“dressed in the perfume of the moon’s clairvoyance, i unveil you”
Having your atmakaraka Moon in your natal 3rd house is a really interesting placement, with the potential of carrying and embodying a beautiful and mystical energy with many natural gifts and talents. We’ll discuss all these below, but first, what is atmakaraka?
Atmakaraka comes from the two words “atma” meaning soul, and “karaka” meaning “significator of, and to create”; so a native’s atmakaraka is essentially their soul significator that defines their path of life, what they’ve come here to create of their soul’s desires, and the kind of person they may be in this life. When we analyze the atmakaraka, it is important to look at the nakshatra, or lunar mansion it resides in, its constellation, its house placement and most importantly, the aspects it makes and receives. We should also look at her placement in the Navamsa chart, and the sign it occupies, and its lord will show the path of her evolution consciousness moving forward.
Having a Moon atmakaraka generally shows a very loving, compassionate, sensitive, healing, spiritual, intuitive, nurturing and soothing energy, which makes people really attracted towards this native. Krishna, who is the embodiment of unconditional love, is the divine incarnation of Vishnu as the planetary energy of the Moon, so these natives are all about love, creativity and nurturing in this life. It is usually a very giving, charitable and generous soul, and unfortunately many people may be taking advantage of her, so this is why her spiritual lesson in this life is to discern true love from false love and be discerning with the people she allows into her life.
And what is the 3rd house? This is perhaps one of the only house in the natal wheel that holds what we understand as free will. It is the house of our soul’s courage and effort; the weaving of our destiny through out movements, words and hands; it is what holds our natural gifts, talents, creativity and skills, and how we develop them and refine them through our dedication and effort. It is a house of freedom – because it rules our hands, and our hands are what we can use to freely create.
In the ancient days the 3rd house was known as the Moon’s temple where the priestesses and goddesses would develop their intuition, creativity and manifest through their spiritual and emotional development; so this house connects to the feminine mysteries and divination. Sitting opposite the 9th house, which was called god, symbolizing higher knowledge and spirituality and expansion, the 3rd house takes higher wisdom and esoteric knowledge and has the ability to shape it and word it in more accessible and more easily absorbed ways to the average person. This is why if you have this placement, especially since the Moon already connects to intuition, it is said that you may have been a messenger of the divine in past lives.
The 3rd house is also known as a kama house, which means desire; and here we see deep desires of the soul which the native can realize into the physical through the power of their will, devotion, courage of soul and self efforts. Combined with the faith and trust in that which is beyond us as human beings, strengthening their spiritual core, they can often weave dreams into reality.
So what does it mean to have your Moon atmakaraka in the 3rd house?
The first thing we often see is that this placement may represent a person who may have the ability for the 16 kalas, also known as the 16 sacred art forms. The Hindi or Sanskrit word kala means an art; and for the average person accomplishment of even one skill or art is considered a great achievement. There are very few examples of people excelling in more than one art or skill. The kalas refer to the virtues, gifts and talents aligned to higher intention, moral compass and spiritual values, and are seen through the divine incarnation of Vishnu as Krishna, who embodied all 16. The kalas include the kalas of patience, compassion, justice, forgiveness, as well as the kala art of dance, which also means knowing how to move with grace and shape beauty through your gestures, the art of understanding and words of truth, honesty, gentleness and integrity, and the art of dressing, cooking, and making fragrances to be of service to others.
So what this shows, if supported by harmonious aspects and having a strong Jupiter, which shows karmic rewards and moral compass from past deeds, is that this native may be very gifted in various things in their life. And because it’s in the 3rd house of creativity and efforts – the native is here to bring their talents to other people, to be of contribution to humanity.
The person is here in this life to devote themselves to something, nourishing themselves and nourishing others towards something meaningful and beneficial. They may be great at helping people towards their creative projects, and are usually selfless and very generous and giving, motivated by the desire to be helpful and to contribute. Leading such a noble path of life yields great karmic rewards for them also; so if you don’t have good aspect to this atmakaraka, one way to balance out the karma would be through the virtues and the path of generosity and contribution to others.
Traveling is important for this placement, which includes walking – i.e. traveling through our feet which aligns to the 3rd house energy of movement and body efforts. Daily walking is extremely beneficial for them – it clears their mind, soothes their energy, and opens channel for even more inspired creativity and ideas to flow to them freely. They can walk for hours and hours, and it becomes almost a walking meditation or spiritual practice, as well as great for their health and wellbeing.
One thing we often see with this placement is that in early life, whether right after their birth or a bit further down in their childhood, their parents may have travelled on a journey to far distant lands; or maybe the entire family move overseas or to a different country and they lived abroad. However it manifested, their parents’ travel was something that truly helped them as well; perhaps their parents then shared with them or raised them to know different cultures, traditions and gave them a more broad and expansive understanding which opened and expanded their own free minds and contributed towards their expansion of perceptions. Either way, this was significant for their own soul’s path in this life and deeply inspiring and beneficial. It is actually beneficial for them to live abroad and may find more opportunities and happiness, depending on other aspects of course.
Another thing we see with this placement though is that they may often sacrifice a lot for their siblings; perhaps they were always supportive for their siblings even if they didn’t receive much in return, but that’s just part of their life’s path – they are meant to be there for their siblings and help them, without expecting anything in turn. They can be a bit of guiding light for their siblings, and while they may think it may sometimes be “unbalanced in giving and receiving”, they need to trust the path and just keep showing up, that’s part of that karmic impulse imprinted in this placement.
Unfortunately though, these natives may often get blamed in life, usually unrightfully so. They can become a bit of an absorber of other people’s problems and projections; though of course sometimes they can be blamed rightfully because of their immaturity or wrong decisions, so it really depends. In the times when they are blamed unrightfully and unjustly, it is best to just connect to their spiritual nature and let the waters of forgiveness and compassion flow through them.
Their father usually has a lot of karma to deal with in his life, so it is helpful to them to try and understand him and support him, and realize that outside of their role as parents they are still human beings with their struggles. On the good side though, seeing the uphill struggles of their father and how he often overcame challenges and still got to the top of the mountain achieving success can be deeply inspiring to them, as it teaches them perseverance and endurance. These skills are necessary, especially since their 3rd house is all about putting their efforts into making things happen, and being entrepreneurs – so they need to know patience, endurance, courage, perseverance and discipline.
Art, creativity, dealing with children, spiritual pursuits and studying mysticism are all areas of life that make them feel alive – they feel true joy doing these things, they feel re-energized and renewed, and it is very soul soothing.
These natives often deal with the struggles of other people, which is why they may make amazing counsellors, astrologers, healers, lawyers, humanitarians etc. but even if these are not their “work or careers”, they may just be the comfort and soothing for people in their life and even strangers on the street. As I mentioned, the Moon atmakaraka has a magnetizing quality to her that attracts people who need to feel nurtured, comforted, soothed and emotionally understood. So naturally, this is a big part of their life as they will be there for others nourishing their souls and hearts; and if they choose to make this their work, it will give them a feeling of deep purpose. It is often their soul’s calling to do this kind of work, in whatever shape and form, because they have a natural way of nourishing, nurturing and deeply understanding other people.
As the 3rd house is a powerful kama house of desires, this placement shows a lot of sexual desires also. One of the reasons for that is because in past lives they may not have had the opportunity to experience this level of intimacy, and as in this life we are driven to incarnation due to our unfulfilled desires of the soul, these natives may come with strong desires in that area. The Moon releases energy, so they need to find ways to release these powerful desires, hopefully in healthy ways for them. Sexual energy is essentially creative energy, so if they learn to master that and channel it, they can become incredible creators and create amazing beauty and art and businesses. They may use all this energy to inspire them and serve as musings for their creative pursuits and even spiritual pursuits.
Because of this energy though, they may not really settle down early in life; because as artistic souls they may usually just prefer a more creative life rather than the monotony of a traditional marriage. If they do settle, it would probably need to be with someone who really stirs their souls and skins into all the passion they desire as well as someone who is emotionally and spiritually connected to them.
Moon atmakaraka in general need partners who are of the higher manifestation of Jupiter and/or Mars. The higher manifestation of Mars energy is discipline and protection, rather than impulsive, rash, lustful or dramatic people. So they need someone who will stand up for them and protect them, because being as sensitive and compassionate and giving as they are, they need a strong shoulder beside them. Remember how in the beginning I spoke that they may have many people take advantage of their kindness, so the higher expression of Mars is the one that will help, support and protect them, and it will be someone they can rely on and trust.
And the higher manifestation of their Jupiter partner would be someone who can hold them through their own emotions and waves and sensitivities, and also be someone they can trust; it is someone who has higher values, and serves as a guiding light to them also. Even though they can be very intuitive, they too need someone to listen to them and unburden to, and also someone with whom they can share interests and spiritual things with, and someone who is naturally wise, so that this can soothe their 3rd house love for learning and expanding. And when they feel down, Jupiter’s optimism and ability to hold them and shift their eyes towards a beautiful horizon will help soothe them deeply.
Being as passionate as this Moon atmakaraka is, they certainly need to experience the physical desires as well, and having a passionate lover is something they will need and enjoy; physical compatibility is important for them and they shouldn’t marry someone they are not attracted to, otherwise their eyes may start wondering around. Do not think this Moon is moon-like and just sensitive, it holds deep fires and desires within it, perhaps more than any other placement.
The sexual desires can be their greatest inspiration for channeled creativity and art; they can become passionate writers of love and romance, as well as powerful spiritual writers, because the passion with which they infuse their words and teachings will move the awareness level of people. They can have a beautiful way with language, inspiring and emotionally moving, touching people’s hearts and opening their perceptions. This energy when channeled right can serve as their muse, and mastering that energy and channeling it towards spirituality, mysticism and creativity can yield great results for them and be deeply fulfilling.
Something we see in their early childhood is that they have sometimes feel ostracized in some shape or form, whether in school, friend groups or networks. This can be very painful for them, leaving a sense of rejection or not belonging, particularly if they have hard aspects from Saturn or Pluto on their Moon. In these case, it may take time to heal, so with the hard aspects they may need to do more inner work, because otherwise this may express in other ways in their life and become to their detriment holding them back from being who they came here to be.
If however, they receive harmonious aspects to their Moon, or they are able to heal this, then these experiences may serve as their motivation to rise even higher in life, and truly step into authenticity and free mind of amazing creation. People cannot truly step into their authenticity if they always go by other people’s opinions – so when someone experiences some level of being an outcast, it is also because they have free creative minds, and it takes courage to then step into this beautiful energy and express your creativity.
Creativity needs independence to thrive – and truly creative people are sometimes not really accepted because they are meant to push the boundaries of people and society and lead people into new ways of thinking, dreaming and creating. Innovation is not always accepted in the beginning, but that shouldn’t stop them – they need to believe in themselves and persevere. They need to walk the beat of their own drum, and use such experiences as fires moving them forward and motivations to succeed. They usually find greater success away from their birth country, because the energy of this house is meant to move them into lands, literally as well as metaphorically, as they expand in perceptions and creativity.
And the last thing we may sometimes see is that they may have some fears around money or work, but these are only because they are meant to become entrepreneurs and be self sufficient and self reliant. They are here to usually make money of their self efforts and gifts and talents, and especially if connected to their 5th lord, 2nd lord or even 1st, life itself may kind of pull them away from traditional or corporate jobs because they are not meant to be doing these. They have gifts and talents to gift to the world, and this is their highest path, the intention of their soul.
Through their uplifting messages to others, their nurturing abilities, their efforts in refining their skills, their virtues and faith, their intelligence of translating higher knowledge into practical ways, and their dedication and devotion to serving other and being of contribution they can reach far and wide, and find the fulfillment their soul seeks.
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