Does Knowing Your Moon Sign Information Help You Understand Yourself? When Being One in Twelve is Not Enough

by Rebecca Brents

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The Sun in your horoscope
You have to start somewhere

In describing character qualities, pop culture Astrology deals with Sun Sign descriptions as a matter of convenience. Almost everybody knows his birthday., and from that, he can almost always find himself in one of the Sun Sign categories that describe the creative personalities of humankind. But the Sun is only one of 10 planets in a basic horoscope.

Granted, the Sun's position is important ... and granted the fact that it's usually nice and easy to locate in one of the 12 Zodiac signs isn't exactly a bad thing. (Usually a little bit of information or knowledge about any subject is better than nothing at all. Anyone has to start learning about any new subject somewhere!!)

The Moon and Ascendant are also important

But to single out the Sun as the most important placement in a horoscope does gives it an unwarranted amount of weight in describing a person's character. Equally important are the Moon Sign and the Ascendant Sign ... and of those three, it's awfully hard to tell which one has an edge, and so deserves extra consideration, over the others.

(When you're making chocolate milk, which is more important ... the milk, the sugar, or the cocoa? Leave out one of those ingredients ... and whatever you've got -- it ain't chocolate milk!!)

However, the process of determining those other two signs, for anyone, is inconvenient. The Moon changes signs every 2 1/2 days, so you need a special book of tables (called an ephemeris) -- or at the least an astrological calendar for the year the person was born -- to find his Moon sign.

And even then, if he was born on a day when the Moon changed from one sign to another, you may still have to guess. (There are ten of those days every month. Your odds of hitting one are pretty good!)

That's why the time is so important

And in order to know a person's Ascendant Sign (also called his "Rising Sign"), you absolutely must have a birth time. The Ascendant Sign changes every 2 hours.

Trying to guess that without something concrete to go on is obviously pretty dicey!! Even with a birth time straight off a birth certificate, you still have to have either a good Astrology program on your computer (Thank God for people who write software!!) ... or you need an ephemeris, a Table of Houses, a book of latitudes and longitudes, and the knowledge of how to cast a horoscope by hand.

(In the bad old days before computers ... I remember them well ... this process could take the better part of half an hour for one chart!!)

A much bigger picture

There are people who understandably resist (and resent!!) being categorized and "labeled" by preconceptions about their Sun Sign. They feel -- and rightly so -- that they are far more individual than one in twelve.

But add their Moon Sign and its qualities to the mix -- which, as I said, gives information that is just as significant, valid, and powerful as their Sun Sign traits -- and now each person is 1 in 144. Better maybe, but still not enough you say?

Add their Ascendant Sign to the equation, and each person is 1 in 1728. And there are still 8 more planet placements to consider. Add Mercury -- the symbol of the conscious mind and intellectual perspective -- and the figure becomes 1 in 5184.

* Your Sun Sign, Moon Sign and Ascendant Sign

Add Venus -- the symbol of their social skills, financial talents, and relationship interests -- and each person is 1 in 25,920. Starts to get a little more interesting at that point, doesn't it? And the atmosphere in which each personality exists more rare!

A much better one, too

Some astrologers feel Moon Sign information is the missing element in basic Sun Sign Astrology, the reason why many folks justifiably feel Astrology itself doesn't work -- when, in fact, it works beautifully for anyone who knows the craft.

So, would adding Moon Sign information to the description catalog of popular Sun Sign Astrology be helpful? Probably. If a little knowledge is a good thing ... a little more knowledge is almost certainly better. But I also have to cast my vote on this one with the people who howl that even 144 choices instead of 12 still isn't enough to cover much ground.

Whether they realize it or not, the skeptics and protesters are making the very same point any competent astrologer would accept immediately -- with no haggling whatsoever.

If the complete interpretation of your Natal Chart would render a full-color portrait of your character -- photographically accurate in its quality and description of you and your potentials -- (and it will!!), why settle for a couple of brush strokes from the Sun Sign / Moon Sign palette and wind up with at best an "impression" and at worst a cartoon caricature of who you really are?

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The Moon in Astrology -- Articles Index
The New Moon in Astrology -- Articles Index
The Full Moon in Astrology -- Articles Index
The Dark Moon in Astrology -- Articles Index
The Void-of-Course Moon in Astrology -- Articles Index

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Photo Credits

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