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Astrology:
Excerpt from Donna's e-book:
An Astrological Guide to Self-Awareness: 2005 Edition
© Moon Maven Publications
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Understanding The Moon–
Reflections On Diana
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by Donna Cunningham, MSW |
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Is there any object in the sky more beautiful and fascinating than the Moon? It was an object of worship to ancient people all over the world who felt the influence of the Moon's phases on the earth and its creatures. Recently some of the "superstitions" about the Moon have become respectable, as scientists, sociologists, and policemen discover their validity. In astrology, too, we recognize the strong influence of the Moon on the individual, whether it is through gravity, some mystical force, or something as yet unknown. In Western astrology, the Moon is considered second only to the Sun in shaping our character. In Vedic astrology, the ancient astrological wisdom of India, it is given even greater weight than the Sun.
Moon Symbolism, Moon Worship and Women
The symbol for the Moon in astrology and other areas of the occult is the most recognizable of any glyph, but have you wondered why that particular phase of the moon—called the waxing crescent—was chosen? Why not one of the other phases? In her fascinating book, Women's Mysteries, Esther Harding said it was because the Moon meant growth and fertility to the ancients, and the waxing crescent was the phase at which the Moon had the most room to grow. [2] In addition, the New Moon proved to be the best time to plant crops, as it produced the most abundant growth.
As we learned in working with the Sun’s symbol, letting your imagination and intuition flow freely when dealing with a pictorial symbol can help you tap into addi°©tional meanings. For instance, I once noticed that a radar screen is shaped like the symbol for the Moon. In selecting that shape for radar, scientists unknowingly made use of a truth about one of the Moon’s functions. It does act like a radar screen, whereby we scan, receive, and respond to subtle impressions from the outside. This sensitivity and responsiveness gives Moon-dominant people—what I have elsewhere called lunar types—their strong intuition[3].
My astrological mentor, Rod Chase pointed out that boats are shaped like the Moon. Boats hold and protect us—and protectiveness is a function of the Moon. The Moon also describes the way we handle emotions, and this similarity between the Moon and boats taught Rod that the only way to deal with our emotions is to float on them rather than be swallowed up and drown in them.
Symbolism based on the Moon is present in many occult studies. In ancient mythology, the Moon goddess was Diana, who ruled over nature and fertility. Women who wanted children made offerings to her, and pregnant women believed Diana could grant an easy childbirth. She was a very important goddess and was connected with criti°©cal maternal functions. Though I knew about these beliefs from astrology and mythology, I was still surprised to make a discovery while doing progressions[4] on my natal horoscope. Several times when the Moon made progressed aspects to my Ascen°©dant or Midheaven, or when an outer planet transited my natal Moon, a crucial woman came into my life—and each time the woman was named Diana!
As I experimented with different systems of divination, I was fascinated to find Moon-like images in almost all of them. For instance, numerologists believe that the numeral 2 comes from the symbol for the Moon. The meaning of 2 in numer°©ology is similar to some astrological meanings of the Moon—it is the feminine principle, cooperation, and the helpmate. Numerologically, 2 is emotional and intuitive, like the Moon in astrology. When you break the name Diana down numerologically, it adds up to a 2. That can't be a coincidence.
The Moon and the number 2 are well represented in the Tarot. The number 2 Major Arcana is the High Priestess, who seems related to Diana. This card shows a deeply mysterious woman, schooled in ancient occult wisdom such as Wicca. The cres°©cent Moon is at her feet, and she sits between two pillars representing good and evil. There are four suits in the Tarot deck, and if you analyze all four of the 2s, they seem to express variations of the cooperation-helpmate them—or the lack of it. I also found a Moon-like hexagram in the / Ching. Its name is The Receptive, and it is made up of all Yin (feminine) lines. This hexagram denotes devotion, complementarity, and the eternal female principle. Significantly, this is hexagram number 2.
Thus, we find that the Moon has many occult meanings. The book mentioned earlier, Women's Mysteries, is extremely important to me, not only for understanding the Moon and its mystical significance, but also for understanding the feminine part of our humanness—whether we are biologically male or female in this lifetime. The book traces the spontaneous and separate growth of Moon religions in all parts of the world and documents how those religions grew and changed as cultures evolved. In all those religions, the Moon was thought to be feminine and to have special importance to women. In another important book of the 1970s, The First Sex, Elizabeth Davies provided historical evidence that Moon religions took hold during ancient times when there was a matriarchy, and that the Sun-worshipping religions did not take hold until the patriarchy was established.[5]
After reading Women's Mysteries and being captivated by it, I tried an experiment with one of my astrology classes, a group of recovering alcoholics at a treatment center in the Bedford Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. I asked them to pretend they were an extremely primitive and isolated tribe gathering for the purpose of establishing a religion. They entered deeply into the experiment, assigning themselves roles in the tribe and discarding all knowledge that a primitive person could not gain from observations of nature.
Startlingly, the results of their reasoning matched the thinking of ancient people outlined in Davies’ book. They decided to worship the Sun and Moon, neither of which they had control over, and concluded the two celestial bodies were alive because they moved. The Sun was designated male, as it was stronger and more dominant. The Moon was unani°©mously regarded as female because of its softness, romantic nature, and constant changes. The growth of the Moon and its phases were likened to pregnancy in women and the monthly menstrual cycle.
Rather than rebel at the seeming sexism of my class and of Davies’ book in assigning femininity to the Moon, as I once would have, I was forced to conclude that there was something to it. As we will see, the Moon is extremely dominant in the horoscope, so what role should we assign to it in a man's chart? Many old-time astrologers dismissed the Moon in a man's chart as representing the key women in his life.
However, the Moon rules such key psychological functions as emotion and dependency —and it is unhealthy for a man to ignore either of these. Both exist in men as much as in women, but our culture has forced men to repress them—and, overall, that's hard on men. It is better to accept the Moon as being the feminine side of a man's psyche (the anima, in Jungian terms), just as Mars represents some of the masculine striv°©ings in a woman's chart. While the male/female dichotomy does exist, we can°©not be truly whole until we integrate both.
[1]Parts of this chapter were taken from Donna’s article, "Reflec°©tions on Diana," Your Personal Astrology, 1/74. Reprinted with permission of Sterling Publications © 1974.
[2] M. Esther Harding, Women's Mysteries, Harper, 1971.
[3] Lunar types are those with a strong Moon or important chart placements like the Sun, Moon, or Ascendant in Cancer. The Moon is strong in a chart when it is near the Midheaven or Ascendant or when there are many aspects to it.
[4] In astrology, there are two main ways of looking at life events (future and past), one being transits—the current positions of the outer planets and their impact on the natal chart. The other includes the various kinds of progressions, meaning how the planetary positions unfolded in the days and weeks after birth. In one simple form of progression, called Day for a Year, the positions of the planets on the tenth day after birth correspond to the conditions in your life at age ten. We will not be dealing with progressions here because I don’t often use them.
[5] Elizabeth Davies, The First Sex, Penguin Books, 1972.
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Donna Cunningham,
Astrologer
& Healer |
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Donna Cunningham is an internationally respected astrologer and the author of 13 books on metaphysical topics.
Donna Cunningham has a dual background in astrology and psychotherapy, with a Masters in Social Work from Columbia University and over 30 years experience as a professional astrologer. She considers doing the astrology charts of children to be a sacred trust. It is a way of knowing who these Indigo children are on their own terms rather than as their families, teachers, and society expect them to be.
In these sessions, she focuses on typical childhood concerns such as family and peer relationships, the best educational approaches, and the child's special gifts and abilities. She can be reached for consultations at (503)291-7891, by email, or at her web page. Ask about her special rate for children's charts.
Donna is also co-editor of Vibration and a frequent contributor. She has written fourteen books on astrology and other metaphysical topics, including her Flower Remedies Handbook. Astrologers who want to know the special considerations involved in doing children's charts can read the chapter on this topic in Donna's text, The Consulting Astrologer's Guidebook.
Listed in several Who’s Who volumes, she has given seminars on astrology around the world and won the prestigious Regulus Award at the 1998 UAC.
She teaches astrology classes online at: astrocollege.com
You may reach her for long-distance astrology consultations at her web site:
DonnaCunningham
MSW.com
by email:
moonmaven @spiritone.com
or by calling:
(503)291-7891.
For the past 20 years, she has worked with the flower remedies, and she is co-editor of Vibration Magazine, a free online educational quarterly at:
essences.com/
vibration/
For information on Donna's online classes about flower essences, visit her website:
DonnaCunningham
MSW.com
"Donna's first astrology ebook will be available in March.
For more
information go to her web page:
http://www.donna
cunninghammsw.com
This series is reprinted with gracious permission from Donna Cunningham.
©2002 Vibration Magazine/The World Wide Essence Society
PO Box 285
Concord, MA 01742
978 369-8454
Special Offer For
The Meta Arts Readership!!!!
Buy One - Get One Free:
Buy one of Donna's e-books and get the 2nd book of your choice for free! Visit Donna's website to order:
www.moonmaven
publications.com
If you are interested in ordering a copy of Donna's new ebook:
"Flower Remedies--How Plant's Energies Can Heal Us,"
It is $15, available at Moon Maven Publications:
www.moonmaven
publications.com
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