Capricorn to Aries: the Moon's week ahead
Three ingresses, a sixteen-hour void on Friday, and a full Moon in Taurus just past the week.
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| The week opens with the Moon in Capricorn, the sign the tradition called her detriment. Detriment is the sign facing a planet’s own domicile, the sign it rules; the Moon’s domicile is Cancer, and Capricorn sits directly across from it. She reaches her first quarter Sunday at 16:12 UTC, half lit, and a void begins at the same moment. Void of course is the interval after the Moon completes her last major aspect in a sign and before she enters the next. This one runs more than nine hours, until she crosses into Aquarius at 01:39 UTC on Monday. | ||||||||||||
| Aquarius is Saturn’s other sign in the traditional scheme, so the change of sign does not change her host. Ptolemy, in second century Alexandria, gave Saturn both signs opposite the two lights, Capricorn across from the Moon’s Cancer and Aquarius across from the Sun’s Leo. In Aquarius the Moon holds no dignity at all. She is peregrine, a traveler without office, for nearly two and a half days. | ||||||||||||
| Wednesday brings a short void, from 08:42 UTC, before she enters Pisces at 12:35 UTC. Pisces belongs to Jupiter in the traditional scheme, and like her own Cancer it is a water sign. | ||||||||||||
| The longest silence of the week comes Friday. A void opens at 03:31 UTC and runs more than sixteen hours, until she crosses into Aries at 19:53 UTC. Guido Bonatti, in thirteenth century Italy, counted the void Moon among the conditions that weakened a chart’s judgment. The tradition applied it chiefly to questions asked and moments chosen, not to the day at large. | ||||||||||||
| She closes the week in Aries, Mars’s sign. Just past its end, early on Monday the 26th, she comes to full in Taurus, the sign of her exaltation. | ||||||||||||
| The week’s ingresses | ||||||||||||
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| The twelve signs | ||||||||||||
| Aries She arrives last, Friday at 19:53 UTC, after the long void, and holds Aries through the weekend. Mars rules the sign. The Moon has no dignity here, so she is peregrine again. The later tradition described the Moon as cold and moist and Mars as hot and dry, the opposite of her own temper. | ||||||||||||
| Taurus Taurus waits just beyond the week. She enters it late on Sunday the 25th, at 23:34 UTC, and comes to full there a few hours later. It is her exaltation, the sign of her highest dignity. Ptolemy explained why: after meeting the Sun in Aries, she first shows her increase in Taurus, the first sign of her own triplicity. | ||||||||||||
| Gemini Nothing of the Moon reaches Gemini this week; she travels the far side of the zodiac, from Capricorn to Aries. Mercury rules the sign, and Mercury spends the week in Scorpio, away from both of his houses. The tradition judged a sign partly through the condition of its ruler, and Gemini’s is a guest elsewhere. | ||||||||||||
| Cancer Her own sign, and this week she is as far from it as she travels. She opens in Capricorn, the sign directly opposite. Detriment is measured in exactly that way, as distance from home, and she reaches its farthest point on Sunday. She will not return to Cancer until the 30th. | ||||||||||||
| Leo Leo belongs to the Sun, her counterpart among the two lights, and this week it also holds Mars and Jupiter. The Moon does not enter Leo this week, but her first quarter on Sunday, at 16:12 UTC, marks the point where she stands a quarter of the circle from the Sun. | ||||||||||||
| Virgo Mercury’s second sign also goes unvisited. Virgo is unusual in the old scheme: it is both the domicile and the exaltation of Mercury, the only sign that holds both for the same planet. The Moon’s nearest approach this week is Pisces, the sign directly across from it, which she enters on Wednesday. | ||||||||||||
| Libra The Sun spends the first part of the week in Libra and leaves it for Scorpio on Friday morning UTC. Venus rules Libra, and Saturn is exalted there. The Moon does not pass through Libra this week. Her last visit came early in the month, around the new Moon of the 10th. | ||||||||||||
| Scorpio Her fall, the sign where the tradition held her at her weakest. William Lilly, in London in 1647, listed it so in his table of dignities. The Moon does not enter Scorpio this week, but the Sun does, on Friday, and Mercury and Venus are already there. Mars rules the sign in the traditional scheme. | ||||||||||||
| Sagittarius She left Sagittarius on Friday at 12:57 UTC, after a void of some fifteen hours, the last stretch of her stay. Jupiter’s sign gave her no dignity, and she left it peregrine. Jupiter rules the sign, and Jupiter spends the week in Leo. She does not return to Sagittarius until next month. | ||||||||||||
| Capricorn The week opens here, in her detriment, and her stay ends with the void that starts at the first quarter on Sunday, 16:12 UTC. Saturn rules Capricorn. He stands this week in Aries, the sign of his fall, so the Moon begins the week as a weakened guest of a weakened host. | ||||||||||||
| Aquarius Aquarius holds her longest this week, from 01:39 UTC Monday until 12:35 UTC Wednesday. Saturn rules it as well, so her host does not change when the sign does. She is peregrine throughout, and the stay closes with a void of just under four hours on Wednesday morning. | ||||||||||||
| Pisces Pisces takes her on Wednesday at 12:35 UTC and keeps her until Friday evening. Jupiter rules it in the traditional scheme, and like her own Cancer it is a water sign, though she holds no dignity there. Her stay ends in the week’s longest void, more than sixteen hours from 03:31 UTC Friday. |