Why Transits to the Birth Moon are so Challenging

©2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

 When Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto transits the birth Moon, it is typical to experience a crisis in several areas related to the Moon at once, so interconnected are they. Those areas include our emotions, security, the home, family, and major women in our lives like our mothers.

In the midst of a transit to the Moon, just in the places we are most emotionally vulnerable, the rug is pulled out from under us. Just where we least want to feel anything, where we are the most defended and unconscious, we are flooded with emotions we may have been stuffing for years. Just where we most need safety and security, we find our foundations wobbling. Just where we are most attached to the past, where we least want change, it is thrust upon us–whether from within or without.

Yet, even when it appears to come from without–Mom retires and moves away–there is also an inner stirring that says, “Yes, actually, it was time to leave the womb.” Just as the baby may fear leaving the womb and yet find its walls more and more confining, we also come to a place where we need and want to venture forth, however timidly. That’s the thing we need to understand.

That old devil Moon isn’t causing the trouble, nor is it the fault of Pluto or Neptune. No, it’s an inner evolution, an irresistible urge to grow and to experience more of life and the world than our safety nets have been providing. Crab-like, we sidestep our way into new territory. Fear is next to excitement on the color wheel of the emotions, so some of the panic you feel may contain a wild admixture of excitement. It’s like the first time you left your block on your own as a small child . . . Sure, it was scary, but afterwards there was no stopping you–a new world was opening up!

And yet the Moon is responsive, is reactive rather than initiating, so we seldom leave the womb until the labor contractions propel us. Let’s say your natal Moon is in the 6^th house–representing employment and your day to day work patterns. With the Moon there, the job is your home away from home–or maybe your abode is just your home away from the job. You’ve been at the same company for a decade or more, looking forward to that pension in the year2020, and you’d never leave that security behind. Still, it’s pretty boring, and there’s no growth potential. You’re tired of baking your prize-winning cookies for the office crew week after week, just because people expect it. Your ulcers are kicking up, because you’re sick of mothering your boss, the customers, and everybody else on the job. But, no, you’d never leave. Not willingly.

 So, guess what–you get a big transit to that 6^th house Moon, there’s a buyout, some foreign outfit takes over, and heads roll, including yours. You’re really shook up, you eat a pint of ice cream a day, and suddenly you miss your Mom, big time! You may even fly back there for some home cooking and motherly advice. After the turmoil subsides and your nails grow out, you decide that maybe this change isn’t such a tragedy after all. While you’re on unemployment and still have that credit union cushion, it’s time to try the home business you’ve dreamed about for years. You try it, and it works. Or it doesn’t, but in the process you learn new skills that put you in line for a better job. Looking back on it, you decide the takeover was the best thing that ever happened to you.

Despite all the emoting, despite the unwelcome adjustments, despite your fears and insecurities, a major aspect to your Moon signals a period of great personal development. You’ve outgrown certain sources of dependency and security and are leaving them behind–stepping out of the nest or being kicked out of it, it doesn’t matter. The result is that you’re more grown up, get to experience new territory and learn a great deal about yourself in the process.

 Only about a 12^th of you actually have your birth Moon in the 6^th, but wherever it is, the house position of the birth Moon is an important factor. Throughout our lives, this shows the area of life where we tend to be most lunar. Successful functioning in that area of life can add to our security and sense of well-being. Difficulties or failures there can make us unhappy and insecure like almost nothing else. Generally this is an area where you have a strong emotional investment, so it is one where you periodically go ballistic. When the natal Moon receives an important transit, there often are important metamorphoses in matters of the house involved. The result can be a crisis in the lunar realm, a need to transform lunar functions that have become attached to that area of life.

Suppose your natal Moon in the 10th house is being opposed by transiting Pluto in the 4th. There will typically be a conflict of interest between career and home life. Sometimes a shift in the home life creates stress at work, sometimes political struggles at work increase the demands on your home life, and sometimes both.

Or, let’s say your Moon is in the 11th–the house of friends and group activities–but transiting Saturn is in your 7th–marriage and other major partnerships.  Maybe you’ve been active in your local astrology group–president, even–and these demands have given you very little time to spend with your partner.  When the transit hits, that partner may go through a crisis and need much of your time and energy–or maybe even is giving you an ultimatum about leaving the group to fulfill your home responsibilities. 

In working with transits to the birth Moon, then, consider all the meanings of the house involved. There are likely to be profound alterations in these areas that are so crucial to your emotional well-being. Another consideration is the house position of the transiting planet, because you will often be called upon to integrate the functions of both houses.

More Posts about the Moon on this Blog:

• Using the Daily Moon Sign to your Advantage  
• The Moon Signs and their Emotional Habits 
• The Void of Course Moon–A Lunar Sabbath? 
• Eclipses and Their Effects 
• Cancerians, Memory and Emotion
• Fool’s Gold—the Slippery Slope of the South Node

FREE EBOOKLET FOR SKYWRITER SUBSCRIBERS ONLY:  a 50-page excerpt from my out-of-print book, The Moon in your Life, also known as Being a Lunar Type in a Solar World.  Read more about it here: NEW: FREE BOOKLET FOR SKYWRITER SUBSCRIBERS!   If you’re already a subscriber and want a copy, forward the most recent email post to me at moonmave@spiritone.com. To sign up for a subscription, go to the top right hand corner of the blog and click on “Subscribe.”  Then send me an email with your subscription confirmation or an email post.

Art credits:  The old drawing of the Moon came from clipart.com and the sepid image of homes after a snowstorm are from a stereoscope image by Carl Meinterth in the public domain at WikiMedia Commons.