The Monastic Moon
Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces
What does one learn as a monk or a nun? The renunciate studies scriptures and spends time in meditation, contemplation, reflection, and prayer. Perhaps one sings or chants, studies ancient and modern languages, learns martial arts and/or how to make medicine and to heal. Of course, maybe one only works in the kitchen or scrubs floors.
In the name of piety, one vows to renounce certain emotions, like anger. This can be ennobling if one also lets go of grievances and the desire for revenge. It can be purifying or simply hidden from the view of others and perhaps also from oneself. Though some persons of the cloth live luxuriously, most accept austerity as a way of life. These sacrifices are made in the name of humility, service to others, and whatever higher Being one worships. Once entering the convent, nunnery, monastery, sanctuary, or other holy place, one is expected to make sacrifices, obey one’s superiors, and usually to forego comfort, ego, and dominion over self.
Habits from our past lives bleed through into the present. Since the Moon is the clue to past lives, I have looked at the Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces Moons as the clue to the specific monastic proclivities carried forward into the present. However, we can also look to close connections of the Moon to Jupiter and Neptune.
When taking vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience—one lifetime after another—experience with nitty-gritty domestic issues may be severely lacking, so much so that molehills can turn into mountains. Perhaps, it also goes without saying that one might hold very mixed feelings about life in the outside world, especially about sex and money. Worse perhaps is that deep down, one might believe that one is of very little consequence, that one has no real self, and that even if such self existed, one has no right to assert that self.
There are games I have asked my students to play when contemplating marriage. For example, pretend one has won the lottery, and the two who are about to tie the knot have to spend this windfall together. The one thing they may not do is divide the winnings in half. They must agree on whether, for instance, to buy a new car and/or house, use the funds to pay off college debt, take a luxury vacation around the world, invest for the future, or perhaps even donate a portion or all to charity. The inability to agree may not stand in the way of the march to the altar, but it will certainly serve as a crystal ball for the kinds of discussions that will take place in the future.
When taking vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience—one lifetime after another—one may have very mixed feelings about sex and money.
The point here is that what we feel on an instinctual level often carries the power of conviction. The feelings and habits feel “normal” so it is probably a little confusing when others have entirely different inclinations and feelings about what is normal.
The monastic moons are all on the mutable axis of the horoscope. The good part about this is mutable types are more flexible and open to discussion; but the taboos may still occupy a major part of the subconscious. For those with astrological skills, further nuances can be found on the Taurus-Scorpio axis and second and eighth houses of the horoscope, but one caveat should be mentioned: with the renunciation of so much that is natural to humans, monastic Moon individuals usually have a weak Mars and strong Neptune. They have trained themselves to be receptive rather than assertive so the ball is seldom in their court . . . and initiative must therefore usually be taken by others.
Assertion
Mars is often regarded as a malefic, but this is a subject requiring serious examination. Every planetary energy has influence, but the influence can be used exquisitely by some and awkwardly by others. There are virtues associated with Mars such as chivalry, loyalty, courage, decisiveness, clarity, and leadership. However, it is also true that anger, recklessness, pushiness, and violence can arise in those who have not tamed the energy. No one wants to be bullied or beaten, so the primitive expressions of Mars hit monastic Moon people like shockwaves. Worse, they are generally unanticipated because the transcendent qualities of Neptune cultivated over countless lifetimes have supplanted the rougher nature of Mars.
Except perhaps for monasteries where martial arts play a role in the training, monastic individuals tend to have blind spots where Mars energies are concerned. This leaves a void that is almost like an open door for others who may take advantage of the unsuspecting targets for their own purposes. Sometimes, this takes the form of aggression and sometimes of exploitation of sympathy, compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, and all the other virtues monastics cultivate over perhaps hundreds of incarnations.
Memory
Hopefully, this essay will not be seen as a monologue on knights and gladiators, but rather as an attempt to introduce the concept of patterns carried over from the past. Yes, we drink of the waters of Lethe before incarnating, but the subconscious does retain certain memories that cause resonances and responses.
A competent astrologer can interpret these patterns. The patterns do not necessarily conceal specific memories but rather what we might call amalgamations of memories. The reason is that each new experience is like an edit of an existing opinion or bias. To make this as clear as possible, the lunar consciousness is governed by feelings that have “labels” like abandonment, fear, misunderstanding, rejection, suffering, injustice, betrayal, loss, disappointment, grief, failure, guilt, and so on. Each event in life that has parallels with the past overwrites a certain part of memory so that what remains is the updated version. For an historic record, one needs to access the Akashic Records.
The subconscious would equate to the “conditioned consciousness” as described by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras. If our view is modified by a new experience or deeper understanding of the old experience, the subconscious is modified, more or less like taking a document on the computer and making some changes that overwrite the previous version. The subconscious saves the updated version, not all versions.
The concept of the Monastic Moon was made very relevant when I opened a clinic in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1990. There was a deluge of patients suffering from what we might call divine malcontent, often compounded by a feeling that the people were falling short of the goals and expectations they had for themselves.
As noted, the three monastic Moons are all on the mutable cross. We can describe this cross as being the most mental of the three crosses. It is associated with schools and education; but I did not include Gemini with the monastic Moons because even though most education was ecclesiastic in historic times, Gemini is an air sign and social so it is the least inclined to have its wings clipped and made subject to a lot of rules and restrictions. However, it is very clear that those with Gemini Moons love information, interaction, teaching, writing, publishing, and exchange of ideas.
Virgo Moon
Of the three monastic Moons, Virgo is one most likely to favor medicine making and all the factors contributing to healing such as herb cultivation and collecting, herb processing, and apothecary operation. It is one of the quickest and most intelligent lunar signs for subjects requiring a grasp of details and precision like mathematics, accounting, astronomy and astrology, and illustrations of plants and anatomy. It is perhaps the most practical and analytical of the monastic Moons. It happens also to be witty, but sometimes overly self-critical and self-effacing. Whether animals or humans are the beneficiaries, service to others comes naturally. Virgo has refinement, discernment, and functions best when there is order and cleanliness.
People with Virgo Moon: Saint Teresa of Ávila, Tycho Brahe, Rudolf Steiner, Gertrude Stein, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Joanne Rowling.
Sagittarius Moon
Of the three monastic Moons, Sagittarius is perhaps the most scholarly as well as the one most likely to explore foreign places and ideas. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Sagittarian Moon people need good teachers and opportunities to study and travel. These are the people who unravel, transcribe, and write commentaries on ancient and modern texts, often from multiple languages. They are curious, friendly, and freedom-loving by nature and seldom want to be tied down.
People with Moon in Sagittarius: Nicholas Copernicus, Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Franz Liszt, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Pablo Picasso, Charles Lindbergh, Anne Bancroft, Dame Jane Goodall, Neil Armstrong, Yuri Gagarin, Oprah Winfrey.
Pisces Moon
Those with the Moon in Pisces are very sensitive. Many are also old souls with mystical or psychic gifts. Unlike those who aim to serve or to study, Pisces seeks inner guidance and experience and therefore needs both time and space to retreat within. These people are very sensitive to their environment and need to maintain a high level of purity in order to function safely and clearly. Those with Moons in Pisces are usually gentle, peace loving, compassionate, and caring people. Once they understand and honor their own needs, they can safely journey deep within and serve as guides for others.
People with Moon in Pisces: Anne Boleyn, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Susan Brownell Anthony, Marie Curie, Helen Keller, Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel, Golda Meir.
The concepts discussed here were formulated by me in the early 1970s and sometimes included in essays or lectures. What is posted today is a sort of introduction to a number of important astrological tenets and signatures.
Copyright by Dr. Ingrid Naiman 2023 || All Rights Reserved
First discussed in essays in the 1970s and later published on https://astroheal.com/articles/monastic_moon.html in 2007 and edited in 2014. Expanded and revised for Substack in February 2023.
All images used under license from Dreamstime.com:
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ID 137512934 ©Jozef Sedmak St. Francis kneeling before the Pope
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ID 188499766 ©Mihail Guta
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