The Moon in your birth chart

 

This was a "supermoon", photo taken on 27th April 2021

 

 

 

I've revisited this post I wrote about the Moon some time ago, because the Moon  strongly and symbolically relates to our feelings, and feelings.....oh boy, they can, from time to time, get us into hot water. They can be repressed, bubbling and seething away away beneath the surface, and they can burst out suddenly and unexpectedly in a whole rush of emotion.

So a few suggestions and thoughts about the Moon might set you on a journey of exploration of how your own Moon/emotions/feelings is or can be. 

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The Moon in astrological psychology represents the sense of self we gain through our feelings and emotions, and in the natal chart it can indicate how we might go about getting our emotional needs met. The Moon is also an indicator of the inner child.

It can signify our spontaneous and fun-loving child-like responses, and it also acts like a mirror, reflecting what's going on around us because it can sense and pick up on atmospheres and feelings very easily. It's an important sensing tool, the part of us that feels.

Of course, the way the Moon operates and expresses itself out in the world will be coloured by the Zodiac Sign it's in, which acts like a "costume" which clothes the Moon and modifies its expression. On a basic bottom line level, its expression is influenced by the Element (Fire, Earth, Air or Water) of that Sign, so I'll make a few suggestions here:

Fire Sign Moons - those in fiery Aries, Leo and Sagittarius - will tend towards optimism and enthusiasm. Fiery Moons want to be noticed. They will be lively, expressive and outspoken with energetic feelings that demand attention.

Earth Sign Moons - those in earthy Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn - will have a strong practical streak. They may be a bit fussy, but they are down-to-earth and generally enjoy sensual things, espcially Taurus Moons. They will appreciate good quality in all areas of life.

Air Sign Moons - those in airy Gemini, Libra and Aquarius - love to communicate and share ideas with others, so they enjoy seeing friends and family, chatting and catching up on news, attending talks, lectures and events which will stimulate the mind.

Water Sign Moons - those in watery Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces - tend to be very emotionally sensitive and tuned in to the feelings of others. They can be very caring, needing to express their feelings and regard for others in tangible ways. But they can also be moody, living life through their feeling nature.

The Moon, representing the sense of self we get through our feelings, is often a part of the personality which is neglected or repressed. We may have been brought up not to show our feelings; they might have been regarded as unacceptable or not something to share or talk about in the environment we grew up in. But they are there all the same, and sometimes they need our attention. 

 

It's worth noting here that the sign the Moon is in is only one layer of understanding and interpreting it in a chart. The aspect pattern it's in, the other planets it connects with and the house/area of life experience it's in all have to be considered.

In this video I talk about some of the ways we can work on developing and understanding the Moon and our feeling nature. There is more on this in my book The Living Birth Chart. Click on the Books by Joyce Hopewell tab at the top of the page.

 

Decisions and choices

My book The Living Birth Chart is a practical workbook which includes theory, chart examples and practical exercises for the reader/seeker to dabble in and enjoy the revelations they provide. It's a book to dive into and use if you want to bring your natal chart to life and apply what you discover to your everyday life. It's also about becoming more self aware and being responsible for yourself and the actions and decisions you make.

Now, I happen to think that achieving and maintaining autonomy and taking responsibility for ourselves is not easy. It’s something which we can always improve upon, wherever we are along this particular path, and sometimes we need to have a refresher and brush up on our skills in this department of everyday life.

Some time ago I heard a radio interview with one of the authors of a book called “Mistakes were made (but not by me)” * about why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions and hurtful acts - declining, wherever possible, to take responsibility for something which we’ve chosen to  do. 

Whether or not our choice was wise, foolish or misguided is not the point; the issue is our reluctance to take responsibility for the choice we made and the part we played.

As far as The Living Birth Chart is concerned, it’s always been my experience that the very best way to learn and understand astrology from a deep level is to make it come alive in ways that we can relate to on an everyday basis. It’s possible to learn astrology in an intellectual way, using our Mercury function of gathering and accumulating facts and information. But when we engage with Jupiter and use our eyes and our senses, and relate what we’re seeing, hearing, touching, perceiving to real life experiences, that’s when astrology truly comes alive and is for real.

When astrology becomes an integral part of your life on a day to day basis it begins to live - and you do too -  with a sharpened focus as you become more consciously aware, which means in turn that you begin to live in a more responsible way.

The point I’m moving towards here relates to the importance and significance of being autonomous and taking responsibility for ourselves and our actions, together with the capacity to recognise and honestly acknowledge when we’ve got something wrong. The converse is equally true, because if we’re really autonomous and self-aware we can quietly acknowledge when we’ve got something right without needing to crow or gloat about it.

One of the key features of astrological psychology as a tool for personal growth is that it places taking responsibility for ourselves, our lives and what goes on within them into our hands, and our hands alone, so it becomes more difficult to blame anyone else if things go wrong.

Using the birth chart as a tool in this way, we find it offers us choices. Once we’re aware that we can exercise choice in our everyday lives, things are unlikely to be the same again because we’ll be responsible for the direction our life takes, and no-one else!

An important way of working towards this greater wholeness can be achieved by developing and using the Sun, which can be likened to the conductor of our orchestra of planets and psychologival drives -  or as I sometimes like to think of it -  the leader of our jazz band!

However you wish to see the role of the Sun, it’s a very significant planet which is involved in the development of our sense of self, our autonomy, our ability to take responsibility - and as well to accept that yes, we do sometimes make mistakes!

The Sun is a Cardinal planet expressing Cardinal energy. It embodies the drive to assert and create, and it is important that this part of us is developed and strengthened so that it can be expressed clearly and without fear. It shouldn’t be hidden away like a bright torch under a damp blanket, but allowed to shine and be seen.

Sun and the Mind

We gain a sense of self of the mind through the Sun, which, in the chart, represents our autonomous self - awareness. With its Cardinal quality, the Sun is our drive to be assertive, go-ahead and initiatory.

The Sun is the sense of self we gain through our ability to make decisions and use the mind. It’s our capacity to choose, our capacity to make conscious choices and ultimately take responsibility for ourselves.

Whichever role you cast it in, it represents how we direct and use our will based on the decisions we make. It leads the way, and the rest of the planets, our psychological drives, follow. The Sun signifies our strength and power and this is involved when we discriminate and judge, when we think, form ideas and tap into our innate creativity. 

 

 

The Sun, the sense of self and the will   

Closely linked with the Sun is the use of the will. We can draw on

 · our strong will which gives us determination and the capacity to keep going

 · our skilful will which endows us with sound common sense and the ability to be flexible and adaptive as we work towards our goals, and

 · and our good will which enables us to include others and to work selflessly for their benefit as well as our own.

The use of the will helps us to be goal-oriented and better able to go after what we want to achieve.

When we’re seeking to achieve the goals we set ourselves, it’s useful to remember that energy follows thought. Using the Sun/mind, we form our ideas and go on to make these real, to make them manifest. Doing so, we can be truly creative.

Our capacity to use our will, to be aware that energy follows thought and to find practical grounding in our everyday lives for our ideas and creativity can be developed and should be encouraged. It can help us strengthen the Sun and gain a greater, more centred self-confidence. We can aim to be devoid of ego needs or the urge to prove that we are “the greatest”. 

And let’s face it - if we’re on a spiritual path, this attitude is pretty much redundant!

 

The Living Birth Chart is published in full colour. Click on the link for more info, and read a review of the book here.

 

* "Mistakes were Made (but not by me)" by Carol Tarvis and Elliot Aronson. pub. Harcourt Books

 

Practical Astrology - taking charge of your life. New, full colour version now available.

Regardless of whether you're new to astrology or not, do you ever stop and ask yourself what you're actually doing astrology FOR? Are you doing it for yourself? Or are you using it to help others better understand themselves and their lives? If the answer to the second question is "yes" then the answer to the first question should also be "yes". How can you begin to help someone else understand their chart/life if you've not already done some intensive work on yourself and your own chart? In my experience, learning and using astrology goes hand in hand with taking charge of your life and making changes, following new paths and directions and gaining deeper insights into what truly makes you tick. 

The Living Birth Chart as a practical workbook for astrologers and students of astrological psychology, now in full colour and updated for 2019. The contents are based on the many workshops I've facilitated over the years and its aim is to bring astrological psychology to life through the practical use of the birth chart. There are plenty of hands-on exersises to dabble in, using your own chart, and topics include

• Aspect colours and motivation
• Working with planets (Sun, Moon and Saturn)
• Influences of childhood and upbringing
• The Moon Node Chart

There are lots of examples given, using the charts of real people (my thanks to all of those people who allowed their charts to be used) and I don't hide my own chart away either. It's on the cover and I use it as an illustrative example in the book. The book is  practical in nature and style. It offers some real hands-on opportunities to work with your own chart in considerable depth, which I hope will bring some significant "aha!" experiences for the reader. It received a great review from the Editor of the Astrological Journal. You can read what he said here.

The Living Birth Chart is a follow-on book to my co-authored first book, The Cosmic Egg Timer which  gives a comprehensive introduction to the Huber Method of astrological psychology. Both books in full colour, are available on line from various sources (including Amazon). They are available as ebooks and can be purchased from the APA Book Shop.