Mother Moon: Jessica Alba

Mother's Day is approaching (May 13th) so please enjoy this spotlight on the astrology of our favorite Hollywood moms! First up: Jessica Alba.

While moms (and dads) nurture their children with their whole selves, the moon sign has a lot to say about the way we care for and shelter our loved ones, especially our children. Jessica Alba, mom to 3-year-old Honor Marie and 8-month-old Haven Garner, has an individualistic Aquarius moon, so she's not likely to be the smother-mothering type. She will have a natural appreciation for the process of allowing her daughters' individuality to shine through, and give them the room to explore who they are. It is sometimes said of Aquarius that they can be too detached, but one can see from recent photos of Jessica with her kids, there's plenty of love and warmth there. She'll just be inclined to give her kids the space they need.

Jessica's four planets in Taurus, including her sun, indicate she's a pretty down-to-earth mom too, in more ways than one. Jessica has co-created The Honest Company, which strives to provide safe and sustainable baby products. Jessica was inspired to create The Honest Company when she became a parent:

"As a lot of new parents do, when I was pregnant with my first daughter Honor, I spent a ton of time looking for the best baby gear. Personally, I wanted to find natural and non-toxic products, but it was confusing to filter through the clutter of what was truly eco-friendly, what the different green claims meant, if it applied to the packaging or the ingredients inside."

"I feel this intense responsibility now to create the safest, most loving, and healthiest environment for my family."

It's no wonder. Her first child, Honor, has Saturn in the early degrees of Virgo, which forms a strong connection to Jessica's Mars in the early degrees of Taurus. Mars is what motivates us and what we're willing to create and fight for, actively. Saturn is the planet of responsibility and commitment - we feel weighed down by it, but we also are willing to work to live up to those responsibilities we feel and commitments we want to honor. So Honor's Saturn influencing and inspiring her mom to take action because of a responsibility is pretty clear and "Honor"able!

Image of Jessica Alba is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Credit: Georges Biard

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Astrology Basics: It's Elemental, Kiddies!

Signs and the 4 elements

While every chart is unique and every planet in it has it's own, separate meaning, astrologers can group planets in a chart together to get a sense of the overall 'tone' of a chart. One common way is to see which element is most represented in a natal chart. Astrology uses these four elements: fire, earth, air, and water, as symbols of certain traits. The twelve signs are divided amongst these four elements. The fire signs are Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius. The earth signs are Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn. The air signs are Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius. The water signs are Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces.

The fire signs tend to be more expressive, outgoing, playful, and spontaneous. They like to stay active. The earth signs are practical and logical. They tend to prefer a routine and like to play hands-on. The air signs are curious and talkative. They like intellectual stimulation, and like to figure things out. The water signs are sensitive and intuitive, with big hearts and imaginations. They can also be great cuddlers!

To figure out the elemental balance in a natal chart, one simply counts how many planets fall in each element. Much of the time, the elements are pretty well distributed in a natal chart, but sometimes there can be a predominance of one element. Bindi Irwin, the daughter of the late Steve Irwin, is a good example of a strong fire element. With her sun, moon, and ascendant all in fire signs, one can see how she is always on the go, outgoing and exploring just like her dad. Jayden Federline, son of Britney Spears, has many planets in the earth signs, probably tending to be more grounded and low-key in his personality. The Broderick twins, Marion and Tabitha, have their sun, moon, and ascendant all in the tender and sweet water element, and we saw recently how the predominance of the communicative air signs in Honor Marie Warren's chart had her non-stop talking!

You can learn more about the elements at the parent/child interactive website on Kiddiegram!