The Moon Is My Mother…Part 2 continued

When an astrologer does a chart analysis, much is devoted to the Sun and the Moon both on their own and as a pair. The Sun signifies the visible part of the persona while the Moon represents the shadow side of that same persona. Sometimes this can be the reason why a person might read a description of their Sun Sign and feel that it is not quite on the money. Try reading the description of whatever sign your Moon is in and see if that fills out the picture a bit. 

All of the bits and pieces of the psyche are linked in an intricate web to one another even if there are no obvious aspects between them. They all come together to form what we call the personality. If the Sun and the Moon are in very different types of energies this makes the way that they work together more complicated. For instance, someone with the Sun in Aries and the Moon in Virgo, has to consciously bring these very different forms of expression together somehow. Aries doesn’t understand caution and planning while Virgo can’t live without it. It takes personal commitment to inner work to find a coherent way to get this type of pair to work in harmony. And sometimes, harmony is not actually the mode. It might just be a matter of compromise. Aries must learn to exercise some patience while Virgo gets all of her ducks in a row. Virgo must learn to relinquish control so that Aries can fly free. Not easy but absolutely doable and wow, what a combo once the strategies are acquired. Obviously the rest of the natal planets will contribute to the overall plan of action.

In Virgo, the Moon has the most adaptability of all of the three earthy signs. That’s because Virgo is the Mutable Earth Sign, the modality that has the most movement built into it. This adaptability and movement adds itself to the already changeable energy of The Moon. By essential nature lunar energy is quicksilver.

At the highest level of function, this is the Moon of ‘practical magic’. I associate this energy to that of the Ritual Worker, the one who knows what to do, how to do it and when to do it. On an emotional level, this is the person who will make the warm cup of tea just in time to be there when the tears are flowing. She will make sure that your needs are met when you are under stress. A clean soft pillow, a bowl of soup, a warm blanket to stop the shivering. Emotions translate in physical ways and Virgo Moon instinctively zeroes in to these things and has practical ways to address them.

This is an energy that can get to the root of the matter through careful consideration. Analysis comes easily and once the analysis has been made, solutions are easy to formulate. It’s when we don’t understand something or feel confused by all of the contradictory data that solutions seem impossible. But every problem has a solution and every situation can be altered by a reasonable strategy. Virgo Moon knows this.

When under stress, this is the type of person who will throw herself into some kind of task to find safety. The joke is, ‘What is your favorite weekend pastime?—Cleaning my closet, of course!’ says Virgo. Creating order around her facilitates a return to sanity when under emotional pressure.

What you have to watch for, Virgo Moon, is not seeing the forest for the trees. Don’t get lost in the bits and pieces. Keep reminding yourself to look for the big picture. Be careful of setting that bar so high that no one, including yourself can ever reach it. Perfect is what is real and not what is imagined. The danger is that nothing will ever be good enough. That’s why, sometimes, this energy can devolve into the critical and sarcastic. It’s disappointment manifesting in the only way that it can.

The pathway into full actualization on an emotional level for this energy is forgiveness and compassion. (That’s reflected in the Pisces partner sign, always the counterpoint in any evolutionary process.) It’s challenging. To forgive emotionally is not easy, sometimes seemingly impossible. To exercise true compassion seems simple enough until you start to get lost in the bits and pieces of the situation. Virgo Moon must practice how to move beyond the doing and into the believing. To do is not enough and to have faith is not enough, what is necessary is to do from a place of faith. Easy to say, not so easy to do.

In past lives, the Virgo Moon person has acquired a vast amount of skill and know how in the area of the application of emotional energy. She has learned how to manage her emotions, how to control then and how to put them to good use. Probably, she has experienced some degree of hurt along the way. Boundaries were crossed, she may have been used badly and thus the retreat into the functional. In this life, she won’t easily let her true emotions show for fear of being hurt again. The challenge, of course, is to move into trust and faith, to believe in something beyond the literal physical reality, to really embrace a spiritual perspective. That doesn’t mean that she has to throw out her tool bag of functionality. 

It’s a complicated energy. But at the root of it, this is a healer Moon, a nurturer Moon, a caring Moon, the Florence Nightingale of Moons. Once true forgiveness is fully integrated into the pattern of behaviour, this is an emotional energy that knows no limitations and has any number of useful practical strategies to use when under stress. The key is to mindfully move into a state of grace in all things and incorporate a keen a sense of both the physical and the spiritual into the emotional syntax.