What’s the effect of an 8th House Moon on mother’s life?

This is a tough one, simply because the question’s not clear, so we’ll look at it as many ways as possible, keeping in mind that the sign involved. the House(s) the Moon rules, and aspects may modify things considerably. First, if this is the querent’s Moon placed in the 8th, we’re talking about, among other things, this as an indicator of how she or he views her or his own mother; as such, Mom may have appeared to the child as having waters that ran deep; a certain amount of mystery may have surrounded this woman, a feeling that much of what’s important with her may be hidden. She also may have been perceived as either being vital to or as one of the assets of others, or that she relied upon those assets in a way that impressed the child. The mother could have been seen as highly co-operative, darkly temperamental, destructive, secretive, or almost magical in her ability to procure the aid of others, to re-generate resources, or to make something out of nothing. It also describes how the querent sees (for a woman) the idea of being a mother herself, in this case it may feel a bit scary, hard to fathom, mysterious, or that it may take one to the depths of the Soul, or of experience, along the way. If the querent is a man, then this reps his attitude toward those women he sees in a non-sexual light; he may see them as powerful, destructive, vengeful, deep, magnetically attractive–it may in some cases suggest he sees or is aware of the sexual potential in all women–or he may see them as possessions, all of whom belong to someone else! Much depends on his own 8th House and his relationship to Pluto; the more comfortable he is with his own Plutonic urges, the more he will see women in general in a positive light.

If this question actually applies to one’s mother’s chart, then we’re looking at how she saw her own mother, and how she may view the role of mothering in her life; that latter would be the attitude she had toward her children. She may see them as affecting her to the core, destroying or changing her (possibly for the good), bringing rage or other dark emotions to the surface (again, not automatically bad in the least), and perhaps acting as a venue to ‘share’ with others, as a connection to them or as a means of sharing assets. For a few women, the child may quite literally be ‘insurance’ of some kind, while a few others will see the child as themselves re-born, and behave accordingly.

Saturn in infancy

Saturn can have some interesting meanings when associated with infancy and early childhood. Besides the obvious possibility of suppression of the child, or the encouragement of Self-repression, possible under some circumstances, we note that Saturn in the 1st, and particularly if it’s close to the Ascendant, can signify a difficult birth or early health concerns (the latter can be seen with a 2nd or 3rd House Saturn, as well). Saturn configured with the personal planets can suggest delay in development, particularly with Mercury (speech, thought). We have a good example, though, of how this isn’t necessarily something to be worried about, in physicist and stylish trendsetter (that hair! those cardigans!) Albert Einstein (14 March 1879  11:30 AM   Ulm Germany).

Einstein’s Saturn, which rules the 7th and 8th, sits in the 10th in Aries conjunct Pallas and Mercury, trine the South Node and sextile the North. Albert was significantly delayed in speaking, and was thought to be very slow in school, actually flunking math in the early grades. We can see both the origin of the delay, and the later brilliance of thought, in his Saturn situation: conjunct Mercury suggests the slowness to express, but it also implies that things might have been ‘building’ out of sight, and Pallas is wisdom. Involvement with the Nodes says two things: that Mom was involved (see Noel Tyl’s work for some excellent evidence in this direction) and that Saturn and Mercury combined were  funneled quite easily, married to past or unseen knowledge (South Node) and transferred through to the present and his own future development (North Node). Placement in Aries allowed him the ego and single-mindedness to do his work, and the 10th says this was public, both the delay and the brilliance. Ruling the 7th and 8th, Saturn in this case says he presented this work to an audience and received their support–and indeed, once he put his ideas out there he was able to think, teach, and work within the University system, and never had to return to the patent office again.

How rare is natal Chiron retrograde?

It’s not, and so far I’ve seen no difference in the way it expresses between retrograde and direct–but then regular readers here will recall that I’m not big on the retrograde status of a planet, simply because the meaning is found in relation to the other placements. All motion is apparent, from our position on Earth; the body doesn’t actually go backwards, and that’s something I find useful to keep in mind.

Focus on: aspects between Ceres and Jupiter

Here we’ll benefit in understanding by looking at these through the lens of their mythological roles. Ceres is the Mother Goddess, Mother Nature, specifically, probably the most powerful agent of creation and the life force this side of God/ the Universe, while Jupiter is another name for Zeus, who became the supreme god on Mt Olympus (he married his sister and fooled around alot, but that’s another story!) When they aspect each other in the natal chart, we’re looking at the meet-up of two very powerful forces, two entities with an enormous sense of authority and power.  Contact with Ceres often suggests one of two things: that the contacted energy must learn negotiation (this related to Ceres role as negotiator with Pluto for his ‘marriage’ to her daughter) and that one must discern one’s province, one’s appropriate boundaries (this, too, from the question of whether it’s correct for the mother to have negotiated her grown daughter’s future). Jupiter’s authority is that of society and its accumulated knowledge; paired with Ceres this can suggest that one must negotiate one’s place within the social order. Ceres and Jupiter together can also say that nature and what’s natural may be a ‘big deal’ to the individual, that one’s more controlling maternal instincts may be exaggerated, or that one either provides for society (like a farmer) or negotiates for society (like a diplomat). As always, sign and House placement, as well as other contacts, can significantly alter meaning here.

And finally, Flights of Fancy:

Would we be able to live on Neptune? and What are the qualities of a creature living on Saturn?

To the former question I say, alas, no; to the latter, I wonder what kind of creature? Whenever I see questions like this, my first thought is of the much stronger gravity of the two planets, compared to Earth, and how that would literally compress something from our world. So, in tongue-in-cheek answer to what the qualities of a creature living on Saturn might be, I’d say, horizontal.

Have a great weekend! And order my work from Dog and Sunflower Press http://dogandsunflower.wordpress.com  see my Juno series over at http://sasstrology.com and visit my relationship blog Been There, Done That http://askjulie.wordpress.com (latest article: ‘For the Ladies: Let ‘Em In’)