Cancer is dominated by the Moon...not truly a planet in the astronomical sense, but considered to be one for the purposes of astrological science. Much like the lunar orb itself, the Moon's influence is changeable, yet understandable and thus, controllable. Imagination is the chief trait of those governed by the Moon and it is a trait that can be carried to almost fanciful extremes. On one hand, the lunar subject exhibits the insight commonly known as intuition...on the other, an over-abundance of imagination may lead to worry and hysteria. Somewhere inbetween, there is a restless and ever-changing trend, which can run the gamut from idle daydreaming to a compelling urge for purposeless travel. By and large, those governed by the Moon are uncertain creatures.

Astrologically, the Moon represents the soul and the unconscious self. It is perceived to be feminine, watery and emotional, associated with fertility, maternity, the family, growth, death and decay. In the casting of horoscopes, the Moon is associated with duality...light and dark qualities, rhythms, changeability, sensitivity and memory. Although the Moon is the governing planet of Cancer, it moves so rapidly through the entire Zodiac each month, that some sources believe it may also "set the tone" for other Signs. The orbital plane of the Moon is slightly inclined to the plane of the Earth's orbit, known as the ecliptic. Thus, the Moon's orbital plane crosses the ecliptic every 13-1/2 days. The points where they intersect are called the North and South Nodes. Some astrologers believe the Nodes create varying influences upon the Signs of the Zodiac, much like those exercised by the governing planets, and the position of the Moon at birth is said to reveal much about the relationship between mother and child. Those born under a waxing moon are considered to be "younger," more reactive and excitable, while those born beneath a waning moon tend to be "older" and more reflective.

The Moon is said to reflect the power of inner light, channeling and moulding it into the shape of an individual. It displays a person's nature in a way that can be grasped by the outer world. The Moon rules desire as opposed to self...or need as opposed to reason. It indicates an individual's personal feelings and how relationships are handled, together with responses to situations and experiences. The Moon also manages the flow of daily functions...physical, emotional and mental...symbolizing the home base and domestic environment. It represents infants, young children and important females in the life of an individual. Being pliable, the Lunar nature is receptive and adaptable to almost any set of circumstances. It is indicative of sympathy, sound economy and intelligent planning...until, that is, indecision which is inherent in the lunar character takes hold. Here lies the great fluctuating danger of the Moon's influence and so, the Lunar nature needs to be strengthened...something which can be attained by making the most of the other planetary influences, provided such influences do not provoke conflict or add to the moodiness that is so typical of the lunar individual.

Physically, those who fall beneath the influence of the Moon vary in height, but the most common lunar individual is often rather stout in build with a dreamy gaze in the eyes. In later years, it is not unusual for these natives to draw into themselves, as though they were living in an entirely different world to the rest of the population.

Items particularly associated with the Moon are: daisies, poppies and wallflowers; willow trees; melons, potatoes and lettuce; shellfish and domestic farmyard animals, inlcuding the bovine family. The metal silver is also linked to the Moon while the semi-precious stones associated with this planet are: opals, pearls and, of course, the moonstone. Monday is considered a particularly lucky day for Moon subjects, while their special colors are: green, silver-grey, cream and white. The Moon is said to relate to the intellect, the nervous system and the thyroid gland, as well as the senses of hearing, sight and touch.

The great moral lesson to be learned by the children of the Moon is to realize the need of calming the emotional waters of life.

The Moon is the heavenly body closest to the Earth. It is legendary for being familiar to the human race, while remaining a mystery. Although it continually keeps the same "face" toward the Earth, the appearance of the Moon changes constantly as the Sun-limmed shadows of its prominences creep across its cratered plains. Throughout the ages, obersevers of the Moon have seen varying faces and figures therein...all of them giving rise to myth and folklore. For example, in China, the dark shadows which form a "face" are seen as the "toad in the moon," not "the man in the moon." The toad is considered by the Chinese to be one of the five poisons of yin. It is believed that eclipses occur when the "toad in the moon" attempts to swallow the Moon itself.

The most universally notable characteristic of this celestial body is its regularity...changing from the New Moon to the Full Moon and then back again every 29-1/2 days. The Ancients used the phases of the Moon to keep track of passing time. To the Babylonians, the Moon was Sin, God of the Calendar and Wisdom. To the Greeks, the unlit New Moon period was a time of dread, for this is when Selene (one of several goddesses associated with the Moon) was taken down into the UnderWorld for three days.

It has been well-established for centuries that the Moon causes the tides of Earth to ebb and flow, but ancient civilizations credited the Moon with having power over other processes of nature. By extension, it was believed to have affected bodily fluids and its long-supposed link to menstruation (the average length of a menstrual cycle nearly matching that of the lunar cycle) may be one reason why most ancient cultures perceived the Moon to be female. When in a Crescent Phase, the points of the Moon are sometimes referred to as "horns," which is why so many cultural lunar deities may be depicted as wearing horns. The word "Moon" derives from the German Der Mond, which means "male moon" and may be the origin of the "man in the moon" myth. Ancient calendars were all lunar based.

The Moon is the Earth's singular natural satellite. It is, however, moving away from the Earth at a rate of 1.5 inches per year. The Moon is an airless and lifeless celestial body with no magnetic field, although surface rocks are weakly magnetized, suggesting the remnants of a small, molten iron core beneath the Moon's rocky mantle. Its infancy is believed to have been one of mass violence as it was bombarded by huge asteroids and other smaller space objects, but there is no evidence of any volcanic activity having taken place on the Moon for more than three billion years. The origin of the Moon remains a mystery, although there are numerous theories. The most popular are that: (1) the Moon formed near the Earth as a separate body, but at the same time, from the Solar Nebula (a theory also known as "co-accretion"); (2) it formed from the Earth (a theory also known as "fission"); (3) it formed elsewhere and was captured by Earth's gravity (a theory also known, not surprisngly, as "capture"); and (4) it was the result of a collision between Earth and an asteriod approximately the size of Mars (also known as the "impact theory"). The latter theory is believed by many experts to be the most likely. Regardless, the oldest dated rocks from the Moon, brought back by astronauts, are believed to be approximately 4.6 billion years old, which makes the Moon roughly the same age as the Earth.

Lacking in both atmosphere (the Moon has an exceedingly thin one, at best) and water to alter its surface, the Moon of today is largely a relic of geologically ancient times. Its diameter is almost one-fourth of that of Earth and within our Solar System, only Pluto with its companion Charon, has a satellite so close to its own size. The Moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night. During the New Phase of the Moon, both it and the Sun rise and set at the same time. From that point on, the Moon appears in different areas of the sky...in the West as it waxes larger, and in the East as it wanes smaller...until it becomes a Full Moon and rises at Sunset. The First Quarter of the Moon always rises at noon and the Last Quarter at Midnight.

There are two primary types of terrain on the Moon: the bright, heavily-cratered and extremely old Highlands and the relatively smooth and younger Maria or "seas." The Maria (plural for Mara) comprise approximately 16% of the Moon's surface and are huge impact craters which were later flooded with molten lava. Most of the Moon's surface is covered with regolith...a mixture of fine dust and rock debris produced by meteor impacts. For a reason which has yet to be determined, the Maria are concentrated on the near side of the Moon. The majority of the craters on the near side are named for famous figures in the history of science...Tycho and Copernicus, for example. Features on the far side of the Moon have more modern references, including Apollo, Gagarin and Korolev.

On July 20, 1969, humans first set foot on the Moon during the flight of Apollo 11. The American crew consisted of Neil Armstrong, Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin, Jr. and Michael Collins (who remained in the command module). The samples brought back from that and other missions revealed the presence of substances which could be the forerunners of amino acids...the building blocks of life...giving rise to speculation that the Moon may, at one time, have harbored some form of life. Galileo Galilei was the first to conduct an extensive study of the Moon and its phases in the early 1600s. He made at least eight careful drawings which depicted mountains, plains and many other circular features.

On a somewhat unrelated point of interest, a "Blue Moon" is a phenomenon which happens when two Full
Moons occur in the same calendar month. It is possible to have two Full Moons in any given month,
with the exception of February, and on average, there is one Blue Moon every 33 months.
A "Blue Moon" has also been defined as the third of four Full Moons in a season.
There are also rare occasions when there can be a month with no Full Moon...although
February is the only month during which this can occur. In such an event,
the month previous and the month following will both have Blue Moons.
The Twenty-First Century will see the occurence of a moonless February
four times...in 2018, 2037, 2067 and 2094.

The personification of the Moon Goddess has adopted many guises throughout the centuries. However, it is likely that she came into being as Luna, Roman Goddess of the Moon, whose temple on the Aventine Hill was erected during the Sixth Century B.C., but destroyed by the great fire under the regime of the Emperor Nero. She was associated with recurrent diseases and it was sometimes believed that she would drive people insane if they offended her. The word "Luna" is Latin for "The Moon" and the word "lunatic" (the literal meaning of which is "moonstruck") is derived from the name of this Roman Moon Goddess. Monday, the second day of the week, is also sacred to this Goddess, the word having come from the Anglo-Saxon "monandaeg," which means "the moon's day."

Luna is also identified with Diana and Hecate (although some sources would dispute these two particular associations) and is equivalent to the Greek Goddess, Selene. She is also sometimes known as Phoebe (which means "The Bright One"). As Selene, she was the Goddess of the Full Moon, the second member of the Triad composed of herself, Artemis (Goddess of the Crescent New Moon) and Hecate (Goddess of the Waning or Dark Moon who presided over ghosts and other dark and hidden things, as well as being Ruler of Magic and Deep Wisdom). Commonly described as a beautiful woman with a pale or white face, Selene was usually depicted in flowing robes of white or silver, wearing an upturned Crescent Moon diadem upon her head. According to some sources, Selene was known to carry a torch and sport two large white wings upon her back. By tradition, Selene bathes in the ocean each night and then rides a silver chariot pulled by white horses or white oxen across the heavens. She glows with a soft silvery light, sending this pale illumination to the Earth which sleeps below.

Daughter of Hyperion the Titan (an ancient Sun God who was believed to be the offspring of the Earth and the Sky) and Theia the Titaness, Selene was the sister of Eos (Goddess of the Dawn) and Helios (God of the Sun). Some sources, however, credit her parentage to a liaison between Pallas and Euryphaessa. According to legend, Selene fell in love with a mortal shepherd named Endymion and seduced him while he slept in a cave. This seduction resulted in the birth of fifty daughters...a number which, it has been suggested, is symbolic with each daughter possibly representing an individual month of an Olympiad. Enamoured, Selene asked Zeus to allow the handsome Endymion to decide his own fate and the request was granted. Endymion chose never to grow old, but to sleep for eternity. Alternatively, some sources state that the Moon Goddess cast a spell upon her sweetheart, causing him to sleep forever and thus maintain both his youth and his good looks. Regardless, it was believed that Selene continued to visit him nightly, showering him with kisses delivered by her rays of soft light. Endymion, however, was not the only romantic interest of Selene. By a liaison with Zeus, she bore three daughters, and according to some sources, the Nemean Lion (to which she had given birth on Mount Tretus and which fell to the Earth from the Moon) was also the result of an affair with this Chief of the Gods. An alternative version of this, however, states that Selene created the Lion from sea foam enclosed in a large ark at the request of Hera and that Iris (Goddess of the Rainbow) enclosed it within her magic girdle and dropped it with a fearful shudder upon the Earth. Presumably, the Lion was punishment for a promised sacrifice which had not been fulfilled and Selene set it to prey upon the people who had dared to dishonor her. The Lion terrorized these people until Heracles subdued the beast in completion of the first of his Twelve Labors. Selene is a favorite subject of poets...especially those who write love sonnets. However, unlike Luna, her Roman counterpart who was far more popular, Selene was not the object of extensive worship.

Undoubtedly, the most prominent personification of the Moon Goddess is Artemis (known to the Romans as Diana the Huntress). Daughter of Zeus and Leto (one of the few Titanesses to be worshipped in Ancient Greece), Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo (God of the Sun). She was also Greek Goddess of the Wild and there is evidence of human sacrifice associated with her worship. The favorite pasttime of this Goddess was to roam the mountains chasing wild animals, armed with a silver bow and accompanied by a band of nymphs. She resented any form of intrusion into her realm, only tolerating interruptions...albeit reluctantly...from women who invoked her aid in childbirth. Choosing to be an eternal virgin with its unencumbered freedom, Artemis symbolized the essence of the female as her own person, rather than that of woman as the mate of man.

Each of the astrological planets has its own ancient symbol or glyph, created from different combinations of three basic elements that the early astrologers referred to as the Circle of Spirit, the Crescent of Soul and the Cross of Matter. The glyph of the Moon is a Crescent, its shape representative of reception, perceptiveness and contact with new realities. It is regarded by many astrologers to symolize the container of life. In essence, this glyph is said to be indicative of the fertile womb offering itself up to be impregnated by the seed of the Sun...a union of male and female principles which is the key to all physical life. Yet another interpretation of the Moon glyph is that of a lens which focuses the light of the Sun. It has also been likened to the claws of Cancer the Crab, the Zodiac Sign ruled by the Moon.