Moon contacts in synastry is one way of seeing karmic connections between people.
Moon
These connections can show shared experiences in other lives between the two people or they can show karmic issues with mom that are being stimulated by the relationship.
Either way, moon contacts in synastry show that your relationship with that person reaches into your karmic past.
I use the same orbs for synastry as I do natal aspects: 7 degrees for conjunction, square, trine opposition and 3 degrees for sextile and quincunx. Looser aspects are read a little differently than tighter ones.
I often get questions about why I use the orbs I do. Bottom line is that in my 40+ year experience reading thousands of charts, wider orbs do not convey the specific aspect meaning.
Remember, everything in your chart is connected even if isn’t aspected. This is why the deep and specific meaning of any placement comes from the context of the whole chart.
Every placement is a part of the whole that is you. It may be easier to see how pieces that share house or sign placements have a connection, just know that your life is the connection between in your chart.
For example, your north node may not aspect anything, but there is a thread of connection to it throughout your chart because it’s where you are heading in this life and everything in your chart has a play in that.
So much to explore about the moon in your chart. Swipe above for some comments on synastry and aspects.
🌙 The moon is historical, irrational, and part of your essential nature. If you have any Cancer placements in your chart, you may tend to hang on to issues and beliefs associated with that part of yourself. This also goes for whichever house Cancer rules in your chart.
🌙 As you’ve been learning astrology, what has your moon revealed to you? How had it helped you to understand others?
Sextiles are about opportunities. You are able to more easily access one energy via the other and are exploring that in this life. A sextile is especially helpful if one of the pieces is in a difficult aspect as the sextile shows a way of embracing the other energy.
Quincunx (also called inconjunct) is called the karmic neutralizer because one energy has been used to shutdown or neutralize the other. This is a subtle aspect that is powerfully felt making it difficult to understand within yourself. Working through this is a lifelong process.
Sextile is a 60 degree angle Quincunx is a 150 degree angle Both have a 3 degree orb
Sextile and quincunx are subtle yet still powerful aspects. They both use a tight orb of just three degrees and both tend to be felt and understood in layers over your life.
✨ Mars sextile Mercury shows opportunities to get these energies to work more easily together. For example mind and body, reason and ambition, communication and action. If Mars or Mercury is also in a challenging aspect, leaning into this sextile can help with the challenges.
💫 If Mars is also square the moon, leaning into your sextile can help you to deal with the inner struggle between Mars and Moon. Communicating about what you want, taking a more reasonable look at what you desire, improving your mind body connection can help you act in a way that’s more fulfilling, more satisfying.
⭐️ Mars quincunx Saturn shows struggles with being able to go after what you want. Your sense of responsibility can shut down your own desires and ambition. Your ambition and passion can shut down your sense of responsibility or ability to define healthy limits. You’re learning how to connect the two. You’re learning that you also have a responsibility to yourself, that healthy boundaries can support your physical health, passions and ambitions.
It can be challenging to see how a sextile or quincunx is expressed and experienced. They may be less obvious, but are just as present as the other aspects.
The key to a sextile is to look for opportunity for how you use them together and support that. You’ve had repeated experiences in other lives where you’ve used them together and you’re growing skills in this life.
The key to a quincunx is to understand that these energies can operate at the same time and this life is an opportunity to see that. You’ve had repeated experiences where they neutralized each other and used one or the other. This life includes learning to use them together.
Pieces in your natal chart that square force awareness of each other. It’s like an internal competition between parts of yourself. Each trying to get your attention.
Square is a 90 degree angle within 7 degrees. The 7 degrees is the orb of the aspect.
Most aspects in your chart are not exact and the orb is how much difference from exact still creates an aspect.
Example:
Saturn 20 ♒️ 48 Uranus 18 ♉️ 55 (Square)
No rounding up of minutes, so this is not a square. It is 7 degrees and 14 minutes different and must be no more than 7.
Mars 13 ♒️ 24 Moon 6 ♉️ 10 (Not square)
Squares are compelling aspects. They create a sense of obligation. While they are challenging, they also can be productive.
Squares show karmic history where the energies were repeatedly in conflict with each other, or where you achieved something at the expense of the other so now you’re being compelled to always consider the other.
Moon square Saturn is someone that feels responsible for everything. They would love to relax and leave things up to someone else, but struggle to do that. It’s hard to fully trust everything will work out unless they are the responsible one. They are learning how to create healthy boundaries.
Venus square Mars struggles with going after what they want, because they often question the importance of their desires and ambitions and wonder if they’re good enough to pull it off. They can also get stuck trying to figure out their priorities that they end up doing nothing.
Squares are stimulating. ✨ People that have a lot of squares are often competitive and rarely idle. They keep moving.
💫 Moon square Saturn is someone that feels responsible for everything. They would love to relax and leave things up to someone else, but struggle to do that. It’s hard to fully trust everything will work out unless they are the responsible one. They are learning how to create healthy boundaries.
✨ Venus square Mars struggles with going after what they want, because they often question the importance of their desires and ambitions and wonder if they’re good enough to pull it off. They can also get stuck trying to figure out their priorities that they end up doing nothing.
If you do get stuck with one piece in a square focusing on the other can jump start you.
💫 Mercury square Mars can get stuck over analyzing what they should do and spend more time talking or thinking versus doing. Engaging in some physical activity or taking some kind of action helps to break the over analyzing and can then get you moving on a clear path that makes sense.
Check out the caption for more of an understanding of squares. 💖
If you have a square, tell us how you experience it. 💕 Sharing something in your chart helps you to understand it more and reading the comments of others can broaden your understanding of astrology.
Pluto is the higher octave of Mars. Mars is your physicality and desire. Pluto is your life force, your drive to survive, your choice to live. Pluto is your base of power, your ability to choose and transform. Pluto is creation and destruction, the phoenix rising from the ashes.
Pluto courtesy of NASA
When Pluto forms an aspect to another piece in your chart, the energies interact within you and impact how you feel empowered. Pluto may show control issues, obsessions, beliefs in transformation and your decisiveness.
Conjunctions form unified systems. The energies fuse and you don’t distinguish between them. You confuse them and think they are the same.
Venus conjunct Pluto believes love is something to die for. If you love me, you’ll die for me. Love and beauty are power. Love can transform you.
Squares are forced awareness. The energies are constantly stimulating each other, each forcing an awareness of the other.
Moon square Pluto hungers for control. Emotions are often intensified, and they have a deep need to feel they have a choice. Their mother was most likely controlling and they may have an enmeshed or codependent relationship with her.
Trines are a harmonic flow. The energies are distinct, though you easily connect them.
Sun trine Pluto generally believes they are in the driver seat of their life. They are generally able to make decisions, though they can feel very unstable if they aren’t able to choose. Their personal empowerment feeds their sense of who they are and will feel out of it if they aren’t able to choose, or are somehow disempowered.
Oppositions show separation where you don’t know how to get from one to the other. Each makes the other seem impossible.
Saturn opposite Pluto is someone that struggles with responsible choices. Their sense of responsibility makes them feel as if they have no choice and pursuing that which makes them feel powerful makes them feel irresponsible.
Sextiles are opportunities to create flow. There is a connection that can be nourished into a deeper, more fluid connection.
Mercury sextile Pluto believes communication and logic opens up options. Thinking rationally opens up possibilities. Taking or writing can be empowering.
Quincunx is the neutralizer. It shows deeply held beliefs about how each part can shut down the other. They are subtle to observe but deeply felt.
Jupiter quincunx Pluto struggles with being in integrity and personal power at the same time. They may blurt out the truth in a way that sabotages their options. They may make choices that feel cynical, because they struggle to have faith while feeling empowered.
Aspects are angular relationships between pieces in the chart. The orb of an aspect is how close the pieces have to be for the aspect to form. It’s the plus or minus part, since most aspects aren’t exact. I use a 7 degree orb for conjunction, square, trine, opposition and 3 degrees for sextile and quincunx.
Aspects show up in your natal chart to illustrate patterns of beliefs formed in other lives. These patterns are formed by repeated experiences. They show what you came in believing. They show talents, struggles and lessons.
Aspects do not doom you or seal your fate. Difficult aspects show lessons. Your soul took on these lessons to grow and the universe has your back. By owning who you are and being willing to see life and yourself differently, there is no impossible lesson.
Squares, quincunx and oppositions show beliefs you brought in, but do not condemn you to a life of struggle. They are also beacons showing you where you can heal.
Trines and sextiles show talents and strengths, but these need to be nurtured or they can be parts of yourself you neglect, take for granted and the connections break down.
Conjunctions show how you’ve fused parts of yourself. Those fusions can offer great strength, as well as confuse you into thinking they are the same thing when they really are not. Awareness of how they work together can help you understand how to use them to your advantage.
A trine is a natural flow connecting 2 or more energies in the chart. When people are first learning astrology, they may be tempted to think that some aspects are good and some are bad. For example, trines are good and squares are bad. All aspects bring talents, challenges, lessons and gifts.
Mercury is the rational mind and how we communicate via language. It’s what makes sense to us, how we think and learn, how we process information.
Neptune is our intuition, creativity, empathy and compassion. Neptune is telepathy, psychic abilities, having a visceral understanding of the experiences of others.
When Mercury and Neptune form a trine, the rational mind and intuitive mind are in harmony with each other. These people are usually very creative and imaginative and often know things without first realizing how they know them. People with this placement often develop a talent for quickly coming up with a rational explanation or set of idea breadcrumbs to explain to others how they know something.
This aspect can also manifest as self-delusion where someone imagines a story and tells it to themselves so often they start to believe it’s true. They may also imagine what others believe and internalize that as true. For some, lying to themselves and others can be easy. They can also pick up on the thoughts and feelings of others and internalize them, both to their benefit and detriment.
Neptune is considered a soft planet, and Mercury a neutral planet, so generally they work well in a soft aspect (trine is soft). The important take away here is that these energies harmonize together. Whether that harmony expresses itself in a way that is helpful, useful, loving, spiritual etc. is determined by the rest of the chart and the life lived by the individual.
Using your own chart is the best way to understand astrology.
If you have a trine in your chart, think about how the energies flow with each other in you. If you have Mercury in an aspect, think about how that energy may impact how you think and what gets your mind going.
Pick any aspect and dive into the energies in the chart and see how they work together in you, and that will teach you something about how that aspect works.
There are several major aspects, or angles, that astrologers look at in a chart. One of them is called a square. A square is formed when the pieces are at a 90 degree angle with each other. I use a 7 degree orb for a square, so that means 90 degrees plus or minus 7.
Squares are dynamic aspects and can provide insight into lessons, talents and challenges in our lives. Usually squares are described as a source of tension or conflict. This can be true, but they are so much more than that. Squares can not only help you understand inner conflicts and how you may be at odds with yourself, but they can also show some of the ways you are energized. They can provide insight into some of your strengths and talents.
Squares are called the forced awareness, because each piece forces an awareness of the other. Depending on the pieces involved, as well as the rest of the chart, the square can be expressed in a variety of ways. The key is that the energies ignite each other. The more you can face and deal authentically with the other energy, the less conflict you will experience with it and the more the energies work together in a productive way.
Mars square Pluto is ambitious, competitive, and energetic. The physical energy and drive of Mars forces an awareness of the will and power of Pluto. This dynamic can show up in predatory behavior, people willing to do anything to get what they want. It can also show up in advocates, people that are willing to fight for others, especially those they believe have been victimized.
Some energies function better than others in a square, and some combinations seem more workable. Looking at all the pieces, aspects, degrees and houses can give further insight. For example, someone that also has Moon trine Jupiter is likely to have a strong sense of ethics and desire for justice and be the advocate. The houses the planets are in can show the areas where the conflicts are more likely to play out. Someone with a lot of squares tends to believe that life is hard, and to be competitive in general. Someone without any squares may have trouble handling conflict. The chart must always be looked at as a whole to fully understand the significance of any single component.
Aspects provide great insight into how the energies interact within you and show beliefs that have been built in past lives. While squares can show you some of your inner struggles, they can also draw your attention to great opportunities for growth. Nothing in your chart dooms you to be a certain way or have a certain kind of life. The natal chart shows what you bring into this life and it is up to you to enhance or transform what you bring with you.
“If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?” -Rumi
The higher octave planets are Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The planets represent energies in the chart, so think of these higher octaves as higher vibrations of the three personal planets they connect to, namely Mercury, Venus and Mars.
Mercury is the rational mind, how we communicate via language. It’s what we believe makes sense. Mercury can show how we learn, how we take in information, how we process information. Uranus is the higher octave of Mercury and it is the “ah ha” within it is. Uranus is the moment of discovery, our ability to see the connection between seemingly unconnected things. It is the stroke of genius that brings information together and forms something new – discovery, invention, innovation. Uranus is also how we differentiate ourselves, our sense of individuality. It is how we experience and express our uniqueness while staying connected to the whole, to the universe, to each other.
Venus is our value system. It’s how we give and receive love. It’s what we prioritize, what we value, what we are able and willing to love. It’s how we perceive beauty. Neptune is the higher octave of Venus and it is our ability to be love. It is our intuition, our compassion, our ability to empathize, to feel what others feel. Neptune is our creative energy and is visionary, dreamy, and our need to save and rescue. Neptune is transcendent love and a conduit for the soul’s expression in this life.
Mars is our vitality. It is our ambition, sex drive, physical energy. Mars is the energy that drives us to action. It relates to our body, how we move physically as well as the actions we take in the world. Pluto is the higher octave of Mars and is our will. It is our ability to perceive we have a choice. Pluto is about control, empowerment and transformation and our willingness and ability to surrender to a deeper wisdom that can guide our actions. Pluto is the phoenix that is reborn from the ashes. The soul expresses divine will through Pluto.
When looking at Mercury, Venus, and Mars in a chart always look at their higher octaves. Doing so will give you a deeper view of the energy. Pay attention to aspects formed between these personal planets and their higher octave. Look at how the energies may be working together or at odds and you will have insight into strength and struggles in the chart.
I am considering starting a podcast in 2017. If you would like to join me in the podcast and discuss some of your chart with you, email me at Lisa@karmicastrology.com.
