The Black Moon can be seen as the counterpoint of the Moon and therefore represents influences which are the opposite of those with which the Moon is associated. In contrast to the reproduction, reaction and maintenance principles of the Moon, a cycle which repeats itself endlessly, the Black Moon represents the principle of REJECTION. She rejects repetition and for that reason rejects the mass, the average, the ordinary, the normal – she abhors everything which regularly appears as well as multiplicity itself. In contrast to the Moon, which maintains life, the Black Moon maintains consciousness. It must not be reduced, let alone disappear, through continued repetitiveness and the associated routine and the daily grind. Moreover, through this rejection she creates space for the exceptional, the rare, the extraordinary, the exclusive, the unique, and, negatively, the unheard of. Therefore, the Black Moon can also be regarded as the principal of UNIQUENESS.
But between the rejection of the ordinary and the appearance of, for instance, the exceptional, there always lays an empty period. Thus the Black Moon can also be associated with EMPTINESS. Multiplicity and fullness are connected in the eyes of the Black Moon! She facilitates a sort of contraction around the deepest point of every core. Therefore, the emptiness of the Black Moon is not just any old emptiness, an absence, but the vehicle for intensification. All the energy collects around one central point, sometimes even without apparent aim or motive. Consequently, one can also define the Black Moon as the principle of INTENSITY!
In this sense, the Black Moon can also be seen as a CHANNEL that is open for the descent of something greater and higher than the human concept of the average life. She has to do with that extra, which is not directly necessary for the pure sustainment of the physical life, but is necessary to be able to make “music”. This music itself has truly to do with the essence of the Black Sun, as will be shown in another article.
A prominent Black Moon in the horoscope often leads to an introverted character, which, in the eyes of others, is quickly seen as an aura of abandonment. There is an essential inaccessibility – in contrast to the ‘wall flower’, which is seen rather by a weak Moon – which can be expressed as arrogance, aloofness, tense neutrality or another form of ‘absent’ behavior.
But behind all these expressions of behavior can, although it need not, hide a great degree of INTEGRITY. In any case, a strong Black Moon always lends an individual a strong desire to remain ‘intact’, both at the physical level as well as in the form of an exceptionally strong immunization. If the principal of integrity which the Black Moon represents operates too strongly, then traits of autism can quickly appear in behavior and character.
Just as the Moon is the foremost representative of the feminine, the Black Moon symbolizes the MASCULINE IN THE WOMAN, her masculine component that had previously been projected on male partners, but is less reflected and can be utilized independently.
Along with the emancipated woman, there are a number of other female types through which a dominant Black Moon can be identified: the career woman ( who need not be emancipated), the lesbian (which can vary from the esthetic lesbian to the ‘dyke’), the femme fatale, the woman with ‘the pants on’, the sadistic woman, the eternal virgin, the witch, the priestess, and the ‘widow’, to name a few. The Black Moon appears regularly in fairy tales as well, in the characters of the wicked stepmother, for instance, and that of the sleeping princess who must be awakened or brought back to life with a kiss.
In contrast to the reflective quality of the Moon, the principle of ABSORBTION is seen with the Black Moon; in contrast to the immediate embrace or inclusion with a reaction from the Moon, there is inclusion through FASCINATION by the Black Moon. And opposed to the Moon as representative of the personality in a horoscope, the Black Moon can be seen as the indicator of the ALTER EGO, the better and more developed “I” that we actually would most like to be – an ego that lives at another level that we do, a level that we perhaps one day may achieve through a growth in consciousness.
What is interesting from an astronomical perspective is that the Moon utilizes but one half of her surface in all her phases as seen from Earth. She turns precisely one time on her own axis in the period between one Full Moon and the next. This means that only one side of the Moon can ever be seen from Earth, never the other side. The other side is only visible from the Sun, and then only at New Moon. Thus the Black Moon can also be seen as THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOON! On the 24 of December 1968, around 11:00 GMT this side of Earth’s satellite was seen by human eyes for the first time from the space ship Apollo 8, that orbited the Moon at an altitude of approximately 120 kilometers!
– translated from Handbook Astrologie by George Bode (1994, Servire, pages 318 – 320)