The Astrology of Being a Werewolf on the Wane

Moon Phase Mosaic by OliBac

 

A few people have recently mentioned to me when discussing their natal Moon, what phase it was in when they were born. It tickled the back of my mind. I wondered what phase the Moon had been in at the time of my birth, and whether it had any bearing on how the energy which I associate with my natal Moon, my emotional nature, expressed itself. However I did nothing about finding out… until last night.

I thought it might be hard information to come by, as I have been around on planet Earth for a few eons, but it’s data… and scientific too, so I figured it might be out there on the internet.

A quick search for the Moon phase on the day of my birth gave me exactly what I was after. In fact there were plenty of sites with the information readily available and easy to find. For yours, just Google your date of birth Moon phase, the answer should be in the first few results.

The Moon when I was born was a Waning Gibbous Moon. Which goes well with the fact that I’m a monkey in Chinese astrology… oh… no… wait… that’s a Gibbon!

Gibbous means hump, sort of.

Anyway… what does this particular Moon phase mean?

Psychologically I’m guessing it means that I’m turning back into a human after my transformation into a Werewolf during the Full Moon. So the beast is receding back into the dark recess from which it emerged. It’s a waning Werewolf. Still a bit hairy, hackles still showing, and clothes… well, new ones are needed as the old ones are probably ripped to pieces. Costly thing being a Werewolf!

So… What does the Moon phase mean in astrology and how does it affect the expression of your natal Moon’s energy?

There a quite a few sites which have information pertaining to this, this is one – Moon Phases – What Phase Were You Born Under? – which has similar information as some of the other sites which I checked.

Here’s the info on the phase of my natal Moon:

“THE DISSEMINATING MOON or WANING GIBBOUS MOON phase (226d-270d) is represented by the flowers whose petals are scattered by the winds. The objective awareness achieved under the full Moon is ready to be spread to the world at large. The very word ‘disseminating’ means ‘to spread abroad, as though sowing seed.’ In this distributive stage, the personality gives active expression to whatever ideas have impressed it most deeply.” – © Mary Devlin

Now what?

Now, I ponder what this means to me, as I do whenever I read an interpretation. I use astrology as a tool to help me to navigate myself, rather than as something to tell me who I am and how I am. For me the interpretations open up an inner dialogue, and I go from there, using my self knowledge, thought, feeling, intuition. I ask myself questions, if I have an emotional response, I focus on it and follow it as it moves through me to see where it leads and what it reveals.

To be honest, reading about the Waning Gibbous Moon, on several different sites, left me a bit indifferent. I thought to myself that it was good to have checked the information out, answered a question, but it meant nothing to me personally. It did not elucidate anything, did not inspire any dialogue other than a superficial one which simply said – Oh… well, that was pointless!

And yet, sometimes one thing leads to another, so perhaps it wasn’t so pointless.

As I did several other searches, to see if anyone who had a similar Moon phase and position to mine had written about their own views of it, variations on a theme – Waning Gibbous Moon conjunct Ascendant, Waning Gibbous Moon in Virgo – I came across a post about the Moon in Virgo. Normally I would ignore writing about the Moon in Virgo as it is often written by people who don’t have that placement, so it is guesswork based on research of a not so thorough kind disguised as expert knowledge. And I get the feeling that the Moon in Virgo disinterests all those who do not have their Moon in Virgo, and even some of those who do.

However the site this post was on is familiar to me, and I enjoy the writing of this astrologer, they often share their personal experiences with astrology, which is something I look for. An astrologer who writes from a detached perspective rouses my suspicion that they are just doing a job and have no inner connection to that which they are doing, or they are hiding who they are behind a false front. This writer shares themselves, their words are alive with their identity and energy.

The post was an insightful and thoughtful piece – New Moon in Virgo: The Editor. The astrologer’s mother has a Virgo Moon, so there was personal experience and a deep emotional connection. Yet it was external. How she perceived and experienced her mother. Not internal, how her mother perceived and experienced herself. There was a bit about the mother’s thoughts, yet they were not expressed by the mother, but by her loving daughter. Perhaps the two perceptions were close, but there will always be subtle differences.

It was beautifully written and I enjoyed the information which she shared with heart and mind in unison. And it inspired an inner dialogue.

I often fail to see how I am perceived by others. Most of us do. We are deep inside of ourselves, seeing from the inside out, so being able to see ourselves from the outside in is nigh on impossible. And of course, others see us through the filter of themselves, so they are not really seeing us either, they are seeing… well, what they see has caused me much pain, difficulty and stress in relationships. I used to struggle to understand why others never saw me even remotely as I saw myself, psychologically I think the term for this is a mind fuck, and astrology has helped me to unfuck my mind, a bit. Get some much needed perspective on a problem.

My natal Moon especially has helped me to understand why others don’t see me, and it has eased the pain of it. My Moon is conjunct my ascendant. The ascendant is the face you offer of yourself to the world and others, it is also the filter through which you see others. You pass through it to interact with the world, and the world passes through it to interact with you. Or at least that is my version of the ascendant, being that it is in Virgo – I analyse – and I analyse everything and everyone. I analyse all input and output. When something goes wrong, I start with myself to figure out what it is that I am doing or not doing which is causing the problem, once I have done that, I move my attention to the other elements and people involved, to see how they are affecting things. Nothing is ever one-sided, even when the scales are heavily tipped.

I like to see things from the other side, from both sides to get a balanced view, or as balanced as possible considering that scales are never static. People who can only see things from one perspective, their own… drive me nuts! To them the world isn’t black and white and all the shades in between, nor is it black or white with nothing in between, it is the colour they say it is and everyone has to agree. There is no room to move in their world, it is a tiny box which shrinks until it crushes everything and everyone in it.

The house your Moon is in has an influence on how it expresses itself, how you express your emotional nature. And aspects to your Moon change its energies as they blend with other energies.

My natal Moon is in the 12th house, and is connected to my Venus in Pisces, my Mars and Neptune in Scorpio, and my ascendant. There are also other aspects, to Mercury, Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, and the MC. These all play a part in how I feel, and how I express or don’t express what I am feeling.

The Disseminating Moon is one which is supposed to inspire the individual to share their emotions with others, spread what they feel like petals on the wind, to give to others the benefits learned from having passed through the previous phases. Those with the Waning Gibbous Moon make good teachers, according to one interpretation. But how exactly?

My own personal experience has taught me not to share my feelings with others. When I do… I regret having done so. Not because I get hurt, that used to be the reason, but that has changed.

I have a very sensitive feeling nature and get hurt deeply all the time, so… I have had to move beyond reacting to my hurt by going on the defensive to protect my soft underbelly as it was just making the hurt, hurt more. I do sometimes lash out, that’s Mars’ gift to my Moon’s energy. I try not to, but sometimes it is necessary for me to do so, when I don’t… well then I give the wrong impression and permission to the other person to keep doing what they are doing.

My natal Moon is caught up in a T-square of mixed messages, confusion, prone to mirroring, projections, idealisations and illusions. People often see in me what they want to see, what they need to see and so many other things which sometimes makes me wonder if I am a Funhouse hall of distorted mirrors. This used to cause me much grief, as I could not locate myself in the me others saw, and every person saw a different me. So I retreated from the perceptions of others and relied only on my own perception of myself, so that I could find who I really was, not who I could be, bad or good, to suit others, and I have a tendency to aim to please and be of service. Venus in Pisces in the house ruled by Virgo, Moon in Virgo in the house ruled by Pisces. Virgo seeks to be of service, Pisces shifts shape to please.

I try to use my emotional sensitivity, spurred by my Venus’ gentle vibe, and the 12th house’s connection to the collective unconscious, to understand why I am feeling the way I am feeling, and if someone hurt me, to see the situation from their viewpoint, because so often they hurt me because they felt hurt by me, so hurting them because they hurt me… just keeps the cycle of pain revolving around and around, going nowhere, forever in a world of pain.

We all hurt.

Recently I have seen something, which I know, more clearly than before. People in pain, trying to make others feel what they are feeling, trying to rid themselves of their pain by giving it to others. A wound shared, or better still, a wound passed on to someone else… perhaps they can heal it, for the one passing it on does not know how. It is a desperate plea for help… but help, when offered, is usually rejected as not being the help they wanted.

So many people do not want to be shown how they are inflicting on themselves the pain they think that others are inflicting on them. They don’t want to see that they are their own worst enemy… even if by seeing that, they can also see that they are the true knight in shining armor of their life.

You have to pass through the dark to get to the light… so many want to by-pass the dark, they don’t understand that therein lies healing beyond any which the light can offer on its own. The light does heal, but so does the dark. To favour one over the other can sometimes negate the beneficial effects of the one favoured and augment the side which is being ignored, as there is a push-pull interaction between the two. The light and the dark working in unison are more powerful, for they are opposites which make up a whole, thus giving holistic healing.

And there you have it. My waning Virgo Moon trying to disseminate what I have learned from my experience as a Werewolf, who is now slowly turning back into a human. Sharing what I have experienced in case anyone is experiencing the same or a similar thing. Trying to be of service, somehow, as I shift shape…