The Moon Void-Of-Course


The moon’s void time is one of those things astrologers love to fret about.

Each month, the moon makes the cycle of the zodiac, passing through all twelve signs. Therefore, it spends about two and a half days in each sign. As it moves through each sign, it makes aspects to the other nine “planets” (including the sun). An aspect occurs when the moon is at a certain angle to the planet. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll say that it’s a whole-number division of the 360 degrees of the zodiac.

An aspect is kind of like two planets talking to each other, communicating their energies. At some point, the moon makes its last aspect to another planet before leaving the sign, after which it is said to be “void of course” until it reaches the next sign. That is, it isn’t going to be communicating with any other planets until it reaches the next sign.

The void moon can last for only a few minutes, when there are planets in the last degrees of a sign. Rarely, the moon will be void all the way through a sign. Usually, the void time is somewhere in the range of a few hours.

When the moon is void, it is a poor time to initiate anything, although it’s all right to continue projects already under way. Major purchases should be avoided during the void time. It’s a bad time to initiate contacts. It’s not optimal to ask for a date, or for a raise, with the moon void.

On the other hand, the moon’s void time is a good time to sleep, meditate and pursue spiritual-type activities, and other “winding down” sorts of things.

What happens when you try to do something with the moon void of course? Generally, things do not turn out as planned. In business, things tend to get “tabled” when they are introduced during the void time. Purchases sometimes have to be returned, but often fail to live up to expectations. A typical scenario would be buying a car only to find out that a better model or a cheaper price would be available the next day.

I picture the moon void time as something like Friday afternoon after three o’clock. Everyone is still at work, but thoughts are turning towards the weekend. If you introduce a new idea at this time, there might be a lot of initial enthusiasm, but come Monday morning the idea has been filtered by the weekend, everyone returns to the status quo, and the idea fades away.

I’ve seen many business contacts initiated at the moon void time come to naught. No matter how good it sounds at the time, no matter how encouraging everyone is, things don’t work out, and more often than not you never hear from the person again.

Another side to the moon’s void time is that it is very difficult to stop something that is already in progress. For example, you’ve been planning a specific time to take a vacation for months, and have put in for the time. Then you find that you won’t be able to go away after all, and would like to postpone the vacation. When the moon is void it’s a bad time to try to change your vacation dates. In other words, when the moon is void it’s “too late” to take any action, whether it’s initiating or changing plans.

Paradoxically then, if you schedule a wedding during the void of course time, the marriage might not go all that well, but you can be relatively sure that the bride and groom will show up and won’t run off at the last minute.

If you want to be clever (and are willing to risk finding out that you’re not as clever as you thought), you can actually try to use the void time to your advantage. If you schedule a meeting during the moon’s void of course, it might not happen, and it probably won’t turn out as planned. If you’re being sued, for example, it could be advantageous to have the initial court date scheduled during the void time, as it is the other party’s action that won’t turn out as planned (hopefully).

So, astrologers can get mighty antsy about taking any action at all during the void of course period. I think some astrology students sit at home under a blanket and wait out the void time. It’s not the worst idea, but you needn’t go to that extreme. Avoid major purchases, but do buy the pack of gum, or go ahead and do the grocery shopping. Don’t start a new project, but continue working on those you already have going. It’s a bad time to initiate contact, but don’t fret about contacting someone you know.

If you wind up breaking one of the rules, don’t worry about it. See what happens. Things might not turn out as planned, but major disaster is unlikely. One couple bought a dishwasher with the moon void, only to find out if couldn’t be installed without ripping up the kitchen floor and counter. The dishwasher had to be returned. After washing dishes by hand for another year, they decided to remodel the entire kitchen. The white dishwasher they had bought wouldn’t have fit well with their new plans, and would have either been sold at a loss or would have stuck out like a sore thumb in their new stainless steel kitchen.

That was me.

Some things aren’t meant to happen.


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