All About The Moon
The Moon represents our heart; it is our 'reigning emotional need.' It's the instinctual part of us that doesn't think, just feels. When we are true to our Moon, we feel happy and content; we feel that our emotional needs are being met. Where our moon is in our charts can tell us what types of experiences are most essential for our happiness, and what we need to feel nurtured, protected, and cared for. It can also tell us how we nurture others.
There is an element to the moon that is simply about the instinctual side of ourselves, the part that just reacts. When you don't have time to think about what you should feel about something and you just respond emotionally, how is that expressed? What emotional needs motivate our external behaviors? The moon, being kind of our vulnerable soft spot, is something that we have built in protection for. When we are feeling defensive and hurt, how is this expressed and what sort of things might hurt our feelings? All these things are determined by the sign and house placement of the Moon, as well as any aspects between it & other planets in your chart.
The shadowed side of the moon has to do with emotional self-indulgence. When we fall into pouting, moodiness, and emotionally charged tantrums where we seem to regress to behaviors of an infant, where emotion is all there is and we cannot see beyond it.
Here's a small and imperfect Moon 'cookbook'. Find your Moon sign and house for a snippet about your natal chart. If you don't know where your Moon is, you can create a free chart here and find out! Remember, anything taken out of context of the entire blend of your natal chart is like an ingredient in a dish without the other ingredients to add nuance and complexity. Digest these ingredients with a grain of salt, so to speak!
Moon in Aries
You are happiest when you feel a sense of strength in your emotional life, a feeling that you can rely on yourself. It is best for you to express your emotions boldly, without a feeling of being pent up or having to be too mincingly nice. You are learning about boldness and courage of the heart in this life, and challenges that require guts make you feel happy and exhilarated when you meet them head on. When you throw a tantrum, you are direct and fierce and may even need a physical release to help calm down after confrontation.
Moon in Taurus
You are happiest with a sense of peace and stability in your life, something that helps you feel grounded. Your approach to expressing your emotions is rather matter of fact, from a grounded common sense place. You are most comforted and nurtured by touch, those you love may find you very cuddly. When you throw a tantrum, it may be long overdue because you are not quick to anger and don’t prefer to actively seek out confrontation. You need to check in with yourself more frequently emotionally to avoid resentment building up and turning into frustration with no outlet.
Moon in Gemini
You are happiest with the exhilaration of never-ending activity and social expression. Happiness is having a changeable routine for you. You express your emotions easiest when you are able to talk your way down to your heart — sometimes it’s easier for you to recognize how you feel at the moment you say something out loud. You are most comforted and nurtured by a feeling of connection with another through talking — a playful banter is very fun and relaxing for you. When you throw a tantrum it may help to talk and talk and talk your way through it to release the tension.
Moon in Cancer
You are happiest with a sense of safety through your own space, your own turf. You are comforted by a safe and quiet space to breathe and regroup to feel at ease. When you throw a tantrum it usually takes the form of pouting first, feeling hurt and dejected. It may help to ease your way in to telling the person who hurt you how you feel, in a safe environment.
Moon in Leo
You are happiest when you feel appreciated. You may have the impression that all Leos are boisterous and loud egomaniacs, but in reality the moon in any sign has it’s version of shyness. You are learning to reveal your heart through your creations in this life, and it crushes you if it is not well received by those you care about. When you throw a tantrum it may take the form of arrogance, as if you don’t need anyone or anything, which is exactly the opposite of the truth but is a good temporary self-defense mechanism.
Moon in Virgo
You are happiest when you feel are needed, that there is some purpose for you to fulfill. You are most comforted and nurtured by being able to offer some form of help and doing something tangibly good in your environment, and in yourself — you are a good analyst when it comes to expressing your emotions and what they might mean. When you throw a tantrum, it usually takes the form of bitter complaining and criticism. This is as a result of that perfection complex in you gone full force into continual dissatisfaction — take a reality check; somewhere inside yourself, the tension of not being good enough may push you into criticizing everything around you because of that inner critic.
Moon in Libra
You are happiest when you have a sense of peace and beauty. You have an emotional need to feel calm, in that sense it helps you feel safe. You feel comforted and nurtured by the presence of another whom you care about. When you throw a tantrum, like Taurus, it is probably long overdue. You may avoid confrontation like the plague, trying to smooth out the wrinkles of human interaction by overlooking them rather than sorting it out. It will help if you can have the confrontation respectfully, without too much ugliness.
Moon in Scorpio
You are happiest when you are digging in the dark places underneath the surface of yourself and of other people. You have a sense of life underneath the commercial and packaged life that most people seem to be content with swallowing. You are most comforted and nurtured by honesty and intensity in your life. You don’t need kittens and music and flowers, what you need is to feel your own dark and strong heart beating inside of you, and to be able to trust those you care about with that heat. When you throw a tantrum, it is incredibly fierce and may come from a previous bout of dark moodiness when it erupts. Never attempt to bury it, but take care where you unleash the destruction, because while you can rise again, but not everyone or everything can around you.
Moon in Sagittarius
You are happiest when you feel free, independent, with a sense of being able to roam and do what you want. You are most comforted and nurtured by the permission and freedom to experience whatever you are drawn to. You have a need for new experiences, for adventures that open your mind and heart and surprise you. When you throw a tantrum, it may be in response to feeling stuck or pinned down. Your first instinct may be to just get out of whatever is making you angry. This tendency can, however, lead you down a dark path with a string of unresolved situations behind you that you moved on too soon from.
Moon in Capricorn
You are happiest when you are keeping your emotions in line with what your intentions and goals are. It is appropriate for you to feel your emotions but not to have them control you or sway you to extremes. You are most comforted and nurtured by solitude. It is most unpleasant for you to feel that your emotions are running away with you, therefore, your form of a tantrum is usually by clamping down even further as your emotional level rises in order to gain control of yourself, but you need to be careful that your heart doesn’t turn to stone.
Moon in Aquarius
You are happiest when you are able to express who you truly are, as opposed to who you ‘should’ be. You are most comforted and nurtured by the freedom to say and do and think as you please and those in your life who can accept it are a bonus, but not required. When you throw a tantrum, it may manifest as rebellion but it’s of the sort that is more like rebel for rebellion’s sake. Helping yourself realize that you can’t look from the tribe, but must look to yourself, to set the tone of your own individuation can help you feel less trapped when faced with a ‘should.’
Moon in Pisces
You are happiest when you are living a life that feeds your imagination. You need a touch of the romantic, the fantastic, the mystical and the magical in your life to reach your heart. You have an emotional hunger for experiences that seem to be explainable only through metaphysical means — you are not moved by only what you can see and prove. You are most comforted and nurtured by simple kindness and compassion, given and received. You must guard against your vulnerability to merge too much with another, taking on their emotions as your own and blurring the lines between you and those you love too much. When you throw a tantrum, you may lapse into an overdeveloped sense of martyrdom and melodrama, but this is a form of escape for you when things become upsetting. Compassion for yourself and a safe place to fall apart temporarily might serve you better.
Moon in 1st house
You need to be the most in touch with your heart in the way you approach life. Your ‘motto’ for how you see the world needs to include how you feel about the world — greeting life with your heart and your intuition, feeling your way through your navigation of life. Your emotional well being depends on an emotional investment in your very self. You are most emotionally crippled when you don’t take the initiative in your own life.
Moon in 2nd house
You need to be the most in touch with your heart in your belief in yourself. Your emotional well being depends on a healthy sense of your own worth, a feeling in your gut that you know you can take on challenges because you know what you are made of. You are most emotionally crippled when you are unwilling to take a chance on yourself.
Moon in 3rd house
You need to be the most in touch with your heart in what you say, all your communication. Your emotional well being depends on being able to say how you feel, and having relationships that nurture your voice and the importance of what you have to say. You are most emotionally crippled when you feel misunderstood or unheard, or when you simply feel you have no one to talk to or who wants to talk with you. You are emotionally recharged by lively and meaningful social interaction.
Moon in 4th house
You need to be the most in touch with your heart in your own home. Your emotional well being depends on getting enough down time, where you can retreat into some space that you can call your own, a place that is a sanctuary, whatever that might look like to you, as long as it is a place in your life that you can return to when you are in need of emotional recharging. You are most emotionally crippled when you feel there is no safe place for you to let your hair down.
Moon in 5th house
You need to be the most in touch with your heart when you play. The 5th house is where we create, where we play, where we fall in love — the pleasure in life. Your emotional well being depends on playing and relaxing, which can then be a strong source of creative juice for you. You are most easily emotionally crippled when you become addicted to pleasures that don’t engage your heart but only entertain your mind and/or body, which has the danger of serving as a numbing escape instead of an authentic expression.
Moon in 6th house
You need to be the most in touch with your heart in your daily life. Our days turn into weeks and months and years which form our entire life, and with your moon here it is imperative that you emotionally check in with yourself frequently to ensure that you are spending your days involved in work and tasks that feed your heart. Your emotional well being depends on spending your days doing something meaningful to you. You are most emotionally crippled when engaged in work that feels more akin to slavery than a joyful giving.
Moon in 7th house
You need to be the most in touch with your heart in relationships. If your moon is here this is an indicator that you can’t do what you came here to do entirely alone, others have important pieces of the puzzle for you that your relationships with them can provide. Your emotional well being depends on a partnership, a sense of give and take and mutual receptivity and enjoyment with another person. You are most emotionally crippled when you are in any kind of relationship where you do not feel emotionally seen, one where the balance of power is off kilter.
Moon in 8th house
You need to be the most in touch with your heart when it comes to your knowledge of your own wounds and psychological issues. Your emotional well being depends on you exploring and expressing the emotions that aren’t so pretty — the ones that come from your pain and your fears and the craziness that we each have inside of us. Within the context of intimacy is frequently where you will find these issues come up for you, and the strength to deal with them as well. You are most emotionally crippled when you shut of the parts of you that you fear.
Moon in 9th house
You need to be the most in touch with your heart when you are considering what you feel to be your philosophies about life, love, and the universe. Your emotional well being depends on freely and fearlessly pursuing knowledge — you are emotionally fed when you are asking yourself the questions about what life really means, and when you are answering them in ways that mean the most to you. You are most emotionally crippled when you stop learning and decide what’s true and what isn’t, once and for all. You must keep learning, the quest has no need for an end for you.
Moon in 10th house
You need to be the most in touch with your heart in your work. Your emotional well being depends on giving a meaningful gift to the community, and a sense that that gift is from the deepest and best parts of you, with skills that have been hard won. If we’re lucky, this gift to the community is also known as our ‘career’, but you don’t have to get paid for this job for it to mean something. You are most emotionally crippled when you pursue recognition, prestige, or a stereotypical view of success that has nothing to do with what you give but what dollar figure you bring in or what awards you win.
Moon in 11th house
You need to be the most in touch with your heart when planning and building your future. You need to dream with your heart and your emotional well being depends on following those dreams. You may find happiness in groups or organizations, social circles and allies that aid those dreams, where you can find a sense of a common cause, common dreams that you share and can pursue together, helping each other to attain these dreams. You are most emotionally crippled when you live in the future and never reach it, dreaming but never doing.
Moon in 12th house
You need to be the most in touch with your heart in your spiritual pursuits. Your emotional well being depends on your ability to tap into a sense of greater meaning, something bigger than yourself, whether it’s the idea of divinity or a sense of a compassionate Universe. You are mostemotionally crippled when you subscribe to a narrow and depressed view of life, one that contains no meaning and no peace.
