As the moon orbits around the earth, it has been associated with the sun in the minds of men. The moon and sun are the primordial cosmic couple. This satellite of the earth, which mysteriously waxes and wanes, has been compared to the eternal feminine principle, the mother hovering over your infant’s cradle. Psychologically, the moon is thus symbolic of the mother and the mother image. This figure is a primordial element in the psyche of each individual. Depending on your nature, the mother figure may correspond to your biological mother, a grandmother, or a woman who cared for you in infancy and childhood. When you reach adulthood, this mother-figure and all the emotions and bonds associated with you may be transferred to something else: a spouse, a companion, an institution, a church, corporation, or political movement, a cult, etc. In short, any individual or structure likely to take on the mother’s duty of caring for and nurturing the vulnerable aspects of an individual.

To be more down-to-earth, the mother figure corresponds to the habits which were learned and then definitively incorporated into the individual’s identity as you gradually became acculturated and progressed toward social independence. As a result, a strongly “lunar” personality often finds it difficult to adapt and is uncomfortable outside the secure setting of familiar routines. Closely tied to your past, you may be unwilling to detach yourself from it and embark on your life as an individual in the here and now. You still identify somewhat with your inner child and may display a child’s capricious behavior, indulging in moodiness and indecision. Your passivity may make you easily influenced, your sensitivity makes you subjective, and you hesitate to open up and lay your soul bare. In your daily life, psychic activity will rule. Your imagination, memory, sensitivity, sensation, and sentiment nearly overwhelm your psyche.

In traditional astrology, Venus (or Aphrodite, her Greek name) is the planet of love. A source of universal attraction, this planet corresponds to the original urge which bonds two human beings together in love. Venus is thus both the magnetism which brings human beings together (not lust, which is symbolized by Mars, but the object which attracts lust) and the gift of love. This ambiguity is interpreted astrologically by the fact that Venus rules two houses of the zodiac. In Taurus, Venus symbolizes the awakening to bodily lust, and in Libra, the bond of marriage. As a result, Venus may take on very different aspects depending on the individual’s degree of awareness. Likewise, this ambiguity explains Aphrodite’s equivocal conduct in Greek myth and her innumerable couplings and motherhood. Depending on the legend, she may embody brutal, passionate love (with Anteros), the wisdom of the heart which rescues from passion (Harmonia); she also becomes tenderness and purity (with Adonis), pure sexuality (with Eros), a transforming energy (with Vulcan), etc. Mistress of the Arts, she represents beauty, understanding, and peace. Psychologically, individuals under the influence of Venus are struggling with their love instincts. This is why you cannot conceive of living without a personal emotional relationship to someone else and sometimes fears solitude and the encounter with yourself. You are extremely attractive to others and are a creator and artistic genius who seems to imbue all you touch with beauty and harmony. Your artistic skills are obvious to the people around you and may be applied to career endeavors. Pleasure, outings, seduction, love, and a thriving but sometimes superficial social life are the hallmarks of your life.

As one of the planets historically thought to be on the outer limits of the solar system (until the “modern” planets were discovered), Saturn has always been associated with the moon, itself a peripheral heavenly body because it belongs to Earth and not to the solar system. Therefore, both Saturn and the moon are aspects of a protection principle (the moon encompasses the earth in the same way as Saturn and its rings encompasses the solar system). Like the moon, Saturn rules a security/insecurity dialectic, but where the moon’s concerns the private, intimate aspects of the individual, Saturn influences social and collective security. Saturn can be thought of as the polar opposite of the moon (the archetype of the mother, but also of the child, and therefore related to orality). The god Saturn ate his children in order to reign and thus, represents the archetype of the mother (motherhood), the grandmother, and the sage (wisdom). The domination of Saturn thus indicates a maternal complex or, at least, an issue related either to the biological mother or to the symbolism of motherhood. This influence may result in a problem of identity and difficulties in aging which will make themselves evident in personal crises at every passage of this planet, every seven years—thus at the age of 7, at 14 or 15, and 21, 28, etc. Depending on the psychological context in which you are developing, you may overcome or overcompensate your identity complex and gradually acquire a strongly structured personality, or, conversely, remain in a state of immaturity which would probably be detrimental to your destiny.

Ander Herrera, the player, looks up at the twelfth house in the sky and sees the planet which rules his sign.

According to tradition, this area of the astrological chart was related to hardship, disease, hospitals, and all other areas associated with weakness and weariness. More specifically, this last area of the sky map is associated with the sign Pisces, or the Fishes. It symbolizes the epilogue of your various experiences. This is where the failures you encountered as you were going about your evolution may have accumulated; in certain extreme cases, they may have an impact on your health or well-being. This sector should thus be associated with your need to confront your own past, assume the errors you may have made, and accept your flaws. If you hope to improve your performance, you must confront your past, understand and analyze it. Before starting something new, it is often important to settle the unfinished business first.

According to Ander Herrera, the eleventh house is an area of the sky which is especially important in his theme.

This sector of the astral chart is traditionally related to the world of friendship. It thus reigns over friends, group projects and aspirations, publicity, politics in a humanitarian cause, customers, hope, help, and assistance. More specifically, this sector symbolizes the power and gratification society grants to an individual in exchange for career activities. For each person, this power is a function of their capacity to work and produce something valuable to the community to which they belong (the country, corporation, etc.). This power may either be used for selfish ends or be re-invested for the elaboration of more cooperative social projects.

From a psychological viewpoint, people with a prominent eleventh house in their birth chart may have to concentrate on being fair and objective in relation to social successes and/or failures. Success could entail efficient use of the power and prestige they have already obtained for more significant projects which are in better harmony with their inner truth. Failure, on the other hand, requires a detailed analysis of its causes. Any mistakes that may have been made are an opportunity for insight. The work of understanding and assuming one’s failures is a positive, constructive way out of a situation of failure.

Ander Herrera points out that the third house is an area of the sky which is especially important in his theme.