Lunar Transits and
Your Emotions
By Donna Cunningham
The following is an excerpt from Donna Cunningham's
book, THE MOON IN YOUR LIFE, published by Samuel Weiser, Inc, in
March, 1996. It is used here with permission. If you'd like a copy,
ask your local bookseller to order it or visit Weiser's website.
An outer planet transit to the
Moon requires a shift in your emotional economy. Review the birth position
and its aspects. They will help you understand your own past style of
emotional management. These old habits and defenses may no longer be
effective under the pressure of outer planet aspects. During a siege to
the Moon, people are often inundated with feelings they have held at bay
for far too long. This is especially likely during the first crossover by
the outer planet.
Naturally, not all transits to
the Moon produce the same effects. A Scorpio Moon will react more
intensely than a Gemini Moon. Remember that soft aspects can be less
stressful than hard ones. The Moon's natal house position and that of the
transiting planet will show where this process is apt to be most active.
However, a Moon transit is a Moon transit, and you have emotions in every
area of life, not just in the matters of its natal house position. Let's
look at some possible scenarios.
When Saturn transits the Moon, we could be in a somber, even depressed
state. Sometimes, if it triggers and repeats birth chart aspects, this
depression can be biochemical, even genetically-based, often from the
mother's side of the family. More generally, anxiety, worry, and stress
plague us because we're facing reality and the passage of time. The worry
and sadness are often related to the loss of lunar safety nets and the
demand that we take on more responsibility, at certain adult rites of
passage. We ultimately make those commitments--we have precious little
choice--and may come to feel satisfaction at our new status and roles.
When Uranus transits the Moon, emotions we disowned may suddenly and
shockingly come to the surface. No longer the modern, rational,
enlightened beings we thought, we are chastened to find out how emotional
we really are. If we disowned anger, it comes at us from left field,
sometimes explosively. If we disavowed grief, we are suddenly immersed in
it. There is no time for reflection or processing, for our feelings are
blindingly clear, impossible to deny, and demanding action.
We may even think we're having
a nervous breakdown, but it's really a breakthrough in which we come to
act more authentically. We are revealed as human, as capable of certain
"primitive" responses we prided ourselves on having evolved beyond. Get
off your high horse! This transit can be truly enlightening, for it puts
you back in the human race.
When Neptune transits the Moon, our emotions are all at sea and it is hard
to know precisely what we feel. Then we do find out what we feel but wish
to God we hadn't! Old defense mechanisms crumble, and we are flooded with
emotions we felt we were too spiritual to have. In the lunar areas of
life, denial may be stripped away, and we face painful realities. We want
to blot out the pain, so we fog out, maybe with some help from our drug of
choice.
We may slide into a hopeless,
helpless frame of mind. "Why me?" we ask, full of self-pity. We seek
spiritual answers because everyone we relied on is as confused as we are.
Ultimately, we find solace in the quest, strength to face these new
challenges, and a more compassionate understanding of others' suffering,
including what our parents went through. We also can't fool ourselves so
easily about our feelings anymore.
When Pluto transits the Moon,
perhaps in response to an family crisis, strong feelings may arise about
the past and our earliest relationship with Mother and even grandmother.
Sometimes things we forgot or repressed all these years come to the
surface and we relive and ultimately release them. Lunar and family of
origin issues we thought long dead come up one more time, so we can gain a
new perspective on them.
You may find my book, Healing
Pluto Problems a survival manual for this transit. In all the lunar areas
of life, the murk and mire of our shadow side confronts us and we face it
squarely. With or without a plumber's helper in the form of therapy, we
dredge up suppressed emotions. We feel them all, repeatedly and even
obsessively, until we've drunk the last drop of bitter gall.
We chew on resentments, and we
mourn the unmourned losses in our lives. We emotionally experience the
betrayals and abuses of power we've been blind to up to now. We ruminate
obsessively on our feelings until we eventually get on our own nerves, not
to mention the nerves of people so unfortunate as to be close to us.
Finally, after all our work, we are lighter, clearer, and freer because
we're no longer carrying around the emotional baggage of the past.
Given strong enough aspects,
any one of these outer planet transits to the birth Moon can provoke a
lunar crisis, and we may need help to get through them optimally. We don't
have to do it alone, and it's a rare individual who would have the
objectivity, anyway. Of all the times in our lives, it is one of the most
effective to be in therapy.
Our patterns in the lunar areas
are so subjective, so habitual, and so automatic that we can barely see
them. Family dsyfunctions--or their results in our psyches--are likely to
be stirred up. If you've never been in therapy--never exposed the dark
side of the Moon to bright sunlight--this might be the time to give it a
try. If you've had therapy in the past, old issues may come up for
reexamination, so a brief return could be helpful.
What's the reward for allowing
ourselves to feel and for working on integrating our emotions? We can
establish a greater comfort zone for feelings our folks never approved of
and wouldn't want us to be having now. We can develop healthier coping
mechanisms and greater authenticity, based on attending to our lunar
needs. We can experience relief from troublesome old emotional habits. The
flower remedies, such as the Bach remedies available in many health food
stores, can be very helpful in getting through this crisis and
establishing a sounder emotional balance.
NOTE: This has been an excerpt from The Moon in
Your Life, published by Samuel Weiser, Inc.
©2001 By Donna Cunningham
www.donnacunninghammsw.com/
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