Since the opening of my clinic, I witnessed a virtual epidemic of what I have nicknamed the "Monastic Moon". These are people with Moons in Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces who have spent many lifetimes in monasteries, nunneries, convents, sanctuaries, and similar places. What do you learn as a monk or a nun? You learn scriptures, meditation, contemplation, reflection, prayer, and perhaps music, languages, and medicine.

When you take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience—one lifetime after another—you find out very little about diaper changes in the middle of the night, nitty-gritty domestic issues that often turn mountains into molehills; and, of course, you are apt to hold very mixed feelings about sex and money (things better learned on the Taurus-Scorpio axis). Also, due to the alleged sacrifice of self to your beliefs, you are apt to believe that you are of very little consequence, that you have no real self, and certainly that you have no right to assert that self.

This often leaves a great void where Mars energies are concerned. People of the cloth do not learn to use Mars and often do not readily recognize Mars behaviors in others. They have blinders where others are assertive, self-interested, predatory, etc. This is not to say that all Mars types are selfish, but rather that when someone is weak in the warrior department, he or she is unlikely to attract the impeccable, chivalrous knight who is endowed with courage and decisiveness.

Memory and Form

This article is about neither knights nor gladiators, rather, as always, about health. One's body or temple is built by experience. In a way, you could say it is composed of memory—and all this memory is reposed in the subconscious which in turn is symbolized by the Moon in the horoscope. The Moon does not describe any specific historic incidents but rather the overall trends of former lives and the composite impact of experience on what is called "conditioned memory" by yoga scholars. Conditioned memory is memory that is affected by personal experience, memories that have been judged by the personal self before being stored. Conditioned memories are stored in files that have emotional descriptions, labels such as "abandonment", "fear", "betrayal", "misunderstanding", "suffering", "injustice", "satisfaction", "support", etc.

Unconditioned memory is impersonal and carries the record of events as they actually took place. You might say that any two observers of an incident may or may not see the event in the same way. Each therefore records the happening as it seemed or felt according to his or her own opinions, but the Akash carries the memory of what actually took place as distinct from what it felt like to be part of the event at the time.

It would be a little too simplistic to say that the body is the net result of nothing but memory, but it is nearly correct to assume this. It is also not strictly true that all disease is caused by memory, but again, it is almost fair to say this.

Now, back to our monastic Moon patients. These people have many issues in common though the symptoms manifested by each are quite different. All express a very deep longing to do something more significant with their lives than any believe they are currently doing. You might call this divine malcontent attended by a yearning for a destiny or calling. Several believe that their addictions to sensual pleasures render them unfit for service to God, and they are hence quite content to suffer the retribution of their sexually contracted diseases or debilities. Others feel that their tumors would keep enlarging until they were forced either to serve or to die. I try to explain that diseases never kill anyone. The soul creates life and the soul takes it away if it can no longer express itself through the personality it must use in this lifetime.

The disease is, however, always symbolic though few patients are able to see the symbolism of their illnesses. Wasted life force exhibits itself as debility. Congested life force shows itself as surfeit. These are overly simple statements, but when the patient starts to talk, he or she usually sees the meaning of his or her condition. Moreover, people usually see exactly what it would take to reverse the disease and become well; but to become well, the patient must overcome the habits that have been cultivated over long periods of time and which have resulted in the crisis that has brought them to my office.

The Tibetan suggested that Mars and Neptune can never be simultaneously active since both utilize the solar plexus chakra and therefore create an either/or type of situation. If one has devoted oneself to service, self-sacrifice, and perhaps even martyrdom, it goes without saying that Mars has had little opportunity for expression.

When, however, a monk or nun moves out into the so-called world of reality without realizing how unprepared he or she was for such, Mars tends to sneak into the life in the form of other people. In such circumstances, the person with so many lifetimes of the cloth readily yields to the more ego focused individual. The issue is not co-dependency, for servers enjoy serving. The issue is more bewilderment because these priests and priestesses are not accustomed to partners and others in their intimate environments whose value systems and outlook on life differ so enormously from their own. They thus hold the illusion that somehow their good behavior will rub off on the partner who will then reform. This is usually folly, for the partner is generally quite content to exploit the goodwill until it runs out.

The other illusion is that one will somehow discover a deeper meaning to life by betraying one's own values or deferring them until others change. This often has tragic consequences. Time comes and goes, dreams seem ever more remote, opportunities pass, and the trumpet never roars. Eventually, the subconscious stages a rebellion in the form of an illness, this to get the attention of the personality which has become victim of a life style which is unsuitable to the monk Moon's notion of what would fulfill the vows of old. The disease can sometimes be quite painful because the child within is angry for having been ignored. However, sometimes the disease is one of extreme listlessness and apathy: I cannot arouse any flame within unless something happens to lift this ennui. Sometimes, the disease is an escape: the monk cultivated an ideal of martyrdom and as his life situation becomes increasingly meaningless, this translates into martyrdom to intolerable circumstances and the monk stages a life and death crisis with health, hoping perhaps to be rescued at the last moment by an angel with set of orders to be carried out by the suffering disciple, but mostly, these hopes have the same fate as in previous lifetimes; i.e., one dies without being singled out for salvation under special circumstances.

Space hardly permits a deeper exploration of the psyche and diseases associated with the monk Moon, but if there is a moral to this brief synopsis, it is that if you have a dream, make it happen. Start now and take responsibility for bringing about the reality you secretly hide within yourself. The outside world cannot see into you and even if it could, it probably would not take your issues seriously—so do not waste time waiting for a better moment, just be true to yourself and recognize that ultimately no one betrays you; you betray yourself when you live in illusion. So, act consistently with your own truth and wait for the rest of the world to adjust to your vision as you demonstrate it in your own life and gently thereby reveal it to others.