What would your emotions look like if you could see them? Maybe seeing your emotions in whatever form they might take isn’t necessary. What matters is recognizing them when they appear, being familiar with how well they cooperate with each other, and most importantly, how effective they are when they show up (whether when you’re with someone else or alone).
Enter the world of Inside Out and Inside Out 2, two great movies that, like many other animation films, are for children of all ages and, in this case, anyone with emotions. Yeah, that would be everyone.
Let’s start with Inside Out, the original movie that opened in 2015 and kicked off this colorful adventure into emotions. The main character Riley is an 11-year old girl with average intelligence I’d say, a good friend and daughter, a pretty simple kid who enjoys playing ice hockey. Riley goes on an emotional roller-coaster ride when being forced to deal with her parents’ decision to move. We watch as this young girl gets torn away from the only home she’s ever known and struggles to feel at home in a new place with a new school and new people around her. In the crux of it all, through Riley’s emotion Joy we learned that Riley’s other emotion Sadness has its place and that Sadness is as much a part of Riley as Joy is. And while Riley’s other emotions (Anger, Fear, and Disgust) are involved (and get triggered during certain moments in her life), it’s Joy and Sadness that help Riley adjust the most with Joy being the ‘captain’ of team.
Fast forward to Inside Out 2 (nominated for an Academy Award on March 2, 2025). Now Riley is a teenager and in this second film, we watch as she struggles with self-importance vs. cooperation and friendship, with popularity vs. authenticity. And as we all know how so many new emotions arise during our teenage years, fittingly the core emotions of Inside Out are joined by Riley’s new emotions Envy, Boredom, Embarrassment, and the big one– Anxiety.
In the midst of Riley’s inner battle with self-worth, acceptance, and popularity, Joy puts Riley’s best interest aside when she sees the teenager hurting. Joy takes all of Riley’s bad memories and tosses them into the ‘high tech Riley Protection System’ that she created and relocates those memories to the back of Riley’s mind. Not the best idea. (Some would call that ‘burying stuff under the rug’.)
Without giving away too much for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie, as Riley goes ‘down the rabbit hole’ of potentially losing solid friendships due to self-interest and the desire to be accepted into a different circle of older girls who appear more popular and ‘exciting’, her choices take her further away from her true Self. The Self is represented by several intertwined rings that form a spherical, brightly illumined ‘atom’ (for lack of a better word). We see this glowing, beautiful Self get replaced by a crooked, brassy tarnished Self because of the new ‘teenage emotions’ with Anxiety at the helm. To be a healthy, happy teenager, Riley must get her true Self back. But will she?
The adventure begins when Riley’s core emotions follow ‘captain’ Joy in the search for her true Self to get Riley back on track before her teenage years get worse, before she totally loses sight of what’s really important in life. At one point we see the memory orbs dropped into the back of the mind with glowing threads of light. Joy reaches out and gently plucks one like a guitar string and as the thread vibrates we hear in Riley’s own voice, “I’m not good enough”; each thread a painful self-degrading, ill-advised message that Riley says to her self.
One of the best scenes, if not the best, is when Joy has to figure out how to break through to Anxiety who is holed up in its own self-created vortex of chaos, to the point of being nonfunctional and non-responsive. I believe anyone who has experienced anxiety can relate to this. Even more so, anyone who has been through or still lives with panic attacks can perhaps relate to this well done visual of what a panic attack might look like if one would be asked to describe it artfully. Pixar nailed it.
Here are a few comments from Reddit about this scene:
Missemilyjane42 shared, “Inside Out 2 outright visualized a panic attack with pinpoint accuracy. This is now on top of the depression visualization with the grayed out console in the first one (first movie). I’m starting to think this is probably the most important series of movies Pixar has ever done.”
MidnightPanda12 writes, “If you had experienced or suffered from Anxiety you will tear up in one of the scenes in the movie. They really wrapped that scene up beautifully and how by just the act of letting go is also hard.”
That’s it for discussing the movie. But why bring it up here, you might be wondering. Because we all have emotions and we all have a natal Moon somewhere in our birth charts. For clues to your emotions, learn as much as you can about the sign the Moon is in and the house the Moon occupies. Then look to see what condition the Moon is in (Is it strong through exaltation, weak by debility, strong in its own sign, comfortable in a friendly sign, or neutral?). Is your Moon involved in any planetary yogas and if so, which ones? Which planet rules the sign the Moon occupies? Is that ruler a natural benefic (Moon- if in its own sign, Venus, Mercury, or Jupiter) or is the ruling planet a natural malefic (Sun, Mars, Saturn)? Which house does the Moon rule (what area of life does your emotional nature penetrate and activate the most)? From its natal position in your chart, which House does the Moon aspect?
Then take a look at your 4th House, the house that represents emotional love and peace, the house that’s ruled by the Moon in the natural order of the zodiac signs. Look at your 1st House, the house that represents your overall well-being and individuality and your ‘Soul’ expression in this life. The planet that rules your 1st House (Rising Sign) acts like a filter for much of your experience. How is that filter affecting or supporting your emotions and feeling nature? How well does the ruling planet of your Ascendant get along with the Moon and the planet the rules the Moon (if it’s not in its own sign)?
You also want to see what’s going on with Mercury and Saturn. Mercury represents our nervous system (the physical aspect of ‘nervousness’) while Saturn causes insecurities, fear, doubt, worry, and anxiety. What role are these two planets playing? What are their conditions? Where are they located? Who do they associate with? For example, if Saturn is aspecting the Moon, the person will tend to be serious and may exhibit anxiety more readily than someone who has Venus aspecting the Moon. Venus would tend toward helping the person be social, open, and easy-going emotionally. A Moon-Saturn person would tend to be more melancholy and feel depressed, relating more toward the Inside Out character ‘Sadness’ while a Moon-Venus person would be more cheerful and lighthearted, relating more toward the character ‘Joy’. As with all astrological observation, much depends on other factors of the chart, like house position and what signs the planets are located in.
If you haven’t seen these two movies, they’re recommended, with the intention of inspiring you to dive deeper in the ‘emotional’ realm of your natal chart. Enjoy!
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Renate Maria Bell is a certified Vedic Astrologer, Jyotish Visharada, and approved teacher with the Council of Vedic Astrology. She can be reached at renatembell@aol.com
Inside Out and Inside Out 2 images courtesy Google search Creative Commons