In a previous post, I had described how you can start analyzing a horoscope by homing in on the Sun-Moon-Ascendant trio, which are the primary building blocks of the personality. The next thing you want to is look for the hard aspects (squares and oppositions) of the outer planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto to the luminaries, the Sun and the Moon. Such aspects will add an enormous amount of color to the personality: a sharp zap or edge in the case of Uranus, a huge sense of separation or imagination in the case of Neptune, a great sense of power and intensity in the case of Pluto.
In that post, I had described the chart of a physician, and a technology executive. Here’s the physician’s chart again, in which I have marked the opposition from the Uranus-Pluto conjunction to the Moon:
Imagine the Pisces Moon, placid, wanting to be left alone to soothe itself. Imagine rapid, energetic, staccato bursts of energy zapping at it, zapping at it, keeping it awake, alert, exciting it into action. This is the Uranus. But the Uranus is opposite the Moon, so there is a sense that the zapping is coming from the outside, an external force that cannot be ignored.
In a doctor’s life, this constant zapping could come from patients, all different, with different issues, exciting and inciting the doctor into action. But what about that Pisces Moon? It really just wants to retreat from the crazy, busy world, but on the other hand, Pisces is the ultimate empath that needs to help and heal. So the doctor is deeply conflicted between caring for his patients (which is tremendously stimulating due to the Uranus opposition) and being left alone.
Uranus is erratic, so these zaps of energy could come and go in an unpredictable manner. As in a hospital environment. Some days are calm, others are tremendously active, without any obvious pattern, just plain random. The Moon represents the mother, so this Moon-Uranus opposition could also mean the mother is erratic, or unpredictable, or just plain energizing and exciting to be with.
What about the Pluto-Moon opposition? Think extreme, and think powerful. Think do or die. These are Plutonian significations. This doctor revels in the emergency room: imagine a young man being wheeled in, bleeding from a gunshot wound, surrounded by hospital staff who are attending him on the run. Will the man live, or will he die? Our doctor’s empathetic Moon is now very much on, on full alert to try and save this patient. This Moon gets off on intensity, it needs this type of high adrenalin, on-the-brink type situation to feel alive and useful! There is the power to dispense life-altering medical advice, save souls, engage in a daily battle with disease. This Moon lives for critical situations, and is quite capable of unconsciously engineering crises so it can have its needs met. In interpretation, all of a sudden the soft Libra-Sun Pisces-Moon combination is colored by a brilliant new dynamic.
Turning to the executive’s chart (let’s call him Kev) , we see a square between Neptune and the Sun:
This Sun in Leo is very very comfortable. It is in its own sign, at the top of the chart, conjunct the midheaven, conjunct Mercury. But it is pulled into a diffuse funk by the Neptune. There could be a real danger of sabotage worked by the Neptune which wants nothing to do with practical matters. It confuses the Sun, creates a chink in the armor. At its best, it can lend creativity and imagination to the Sun.
If Kev were to work in the imaginative arts, or a creative field (photography, movie-making) this Neptune could be an able helper in getting the Sun’s work done, its goals attained, its spirit energized. But if the Sun is engaged in mundane matters day after day, with no imagination, then the Neptune will challenge and sabotage the Sun, and therefore Kev’s sense of identity and self-image.
Since the Sun represents the father, some of the Neptunian significations could be carried by Kev’s father. Perhaps the father is highly imaginative. Or, he could be disillusioned because he could not use his imagination in a fulfilling way. Disillusionment is a common Neptunian manifestation when the spirit is not sufficiently watered.
I recall a consultation I did for a young man of about 20. I saw in his chart Uranus squaring the Sun. I asked him if his father (Sun) was unusual (Uranus) in any way. No. Was he extremely short, extremely tall, or significantly different physically from the norm? No. I was positive there was something here. Was his father different from other fathers he knew in any obvious way? No, not really. I was getting frustrated at not being able to bring out that Uranian difference. And then I had a thought. Did his father work nights when everyone else’s father worked days? Oh yes, my father is a cab driver in New York and he very often works nights. The young man understood! The strangeness of Uranus, that sense of living in a different world than most, felt an a very immediate and real way through the father’s occupation.
Aspects to the Sun work in a conscious way in that the individual can sense it and feel it consciously, and knows what is happening. But aspects to the Moon simply feed the unconscious, instinctive way of being of the Moon, and become an inseparable part of the Moon’s expression. Such aspects are usually brought to a person’s attention by someone else who can see it clearly, and the Moon person says, “really, I never thought I was that way.” Suffice it to say that whether it is the Sun or the Moon that is aspected by an outer planet, it is going to be felt in a significant way in life.
It is an easy matter to look up the ephemeris for such aspects to the Sun, since all you require is a birth date. For example, Kev can look up aspects to the Sun by simply pulling up the ephemeris for August 7, 1961, his birth date:
Kev can see that Sun is at 14 Leo and Neptune is at 8 Scorpio, so they are in square aspect with each other, with an orb of around 6 degrees. The fun thing here is you can look up such aspects for anyone you know, and get a pretty good insight into what makes them tick!
Spotting aspects to the Moon in the ephemeris will be trickier since the Moon moves roughly 12 degrees per day, and can move in an out of aspect orbs with other planets very quickly. So first off you need an exact time of birth (at least to within an hour or two) and you need to then offset it from the Moon’s position at midnight of Greenwich. It’s doable, but you can get your horoscope and save yourself the hassle.
