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There's so much talk about sun signs in astrology, but did you know that for many of us, our moon sign carries a lot more weight in our chart than our sun sign? Could you be one of those people? Let's find out! It's based on something called sect, which is an ancient astrological theory, and happens to be super easy to calculate.
It goes like this: you're either in the day sect, or the night sect. The day sect includes jupiter, and saturn, and is ruled by the sun. The night sect includes mars, and venus and is ruled by the moon. If you were born during the day while the sun was above the horizon, you're in the day sect. If you're born at night while the sun was below the horizon, you're in the night sect. For those who are born at midday or midnight, that could be super simple to know. For others, we might be born at 8 am in January, and it might be harder to tell. The easiest way to know is to type into google: "sunrise sunset times for (enter birth year, month and city)" and then you can see if it was technically day or night when you were born.
There's a caveat here for mercury, because mercury doesn't like strict categories - he often does his own thing. When mercury rises before the sun, he is a morning star and is of the day sect. When he rises after the sun, he is an evening star and is of the night sect. If this is too complicated for you, don't worry about which camp mercury falls into.
So, now that you've figured out if you're of the day sect or night sect, what does it really mean? Well, we think of the two sects like two political parties, and only one can be in power at a time. If you're a day sect individual, then the political party in power includes jupiter, saturn, and the sun (and maybe mercury). If you're of the night sect, then the political party in power includes mars, venus, and the moon (and maybe mercury). The planets of the sect in power will have more legislative ability, or more sway, in your chart, while the planets not in power, may cause you more trouble - especially saturn in a night chart, or mars in a day chart.
These further considerations get pretty complicated pretty fast, so for this post, I'd like to focus on the rulers of the sect. Which is the sun for the day sect and the moon for the night sect. The most simple takeaway here is that those born with a night chart will likely resonate a lot more with their moon sign than their sun sign.
To go deeper, the moon generally describes your environment, and the sun describes your plotline or ideal aim in life. If you're born at night, the moon - or the environment - is likely to play a dominant role over the sun - your plotline - and vice versa for those born during the day.
It's the same way that some movies are heavily based on their environment, like a WWII movie, where as other movies could be happening in any environment and it's only a secondary focus to the much more important plot.
Night sect babies have lives that are often heavily shaped by their environments and their plotline tends to be secondary to their environment. This can be both a good and a bad thing. Your environment can set you up very favorably for your plotline, or can get in the way. We would look to the moon phase (new, waxing, full, etc.), and the house locations of the sun and moon to get further insight into how the plotline and environment work together or against one another. The sect tells us if the sun or moon has more power or sway in the chart, and therefore which is likely to have a dominant influence over the other.
So, there you have it. Now you know if you're of the day sect or night sect and if you're sun or moon dominant. I myself am a night sect baby through and through, and feel a much stronger resonance in my chart with my placements of venus, mars, and the moon than I do with jupiter, saturn, and the sun.
What I've just taught you are simplifications. There's a lot deeper we can go with sect. But, astrology must be learnt via simplifications at first. It won't help you to keep heaping on contextual factors. It's better to start with the basics. Now you know if you're sun dominant or moon dominant, the next time someone asks you what your sun sign is, you can respond with, "well, my moon is in Cancer, and I resonate with that more because I was born at night." They will likely give you a strange look, but that's okay. That's how we do the work of dismantling pop astrology.
- Rose
