breaking into astrological elections with haircuts, manicures, and the moon
I've noticed that many people are interested in electional astrology, perhaps have even studied it in a technical sense, but there's this sense of trepidation towards actually finding and using elections. Often when the time comes to find an auspicious moment for an important date, students express a lot of dread. I'd like to share one of the techniques I used to build comfort and confidence in my electional skills: starting off with low-stakes elections. My advice is that, before attempting to elect for an important moment like the establishment of a business or the time for a wedding, you should start with electing for more approachable moments. In my opinion, the best place to start is with your own personal care elections.
By personal care, I mean exactly that: any kind of physical care you do for, well, your person! In this article today, I'm focusing my attention on haircuts, but these principles work great for any kind of physical grooming, skin care, or body care. Focusing your attention on low-stakes elections is a great technique to build confidence in your judgment as an astrologer. But it's not just that! The other reason I recommend starting with these kinds of charts is because this specific category of elections is a great way to pull your attention to the foundation of every single election: the status of the Moon.
The Moon is the most important planet in any election, without a doubt, but because the Moon is the ruler of the physical form, any kind of election dealing with tending to body elevates the importance of the Moon to an even greater degree. The challenge of electional astrology lies in the sheer number of factors the astrologer must consider—the planets ruling each of the four angles, the rulers of other houses under consideration, the natural ruler of the topic being elected for, the specific ascending sign and the strength of the ascending degree and, of course, the Moon herself...it all starts to add up really fast. Electing to care for the body simplifies the number of factors to consider. For these kinds of moments, the Moon is the primary factor of consideration.
In this article, we will focus exclusively on how to select the right Moon through three primary considerations. These are more than just rules for finding the right moment for a haircut: this is an introduction to selecting a day that Moon that will draw vitality into the body in a desired way.
Personal care is an extremely broad topic, but the way I began was with electing for haircuts. Haircuts were a wonderful place to start for me, but you could also elect for a manicure, a deep-conditioning treatment, a face mask, a visit to a spa or hot spring, or any other kind of low-to-medium-stakes personal care event. The ideal event to pick would be:
For yourself. Hold off on electing for others until you feel confident electing for yourself.
Important enough to motivate you to bother with it.
Unimportant enough that if it goes poorly you won't be upset or endangered.
For now, I am going to focus on electing for haircuts using one of my favorite astrology textbooks, Astrology Restored by William Ramesey, which was first published in 1653. Book 3 of this absolute unit focuses on elections, and I will be drawing primarily from section II, which contains elections for what we would now call haircuts, manicures, and pedicures (among other things¹).
When getting a haircut, there are two general approaches, right?
Either you've come to your stylist to keep things looking tidy as your grow your hair out, or you have a specific hairstyle in mind that you want your stylist to establish and/or maintain. You should start by deciding which of these two approaches you want to focus on before you begin electing. As we go through the process of selecting the right Moon for your event, each step will give you the opportunity to go one of these directions.
Luna conjunct Jupiter. If you look closely, you can see the four Galilean moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto
Step 1: Consider the Moon's Phase
When the Moon is increasing in light (in other words: waxing), she will encourage your hair to grow thicker and faster. When Luna is diminishing in light (waning), she will slow the growth of your hair.
This principle is relatively intuitive: the closer to full she is, the more she will stimulate hair growth. If alopecia is a consideration for you, getting a waxing gibbous moon would be especially helpful. If you're trying to stretch out time between appointments, the waning crescent moon would be a good fit.
Step 2: Consider the Moon's Sign
Select a sign of the Moon that aligns with your goals.
For fast growth, you should pick either a water sign or Taurus. In our tradition, the water signs are considered to be the most fertile signs. Following one of my electional teachers, Lee Lehman², I count Taurus a fairly fertile sign as well because it is Luna's sign of exaltation. For slow growth, Ramesey teaches us that Virgo is the best sign, followed by Leo or Gemini. These signs are a good choice because they convey health and vitality, as the signs ruled by the Sun and Mercury, but won't speed the growth of your hair. As an aside, the planet Mercury has an association with curly hair, so Virgo or Gemini would also be especially good choices if you've got curly hair.
Using my own experiences as an astrologer, I believe that Sagittarius, as a mutable sign ruled by Jupiter, would also be suitable for a haircut that you want to look good and not grow out too fast. I also think that Libra is another sign to consider. As one of Venus' domiciles, it is especially associated with beauty.³ Just anecdotally, I can vouch that I have both given and received beautiful haircuts under the Moon in Libra, so it's one that I'm especially fond of.
In general, you should avoid the signs Aries, Capricorn, and Aquarius. An important rule for the Moon is to never put it in a sign that rules a body part which is going to be cut. Since Aries rules the head, we want to avoid putting anything sharp near the head during those days. Ramesey doesn't mention the signs ruled by Saturn, but does caution us to avoid putting the Moon under Saturnian influence, so I think it's generally best to avoid Capricorn and Aquarius unless the Moon's relationship with Saturn is significantly mitigated (which is beyond the scope of this article).
Step 3: Consider the Moon's Next Aspect
The final of our investigations is into the applying aspects the Moon is making. The Moon is like a spotlight shining on whichever planet she's applying to during the election, so this planet will be the most important non-Moon planet in our election. You'll probably notice that the Moon is often applying to multiple planets in quick succession. While all of them are important, for these purposes you should focus on the aspect that will perfect first (in other words: focus on the planet that is closest in degree to the Moon)
This point can get complicated depending on your philosophy on aspects, but here are the rules that have worked best for me:
Best: Moon applying any aspect to Venus or Jupiter
Also best: Moon applying a trine or sextile to whichever planet rules your ascendant
Good: Moon applying a trine or sextile to Mercury
Okay, but will seriously limit growth: Moon applying a trine or sextile to Saturn
Acceptable: Moon applying a trine or sextile to Mars
Avoid: Moon applying a square or opposition to Mercury, Mars, Saturn, or the planet that rules your ascendant
If you're new to elections, this step might be the point where things start to feel overwhelming! If that is the case, let me boil these instructions down to the most important point: the most important thing is to make sure the Moon is not applying a square or opposition to Mars or Saturn. If you've found a date with the right lunar phase and sign and made sure she isn't afflicted by a hard aspect to either malefic, you've got a perfectly nice haircut election!
What is most important here is that the Moon is protected from the malefic planets, Mars and Saturn. My reasoning for this comes straight from Astrology Restored. Ramesey cautions us that when the Moon is afflicted by a malefic, it causes dandruff, dry scalp, and eczema. If this is something you already experience, you may want to really focus on finding a time when the Moon is casting a good aspect towards a benefic or your ascendant ruler.
If you want to adapt these guidelines for a manicure or pedicure, you could follow an almost identical procedure.
Like in haircuts, you must choose either to select times that will encourage your nails to grow stronger and thicker, or times that will keep your acrylics from growing out too quickly. The only difference you would need to observe is being sure to avoid the Moon in Gemini for manicures (because Gemini rules the hands), and the Moon in Pisces for pedicures (because Pisces rules the feet).
Ramesey tells us that the best signs for manicures and pedicures are Aries, Taurus, Cancer, Leo, and Libra. Taurus and Cancer make sense, for all the reasons listed under step 2 above. Aries gives you dexterity and precision, which might be good if you're doing your own nails and need some extra luck. I think Leo and Libra were chosen because these signs are associated with beauty, as the domiciles of the Sun and Venus.
What about other self care moments?
For kinds of self care that don't involve cutting (like the examples of visiting a spa or getting a facial), you may actually consider putting the Moon in the sign that rules the body part that you're caring for. When moisturizing, massaging, or otherwise caring for a part of the body, the Moon's influence on that body part can actually help draw vitality into that body part. For a facial (that doesn't include extractions), consider the Moon in Aries. Aries Moons are my favorite for face masks! For a back massage, put the Moon in Leo. For soaking your feet in epsom salts, the Moon in Pisces.
If you're serious about electional astrology, I encourage you to read through and internalize these techniques. This is the foundation of learning to flow with the rhythms of the Moon, the key to the entire art of electional astrology.
Do you want to learn more?
I'm writing an ebook, Electing to Care for the Body, which will contain deeper exploration of this topic, including
How to elect cyclically for recurring appointments
How lunar speed and house placements impacts elections
Techniques for incorporating the ascending sign
A printable handout with details about electing with the Moon and ascendant in each of the 12 signs
More details on picking dates for haircuts, manicures, pedicures, facials, and massages
Notes
¹ Section II also contains elections for many childcare activities, including breastfeeding, weaning babies, and sending children to school for the first time.
² Via her incredible electional astrology textbook: The Magic of Electional Astrology by J. Lee Lehman, Ph.D.
³ We are often encouraged to use Libra Moons to trim and prune flowering plants to encourage them to produce lots of flowers. To me, it makes sense to extend that symbolism to say Libra is great for trimming and beautifying both rose bushes and your locks.