We left off talking about what the lunar position says about a person. And I brought up Daniel Giamario's theory relating to the idea that the Moon placement signifies where the soul has been in the previous incarnation. At the end of the last article I was talking about the Moon in Taurus and how intimacy is so important to them. These people have a desire to be so close that they almost shape shift and become their partner. They are experts at this but it is an aspect of themselves that they no longer need to emphasize. Most of these people have what amounts to a Tantric understanding of love and relationships. But because this is something they have already done, continuing to search for this level of intimacy more than likely won't get them what they want. Not in this life. Anyone with a Taurus Moon really needs to monitor the tendency to become a clone of their partner or of handing their total identity over to their partner. The old books always describe Taurean energy as possessive and ownership oriented. The deeper motives for what surfaces as possessiveness come from an inner sense that what they share with someone else is valuable, precious and ultimately so sacred that they can't possibly see how anyone else could give them that. Nor can they see how their partner could have the same experience with another person. So, they keep a tight grip on whoever they attach themselves to and they see every close bond as permanent. There is nothing inherently wrong with being this way, but when the Moon's in Taurus many of the life lessons teach the person that they just can't go there anymore. Depending on where the Sun and Ascendant are this quality will be more or less magnified. If a person has the Sun in Aries it'll be easier for them to maintain their own uniqueness in a relationship. If they have Aquarius Rising they will definitely have to learn how to experience love with more detachment and all of their "permanent pictures" will more than likely be busted sooner or later. With Libra Rising the individual would still be able to maintain the intimacy factor but they would have to see that their needs and their partner's needs would not necessarily always be one and the same thing. They would have to allow for the fact that their partner would have a right to be their own person and willingly give that idea some space. This does not just mean learning to compromise, and I will explain more about what I'm talking about when we discuss the Libra archetype.
When the Moon's in Gemini the person has been "playing" in all of their previous incarnations. With this lunar placement you know right away that this individual has had a tremendous amount of freedom and absolutely no restrictions. Daniel Giamario compares the Gemini archetype to having diplomatic license plates. With this picture in mind, it's easy to figure out that the individual has had cosmic permission to go anywhere and be anything and has never had to worry about getting busted for it. What a wonderful thing! Anyone with a Gemini Moon comes into this life with a tremendous feeling of looseness because they have never HAD to get bound up in any particular way of being, nor were they ever subject to anyone's rules. The "rules" could be whatever they wanted them to be. The reason they have been allowed to have all this freedom is because their soul has needed to gather up as much information as possible from a wide variety of experiences. In order to assimilate all these experiences they have had to develop the ability to change, or shape shift enough to fit in anywhere and bear witness to what is going on. All of the information they have collected about life is stored inside them. And because they have "seen it all" people with the Moon in Gemini know without a doubt that nothing that happens on this dirt ball is serious. That's the "Cosmic Joke". When a person gets to the point where everything is just a game, life is so much easier. The problem here is that anyone with a Gemini Moon is moving AWAY from this way of being. And what has always been so light and simple is PROBABLY not going to be that way in this life. What you see with this is that these people spend the first half of their life still believing they can get away with murder, so to speak, but everything that happens to them teaches them that they have to buckle down and get serious. All the experience and information they've gathered now has to be structured more formally. And I think it must be quite difficult to leave their freedom behind. It's like having the teacher whack your hand with a ruler when all you're doing is being you self. Keep in mind that it's OK to spend SOME of your time "doing your Moon", but no more than one third of it. Gemini people know deep inside how to laugh at everything better than anyone else. They also know how to be light, charming, witty, and playful. They have a Doctorate in these things. But this behavior won't get them as far as it used to and, again, depending on where the Sun and Rising Sign lie, and also on where Venus and Mars are, they will have to shift their focus, or lack of focus in this case. If they have Capricorn Rising forget about it! This would mean their personal identity project in this life would be to learn how to get totally serious and authoritative. It would be like putting a dolphin in a straitjacket! And there would be some hard lessons bringing all the inherent playfulness into a heavier mode. Gemini dabbles. Capricorn is the "Expert" or the "authority on the subject". Imagine how someone who has always been free to just fool around would handle having it matter that they HAVE to become the best at something, or shape up and be accountable. With Scorpio Rising the person would have to learn how to really get intense or be getting away from the idea that this is all a big joke. With this combination there would be a lot of lessons involving other people's values and perhaps some difficulty accepting how those values infringe upon their personal freedom needs. In cases where a person has a Gemini Moon AND Gemini Rising what I have seen is that all the fooling around from the previous lives has been done at other people's expense and the individual probably did not learn fully how to be free in a healthy way. They've come back to do it over again and get it right. It's kind of like having to stay back a grade in school or going for your Ph.D. and not finishing your dissertation. Some part of the training is incomplete. This goes for all signs by the way. Anyone with the same Moon and Rising is more or less required now to finish their dissertation, whether they want to or not.
When you talk about having a Cancer Moon, most astrologers go on and on about how wonderful it is because the Moon rules Cancer and it's right at home in this sign. If you're having your chart done, it's nice to hear about how emotionally balanced you are but the truth is NO ONE IS so talk like this is a lot of bullshit (Pardon me!). Astrologers will often do the same number on anyone with a Taurus Moon because the Moon is exalted in Taurus. While this kind of information is interesting and flattering on some level, it doesn't serve the client in a real way. Anyone with the Moon in Cancer has had lifetimes of being a householder. They have been immersed in the cultural understanding of the type of security that is supposed to come from home and family. These people can take care of anyone and anything and they know how to do this on every level that human beings exist at. Their natural inclination is to remain in this mind set so they are usually very attached to their parents, the past, their kids, and the idea that somehow it is very important to maintain all of these structures in the ways this has been done in the past. I said in an earlier article that if you like to eat hook up with someone who has a Cancer Moon. The reason they love to cook is because they have probably spent their entire previous life in survival mode raising their own food and feeding their thirteen children! Inevitably, anyone with a Cancer Moon will be faced with lessons that force them to move away from their attachment to family, parenting, and home (Unless they have Cancer Rising). It shows up very clearly in so many situations nowadays. People with this lunar placement, and women in particular, usually have very fated, karmic experiences that revolve around leaving their children and/or their family attachments. When they come to me there is an enormous amount of guilt or angst about why it had to happen. The culture we live in does not support behavior like this, and anyone who has had to disengage from their role as a parent for any reason is regarded as suspect. What we don't realize is that there are lessons of an evolutionary nature that all of us are here to learn and they don't have to include playing house or being a stereotypical parent. From the spiritual standpoint, some people are required to leave that nurturing pattern behind because they just don't need to do it any more. It helps a person to accept what's happened a little bit better when they hear that they've already had that training and need to be moving on to something else. Men have this as much as women do. Men with the Moon in Cancer have HUGE needs to take care of EVERYONE. These are the guys who are always there for their kids, their step kids, and anyone else who appears to need them. I've known men with the Moon in Cancer who are supporting their own children, roller skating with their girlfriend's kids, shoveling money out to their step kids from every previous marriage, and doling out a small fortune in alimony to several ex's because they believe it's their JOB to make sure everyone is safe and secure. And what I inevitably hear from them is they hardly ever receive a phone call or a birthday card from ANY of the people they're giving so much to. The universe is showing them so clearly that there's nothing to be gained from behaving this way, but they're so accustomed to it they just keep doing it. And if a guy like this has Gemini or Sagittarius Rising it's very clear that he's done enough "taking care of" and any need to continue to do this is an addiction, it's not healthy for him. He's getting a break in this life if he has Gemini on the Ascendant because it more or less gives him permission to hop on his Harley and go ANYWHERE. He's free to say, "See you later kids, you're on your own." The point is he won't learn anything about himself if he continues to operate in "caretaker" mode. It's hard for these people to believe it when you tell them that from a spiritual perspective they would be better off letting it go and coming to the understanding that security, REAL security and safety comes from being who YOU are. The truth is that we are living in a time where home and family, the way they have been understood in the past, don't exist. At this point family is really found in community. The breakdown of the nuclear family model that has taken place over the last forty years, contrary to popular opinion, is not a BAD thing. We've gone beyond it and are beginning to learn that you can get nurturance and a sense of safety elsewhere, ANYWHERE, because we're moving into a state of consciousness where we're realizing that EVERYTHING is connected. The Cancer Moon thing is very interesting and can be looked at from a lot of different angles. Many people who have this are actually afraid to let go of their family attachments and are hugely identified with what they think they offer their tribe in the way of support. We all know people who can't seem to get their s--- together because they're too busy nursing Mommy and Daddy, or SOMEONE. It seems that most of these types have some vision or some dream that they can't focus on completely because they feel so obligated to provide what others appear to need from them. In cases like this those attachments form the basis for an excuse for why they never get to be who they are. And while they may reap some benefit in the short term by trading their heart's desire for the family estate, a free place to live, or whatever, in the long run they either don't get what they bargained for or they just end up unfulfilled. When you study the Moon in Cancer pay close attention to the Ascendant and it will give you all the information you need to help the client understand where their energy needs to be directed this time around.
Talking about the Moon in Leo is always fun. These people have spent lifetimes being a "Star". And whatever they were doing, they were at the top of the heap and getting all kinds of recognition for it. Sometimes this means that they literally were movie stars, or actors, or artists, or musicians. But you also have to realize that a person can be the best at ANYTHING, so even if they were into cooking, everyone was giving them a lot of feedback for their ability. Having the Moon in Leo can also mean that the person was an aristocrat or of royal birth. When you think about the fact that the memory of being treated as if they were special is what they carry into this life, it's pretty easy to figure out that they will most likely expect to continue to be given the red carpet treatment. It's funny to watch what happens to these people. Most of the time they're looking around wondering why no one's paying attention to them. They just can't figure it out. Whatever they gained from having all of that recognition has given them a great deal of confidence about who they are. This is one of the benefits of this lunar placement and, to a certain extent, they can draw upon it in a lot of situations. The problem that arises for most of them is that they keep trying to get the accolades that they received before and are totally confused when these are not forthcoming. I recently did a reading for a woman with a Leo Moon. I know she won't mind a bit if I use her case as an example!! She is a very gifted healer and well aware of her abilities. At the time of the consultation one of her main questions was why wasn't she getting anywhere? She kept asking me why no one seemed to give her any respect for what she knew. She's trained with all kinds of fabulous people. And in describing her experience of working with many different healing masters she told me that she just didn't see what was so special about them because, according to her, she already knew all of this stuff and it was no big deal to her. It was really evident to me that she had fully accomplished something and been recognized for her past life abilities as a master healer. This woman also had the Sun in Leo so the lunar effect was amplified. Her Rising sign is VIRGO! What this told me about her was that with all of her gifts, the thing that had not been developed in her previous lives was a sense of humility and devotion. My feeling was that neither did she have any kind of spiritual connection to what she had done. Virgo is all about one's commitment to the "Sacred Work", and when it's on the Ascendant, you KNOW that the person is here JUST TO DO THE WORK, without expecting ANY acknowledgment. So in this instance all I could say to her was that she needed to learn humility and pursue her calling without ANY expectation or desire to be noticed for it. If she could accomplish this then the recognition she seemed to be craving would come to her by default, but it would not even be an issue for her by the time it did.
Cal Garrison (a.k.a. "Mother of the Skye") has been doing Horoscopes, writing about astrology, and reading Tarot since 1972. She studied astrology with Charles and Vivia Jayne in the early 70's. Cal does private readings and writes for several newspapers and magazines. She wrote The Old Girl's Book of Spells and The Old Girls' Book of Dreams: How to Make Your Wishes Come True Day by Day and Night by Night