Just as there many shades shades of a color, so will people with the same Sun sign differ in the way the Sun’s energy finds expression, via the the Moon sign. For instance, a Leo Sun will show itself differently with the Moon in Cancer, than with the Moon in Gemini.
There is an additional detail, which is the exact position of the Sun or Moon within the 30-degree span of its sign, ranging from 0 degrees and 0 minutes to 29 degrees and 59 minutes.
By itself the degree position of the Sun or Moon does not lend additional distinguishable qualities. However, the position plays a prominent role when it comes to what are called aspects or interactions with other planets, which we will talk about in future posts.
In the wheel are shown the positions for the Sun and Moon at a birth, accurate to exact degree and minute, computed for the date, time, and place of someone – let’s call them Jane.
The Sun stays in the same sign for a month, but the Moon cycles through all the signs during this time.
Even with the same Sun sign, you can get a feel for how different someone’s Moon sign could be from Jane’s, by advancing or going back 1 day or 3 days at a time, starting with their birth date.
If you advance by a day, the Sun will have moved by 1 degree, give or take a few minutes. But the Moon will have moved about 12 to 13 degrees. The relative rates of motion of the Sun and Moon are detailed in a post on the Ephemeris.
Depending on how far along it was in a sign to begin with, this could put it into the next sign. In this example, the Moon is already in a late degree of the sign of Capricorn, and advancing the birth time to the next day would have the Moon moving into the next sign of Aquarius, as you can seen here:
Since the Moon moves roughly 12 degrees per day, it will move through an entire sign within about 2 and a half days. So that a 3-day advance or retreat will definitely put the Moon in the next or previous sign, even if the Moon starts at the earliest position of near zero in some sign.
If you keep advancing or retreating so that the Sun runs the gamut of degrees from the start to the end of the Sun Sign, the Moon would have touched all the signs. So someone born with the same Sun sign as Jane a few days earlier or later will have an entirely different Moon sign. And that will make their personality and life appear very different from Jane’s.
This Sun-Moon duality has a direct bearing on compatibility. Your Sun sign might be compatible with someone else’s Sun sign, but if your Moon signs are incompatible, then that introduces a challenge in the relationship that needs to handled with full awareness. Incompatibility could also arise if one person’s Moon sign is not compatible with another person’s Sun sign.
Much depends on the blend of the Sun and Moon signs in a person’s horoscope.