Balancing The Masculine and The Feminine

Shivashakti - male and female energies combine in one body.

The asteroids – Ceres, Juno, Vesta and Pallas, named for four of the great goddesses of Olympus – were actually discovered before the outer planets Neptune and Pluto. But you wouldn't think so, given the amount of attention astrologers paid to them for the next 200 years or so. That is – almost no attention at all.

I've always found this odd, since the asteroids so clearly fill a huge, yawning gender gap in astrology – at least nominally.  The traditional planets have a 5-2 balance in favour of the masculine, but once the three new outer planets were added in the 19th and 20th centuries, that balance shifted to 8-2.

Now I don't believe that's a good representation of the human spirit, do you? Or even of life on Earth.

Marlene Dietrich.

Excepting perhaps Mars and Venus, it would be foolish to argue that any planet really represents purely male or female energy. But it would be equally foolish to ignore what the names of the planets are telling us; how the stories we tell about them are different depending on whether the named deity is "male" or "female"; and how the naming of things moulds our thinking.

In fact, just when women in the real world were gaining more power and freedom than they had ever had in history, astrology was marginalising the feminine even further.

Demetra Georgiou's book Asteroid Goddesses published in the 1970s was a lonely attempt to pay those ladies some heed. That was the decade when second wave feminism was supposedly shaking things up. But in the world of astrology everyone was too taken with a new boy, Chiron, to pay much attention to those old ladies, who, by then had been known for nigh 170 years.



Reams were written about Chiron. It became pretty standard to include Chiron in charts. But still the asteroids were neglected.

But now, as we've been surfing through the the world-changing energies that have come into play this decade, trying not to get sucked under by a big wave, interest in the asteroids has grown like a groundswell. And the astronomers promoted Ceres to a "dwarf planet", the same classification as Pluto.

The asteroid belt lies between Jupiter and Mars. If Ceres had been reclassified as a planet – as was mooted – she would have been the fifth rock from the Sun. Chiron and the centaurs, in contrast are way out between Saturn and Uranus.

We all contain what could loosely be termed masculine and feminine energies within ourselves – and we always have done, whether we want to acknowledge that or not. The arrival of the asteroids  in the conversation acknowledges the feminine side of human nature explicitly.

But when Ceres, Juno, Vesta or Pallas is added to the chart, the meaning is often fuzzy, overlaid with a gauze of wishful thinking. In this context, it's always as well to remember that interpretations of planetary meanings reflect the times. So for example, poor Juno, the goddess of marriage, seems to get a rotten press from some astrologers who don't like the institution itself, whereas Ceres, the goddess of the corn, is expected to be benevolent because she is associated with mother earth.

Planetary energies are not good or bad, benevolent or malevolent, in my view. It is we people who work with them for good or ill. A well-placed Jupiter may help you to great wealth by running a Ponzi scheme, or you great generosity of spirit. It is up t to you to choose.

Nor are the planets fair. Some people are luckier, prettier, cleverer and more successful than others. But give or take war, famine or plague, happiness is something we can all try to achieve. We can all work with what we've been given, with the energies of the times we are in and try to do our best.

When you think about the meanings of the asteroids, it's as well to ask yourself, "Where's the evidence?"

Here are some previous articles I've written about:

Ceres
Seeing Pregancy Through Ceres Eyes
Happy Birthday, Mother Goddess
Ceres, Food and Revolution
The UK Riots: Mummy I'm Hungry
New of the World: The Bitter End
Earthquake Chart
From Beneath the Earth...
When It Rains...

Pallas
Who Has True Grit? Looking at War Correspondents Charts
Woven Music
Anne Sinclair: The Power Behind DSK
Pallas Athena and The God of War
Why Pallas Athena Is the Astrologer's Asteroid

Juno
Britain and Ireland: A Miserable Marriage Turns into a Beautiful Friendship
Valentine's Day, Aquarius and the Goddess of Marriage
Royal Wedding Astrology: Juno Lends a Helping Hand

Vesta
The Astrology of Anorexia
Why Capricorn Nigella is a Modern Vestal (Un)Virgin