As the moon orbits around the earth, it has always 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.

This planet is the quintessential symbol of individual receptivity and the fundamental reactions of the unconscious, including the collective unconscious. Opposed to Saturn, which is the principle of form, structure, and limitation, Neptune is a principle of dissolution. It concerns any effort to encompass the greatest variety of factors, any tendency to surround and blend all the narrow, individual points of view into a single, universal sea. Psychologically, the Neptunian effect is expressed as an exceptional psychic flexibility and extreme pliancy. You thus display considerable receptivity and availability. You feel a need for unity, a need to be related. You are also deeply aware of the importance of dreaming, and, negatively, may be prone to delusions. At certain times, you are overwhelmed by a feeling of subtle confusion related to a need for “something else.” When your well-being is disturbed this way, you either yield to a sort of passive, apathetic dissatisfaction, or lose yourself in the search for an imaginary world, perhaps to escape or plunge into bliss. You are sometimes captivated by a need for illusion; you would like to experience change through the intermediary of events which are vaster than consciousness and would take you far from routine and daily banality. Nevertheless, usually these fantastic dreams only make you all the more painfully aware of the realities of everyday life. Your spirit and emotions emerge confused, and your will is sometimes weakened.

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.

Brady Singer, you should pay close attention to the ninth house in your horoscope. It contains several planets, including the one which rules your rising sign.