Why You May Not Feel Like Your Sun Sign

Pop astrology emphasizes your Sun sign, which is understandable since this placement is the entry point for most of us as we get to know ourselves better astrologically.

But just as the universe consists of waaaaay more celestial bodies than just our solar system’s Sun, so too are we made up of different planetary energies.

Let’s start with one of the most fundamental polarities: the Sun and the Moon.

I’ll talk about what our Sun sign teaches us as well as what our Moon sign teaches us, which may be especially helpful for those who don’t feel connected to the characteristics of their Sun sign.

Read on to learn more or watch my video on the topic below.

Grow towards your Sun!

As a soul incarnated on this Earth, we came here to shine in our own special way. Our Sun placement shows us which areas of life we are called to shine and what energies are at our disposal to unlock and wield in order to fulfill our soul’s urge to shine unapologetically.

At its core, the Sun represents our heart, our outward self, our conscious identity. The Sun is loyal — it hangs in the sky every single day and shines regardless of whether or not you can see it.

The Sun illuminates everything. The Sun wants to be admired. You’re warmed by the Sun.

Think about the role that the Sun plays in the proliferation of natural life. All plants need the Sun to grow, and have just one directive: to grow towards the Sun. If you tell a plant to do anything else but grow, they’re going to look at you like you’re weird, because that’s literally the one job of a plant (and also to provide oxygen and all those other nice things that us humans and the larger ecosystem need).

And so too are we, as individuals, called to grow towards our Sun. Because we grow into this identity, as a child, you may not have identified with your Sun sign. A lot of us are not born with all the characteristics of our Sun sign. That’s what this life journey is for, to grow into that identity and to fully embody our Sun sign.

Why you may not feel like your Sun sign

Think of a cloudy day: you know that the Sun is there. It just may be that the sunlight appears a little weaker than normal. The clouds kind of block the light. This is an afflicted Sun; the Sun is not able to fully unleash its power. In your natal chart, having an afflicted Sun — or in other words, a Sun that is having difficult conversations with other planets — can also affect how we express our unique solar energy.

The house in which your Sun lives also flavors how its energy is expressed. For example, a Sun in the 5th house of play and pleasure is very different from a Sun in the 8th house of secrets and the occult.

My experience as a Leo Sun

I am a Leo Sun. The Sun loves Leo, due in part to the fact that it’s in its domicile, or home sign. And rightly so, since the Sun and Leo share a lot of the same characteristics.

Still, I didn’t really identify with the stereotypical aspects of Leo. So for example, stereotypes say that us Leos love drama and love to be the center of attention. Growing up, I didn’t really like being the center of attention. I was always behind the scenes — literally; I’d work behind the scenes of whatever play my school was putting on. I was never the main character. And Leos so effortlessly harness main character energy.

There’s two explanations for my late blooming. First, I was young(er). I did not know myself and I was confused. Second, the conversations that my Sun is having with other planets in my natal chart are a little…charged.

In my birth chart, my Sun is conjunct Jupiter, or close together with Jupiter. Jupiter, the biggest planet in our solar system, expands every energy it touches, for better or for worse.

This Sun/Jupiter combo in Leo generally makes a happy pair, though. But I never felt like I’d reaped the reward of this combo. I believe it’s because those two planets are squaring — aka having a tense conversation with — my Pluto, the planet of death, destruction, transformation, and the underworld. Completely opposite from Sun energy, right? As a result, I’ve felt like I haven’t been able to shine properly, up until recently. The constant pressure from Pluto has forced me to continuously shed layers from my identity. In my life, I’m going to be constantly dying and being born anew.

So as you can see, it’s not as straightforward as me just being a Leo Sun (“I’m so happy all the time. I love myself. Everybody loves me.”) That’s why examining your natal chart in its entirety gives you a much wider view of the story.

Your Moon is your safe space

The Sun is who we are during the day, how we are when we interact with people. But think about coming home after a long day of being out in the world. What do you need to feel to regain that lifeforce energy to make you feel like yourself again? What do you need to feel safe?

So if the Sun was the conscious part of us, the Moon is the unconscious part of us. The Moon represents what we need to feel centered and grounded.

Think about the Moon and its relationship to the tides of the ocean. It’s an automatic process; the tides coming into shore and back out from shore — a constant movement. So too, are we driven by those unconscious urges.

To drive this point home further, imagine that you’re alone in a deep wooded forest at night. It’s pitch black and you feel a little uneasy, scared even. Eventually, you emerge into a clearing, where the branches even out, and the trees and the shrubs are few enough so that you can see the night sky. How do you feel when you finally see the light of the Moon?

Sink into that feeling. That is the energy of the Moon.

Our Moon makes us feel safe and secure. The Moon is often described as feminine maternal energy. You can interpret this as how your mother treated you when you were young. Of course, maternal energy is not confined to your biological mother; it could be how another parent or a guardian who embodied that maternal energy mothered you. Our Moon represents what made us feel safe when we were kids crying for somebody to come comfort us.

Balancing different Sun + Moon energies

As a Virgo moon, I need a lot of order. There’s a sense of control that I need to feel at all times in order to feel centered and grounded. Virgo is Earth energy, which gives me a cool reprieve from the Fire energy of my Leo Sun.

Fire scorches the Earth, but also in order to make Fire you need Earth. Balancing these two contrasting elements really does ground me. From an outward level, I am the Sun — literally, since the Sun is at home in Leo — but I need to burrow in my little cave from time to time in order to regenerate and recharge so that I can shine brightly again.

Think about the dynamic and interplay between the Sun and Moon energies in your own birth chart.

If you were born on a New Moon, that means that your Sun and your Moon are in the same sign, providing a sort of ease between your solar and lunar energies. In other words, your identity and the way that you express yourself is in line with what you need emotionally and what you need for security and safety.

On the other hand, if you were born on the Full Moon, that means that your Sun and your Moon are in opposite signs, leading to a possible dissonance in the way that you express yourself vs. what you need. Full Moon babies — or really anyone with their Sun and Moon in contrasting energies — are called to integrate and balance those two polarities, which of course, is easier said than done.

However, understanding your chart makes life a lot easier. Knowing your Moon is the key to identifying your deepest needs and desires, which tends to take away the shame that we attach to these innate human urges for whatever reason.

Who you attract + what you’re attracted to

If your Sun sign is in one sign i.e. Pisces, you might find that you attract or are attracted to — both romantically and platonically — Pisces Moons (or more generally Water Moons, since Pisces is a Water sign). And vice versa: if you’re a Pisces Moon, you may find yourself attracting Pisces Suns (or Water Suns).

I see this dynamic play out with my parents. My dad is a Capricorn Sun and Scorpio Moon. My mom is a Scorpio Sun and a Capricorn Moon (I think since we don’t have a time of birth). But think about that dynamic: what my father’s Scorpio Moon needs is how my Scorpio Sun mom expresses her energy naturally, and vice versa — what my Capricorn Moon mom needs emotionally is how my Capricorn Sun dad expresses his energy.

This is not to say that you should solely seek out people with the same sign, because that would make life really boring!

Conclusion

As you can see, your natal chart goes way beyond your Sun sign, so it’s perfectly understandable if you don’t feel like your Sun sign. Also remember to give yourself grace and room for surprises. Because you’re called to grow into your Sun sign as you get older. So 10, 20, 30 years from now, it might be easier for you to express your solar energy. It might become second nature versus when you were a kid or an adolescent.

Knowing how to balance the energy of our Sun and Moon is not only incredibly empowering, but also crucial to how we navigate and respond to life’s challenges, and how we manage our emotions and our energy throughout our Earthly journey.

I love you for reading! Want to learn how to balance your unique solar and lunar energy? Book a Cosmic Soul Mission Natal Chart reading with me here.