Essentials of Vedic Astrology Module 1: Static Horoscope
Lesson 3A: Planetary portfolios
Moon/Chandra

Durga - Divine Mother

Planetary portfolios
Moon/Chandra

MOON CHANDRA

HEART, Feelings, emotions Mind - Mediator/reflector between outer and inner

Mother Women

Change, Public Social Behavior Travel, Affluence (Queen)

female waxing/benefic waning/malefic rules Cancer

Moon rules: Mind Emotions Happiness Relationships The feminine Mother/nurturing Family/domestic life Public image Oceans water tides Teeth Breasts

Moon is the essence of woman - the feminine, mothering and nurturing. Moon rules the tides, the oceans. The element of water corresponds to the emotions. So moon as lord of waters is the quintessential planet of the emotions. Here again we see the correspondence with women in their archetypal role as primarily emotional creatures. Also on the physical level the menstrual cycle runs according to the moon phase and is therefore governed by the moon. Other qualities typically associated with the feminine are softness, passivity, receptive and absorbing.
A useful analogy to illustrate the relation ship of the archetypal feminine with the archetypal masculine [sun] is the phenomenon of the moon in the night sky. The moon [passive feminine] shines with the reflected light of the sun [active masculine]. However in this context, the sun is transcendental [not seen] yet its effects are seen through the instrument of the moon. In this context the sun is held to be the soul or transcendental Self while the moon is the mind. The moon/mind shines with the reflected light of the sun/self and is a reflector and instrument there of. But the sun is the hidden, [as if] transcendental, unmanifest cause.
From this we can see that the moon as well as emotions is also the mind. The mind is distinct from the intellect - that which discriminates. The moon like a loving mother does not discriminate between the well behaved and ill behaved children. She loves them all equally. In the same way the mind as repository of information gathered by the senses does not discriminate. It passively receives and absorbs. It is in the deeper functioning of the intellect [mercury] to discriminate and discern.
This non discriminating and all nourishing quality of the moon is reflected in the analysis of planetary strengths or dignities. While all the other planets entertain enmity towards some of the other planets - the moon has enmity towards none. She is accepts all.
Thus the moon signifies mind, mother, woman, tender feeling, love and affection, politeness, socialism, sympathy, kindness, idealism, social work, excellent physical stature, stored energy, mental happiness, mental strength, family life, happiness and miseries, treasury, people, artistic skill, silk, water, watery things, thinking, love marriage, fat, marrow, stomach, Satwa guna, phlegmatic disease, salt, cultivation, navigator, milk, manners, psycho physiological consciousness, moral and religious acts, feminine tenderness, fancies, romances etc.
Disease: disease of the stomach cough and cold, lunacy, disease of the nerve, pthysis, colic pain, intestinal disease, kidney disease.
Metal : Conch shell, Silver, Moonstone. It signifies Calcium.
Co lour: Whiteness.
Vocation: Clerkship, dealer of silk or fine machineries, or business concerning watery things.
Also associated with vocations based on giving care, can also be entertainers or people who trade off their personality
Birth star : Krithika and Rohini.
Digit: 2, 5, 15, 17, 49.
Strength: The full moon attains the maximum strength when the sun and the moon are associated with stars (Nakshatras) No. 3, 4, 5. When the moon is weak in a man's birth chart or he ia associated with his enemy or natural malefic or he is debilitated the native becomes fickle minded. When the moon is aspected by or conjoined with Saturn (Sani) the native becomes moody, gloomy, or pensive temperamentally and at the same time he (the native) becomes morose and sorrowful.