Psychiatric problems, an astrological perspective

“I hate my birthday, and I wish I was never born!”, this is something quite familiar in today’s over-stressed young men and women. If some boyfriend says this we either scoff it off and drag him to a pub to cheer him up. Or we say, our this girlfriend is always the drama queen and this is so just being her (rolling our eyes!). But sometimes this intensity of feeling has its source in the charts and then things can be very different. Its important to be able to differenciate when it is just drama and when it is, in fact, deep seated trauma.

We will be discussing mental health so we will be analysing the normal basic horoscope with the ascendant as the first house, this is called the D-1. But we will also focus on the Moon Chart. It is the same as the birth horoscope but just the houses are shifted so the birth moon sign is counted as the first house. If you analyse such horoscopes of mentally unstable persons you will find certain common themes.

Psychiatric problems, an astrological perspective

Now the birth moon is the main indicator of mental and emotional strength. The house that he is posted in, the owner of the moon sign, the planets he is with and aspected by all contribute to the mental health. A moon placed in the 6th, 8th or 12th automatically puts him under pressure. The 6th is the house of details, arguments, debts, enemies, over-analysis, servitude, diseases. The 8th is forceful transformative changes to the identity, trauma, accidents, death, surgeries, fiery energies and secrets. And the 12th is the increase of the astral at the expense of the material, depths of the sub-conscious, sleep, dreams, imagination, insanity. Thus the moon here is pre-disposed to nervousness. If he is associated with any planet here the damage is more. The energies of these houses generally never give positive results, so in a chart with these moon placements do be very careful in analysis. eg. Jupiter and Moon in 12th in a clients chart caused her to have delusions, vivid imaginations bordering on insanity and finally led to her death by internal haemorrhage. Moon (liquid blood), Jupiter (expansion) 12th house (unknowable spaces).

When you analyse the moon chart, do look out for the 6th from moon and the 8th from moon. These houses and their results can severely cripple the mind. The 6th house will create matters which will be felt as emotionally unbalanced, unfair, mismatched and exploitative. The agents of this house will always been seen as adversaries, criticisers, betrayers and accusers. This 6th house is always difficult because Mercury (natural 6th in the zodiac is Virgo ruled by Mercury) behaves like a typical adolescent, habitually arguing, nit-picking, playing the victim, blaming others and having unbalanced relationships creating deep emotional conflict. See the emotional issues related to breaking of promises and disappointed expectations from the 6th from the moon.

Now the 8th from Moon covers all the events of catastrophic emotional changes. The triggers are from the 6th and the timing is seen from the lords of 2nd and 7th. These will include hidden threats to emotional security which will suddenly become active. Depending on the other aspects the actual event may vary, eg. Rahu will induce very visible volatile unpredictable self-destructive behaviour accompanied by a feeling of internal terror.

(If you have the exact birth time available, you can calculate the Divisional Navamsha D-9 chart, and analyse just the moon sign from here. The D-9 has been discussed in detail here. It is a valuable indicator of the astral you which is eventually reflected as the physical you of the D-1. But if the birth time is off by even 1 minute do not use the divisional charts they will mislead.)

Psychiatric problems, an astrological perspective

Next indicator, Cancer ruled by the Moon is the natural 4th house of the Zodiac and linked to emotional security and comfort. Thus do check out the position of Cancer, this sign has a subtle effect on mental health where-ever it may be placed in the chart. So always analyse its placement, the planets in and aspecting it. I know a chart where Cancer ascendant with Mars, the individual has typical ‘Mars fire drowned in Cancer‘ mood swings, can be quite maternal at times but also tends to control his friends and family relations using emotions as a weapon.

The 4th house also contributes to mental security and emotional comforts. But do be careful when analysing planetary influences. If you have a Saturn placed here it will restrict all emotional expressions, you wont ever get emotional soothing but you wont trip off the other end of depression, because Saturn will constrict it all. So keep in mind the essential nature of the planets when you analyse.

Even more, mental instability and attachment to self-destructive thought patterns is a form of addiction. I have written a full post on addiction hereAddiction is another step down the slippery slope to depression. A person can get addicted to toxic self-sadistic thought patterns and in a twisted way start to enjoy them and even find them comforting. A Moon in 6th house client loves being the ‘victim’, he is psychologically addicted to his experience of abandonment by the mother, he loves to rehearse and reiterate his grief. It is difficult to disconnect from this thought pattern because he himself is not aware of it. Ultimately help was in the form of Classical homeopathy and Bach Flower Remedies.

Now the 3rd house always determines the general mental health. Matters of emotional firmness, stability, boldness, communication and clarity of mind is seen from here, especially the emotional attitude and the emotional context of all communication. Courage to Communicate! Your personal courage (3rd house) to fight your own internal secret destructive forces (8th from the 8th house) is again the 3rd. In most mentally disturbed individuals things start going downhill when he cannot speak out on what is bothering him. And he often has no one who he trusts (friends/cousins/brothers) to tell his worries to either. Both these are in the domain of the 3rd house counted from the ascendant for the physical environment and also the 3rd from the moon sign for the emotional context.

Psychiatric problems, an astrological perspective

Do check out the position of Mercury also. A harsh Saturn will shut him up, a magnanimous Jupiter will let him expand, both might trigger mental issues depending on the placement. Mercury is your thought processes, style of analysis, expectations from interactions, daily relations with family, work-mates etc and their responses. No communication (Saturn), anxiety, non-stop chatter (Moon), dominate by talk (Mars) and loops of talking to yourself in your head are all dysfunctional Mercury.

The 6th from Mercury can give insights on what will be those events which will trigger the Mercury into losing his balance and the 8th from, will be the effect of this event on the personality. Again Mercury is the analytical brain and the ability to think coherently.

So to determine the emotional stability of a chart these are the main indicators

  1. Birth Moon sign and house – overall emotional state
  2. The birth Mercury – the ability to think coherently
  3. The 6th from birth moon – sources of challenges to the emotional stability
  4. The 8th from the birth moon – the result of these emotional challenges
  5. The 3rd from the birth moon and ascendant too – the mental strength and the physical environment to deal with these challenges