Sun Sign, Moon Sign: Discover the personality secrets of the 144 sun-moon combinations. Charles Harvey
that each combination is most likely to experience, and to show how these different aspects of you can work positively together. You will not agree with everything you find here (unless you are the most watery of Water types), but if these profiles encourage you to reflect more on the full-length film of your life and how you can give it the best performance and production you can, we will be more than happy.
FINDING OUT YOUR SUN-MOON COMBINATION
If you have not had your personal birth chart drawn up, and do not know your Sun – Moon combination, Part 3 gives instructions and tables for finding the sign position of your Sun and Moon.
If you do not know your time of birth and there is uncertainty as to which sign your Sun and/or Moon is in, you will need to read the two different possible combinations. This should help you to decide which is the more likely position and so narrow down the likely time of your birth. Care is needed with this method, however, as other chart factors may be involved of which you are unaware. If your decision is between a Cancer and Leo Moon, for example, you may decide your Moon is in Cancer, yet this could be because your Rising Sign is in Cancer.
THE LAYOUT OF EACH COMBINATION
We have given our findings and interpretations for each Sun – Moon combination under the following main sections:
• quotations
• themes
• main text
• relationships
• your greatest strengths
• your greatest weaknesses
• images for integration
• famous people with this combination
Some details about the contents of each of these sections follows.
The Quotations – In Their Own Words
Each one of us views the world from a different place and in a different way. What we notice and what interests us is very much conditioned by our birth chart, and not least by our Sun and Moon positions. So if we want to understand a combination more fully we cannot do better than to listen to the ideas and observations of those who have lived a lifetime with that particular Sun – Moon combination.
In consequence, we have started each Sun – Moon entry with quotations from individuals who were born with that particular combination. These have been chosen to illustrate, directly or indirectly, some of the essential qualities of that particular type in their own words.
We regret the fact that, despite our best efforts, there are many more quotes from men than women in this book. This is a direct reflection of the ratio of eminent men to women in our society over the centuries, which has inevitably resulted in a very strong bias towards quotes from men being available in the many collections and dictionaries of quotations. For somewhat different reasons, certain categories of people, for example writers and philosophers, tend to be a more fruiful source of telling quotes than, say, sportspeople or those working in business or the helping professions. This is not surprising. Writers and thinkers spend their time reflecting on the nature of the human condition and our relationship to the world, whilst, with obvious exceptions, people engaged in sport, commerce and caring for others tend to be less immediately engaged in such reflections.
In doing our research for this book we usually found far more quotes than we could possibly use for certain of the combinations, whilst it was often difficult to find suitable, pithy observations from other solilunar types. This is not surprising. Certain combinations – such as the Sun in Gemini, Moon in Aquarius – were alive with wit and wisdom, whilst quotes were relatively thinner on the ground for other combinations. Even though some of these combinations are deeply reflective – such as those with both Sun and Moon in Scorpio – they seem to be less naturally verbally articulate.
Themes
This paragraph gives a very brief summary of some of the main issues of the combination, starting with the element combination of the Sun and Moon. The first element given is the Sun’s; the second element that of the Moon. To avoid constant repetition and to save space, we have given further details about each of the 10 element combinations, including some observations about compatibility with other types, in Chapter 3.
The Main Text
This main essay identifies and discusses what we have found to be the main issues for the combination. We have resisted the temptation to break this text up into formal sections. Each combination is usually presented in a somewhat different way as dictated by the combination itself and by the material we have available. We have usually given suggestions about the types of work which are likely to be especially congenial to the combination, though, as we have noted elsewhere, we do not see these combinations as a clear indication to vocation, but much more as indications of the approach and attitudes that the type will bring to what they do. The one area we have separated out is Relationships, as these are so central to what the Sun and Moon combination in the chart is all about.
Your Greatest Strengths
This is a summary of what seem from our research to be some of the more creative possibilities of the combination. Other factors in your full birth chart will suggest other strengths and creative potential, so you should not be dismayed if your favourite virtue is not mentioned!
Your Greatest Weaknesses
Here we pull no punches. This section attempts to identify some of the greatest defects and life problems the combination can produce. We are not saying you are like this (though others may agree!), but these are issues that you would do well to note. As with your virtues, your chart as a whole may suggest more obvious blemishes to your otherwise perfect self!
Images for Integration
These may not obviously hit you between the eyes the first time you read them. They are intended to be reflected upon. Sometimes we have given just one image, more often two, and sometimes more when the very different possibilities of a particular combination seem to require it. These images are intended to evoke what we see to be some of the essential issues of the combination in question, and to get you thinking. If an image does not speak to you, put it to the back of your mind. One day when you are wrestling with some problem or theme that repeats itself in your life, the penny could drop.
Since this is a book rather than a video we have usually given these images as ‘word pictures’. But we could equally well have used pictures, cartoons, sculptures, music, landscapes and other symbolic expressions of these ideas. Occasionally, where works of art and music are very well known or especially appropriate, we have used these. Under Sagittarius – Cancer, for example, you will find Jimi Hendrix’s legendary Woodstock version of The Star Spangled Banner. Its mixture of emotional patriotism (Cancer) and raw, fiery, exuberant energy and brilliance (Sagittarius) as he imitates the ‘rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air’ on his guitar, speak volumes about this combination. In a different vein, under Gemini – Libra you will find Elgar’s Enigma Variations. The composer dedicated it ‘to my friends within’. Not only does Elgar’s very concept evoke the synthesis of these signs, but if you listen to the sheer range of musical experience Elgar derives from his one simple theme you will arrive at a deeper, inner, understanding of this combination. Likewise under Scorpio-Sagittarius we have Picasso’s painting Guernica. To view its tortured images conveys to us a moral statement (Sagittarius) about the destruction and iniquities of war (negative Scorpio) which goes to the heart of the preoccupations of this Sun – Moon combination.
The Famous People
This book grew from our study of peoples’ lives. You will find that one of the most fruitful ways of finding out more about the subtleties, dilemmas