The Moon: From a Mythological and Symbolic Perspective
As I’ve been on my astrology journey, one of the ways I’ve connected to the planets has been through their mythological and archetypal correspondences, accompanied by the symbolism astrologers use to describe what the planets signify.
With that in mind, this series of posts about the different parts of astrology, where I’ll cover the luminaries and each of the planets in our solar system (including Pluto), I’ll write about their mythology, archetypes, and some general symbolism, including my own observations.
In this post, I will focus on the Moon.
[I will add to this post when I broaden my knowledge of myths, deepen my knowledge of the planets, and make new observations concerning them.]
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The Mythology of The Moon
In Greek mythology, the Moon was originally associated with Selene, the personification of the Moon. However, over time, she was gradually replaced by or conflated with Artemis. Hecate is also associated with the Moon.
In ancient Egyptian mythology, the Moon was associated with the Moon god Khonsu. As the Moon symbolised the waxing and waning phases of life, Khonsu became associated with cycles and the passage of time.
In Norse mythology, Máni is the personification of the Moon. He is the brother of Sól (the Sun) and travels across the sky in a Moon chariot. He is, like his sister, chased by a wolf who will swallow him during Ragnarök.
Selene
As I mentioned above, the Moon was called Selene in Greek mythology (also known as Luna in Roman Mythology). She was the child of the Titans Theia and her brother Hyperion.
While her brother Helios drove the Sun chariot across the sky during the day, she drove the Moon chariot across the night sky.
As with Helios, there aren’t many stories about Selene. One of the more well-known ones is, perhaps, the story of her and her lover Endymion. On one of her nightly tours, she found Endymion lying naked and asleep under the night sky. She found him so pleasing that she cried out to Zeus to capture him in eternal slumber so that she could watch him forever. Alternatively, he fell in love with Hera, and Zeus cursed him with eternal sleep. Either way, Selene would come down from her nightly tour to make love to Endymion, which might’ve been every night or every new Moon, when the Moon isn’t visible.
The Symbolism of The Moon
Fast Facts
Keywords: Physical, emotional response, how we react, instinct, intuition, familiarity, nurture, fluctuation, cyclical, rhythms, security, home
Domicile: Cancer
Detriment: Capricorn
Exaltation: Taurus
Fall/Depression: Scorpio
Energy: Yin
Anatomy: Stomach, breasts, digestive system, fluids and glandular secretions, left eye (male), right eye (female)
Number: 2 and 7
Day of the Week: Monday
Colors: White, silver
Metal: Silver
Stones: Crystal, mother of pearl, moonstone
Plants: Willow
Joy in the 3rd House of the Goddess
It takes the Moon twenty-eight and a half days to go through all twelve signs of the zodiac
Symbolism
In general, the Moon often represents something internal, the emotions, but also the body. In modern astrology, the Moon is often summarized to indicate a person’s emotions and needs, and its placement often indicates how someone deals with their emotions and needs, as well as how they express, or don’t express, them.
“The Moon can make one patient on a good day or a changeable and narrow-minded on a bad one; alternatively, it can make one imaginative and sympathetic, but at times perhaps somewhat unreliable.” (Parker, 2020, p. 78).
Since the Moon usually appears at night, when people are asleep, it often operates on a subconscious level and represents sublevel themes. That can include dreams, beliefs, and our memories.
The Moon can be viewed as our most personal planet because it is the closest planet to us in our solar system, and because it changes signs every 2-3 days. The Moon’s effects on the Earth––for example, the effects it has on our oceans––are also well-documented. Since it is the planet closest to the Earth, it is also pretty “earthy” in character, which is interesting since it’s exalted in, arguably, the most earthy sign, which is Taurus.
The Moon is also connected to the mother, or other mother figures. In that way, it’s also connected to the original mother, Mother Earth, who gave us all life and continues to sustain us. This, in combination with how the Moon affects the water on Earth, can also connect the Moon to the food we eat, as all our crops need both earth and water to grow.
Since the Moon is also connected to the menstrual cycle, it has another layer of being associated with fertility and creative power, beyond the fertility and creativity of Mother Earth. To me, personally, however, I don’t limit that to physical procreation. You can be fertile with ideas and use your creative power to make art, for example, as this kind of fertility and creativity also comes and goes in seasons, just like the waxing and waning of the Moon.
Since the Moon is constantly changing, waxing and waning, it has an adaptable nature. It can also be fleeting and teach us that nothing lasts forever and that seasons come and go.
Due to the Moon being connected to the mother, or other mother figures, and with Cancer (since the Moon is the ruler of Cancer), which is often conflated with the themes of the 4th House in modern astrology, it’s also often associated with someone’s home and relationship to family, especially mother figures. Due to this conflation of Cancer with the 4th House, the Moon is often also associated with our roots and ancestry.
The Moon can also represent communities of women and women’s circles, and the placement in a chart can indicate the kind of relationships one wants with women, communities of women, etc.
Richard Tarnas summarizes the Moon’s correspondences and archetype in the following way in Cosmos and Psyche:
“the matrix of being, the psychosomatic foundation of the self, the womb and ground of life; the body and the soul, that which senses and intuits, the feeling nature; the impulse and capacity to gestate and bring forth, to receive and reflect, to relate and respond, to need and to care, to nurture and be nurtured, the condition of dependence and interdependence; the diffusely conscious and the unconscious, the anima, the immanent, the centripetal, the home, the fertile source and ground; the cycle of manifestation, the waxing and waning, the eternal round; the ruler of the night sky, of the diffusely visible and the invisible, multiple sources of luminosity within the encompassing darkness, the polycentric; yin; the whole that contains the part in potentia; Luna and all lunar deities, the Great Mother Goddess, together with aspects of the Child (puella, puer), constituting the relational matrix of life.” (Tarnas, 2006, ch. 3).
When we look at the position of the Moon in our chart, “our way of reassuring others will become clear, as will the way we wish them to reassure us. […] As the Moon reflects the sunlight, so it may be wise to see ourselves and our actions in the eyes of others, and be open to adjusting our behaviour accordingly. In this way, we can nurture each other, harnessing the energy of the Moon to nurse the infant with us.” (Gillett, 2012, p. 31).
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Sources
Brennan, Chris. The Astrology Podcast, episode 294: “The Moon in Astrology: Meaning Explained” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOYp51hkDI4), 2021-03-09.
Fry, Stephen. Mythos. Michael Joseph (Penguin Random House), 2017.
Giesecke, Annette. Classical Mythology A to Z. Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2020 (ebook).
Gillett, Roy. The Secret Language of Astrology: The Illustrated Key to Unlocking the Secrets of the Stars. London: Watkins Media Limited, 2012.
Kent, April Elliott. The Essential Guide to Practical Astrology: Everything from zodiac signs to prediction, made easy and entertaining. San Diego, California: Two Moon Publishing, 2023.
Hamilton, Edith. Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes. Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 1942 (ebook).
Parker, Julia & Derek Parker. Parkers’ Astrology: The definitive guide to using astrology in every aspect of your life. London: Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2020.
Ryberg, Kira. “Essential Dignity and Debility in Astrology” (https://www.kiraryberg.com/blog/essential-dignity-and-debility-in-astrology).
Tarnas, Richard. Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View. Viking Penguin, 2006.
Taylor, Carole. Astrology: Using the wisdom of the stars in your everyday life. London: Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2018.
