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The Astrological Moon

Darby Costello

"The natal Moon describes the physical gateway through which each of us must enter if we are to have

a life on this planet. So far no one has discovered another way to get onto this very colourful little planet, circling its own medium sized star. To spend any time here, as far as we now, you have to enter 

through a woman!s body. nd that woman!s body will contain traces of every event that has happened

since the very beginning....ll of the past will be contained in that body.... everything, going bac to the birth of the universe."

#or the last twenty$eight years Darby Costello has been watching the progressed Moon as it moves

through the signs and the houses of the astrological chart. %n the two seminars contained in this boo

she e&plores the Moon in its relationship to the natal Sun' and the progressed Moon, by sign and house,as it describes the unfolding of our emotional life which leads us to the awaening of our souls. She

also traces the cycle of the progressed Moon as it interweaves with the Saturn cycle, maring moments

where crisis and change become gateways to new dimensions of e&perience. These gateways bring pastand future together, and provide openings to the points of intersection between time and eternity that

dwell in each of us.

(eview by Suzi )arvey $ strological *ournal, May+*une --

"/e imagine our destiny through the Sun, but we e&perience our destiny, our being in life, through theMoon."

This boo, 0olume 0%, is one of the latest productions of the new C1 1ress. The price may seem high,

 but in fact once you read it you!ll conclude otherwise, not 2ust because of the inner content but also

 because this is a high 3uality, e&3uisitely produced hard$bac which won!t fall apart when it has become a well$loved and often thumbed$through favourite. The author of this boo is a well$nown

4ondon$ based astrologer and lecturer+seminar facilitator who has been teaching for the Centre for

1sychological strology and the #aculty of strological Studies, not to mention many otherinternational venues, for many years. She is nown for her widely$read, acutely intelligent and

inspirational style, and this boo, a transcript of two of her seminars, is elo3uent testimony to her

reputation. There is enough lunar nowledge, insight and e&perience in these pages to eep any

astrology newcomer or e&perienced student going for 3uite a while. nd the reason for this is Darby!sgift of mingling a wide range of intellectual content with direct and spontaneous interchange with her

audience, the result of which is a highly readable ne&t$best$thing to being there. Thanfully for those

who cannot attend seminars, Darby!s 3uadruple 5eminian wit, wisdom, and "warm thining" 6thiningfrom the heart7 has now been captured in print.

1art 8ne is entitled "The Moon as Source" and it e&plores the whole province of the Moon!s

mythology, psychology, and physiology. The seminar traversed a wide landscape9 4unar goddesses, the

Moon and its connections with body, mind, and the dead, the Moon as significator of the mother+child bond, lunar and natural rhythms, the Moon in the elements, signs and houses, lunar aspects, and lunar

transits and progressions.

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%n the section on Mother and Child, Darby introduces the wor of physicist Danah :ohar, the author of

The ;uantum Self. :ohar wrote this boo while she was pregnant and so was able to avail herself of a poignantly feminine, lunar lens. Darby shares :ohar!s insights and maternal e&perience of herself as

 both !particle and wave!, which Darby, 3uite rightly in my view, suggests could be a metaphor for the

Sun and the Moon. Moon consciousness as !wave! caused :ohar to lose the "sense of myself as an

individual, while at the same time gaining a sense of myself as part of some larger and ongoing process". :ohar!s e&perience for me evoed the sense of lunar timing and lunar !nowing!, so different

from the solar urge to supersede the slow, binding processes of nature. This was a very vivid and

 beautiful e&ample 6and typical of the stirring setches throughout the boo which demonstrate theory7of the way lunar e&perience connects us to a personal past as well to a wider historical past, to the

rhythms of nature and of other bodies and !selves!.

%n the section on !The Moon and Soulmaing! Darby brings in *ames )illman!s ideas, especially

focussing on )illman!s crucial insight that "soul turns events into e&periences" 6(e$visioning1sychology7. Darby writes9 "<ndigested, unreflected events do not become real e&periences. this

 process of turning events into e&periences happens through reflection on the images that rise out of the

events in our lives.. reflection and digestion have to do with the Moon.. nd e&perience has meaning,and leads to meaning". Darby is emphasising a very important facet of the Moon here, one that % have

not seen stressed very often, and it is about maing emotional connections $ maing a relationship $

with one!s life and the !things! that happen in it' in doing so, the 3uality of !thing$ness! becomes a !thou$ness! $ related, meaningful, the dots 2oined up to reveal a pattern. The fact of *upiter!s e&altation in

Cancer, Darby shows, is a poignant validation of this event$into$e&perience lunar function. That we

 belong to a family is one of our first !pattern recognition! e&periences, and it is at the root of and leads

to our continual urge throughout life to search for meaning.

These ideas provide the basis for Darby!s move into a study of the progressed Moon, for, as she points

out, from the moment of birth we are moving further away, ever so slightly at first, from mother and

"gathering the events of life into e&periences which become more and more your own". Darby has a

clear focus with the progressed Moon9 "/hat % lie looing at is that where !the Moon begins! describeswhat you and your mother share, in terms of the heredity you have both come from. =ou incarnate

through her, and you are the ne&t possibility of that lunar heritage. That lunar heritage carries on, the

heritage of that family habit pattern carries on one more step, but at the beginning she and you are soclose$ hardly a breath between you. >ut every breath you tae, the progressed Moon moves away, and

so you are moving away from her." Darby!s words elo3uently evoe the mysterious realm

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