Anne Massey’s astrology blog

Moon and Change

Thursday, February 12th, 2009 | Ask Anne, Astrology for You, Current Planetary trends

We watch the Moon wax and wane in the course of the month. We are fascinated with eclipses and when we see a full Moon we do look at it with delight. In astrology, the Moon represents change. The Moon has many different cycles linked to it. When she changes sign, form, declination, etc. we experience change. She is also the final timer in astrology. The Moon changes sign once every 2.5 days, at one-month intervals the Moon is full, and two weeks later we have a new Moon. The Moon describes the ebb and flow of our lives as well as gives insights into who we are and why we react to things the way we do. You can find a listing for the year on my website www.astrologicallyspeaking.com. I talked about the Moon’s declination cycle in my post February 10 and in the Canadian Budget item late January 2009. A reader commented on the Moon’s declination cycle, and I thought I should elaborate how this relates to both our personal lives and to what is happening globally.

During the year, the Sun climbs high in the sky in the Northern Hemisphere at the Summer Solstice and in the Southern Hemisphere at the Winter Solstice. This graphic shows the Sun’s annual path. The pink line is the celestial equator, which incidentally is the Earth’s equator projected into the sky. It is the Earth’s tilt of 23.5° that creates the Seasons, which are identified in the graphic. On either side of the Equator we have the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The tropic of Capricorn (to the South) runs through central Africa and Northern Australia and the tropic of Cancer (to the North) runs through Mexico and the Bahamas. You will find markers on Sun Dials identifying the tropics; we can read both time and the season with one.  

The Sun’s path creates a path that the other planets follow, however, once in a while the planets climb beyond these boundaries set by the Sun’s annual path against the ecliptic. When they do, they are considered out of bounds. This typically means the planet that is out of bounds (OOB) acts WILD, i.e. it is no longer in contact with the ‘controller’, the Sun. Planets can only be out of bounds in the signs around the Solstice sign, these are Gemini, Cancer, Sagittarius and Capricorn. There are some anomalies around retrograde periods, when a planet retrograde and out of bounds; these take place in late degrees of Taurus and Scorpio.

The second graphic is for this year and shows the path around the ecliptic for each of the planats, I have identified a few and inserted a few of the dates for the OOB periods of the Moon. There are years when there is more volatility or CHANGE. We are currently in that cycle. In astrology we can cast a graphic like this one which applies to your life. But we can look at the information the Moon provides, from this perspective. In this graphic I also identified a time April 4-9, when the path of many planets cross; this is a time when we can expect a lot of changes and news in the media. If this were a person’s life cycle, then the timing of the that meeting would describe a big event in the person’s life. In general terms, the changes in direction in this graph and activity between many planets shows times of high activity on the global scene. There is a lot of activity around February 14-15 and February 21-23. Watch the news bearing that little factoid in mind.

The calmer years with relative stability are: 1900-1907; 1919-1926; 1937-1944; 1956-1963; 1974-1982; 1993-2000; 2012-2020, 2030-2039-the Moon will not venture beyond the declination of the Sun’s annual path; i.e. she will not go out of bounds.

If you were born during one of these years, your life has less turbulance. The emotional issues are less challenging. You are calmer about what life ‘throws’ your way. There are peaks and valleys in everyone’s life, but these do not go to extremes for people who were born during the calm years. This declination cycle also times our lives into 7.5 year periods. Each time there is a change in direction. The Solstice points represent culmination and the equinox points a shift in direction. When we are in the upward cycle from the Spring Equinox to the Summer solstice we work on our personal goals. The upward cycle from the Winter Solstice toward the Spring Equinox we are planning changes and working toward adding ‘collective’ goals to our aspirations—that is what we could do that would help others. 

The years when Moon is WILD and markets more volatile are: 1908-1918; 1927-1936; 1945-1955; 1964-1973; 1983-1992; 2001-2011, 2021-2029. If you were born during these years, you have more ups and downs in your life. There are more extremes in your life (note that these years do not show the month when the OOB period began.) You may find that that you experience 3-5 years of unsettled time in your life at regular intervals. Days become years in terms of the dates, when we look at a life cycle. The Moon represents change and life is all about change, and you are likely to say that is the reality of life.

Copyright Anne Massey February 12, 2009

PS. Naturally you can book an appointment and we can look at your life cycle. I have information about consultations at www.astrologicallyspeaking.com/services.htm

Tags: moon cycles, moon declinations

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