Who Are “Mom & Dad” in Astrology? (Updating Astrology Part 1)

One of the more interesting things I like to do with astrology is update it. Astrology is 5,000+ years old, and was originally codified under very different social & cultural times. It’s not that astrology is changing, but we have to apply it to new variations on traditional situations, so sometimes its outlook has to be adjusted. Over the past 200 years or so a lot of stuff has happened. Technology has transformed our lives, two planets were discovered (Neptune & Pluto) and the roles of men & women have been shifting.

But in order to redefine and adapt, I feel the need to strip the original concepts down to their core meanings, the re-assess and re-apply them.

So one of the ideas I have re-assessed is “Mom & Dad.” Astrology attaches the Moon, the sign of Cancer and the 4th house to Mom, and Dad gets Capricorn, the Sun & Saturn, and the 10th house. And incidentally, Cancer & the 4th house are in opposition to Capricorn, so that adds a little extra information.

The 4th house & the Moon & Cancer are associated with your inner self. One of the keyword phrases I use for the 4th house is “the roots of your psyche.” It is at the bottom of the chart. In a sense, you can’t go any deeper. So the parent who affects how you feel deep inside about yourself, the parent who ideally should love you intuitively, emotionally and unconditionally, regardless of any logic whatsoever, is connected to the 4th house & the Moon & the sign of Cancer. In a sense, “mommy” is the parent that connects you to your emotional, intuitive side, teaching you to love & accept yourself no matter what. Or, as I call it, “The Inner Parent.”

The 10th house & Saturn & Capricorn are about the physical world, the outside world. The 10th house, at the top of the chart. is as far away as you can get from your inner self, symbolizing career & public image. Traditionally the father left the home to go out and work. The father represented the outer world, and the logical, factual stuff that you will have to deal with “out there.” The father was the conduit to information about the outside world. So in a sense, “The Outer Parent” introduces you to the outside world.

And since the Sun is the center of our solar system, and symbolizes the daytime, there are “outer” or “daddy” qualities assigned to it too… and in our current society, as we have created it, the so-called outside world is a little more important than the inner world.

Yet because our societal and familial roles are getting a little blurred, I have abandoned the words “father” and “mother” for the concepts of “outer parent” and “inner parent.” Since the person playing the role of “father” may not be a male, and the person playing the role of “mother” may not be a female, the terms “outer parent” and “inner parent” simply make more sense to me by clearly defining the role of that parent, and avoiding the limiting ideas of dad and mom always being thought of as exclusively male & female.