Moon

The Moon is exalted in Taurus, and the tradition reads the emotional nature at its most settled here - feelings that are steady and slow to disturb, an instinct for comfort, and a deep need for security and the reassurance of the senses. Astrologers describe a calm inner life that is hard to unsettle and equally hard to shift.

The Moon is in its detriment in Capricorn, and the tradition reads a feeling nature that keeps itself in check - needs met through self-reliance rather than shown, emotions disciplined and held at a distance. Astrologers describe a reserved inner life that seeks security in structure and duty and is slow to admit its own wants.

The Moon is in its fall in Scorpio, and the tradition reads a feeling nature of great intensity that guards its depths - needs held secret, emotions that run to extremes, and attachments that are total. Astrologers describe a powerful inner life, slow to trust and slow to release, that transforms through what it feels most deeply.

With the Moon in the tenth house the emotional life is exposed to public view, and astrologers read a person whose feelings and need to nurture are expressed through career and reputation. The tradition notes a standing that fluctuates, a responsiveness to the public mood, and often a vocation of care.

The Moon in the eleventh house seeks emotional belonging in friendship and the group, and astrologers read a person who treats friends as family and whose feelings are engaged by shared hopes. The tradition notes comfort found in community and a nurturing instinct extended to the collective.

With the Moon in the twelfth house the feelings withdraw into the hidden, and astrologers read a rich, private emotional life easily overwhelmed by the world and in need of retreat. The tradition notes deep compassion, unspoken needs, and moods drawn from sources below the surface.

Astrologers read the Moon in the first house as a feeling nature worn openly - moods visible in the manner, a presence that responds to and reflects the emotional weather around it. The tradition notes sensitivity, changeability, and a self met first through its receptivity.

With the Moon in the second house emotional security is tied to material security, and astrologers read a person who needs the reassurance of resources and comfort to feel safe. The tradition notes fluctuating finances and a habit of seeking in possessions the steadiness the feelings crave.

The Moon in the third house colours thought and speech with feeling, and astrologers read a mind that needs to talk through its moods and stays close, emotionally, to siblings and the immediate surroundings. The tradition notes a changeable, impressionable intelligence and comfort found in familiar exchange.

The Moon in the fifth house ties the feelings to pleasure, romance and children, and astrologers read a person whose emotional life is expressed through play and creativity and who loves warmly and demonstratively. The tradition notes moods bound up with the joys of self-expression and a tender devotion to children.

With the Moon in the sixth house emotional wellbeing is tied to the daily round, and astrologers read a person who nurtures through work and service and whose moods register in the body and health. The tradition notes comfort found in useful routine and a tendency for feeling to affect the constitution.

The Moon in the seventh house seeks emotional security in partnership, and astrologers read a person who needs a close relationship to feel settled and is drawn to nurturing or to being nurtured. The tradition notes a strong instinct for union and a domestic warmth carried into marriage.

With the Moon in the eighth house the feelings run deep and hidden, and astrologers read an intense emotional nature drawn to intimacy, crisis and what is shared or concealed. The tradition notes powerful attachments, emotional extremes, and a capacity to be transformed through what is felt most privately.

The Moon in the ninth house ties feeling to belief and the far horizon, and astrologers read an emotional need for meaning, movement and the foreign. The tradition notes moods lifted by travel and philosophy and an instinctive rather than reasoned faith.

With the Moon in Aquarius the feelings are held at a cool remove, and astrologers read an inner life that meets its needs through friendship, ideals and independence rather than through intimacy alone. The tradition notes emotions understood before they are felt and a comfort found in belonging to something larger than the personal.

Astrologers read the Moon in Aries as a feeling nature that reacts fast and without disguise - needs pressed immediately, moods that flare and pass, an instinct to meet emotion with action. The tradition notes courage and impatience in the inner life and comfort found in independence rather than in being tended.

With the Moon in Gemini the feelings are filtered through the mind, and astrologers read an inner life that talks itself through its moods and needs variety to feel at ease. The tradition notes changeable, curious emotions and a habit of meeting need with words and understanding rather than with quiet.

Astrologers read the Moon in Leo as a warm and demonstrative feeling nature that needs to be loved openly and answers coldness with hurt pride. The tradition notes generous, steady affections, a dramatic inner life, and an instinct to give warmth and to command it in return.

The Moon in Libra ties emotional wellbeing to harmony, and astrologers read a nature that needs relationship and peace to feel settled and is unbalanced by discord. The tradition notes a gracious, accommodating inner life that reaches for another to steady itself and dislikes being at odds.

The Moon in Pisces dissolves the edge of feeling, and the tradition reads an inner life of great sympathy that absorbs the moods of everything around it. Astrologers describe boundless, compassionate emotions, a need for retreat and imagination, and a nature that can lose its own needs in another's.

With the Moon in Sagittarius the emotional nature needs room and a reason to hope, and astrologers read an inner life that is restless when confined and buoyed by movement, belief and the open view. The tradition notes warm, frank feelings and a comfort found less in settling than in seeking.

With the Moon in Virgo the feelings seek order, and astrologers read an inner life that tends its needs through usefulness, routine and care of detail. The tradition notes emotions kept modestly in check, a tendency to worry, and comfort found in being helpful and in things done properly.

With the Moon in the fourth house it rests in a domain close to its own nature, and astrologers read deep emotional roots in home and family - a powerful need for a private base and a strong bond to origin and memory. The tradition notes an inner life that is the emotional foundation of the whole chart.

In Cancer the Moon rules its own sign, and the tradition reads the emotional nature undiluted - deep, tidal feeling, a powerful instinct to nurture and protect, and needs bound up with home, family and memory. Astrologers describe an inner life of great receptivity, strongly attuned to the moods around it.

Arianrhod's name means silver wheel, and her fortress Caer Arianrhod was identified with a constellation rather than with the moon. The lunar reading is a twentieth century neopagan development, not anything found in the Mabinogi.

Chandra, also called Soma, is the second graha, and the Indian calendar is lunisolar, so the moon carries more structural weight in jyotisha than in Western practice. The Moon's sign, not the Sun's, grounds a typical Indian reading.

Chang e fled to the moon after taking the elixir of immortality and remains its best known occupant, with the Mid-Autumn Festival still addressed to her. Chinese astronomy treated the moon as Yue, a body rather than a person.

Khonsu is a genuine Egyptian lunar god whose name is read as traveller, describing the moon's passage. Thoth also carried lunar functions, so Egyptian practice divided the moon between two gods rather than settling on one.

Luna is simply the Latin word for the moon treated as a goddess, used where the Greeks used Selene. The word survives in the lunar vocabulary of astrology and in the ordinary speech of the Romance languages.

Mani steers the moon in Norse cosmology and is Sol's brother, likewise pursued by a wolf. Monday carries his name into English through the Germanic translation of the Roman planetary week, which is the real mechanism here.

Metztli is the Nahuatl moon, and the Mexica read a rabbit rather than a face in its markings, an image shared with East Asia. Coyolxauhqui, dismembered by Huitzilopochtli, carries the moon's mythic role more prominently.

Selene is the moon as body rather than as huntress, and Greek practice kept her distinct from Artemis, who acquired lunar associations later. Hellenistic astrology inherited the lunar planet under Selene's name from Babylonian precedent.

Sin of Ur was the moon itself in Babylonian reckoning rather than merely its patron, and the lunar month governed the Mesopotamian calendar. This is the source layer from which the later Greek and Roman moon deities were mapped.

Tsukuyomi is the moon kami born from Izanagi's right eye as Amaterasu was born from the left, and their estrangement in myth explains why sun and moon never share the sky. Monday, Getsuyobi, carries the same character.