By Catherine Carlson
Of all the lights in the sky, there are two that shine brightest—the sun and the moon. These two “luminaries” as they are called, illuminate our world more than any other celestial body, both literally and personally. Astrologically, they are also the two biggest influences.
The Sun
Worshipped throughout the ages all over the world, the sun is the strongest and most powerful cosmic influence we have here on earth. The sun provides life to earth along with daytime and the seasons. To say it is powerful is an understatement. The sun has a personal relationship with each one of us as it travels through the zodiac lighting up each sign for a month. If you are at all interested in astrology, the one thing you know is your “sun” sign—the sign that the sun was in at the time of your birth. This sign is how the sun expresses itself through you.
All planets, plus the sun and moon, are paired up with a different zodiac sign (or signs) and the fire sign Leo, symbolized by the lion, is partnered with the fiery sun. With its golden coat and fearsome roar, “The King of Beasts,” holds the honor of representing the life-giving sun.
Picture the male lion in its habitat and you can understand how in your natal chart the sun represents the father. This represents our own father or the person that represents the father archetype in our lives. This is the powerful energy that initiated the growth of your very first cells. It is also the person that was responsible for your well-being, providing for you, showing you the ropes, and cultivating your inner authority so that one day you could leave the nest and survive on your own.
In astrology, the sun gives us the key qualities that shine through us in life. Because we have a conscious awareness of the sun, our sun sign is what we are aware of—what we can we see in ourselves. Our sun sign embodies our personality and creative impulses. Perhaps you are a practical Capricorn with a strong work ethic and high standards. With proper support you would have already perceived these qualities in yourself, and they would give you a sense of purpose and inner authority. On the contrary, not embracing these qualities can make you feel like you have a power outage, are losing motivation, or feeling disconnected.
Just as the sun provides life to the planet, it also provides life force to us in the form of our sun sign. The significations of your sun sign serve as a guide to what provides your vitality. These qualities are also what energize and fortify you. Let’s say your sun sign is Gemini, and you are curious or sociable—a natural networker. This would be something you would likely embrace, and it would give you strength. All the traits and significations of each respective sign are things that will be readily recognized and what give you energy. This is also why we all have a tendency to come alive during our birthday month.
In her book, A Manual for Developing Humans, PMH Atwater who had multiple near-death experiences, says that we have several personal annual cycles stemming from our birth date each year. Six weeks before your birthday she says is, “a time of weakness and tiredness,” while six weeks following your birthday is “a time of strength and ready-to-go energy.” This further underscores the power of the sun on your birthday as a personal battery re-charge each year.
Having just passed the darkest day of the year on the calendar in the northern hemisphere (December21) we feel the power of the sun as it expands in warmth and daylight. As a little boy in the 1940s, before penicillin, my dad became very sick with pneumonia in the middle of a Michigan winter. In an effort to heal him, his mother and her sister put the kids in the car and drove all the way to the sun—the Florida Keys. The trip was the exact prescription needed!
Whether you love to sit in the sun or not, the human body needs sunlight to thrive. The sun is the heartbeat in a birth chart, an ever-present life force energy sustaining and fortifying us in all aspects of our growth and development.
The Moon
Much smaller and connected only to earth, the moon is the earth’s night light. The energy of the sun is steady, reliable, strong, and ever-present. By contrast, the energy of the moon is magnetic, fluid, and ever-changing. The moon has also been revered in its own right. It is respected, honored, and celebrated when it comes to the cyclical rhythms of nature including planting, harvesting, and the female cycle. The moon’s cycle repeats monthly and touches all signs of the zodiac.
The moon, with its connection to water, is aligned with the water sign of Cancer, the crab (Cancer is Latin for crab). The crab is a fitting symbol being on or near the water. Crabs are sensitive creatures with a hard shell and a soft belly, never straying too far from their homes, just as the moon is always close to earth.
If the sun often represents the father in astrology, the moon can represent the mother or the nurturing figure in our life. This is the energy that feeds you, provides comfort, sees to your health, and fortifies your emotional well-being. The archetypal mother is like mother nature—ever nurturing and representing the creative and growth processes of life.
Together the sun and moon act as parental planets. The placement of these planets for someone personally can indicate the type of parents they had, their own relationship with them, and even ancestral information. The placement helps to understand that a person may have a different experience with their parents than their siblings had.
We can watch the effect of the moon on the ocean bringing in the tide and moving it out. Similarly, our emotions ebb and flow, never staying in the same place. They are represented by the moon astrologically. Our emotional body fluctuates like the moon—waxing and waning. Emotions surface then scamper away like the crab. Like our tears, emotions are represented by water. The moon illuminates the dark and with it, how we feel, react, or process things. This is a part of us that we are less aware of. It is our internal selves, with the vulnerable belly, where we experience things that are not always pleasant. Think of the werewolf in folklore whose hidden nature is only revealed under the light of the full moon.
While the sun signifies our vitality, the moon in astrology is what circulates that life force energy and represents our overall health, mental or physical. Where the moon is placed in your natal chart can indicate where your sensitivities are. A person with thyroid sensitivities could potentially have their moon in Taurus, the sign connected to that part of the body. The moon as it transits through your own natal chart can highlight your own personal cycles and rhythms.
Just as one luminary departs the other appears*. The yin-yang symbol is an appropriate representation of the sun and the moon. They hold the balance of day and night, father and mother, outer self and inner self. One is obvious, the other more mysterious. The sun and moon are the most important celestial bodies in our sky due to their proximity and their ability to illuminate our world every single day. Astrologically they are just as important—lighting us up inside and out. Without these two luminaries as a foundation, the influence of the rest of the planets on us would be altered as well.
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In astrology, the three planets closest to earth—Mercury, Venus, and Mars—are known as the inner planets, or personal planets. These three planets, along with the Earth, are all in the same neighborhood, and affect us personally.