posted May 19, 2008 06:51 AM         

The New Moon Before Birth
In most cases a person is born after a lunation cycle has begun, as very few people utter their "first cry" exactly at the time of a New Moon. The character of the particular lunation cycle within the span of which we are born is a very important factor in ascertaining the fundamental nature of the stream of vital forces energizing our entire organism (biological, and as well, psychological). Because in astrology any cycle is stamped with the root-characteristics of its starting point, the New Moon which preceded our birth becomes inevitably the key to the basic character of our inherent vitality.

The first thing to consider in studying this New-Moon-before-birth is whether it occurred in the same zodiacal sign as that in which the Sun is located at birth. If both the New-Moon-before-birth and the natal Sun are in the same sign the quality of this sign pervades freely the whole nature of the person; but if the natal Sun and the New-Moon-before-birth are in two different signs a basic dualism should be more or less strongly in evidence in the personality.

Any astrological factor which occurred before birth tends to represent something deeply rooted in the past. We may think of "the past" as the ancestral, racial and cultural past of an individual, his antecedents and all that he found confronting him at birth; or we may think of the past as the "Karma" of a reincarnating soul or spiritual entity. In either case what is of the past always tends to have a somewhat compulsive character. It operates in the unconscious; it surges, often unexpectedly and startlingly, out of our psychic depths.

Moreover, we should realize that two successive zodiacal signs are of opposite polarities, Aries is a "masculine" sign; Taurus, a "feminine" sign, etc. The first is typified by the element Fire; the second, by the element Earth. If therefore the New-Moon-before-birth is in Aries and the natal Sun in Taurus, we find a personality whose ancestral, unconscious vital urges belong to a cycle stamped with Aries characteristics; yet in actual every day living the Taurus force is most active, most influential in all conscious life-processes. The unconscious "fieriness" of Aries may manifest as a compulsion for emotional release in a typical Aries manner; but it will usually be held in check by the Taurus-dominated conscious purpose or will of the individual. Yet occasionally the Aries force may flare up suddenly and startlingly from the psychic depths — perhaps causing much havoc, or at least deep-rooted emotional conflicts. The nature of the person may thus include masculine as well as feminine traits; at any rate it will tend to be complex and at times unpredictable.