Thread by @aaolomi

The Moon is one of the most important placements in a person’s birth chart. In astrology from the Islamic world, the Moon is central after the Ascendant for determining the character and nature of a person.

A thread on the Moon and its meanings-

Astrologers from the medieval Islamic world, noted the placement of the Moon as important for shaping a person’s life.

Doubly so for nocturnal births, but important for all. Al Khayyat, Mashallah, and Sahl interpreted the Moon through its placement in the signs.

Moon in Aries is quick to anger, the holding of grudges, and an easily wounded pride.

Headaches and vertigo are common as is fights with friends.

Moon in Taurus indicates the desire for sex and love is mingled with comfort and security.

They find joy in partnerships and leisure and food.

Moon in Gemini indicates a desire for women, men, and youths. They delight in words and coyness.

They speak truthful things though not always believed.

Moon in Cancer is in its own home is guarded and trustworthy. They delight in taking care of others and being taken care of. They will find patrons who honor them if aspected by a benefic. The aspect of malefic planets will bring about a susceptibility to illnesses and curses

Moon in Leo indicates renown, the favor of the powerful, but a tendency to be wounded easily, and spend their money carelessly. They revel in glories but struggle with the attention. In the later degrees, it can signify injuries and illness of stomach or heart and thinning hair.

Moon in Virgo indicates joy in order, justice, and fairness.

Though cautious they are champions of their loved ones and children.

Moon in Libra find skill in stratagem and the making of beauty. It indicates promiscuity and a need to be loved.

They will be temperamental and seek out the attention of women.

Moon in Scorpio indicates many fevers, stubbornness, and friends of ill-repute. They can hold a grudge.

Love sickness is common as is fixedness to point of obsession.

Moon in Sagittarius indicates fortune and a well-liked disposition. It can indicate illicit affairs with men and women.

Their relatives will turn to them for favors.

Moon in Capricorn indicates people will speak ill of them, they may struggle with their mother, they will guard their feelings and thoughts closely. They will suffer from pain in joints. In nocturnal births it may indicate a predisposition for schemes

Moon in Aquarius will suffer from gas. If it increases in light they will be bold, if decreases in light they will be timid. Sun or Moon in Aquarius can also indicate kidney and spleen problems. If diurnal the health problems will be managed, if nocturnal they will become chronic

Moon in Pisces will struggle with illusion and delusion and increased libido. They will be noble of character though men can be unreliable.

In addition to the placements, the Moon was used in a series of techniques, projecting it onto calculated points to determine the deepest recesses of the native’s character and nature.

There are two other considerations of the Moon in Islamicate astrology; the Mansions and the nature of the Soul.

In addition to the traditional 12 Zodiac, the Moon’s exact position within the signs formed a Zodiac of its own, know as the manzil al qamar.

These 28 stations were calculated based on exact degree boundaries within the sign.

While scholars like Pingree seems to favor a Mesopotamian origin for them, I disagree. All indications seem to point to Indic origins with Vedic astrology’s nakshatra.

It likely made its way into the Arabian world via Yemen where they are still used in agriculture.

There the lunar stations fused with local star lore and folk astronomy to form a calendar system which organized human activity: when to get married, when to do business etc.

The adoption of the lunar stations into medieval and early modern European astrology retains this electional root drawing heavily from Islamicate astral magic texts like the Picatrix.

But in medieval astrology of the Islamic world, the stations were used not only for talismans and elections, but in natal considerations again reinforcing their origin likely in the nakshatra.

For mystics like Ibn Arabi the stations were also part of the cosmology of creation, the link between the sublunar and celestial world.

Each lunar mansion was associated with a letter, a sacred sound at the heart of creation itself.

The Moon’s connection to the soul links medieval astrology to Islamic philosophy and premodern psychology.

Drawing from Aristotle, creation was seen as a series of sphere stretching all the way to God.

These spheres were animated by the Intelligences, 10 in total.

The Moon became site where the Intelligences were ensouled in humanity, linking them to the higher celestial spheres.

Each sphere had its own Intellect, or Aql.

Venus’ Aql was Natural Intellect, or imaginative (Khayal), Mercury’s Aql was Reasoning Intellect, or thought (Fikr) together they were then ensouled by the Moon (nafs).

This is also why Venus is in Fall in Virgo, the clashing intelligences, not that Venus doesn’t have intelligence, just of a different sort.

At the same time, the Moon actively receives and shapes the knowledge of the Sun (Greek Gnosis) thus becoming Hikmah, or Wisdom.

The process of which is Revelation.

The Intelligence of the Moon, is Ruh al Quddus, the Holy Spirit known in Islamic angelology as Jibr’ail the Angel of Revelation.

All fascinatingly connected

In other words, it is the Moon which brings it all together.

Within this philosophical cosmology we see the rationale for astrology itself, the ensouling of the spheres in the human body and spirit.

For intellectual historians we can see the position of the moon in this system to note the way Neoplatonic ideas of the soul, Aristotelian Intelligences, angelology were all drawn into an Islamic cosmology through astrology.

If you are interested in learning more, check out my patreon where I just recently released an episode on Abu Ma’shar the most famous astrologer of the Abbasid period with a part two on his methods and techniques forthcoming- patreon.com/headonhistory

I’ll cover more on astrology in the Islamic world included the lunar mansions in future threads.