moon

Of the celestial bodies, the Moon is the closest to us. In fact, compared to the distance of the other celestial bodies to Earth, the Moon is intimately close to us. Thus the astrological archetype of the Moon is associated with that which is intimately close to us. The Moon can be thought of as reflecting the relational core of our identity. We are the son/daughter of so and so, the brother/sister of so and so. The Moon reflects our sense of belonging, our sense of home, our sense of our emotional comfort place. In the morning we meet the day and go impress our will upon it, but in the evenings, generally speaking, we return to our comfort place, our home, and spend quality time with our emotional intimates. This reflects the archetypal quality of the Moon.

Because the Moon is associate with our feelings, it is also associated with the soft and dependent parts of ourselves, and particularly our childhood, when we are totally dependent. At the core of that childhood dependency is our relationship with our mother, upon who we depend, and from whose body we were originally united. Thus the Moon is associated with the mother, with the family, with the childhood, and with the foundation of emotional conditioning that was laid in childhood.

The planets aligned with (or “aspecting”) the Moon in our birth chart (or “natal chart”) reflect the style in which we give and receive nurturance and nourishment. They reflect our comfort place and our approach to emotional intimacy.