Moon (Chandra)

The Moon (Chandra) is the second graha of jyotish, governing the mind, the emotions, and the capacity to take in impressions. In Indian astrology it rules the mutable part of a person: mood, receptivity, memory. The very shape of each day depends on the Moon too — its position and phase set the tone of the day, which is why the Moon is the first thing looked at when judging the quality of a day.

Place in the system

The Moon is the second of the nine grahas, paired with the Sun: the two luminaries of jyotish. Where Surya holds the soul and the will, the Moon holds the mind (manas) and the felt response to the world. Its nature is feminine and watery, changeable at its very core — the Moon waxes and wanes, and the inner state shifts along with it.

The Moon's own sign is Cancer, watery and fluid. It reaches its highest dignity, exaltation, in Taurus: the point of greatest strength is 3°, and just past it, across 4°–30° of the same sign, lies its mulatrikona. The Moon is the only graha whose mulatrikona falls in a sign it does not own, rather than its own sign. In debilitation, the Moon falls in Scorpio, also around 3°. By friendship it leans toward Mercury and Surya; tradition gives it no enemies at all, and the other grahas are neutral toward it.

Almost everything in the calendar's structure rests on the Moon. Its angle to the Sun gives the lunar day, tithi; its position on the zodiac gives the current nakshatra; and the two halves of the lunar month, waxing and waning, form the paksha. Monday, the Moon's day, is called Somavara in the Vedic week. In the Vimshottari system of periods, the Moon rules a mahadasha ten years long.

Practical meaning

The Moon shows what a person lives on from the inside: how they feel, what they attach to, what feeds them — bodily and emotionally alike. Hence its link to the mother, the home, water and food. A calm, strong Moon gives an even mood, a good memory and ease in company; a weakened one gives anxiety, changeability, unsteady thoughts.

The Moon's own strength depends heavily on its phase. In the waxing half of the month, as its light grows, the Moon is considered strong and benefic; closer to the new moon, in the waning half, it weakens, and the darkest night leaves it with almost no strength at all. This is where the lunar graha differs from the rest: its dignity changes day by day along with its light. Classical sources differ on exactly where to draw this line: for some it is a gradual weakening across the whole waning half, for others a strict rule under which the Moon, from a certain point in the waning half to a certain point in the waxing half, is directly counted among the malefic (papa) grahas.

In judging any single day, the Moon serves as the main hand on the clock. It moves through the zodiac faster than any other graha, crossing one nakshatra roughly every day, which is why the coloring of the day changes so often. The nakshatra the Moon stands in, together with the tithi it forms with the Sun, together describe what today's general mood is inclined toward.

In daily practice

A day under a strong, waxing Moon is good for anything tied to people and care: meetings, reconciliations, household matters, looking after loved ones, undertakings that need gentle growth. When the Moon is waning or standing low, it is better not to start anything important, and instead to finish things, tidy up, or rest — mood is easily prone to sag on such days.

Exactly where a lunar day leads is refined by the nakshatra the Moon is passing through today and by its phase. But how well such a day suits you personally is shown by personal factors: Chandra Bala — the strength of the transiting Moon measured from your natal Moon — and Tara Bala — the layout from your birth nakshatra. When the Moon crosses the eighth sign from the natal one, Chandrashtama begins — a day of inner dip that tradition advises protecting from strain. Longer pressure on the Moon in gochara is described by Sade Sati — the seven and a half years when Saturn transits it.