[Image descriptions: A waxing Moon above some trees at dusk.]
A first step for interpreting a birth chart is to start with the most obvious things: the Sun and the Moon. You can get tons of information by just observing their relationship at any given time.
How the Sun met the Moon
We, the people, love the sun*. We are, in fact, part made of sun. When we drink and eat, we consume sunlight, for nothing can grow without its energy. We follow and imitate its movements: we rise when it rises, we lie down when it lies down. Look, dad! Look, mom! Look [insert the word you use for your parent]! The sun is our parent in a sense, as it learns us to live and die by showing us the way. It teaches us about survival, because it never fails to come back to life, even though it appeared to be gone.
The sun is the biggest object in our sky. It is the reason why we can perceive the other planets too, because they reflect its light. The moon especially, the planet that lies closest to us. Moonlight is sunlight, let's not forget! We track the cycles in which the sunlight touches and reflects on its surface, the lunar phases.
T
he light on the moon moves from right to left. This gliding of the light reminds me of flipping the pages of a book from right to left, in the way you would read Arabic or Hebrew. When you move to the southern hemiphere of the earth, the sunlit part of the lunar surface moves left to right. It is all depends on perspective!
Day versus night
Do you have a day chart, or a night chart?
The easiest distinction is to notice if it's day or night on the moment you were born. Sounds easy, but during early morning and sunset the bounderies get a bit blurry. When is the sun actually there? The sun has the habit to anounce its entrance way before its arrival. You could say that the first appearing of the light marks the beginning of the day, and the first appearing of a star, the beginning of a night (obviously this rule doesn't work for light polluted areas). Most astrologers agree that if the sun is 5 degrees below the Ascendant or Descendant, this still counts as a day chart. Do you notice how we give a little bit more importance to the day, than to the night? It is as if we would like the night to be over as soon as possible.
In a day chart, you give more importance to the Sun, while in a night chart, the Moon has more power. The general placement of the Sun tells you something about a person. For example: some ancients texts agree that someone who is born during sunrise is a powerful individual.
I have a theory that people born with a day chart, have the general theme in their life that they have to learn to succumb to the unknown, letting go of certitudes, preparing to go into the night. People born during night, are moving towards the daylight, so their general life lesson has to do with finding more clarity and accepting reality. People who are born at dawn or dusk, have these themes even more pronounced in their lives. There can also be more of a liminal or confusing quality to their lives and being. There might be for example a very distinct difference between their private and public persona - since the Ascendant/Descandant axis has to to with the relationship between self and other people.
Recap: When the Sun is above the Ascendant/Descendant axis, or still within 5° reach of the Ascendant/Descendant, this counts as a day chart. When it is below the horizon, it's a night chart.
The Moon: a friend with many faces
When you know if it's a day or a night, you can check what the relationship between the Sun and the Moon holds for the individual by checking the Moon phase.
These are all the faces of the moon:
0 to 45 degrees from the Sun: New Moon
45 to 90 degrees from the Sun: Waxing Crescent Moon
90 to 135 degrees from the Sun: First Quarter Moon
135 to 180 degrees from the Sun: Waxing Gibbous Moon
180 to 225 degrees from the Sun: Full Moon
225 to 270 degrees from the Sun: Waning Crescent Moon
270 to 315 degrees from the Sun: Third Quarter Moon
315 to 360 degrees from the Sun: Waning Gibbous Moon
All these faces mark the Moons relationship to the Sun. You could make an analogy with a rocky (!) relationship. When the Moon is full, the Sun is completely there for her, 100% present. When the Moon is new, there is nothing to see in the sky. There is no sunlight touching, so the Moon is gone. This is a break up. All the stadia in between these extremes show how 'present' the Sun is for the Moon. Usually, we read the waxing of the Moon as a built-up. The Moon gets fuller and fuller. After full Moon, the waning phase starts, going towards annihilation.
A very important key in traditional astrology is temperament (I'll go more into this in one of the next subchapters). The waxing phase is traditionally seen as 'moist', because it is fertile and growing. The disseminating phase is 'dry', for the Moon is drying up, withering away like a plant, and dying.
The faces of the Moon are analogous to the way a person relates to life and other people. People who are born under a waxing Moon, tend to have a fuller and busier life, making connections easy. People born under a waning phase, are tending more towards loneliness and letting go of connections. Especially the last one, the Balsamic phase, when there only rests a sliver of the Moon as if the has been teared to shreds, can have some traumatic quality to it (I personaly love this last face of the Moon, when she seems so strong and sharp, as if sharing her last glow before going under).
And then: silence. The New Moon face is said to be very powerful, because it is the moment when Sun and Moon overlap: the Sun, Moon and earth are in alignment. In a way, it is the only moment when the Moon can be completely herself. She is not defined by the Sun's light at this moment! This is a position of autonomy, and being drawn to a plunge in the unknown. It's also a symbol of death. Until the first crescent shows up, a sign of hope and survival! Everything turned out well. People born under this Waxing Crescent, tend to be energetic and enthousiastic for life.
The temperament of the Sun
The Sun and the Moon are our building blocks, they show our more general energetic approach to life. Not every Sun is the same! A Sun is Summer is a different kind of Sun that the Sun in Winter. A Sun at noon is different than a Sun in the Morning. In astrology, these changes in the power of the Sun, is defined by temperament.
There are 4 temperaments. The temperament of the planets and lights is defined by the symbolic dryness/moistness and the warmth/coldness of the planet.**
- The Sanguine temperament is hot and moist. Together they make Air. The Sanguine signs are Gem, Lib, Aqu.
- Choleric is hot and dry. Together they make fire. The Choleric signs are Ari, Leo, Sag.
- Melancholic is cold and dry. Together they make Earth. The Melancholic signs are Tau, Vir, Cap.
- Flegmatic is cold and moist . Together they make Water. The Flegmatics signs are Can, Sco, Pis.
The personal temperament of the Sun in an individual birth chart is defined by its season.
- The Sun in the spring months (when it is in Aries, Taurus or Gemini) is sanguine. Of these three signs, Gemini is the most sanguine. We call the Sun in these signs a Spring Sun.
- The Sun in the summer months (Cancer, Leo, Virgo) is a choleric Sun.
- The Sun in autumn (Libra, Scorpio, Sag) is melancholic.
- The Sun in winter (Cap, Aquarius, Pisces) is flegmatic.
The temperament of the Sun is the reason why we have Sun sign astrology! Sun sign astrology can give a general overview of the basic temperament of someone's Sun together with the ruler of the sign the Sun is in. Especially in a day chart, this can actually give a clue. For example: the summer Sun in Cancer is a choleric Sun, so it is very fiery and impulsive. Together with the emotionality and flexibilty of the flegmatic Moon, and also al litle cooled down by it, we get this typical emotional volatility where sterotypical Cancers are so known for!
Temperament of the Moon
The temperament of the Moon is defined nu its phase. Every phase of the Moon has a temperament, like you can see in this diagram:
You'll notice that the new Moon, the First Quarter Moon , Last Quarter Moon and the full Moon are right at the change of two very opposing temperaments. The Full Moon, for example, goes from Choleric to Melancholic, as if it is suddenly cooling down. The New Moon goes from Flegmatic to Sanguine, as if she is suddenly warming up. Which of both temperaments does the Moon at these turning points has exactly?
I'll make an example with the Full Moon. The full Moon is, as you see in the diagram above, at her most Choleric phase. She's on fire. But where is the tipping point when she starts to become Melancholic? Mathematically this would be right after she has hit the 180° opposition with the Sun. But this wouldn't make sense, because the Moon still looks full when she is at 180°01'! Astrology is no math. Since the full Moon is in such an extreme phase, people born around Full Moon have a little of both worlds. They have a conflicting temperament (literaly hot and cold). I start to see the Moon officially as 'more-of-the-Melancholic' when she makes a separting aspect from the Sun. That's when she starts shrinking mathematicly, even though this shrinking is not yet very visible until around 205°. In the examples below, you'll see how this works.
I use the same reasoning with the New Moon. The Sanguine Moon starts mathematicly when she is 45°01' from the Sun, but I personally only start to see it as Sanguine-Sanguine if you can descern a sliver of light of a young Moon. This illumination never happens before the 24 hours after the new Moon, and most of the time it takes more than a day. You have to wait formally at least until the Moon is seperated 20° from the Sun. Before that, I see this New Moon as 'Flegmatically Sanguine'. The New Moon right after the conjunction with the Sun is is still Flegmatic, and starts to get ever more Sanguine until it catches some light and gets 'fully' Sanguine.
This is how I see it, others might have a different approach. But in the examples below, you'll notice that these temperamental details and blendings can make a big difference in an interpretation. Especially Full Moon and New Moon individuals are heavily influenced by the Sun-Moon conjunction and opposition, so there you can take some extra time there to add some detail. There are several apps who can show you the actual Moon like she looked at any date in the past! Still, astrology is no math and there is no very strict line where the Moon changes temperament.
The different stages of the Moon are associated with different planets. The Waxing Moon is associated with the Benefics (Venus, Jupiter) because the Moon is growing. The Waning Moon is associated with the Malefics (Mars, Saturn) for she is dying. The planet associated with the full Moon phase is the Sun.
Recap: The temperament of the Sun is defined nu its season. There is a spring Sun (Ari, Tau, Gem), summer Sun (Can, Leo, Vir) , autumnal Sun (Lib, Sco, Sag) and winter Sun (Cap, Aqu, Pis). The Moon is defined by her phase. There is a Sanguine moon, Choleric Moon, Melancholic Moon and a Flegmatic Moon.
Examples
To show you how much information there is to find in only the Sun and the Moon, without even having to touch upon the other planets, we'll take a look at some examples.
Ingeborg Bachmann
This is the chart of the Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmann. She was born during night, even if the Sun was going under not very long ago. There might be a big theme in her life of succumbing to the unknown, and even being completely absorbed by other people (the Descendant carries the symbolism of 'the other', and the Sun who dissapears into the ground symbolizes becoming one with another. People with important placements there might be prone to long for symbiosis with partners).
Bachmann was born during a 99,9 % full moon. This was definitely a Choleric Moon by phase. By sign, it is a Melancholic Moon, since it is in Capricorn. The planet associated with the Full Moon phase is the Sun, the planet of fame, visibility and the mind (which is very accurate for a famous philosopher and writer). A opposition between Sun and Moon show a life full of extremes and hard choices. A Choleric Moon shows people with quite a temper and lots of energy. But since the Moon is in a Melancholic sign, we can assume that there is also some dryness, coldness and slowness to Bachmanns character. There might be a very determined, rigourous and dominant aspect to her character and style.
Bachmann's Moon rules the Sun in Cancer. There is a heavy emphasis on the Moon, on emotions. There is almost a battle between the mind (the Sun) and emotions (the Moon), which was the case in Bachmann's life. Since this is a night chart, there is more power given to the Moon. The Moon 'wins' the battle in the end, emotions take over. You can see this tendency in her output: her very emotionally intense literary work became far more famous than her academic work. Since the Moon rules the 7th house, relationships will be very important and probably intense. Relationships are on her mind a lot, and heavily define her, since the Moon is so close to the Ascendant. There is a theme of merging completley with a lover, maybe even to her detriment. Possibly even to her death, since the Sun is the ruler of the 8th and just below the Descendant, another symbol of death. Relationships become her literal downfall.
What follows here is maybe a bit of a morbid or sad detail. The Sun is a summer Sun and so it is choleric, very hot and dry. But it is also the ruler of the 8th, of Bachmann's death. The ancients say that the position of the 8th House ruler tells us something about the way we die. The Sun is Choleric in Cancer, in the term of Mars. This is a very fiery, hot-dry Sun. It's on the Descendant, which represents often the place we go to sleep: our bed. Bachmann died in her bed after it caught fire from a cigarette. At that point she was sedated and passed out, so she didn't really feel the fire in time. The reason she was sedated, is because she was traumatized by her relationships and had an addiction to drugs. So the 'real' reason of her death is the 7th house of relationships, where the Sun resides. Relationships became her death. And she became famous for it, by the Sun - symbol of fame. Her most well-known work is
Malina, a story about a woman with mental health issues in a male-dominated world who is unhappy in her relationship, and who literaly dissappears in the end. The famous last lines were: 'Es war mord' ('It was murder').
[Image descriptions: Movie poster of the film adaptation of the novel Malina. Isabelle Huppert is in the main role, and we see her black-and white portrait with a cigarette in her mouth above the movie title in red lettering. source]
Alexander McQueen
Alexander McQueen is a fashion designer, known for his quite gothic designs. He was born under a New Moon. He has a night chart, so the general theme is a search for more clarity in his life. People with a night chart are more ruled by the Moon than the Sun, so they might be intuitive, instinctive and emotionally motivated.
The Sun is a Flegmatic winter Sun, and so is the New Moon in the last part of her waning phase (the Moon is applying to the Sun, which means she is astronomically still on her way to pass in front of the Sun). It's a New Moon in Pisces, the most flegmatic of the signs. The New Moon, certainly when she is still Flegmatic, can have a very deserted, dying quality to it, like a flame that is extinguished. If the New Moon would have been separated from the Sun and in her Sanguinic phase, there would have been a more hopeful, spring-like, 'new soul' quality. But this is a Flegmatic New Moon, so we can expect someone who feels very sad and gloomy often. I think you can see this temperament in the designs of McQueen: a lot of his work is inspired by romantism and death. He has also his signature black suits, very minimal silhouettes that almost look like the New Moon.
[Image descriptions: Black suit on a mannequin from McQueen's Savage Beauty exhibition. Source]
McQueen suffered from depression and mental health issues. The flegmatic temperament has more difficulties to resist emotional temptation, so is more prone to addictive behaviour, or to freeze during difficult times - and McQueen did. At the other hand, the flegmatic temperament can also be very sensitive and creative - because it is comfortable to go with the flow (the flow when it is constructive, or when it is self-destructive). The Sun and the Moon are in the term of Mars: this shows how his creations could be edgy, ripped, violent even. Apparently the designer had lots of anger and trauma in real life too. His emotional self is very muched linked with his work as an artist, since the Sun rules the 10th house of career, and the conjunction is placed in the 5th house of art. His work is very representative for how he actually felt.
Laverne Cox
[Image descriptions: Portrait of Laverne Cox with dark blue make-up and clothing, and black jewelry. Source]
To show you how a separating aspect with the Sun can make a difference in temperament, we'll take a look at the Full Moon on the day Laverne Cox was born.
Cox is born under what a rather Melancholic Full Moon. Even though the Full Moon is always Choleric, this one has more of a Melancholic tendency. While we saw that in Ingeborg Bachmann's life the Full Moon was very Choleric and full of high stress and emotions: the Full Moon of Laverne Cox is still very high in energy and visibility, but in a more slow, steady way.
People born under a Full Moon will have lots of action and fame in their life, but we see that this Full Moon has a bit more of a sober streak. This Melancholic Full Moon has private side. There is a bit less impulsivity, more patience to do things for the long haul. Cox probably takes the time to think about what she wants to say and do. There is a wisdom in this Full Moon, it is a Moon who looks at her fame and accomplishments with some distance. It's a less dominant Full Moon, more tempered.
We see that Cox uses her fame to bring important topics about oppression of trans people to light. She is an activist and not afraid to make people notice the reality, and use fame and glamour to bring a message across. This realism is a typical aspect of the Melancholic temperament: it is all about the work that has to be done. The Sun rules her First House, which means she is always visible, always under public scrutiny - probably this has always been the case even before she got famous, cause Sun people get noticed by others.
But she's still a Full Moon baby! The Sun in Gemini is a Spring Sun, so it has the typical Sanguine warm, playful, sociable, sensual approach - but blended with the reasonable and a bit weary Melancholic temperament. You can actually see this interesting blend of temperaments in the projects Cox takes on: she is most famous for her role in Orange is the New Black, a series about a women's prison - a story with quite a Melancholic tone.
Courtney Love
We already studied plenty of examples, so I won't go too much into detail in this last one. I just want to show you how much a difference some degrees can make when it comes to a Moon-Sun conjunction, even when the actual New Moon visually looks the same in the sky. In the case of Courtney Love, the Moon makes a separating aspect from the Sun. This means her New Moon has passed on to the Sanguinic phase. How do you see that energy manifested in Love?
Since the Moon shows our body, it can show our 'style' and even the way we appear and dress. Love is born under a Sanguine New Moon in Cancer. This is the New Moon right on her way to be a Young Moon. When we compare her general style to the Flegmatic New Moon of Alexander McQueen, we notice how the more wild, sensual and colourful palette of the Sanguine temperament (+ this Moon phase is associated with Venus), differs from the sober and more minimal style of the Flegmatic temperament of McQueen's Moon phase (associated with Saturn). .
Even if both individuals are 'New Moon people', which means they can have a bit of a tormented, raw, defeated energy in them, the Sanguine variant will be more externally oriented. Sanguine New Moon people have more of an almost childlike, new soul, wild energy. Flegmatic New Moon people are more subdued and modest in their expression. This is because there is a world of diffrence between a Moon who is dying right after the Balsamic phase, and a Moon that just found herself to be born again.
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*
When I talk about the sun as a astronomical object, I write it with lower case 's'. When I talk about the astrological Sun, I write it with a capital 'S'. Same for the moon.
**
Every planet, light and sign has a general temperament, though in case of the planets this can change according to their oriental/occidental position in relation to the Sun. I'll write an article about this in the future, but you can already find a table here.
Tools
https://www.mooncalc.org
https://www.astro-seek.com
Sources
Wikipedia
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