A moon sign is read in two layers: what the Moon stands for in a birth chart, and the style the sign adds to it. The Moon's position at your birth is a measured fact. What it means is a reading from astrological tradition.
What does the Moon stand for in astrology?
In Western astrology, the Moon's themes are emotions and instincts. Wikipedia's summary of the tradition, drawn from astrology handbooks by Jeff Mayo, Sasha Fenton and others, links the Moon with:
- intuition, emotions, moods and instincts
- unconscious habits, rhythms and memories
- the ability to react and adapt to people around you
- for some astrologers, the mother, nurture, home, security and early childhood
Other traditions read it in their own way. In Indian astrology, the Moon is called Chandra and represents the mind, queenship and mother.
How does the sign change the meaning?
In astrology, the signs are held to represent "characteristic modes of expression". So a moon sign is read as the Moon's themes expressed in that sign's way. One way in is the sign's element: some astrologers begin reading a birth chart with the balance of elements, especially in the Sun and Moon.
| Element | Moon signs | Keywords | In a day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire | Aries, Leo, Sagittarius | Assertion, drive, willpower | Act on one clear feeling |
| Earth | Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn | Practicality, caution, material world | Tend one practical need |
| Air | Gemini, Libra, Aquarius | Communication, socialization, conceptualization | Talk one feeling through |
| Water | Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces | Emotion, empathy, sensitivity | Notice what you feel first |
For example, a Moon in Taurus puts the Moon's themes next to the earth keywords: practicality, caution and the material world. Each sign also has a mode, cardinal, fixed or mutable, which some astrologers combine with the element.
Where is the Moon strong or weak, according to Lilly?
William Lilly's Christian Astrology (1647) judges "the strength, fortitude or debility of the Planets" partly by sign, which he calls essential dignity. On his page on the Moon, she has Cancer as her house and Capricorn as her detriment, is exalted in Taurus and has her fall in Scorpio. Capricorn and Scorpio are the signs opposite Cancer and Taurus.
| Condition | Sign | In Lilly's table |
|---|---|---|
| House (rulership) | Cancer | Dignity, scored 5 |
| Exaltation | Taurus | Dignity, scored 4 |
| Detriment | Capricorn | Debility, scored 5 |
| Fall | Scorpio | Debility, scored 4 |
These labels describe the Moon's standing in a chart, not a verdict on a person. Lilly also counts strength that comes "Accidentally", such as a planet being angular, so the sign is one part of the reading.
What this means for your day
For your day
Do
Read your moon sign next to your sun and rising signs, not on its own.
Don't
Don't read a Moon in fall as a verdict on your feelings.
Questions people ask
Does the house of the Moon matter too?
In Lilly's 1647 scheme, yes. He scores a planet's house as an accidental fortitude, separate from its sign, and gives the most to the Ascendant (1st) and Midheaven (10th) houses.
Is a Vedic moon sign read the same way?
Not always. Vedic astrology reads the Moon as the mind and uses the sidereal zodiac, so the Moon can also fall in a different sign from a Western chart.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Planets in astrology. The Moon's traditional associations, its rulership of Cancer and exaltation in Taurus, and its reading in Indian astrology.
- Wikipedia: Astrological sign. Signs as modes of expression and the element keywords.
- Wikipedia: Essential dignity. The table of rulership, detriment, exaltation and fall from William Lilly's Christian Astrology (1647).
- William Lilly, Christian Astrology (London, 1647), p. 80 (the Moon's house, detriment, exaltation and fall), pp. 101 to 103 (essential and accidental strength) and p. 115 (table of fortitudes and debilities). Scan of the 1647 edition on the Internet Archive.
- Wikipedia: Sidereal and tropical astrology. The sidereal zodiac used in Vedic astrology.