by Matthew Kenney
The Moon may be the most important planet to pay attention to in an electional chart.
As many of you who are familiar with her significations will know, the Moon signifies a broad and all-encompassing set of objects, including one’s mother, body, emotions, environment, and context.
For this reason so many things flourish or do poorly in an election based off of the placement of the moon.
In addition to what I listed above, the moon is also associated with “the people” – large groups and the public in general.
So making sure that she is properly placed can do wonders for course launches, book launches, and any sort of marketing that targets a wide audience.
In what follows, I’m going to go through four factors we consider when going through the significations of the moon in an electional chart.
The First thing to ensure about the moon is that her current phase supports your venture.
At the beginning of her cycle, when the moon is just new and a few days after, she is traditionally considered to lose a lot of her power.
The sun has retrieved all of the light that he gave to her, and she no longer has any light on her own.
For this reason, new moons are generally considered poor times to begin endeavors, especially ones that are related to growing a business or a family.
New moons do, however, support more reflective actions like journaling, and making plans for the future.
A waxing moon, on the other hand, does support those enterprises where you desire increase and growth, whether it be something personal like starting a new hobby or planting a garden to something more big-picture like growing a business or an email list through course launches or promotions.
Spellwork related to creating wealth and expanding a business succeed more when they occur during a waxing moon.
Full moons bonify anything that involve groups gathering, be it a birthday party or a workshop weekend.
Full moons also aid weekend long retreats were a lot of people are gathered together. They are not considered as helpful for larger projects or events which take up a lot of time.
Waning moons support endeavors that involve decreasing and going away, such as letting people go in our life or cutting out a bad habit.
On a more business-oriented side, this is a good time to lay people off or replace employees. Many people in India say that debts paid during a waning moon will diminish more quickly.
The dark moon is an excellent time for anything that is clandestine or occurs behind closed doors.
Some of the more sinister magical rituals, such as hexing traditionally occur doing a dark moon.
On a more fiscal level (and apt for this season) dark moons help people who are sending taxes if there is a fear of being audited, as the chances of them being processed without scrutiny and examination greatly increases.
In addition to the placement of the moon, the second thing we want to do is to make sure the moon occupies a sign that supports your endeavor.
Fire signs are good quick events where a lot of willpower and high energy is required – maybe a weekend intensive.
Air signs are great for launches or promotions, since air is considered the most social of the four elements.
Water signs are fantastic for having conversations that require a lot of emotional tact, or intense coaching sessions.
Earth signs indicate stability and groundedness, and are good for any venture that you want to last awhile.
In addition to the element of the sign, the quadruplicity will also determine facets about the sign.
Traditionally, the cardinal signs were actually called “moveable” and contained many of the connotations that we assign to mutable signs today.
For this reason, astrologers felt that having the moon in a cardinal sign (besides Cancer) would make the venture more unstable – it is alright for a short event but may cause issues for founding a lasting institution.
Fixed signs were considered quite stable. Many consider Taurus in particular to be a phenomenal electional sign for the moon.
And mutable signs were labeled “double-bodied” which meant that they were somewhere in between the two extremes of the moveable and fixed signs.
And if there is enough time, examining the nature of the sign itself and comparing it to the nature of your venture is always helpful.
If you are running a meditation retreat or an event that is very mystical and dreamy, a Pisces Moon may be your best bet.
But something more sports-related and competitive – perhaps a yoga competition – will be better supported by an Aries or Leo moon.
But more important than the sign on the ascendant is the planet which rules that sign, and this is the third thing to be mindful of.
Classical authors said that the position of the moon represented the result of the first half of the election, and the ruler of the moon represented the result of the second half.
For this reason, the ruler always needed to be very positively placed in order for an endeavor to be successful.
You can find this by identifying which planet rules the sign that the moon occupies.
If in Leo, the Sun rules the Moon and we would look to the condition of the Sun.
If the Sun is well-dignified, that indicates success, but if not, there could be problems.
A table of dignities can be found here. Also make sure that this planet occupies a good house – all the houses besides the 6th, 8th, and 12th are considered good houses.
Fourth, you want to make sure that the moon is not void of course.
This occurs once the moon has made her last astrological aspect in a sign, and will not make another one until she enters another sign.
New ventures and plans rarely succeed when the moon is void of course.
If you haven’t learned how to read aspect lines in a natal chart, you can go to an astrological calendar like this one at Lunarium which note when the moon is void of course.
Are doing an election and it is impossible to fulfill all of these in the time-frame you have given yourself to begin something? If so, That’s okay!
You have just learned one of the basic principles of electional astrology: there are no perfect charts.
We can only do our best with what the stars give us.
More often than not, however, our astrological best significantly outmatches anything we could have done without astrology.
We don’t want to have perfect become the enemy of good.
So to sum it up: With the moon, identify a phase that you want her to inhabit at the start of your election, ensure that she occupies the proper zodiacal sign, and that the ruler of this sign is prospering and flourishing.
Finally, double check that she is not void of course.
Once you have done all of these things, your endeavor is officially supported by lunar energy!
You might be surprised just how much ventures and endeavors succeed even when only applying the rules mentioned here.
IN CONCLUSION
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About the Author:
Matthew Kenney has studied classical astrology for six years. Formally educated in philosophy, Ancient Greek, and Sanskrit, Matthew has devoted his mind to the investigation of ancient spiritual practices, in particular astrology and the hermetic tradition. Utilizing his passion for ancient philosophy, languages, and spirituality, he strives to enliven the astrological wisdom of the ancient for our modern day. You can learn more at ancientastrology.org, where he provides coaching to online entrepreneurs and business owners, in addition to offering free articles and astrological forecasts.
all images via deviantart
