The first time that Doc. Angiolucci has examined my Natal Chart, I saw him murmuring something like: – Mmmmh… let me check how this Moon is… –, he quickly went to his library, taken a huge book, and started to browse it.
I asked him curiously: – Hey doc., what’s that book…? –
He answered: – These are the Ephemerides. I have to check how is your Moon. –
I checked my Birth Chart, obtained with an online calculator, and it seemed complete in everything. So I asked interrogatively: – But doc… here seems everything ok, moon’s position is clearly visible, even with its precise degrees and… –
Doc. Angiolucci interrupted me: – Oh yes, that says to us its position, but it doesn’t say to us in which phase the Moon was the day you were born. –
At that time, I believed to already know everything about the Moon and its significances in Astrology, but that simple declaration hit me like a bolt, because it has brought to my attention such obvious thing which had been under my nose all the time: Moon has different phases, it is not “static” like the other Planets, so even the lunar phase of the day we were born is important to draw our psychological portrait in detail and depth.
This concept is often ignored or neglected by astrologers or amateurs, because they focus in analyzing only in which Zodiac Sign the Moon is in the Natal Chart, give to it the same treatment of the other Planets. But this is a mistake.
In Astrology every celestial mechanism has its symbolic correspondence on the human plane, and so on the human psyche.
First of all, we have to remember that the Moon is already a “special” Planet and it has a particular place in Astrology, because together with the Sun, it is one of the two Luminaries, namely, the 2 fundamental Principles of the whole astrological system; they psychologically represent the 2 fundamental sides of our being: the Conscious [Sun] and the Unconscious [Moon].
It’s not a case that in Horary Astrology or Electional Astrology, the Moon is the co-significant Planet of the applicant, in other words, the aster which represents him in the Chart.
The Moon embodies one of the two opposite poles in the Cosmos: The Passive-Feminine Principle, which in Alchemy is responsible for the irradiation of one of the two Generative Universal Forces, namely the Humid. In fact, even according to Aristotle, the Moon distributes the Humid in various shapes and measures following its different phases exactly (you have to think at that allegorically and not literally, of course).
The importance of the lunar phases it’s even more obvious if we also remember that in all the Esoteric Traditions they are a capital element to consider. For example, in Traditional Magic or even in Ceremonial Kabbalistic Magic, rituals must be made during precise lunar phases to be successful.
Astrology, as the esoteric science that treats the specific study of the Celestial Bodies, cannot give low valor to the lunar cycles and their correlations with the Men’s plane. If we reflect carefully, we will note that Astrology already gives great consideration to at least one lunar phase: the Eclipse. It is even the base of an entire branch of Astrology founded upon the Draconic Zodiac, a different Zodiac from the Tropical one or the Sideral one, which takes as reference the Moon and its Eclipse phases. However, those are advanced concepts of Astrosophy that are not important today.
The point is that, as always in Astrology, we find analogical correspondences between the moon phases and the human psyche. So, if we want to get an accurate and detailed analysis of a Natal Chart, we will not check the Moon’s position only, but we will check even in which phase was that Moon to get the exact psychological shade of the piece of the personality that it represents.
Indeed, we could see it like that: If Planets were colors, and, for example, we know that the Moon is the color Blue and we also know that it irradiates every shade of blue in different moments, well, saying just: – the Moon is the blue – is not enough. Is it blue china? Is it turquoise? An ultramarine blue? A sky-blue? A light blue? Here is the same thing; Moon is the Planet of the emotions, and emotions are multiple shades of the same essence, the Unconscious. So, the Moon’s position will tell us how is the basic “mood” of the person examined, but its phase will tell us the real nature of that mood, giving us a more refined psychological portrait.
Well, now it’s time to go more in depth about the psychological meanings of the different Lunar Phases.
Read more