just printed my chart and it says my moon is: 23 Scorpio 11’58” Note sure how to figure out what house it is in. Can anyone elaborate?

    –Rookie

  73. Hello All,
    My moon is 23 degrees in Taurus, along with Venus, Mars, Mercury and Saturn. Taurus is my 10th house. My sun is in Aries and my ascending sign is Leo. Here is something I don’t understand: in some cases it lists my planets in Taurus under the 9th house, but others in Taurus in the 10th house. I guess houses run through signs? 🙂

    This might explain why I’ve always felt held back, like things are going slower than I would like them to.

    My curiosity is piqued!

  74. Moon in Taurus 24 degrees, 8th house, conjunct jupiter and mars:

    Spooky reading Danica’s post about her 8th house moon and her mum. My mother shared some similar fates: abandoned as a child (well, baby, her mother died having her) and she died with dementia.

    The conjunction with jupiter and mars adds a lot of dynamic drive (aries sun also helps). I work 2 full on jobs and love them both. 1 as a funeral director (an 8th house activity if ever there was one) and the other managing a buddhist meditation centre in sydney’s CBD. (a jupiter kind of activity) Can soothe a wild mind to settle with the gift of a honey-toned voice at our public drop-in meditation sessions (after years of practice – a taurean thing) and spend some time every year on personal retreat.

  75. Sadly my moon is 28 Virgo and has been getting hammered by the Saturn/Uranus opposition. Jupiter has not been helpful. But the last pass is passing soon and i’m hoping for some relief.
    All of my planets except Sun (12 Cap) and Venus (12 Aq) are on the cusps of signs. Sigh.

  76. I have only just begun to work with my chart, and most of it is truly Greek to me at the moment. I am learning, and greatly appreciate the clarity of the writing and information presented. My sun is 27 degrees in Leo in house 6. My ascendant is 45 in Aries. My Moon is 18 in Virgo in house 6 as well. It is apparently conjunct Mercury (+6) and Pluto (+6) and in opposition to Fortune, which is 18 in Pisces in house 12. The interstices between the eclipses has been, er, rather challenging so far. Working always towards greater awareness. Blessings for what you do and looking forward to next Tuesday.

  77. Hello all, thanks for your contributions.

    What have you noticed about the difference between the sign and house placement? Some readers are reporting this — I would encourage you to as well.

    Re house cusps: they are flexible, not firm. When something is within 5 or sometimes more degrees of a cusp, it feels like the new house. Or it feels cuspy and there is a gradation where it’s acting like both houses, potentially influenced by what’s going on in those houses and with the sign.

    So the houses are not firm entities; but the signs definitely are. Yes there are different sensations at either side of the sign, though something is either IN a sign or NOT in a sign. It’s different with houses, which have yards, and porches, and streets, and are soft and permeable.

    ef

    PS, Try using whole sign houses. You toss the traditional types of houses (placidus, koch, etc.) and if you’re Aquarius rising, Pisces is your 2nd house, etc. Just count the houses as the sign and the whole sign rising as the ascendant. There is an energy peak at 15 degrees, formerly known as a cusp. That peak is in the center of the whole sign house.

  78. Moon in Scorpio 4th house at 5 with Mars and Vesta. Just a bit of intensity for the Virgo Sun/Mercury. Mom had trouble communicating emotions, esp. anger and fear. I would get the silent treatment often… Its a tough placement also for an unaspected venus in libra on the 4th house cusp …

  79. My moon is 8 degrees of Pisces.

    The house is a different beast: I don’t use Placidus because I was born in Anchorage and the houses are really really big or really small. Any advice on houses? I usually use Porphory.

    With Placidean houses, my moon is in the 12th house, and with Porphory, it’s in the 11th house. Both fit in certain ways.

  80. I have Moon in Capricorn (14 degrees something) in the 8th house. My mother was an overwhelming influence on my early life. Very “ladylike”. Strong morals. Big on manners. Endless stories of her psychic experiences; how she could have been a great psychic, but she didn’t believe it was “right”. I loved her very, very much. She had great charm, which this description doesn’t convey. She was sexually fairly uptight (in public, anyway), and didn’t approve of my activities, which I tried my best to keep discreet.

    She had a disastrous first marriage, was deeply hurt, and never really trusted again, even though my father (her second husband) adored her. Not surprising as she had been abandoned as a small child, first by her mother, then by her father. She died, after years of fighting depression, of dementia. The illness happened almost overnight, after my father’s first heart attack. I always believed it was a response to the threat of losing him. She retreated into psychosis. My dad died, and she believed instead that he had gone off with “another woman”.

    I feel as if I have faced many fears this year, and found the freedom to make choices (my moon is also opposite my 2nd house Jupiter/Uranus conjunction in Cancer. I have a great need for freedom).

    I have never been happier with my partner. Some kind of emotional liberation has taken shape this year. I made a choice. Not to imitate my mother’s emotional habits. It could so easily have happened. I feel very lucky. I have no resentment for my mother, indeed I love her more.

  81. A couple of years ago an astrologer told me the Moon is how we protect ourselves. That was possibly the most powerful bit of astro info I’ve ever been given, opening new territories of understanding not just of myself but more importantly of people in my life whose Moons I know. I wish I knew everyone’s Moon! It makes things so much easier.

    My Moon is 1Aries15. Technically in the 4th house, but with a 5th house cusp of 1Aries44 it usually gets read as a 5th house Moon.

    My mother was an Aries moon as well, but at the other end of the sign. She had Moon at 28Aries58 conjunct Venus at 29Aries27 conjunct Sun at 0Taurus45 conjunct ASC at 1Taurus28. I experienced her as suffocating and overbearing, but most people look at me like I’m nuts when I say that.

  82. I’m an aries and my moon sign is in Aquarius 11°34’11 in house 4. Not sure what this means but in reading Eric’s note about this representing my mom then i think there’s an element of detachedness, fairness and coolness in emotions that i got and may even be a little like. But i’m not sure if i’m necessarily reading that house/sign right.

  83. I predict many responses as well Moonrose, people love to share their chart! I know I do. People want to be seen.

    I have Capricorn moon in the 8th house.
    My moon is also square my sun,venus and uranus.

    I am not sure exactly what the portends…but it doenst sound light:)

    My mother has cap moon, my grandmother as well. Before this starts to sound like a mommie dearest legacy, its nothing like that. I wouldn’t describe any of us a tyrants, more of the sort that cries whenever feelings are expressed.

    Thank you for this post Eric, and for your past comments regarding cap moon-very very helpful! Finally something about cap moons that is workable 🙂 I think when I read it i felt a slight shift and release.

    If any you Cap moons out there have not read Eric’s post about this placement, please search for it!

  84. Hi there,
    though I’ve seen my chart before, it’s been a while and I was surprised to see that my moon is in Pisces (I had made up that it was in Cancer), not only that, but I also have Mercury and Venus in Pisces.
    My Sun is also Pisces and my rising is Sag.

    What does having all those orbs in Pisces mean for me?

  85. I’ve been working with my own chart for a couple years, so I know that my Moon is at 19 Scorpio (a.k.a., the “devil’s degree” 😀 ). Venus is right next door at 20 Scorpio.

    There’s a lot of intensity about me that never made sense to me when all I knew about my chart was that I’m a Libra sun.

    To me, the energy of my Moon/Venus placement together in Scorpio feels very “feminine.” They’re both in my 6th house, which feels to me like “grace under pressure,” or “never let ’em see you sweat,” or “steel magnolia.” Which is very often what I’m like in the day to day grind. However, I also seem to translate my stress into physical maladies.

  86. My moon is at 28 Pisces and in the 4th house; it squares a sun at 1 Cancer and trines my ascendant at 28 Scorp. I also have Ceres almost conjunct the moon in the fourth, and Saturn and Chiron come earlier in the house. I have a lot of food issues, and many stem from my mother’s own issues–I am now thinking about all of that. It’s not all bad, as it has grown from a weapon to use against myself and into a passion, as well as something I actually study and write about. But I like thinking about it now as a moon-sign issue. Cool project!

  87. yeah i’ve been going to astro.com for a while. they have a great site too. you can get some free sample reports there that are really good. my reports were very accurate and deep. if you click on free horoscopes, ones like Personal Portrait & Love, Flirtation, and Sex blew me away with their accuracy. i couldn’t believe these could be that accurate being that they are auto-generated. my moon is scorpio btw…

  88. Hi Eric,
    What a great idea! I already use astro.com so I was glad to see you recommend it as well. My moon is 25º Sagittarius in the 3rd house. I have been told people with fire sign moons have father issues to work out. Is that so? Anymore insightful information would be great. Also my sun is 15º Aquarius in the 5th house. I have been told that this placement is very rare and that I am considered a vehicle for god. Could you elaborate……….

  89. What a fantastic idea! I hope the astrologers here aren’t too overwhelmed with the response that I, for one, predict.

    Let’s see: Moon at 24 Taurus in 9th. Sun (Cancer) sextile Moon, Moon trine ascendant (Virgo), sextile Saturn (Pisces), opposite Neptune (Scorpio).

    My question is, since my moon is in taurus and the moon rules cancer, how does that relate to one another? And my sun, which is in cancer in the 10th?

    “The Moon can also tell you how your mom’s personality transferred into your own, and where your mom’s influence is sneaking into your life.”

    I can see where this might apply. If the moon in the 9th is about a need for peace and harmony, that would definitely describe my mom. Although for her it was more on an external level – rarely any yelling or screaming, and she didn’t like any of that around her. It’d get her upset, and I assume would take her back to her childhood and her alcoholic chaotic mother. So she internalized much. But outwardly, she was very consistent, steadfast, and reliable, rarely having a harsh word to say about anyone, and she felt bad when she did. She wasn’t very affectionate, though, and that hurt me.

    So, my mom likely did impart a need for peace and harmony, but I have found the necessity and importance of developing that within, and not so much in trying to control my outer environment. That took awhile to figure out though!

    Looking forward to commentary on everyone’s posts!

    MoonRose

  90. I have worked with my natal chart for many years, now…

    I am a virgo sun (20 degrees, 10 minutes…9th), an aquarian moon(27 degrees, 18 minutes…2nd) and sagitarius rising (27 degrees, 59 minutes…almost exactly the same degree as the galactic core…) conjunct chiron at 26 degrees sag, 19 minutes.

    I have been consistently impressed, Eric, by the synchronicity of your virgo sun readings and what has been going on in my life personally. Indeed…this IS completely a rebirthing for me…and…as you have suggested…trusting my heart and my intuition have been lessons I have continually had to learn…and relearn.

    I am embarking on a resurrection…a rebirth…of my photographic career…and learning to trust my inner voice, not sell out to the dogma others would try and impose ( I must remind myself of what Steve Jobs wrote…trust my heart and intuition cuz they know best what I truly need to do and be), and once again be the person I am truly meant to be.

    thanks for your sound advice, love and perspective!!

    loveand light!!

    robbi cohn

  91. My moon is the 9th house @ 4 degrees Virgo. It forms a stellium with Uranus @ 9 degrees Virgo and Pluto @ 14 degrees Virgo. Additionally, Sun and Mercury in Capricorn, 1st house @ 12 and 14 degrees, respectively. Oh, and my Mars, 2nd House, 22 degrees Cap.

    I’ve definitely felt the effects of the Cardinal Grand Cross and the first eclipse, a bit of a wild ride – doing my best to enjoy it and not scream, at least not too much! It certainly helps to have an understanding of how the current astro affects everything and work with the energies, rather fighting against them.

  92. I have the Moon in Cancer 1, Sun in Cancer 9, and the 4th house cusp is Cancer 6. I have read an old archived article about what the issue of house cusps in the middle of signs — the technical term escapes me at the moment — which was informative, though my limited overall astrology knowledge still limits my ability to read the above mentioned set up. I’ll be excited to read the next installment in this issue.

  93. My moon is at 15 Pisces, which I already new goes with a Cap sun 18 degrees and Cap rising 3 degrees and about 40 other planets in Capricorn. How lovely! What I want to know is why using different house placements (Placidus, default, etc.) puts my moon either in the 2nd or 3rd house. What do you use?

  94. Hey there Mr. Francis, my moon is at 2 Gemini in the 3rd House, while my Sun and Mercury are in Aquarius in the 12th.

    So, I guess my Moon does most of the talking?

    😉

  95. Hi Everyone,
    My moon is at 1.53 of Aries, right at the start of my 2nd house. And, I am a libran. To say the least, these are intersting times…
    Good luck to all of you!
    Love,
    Dora

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