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Before color TV to entertain us and digital watches to measure time,
there was the sky. Prehistoric man learned early on to measure time
and distance with the help of watching the dance of the planets
against the canopy of the fixed stars. The daily rhythm of life
was governed by the cycles of the Moon, and agriculture by the yearly
course of the Sun and the heliacal rise of certain bright stars.
The celestial phenomena were easy to follow and made life predictable,
even calculable. For ages there were seven planets inhabiting the
heavens, which acted out the myths of various peoples in pre-historic
times. People watched them come and go and learned to decipher their
meanings, which have not changed too much during the millennia.
Compared to nowadays’ complexity, in those times the visible
planets provided the astrological practitioner with limited understanding
of the human psyche - which was quite acceptable, considering the
fact that the human psyche itself was a lot less complicated than
it is today. Pre-menstrual syndrome, borderline disease or autistic
behavior was unheard of. The lives of archaic and medieval people
closely followed predictable paths, which were determined by birthright
as well as economic and social circumstances.
Nothing seemed
to change for centuries. Saturn delivered tasks and burdens, Jupiter
provided gains and luck; Mars was responsible for war and violence,
Venus for love and lust. Then, with the invention of the telescope,
our solar system expanded considerably. The arrival of the four
major asteroids and the new planets changed the face of astrology
forever, broadening our understanding and adding new archetypes
to the picture. Something, however, remained conspicuously the same:
the fact that while the masculine behavior patterns depicted by
the traditional masculine planets have always been unambiguous and
correlated seamlessly with each other, the image of the feminine
originally described only by the two female planets, which split
the feminine psyche into two mutually exclusive archetypes, has
become even more fragmented by the arrival of the asteroids.
In order to
make my point I intend to separate planetary archetypes according
to gender, although I am fully aware that today’s astrological
delineation uses them without this distinction - which is perfectly
all right, we have one birth chart with all the usual participants.
I, however, intend to show how the various planets can be used to
demonstrate certain behavior patterns, and how those patterns correlate
with gender roles. Traditionally the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn
are considered masculine, the Moon and Venus feminine, while Mercury
represents an in-between state, neither feminine nor masculine.
Mercury-Hermes, divine messenger and god of merchants, thieves and
alchemists, is the true personification of neutrality. He is mischievous
and ingeniously inventive, the eternal child who never grows up;
who gets away with anything; and who has free access to other worlds,
which even gods rarely have. Mercury is a neutral archetype considering
gender precisely because he seems stuck in eternal childhood. Growing
up is not his cup of tea. He is more interested in playing childish
pranks than doing anything adult, such as falling in love or waging
wars. Unlike Mars, the first real masculine archetype, who is the
typical young potent male. Mars-Ares picks a fight and hopes to
win under any circumstances. He wants to prove his physical worth
in a physical world; he must be the strongest, the fastest - the
victor - at all costs. Mars never considers potential dangers or
the fact that he may not win; he acts with the haste and confidence
of strong young men. The Sun, personification of life force and
ego in birth charts, is often an older, wiser, more serious version
of him, equally strong and perhaps even more determined, who uses
subtler and smarter means to reach his goals. The Sun describes
the male archetype in his mature yet potent state, the successful
businessman in his fifties who knows what he wants and knows how
to get it, and intends to live life in its fullest sense (minus
the unnecessary hazards). The two so-called destiny planets, Jupiter
and Saturn, represent two potential aspects of growing old. Jupiter
is the jovial man who loves company, who spoils his grandchildren
rotten, who is past his prime but still wants to enjoy life in its
fullest sense; while Saturn is the miser constantly emphasizing
duties and obligations, the eternal malcontent who is unable to
find beauty or satisfaction in the world.
These may sound
as broad generalizations, but they show that the growth of the male
psyche follows a closely predictable path from young age to old.
While there are clearly discernible behavior patterns determined
by age, financial and social status, there is nothing contradictory
in their development, especially if we consider the mixture of these
archetypes: Mars-Jupiter, the sportsman or rich yuppie; Sun-Mars,
the active, agile male; Sun-Jupiter, the wealthy, contented middle-aged
businessman; Mars-Saturn, the restricted or underprivileged young
man; Sun-Saturn, the penny-pinching pensioner; or Jupiter-Saturn,
the well-to-do bachelor who has lived through hardships and learned
how to be frugal even in better times. These variations all correlate
with one another; there is, in fact, quite a smooth transition from
one behavior pattern to the other, depending mainly on age, economic
and social circumstances. A young man may set out as Mars-Saturn,
struggling through university in poverty; years of hard work may
bring him special qualifications resulting in a good position with
a fat paycheck (Mars-Jupiter) and eventually climbing up high the
corporate ladder (Sun-Jupiter or Sun-Mars-Jupiter).
Feminine roles,
on the other hand, are a lot less interchangeable. Let’s consider
the two traditional female planets, the Moon and Venus. The Moon
herself has three faces: the Virgin (New Moon), the Mother (Full
Moon) and the Crone (Balsamic Moon). The Virgin represents both
innocence and potential. She is the maiden, the young girl, who
is not yet ready to enter the adult world but who eventually will.
The Mother is the ripe, fertile woman who has manifested her full
potentials, the life giver who bore fruit. She is aware of her worth;
human life and the continuation of the species depend on her. The
Crone is the wise old hag; she has learned the lessons of life and
is now ready to teach them to whoever is willing to listen. This
development sounds just as smooth as its masculine counterpart,
until we realize that one thing is conspicuously missing: sexuality.
There is no sexuality in the feminine archetypes represented by
the three faces of the Moon. The Virgin is not yet ready. Her innocence
stems from her complete lack of carnal knowledge. She may, of course,
be awakened in time, but in the New Moon phase not even the thought
germ of sexuality can be detected, and rightly so. Think of medieval
times when a girl’s biggest asset was her virginity, short
of which she was a “fallen woman”. The Mother, on the
other hand, is past experience and knowledge, yet this phase equally
lacks sexuality. The Mother is not interested. Pregnant or lactating
women are often confronted with this feeling. Thoughts are around
the baby and the feminine body becomes a feeding tube. Lust is relegated
to the depths of the unconscious. Or so we think we should feel…
The Crone, the manifestation of the Balsamic Moon, is no longer
thinking of such games, and even if she would, who on earth would
consider her as playmate? The Crone is too old. She is past her
prime. She may be a repository of all sorts of knowledge but nobody
seems to be interested in her or what she has to offer.
What happened
to feminine sexuality? According to today’s astrological interpretations,
which are based on several-thousand-year-old lore, sexuality and
eroticism are missing from our nighttime luminary, the main female
archetype. Luckily, we have Venus, who reeks sexuality. Venus-Aphrodite
is man’s live Barbie doll. She personifies whatever men desire
and dread in women: lust, beauty, seduction, independence, the right
to choose and act freely - and she even has the body for it! Venus
is everything the Moon is not. In fact, she is the anti-Moon. She
has never been a virgin, and although she does have a son, Eros,
she will never be either mother or crone. How could she become a
crone, she will certainly never grow old! That would involve becoming
ugly, and the Goddess of Love cannot do that… As for the mothering
instinct, in her case it is driven by her desire to conquer the
Demeter-Persephone pair, par excellance the perfect mother and daughter.
Aphrodite conceives for the same reason that beautiful, socially
active ladies do, who try to copy ordinary women in their roles
so that society would treat them with respect. Those ladies want
both worlds, respectability and adoration, so they end up bearing
an offspring. Interestingly enough, in their case the mothering
instinct is often replaced by possessiveness towards the child,
who is more like an object, “theirs”, especially if
it is a boy, and potential girlfriends are rejected, looked down
upon, even mistreated. Aphrodite does the same because she considers
her son’s mortal lover, Psyche, as a rival and a threat to
her supremacy. But in most of the myths, Aphrodite does not appear
as mother at all; she is simply an object of desire, the eternal
seducer, or the heroine of an ever-running erotic movie.
The discovery
of trans-Saturnian planets and their incorporation into astrological
knowledge added four masculine archetypes to the existing ones,
which considerably opened up astrological interpretation potentials,
but at the same time they did not distort the clarity and logic
of the picture. Uranus, bringer of chaos and change, is the ingenious
eccentric or the brilliant anarchist. Neptune, god of the seas,
personifies universal love, esoteric knowledge, and artistic achievements.
Both planets may also be the indicators of sexual identification
problems, such as being homosexual, transsexual, or transvestite,
but not necessarily. Pluto, lord of the Underworld, perhaps the
most dreaded and often misinterpreted masculine archetype, adds
both intensity and power to the picture, and may also be linked
to sexual aberrations like sadism, masochism, or fetishes. Ever
since Chiron was spotted in 1977 yet another archetype has been
coloring astrological delineation: the wounded healer. And today’s
man is so often wounded; traditional male roles of the sovereign
or the fighter or the breadwinner have been systematically taken
away from him over the course of the past century, especially in
the last few decades. His physical strength is diminishing (he no
longer needs to lift heavy tools or carry forty pounds of armor),
his authority questioned (today’s emancipated woman seems
to have all the rights), his manhood disregarded (lesbian movements
and in vitro fertilization ensure it). Chiron’s arrival has
created a shift that is not immediately obvious on the individual
level but all the more evident in the world at large by adding a
wounded image to masculinity.
With the four
invisible planets astrological delineation has become more complicated
but also more fine-tuned to modern life. We have gained a number
of archetypical variations, which represent new facets and new potentials
of the New Age male. Sun-Uranus is the inventor or today’s
dot com businessman, who makes millions out of a brilliant idea
with no assets or initial infrastructure and may thus become Jupiter-Uranus.
Mars-Uranus is the young iconoclast, who cannot accept any form
of conformity and traditions, the young sports hero, or the homosexual
who openly flaunts his “difference”. Saturn-Uranus may
sound as a contradiction, but if we consider the fact that these
two planets have become joint rulers of Aquarius, it becomes obvious
that they can learn how to work together quite well: what Uranus
invents Saturn shapes and structuralizes. Mars-Neptune is today’s
pop musician, who has both determination and clear vision. Sun-Neptune
is the guru, who teaches millions of a better way of life, quite
often becoming Jupiter-Neptune as a result, making a ton of money
and rising to celestial heights. Saturn-Neptune is the artist or
the architect who structuralizes visions and constructs buildings
that may well outlive him in importance and time. Mars-Pluto is
the young man determined to make it big, no matter what the odds
are; Sun-Pluto is the dominant and influential businessman, who
may choose to stay out of the limelight but who exerts power and
owns real wealth. Jupiter-Pluto is the single most successful blend
of astrological archetypes because it combines greatness with intense
desire - a winning pair in every sense, no matter what the chosen
field of operation is. On the other hand, Saturn-Pluto is just the
opposite; it merges the two death planets, which may cause destruction,
pain, loss, or frustration, despite great efforts and the will to
succeed. Mars-Chiron may be wounded in his will or sexuality; Sun-Chiron
in his strength or ego; Saturn-Chiron in his authority; and Jupiter-Chiron
in his luck.
Let’s
examine what has happened to the feminine ever since the four major
asteroids were discovered. The asteroid belt, consisting of several
thousand fragments of a planet that blew up, is in itself a profound
image of the shattered feminine psyche. Since asteroids are smaller
than planets, their meaning is less complex. They generally emphasize
one single character trait or behavior pattern. Ceres, Pallas Athena,
Juno, and Vesta are important goddesses of antiquity, each having
a distinct role, although Vesta’s have changed at least four
times. Ceres-Demeter, mother of Persephone and goddess of cultivation,
represents the Full Moon aspect from a more humane viewpoint. The
primordial Full Moon expresses both the need and the capacity of
the eternal feminine to procreate, while Ceres is the goddess of
agriculture, a more refined version of the same theme. Ceres-Demeter
emphasizes the nurturing instinct and also the possessive mother
who has a hard time allowing her daughter to grow up and get on
with her life, while Pallas Athena represents her polar opposite,
the independent modern woman who stays single and rejects old family
values.
Pallas Athena,
goddess of wisdom, is the new woman emerging in a masculine society
that appreciates active roles and determination. According to Robert
Graves, Athena is matriarchy’s biggest enemy and greatest
paradox. When Zeus had a splitting headache she emerged from his
head with her helmet and shield, fully grown and clad. She was born
to a man, without the interference of a woman, and her appearance
in the Greek pantheon captures the precise moment when the Greeks
needed a new feminine archetype who was not burdened by the viciously
vindictive aspects of the old matriarchal goddesses like the Fates,
the Furies, the Erynnes, or Medusa. Athena is fresh, wise, fair,
and independent. She does not seem to need men at all; in the myths
she remains an eternal virgin. She makes her own decisions and she
has a solution for everything. At the same time, she is quite beautiful
and does not seem to lack vanity - think of the famous contest of
the goddesses Hera, Aphrodite, and Pallas Athena, where Paris was
forced to choose the fairest among them. Athena is a proud and eager
competitor, who is quite offended when she does not win. However,
her beauty remains barren; she never squanders it on men, she remains
content in her own perceived wholeness and authority.
Juno-Hera, on
the other hand, needs to put her beauty to work since she is the
official wife of Jupiter-Zeus. She is the chosen one, the queen
mother of Olympian gods, who at the same time encapsulates all the
miseries and worries of married women. Zeus is constantly cheating
on her while she spends her time spying on him, trying to do away
with the rivals and the resulting offspring. She is a jealous and
thoroughly unhappy woman for most of the time, despite her position
and titles. Juno’s appearance in the sky and in our astrological
delineation marks a historical moment when wives managed to reach
an almost equal status in marriage; at least so it happened in western
civilization. With it, however, yet another split occurred, this
time within the role of the consort: the archetype of the devoted
and jealous official wife (Juno) and that of the carefree and coquettish
lover (Venus, who has none of Juno’s status nor her obligations).
This is not to say that men have not had lovers besides their official
wives for ages, but ever since the spotting of Juno in 1803 there
has been a decided change on how western societies look at these
archetypes. All of a sudden, the split became condoned and acceptable,
even recommended.
Vesta-Hestia,
the Priestess, represents the most complicated archetype of the
four major asteroids. The distinct changes of her roles tell a sad
tale. Looking at her various stages from the ancient Moon Priestess
through temple prostitutes of Greek times and Vestal virgins of
the Romans to the Mother Superior of Catholic cloisters describes
the distortion process of the feminine psyche in a profound way.
Originally she set out as the High Priestess of the Moon Goddess,
whose duties included her role as a divine vessel during fertility
rites. She would choose a man and would connect him to the Goddess
through the ecstasy of sexual intercourse while she often stayed
out of the experience. In later times the Greeks, who were smart
enough not to change ancient rites by force, erected their temples
at various sacred sites and distorted the essential meanings of
the rites. Hestia’s priestesses became temple prostitutes,
who had to have sex with whoever showed up at the gates. Then in
Roman times, Vestal virgins were hand picked at the age of six and
had to serve the temple until they turned thirty. If they were caught
sleeping with a man their punishment was to be buried alive, and
quite a few ended up with this fate since they had to spend their
prime time in complete abstention. But at least they had a chance
to live a normal life after temple service and became coveted wives
among Roman patricians. A Catholic nun, however, was doing time
for life in total celibacy after becoming the eternal bride of Jesus.
Vesta is a profoundly troubled feminine archetype with many splits,
often denoting sexual wounds and relationship inadequacies.
The shift in
these roles from sacred sexuality to complete celibacy describes
what has happened to feminine sexuality over the millennia, but
in order to grasp the fundamental reasons behind it we need to understand
that this process also depicts a complete shift in worldviews from
matriarchy to patriarchy. Ancient man understood that a woman’s
body is a dimension portal, and orgasm was a means to forge a bridge
between the profane and the divine. Sexuality was a sacred art and
priestesses were revered. It all started to change with the rise
of patriarchy and the use of the left-brain. The new leaders of
the community knew that if they kept the two basic feminine roles
of mother (life giver) and lover (divine channel) together they
would never conquer, so they systematically began to separate them
from each other. Consider the strict use of two sets of cooking
utensils in Jewish tradition: one for meats and one for milky dishes.
This practice is a great metaphor of how profoundly scared they
were of mixing the two feminine roles of consort and mother; it
should be either or, lest they stay too powerful. Some researchers
think that land cultivation itself also encouraged this split because
husband and wife needed to stay together in order to work the fields.
In hunting-gathering times women had their own independent roles
as gatherers and had not been attached to a man as they became in
patriarchy.
The separation
of feminine roles ensured that women be kept in a subjugated and
inferior status. They became man’s property, with no other
options than to get married (Juno), become a mother (Ceres, the
Full Moon), or stay unmarried (Pallas Athena) and become a spinster
(the Balsamic Moon), a nun (Vesta), or a prostitute (Venus). The
reason why none of these options are very attractive is because
they involve mutually exclusive lifestyles. Some may seem to be
reconcilable, like wife-mother or wife-lover, but these combinations
often remain inadequate and unfulfilling. New Age women are trying
to do their very best to juggle with the fragmented roles and unite
them, admittedly with little success. New Age men, even though their
roles have changed considerably over the last century, are quite
capable of doing so. With the rise of feminine movements we seem
to have been thrown into even further extremes. Although women are
able to enjoy a much freer lifestyle (the emergence and strengthening
of the Pallas Athena archetype), it comes at a price. Single mothers
and dysfunctional families are on the rise because the traditional
family structure has been breaking up. More and more women choose
to stay alone and opt against starting a family. Lesbian movements
turn women into men; and old values, which have become meaningless
by now, are not yet replaced by new ones. This is definitely not
what the Moon Priestess, patron of matriarchy, would like to see;
so what are we to do? How can we keep our newly found freedom and
go back to those ancient and sacred rites? How can we combine the
fragmented pieces of the feminine and heal ourselves once and for
all without becoming spiteful and vindictive towards men?
The astrological
answer may lie in the discovery of a new planet, a planet that,
in fact, already exists on paper. According to Bode’s law,
a mathematical law that calculates the position, orbital time and
astronomical distance of planets, there must be a trans-Plutonian
body, it is just so far away and the area is so dense and dark that
astronomers have not yet been able to spot it. Whenever consciousness
has needed a shift it was heralded by the discovery of a new planet,
and right now we badly need such a shift. According to some astrological
researchers, Trans-Pluto is already considered to be the ruler of
Libra, and the new consciousness it suggests could, in fact, provide
a beautiful way to reconcile both the warring sexes and the fragmented
pieces of the feminine, the original split between mother and consort
and all the shattered splinters. The choices that we have right
now are not attractive because they are limiting in themselves and
often mutually exclusive. We badly need a new female planet that
would heal these wounds and unite all the fragments. The role of
Libras involves diplomacy, peace making and balancing opposites.
In our Darwinian age, where the survival of the fittest is all-important,
truths become distorted, realities twisted or lopsided. People are
unable to see other truths and are unwilling to accept other realities.
A cool and impartial Libran, however, has the ability to look at
all parties involved and find an acceptable solution to a dispute,
thus helping to reconcile the issue. None of our planetary archetypes
is able to achieve this. Libra’s present ruler, Venus, represents
the sign’s charming nature and quench for beauty. Some suggest
that this new planet shall be Persephone, daughter of Demeter, wife
of Pluto, who, just like Hermes, is capable of commuting between
the upper- and the underworld without any harm. She is the only
goddess with the role of the psychopomp, guider of souls. Her marriage
to Pluto has made her the queen of the dead, and yet she is allowed
to leave the underworld and spend half the year with her mother,
Demeter, among the living. With the potential arrival of trans-Pluto
as Persephone we may discover a new archetype that is capable of
crossing borders, accepting new realities, achieving beauty while
balancing opposites, which may give us a chance to unite and synthesize
the fragmented pieces of the feminine.
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