Moon Out Of Bounds

There is actually a site titled OUT OF BOUNDS ASTROLOGY that discusses the topic of the Moon being "out of bounds", defining it to be when "the declination of the moon in a chart is greater than 23 degrees and 27 minutes north or south". Declination measures the angular distance of an object north or south of the Celestial Equator, the maximum declination of the Sun being ±23°27'. North declination is regarded as positive and south as negative. This is depicted in Figure 1.

Figure 1

The site gives this explanation of Moon out of bounds on the psychology of an individual:

If you or someone you know has a moon out of bounds–found predominantly in the signs of Gemini, Cancer, Sagittarius, and Capricorn–they are likely to exist emotionally in a realm outside of traditional expectations. The emotional outlaw, one with a moon out of bounds tends to make their own rules concerning how to feel about/react to a given stimulus. If living within the bounds of societal constructs, they often tire of dominant trends and experience a pull to escape to a new or remote place. In the city or the country, these are the people who live on society’s fringes in some way or another.

Another site, FORREST ASTROLOGY, notes that:

Earth’s angle of tilt varies over very long scales of time, but it is currently at about 23°28′ according to the Solar Fire Help files. Wikipedia gives 23°26′ ... This maximum limit of 23°28′ declination, south or north, applies rigidly to the Sun. But not to the Moon or the planets. They can go beyond it. Mercury and Mars can reach 27° and Venus can, occasionally, go a degree further. The rest tend to stay within the tropics.

Figure 2 illustrates the situation where the Moon is out of bounds and where it is not.

Figure 2

So interestingly, Mercury, Venus and Mars can also be out of bounds, not just the Moon. The author of the site then goes on to say this about the effects of this lunar phenomenon on an individual:

What does it mean astrologically for the Moon to be Out of Bounds? Start with one merrily anarchic notion: when the Moon’s declination exceeds 23°28′ North or 23°28′ South, it has escaped the physical space dominated by the gravitational “boss” of the solar system, the Sun.

Let the metaphors free-associate.

The Moon is then, in other words, out of the King’s sight. No longer under Daddy’s thumb. We might say that has moved beyond the Pale. Gone out of control. Or gone wild. It has broken the rules. It has shattered the boundaries, broken the mould, crossed the Rubicon. Bravely, or drunkenly, the Moon has said, “Roll the dice.”

The Out of Bounds Moon is spontaneous, emancipated, liberated, released in its own recognisance, and utterly on its own. It has loudly proclaimed, “You can take this job (. . . marriage, church, obligation, moral principle, town, duty . . .) and shove it.” The Moon has claimed its genius, its passion, and its right to be itself. No need to obfuscate, to be diplomatic, or to lie to anyone anymore—unless you feel like it. No more coprophagous grin. No need to worry about staying in anyone’s good graces. Out of Bounds, the Moon no longer plays the game. It rejects all rules that are not of its own making. “Free at last, free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are finally free at last!,” said Martin Luther King, Jr.

The words stir the blood. But we need to let them stir the mind as well.

Structure, discipline, and a world in which our actions have consequences—these are not purely negative things. Society and its values can have a steadying effect upon us, even when we feel frustrated by them. The Out of Bounds Moon, like everything else in astrology, has an unpleasant, dangerous side as well as a divine purpose. Its dark side is sociopathic, even criminal—or merely selfish and insensitive to others. It can be cold, even inhuman.

You may detect some of the underlying spirit of the planet Uranus and the sign Aquarius in these words. That is quite accurate. In my experience, an Out of Bounds Moon has distinctly Aquarian quality. We see the familiar Uranian “holy trinity” at work—the Genius, the Revolutionary and the Criminal. All three of them stand outside the normal structure of society, applying leverage to it—and meeting resistance, condemnation, and consequences for it.

As with Aquarian or Uranian influences, the Out of Bounds Moon often thrusts alienating circumstances upon a person from outside. This is of course the classic working of synchronicity—what we meet (or fail to face) in our inner world is encountered in the “random” realities of our outer lives.

Inwardly, the Out of Bounds Moon often correlates with feelings of being an outsider, of not fitting in, of not having a place in this world. This can be painful—and it can also lead to an attitude of not giving a damn. Or to passivity. Or to resentment. And to radical forms of existential creativity.

The site's author also discusses the frequency with which Moon out of bounds occurs: 

More broadly, there are some years in which many babies are born with Out of Bounds Moons, and some years in which none at all are. This is related to the 18.6 year retrograde cycle of the Moon’s orbital plane—what creates the lunar nodes. (9) We will spare you the details, but here is the bottom line. Every 18.6 years, the Moon reaches its maximum possible declination of 28.5E, a full five degrees outside the tropics. In the years halfway between, we get a kind of “low tide” effect, with the Moon never getting more than 18.5E from the celestial equator. Under those latter conditions the Out of Bounds Moon cannot exist at all. No one born in those years has one.

Thus, over the time-scale of 18.6 years, about half the people born might have an Out of Bounds Moon and about half them could not possibly have one. Furthermore, some of the “good” years for Out of Bounds Moons are more productive than others. That is because times when the Moon goes further Out of Bounds, it stays that way for longer as well. The odds improve.

Even in the “good” years, every couple of weeks the Moon’s monthly orbit brings it back “within bounds” as it passes through the neutral ground between maximum northern and maximum southern declination. It may, in other words, be wildly Out of Bounds in one person’s natal chart—but in the chart of a person born just a week later, the Moon is in 0E declination, as normal as vanilla ice cream. But then a week after that, it is wildly Out of Bounds again.

You really have to calculate it, is the bottom line.

Remembering all our caveats, here are the absolute peak years for Out of Bounds Moon births in living memory: 1913, 1931-32, 1950, 1969, 1987-88, 2006. We will have another one in 2024-25. Remember to give it at least a couple of years on either side. During those years a lot of kids were born with Out of Bounds Moons. But they were mixed in with a large population of more steady, conventional types. Looking at those years, note how the correlations with periods of social unrest and social creativity are rather unmistakable. As ever in astrology, what is “in the air” at given moment lives on for decades longer in holographic form in the children.

The author has a lot more to say on the topic so it's best to go the site and read it all. Another site of interest that I discovered is an Out of Bounds Planet Calculator. Once a date of birth is entered, the determination is made as to what planets were out of bounds at birth but also when progressed planets ceased to be out of bounds and became out of bounds. According to the calculator, it turns out that my Moon was out of bounds at the time of my birth. Here are the details:

Date of Birth: 04/03/49

Natal Out-of-Bounds Planets

Moon     24.59 N 

Progressed Out-of-Bounds Status

Age 5

Moon ceased to be out-of-bounds.

Age 13

Moon became out-of-bounds.

Age 18

Moon ceased to be out-of-bounds.

Age 27

Moon became out-of-bounds.

Age 32

Moon ceased to be out-of-bounds.

Mercury became out-of-bounds.

Age 40

Moon became out-of-bounds.

Age 45

Moon ceased to be out-of-bounds.

Age 51

Mercury ceased to be out-of-bounds.

Age 55

Moon became out-of-bounds.

Age 56

Venus became out-of-bounds.

Age 60

Moon ceased to be out-of-bounds.

Age 68

Moon became out-of-bounds.

Age 72

Moon ceased to be out-of-bounds.

Age 80

Venus ceased to be out-of-bounds.

Age 82

Moon became out-of-bounds.

Age 87

Moon ceased to be out-of-bounds.

Age 95

Moon became out-of-bounds.

Age 98

Mars became out-of-bounds.

Age 100

Moon ceased to be out-of-bounds.

Interesting stuff. However, astro.com provides additional tables for birth charts that show the declinations of natal planets. This reveals that my natal Moon is not out of bounds at all. See Figure 3.

Figure 3

As can be seen, the Moon is listed as being at a declination of 22°54'30'' N. This is close to the limit of 23°27' but not outside it. Only Uranus at 23°37'17"N and Pluto at 24°1'0''N are out of bounds. The problem with the Out of Bounds Planet Calculator can be seen in Figure 4:

Figure 4

As can be seen, there is no input for time or place, only the date. This is not good enough in the case of the Moon because it moves so swiftly. I was born at about 6:56am and I suspect that later in the day, the Moon did move out of bounds. However, when I was born, it was clearly within bounds. Thus all the other data from the Out of Bounds Planet Calculator is to be treated with suspicion.

Astrolog is the program that I use for my astrology calculations and I was curious to see if it would display the declinations of planets. At first sight it doesn't but there is a command line switch -sr0 that instructs the program to display declinations instead of latitudes (the default). The output is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5

As can seen, the results are the same as those shown in Figure 3, when taken to the nearest minute. Further investigation, using Astrolog, shows that the Moon had a declination of 23°28' N at 10:40am on the day of my birth and only then was it out of bounds.

Once again, Astrolog has shown its capabilities, albeit latent in this case, which is all the more remarkable given that the program was developed in 1994 or possibly earlier.

The Great Attractor

In reference to His Tomb, Meher Baba once said:

Seventy years after I drop my body, this place will turn into a place of pilgrimage, where lovers of God, philosophers and celebrities will come to pay homage.

Now Meher Baba dropped His body on January 31st 1969 and seventy years takes us to early 2039. I looked at Baba's chart to note what was happening transit-wise around this time. The most significant aspect to me was the continued crossing and recrossing of His natal Venus by Pluto. This occurs over a time period covering June 2037 to November 2039.

Figure 1

In Figure 1, I've shown that Baba's natal Venus is linked directly (yellow lines) or indirectly (purple lines) to all planets except Uranus (in splendid isolation) and the Chiron/Ceres conjunction. Pluto, representing Rebirth, will act on Venus, The Great Attractor, to draw "lovers of God, philosophers and celebrities" from all over the world and transform Meherabad into a place of worldwide pilgrimage. People will wake up to the reality of Baba, The Great Awakener, and understand His Message.

At the end of 2039, transiting Uranus will be very close to Baba's Descendant and will cross it in early 2040. The progressions for June 2039 show the progressed Moon conjunct natal Venus and progressed Venus/Jupiter conjunct in the fifth house, trine to natal Venus. See Figure 2.

Figure 2

As of 2021, there is a growing but still very limited awareness of Meher Baba within the global population. Baba's prophecy would suggest that there must some dramatic changes in the world over the next eighteen years in order for His name to become more widely known. At the moment, scientism is the new religion and looks set to dominate the 21st century. However, if faith in scientism wanes for whatever reason, people will be looking for something to replace it. For some a return to the religions of the past will be an option but for the majority this will not satisfy. Baba's teachings are ideal for a disillusioned humanity who is seeking spiritual sustenance free of religious dogma. In His own way, Baba will bring about this spiritual awakening.

A Day For a Year Progressions

Over the years, for some reason, I've relied exclusively on transits to the natal chart to anticipate what's coming up for myself and others. I've completely neglected so-called "a day for a year" progressions. As Wikipedia says about this type of progression (also called major progression or secondary direction):

This progression involves moving the natal chart forward one day for each year of a person's life. So for example, a person born on April 2, 1982 would have a progressed chart for 2007 drawn up based on the position of the planets on April 27, 1982 (i.e. 25 days for 25 years). The patterns formed 25 days after the person's birth are considered to be symbolic of the person's 25th year of life, and indicate potential tendencies and trends for the year. Secondary progressions are considered by the majority of astrologers to be the most important form of progression.

Figure 1: source

So there you have it: secondary progressions are considered by the majority of astrologers to be the most important form of progression. I certainly used such progressions in my early astrological years, before the advent of personal computers, but not while using the astrological software Astrolog. So this post is the beginning of an attempt to make up for that neglect.

The same Wikipedia article notes that:

Interpretation of progressions is usually fairly similar to the interpretation of transits. In general however, progressions primarily involve psychological developments from within the individual (often of course stimulated by exterior events), while transits involve developments in the life circumstances outside the individual's control.

In that vein, the following generalisations are given for the progressions of Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars:

Progressed Sun: A period of major importance. Psychologically, and through correlative circumstances, the time will be ripe for important adjustments, organising and integrating of the whole life pattern, as directed by the planet involved in aspect with the sun. 

Progressed Moon: A period of about one month's duration, in which affairs and psychological features associated with the planet will be emphasised and activated. The progressed moon often acts as a 'trigger' to activate patterns already set by other progressed planets. 

Progressed Mercury: Usually indicates changes and necessary readjustments, increased mental activity, travel, and literary matters of above average importance. 

Progressed Venus: Period of much importance as regards emotional, personal and creative interests. Can mean marriage, falling in love - or out of love, inspired creative work, birth of a child, or an emphasis on money matters. 

Progressed Mars: Period of increased activity, conflict, enterprise. Energy must be controlled, and impulsive action avoided. Subject is more accident prone. Can be an ideal time for taking the initiative, or tackling work that has piled up. 

Using this method of progression, one month will count two hours. I've been looking at a number of charts, some with an eye to the future but some retrospectively. The latter has proven quite illuminating. For example, my father died of prostate cancer in late June of 1995 and I've drawn up his progressed chart for that time:

Figure 2: my father's progressed chart

I'm sure he wouldn't object after all this time to having his chart analysed in public. Some of the more salient features are: 

• Mars, Moon and Pluto form a powerful T-square with the focus on the Moon in the eighth house of (amongst other things) death
• Sun and ruling planet Mercury are conjunct at the cusp of the 2nd house, quincunx Saturn and the North Node/7th house cusp.
• The North node of the Moon is conjunct the Descendant in 1° of Virgo which is my father's Ascending degree

The progressed Moon in this case seems to provide the timing for his death, reaching as it does the base of the T-square near the cusp of the 8th house. I was most impressed with how apt this configuration was in depicting my father's unfortunate circumstances at the time. 

Here are some additional pointers provided by Cafe Astrology.com:

Charles E. O. Carter wrote the following: “It is a cardinal rule that no direction can bring to pass what is not shown in the nativity. Exceptions to this are virtually non-existent.” Progressions to progressions and progressions to natal positions are most significant when the planets involved form a significant interrelationship in the natal chart itself. The potential shown in the natal chart, therefore, rules. 

Transits to secondary progressed planets are critical. With predictive work, students of astrology are encouraged to create a tri-wheel with the natal chart in the centre, secondary progressions in the second wheel, and transits in the outer (third) wheel. This way, it is easy to see transits to both the natal chart and the progressed chart, progressed planets in relationship to the natal chart, and progressed planets in relation to other progressed planets. Adding transits to progressed planets and points to our study opens up much more detail.

Interesting to note that transits to secondary progressed planets are critical. I certainly plan to make far more use of secondary progressions now that I've reacquainted myself with them. Of course, after one solar year (365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 46 seconds), the Sun will return to its exact same position in the zodiac as it occupied at birth. This would correspond in secondary progressions to 365 years, 2 months, 3 weeks, 4 days, 9 hours, 5 minutes and 36 seconds.

ADDENDUM: here is my natal chart with secondary progressions for Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars together with transits for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Of course, I had to add the transits manually. The configuration is set to 9th August 2018. There may be software online that will allow all three to superimposed but I'm not aware of it yet if it exists.