The progressed Moon is the single most important factor in what we’re feeling, why we’re feeling it, and how we emotionally respond to day to day experience.

In Astrological chart analysis, there are three primary factors in a birth chart. We have the natal positions, showing our inherent tendencies. These are the patterns we’re born with, and are here to fulfill for better or worse. We are always our birth patterns, even if the expression of them changes radically because of our life choices.

A second primary factor in looking at what’s going on in a birth chart are the transiting planets. These show us what’s going on with the “real time” worldly factors at play, both in our charts and in the world at large. They show us the gestalt of the larger reality in which we all live and grow.

The third primary factor are what are called “directions” and “progressions,” showing us how our natal tendencies have “progressed” as a result of our inner changes and how we’ve evolved in the world of inner space. The distinction here is that while natal and transit positions are actually where the planets were/are in the sky, progressions are entirely symbolic internal movements.

What Are Progressions and Directions?

Directions and progressions are calculated several ways. There are two types of Directions, known as Primary and Secondary directions. Primary directions are usually calculated for either 59 minutes or 1 degree of movement per year done for each planet in the chart. There are several methods, but most stick closely to the 1 degree per year of life model.

Secondary directions, which most know as “progressions,” are calculated at the rate of each day of life after birth showing a year’s progression. So the progressions for the 10th day after birth show us the progressions at age 10, the 20th day after birth is equivalent to age 20, and so forth.

Unlike Primary directions, planetary progressions move at the rate they were moving in the days after we were born. If Venus was moving at 1 degree 9 minutes when we were born, then it will move 11.5 degrees in the first ten days after we were born.

While all progressions show us the evolution of the various planetary functions within us, they do not show “real world” events. They show factors of our inner life, not necessarily our outer affairs, though it could be said that when a significant outer event happens, it necessarily affects our internal responses to those events.

In my readings over the years, I’ve always included the positions of the progressed Moon, since I’ve found that symbolizes what we’re feeling and how we’re experiencing life on a day to day, week to week, and month to month level. It shows us our “progressed feelings” about whatever we’re going through in that moment. It is the general “experiential atmosphere” we’re feeling personally at given periods of our lives.

The “Pulses” of the Progressed Moon

The Moon transits all the signs every 27 days, mas o menos. That means 27 days after we were born, the Moon returned to its natal position. If we use the benchmark of a day equaling a year, that means we get a Lunar Return when we are 27, and another around 54-55. I have found these are the most important “emotional re-set” points in our lives, since our feeling function “returns home” and gets a chance to evaluate how it has grown in the 27 years preceding the return.

In the 27 years between birth and the first Lunar Return, the Moon speeds up and slows down, depending on the sign and its relationship to the progressed Sun. That’s why some periods in our lives seem to stretch out, while other times we seem to race through the months. When our progressed Moon is fast in motion, we move through experience fairly quickly, whereas when our progressed Moon is slow, we hold on to feelings longer.

The Moon’s rate of speed is related to the concepts of Perigee and Apogee, where the former is nearest the Earth and so much faster in its orbit than when it is the latter, or the farthest point in its orbit from the Earth. When the Moon is at Perigee, it moves about 15 degrees a day. When at Apogee, less than 12 degrees a day.

You can see how that would make a difference in how we process experience when we’re young, since if our Moon is at Perigee, it will move 15 degrees a day, giving us an entire sign experience in 2 years. But if it’s slow, it’ll take more than 2.5 years to move through that sign. And since each of us has the progressed Moon slowing down or speeding up in the period after birth, followed by the opposite when the progressed Moon hits the far side of its orbit, we’re always in emotional flux.

There are many factors which define how the progressed Moon affects the chart, such as when it changes speed, when it changes sign, and the aspects it makes to other planets There are also less known factors, such as how it changes its own lunar phase relative to both the natal Sun and the progressed Sun.

Progressed Lunar Phase Shifts After Birth

Let’s explore Lunar phases. By way of example, I have a natal Sun at 12 Aries and a natal Moon at 14 Aquarius. This is known as a “Third Quarter” Lunar phase. I explained the 8 Lunar phases in the article The Eight Lunar Phases, so please take a new look at that when you’re finished here. Anyway, in the day (progressed year) after my birth, my Moon progressed through the last half of Aquarius and at the 27 Aquarius point moved into a “Balsamic” Lunar phase relative to my Sun. This is the closing phase of the Moon, in antiquity known as a “old Moon,” so it could be expected this was a closing phase of my life.

It remained in that phase until it made its conjunction in July 1955 when I was 4. That means my progressed Moon zipped through just short of 2 signs (58 degrees) in only 4 years! That’s moving very fast. At the first progressed Lunar conjunction with my Sun, it began a “New Moon” Lunar phase.

However! As my progressed Sun had moved forward 4 degrees in my first 4 years of life, though the progressed Moon was in a New Moon phase relative to my natal Sun, it was still in a Balsamic phase relative to my progressed Sun. It was only when it finally caught up to my progressed Sun in December 1955 and made a conjunction with it at 15d 50m (16) Aries did I have a true “progressed New Moon.” As New Moons set the theme for the following Lunar month, that would have set the themes of my life between the age of 4 and 34 when the next progressed Moon conjuncted the progressed Sun at 15 Taurus.

At that point, my progressed Moon was in a “New Moon” phase relative to both my natal Sun and my progressed Sun until it hit 27 Taurus, when it began its “Crescent” Moon phase relative to my natal Sun. And yet, it was still in a New Moon phase relative to my progressed Sun until it hit 5 Gemini in November 1959. It then moved into a "First Quarter" phase to my natal Sun at 12 Cancer at the lower square in December 1962.

By way of comparison, it didn't begin the "First Quarter" phase relative to the progressed New Moon until May 1963 when my progressed Moon made its lower square to the progressed New Moon point. Obviously, the progressed Moon still didn't enter into the First Quarter phase relative to my progressed Sun until it made their lower square at 24 Cancer to 24 Aries in January 1964.

As each phase marks a different energy of the Moon relative to the Sun, noting the shifting Lunar phases in our lives is an extremely important indicator of our progressed personality fluxes. In our next article on the subject, we’ll expand our look at the progressed Moon and key shifts in our progressed life.

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with written permission from Robert Wilkinson. Copying this article to other blogs is strictly prohibited. It is copyright protected. 

© Copyright 2023 Robert Wilkinson

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