The Moon is the ruling “planet” of Cancer. Next to the Sun, the Moon is the most personal of the luminaries in astrology. The Moon reflects the light of the Sun, just as our inner emotional self is reflective of our outer, conscious experiences in the world.
The closest celestial body to the earth, the Moon exerts a strong magnetic pull affecting oceans, lakes, and other bodies of water. Our physical bodies are at least 70% water, and the Moon exerts a strong influence on the physical water element in us. In doing so, it affects our emotional attitudes, instincts, and subconscious motivations.
The Moon moves through the 12 signs of the zodiac very quickly, changing sign every 2.5 days. This is why our feelings can change so rapidly, or in a short period of time. Emotions truly are “energy in motion.” Like water, it is best to allow them to ebb and flow, rather than contain them or bottle them up.
In astrology the Moon represents our Inner Child, an early pre-verbal emotionally driven part of ourselves that responds automatically to life experiences. If we tend to repress our emotions, our Inner Child is also repressed and unconscious. Then it acts out and creates chaos in our lives.
Learning to parent our Inner Child out of love and respect is crucial for our emotional and spiritual health. Our wise, Inner Parent can establish healthy boundaries and routines that protect and nurture our Inner Child. We can experience our emotions healthily by simply feeling them. We must then engage the intellect and make rational, conscious choices before taking action. When we embrace our Inner Child and wisely parent them we can experience the joy, spontaneity, innocence, wonder and creativity they bring to our life.
The Moon’s South Node
Masaru Emoto describes in his book The Hidden Messages in Water how water is affected by our thoughts, words and feelings. Water has the ability to copy, memorize, and transfer emotional information. The ability of water to retain emotional memories and carry them forward in time and space is symbolized in astrology by the Moon’s South Node.
The Moon’s South Node is a point in the astrological chart that represents the accumulation of experiences from our karmic past. It contains ingrained patterns of behavior, attitudes and beliefs that are tied to our emotional body. It reveals our unconscious, pre-conditioned emotional responses and reactions to the world. It is our “default setting”, or path of least resistance we fall back into time and time again.
Learning about our South Node and becoming aware of it operating in our life enables us to consciously redirect our attitudes and behaviors. We can decide to transform problematic expressions of our South Node. We can create balance and resolution by taking steps to embrace and embody the energy of our North Node, our soul’s spiritual destination for us in this life time.
“We Love Water
We Thank Water
We Respect Water
We Are All Water
We are All One”
– Masaru Emoto