The Moon and You

In astrology, the luminaries, also known as the Sun and Moon, define the archetypal energies associated with an individual’s core personality, identity, purpose, emotions, habits, and instincts. They share an interesting relationship in that one rules the day and one rules the night. Further, the Sun generates it's own light and the Moon reflects that same light.

The Moon is the fastest moving body used in astrological delineation and prediction. It moves through eight different phases and all of the zodiac signs in 28 days. This equates to an approximate movement of 12-13 degrees per day.

As one journeys back in time in search of the beginnings of astrology, it leads us deeply into the past, 40,000 years ago or more—all the way to the Late Paleolithic era. Here in the ancient caves of the hunters and shaman, we find a curious human silhouette painted on the walls of a cave in Spain that is surrounded by a series of symbols and markings. What are they? They are the eight phases of the moon, or the Great Goddess.

These markings found in northern Spain represent the earliest record ever found of humans consciously measuring and using planetary cycles. This may even represent the gestation period of astrology, when we were recognizing our connection to all that is. Perhaps we were sensing our symbiotic relationship with the universe? It was the observation of the ever-changing cycle of the Goddess, standing in stark contrast to the constant light of the solar deity, that seemed to draw our ancestors into the mystery. The ebbs and flows of the Lunar Goddess manifested as being more directly connected with the human experience.

Consequently, it was the phases of the moon that became a guide that helped determine times of planting, hunting, and fertility rites. Captured within the waxing and waning light of the moon was encapsulated a sacred bridge, one that helped our ancestors connect their inner world of dreams and visions with the outer world they were experiencing daily of hunting and working with the natural world they found themselves in. What many in our modern culture would dismiss as having no merit, the ancient ones recognized as a magical interconnectedness they could rely upon and trust.

Within the Chinese teaching known as the Tao; we find this concept repeated. Essentially, the Tao asks that one put themselves in harmony with everything around one’s self by observing the way of nature. This, to me, is what the eight phases of the moon also remind us to do. It’s the delicate dance between the solar light of consciousness and lunar intuitive light that represent an alchemical marriage of the Sun and Moon. Embodied in the changing light of the moon are soul types that seem to be karmically charged.

In my experience as an astrologer, it is in the midst of these phases/soul types that people find an immediate connection to a more nuanced dimension of their persona. That aspect always seems much older than the “me” of their social personality. It represents something more subtle about the self that lies below the surface of one’s Sun and Moon signs. I have further found that held inside one’s moon phase can lie the key to awareness of one’s soul work and a recognition of our automatic and instinctual responses to situations we encounter throughout our life. Do you know your moon phase?