The Moon (Chandra)
चंद्र
The Moon, Chandra or Soma, is the fastest of the grahas, crossing a sign in about two and a half days and the whole zodiac in a little over twenty-seven, one nakshatra a day. That speed is why so much of Jyotisha is read from it: the tithi, the nakshatra and the panchang's day are the Moon's, the birth star that begins the Vimshottari dasha is the Moon's nakshatra, and transits are counted from the Moon sign. In the stories the Moon married the twenty-seven daughters of Daksha, the nakshatras, and waxes and wanes under his curse. In a chart it stands for the mind, the feelings and the mother. Monday is its day. Its strength rises and falls with its light, which is why the site's reckoning of strength counts how full it is. This page gives what the site's tables hold for the Moon: the sign it rules, its dignities by degree, its friends and enemies, its dasha and its readings in the signs and houses.
At a glance
- Nature
- Natural benefic
- Rules
- Cancer
- Day
- Monday
- Vimshottari dasha
- 10 years
- Directional strength
- 4th house
- Combust within
- 12°
What the Moon signifies
The site's table of significations, the natural karakatva the birth report reads, gives the Moon: mind, mother, emotions, comfort, public, intuition.
The Moon is one of the natural benefics in the site's table, with Jupiter, Venus and Mercury. Where the site weighs strength by Shadbala it follows Raman: the Moon is a benefic from the eighth day of the bright fortnight to the eighth of the dark, and a malefic otherwise. Natural nature is only half the story: what a graha is for a particular chart depends on the houses it rules from that chart's Lagna, which each sign's page sets out.
Signs and dignities
The Moon rules Cancer. Its dignities, as the site's table gives them, by degree where Parashara divides a sign (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, the chapter on the planets, tr. R. Santhanam):
- Exalted in Taurus from 0° to 3°.
- Moolatrikona in Taurus from 3° to 30°.
- Own sign in Cancer.
- Fallen (debilitated) in Scorpio.
Friends and enemies
The natural friendships the site reckons with (Parashara's, in the table every dignity and strength is worked from):
A planet in the sign of a friend is comfortable there, in an enemy's ill at ease; the sign pages list who is where.
Aspects, combustion and direction
The Moon aspects the 7th sign from the one it occupies. Every graha aspects the seventh. Aspects are by sign, not by an orb of degrees. The Moon is combust, lost in the Sun's light, when within 12° of the Sun (Surya Siddhanta). It gains directional strength, dig bala, in the 4th house.
In transit, counted from the Moon sign, the classical gochara table the site uses counts the Moon favourable in the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 10th and 11th houses.
Its dasha and its nakshatras
The Moon rules Rohini, Hasta and Shravana, one in each third of the zodiac. Its period in the Vimshottari dasha lasts 10 years, of the cycle's 120; a person born with the Moon in one of its nakshatras begins life in it.
The Moon in the twelve signs
Varahamihira's readings of a birth with the Moon in each sign, as the birth report quotes them (Brihat Jataka, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer). He adds that a sign's effects come in full only when the planet, the sign and its lord are strong.
In Aries. With the Moon in Aries, Varahamihira describes a quick, restless temperament: fond of travel and of a contest, proud, quick to anger and as quick to relent, and changeable in mind. He sees skill in working under others, and wealth that comes and goes rather than stays. (Brihat Jataka 17.1, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))
In Taurus. With the Moon in Taurus, Varahamihira describes a graceful, generous and patient person, liked by all and loyal to friends, who bears setbacks steadily and comes to influence and authority. He notes a good appetite, a tendency to colds and congestion, times apart from family, and a happiness that grows with middle and later life. (Brihat Jataka 17.2, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))
In Gemini. With the Moon in Gemini, Varahamihira describes a sharp and witty intellect: learned, a natural go-between and messenger, quick to read what others are thinking, playful, sweet-spoken and fond of music and dance. (Brihat Jataka 17.3, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))
In Cancer. With the Moon in Cancer, Varahamihira describes a warm person easily won over by kind words, devoted to friends and blessed with a good one, drawn to water and to nature, with a gift for astrology and other deep learning. Homes may be several, and wealth waxes and wanes like the Moon herself. (Brihat Jataka 17.4, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))
In Leo. With the Moon in Leo, Varahamihira describes a proud, bold and generous nature of fixed principles, devoted to the mother and drawn to forests and hills, but quick to anger and slow to let a grievance go. He warns of trouble with digestion and teeth, of worry, and of few children. (Brihat Jataka 17.5, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))
In Virgo. With the Moon in Virgo, Varahamihira describes a modest, gentle and truthful person of soft speech, intelligent and learned, skilled in music, dance, painting and writing, who lives in comfort, may settle far from home and benefits from others' homes and means. Children are more often daughters. (Brihat Jataka 17.6, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))
In Libra. With the Moon in Libra, Varahamihira describes a devout, honest and clever person who respects the learned and the holy and never covets what is another's: fond of travel, at home in trade and prosperous, honoured by learned company and protective of the family, though not always valued by relatives in return. Health needs care. (Brihat Jataka 17.7, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))
In Scorpio. With the Moon in Scorpio, Varahamihira describes an early life marked by distance from parents and teachers and by illness in youth, later respect from those in power, and a private, guarded nature that keeps its own counsel and its failings to itself. (Brihat Jataka 17.8, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))
In Sagittarius. With the Moon in Sagittarius, Varahamihira describes a generous, eloquent and inventive mind of sound judgement, a writer skilled in the arts and busy with many undertakings, who inherits from the father, cannot be forced but is easily led by kindness, and may be at odds with relatives. (Brihat Jataka 17.9, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))
In Capricorn. With the Moon in Capricorn, Varahamihira describes someone devoted to spouse and children, quick to grasp what is said, liked by all and given to travel and to writing, but slow at work, close with money, inclined to do good where it is seen, and not fond of the cold. (Brihat Jataka 17.10, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))
In Aquarius. With the Moon in Aquarius, Varahamihira describes a tall, tireless person, loyal to friends and fond of flowers and fragrance, whose fortunes rise and fall by turns. He warns against coveting what belongs to others, and of a risk to the hearing. (Brihat Jataka 17.11, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))
In Pisces. With the Moon in Pisces, Varahamihira describes a handsome, learned and prosperous person, fond of the spouse and of fine clothes, who gets the better of enemies and may gain from trade in the produce of the sea, from others' means and from unexpected or hidden wealth. (Brihat Jataka 17.12, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))
The Moon in the twelve houses
The readings the birth report gives for the Moon in each house, counted from the Lagna:
In the 1st house. The Moon in the 1st house makes you sensitive, intuitive and emotionally expressive; your mood shapes your personality and others find you approachable.
In the 2nd house. The Moon in the 2nd house gives a gentle, persuasive voice and emotional ties to family and wealth; income tends to fluctuate with your moods.
In the 3rd house. The Moon in the 3rd house grants imaginative communication, close emotional bonds with siblings and a restless, curious, adaptable mind.
In the 4th house. The Moon in the 4th house is strongly placed, giving emotional security, a loving mother, comfort at home and deep inner contentment.
In the 5th house. The Moon in the 5th house gives a creative, affectionate mind, love of children and romance, and strong intuition in learning and the arts.
In the 6th house. The Moon in the 6th house can bring emotional sensitivity to stress and health; you serve others well but must guard against worry and digestive issues.
In the 7th house. The Moon in the 7th house seeks an emotionally nurturing partner; you are caring and accommodating in marriage and read others' feelings easily.
In the 8th house. The Moon in the 8th house deepens emotions and intuition but brings mood swings and inner turbulence; you are drawn to mysteries and transformation.
In the 9th house. The Moon in the 9th house gives a devout, philosophical and fortunate mind; you love travel, higher learning and feel emotionally tied to your beliefs.
In the 10th house. The Moon in the 10th house brings a public-facing, caring career and changeable fortunes; you connect emotionally with the masses and your work.
In the 11th house. The Moon in the 11th house brings emotional fulfilment through friends, networks and gains; your wishes are realised through warm social connections.
In the 12th house. The Moon in the 12th house turns the mind towards solitude, spirituality and foreign places; you are imaginative and compassionate but prone to escapism.
Observances
The tradition's observances for the Moon, as the site's reference lists them. Monday is its day and Lord Shiva / Goddess Parvati its deity. Its mantra is "Om Chandraya Namah", and its beej mantra "Om Shraam Shreem Shraum Sah Chandraya Namaha", recited 108 times. The customary gifts: donate rice, milk or white cloth on Mondays; offer water to a peepal tree. Its stotra is the Chandra Kavach.
Its stone is the Pearl (Moti). The site advises a stone only from a chart: its remedies page strengthens a planet whose Shadbala falls short of what it needs only where that planet is a friend of the chart, and never from a transit or a sign alone.
Use the tools
- See where the Moon stands in your chart and how strong it is by Shadbala: free birth chart.
- Its present sign and the day's panchang: panchang; its transit through your Moon sign: horoscope.
- All nine: the grahas.