Soli-Lunar Astrology Astrology has been with us as long as people have gazed upward at the night sky. Astronomy is the rebellious teenage offspring of Astrology that would deny its mother, and often does.
Astrology as is practiced and understood in many cultures, especially in Indo-European traditions, has been what is referred to as “Base 12”, consisting of a circle that surrounds us and is cut up into 12 more or less equal pieces- with 4 elements (Fire, Earth, Air, Water) and 3 different modes that they express thru-
- Cardinal (changeable)
- Fixed (determined/stubborn)
- Mutable (dualistic)
All twelve of the signs move in the same pattern given here and repeat so that each season begins with a Cardinal Sign, ends with a Mutable sign, and really focalizes thru the Fixed sign in the middle, so that each season is most expressed thru the Fixed sign because energy moves from the middle of the Fixed signs outward. In other words, Spring is more expressed by Beltane and Taurus, sign of flowers and fertility, and Summer is not expressed so much by watery Cancer as by sunny Leo.
A seasonal timekeeper for many thousands of years, and is more accurate than any of the other calendars presently used.
The Base 12 system is neat and orderly. It is a mental construct that is energetically accurate and descriptive in substantial ways that become obvious upon meditation and familiarity. The only drawback here is that such an orderly system is set up for the mind rather than the irrationality of emotions. Base 12 Astrology, such as the Sun Signs that return like clockwork to the same place on the same days year after year, is representative of a mental order, yet we are mostly emotionally based beings.
The Lunar cycle for every year is roughly 13 and 1/3 lunations per year. We get the word “Month” from “Moon”. A lunar calendar energetically begins at the New Moon, peaks at the Full Moon, and composts/ends so that the next New Moon redefines the emotional environment of the next month, and so on.
The basis for Base 13 Astrology, no matter what you want to call it, is in the irrationality and rebellious magickal nature of the Moon and emotions. It is unfortunate that so much Astrology is focused on the mind, when our emotions are usually in charge.
Most natural childbirth occurs under strong Lunar aspects such as Full and New Moon and the Quarters, and few are ever born under an unaspected Moon that is late in the sign, called Void of Course. (I personally have only seen a few such charts in my 40+ year career, and one of them is mine).
We use Sun and Moon together in what I call “Soli-Lunar Astrology”, and this is what I have practiced for many decades. The Moon sign and phase is just as important as the Sun Sign, probably more influential.
We practice Soli-Lunar Calendars often without noticing it. Passover, Easter, the Jewish and Chinese calendars, these are all examples. Easter and Passover are always the first Sabbath after the Full Moon after the Spring Equinox (in the Northern Hemisphere). In other words, symbolizing the fullness of the new life resurrected under the first Full Moon of the Solar Year- that is, if we use the Spring Equinox as the zero point of the Solar year, which Astrology does.
