The transits of the planets

Effects of the transiting Moon

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Inward

In traditional astrology - it may surprise the reader to learn - the Moon was the most important of all the planets, not the Sun! This may seem strange to modern astrologers who are accustomed to regarding the slower-moving planets as more important. It is true that transits by the slower-moving planets last a long time. However, it is also true that the Moon’s daily movements are strongly associated with whether a day or time of day is good, bad, or indifferent, positive or negative, and with the emotional tone of the day. It is true that the transits of the Moon by themselves do not identify periods of significant life crisis. However, when there is a significant life crisis, the transits of the Moon become extremely important and may serve to identify the days on which the most critical kinds of emotional or external events occur.

As the Moon moves through the houses of the natal chart, it draws attention to the issues of that house, not in a good or bad way, but simply in a way that requires us to pay attention. However, because the Moon tends to operate on an unconscious level, unexamined attitudes that one may have involving the affairs of that house can be problematic while the Moon makes its transit through that house. Therefore, although the transits of the Moon through a house are not necessarily difficult, it is a good idea to pay close attention to the affairs of that house.

As the transiting Moon moves through the zodiac, it makes all possible transits to every other point in the chart. It is these transits that signify rapid changes of mood and feeling, and the onset or departure of strong emotions. It is important to notice that the transiting Moon itself tells you nothing about the nature of these changes, although the condition and placement of the natal Moon may tell you a great deal, because the situation of your natal Moon governs the way the transiting Moon affects you.

The Moon at the Personal Level

The Moon is the first planet in the ascending Chaldean Order, that is, going from the sphere of the Moon to the sphere of Saturn. As such, the Moon is the most personal of the personal planets. Its significations are so completely bound up with being incarnate in the physical universe that the Moon has more to say about the intrinsic nature of your being within the world, including the most fundamental aspect of the ego that causes your experience of being a separate and isolated individual within the physical world.

The Moon also signifies every aspect of your life, internal as well as external, that is most personal and private. Consequently, the energy of the Moon is completely at home at the personal level. Also, for the most part, the energies of the Moon are benevolent when functioning at the personal level. So, except for the fundamental spiritual illusion of separateness that the Moon typically reinforces, there is nothing that one must do to "improve" the functioning of the lunar energy at the personal level, except possibly to overcome whatever malfunctioning may be occurring within your psyche that may be signified by difficult combinations that the Moon may make with other points and planets in the birth chart.

The Moon at the Interpersonal Level

At the interpersonal level, again depending on the Moon’s situation in the birth chart, the Moon’s energy is also benevolent in that it signifies all relationships and interactions that work well without your having to think about them very much. Such relationships include relationships within your family and with good friends. This does not mean that either of these types of relationships cannot function consciously. It means that they do not always have to. Contrast this with newly formed relationships in which you must always be self-conscious about the impression you are making upon the other person or persons.

In such relationships, the sense of safety and reliability that you can count on without having to think about it very much has not yet been established. In relationships that are going to last, that sense of safety and reliability will become part of the relationship.

There are, of course, close interpersonal relationships both with family and friends that function rather badly because of habits that have formed in early life or early in the relationship. In these you are conscious of the lack of ease and the difficulty, but you may not be conscious as to why that is the case. If you are willing to let go of habit patterns and see things as they really are, these relationships can be healed.

Also, at this level, the Moon signifies all relationships with groups or classes in which your view of them is governed strongly by attitudes formed in childhood or which have formed because of peer pressure. In other words, the Moon signifies all relationships that are based on prejudice and in which you have not allowed yourself to experience the persons who belong to those groups as individuals.

The Moon at the Transcendent Level

There is not much astrological literature that describes the Moon’s energy functioning at the transcendent level. Yet, it is interesting to note that the Moon is the lowest of the planetary spheres before you get to the sphere of the elements in the earth itself. Consequently, the Moon’s highest manifestation is as a representation of nature itself at all levels, not only physical but also spiritual.

There are many systems of religious philosophy that regard the energy of the Moon at its highest level as our personal experience of the World-Soul, the principle that all of nature consists of living energy, such that every quantum, every atom, and every completely integrated whole consisting of parts above these has a form of consciousness, and that consciousness is a direct expression of that which has created this world, or, more accurately, is creating this world. It is an ongoing process.

This is one of the reasons why the Moon, just as much as Neptune and Uranus, can be associated with psychic and other paranormal abilities. These represent a level at which the individual is directly in contact with the World-Soul or, in Latin, the Anima Mundi. So, the Moon represents the principle of "that which is last shall be first and that which is first shall be last."