Conjunctions of the Moon: II

Greetings and welcome back to Journeys! To end the year I present the second part of my dive into the more esoteric sides of the conjunctions of the Moon, looking at Jupiter, Saturn, Chiron, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and the Dragon.

Moon conjunct Jupiter

Now we are in the realm of souls seeking noble truths, guiding principles and universal precepts to live by, grand notions which encompass broad concerns like morality, ethics, justice, faith and philosophy. Jupiter, the prince of the sky, directs the soul (Moon) to gaze upwards and outward as well as inward for the personal answers to big questions. In this respect it is like the conjunction of the Moon with Mercury, a questing conjunction bound to seek knowledge, but the quest here is less superficial, less concerned with details and more with universal principles. This conjunction is also like Moon conjunct Venus in that it brings empathy and an ease when it comes to personally connecting with things. With the conjunction to Venus, however, the more accurate keyword is sympathy rather than empathy, since the urge for personal peace and happiness that Venus represents makes the soul more sensitive to the presence of pain and suffering. It is also like Moon conjunct Mars in that it is called on some kind of crusade, but one that will be fought with the pen more often than the sword, it is much less of a crusade against something and more of a crusade for it. It emphasises the power of connection and joining where the sharp edges of Mars emphasis the strength of sundering and difference. The fact that the power of connection is greater than the strength of difference is represented by the vast difference in scale between the physical appearance and orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The things we share in common define the ways in which we differ and are greater than them.

As with Sun conjunct Jupiter there is often a regal aspect to the person who has this conjunction, a “special something” that makes them charismatic, graceful, charming or innately influential. Optimism, raw luck and joviality tend to be in high supply, but so do indulgence, laziness, entitlement, hedonism, judgmentalism, extravagance and wastefulness. This is not the most resourceful of conjunctions (see the following aspect for one of those) but it is one of the most resource rich, so it tends to get a lot of supply of things but needs to learn their value and how to make them effective. In particular this applies to the vast supply of knowledge the soul will be provided with.

The optimism often written about in connection with this conjunction is not often distinguished from the optimism frequently connected with Sun conjunct Jupiter. With the Sun conjunct Jupiter the optimism is about life overall, it fosters the attitude that things will always turn out for the best in the end, especially if we are committed to learning and growing through increased knowledge. With the Moon, on the other hand, the optimistic confidence is more based in ones own soul, in our personal ability to overcome obstacles and setbacks and in one’s own traits and characteristics. The pomposity, dogmatism, superiority and other negative traits also associated with conjunctions between Jupiter and both of the Lights also distinguish in a similar way – the Sun is about life itself and is more externally commanding while the Moon is about how we feel about ourselves and is more internally alluring.

I have described this aspect by comparing it to other conjunctions of the Lights because this gets to the heart of the matter. At its heart this conjunction brings the soul into an exploration of similarity and commonality, into a sense of how it is made part of a larger fabric of being through the things it shares with other souls – the basis of empathy. It thus transcends the personal, expanding the astral awareness (through experience and/or innate nature) so that it ultimately encompasses something that is beyond but still part of the private and personal. ‘Astral connection’ is a key phrase here. This can have many different manifestations of course, as many as there are degrees and kinds of commonality, thus it can involve racial issues, spiritual connections, social issues, cultural tribes, legal matters, etc. Wherever there is a capacity for one of us to say “I am personally the same as or like you in this respect” then there is fertile ground for this conjunction to take root. This is why these conjunctions of Jupiter are often connected to strong beliefs, religious or otherwise. Here the soul/personality will be seeking something to believe in, be guided by a particular belief or can be exploring the notion of belief itself, even if that belief is atheism.

If the aspects and dignity of this conjunction are supportive then the soul is in relative terms often considered lucky, inexplicably gifted with fortunate events and outcomes, but this is not just destiny at play it is also produced by the generally exuberant and positive attitude this conjunction puts out into the world. It cannot win the lottery, but it can come to their rescue in ways no less miraculous and wondrous. The generation of personal growth through opportunity is in over-drive and there are many times when the choices these people make are between multiple promising doors opening at once. These choices are more pleasing than the kind of choices Saturn sets up (usually between rocks and hard places), but they can be no less difficult to make, especially when these souls tend to overblown and over-dramatic expectations of what could happen. They tend to imagine all the golden opportunities they will miss out on by passing up all the other options.

Belief can also become toxic, especially when it is forced on others, and there may be issues here either because the person themselves is like this or because an influential figure has behaved this way (Moon aspects always suggest a mother figure, but not necessarily). Belief can be taken too personally so that anyone who questions that belief is automatically attacked. This tends to be more common if this conjunction is tied up in squares or oppositions as these represent the need to break away from beliefs which are an ill fit for the souls growth. Remember that we must extend our thinking on belief beyond religions to encompass all kinds of faith, even if that faith is in atheism, a personal trait, a political party, a sports team, etc. Such aspects can also indicate that we hold beliefs that are challenged by others or by society in some way. That said, a lack of such challenging aspects to this conjunction can bring in an abundance of spiritual guidance but we will tend to live in an echo chamber (more than the norm for that, at least) where we only hear our own beliefs and so they can stagnate through lack of development.

The soul will display (or aspire to display) some of the virtues of the sign the conjunction is in (for example, if in Scorpio it will possess or try to acquire deep insight into the mysteries of life and death). In some cases these gifts are from spiritual liberation attained in past incarnations and in others they are gifts from spiritual entities to assist the soul in its tasks. In other cases these souls are incarnated gurus and mentors with a spiritual mission from Divine Providence. Ultimately there are some things that we all share in common, and so the soul is being directed towards understanding the universal laws which govern its growth, in other words the knowledge of the spiritual laws and truths, the way to be liberated from our ignorance of the souls actual existence and the laws guiding its incarnation and enlightenment, as well as the guides we have been provided with that support us in this way, hence the ancient association of Jupiter with powerful deities and archetypal god-forms (differing to the deities represented by Saturn in that Jupiter is literally and figuratively much closer to humanity and so empathizes with it much more closely, often mating with or lusting after it and meddling in its fate and affairs). This is why these people are frequently approached by, seek out or bump into gurus and mentors of all kinds or are drawn to particular deities or doctrines (which they often have prior incarnations devoted to and thus come in with a deep well of knowledge about). Spiritual awakening can come through any kind of teacher depending on the teachers own spiritual maturity, it matters not whether they teach mechanics or religious philosophy, but the sign of this conjunction will describe these teachers in some way as well as our connection to them, what we share in common with them, as well as what they teach the soul.

Moon conjunct Saturn

Where Jupiter conjunct the Moon brings astral growth through opportunity this conjunction brings astral growth through effort. This means that the ultimate reward of personal accomplishment is more satisfying but the road is longer and features tribulations. I want to emphasize this point about growth however because most of the interpretations of this aspect are heavily influenced by the fearful and negative attitude many people have of Saturn (misery!) compared to Jupiter (fortune!). Jupiter alone does not bring growth. Growth must occur within a structure and form. Traditionally, both of these conjunctions are said to make people in positions of power favour us but Saturn had the greatest influence, denoting the ear of the monarch, prime minister, emperor or other leading figurehead or institution whereas Jupiter is more often listed in connection with high priests and priestesses, magistrates, advocates and crown princes or princesses. In other words Saturn brings in the people with real temporal and material power or those who act as the demi-mortal representatives of the gods while Jupiter focuses on spiritual power and backup authorities less removed from the masses.

This emphasis on real power shows us that compared to the previous aspect this one is more grounded. Moon conjunct Jupiter may dream of reaching the sky and clouds but Moon conjunct Saturn will be content to scale the misty mountains. The soul is ambitious and has come in with access to wisdom and understanding beyond its mortal years of age, so the kids are mature and often thrust into adult responsibilities early and the adults are authoritative in some area and generally experienced when it comes to handling personal realities and hardships like poverty, infirmity, isolation or disappointment. However with this greater access to the soul’s store of real experience comes a price, namely that the soul is burdened with the weight of that experience. So while they gain access to the wisdom and experience of former incarnations (consciously or usually unconsciously) they also come in with a greater weariness and often must deal with something heavy. Depression, emotional defensiveness, an overall gloomy outlook and pessimism are common challenges they find themselves wrestling with. The soul is also prone to engage in grueling, drawn out struggles that test its endurance, discipline, patience and maturity but the inner strength and composure, the self discipline, patience and persistence in these people and the support they receive from some older and more experienced entity (often a mother) is more than enough to weather these conditions.

Issues with mother (or her absence) can be deeply significant for good or ill and the concept of family and blood ties in general can become tightly intertwined with emotional security and material responsibility. The security of family ties provides these souls with emotional support and contentment but they can make the mistake of assuming that it will always be there, yet as time goes by parents die, partners leave, children grow up and siblings go off on their own journeys, so there is an eventual need to break away from dependence on these ties for emotional support. The experience of finding your family after a long journey instead of being born into it is a common motif. This journey is itself a difficult one for these souls, as they are searching for a secure rock to build their personal lives upon and may be proceeding in this out of necessity. This is more often the case with Moon opposition Saturn, but it also applies here.

The soul is learning to operate within rules, restrictions or boundaries and feeds on taking personal responsibility, it feels able and ready to take on some kind of authority position and to guide others in taking the tried and tested path, and usually it is more than qualified to do so. These people are not usually drawn to take control of things for trivial personal reasons, they take control because they feel inwardly that they can handle the weight of the personal responsibility better. There can be a lot of pressure placed on them. However there are rare exceptions where the motive is personal ambition unfettered by the weight of responsibility and such people can be ruthless. Strictness, fear, lack of resources, meanness, aloof judgment, icy and unperturbed emotion and cold superiority can also blight the soul and close it off from intimate contact and the expression of vulnerability or a feeling of being personally safe and nurtured in life.

The conjunction of these two planets slows down biological and astral rhythms and can foster astral blockages or health issues connected to the Moon. That means for women the menstrual and hormonal cycles and for men the overall functions of the body can be sluggish and prone to obstruction. The emotions are similarly slowed down so that what we feel is heavier, denser, more serious and contains a greater concentration of gravitas. This is why these souls are inclined to pessimism and to make cautious and over-conservative estimates, particularly of emotional matters, which they take long periods of time to assimilate. Emotions have to be processed methodically and dealt with as Tetris-like blocks. The overall shape of what is being felt has to be identified first and then it has to be made to fit in neatly somewhere into an existing structure. The soul does not process radical experience well and is likely to break down when confronted with truly extraordinary events. It also does not respond well to situations which call for rapid reactions or spontaneity simply because it is comfortable when it operates at slow speed and has time to plan. These people tire from rapid activity quickly but excel at marathons. Given time they are resilient and recover from things that would wipe others out. Their physical, astral and mental bodies tend to respond well to conventional medicine and treatment.

Although they often appear composed and authoratitive these people feel a deep insecurity or lack personal confidence. Practicality is one of the abiding strong points in these people, however. They apply common sense to emotions and feelings with the result that they are often level headed enough to weather a storm, even becoming a rock for others to cling to. Additionally, the older they get the less pessimistic and more experienced they tend to become, which leads to a further increase in their wisdom and enlightenment. When their innate emotional defensiveness is lowered their sense of belonging will deepen and the soul will cast off the restrained emotional expression which has crystallized around it.

The soul is seeking to apply discipline and yet avoid rigidity. It has come to put its wisdom and understanding into practice in some area and will have a head start over others in doing so – there will be something karmic about the souls incarnation which furnishes it with the necessary knowledge, tools or access. However, it will tend to stick to the rules that it knows and cringe away from anything innovative or experimental and thus can become stuck. Sometimes on the path up the mountain the goat must jump an abyss, and this is where these people can have trust issues. There is often Work for these souls to do which they must work to understand. The soul has brought with it not only experience but also the teachings about the spiritual laws which they gained from those experiences, at least in their essence if not conscious personal realisation, and once this understanding is claimed the soul is shown things it and others came here to do. All in the right time, though.

Moon conjunct Chiron

In the nearly 50 years we have had to study Chiron and its aspects a general consensus has emerged which connects him with healing, chasms (rifts or divides which must and can be bridged), initiation (quest giving) and (in my research) the wonders and magic of the natural world and our connection to its spirits and lore. We have lost unimaginably vast and important community knowledge – it has been ‘uploaded’ to the collective level of responsibility and thus split away. There can really be no argument about this – our children today are not even taught to plant seeds let alone cultivate them, they need to look this up. Milk your own cow? Forget it. Essentially with mechanization, industrialization and now computerization and our extermination of aboriginal people we have lost basic knowledge that we all had for tens of thousands of years, knowledge we now desperately need to at least partially reclaim, and this is a large part of the Chironic agenda with us at this time.

Generally these souls are going to be very sensitive to pain like Moon conjunct Venus, but even more acutely. They can be extremely sensitive to impressions received from others. These people may be drawn to environmental activity or some kind of work which involves cleaning up, repairing, purifying or calming things. Since the Moon is so deeply connected to the oceans and Chiron to the natural world and its medicine we can surmise that this aspect will show itself in oceanographers, marine biologists, seafarers, fishers and other people whose lives involve the worlds water in some way, (although this overlaps with Moon/Neptune) but so far I have not seen much evidence of this because there are only a handful of people in my chart database of over 10,000 people who have this conjunction. This is an interesting line for current astrological research, however.

I have seen more evidence of problematic relationships involving the mother or a mother figure where this conjunction seems to emphasize an experience of a lack of nurture that awakens the quest to find it or provide it in later life, similar to Moon/Saturn. I have seen cases where the mother was sick or disabled and needed to be cared for at a young age, cases where mother was cruel or wicked, rejection by mother, cases where she was absent completely and cases of adoption where the experience of tracking her down opened up old wounds. I have also seen a significant number of midwives, pediatric nurses and doctors, nannies and nursery school teachers/surrogate mothers with this aspect in their charts – people whose jobs involve the healing or support of children, parents and families, and who apparently did not enter that field because of their own lack of nurturing as a child. In almost every case I have seen, however, there is the acute sensitivity to pain and impressions received by others, something not always present with Moon/Saturn.

This impressionability and sensitivity to pain seems to rarely be in focus, it seems more often to be blurred and indistinct, a general suffering from being oversensitive accompanied by a lack of awareness as to what exactly is wrong. This seems to be because the psyche itself is needing some kind of healing as some of its experiences may have become partitioned, disconnected. fragmented or screened out, either emotionally of (more rarely) in memory. Once the reasons for this inner split in the psyche are identified the healing can then begin. So there is often a need for the person to engage in therapy of some kind in order to explore the psyche and its contents, especially if there are issues with memory or cognitive faculties. The Moon is connected to the brain and so to conditions like epilepsy and fits, as well as to all mental and mood conditions, all of which can become the arena for the healing journey this aspect brings. The body responds well to holistic or naturopathic medicine (animal magic, herbal concoctions, contact with the outdoors, etc) and may have a physical or astral connection to some plant, animal or natural feature. An occult line of research in future may show up a connection to families with fey blood, although this would prove extremely difficult to research.

It seems to me that this conjunction really makes it plain that in this life the soul has deep personal wounds to heal, wounds that may be deeply rooted in its ancestral bloodline and/or past lives and thus may need to be investigated. The wound, once identified, must not be denied or run away from, the pain of that wound must be opened up and partially re-experienced in order for the soul to heal. Once they have healed these wounds these people often choose to become a healer of these and similar wounds in others. Thus this aspect seems to involve a need for a type of astral healing (see the sign and temple for some clues about it, but also look at any squares or oppositions to this position) and being gifted with healing psychological or psychic wounds. The soul is either healing, becoming a healer, or both, and it may also be a quest giver for other souls.

Moon conjunct Uranus

This aspect leads to a far greater occurrence of the unexpected and the unusual as astral forces assert themselves in unpredictable and more inventive ways. Moods react and fluctuate quite spontaneously in response to the unending moment as it alters course, and there is tense but inspirational group energy as a result. Things electronic or otherwise routinely operated upon tend to behave unpredictably and on the whole we have to be more adaptable and flexible in our daily routines, perhaps altering course radically.

Being born on these days indicates that we will carry this energy throughout our life – we will tend to feel that our moods and daily habits are restless and often continually in a state of change and flux, and the things we look to for a foundation or security undergo continuous changes. Sometimes gadgets and other machinery will behave mysteriously around us. More than the normal amount and range of strange and unusual experiences occur around us, such as highly charged meetings and coincidences, because we are literally broadcasting into the collective mind (in a way characterised by the sign) everywhere we go and probably operate in a higher gear mentally and astrally or at least tune into a level of group or social thought that zips over or through most people’s heads. In occult terms the soul is entangled with the human collective mind, meaning the persons soul is intimately connected to the human group soul and can influence or be influenced by it readily. My intuition is that many of the younger people with us now who have Moon/Uranus contacts are the most vulnerable to the influence of things like mobile technology, social media and social credit and that we will see these themes writ large in their lives.

This conjunction affects all the rhythmic principles of the body and mind by speeding them up and making them erratic, especially the fluid ones, potentially causing irregularities and anomalies in all bodily fluid processes such as female menstruation, digestion, hormonal production, blood pressure and blood flow and the functioning of the autonomic nervous system. It also has an effect on the astral body that can best be described as a quickening – a more rapid cycle of resonance in the soul and thus an acceleration of astral development. So on a biological level this conjunction can potentially spell erratic disturbances which affect mood stability and any kind of fluid in the body, more rapid brain activity and a nervous and excitable astral nature that can invite sudden accidents that lead to injury or shock, a faster metabolism and a quickening of the nervous system that produces both greater vulnerability to anxiety and quicker autonomic reactions. On a mental and astral level the conjunction can bring similar influences that can be difficult to handle, such as Aspergers or other kinds of autism, either ours or those in our personal lives. A poor handling of this conjunction can manifest in many disruptions in any of the three bodies, physical, astral or mental. The bodies tend not to respond well to conventional treatments and may benefit more than usual from alternative, fringe or experimental therapies.

In terms of qualities it brings to our character in general this conjunction is very diverse. These are resourceful, inventive and independent people who feel nurtured by radical change and newness, originality. They enjoy the unconventional side of life and need excitement and surprises as part of a daily pattern. They will show the willful and rebellious side of their nature if forced to conform, fit in, are denied freedom to move (personal space of all kinds) or when they must make do with being average. However unlike with Sun/Uranus contacts this energy is less visible and more private, it is present in our personal lives and only occasionally beyond that.

In order to feel secure these souls need to feel that there is a restless, original, non-routine sparkle in their personal life and for this reason likely will never know conventional security and may have what others consider ‘kinks’. They are not easily or well understood by society. Nor will how these people feel and react be predictable or routine as they find emotional reassurance in individuality and unconventionality, in spite of any clashes this inevitably brings. The soul simply does not feel at rest unless it is in motion, unless it is changing. Therefore these people must make extra effort to quieten the mind and reduce the rapidity of thoughts and impressions that it cycles through. They are highly alert and sensitive to changes in the environment and have the touch of intuitively understanding many aspects of group dynamics. In many cases there is an unconscious telepathy going on, a kind of contact with the collective, especially when they take an approach as described by the sign which hosts the conjunction. These souls tend to race into things and display a tendency to be provocative and to kick against the establishment. They can also be quite obstinate about clinging to their ideals (especially in their insistence on personal freedom), and will insist on doing things their way at times when this conjunction dominates. In these times they can be very set in their direction and ironically stubbornly refuse to change it. However they always combine this, paradoxically, with a love of radical changes that lead down unexpected new paths.

Many people born with this conjunction are quickly fascinated by new gadgets and technologies, especially those that are introduced into the home. They embrace change at this level instinctively and may even yearn for the future on an inner level because of all the advances in technology it promises to them which they equate with making life more comfortable and liberating. This can make them restless in the present – fixated on tomorrows – and also quickly dissatisfied with what they have access to, as there is always something new to chase after. In most cases this aspect makes the soul very friendly towards technology, especially when it is innovative, but there are exceptions where the soul is rebelling against science and technological progress. Whatever the attitude these peoples lives are often somehow more exposed to or influenced by mass media and are instinctively and habitually reacting to its presence.

There is no escaping the fact that this aspect foretells that there will be at least one complete change of personality or circumstances in life, one which may seem uncontrolled but which is designed to bring greater freedom of expression for the soul. This event will serve to shatter the old habitual patterns the personality needs to be freed from so that it can grow in completely new directions. It is not a punishment or a curse if this continues to repeat itself again and again like a scratched record, instead it is really a sign that you have not made the radical changes that need to occur, which may in fact require many stages to complete. This aspect points out what needs to change and if we don’t get it or choose not to listen and act then the pressure involved eventually manifests as events which force a change. It is really a conjunction which is displaying our own choice that we have no choice but to radically change.

So the soul has come into life determined to break free of its own self imposed boundaries and experience greater freedom of expression. It must beware becoming too fixated on this goal because it threatens to dominate the astral awareness, making it selfish and too insistent on its own freedoms. It must also be wary of never being satisfied with itself because of its own insistence that it be utterly unique. The soul does not like to hold the same opinions as others because this implies it is a clone, and this is the idea it is kicking against in itself and in others. But by its very nature it can never be a clone and will always be unique, no matter how it chooses to express this uniqueness.

The connection of the personal soul with the collective human mind is strong when this conjunction takes place. This is because the souls being born in these times (Moon) personify its generations urge for freedom, originality and independence (Uranus). In other words, they express the most progressive and revolutionary attitudes of their generation personally, and astrally embody the influence of Uranus in that sign. This is the source of the fascination with human inventiveness and progress into the future, the reason why they have opinions about and ideals of a certain more Utopian society and can serve to focus prevailing social changes, why they have an awareness of trends just before they happen for everyone else, sensitivity to thought in the environment, have gifts with group dynamics and a higher frequency of experienced synchronicity. The definition of ‘radical outsider’ is actually shifted by such people – it was not that long ago, for example, that any woman who claimed she deserved equal standing with men was considered ‘crazy’. So these people do actually push back boundaries and cause collective redefinitions of what is considered ‘fringe’ versus ‘mainstream’. It just happens over generations and costs them a great deal before it happens.

On a magical level this connection supports the development of telepathic contacts, the capacity for astra-mental voyaging and any work at the level of the human group mind. Uranus is the illumination of sudden insight which comes through contact with the collective level of being and so when it is with the Moon it can allow communication of genius through the astral awareness. The evolution of the soul can lead to rapid development in these areas once the equilibrium is attained. Some of these souls are born magicians or are carrying on an initiation already partially completed.

All in all, this aspect keeps the astral awareness on its toes. It’s much harder to settle down because this smacks of inner stagnation. The soul will be drawn to strange and enigmatic notions and possesses the potential for great inventiveness, intuitive insight and moments of “Eureka!” – there is the ability to grasp the answer to things from out of the ethers in sudden inspiration, and the soul has chosen to undergo experiences which will completely overhaul its inner image and world view so that it can experience liberation from the habits acquired which bind true expression, but when it must work with restrictions it will feel more easily frustrated and kick against whatever is ‘holding it back’. A lasting sense of feeling comfortable will prove elusive. Ultimately the soul must find a way to integrate the Promethean fire of collective inspiration and the compulsion to experience newness without this becoming negatively disruptive and this involves encountering and personalizing it continuously, which is the reason for the many changes that occur in these peoples private lives. Lightning does indeed strike the same place more than once and these people are collective lightning rods.

Moon conjunct Neptune

If Moon conjunct Uranus leads the soul to explore its connection to the consciousness of humanity then Moon conjunct Neptune is the soul exploring its connection to universal or pure consciousness and the infinite hierarchy of spirits that give it form. This requires receptivity, imagination and sensitivity and so this conjunction provides all three in abundance. It also opens the soul up to experience transcendent emotions, to feel the invisible fabric of connectivity within the astral realm, the flow of significance through symbols, and thus to greater compassion, an infinite ocean of it in truth.

From a mundane perspective these people are often gifted with talent for working in film, visual arts or any kind of expression of the imagination. Unlike Sun conjunct Neptune, which is gifted with the sight that perceives the presence of the numinous and mysterious in the events and music of life this conjunction sees the unimaginably vast realms of imagination as a gateway to the inner mysteries of the soul and the music of our interior, and so they also make good psychologists and therapists as well as spiritual messengers. Yet it is really the sensitivity and compassion which asserts itself more vividly and consistently through this aspect, an ability to lose oneself in the ocean of feeling and the tidal pull of astral currents, to be utterly swept away by music. When you are this sensitive to the invisible world and its content, you are no longer separated from a vast unknown filled with potential horrors and miracles, and the so-called ordinary mundane world loses much of its charm because it feels so dull and lifeless next to the seething cauldron of universal archetypes separated from us only by a thin wall of skin and the will of our energy bodies. For people with Moon conjunct Neptune, that skin is especially porous and allows almost anything and everything to pass through it in both directions. Thus, psychic self defence is often advisable.

Given this condition they may feel overwhelmed by emotion at times and need to insulate themselves from the world by establishing personal boundaries. This is a very passive conjunction and when these boundaries are not secured the soul will often retreat and hide itself away until things settle. The soul sometimes lives in a fantasy world of its own making and can have difficulty coping with reality, but this can usually be helped quite easily if the person finds some way to express their imagination healthily.

These souls may have developed an unrealistic picture of their mother and as a result have difficulty letting go either because they feel so at-one with her or because they feel so disillusioned by her. The soul needs to develop its artistic, spiritual and creative nature and avoid drugs as forms of escapism and deceptive or toxic relationships (often involving victim/savior or martyr complexes) which easily form when their unending compassion is used up on people who only want to take advantage of it. A key quality the soul is striving to develop here is discernment, the ability to distinguish between what is only imaginary and what has actual astral substance.

These people are extremely responsive to atmosphere, mood and environment, in particular when they evoke serenity and contemplation. It is the intangible essence of astral experience that these people respond to, the vibe. Think of how when we walk into a vast, silent, ancient library or a candlelit, incense filled Gothic cathedral or a graveyard there is an immediate sense of powerful atmosphere and mood that stirs and moves the soul in a particular way. This is what it’s like for these people in every kind of environment, not just those which have been engineered a certain way. They can sense what is underneath whatever has been plastered on top and they can literally feel where the direction of the river is going but are not always gifted with the oracular ability to communicate it to others (and thus often end up having to process it in their dream life). They walk into a coffee shop and are immediately bombarded with a cacophony of strong impressions and it’s just overwhelming to live this way all the time, hence these people often retreat into a sacred space where they can light candles, chill out, smell the incense and dream away the drudgery and bewilderment, just to reset the inner stillness they crave. Drugs, unreal dreams that deny what is probable, eating disorders (the Moon represents the stomach and hunger for life), escapism in fairy tale romances and other Neptunian issues can become devastatingly destructive problems if these souls do not know how to contact their own inner peace. Often then these people have a part of their life which serves as a sanctum, a sacred space into which chaos and confusion are forbidden to come, a kind of final boundary that delineates a walled garden only they can enter. They carry an air of mystery and enigma about them and can be hard to get to know for this reason. In “The Book of Neptune” astrologer Steven Forrest makes the excellent suggestion that these people ‘bathe’ in moonlight, preferably in private without clothes, and this strikes me as an excellent idea for these souls, for many reasons. They respond well to spiritual and metaphysical healing of all kinds but particularly well to resonance/sympathy based approaches or those which involve invisible forces, hence Moon magic of any kind is very helpful to them.

It is rare that these souls do not seek or follow some kind of spiritual doctrine to live by. Whether or not this is a good spiritual doctrine is not indicated by the aspect. A suicide cult has the same status here as any organised religion or a genuine Messiah. The soul may need to break away from this doctrine, in other words. This point is not frequently made in connection with this aspect but it resonates highly with its capacity for self-deception and the need for sacrifice in breaking away from a spiritual doctrine is a real kind of death. There is a devotional depth to these people (it comes in a package deal with so much compassion) which means they can devote themselves to things that are not worth being devoted to. Whether the result of this devotion is healthy or unhealthy for the spiritual progress of the individual, it will inevitably act to serve the growth of the soul.

There are many enchanting and bewitching spirits we can encounter in life, some of which are embodied in spiritual doctrines and practices, rituals and ceremonies, old ways hidden in plain view, old contracts between us humans and the others we share space with. An artistic muse, for example, can captivate us for many lifetimes as we explore it. A religion or an aspect of them can do the same. Some people are born into families that are “married” to certain spirits, a practice especially common in places like Africa, New Orleans and Haiti but also practiced elsewhere. So there are certain ancestral lines which are intertwined with the invisible world, its symbolic motifs and its inhabitants and being born with this aspect would make us particularly significant as a medium in these situations. Through magic or rituals in other lifetimes we may have a spirit being incarnating alongside us as a protector, teacher, guide or more rarely (usually when we ignore it) as a curse. The connection of the Moon with mother often makes these spirits feminine in manifestation and so very often they are the masks or god forms of the planetary Intelligence of Gaia, the Mother of life on Earth, who is in turn a representative of the Great Mother of Binah, the Mothering realm of the Greater Selves who perform the Great Work of incarnation. Priestesses of all kinds who come into these peoples lives are earthly agents of these forces.

The connection of these souls to the ocean of pure consciousness manifests in many ways through a variety of forms including clairvoyance, heavenly musical gifts, bardic inspiration, dream magic, enchantment and illusion, psychic sensitivity, prophecy, divination, hauntings, evocation and all kinds of spirit magic. In the mundane world these souls become exemplars or archetypal expressions of their generations vision, imagination and psychic landscape, a connection which often manifests through music, fashion or being an example of the general zeitgeist, but also through the ways it seeks enlightenment. Neptune takes about 14 years to go through each sign, however, so when we are born in that period (in other words where Neptune is in the sign – beginning, middle or end) will often strongly shape the zeitgeist in phases, inseparable zones where the same essential meaning is expressed with a subtle difference. For an example of this, consider a person who is born right at the very beginning of Neptune in a particular sign. Almost everyone they go through schooling and early life with – their peers – will have Neptune in the same sign and this will make them stand out among their generation as someone who represents its vision on a personal level in some obvious way. Compare this to someone born with Neptune right at the end of a particular sign, who will grow up with most other children having Neptune in the following sign which will have a very different effect on them and their relationship to their Moon/Neptune conjunction. It will be more difficult for them to feel comfortable with its energy and they may need to connect with the older generation and follow its fashions, trends and dreams instead. Their peers will not recognise them as emblematic of their collective vision. This can have an unsettling, haunting and displacing effect on the soul. Additionally, there will be very different aspects to Neptune that gradually emerge over the course of 14 years and so each Moon/Neptune conjunction will have a slightly different role to take in the chart.

Where Moon/Uranus contacts open us up to the weird and unconventional but somewhat explainable (the UFO ‘fast lights in the sky’ experience, mild telepathy, psychokinesis, flashes of the future, etc.), Moon/Neptune contacts open us up to the surreal and hyper-real (the out of body, the UFO abduction, the full on prophecy, the hallucinogenic trip). It is not easy to distinguish the difference between the two and perhaps not even necessary, but the general difference is that with Moon/Uranus contacts the soul is connecting to the collective at the mental level (‘awakening’) while with Moon/Neptune contacts the soul is immersed in the deeper and murkier levels of the collective astral realm (‘dreaming’, but in a co-creative way). The soul is flooded with compassion because it is saturated with the astral awareness of a single universal truth – that there is one consciousness, and that therefore giving and receiving are one, there is no separation and what is done to anyone is done to all. This awareness is beyond words and yet yearns to be expressed, hence the calling of the imagination, dreams. the arts, the formless oceans and the ways of spiritual and mystical enlightenment that it hears whispering to it.

Moon conjunct Pluto

These are very deep waters. We are first forced to admit that we do not know about everything that swims down here or even perhaps the most important parts of it. Part of what Pluto brings to us is an awareness of psychology, a relatively recent discovery in human history but one that has already had a profound impact on our consciousness. Since we cannot honestly say that we understand human psychology completely, having in fact discovered that there is a vast region of it we can only term ‘unconsciousness’, it follows that we are also behind in our understanding of this aspect in astrology. Yet we are not just dealing with depth psychology here but with the soul and the depths of the astral collective experience which the soul is born into and is part of. Our understanding in this area is even poorer. So, we are wise to begin by admitting that we are venturing into the unknown. This is Pluto. We have only just gazed upon his face and are in the first impressions stage of our closer relationship. We can however say that a core principle of Pluto is that there will always be more that is completely unknown than is ever known, and inherent in this is the implication that we may stumble open things we are not ready for and a warning that we ignore the unknown at our peril.

More than any other conjunction this one can take the qualities of the Moons sign to extremes. This extremity is also extreme as it can go exceedingly well or horribly wrong, for example the recent generation of people with Moon conjunct Pluto in Capricorn can manifest either the positive or the negative extremes of the Capricorn qualities. They will not be moderate in the way they personalize them in life and so will be either intensely disciplined, patient, wise and responsible or intensely skeptical, pessimistic, materialistic and mean. Due to the slow movement of Pluto through signs we only get some variations of this phenomena alive at any one time. For example currently we are living with people who have Pluto in Capricorn, Sagittarius, Scorpio, Libra, Virgo, Leo and Cancer, which means that our collective is skewed towards manifesting the extremes of these signs. In a few years the Pluto in Aquarius souls will start to arrive and they will experience and be born into and deliver some of the most profound transformations in human history.

The essence of Pluto is sacred profundity, death and rebirth, transformation, regeneration and eternal life or indestructibility. Its dark essence is annihilation, death wish, self destruction, violation, obliteration and oblivion. All of these are in fact expressions of a deep urge to find peace and this is one of the secrets of Pluto that I will discuss in a forthcoming article. When it is in a conjunction with the Moon the soul is immersed in the collective urge for both regeneration and oblivion, with deeper fathoms of the astral realm even than Neptune, caverns that display the totems and red ocher hand prints of our ancestors and glow with embers of the cycle of self destruction that human habitation upon this planet has become trapped in through denial.

So when the Moon is conjunct Pluto the soul becomes extremely – intensely – emotional and experiences great depths of feeling that most people only touch for a few moments in life during moments of revelation, ecstasy or grief. It’s not that these souls feel such extremes of emotion all of the time it’s just that they always have access to that degree of emotional intensity – the soul can take itself there – and they operate at a more intense emotional scale generally. They are secretive and are continually confronted by dark forces whenever they seek safe emotional expression. They often respond to a deep misunderstanding of them by others either by bottling up their emotions to the point where they explode uncontrollably or by developing such an intense need for emotional contact with others that they seek to control their behaviour, deep fear of the object of feelings deserting them turning into possessiveness. Their intensity can be the very thing which frightens people away as they can be very emotionally demanding, wanting depth and intrigue and complexity. Consequently this is an excellent aspect for research, occult investigators, psychologists and all those who journey into the unknown or taboo, but it tends to wreak havoc in the personal life even then as the things these people are exposed to are often unsettling, horrifying or just impossible to get a sane head around, in other words, intensely extreme. This appetite for emotional extremes is why such people are sometimes also drawn to horror and to underworlds and forbidden areas like the occult, crime, caves or secretive sexual practices. They can also experience contact with these things as victims or as investigators.

The soul must seek to tame hungrily obsessive and controlling tendencies, astral forces that will threaten to devour and consume it, and may therefore struggle with powerful emotional situations that call upon its intensity and yet must not be allowed to bring that intensity to drive the soul as this will lead to feelings of jealousy, dark reactions, fanatical or fated relationships and insatiable or compulsive behaviour. A deep and persistent fatalism may also cluster as a “death wish”, an urge to continually kill off and resurrect things, particularly in the personal and private sphere, which puts enormous pressure both on the soul and those involved with it. A continual appetite for renewal and transformation and for getting into the deepest roots of matters can also drive people away. Yet there is a magnetic power that once it finds the proper match makes these souls not just attractive but positively hypnotic, able to provide a centre of gravity around which a swirl of occult forces coalesce like the vortex at the centre of a whirlpool or the void eating light at the heart of a singularity. They have a powerful magic to bring things towards them. Once the soul has found some way to channel its intensity and has a focus it becomes astrally charged in this way since the creative act of focusing and channeling the inner intensity brings passion to all that it does. Finding a creative outlet for the passion of the soul is essential if these people are to learn how to live contentedly in life.

In some way these souls embody at the personal level the collective principle of Pluto, the urge for mass transformation. They are compelled to regenerate, often by placing the soul in direct danger, reminding me of the Time Lords of Doctor Who – constantly turning up out of nowhere just before the shit hits the fans and when suffering catastrophic damage just pulling the plug and regenerating into a completely new form, entering a kind of cocoon phase before they emerge again like a miraculous butterfly – and like the butterfly they need to open those wings by themselves so that they are strong enough to fly with, so they will reject assistance during the process.

Life will be a series of intense emotional transformations for these people and they can choose to see themselves as the victim of these powerful forces or as the survivor of them, it is a matter of either blocking the flow (denial) or letting it move through them (surrender), but what the soul is surrendering to is important – in the collective deeps there are things that are both demonic and angelic and at the collective level these things are very powerful, so the contact of the Moon with these denizens and deep realms threatens to overwhelm the soul with darkness unless it learns to navigate through it by the generation of its own inner light, just as departed souls must do when they leave the body behind and voyage on to their next incarnation. Ultimately with this conjunction the soul is focused on learning to surrender itself to the sacred cycle of birth, death and rebirth, a cycle which assures its immortality, the deepest source of power we have access to within the collective consciousness. Trust is critical.

Moon conjunct Dragons Head & Tail

I will treat these two together but explain where they differ. The conjunctions of the Moon with the Dragon help the soul to become aware of itself, including helping it to be aware of its context, its karma and its past incarnations. They bring particular appetites to the soul, yearnings to consume and digest particular kinds of experiences, a relationship to symbols, some kind of capacity to work with egregores, soul groups and group bonds and a certain sensitivity to undercurrents. I will explain below how the Head and Tail differ in each of these respects.

The Moon/Dragons Head conjunction brings an appetite for soul progression, a hunger in the soul to move on and so an aversion to facing the past. This can be habit forming and lead to a restlessness in the private or personal life as the person keeps moving on and does not put down the roots that lead to a sense of having a home nor look reflectively backwards, both of which crucial to the health of the Moon in general. The soul needs to tame its own impulse to move on and channel it in ways that the sign and temple point towards. The conjunction with the Tail on the other hand brings an appetite for unfinished business, the soul is eager to either recreate or deal with the past but again habit can lead to this becoming a blockage as the person does not break free from the past and develops an aversion to change, both of which are again crucial to the health of the Moon in general. The soul needs to let the past rest where it is and be content with making a better future by focusing on the present and again the sign and temple of the Moon provide focus for this path.

The conjunction of the Moon with Dragons Head brings the capacity to form or strengthen astral group bonds, to nurture, birth or midwife egregores (group minds) and an ability to take care of groups of people in general. The soul needs to bring people together for something. The sign and temple of the conjunction will again give this more focus and direction. With the conjunction of the Moon with the Tail there is instead the capacity to dissolve or reform astral group bonds, to banish, sunder, redefine or redeem and resolve group interactivity and the bonds of soul karma that connect people. The soul needs to break away from something or give away what it has personally gained from the group without seeking benefit (it is positive karma and positive karma must be given away, not hoarded). Again the sign and temple will give this focus, as it will for all that follows below.

The conjunction with the Head describes a hungry and devouring soul, a person who is good at acquiring new experience and consuming it for energy, while the Tail describes a digestive soul, one that is good at processing experience and creating fertile material out of it. The Head makes the soul sensitive to undercurrents in the moods of the world, the rhythms of the astral sea, while the Tail makes the soul sensitive to undercurrents in its own moods, to the interior realm which is continuously reacting to the astral sea as the soul ‘swims’ through it. This sea is a sea of significance where things take form in symbols. So the conjunction with the Dragons Head makes the soul more aware of the significance of symbols and their presence in the world while the conjunction with the Dragons Tail makes the soul sensitive to the way symbols influence it and the personal connection the soul has to them. This is a subtle but greatly clarifying distinction between them.

Similarly while both conjunctions help the soul to become aware of itself and its cycle of existence through incarnations, they do so in a different way. The conjunction of the Moon with the Dragons Tail is more direct in that it reveals (through impressions, memories, dreams, regressions, suggestions and moods, among other things) details of ones past incarnations. This conjunction also helps us to understand our personal business, our astral karma, the stuff our soul has come here to resolve from those past lives. This can happen even without us remembering the details of those past incarnations, for example we could just have a hunch or some other intuitive feeling that we need to deal with certain issues. The conjunction with the Dragons Head however reveals the existence of the soul through its connection to the living astral sea which it is part of, commonly experienced as a similarly vague and often unnoticed acknowledgment that there is mysterious stuff ‘out there’ that can be discovered, hunches about what is really going on, etc. It is a conjunction that offers us greater potential for generating positive astral karma through the cumulative effect of what we put out there in life and thus has a connection to the incarnation we are shaping for ourselves ahead of this one.

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That’s all for 2021! Thank you for joining me on the journeys I have taken this year, I hope what I have been able to pull up and put out there has been valuable, helpful and enlightening, or at least amusing in these troubled times. If you would like to support more free articles like this one please consider becoming a Patron (you can make a one time or monthly contribution of your choice) or purchasing a copy of The 26 Keys from Amazon, (available in kindle or print in your region of Amazon) and if you have done both already – you rock, you are wonderful and I salute you!

And I wish everyone a peaceful, healthy and prosperous 2022!