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

Discover the Key to Your Unique Personality through the 144 Sun, Moon Combinations

Charles Harvey & Suzi Harvey

Chapter One GETTING THE MOST FROM THIS BOOK

To thine own self be true

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

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

MATTHEW ARNOLD

MAKING A FILM OF YOUR LIFE

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 soufflé. 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.

FINDING OUT YOUR SUN-MOON COMBINATION

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.

THE LAYOUT OF EACH COMBINATION

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.

The Quotations – In Their Own Words

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.

Themes

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 Sun’s; 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.

The Main Text

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 Relationships, as these are so central to what the Sun and Moon combination in the chart is all about.

Your Greatest Strengths

This is a summary of what seem from our research to be some of the more creative possibilities of the combination. Other factors in your full birth chart will suggest other strengths and creative potential, so you should not be dismayed if your favourite virtue is not mentioned!

Your Greatest Weaknesses

Here we pull no punches. This section attempts to identify some of the greatest defects and life problems the combination can produce. We are not saying you are like this (though others may agree!), but these are issues that you would do well to note. As with your virtues, your chart as a whole may suggest more obvious blemishes to your otherwise perfect self!

Images for Integration

These may not obviously hit you between the eyes the first time you read them. They are intended to be reflected upon. Sometimes we have given just one image, more often two, and sometimes more when the very different possibilities of a particular combination seem to require it. These images are intended to evoke what we see to be some of the essential issues of the combination in question, and to get you thinking. If an image does not speak to you, put it to the back of your mind. One day when you are wrestling with some problem or theme that repeats itself in your life, the penny could drop.

Since this is a book rather than a video we have usually given these images as ‘word pictures’. But we could equally well have used pictures, cartoons, sculptures, music, landscapes and other symbolic expressions of these ideas. Occasionally, where works of art and music are very well known or especially appropriate, we have used these. Under Sagittarius – Cancer, for example, you will find Jimi Hendrix’s legendary Woodstock version of The Star Spangled Banner. Its mixture of emotional patriotism (Cancer) and raw, fiery, exuberant energy and brilliance (Sagittarius) as he imitates the ‘rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air’ on his guitar, speak volumes about this combination. In a different vein, under Gemini – Libra you will find Elgar’s Enigma Variations. The composer dedicated it ‘to my friends within’. Not only does Elgar’s very concept evoke the synthesis of these signs, but if you listen to the sheer range of musical experience Elgar derives from his one simple theme you will arrive at a deeper, inner, understanding of this combination. Likewise under Scorpio-Sagittarius we have Picasso’s painting Guernica. To view its tortured images conveys to us a moral statement (Sagittarius) about the destruction and iniquities of war (negative Scorpio) which goes to the heart of the preoccupations of this Sun – Moon combination.

The Famous People

This book grew from our study of peoples’ lives. You will find that one of the most fruitful ways of finding out more about the subtleties, dilemmas and creative possibilities of a specific Sun – Moon combination is to study the biographies and autobiographies of famous individuals who have that combination. The list of celebrities that are given at the end of each entry is a selection of some of the better-known contemporary and historical individuals whom we have recorded as being born with that particular Sun – Moon pairing.

We have made every effort to check on the accuracy of the charts we have used for these individuals, but inevitably some errors may have crept in. If you have reason to suppose that any of the people given under a combination are there under false pretences, we would be pleased to hear from you.

While the Sun – Moon combination can give some clues and indications as to career choice, it will be found more useful to consider the famous people listed in terms of the kind of approach they had to their particular work, the ideas and themes which have engaged them, and the general flavour of their lives. So, for example, to understand the acute paradox of the combination of clinical detachment and intense passion of those born with Sun in Aquarius and Moon in Scorpio, one can learn volumes by looking at the output of the writer Alex Comfort. The very titles of Comfort’s best sellers – Sex in Society and The Joy of Sex: A Gourmet’s Guide to Love Making – encapsulate a creative synthesis of these very different approaches to life. His many other books, plays, poetry, essays and novels draw upon similar themes, with the clash between freedom and possessiveness, between intellect and emotions, between personal liberty and social obligations. His work is often expressed in a pungent blend of Aquarian-Scorpio humour as in Come out to Play, his satirical fantasy about a biologist deeply learned in the knowledge of human mating habits.

It would be wrong to conclude from this example that all Aquarius-Scorpios will be writers, or that they will all be preoccupied with understanding their relationship to sex (though many will be!). But what we can conclude from Comfort’s life, and many other cases, it that the creative pivot around which this Sun – Moon combination revolves is the conflict between mind and emotion. By attempting to reconcile the fundamental tension between a need to see the world through a strongly developed rational intellect and the irrational intensity of their emotional life, this type finds their own unique creativity.

If you take some time out to study the lives, accomplishments and aspirations of those people we have listed, you can gradually build up a picture of how other people have used your own particular combination creatively, how they have reconciled conflicting pressures, and indeed where their dilemmas have tripped them up. To illustrate this further, let us take a brief look at the different lives of all the people listed under Sun Scorpio – Moon Pisces.

Scorpio and Pisces are both Water signs. Water is the element (here) that emphasizes the feelings and emotions and a general sensitivity to, and understanding of, other people’s needs and experience. Hence such types often have a strong attraction towards the caring professions and other occupations that demand emotional sensitivity, such as the theatre and creative writing. Even though all Water signs are theoretically highly compatible, the intense, self-controlled, purposeful and ambitious Scorpio is a very different kettle of crustaceans from the free-flowing, adaptable, often self-sacrificing and addictive sign of the fishes, and this combination of signs can experience as much inner conflict as any other. A consideration of our list reveals the wide variations of expression possible from this one combination, yet the common themes they tend to share.

Hillary Clinton

A lawyer by training and one of the US’s most influential First Ladies. But forget her profession – what is she like? She has been described alternately as a Lady Macbeth and a Florence Nightingale. The astrological truth is that she is both. Sun Scorpios are naturally forceful and ambitious, but Moon in Pisces gives a softer, caring concern for the world, and especially the underdog. So it is that her solar public image can be typically Scorpionic – stiff, icy, aloof – whilst in private she can be warm and funny, with the classic Piscean flair for mimicry.

In her work in the White House, as in her earlier legal practice, it is clear that Hillary Clinton really cares (Pisces) passionately (Scorpio) about what she does. She is not only concerned with personal power (Scorpio), but is guided by a natural concern and compassion (Moon Pisces) for the sick, addicted, unemployed, underprivileged and the underclass – all groups traditionally symbolized by the Moon in Pisces. With characteristic Scorpio concern for regeneration, Clinton’s purpose is to help these people help themselves with hand-ups rather than hand-outs. Also typical is her determination and intense commitment to get to grips with and to purge the Scorpio abuses of the drugs industry, ruled by Pisces.

Gene Tierney

This actress was famous for her silky, feline femininity, which she used in portraying classically Scorpionic indefatigable scheming heroines and seductresses in film noir thrillers. Indeed mystery thrillers themselves are of the essence of this combination.

Tierney’s life was marked by a deep struggle to get to grips with (Scorpio) her chaotic emotional life, which was constantly running away with her (Pisces). As so often seems to be the case with this type, her emotional life went in waves of collapse into self-abandonment (Pisces), and self-motivated dramatic recovery and regeneration (Scorpio).

Grace Kelly

Another actress, Kelly is remembered particularly for her elegant, coolly self-possessed (Scorpio) yet intensely vulnerable (Pisces) roles in Hitchcock suspense thrillers such as Dial M for Murder and Rear Window. Her marriage to Prince Ranier is a classic combination of the romance (Pisces) and purposeful ambition (Scorpio) that this type needs to marry within themselves.

In her very private, private life as Princess of Monaco she was famous for her dedicated work (Scorpio) for numerous charities and good causes (Pisces). Details of her closely guarded emotional life are only now beginning to emerge, but these suggest that this was vastly more complex and tangled than her outward, almost chilly Scorpio self-assurance would have suggested, and that she had an intermittent drink problem.

Bela Lugosi

Lugosi is one of the many actors that this combination seems to produce, but more significant is the kind of parts he played. Like Grace Kelly he is associated with suspense thrillers in particular and with menacing, Dracula-type roles which appeal to, and evoke, the darker (Scorpio) aspects of the imagination (Pisces).

Like others of this combination, Lugosi was tempted by the enchanting Piscean world of drugs and the sense of self-transcendence and emotional release they can bring. Equally typical of this type, however, he successfully fought his addiction and, with typical Scorpionic powers of regeneration, regained his creative equilibrium.

Martin Scorsese

The films of this highly imaginative (Pisces) cinema director focus upon the darkest aspects of male aggression and violence (Scorpio) and a preoccupation with sexual inequality. Typical of his work is Taxi Driver with its nightmarish Scorpio – Pisces vision of New York as an open sewer spewing forth pimps, whores, addicts and criminals.

Equally expressive of the mixture of social concern (Pisces) and personal struggles (Scorpio) is Scorsese’s melodramatic Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, in which a newly-widowed woman tries to cope with economic survival and create a new life for herself and her 12-year-old son. The very title of Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ combines Scorpio, which rules temptation, and Christ, whose symbol was the fish, into one image. Indeed, on the highest level, one could say that the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ is the ultimate symbolic image for this combination which can plumb the depths and heights of human experience.

Robert Louis Stevenson

The themes and characters in Stevenson’s writings constantly reflect the contrasting dark, passionate approach of Scorpio with its fascination with the problem of evil, and the gentle, imaginative, lyrical qualities of Pisces. This contrast is most explicit in the split personality who is both the dedicated Dr Jekyll and the murderous Mr Hyde. People who are strong Water types are very much in touch with their dream life, so it is fascinating to note that the story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde came to Stevenson in a nightmare. He spent the next three days in a state of feverish creativity, writing down this 30,000-word story that so captures the essence of the Scorpio – Pisces split between passion and compassion, and between savagery and civilization. This incident is also a classic expression of the creative power of the inner connection of Sun and Moon, which can come about between sleeping and waking.

This same splitting and marrying of tough and tender is present in Stevenson’s kindly, caring, yet utterly villainous Long John Silver in the romantic thriller Treasure Island. For all his wickedness (Scorpio), he still evokes our compassion (Pisces). Likewise we can contrast Stevenson’s wild Scorpionic study in evil of The Master of Ballantrae with his superbly Piscean recollections of childhood of his Child’s Garden of Verse.

William Cullen Bryant

The majestic writings of this poet and lawyer speak volumes of the power of Scorpio combined with the lyric sensitivity of Pisces. His dedicated anti-slavery campaigning is typical of the resolute commitment and compassion of this type.

Alexander Alekhine

Chess is a classic Scorpio – Pisces war game. It involves Pisces strategy and Scorpio plotting, Pisces subterfuge and Scorpio unexpected attack. Alekhine was not only one of the greatest of all chess players, he was passionately addicted to the game and its strategies, just as he also became passionately addicted to alcohol. When his drinking lost him his world title he, like Bela Lugosi, picked himself up from his addiction and made an astonishing comeback from his self-destructive drinking (Pisces) through his sheer determination and applied willpower (Scorpio).