I have referred to the birth Moon chart in several of my posts. There were some recurring doubts on this so writing a basic post for analysing the birth Moon chart. Use this step wise framework to know more about your emotions, innermost tendencies, feelings and the astral body.

In Jyotish, you first analyse the Ascendant sign/ lord, and the basic birth chart. This gives you the physical and material stuff. The vitality of the physical body, the power of the overall environment around you. And how you make use of all these physical stuff.

Next in importance is the birth Moon. He represents your astral body, (there are 5 layers to the the body you are in post here). He is the sum of all of the individual you, ie your past present, future and parallel lives. He is your needs, your capacity to receive, your ability to change in response to the external/ internal stimuli, your entire potential. He is your experience, perceptions, feelings, emotions, instinct, nature and nurture. A strong Moon in the birth chart significantly elevates the quality of the entire life. You can never ignore the birth Moon chart.

Let’s use the example Aleister Crowley. A genius occultist, creator of the Thoth tarot deck, a spy, a mountaineer, writer, highly confident, intelligent etc and also the other negative stuff which you can get from the internet. He is dead, accurate birth data available and a well documented life, an ideal subject. His birth data 12th Oct 1875, 11:43 pm Leamington UK.

The ascendant is Cancer and so the birth chart is this,

The birth Moon is in Pisces sign and he is in 9th house from the Ascendant sign. For deriving the Moon chart, we redraw the same planet positions but put the Moon in Pisces sign as the first house. The rest of the planets and their signs remain the same as the birth chart. We just count everything in relation to the Moon. Birth Moon in Pisces is our focus point. We want to know more about the Moon and how the other planets are interacting with him.

So this below is his birth Moon chart, Pisces as the 1st house containing Moon and also Rahu.

Step 1 –

• First to understand how the Moon functions in Pisces sign.
• Then to work out how Moon in the 9^th house will behave.
• And finally how the other planets conjunct (Rahu) and aspecting (Saturn, Sun) will affect him.
• If you have studied the lunar mansions, then use the keywords of the Purvabhadrapada nakshatra to get more information on Crowley’s personality.

This analysis will tell you what exactly is his birth Moon capable of.

(You can also use the Ashtakvarga points of Moon in Pisces, the total points of Pisces sign, the Shadbala, the Vimshopaka bala, the Navamsha etc if you are an advanced student)

Step 2 –

To find out how this person ‘feels’ about the various aspects of his material life.

• We will refer to the birth chart for the actual physical material life event and the Moon chart for the connected feelings etc (revise the basic keywords).

The birth ascendant sign (Cancer) is placed in the 5^th house from the Moon (in Pisces). So he felt his entire personality and the overall environment to be very strongly a part of his creative power. He felt all the keywords of his ascendant sign to be capable of pushing him on the center-stage, he felt confident about his genius. He felt his physical existence to be a ‘child/ product/ extension/ creation’ of his astral immensity and he deeply felt this to be true. No wonder he used the occult so extensively in his life, his personality was defined by the occult. (‘Occult’ is nothing but a way of connecting to the astral dimension controlled by the Moon)

The birth chart’s 5^th house (Scorpio) which represents the physical expression of creativity is counted 9^th from his birth Moon. So his physical genius felt like the foundational philosophy of his life. ie he physically created several things, books, Thoth tarot deck, secret societies etc. He perceived his these actions to be his anchor on the internal levels. Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces form his Dharma trikon in both the ascendant chart and the moon chart.

(Having the birth Moon in the 1^st, 5^th or 9^th house from the ascendant sign always drives you upwards, it is a self feeding positive loop. You feel emotionally good about the material events. This motivates you, your creativity, foundation, personality, feelings all are working together, ie the astral and the material work together perfectly.)

Next his birth 2^nd house (Leo) is placed 6^th from the birth Moon. So he must have felt the matters of the family, the time spent with the family /friends to be a waste of his energy, a drudgery. He must have felt saving money to be stressful activity. Maintaining a link with his family history must have felt draining etc.

His birth 3^rd house (Virgo) is placed 7^th from the birth Moon. He must have felt a business-like bond with his teammates and group members etc. Similarly link up every house of the ascendant chart to the birth Moon to get a sense of how he interpreted the physical things around him on the deeper levels.

Here you have combined the keywords of the houses (1) as counted from the ascendant sign and (2) as counted from the Moon sign. This analysis will give you precious insights into how the subject feels about every physical aspect of his life.

What you ‘feel’ about something is paramount. eg someone may ‘feel’ good even if living a life of a beggar. Or someone may not ‘feel’ satisfied even if he is the richest man in the world. Your feelings about the reality surrounding your individual soul are decided by the Moon, ie the birth Moon chart.

Step 3 –

Locate the other planets from the birth Moon sign to know how they interact with the Moon’s energy. In our example, Rahu is with the Moon. Ketu is 7^th. Sun is also placed 7^th from the birth Moon. Venus, Jupiter and Mercury are placed 8^th from the Moon . Mars and Saturn are placed 11^th from his birth Moon. There are several combinations/ yog which are seen from the birth Moon, do find out more about them in case the chart shows any. Here is a basic analysis,

• Rahu with the Moon is the Shakti yog. He will not hesitate to ‘use and throw’ others on the emotional levels, an inherent desire for destruction exists etc. Plus it means the Moon’s maturity is held back till Rahu matures in the late 40’s.
• Jupiter in the 6/8 axis from the Moon is the Shakat yog. It gives a delay in marriage/ failed marriages/ multiple marriages, immaturity in love affairs, lack of judgement, headstrong nature, arrogance, vacillating nature which ultimately causes damage to oneself. There are cycles of misery and happiness in life.
• Venus in the 6/8 axis from the Moon will give inappropriate love affairs and unnatural intimate relationships. Secret affairs and problems with the legal wife. Highly sensitive to emotions which can cause problems. Can grant intuitive abilities and spiritual growth later. But there are severe shocks and changes to be gone through first.
• Saturn placed 11^th from the birth Moon gave him a lot of communities/ associations of the occult and also non-occult kind. Mars adds his energy here. Crowley lived a rather happening public life, had several colleagues with whom he cooperated and also competed. Plus the aspect ensured a deep set fear.

Step 4 – 

Analyse the birth Moon chart just as you would analyse a regular chart.

• the 1st house, (here Pisces) defines the emotional personality and the astral environment this person live in. Here you will use the keywords of Pisces but in the context of emotions, nature, nurture, astral, occult, intuition etc.
• the 2nd house here Aries is vacant but aspected by Venus, Jupiter and Mercury. Also aspected by its own lord Mars. Mars in the 11th. So Crowley was capable of using emotionally charged words to gain his like minded groups, create fundamental change in the people he was emotionally close to by catastrophic means etc.
• Similarly analyse the remaining houses as counted from the Moon.

This is a brief framework which you can use to analyse your own birth Moon chart and get more pointers into your own Mind.

There are several more things which you can deduce from the birth Moon chart but one particular thing of interest will be the Dasha analysis. The Vimshottari dasha is the first Dasha system you will learn and it is based on the position of the birth Moon.

• In this example chart there are 3 planets placed 8^th from the Moon. In the Dasha periods controlled by these planets, there will be sudden transformative shocks to the emotional self, to the mental make-up and to the astral body. ie during their Mahadasha and their Antardasha in other planet’s Mahadashas. There will be significant pain to the self, deep seated changes in how the subject feels himself to be, his innermost subconscious tendencies desires etc will change drastically, occult, secrets, explorations, danger to the mind etc are all indicated in such dasha periods.
• Similarly if there were any planets placed 6th from or 12th from the birth Moon we would have predicted emotionally turbulent results in their Dasha periods too.
• If there were any planets placed in the 5/9 axis from the birth Moon then their Dashas would be expected to go well. The mental, emotional component of the life during this time period would be stable and show a positive growth.

There are two typical situations with the birth Moon.

1. The birth Moon is in the ascendant sign itself, then your birth Moon chart is the same as your basic birth chart. You feel about the material situations in the same context, there is no conflict, no difference in what is happening and what you are feeling about it.
2. The Cancer ascendant. Here Moon himself is the ascendant lord. The ascendant lord is responsible for creating the physical environment, the physical personality and specifically controls how the material environment and the personality interact. So the person’s feelings about his reality and what is actually happening will not vary much. However even then, the birth Moon chart still will have to be seen for more details.