Reclaiming Astrology from the Patriarchy

From the Introduction. For the past twenty-five hundred years, male Astrologers have been bending the system to suit their male masters. They did that by rebranding the Zodiac and butchering the art’s elegant Geometry. In our modern world, it’s easy to forget that the Zodiac is humanity’s oldest teaching tool. Its purpose was to instruct the generations about how to find food in every season. But those Astrologers repainted the stories in the sky to support their leaders and prevailing religions, in the process uplifting men and downgrading women. To give you a peek at how dramatically they cut and pasted the Zodiac, five of the six Feminine Astrological Signs were altered, and not for the better, including one that got a sex change. Meanwhile, two of the Masculine Signs received serious upgrades. As a result, the Zodiac passed down to us devalues women and is portrayed as more mythical than practical. They also tried to redesign the heavens through changing Astrology’s geometry, which the ancients believed symbolized the social structure of society. Because Astrology was the foundation of their philosophy, any changes they made to the geometry changed their social contracts, and the way people treated each other. Yet, three different groups of male Astrologers, from three different cultures, centuries apart, made changes to Astrology’s geometry that uplifted men and damaged women. To understand what they changed, we need to understand that Astrology is based on the celestial mechanics governing the Sun, Moon and five visible Planets. That network of relationships is described in an ancient schematic with the antiquated, patriarchal name of the ’Table of Essential Dignities.’ Today, in our modern world, for clarity, we should divide the Table into two parts. One should be called the Solar System’s Family Tree. The other should be called the Solar System’s Career Tree. Yes, even the Sun, Moon and Planets like to maintain a good balance between their home and work lives. These two Trees, or networks of relationships, beautifully describe how those seven archetypal celestial bodies interact. The two Trees also describe the easily recognizable personal connections that humans make within their family and career. That is a pretty powerful tool to mess around with, but they altered it for the typical reasons, greed, influence and power.