Last week’s New Moon in Cancer felt like a tipping point for some major personal transitions. And all because I womaned-up, learned to love my Moon and embraced my emotional body. By Ruby Warrington.
When I first met Marma Katie a few months back (as in Ayurvedic “marma” massage – she’s the go-to girl among my NYC Numis), she started telling me all about her Moon Puja. We were at the launch of Nadya Andreeva’s Happy Belly book, which felt like a fitting place for a discussion about an ancient spiritual fasting practice designed to support your mental and emotional balance, while also easing any issues with the digestive system (unsurprising that the emo Moon rules the gut).
The Puja, which is performed every Monday (yup, Moon-day), involves taking only clear or white liquids from sun up to sun down, at which point you chant your Moon mantra, light a candle and break the fast with a small white cookie, sweet or piece of cheese.
“It’s for anybody who’s Moon, or mother energy, is in a compromised position in their chart,” Katie explained. As the Moon also rules the feminine principal, “treating mainly women on a Monday, particularly mothers and grandmothers, has become part of my practise too,” she went on.
We didn’t go into the details of her Moon placement there and then, but obviously our conversation got me thinking about my Moon, which I’ve been feeling very tender towards lately – to the point that Moon signs have become my latest astro obsession.
Representing the mother, as well as our emotional body, my Cancer Moon sits directly square (challenges, tests, inhibits) my Sun, in my intense eighth house (death and rebirth, sex and money). Even more “compromising,” it’s in a tight aspect conjunct Saturn (self-sacrifice, patience, austerity). Poor little Moon! Um, perhaps the Monday Puja was for me too?
Turns out that in Vedic astrology (relevant because the Puja is an Ayurvedic practise) my Moon is in my ninth house, and is actually “very, very blessed” – this info via text from Marma Katie’s astrologer out in LA. “Your mom is kind of like your guru, though she’s very tough. She’s a truth teller. Not always fun, but at least you know where you stand,” he told me.
Uh…word. She’s also a Jungian psychotherapist, and so let’s just say that conversations can get pretty deep, pretty fast. There’s not a lot of space for small talk in our relationship (but hey, at least we know each other’s deepest, darkest insecurities).
So anyway, no Puja for me. I have to say I was a little bit disappointed, as I quite liked the idea of a diet of coconut water and cauliflower soup one day a week – plus I’d already been eyeing up this pearl ring, as you’re supposed to wear a piece of jewelry to rep the Moon energy too. But all my research has actually felt like part of an on-going process of getting to know my Moon, which has been a healing journey in itself.
I first began to understand my Cancer Moon on the Astro Twins’ Become Your Own Astrologer retreat last year. Cancer is ruled by the Moon, which I interpreted as a double whammy of sensitive, watery, intuitive energy – and sitting right below disciplinarian Saturn, in that medieval eighth house, first I wanted to make it my scapegoat. “Moon, it’s your fault I get so insecure about money. Moon, it was you who let my first boyfriend use sex as a weapon of control. Moon, you’re the reason I have such an emotional digestive tract!”
But I quickly got over all that self-pitying bullshit, and realized I should actually welcome my emotionally empowered Moon as a soulful counterpoint to all the fire in my chart (Sag rising, Aries Sun and a Chinese Fire Dragon to boot). “Do you sing?” asked one of the other women on the retreat. Apparently all the divas – Mariah Carey, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin – are Aries with Cancer moon. In other words, walking egos with serious soul 😉
And actually, my first conscious effort to bring forth my Moon energy was an East Village karaoke session with the Twins soon after the retreat. Usually enough to bring on a mild anxiety attack at the mere thought, but surprisingly empowering in the moment.
Of course, with Saturn RIGHT THERE my hardest lessons happen to be where my Moon is (all the money stuff, the sex stuff, the personal power schtick). But I’ve also come to understand that she, along with my girl gang of incredible female friends, is there to nurture me through them. And that confronting my most emotionally painful, most basic truths (safe in the knowledge that my courageous Aries Sun is also right there by my side) is the fast track to some seriously high vibe eighth house transformations – not least when it comes to my relationship with my mother. It also makes sense that the energy surrounding last week’s New Moon in Cancer felt like a tipping point for many of these transitions.
So where’s the Moon in your chart? If living a richly textured life is about connecting mind (as I see it, your Sun), body (rising sign) and soul (the Moon), then embracing your Moon and all it has to teach about your emotional life is an essential part in bringing your whole self to the table – in life, in love, 24-7.
Once you’ve downloaded your personal birth chart, click here for a full interpretation of the Moon in each house.
