Our lunar placement can help illuminate how to nourish and heal ourselves and points to where we need to go for fulfilment and safety. Dazed astrologer Grace McGrade shares everything you need to know about your moon sign
Grace McGrade is an intuitive astrologer and priestess based in Los Angeles. She is the host of the podcast “Bitchcraft: Spirituality for Bad People.” Her sessions include birth chart readings, tarot, energetic clearings and psychic consultations.
If you‘re reading this article, it is likely your zodiac sign has been the subject of scrutiny at parties, in magazine columns and even on dates – but you are not quite sure what it all means. Most astrology novices identify with their Sun sign, as it represents our outward identity, and our personality traits that are the most visible. However, within the astrological community, our Sun sign encompasses just a part of who we are. It’s is our easy-to-spot personality; what we naturally exude; our innate gifts. Each astrological portrait is a unique signature, a composition of 12 planets and even more asteroids. If our Sun sign is the hero of our journey, our Moon sign is our hidden motives. Determined by the time we are born, it represents a more hidden yet equally relevant element of our psyches. It is who we are behind closed doors, the intimate intricacies of our inner worlds.
The Moon governs how we respond to the ebbs and flows of life. Our Moon sign tells us what we require to feel safe, how our home environments shaped who we are, and even what we project onto our outer world. It is without dispute that we all handle our feelings differently, with some of us prone to wallowing and others inciting dramatic change. The Moon, our fastest moving celestial body, changes sign every two days. It is our wavering moods, our intuitive nudges and even the qualities we dismiss within ourselves.
The Moon, attributed to both insanity and unbridled moods, has long been the subject of ancient mystery. As it moves our tides, it is not a stretch to believe it would affect the water within us. Affiliated with the mother and the feminine faculties of our personalities, our Moon sign can point us to what we require for self-care. It shows us where we need to go to feel safe, and how we process what happens to us externally. Our lunar placement is the language of how to nourish and heal ourselves and points to where we need to go for fulfilment and safety.
Before we start, find out what your Moon sign is here and then find below a description of your placement. Afterwards, head over to the Dazed guide to rising signs.
Aries Moon
Your emotional temperament is lightning fast, impulsive and passionate. You deal with your emotions by inciting your own new beginnings, and change is your friend. Your early childhood upbringing may have been a loud one, in which no one was afraid to assert their emotions. Your safe space is a monster truck rally and the sunrise on a new day.
You might be someone who feels anger and animation before sadness and you transmute emotion through decisive action. Anger is your sacred alchemy. You need to pair feeling with doing, and extreme sport would suit you well. Others may perceive you as intense, assertive, and at times, abrasive. You are a warrior and aren’t afraid to bite back. You view life as an endless set of possibilities and when something feels off, you can reroute quickly.
Urgency, bouts of rage and heated arguments may be commonplace for you. The good news is you process feelings quickly and aren’t one to hold grudges. You might be prone to toddler tantrums but your intuitive nudges are blazingly loud and the abrasive urges for variety provide you with a life worth living. Your intuitive facilitates are like war drums that beckon you to unexplored territory, and even the toughest heartache generates momentum for greatness.
Taurus Moon
Your emotional condition is intrinsically linked to your senses. You feel emotions, physically, and require comfort in order to let your guard down. Being in an environment that smells bad could throw you off for hours. Your self-care regime should always involve creating a sensory temple around yourself. Opting for warm lighting, plush fabrics and incense can turn your day around.
Your intuitive faculties enhance when you can engage your senses, and your emotions directly correlate with your self-worth. In early childhood, you probably sought comfort from your bedroom, familiar food or a furry stuffed animal. Tangible things can help calibrate your emotional state. Your mind-body connection is astute and pronounced with this Moon placement, and foods can heal. On the flip side, being broke, unhealthy or in displeasing surroundings, can throw you off kilter. Your safe spaces are art galleries, gourmet kitchens and sultry boudoirs. Pressing your bare feet into the earth is your medicine.
You are stubborn, artistic and acutely aware of what you like and what you don’t. If someone doesn’t see your innate worthiness, you are quick to shut down. Stability and security are a must, and you yearn for a hobbit-hole that will appease your appetite for small comforts. You have a disdain for frivolous drama and opt instead for life’s simple pleasures. You need to be able to move at your own pace, which to others, is glacial.
Gemini Moon
Witty and curious to a fault, the Gemini Moon native requires stimulation. The sign of the Twins is associated with communication, so it is helpful for you to process emotions verbally. Chatting with a friend, expressing feelings socially and lively discourse is vital for the Gemini Moon. You have a tendency to think before you feel and possess an innate need for variety and excitement. Boredom can feel worse than sadness.
You can be duplicitous in your feelings, ambidextrous and unfixed. Partners may experience you as oscillating between being aloof and standoffish to tender and playful. Attuned to the poles in other people, you are adept at noticing their gifts and also their shadows. A natural voyeur of reality, you are equally interested in people’s brighter qualities, as well the juicy things they keep hidden. Your safe spaces are libraries, the interior of a moving car and a forest you can follow your curiosity through.
In childhood, you were encouraged to regulate your emotions through learning, ingesting information or experimenting with extracurricular activities. Your hunger for learning new information is never satiated and you need stimulus in order to relax. If you feel fidgety or restless, work with your hands. Use breathwork to connect to your deeper sensations, and don’t curtail your desire to express.
Cancer Moon
Gentle, sensitive and nostalgic, a Cancer Moon requires safety in order to open up. Like a crab carries its home with it, Cancer Moons long for a sense of belonging they can carry. Ruled by the Moon, Cancer pertains to our need for nourishment. If you have a Cancer Moon you want to parent and be parented, and have a propensity to become everyone’s mother.
Nostalgic, gravitating towards the familiar before rushing into anything new, your sentimentality can at times leave you ruminating on the past with rose-tinted glasses. You may have a propensity to pedestalise your mother, or long for childhood and early years. You crave simplicity and safety. This Lunar placement moves through vast octaves of feeling, as temperamental and wavering as the ever-changing ocean. Privy to mood swings and sudden retreats home, your inner world cries out for attention.
You possess a clear and well-developed intuition, and as a result, you can pick up on partners’ feelings, and absorb what isn’t felt by fellows. You are quick to pick up on lapses of emotional reciprocity and need to feel a balanced repertoire of give and take. Your safe spaces are the privacy of your home, your childhood memories, the ocean and old films.
Leo Moon
Ruled by the Sun, a Leo Moon bestows you with a generous and sunny disposition, making you bold and childlike by nature. Your internal psychic drama needs to be witnessed by others, as you command attention as the resident child king of the zodiac. You are enigmatic, magnetic and warm, and naturally adored. Your emotional theatre is heard and felt by all around you, and it is hard to disguise your emotions.
You could become a professional love bomber, quick to lavish displays of affection and dish out praise to those who need it most. Ruled by the heart, you are a natural romantic and yearn for the theatrics of an all-encompassing love. Your generous nature occasionally has you playing the role of everyone else’s emotional sugar daddy, even if few can reciprocate.
In early childhood, you were praised for your natural talent and natural generosity. Your pride is your biggest obstacle and blowouts occur when you feel unseen as the divine conduit you clearly are. Privy to blowing minor upsets into mythical proportions, you must learn how to churn your feelings into art. Playtime and fun are your medicine. Your safe spaces are the limelight, the bask of the sun and baroque palaces. Your creativity knows no bounds and isn’t reserved for just one medium. The best way to heal from anything is to churn it into art and allow yourself room to play.
Virgo Moon
You possess the gift of a clear and pragmatic mind, making you organised and quick to pick up on patterns. Ruled by Mercury, the sign of Virgo symbolises the Virgin, the Martyr archetype, known for its intellect and drive towards perfection. Detail oriented, your self-awareness is keen and articulate. Always the first to experiment with the newest yoga-barre-juice-self-help routine, the Virgo Moon native strives for regimens of perfection.
No other sign comes into this lifetime with such astute awareness of growth. You analyse your emotional condition before you experience it, quick to jump into problem-solving and self-improvement. A natural helper, you feel best when you are of service to others and give sensible advice. On the flip side, you can be nit-picky, aware of the solutions to the problems that others seem blind to. In early childhood, you were perhaps put into caretaker roles for other family members, and were forced to adult early. You can be judgemental, not just of others but yourself, and need to allow yourself to enjoy the journey on your road to health.
You have a tendency to reserve self-love for a future, unattainable version of self, and deprive giving your imperfections love. If you are too hard on yourself, this can translate into health issues, as your mind-body connection is pronounced with this Lunar placement. You require a clean, tidy environment and detest anything that disrupts your routine. Your safe places are a beautiful, manicured trail, a state-of-the-art spa and an office sanctuary with designer stationery.
Libra Moon
Socially-oriented, the Libra Moon native seeks emotional reprieve through relationships with others. You love to mix and mingle with others, curating outfits and social settings as if you are in a never-ending rom-com. Stylish, charismatic and fair, you want life to be smooth sailing and fun. You curate your life as an ongoing art piece, attuned to imbalances that hinder your idealistic view of reality. Ruled by Venus, the Libra Moon aims for beauty and harmony in all its dealings, and is motivated by a romantic vision that applies to both relationships and surroundings.
Your safe spaces are tidy walk-in closets, candlelit restaurants and impressive galas. Due to your need to be mirrored by others, you can be a bit of a chameleon, absorbing the opinions and outlooks of those in your social sphere. As a result, your sense of self is dependent on who you have spent the most time with. When you are upset, you can be indecisive, fearful of making changes. It is likely that one or more of your parents treated you like an equal, rather than a child, and as a result you are constantly in a dynamic duo of some sort. You must learn to curtail your codependency and tendency to people please, and find a way to come home to yourself.
You are empathic to environments, and need to be in tasteful surroundings in order to relax. Adding symmetry and purposeful aesthetics to your living space is vital in combating discordant energy. You are motivated by finding “the one”, and won’t allow life to dissuade you from your innate belief in romance, beauty and true love.
Scorpio Moon
A natural detective, the Scorpio Moon native is investigative, deep and intense. You are attuned to the dark, juicy material people prefer to keep hidden and can read others like books. Your intuition is loud and eerie, and you are constantly scanning your surroundings, looking for internal cues that inform you of the truth. As a result, you are incapable of being lied to.
It is probable that in early childhood you were forced to go through change and your astute emotional intelligence was born out of having to prepare for extreme change. You are drawn to uncovering the truth in things and will probably have eight lives in one, as you build and burn up past identities like a never-ending fire. You are motivated by finding the hidden elements of life, seeking experiences that will change you, rather than supply you with lasting stability.
Sexually magnetic, you yearn for counterparts with depth, eager to feel to the extreme. You are sceptical and suspicious of new people and deeply afraid of betrayal. You prefer to make entanglements with those who are willing to delve into intimacy headfirst, melding into you, until you form one, wild thing. On the flip side, you can be jealous, possessive and controlling, privy to games of vengeance and power plays. No stranger to the dark, you are unafraid of delivering uncomfortable and harsh truths. You can choose to be motivated by love, or power and control. Your safe spaces are caves, hidden archives of information and the privacy of the bedroom.
Sagittarius Moon
A wanderer and an adventurer, you view life as a never-ending quest towards expansion and seek boundless horizons. A free spirit, you are driven by curiosity and spontaneity, eager to flirt with different philosophies and religions. You would try anything once. The sign of the archer alludes to a journey through outlooks and ideologies, and makes you opinionated, humorous and loud. Perpetually optimistic, you thrive on adventure and your emotions push you through episodic periods of wanderlust. You are seeking answers to the unanswerable, yearning for the ultimate truth.
You invented the Irish Exit, and are quick to abandon ship when you sense a lack of inspiration in a place or dynamic. You always retain a sense of blind faith and positivity in the face of uncertainty, and as a result, enjoy testing your luck by taking extreme risks. A lover of travel and movement, hiking and taking small journeys can help feed your appetite for variety. Your safe spaces are the open road, a mountain trail and a foreign culture. You feel best exploring, and detest feeling caged in or stuck.
Eager for higher knowledge, you are adept at collecting little bits of information about everything. You have little patience for the mundane or small details of ordinary life and therefore can miss appointments or lose your debit card. Who cares? Your quest towards adventure is much more satiating. Arguing with you is a heated debate few have the stamina for. You enjoy delivering the truth to your fellows and ruffling the feathers of anyone to authoritarian or square.
Capricorn Moon
Grounded, action-oriented and practical, the Capricorn Moon natives possess the gift of discernment. To others, you may appear serious and stern, but you just have little patience for irrelevant drama. You are clear-headed and deal with your emotions by committing to tasks and striving for greatness in the world at large.
Impeccably responsible and, at times, a cynic, you may appear to others as serious and withdrawn. This stems from the fact that you treat your internal world as something that should be earned and not everyone is deserving of your intimate thoughts and feelings. You calculate risks and rewards before making any mistakes. Ruled by the stern planet of Saturn, healing for the Capricorn moon is assisted by the passage of time. You require boundaries before opening up and prefer to be in command.
Your emotional weather is dictated by your sense of achievement and you want to acquire acclaim. Integrity is your strong suit and open displays of emotion are not. Your ambition is boundless and you are intuitive about future moves. You have a tendency to put material goals before emotional ones, and as a result, failures are felt deeply. Time heals all wounds and healing comes from taking practical steps of self-care. Productivity is pleasurable.
Aquarius Moon
A rebel at heart, the Aquarian moon native requires freedom for emotional equilibrium. Prefering to come and go as they please, this lunar placement needs room to explore lofty ideas and ideals. Future-oriented, this sign is propelled forward by the probabilities ahead and motivated by the promise of a new future. A humanitarian, the Aquarian Moon is emotionally attuned to the collective discussion. If it’s a bad day for earth, it’s a bad day for you.
If you have this placement, your intuition presents itself in the form of genius ideas and psychic solutions that appear out of nowhere. Technologically adept and unconventional, you feel like a time-traveller, impatiently waiting for humanity to keep up with you. The best way to fix individual issues is to determine where they are happening in the collective picture, as the two are inextricably linked. You build emotional self-esteem from being of service to others and dedicating yourself to a grand mission.
Your safe spaces are progressive conventions, festivals of freaks and an airy penthouse with a bird’s-eye view. You want to feel connected to humanity and see yourself as a microcosm of a much greater story. Therefore, any malady you need to treat is but a symptom of the global climate. As a result, you are drawn to philanthropic causes and focused on the acceleration of human consciousness. You can appear aloof, withdrawn and cold when agitated. You come here to anchor in the future and feel very stifled by anyone who wants you to slow down. The easiest way to upset you is to try and hinder your need for independence.
Pisces Moon
No Lunar placement feels more than the Pisces Moon native. As the final sign of the zodiac, Pisces represents the collective undercurrents of reality and here, emotions are felt like an atmospheric swamp, encapsulating sound, scent and memory. Sensitive and compassionate, if you have this Lunar placement, you must adapt to the subtle energies of everything around you. Practising psychic hygiene by meditating or learning energetic clearing can help you cope with the day-to-day.
Prone to daydreaming and delusions, your overactive imagination provides you with a rich inner world, easy to retreat into. Your imagination is often more appealing than the mundane tasks of mere mortals and you have to fight off the proclivity to escape. In early years, you played pretend and retreated into fantasy realms, whimsically evading the hardship of the adult world.
Due to your feeling nature, you are privy to bouts of victimhood and martyrdom. Your job is to find a sense of spiritual strength that can override the more cruel elements of life and pair your daydreams with action. Music is medicinal and you can use creative outlets to transmute emotional blockages.Your safe spaces are indulgent bubble baths, solitary excursions to aquariums and fantasy films.