Charles Harvey - Sun Sign, Moon Sign: Discover the personality secrets of the 144 sun-moon combinations

To thine own self be true

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Resolve to be thyself; and know, that he who finds himself, loses his misery

MATTHEW ARNOLD

Imagine a cinema centre. It is showing two films of your life. On one screen Triumph is being shown; on another screen, Tragedy. Each of us has the possibilities for both scenarios within us. Most of us will experience something of each.

The difference between success and failure in life ultimately comes down to self-understanding. Within you are many different gifts, conflicting wishes and pressures, obligations and ambitions. The more you are able to recognize and work with your different sides and tendencies, the more you are likely to turn tragedy into triumph, rather than snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

We feel that the first step in recognizing and reconciling these different selves inside you is getting to know intimately not only your Sun sign but your Moon sign as well and how they create a lively, sometimes problematic, but always interesting dialogue within you. And what we offer you in these pages is a series of film clips showing some of the main features of the 144 most important Sun Moon story lines. One of these is yours. It describes the essential personality of two of the most important and central characters in the drama of your life. These characters, as represented by the sign positions of the Sun and Moon at your birth, are the heart and soul of your story. The better you can get to know them the more will you be able to understand, and even consciously collaborate on, the script of your life. Once you can comprehend the innate contradictions, you can turn them to good use a bit like adjusting the seasoning in a souffl. You will discover it is a good recipe, a fine script do not fight it; enjoy it!

We have tried to give you a taste of the contrasting pressures and inner dilemmas that each combination is most likely to experience, and to show how these different aspects of you can work positively together. You will not agree with everything you find here (unless you are the most watery of Water types), but if these profiles encourage you to reflect more on the full-length film of your life and how you can give it the best performance and production you can, we will be more than happy.

If you have not had your personal birth chart drawn up, and do not know your Sun Moon combination, Part 3 gives instructions and tables for finding the sign position of your Sun and Moon.

If you do not know your time of birth and there is uncertainty as to which sign your Sun and/or Moon is in, you will need to read the two different possible combinations. This should help you to decide which is the more likely position and so narrow down the likely time of your birth. Care is needed with this method, however, as other chart factors may be involved of which you are unaware. If your decision is between a Cancer and Leo Moon, for example, you may decide your Moon is in Cancer, yet this could be because your Rising Sign is in Cancer.

We have given our findings and interpretations for each Sun Moon combination under the following main sections:

quotations

themes

main text

relationships

your greatest strengths

your greatest weaknesses

images for integration

famous people with this combination

Some details about the contents of each of these sections follows.

Each one of us views the world from a different place and in a different way. What we notice and what interests us is very much conditioned by our birth chart, and not least by our Sun and Moon positions. So if we want to understand a combination more fully we cannot do better than to listen to the ideas and observations of those who have lived a lifetime with that particular Sun Moon combination.

In consequence, we have started each Sun Moon entry with quotations from individuals who were born with that particular combination. These have been chosen to illustrate, directly or indirectly, some of the essential qualities of that particular type in their own words.

We regret the fact that, despite our best efforts, there are many more quotes from men than women in this book. This is a direct reflection of the ratio of eminent men to women in our society over the centuries, which has inevitably resulted in a very strong bias towards quotes from men being available in the many collections and dictionaries of quotations. For somewhat different reasons, certain categories of people, for example writers and philosophers, tend to be a more fruiful source of telling quotes than, say, sportspeople or those working in business or the helping professions. This is not surprising. Writers and thinkers spend their time reflecting on the nature of the human condition and our relationship to the world, whilst, with obvious exceptions, people engaged in sport, commerce and caring for others tend to be less immediately engaged in such reflections.

In doing our research for this book we usually found far more quotes than we could possibly use for certain of the combinations, whilst it was often difficult to find suitable, pithy observations from other solilunar types. This is not surprising. Certain combinations such as the Sun in Gemini, Moon in Aquarius were alive with wit and wisdom, whilst quotes were relatively thinner on the ground for other combinations. Even though some of these combinations are deeply reflective such as those with both Sun and Moon in Scorpio they seem to be less naturally verbally articulate.

This paragraph gives a very brief summary of some of the main issues of the combination, starting with the element combination of the Sun and Moon. The first element given is the Suns; the second element that of the Moon. To avoid constant repetition and to save space, we have given further details about each of the 10 element combinations, including some observations about compatibility with other types, in Chapter 3.

This main essay identifies and discusses what we have found to be the main issues for the combination. We have resisted the temptation to break this text up into formal sections. Each combination is usually presented in a somewhat different way as dictated by the combination itself and by the material we have available. We have usually given suggestions about the types of work which are likely to be especially congenial to the combination, though, as we have noted elsewhere, we do not see these combinations as a clear indication to vocation, but much more as indications of the approach and attitudes that the type will bring to what they do. The one area we have separated out is