Whereas the Sun represents the divine spark that descends into matter to create life, the Moon is the receptacle that receives that divine spark, the chalice in which life grows, the substance of which all things are made. This is why it is exalted in Taurus, for Taurus is the sign of matter, substance, receptivity and springtime, when the fertile Earth receives the outrushing seed of life. The Moon has no light of its own, but shines only by the reflected light of the Sun.

The symbol for the Moon is the half circle of the personality, a reflection of our spirit or true self within, the Sun. Just as the light or energy of the Moon waxes and wanes as it goes through phases, so, too, do the affairs of the house in which it is placed. The Moon’s house shows where we feel and change the most, and those experiences to which our emotions are the most vulnerable.

The Moon represents more things than any other "planet." It symbolizes the feminine yin principle of receptivity, the emotions, matter and material substance, our mother-image, nurturance, personality, the past, home and family, heredity, childhood, children and young people, habit patterns, feelings of belonging and of alienation, memory, unconsciousness, the subconscious, public and mass consciousness, reflexive and instinctual behavior, women in general and the wife in particular in a man’s chart. In the physical body the Moon rules the stomach, breasts, solar plexus, pancreas, and all bodily fluids and the flow of secretions.

On the Earth, the Moon rules the tides and the ocean. Since the Moon depicts our general experience of having been nurtured, supported and taken care of, an afflicted Moon can lead to feelings of alienation and not belonging, of being estranged from this universe of which one is, by right of birth, a part. This can manifest in feelings of self-worth based on what you do and its success, rather than on who you are.

This The Moon in astrology page and the entire website are excerpted from You and the Universe, a handmade, individualized fine art book on astrology, mythology and astronomy through which the recipient's complete astrological reading is woven.