The Divine Feminine
In my book, “The Lunar Nodes,” I look at aspects to the Nodes of the Moon in the natal horoscope made by planets in the natal horoscope. I describe the planets making these aspects to the Lunar Nodes as representing archetypes that come into our lives through their connection to the Nodes. For example, the Sun aspecting the Lunar Nodes conveys the power of leadership and heroism. Then we have Venus. In the case of Venus aspecting the Lunar Nodes that archetypical figure in the Divine Feminine.
What is the Divine Feminine? For the person with Venus aspecting the Nodes, particularly if that person is a woman, it is a source of power. That power is of a very different sort than what we typically comes to us through the Sun. It is a source of power that has more to do with “we” than “me,” a source of power that is more about negotiation than domination and cooperation than conquest. For a society used to seeing power as based on ego and “winning,” it can be a strange and disruptive force.
The power of the feminine has been around for a long time, though our paternalistic society tends to ignore it. In the past it has most often been thought of as sexual, as coming out of the power of women to arouse men sexually and thus control them Many of the restrictions on the behavior and dress of women that have been imposed by various religions and society in general are a response to this sexual power. We might think that those restrictions have been designed to protect women from the lust of men, but the subtext has always been to protect men from the power of the feminine.
This is why when the rules regarding sexual interaction between a man and a woman are broken, the woman gets all or at least part of the blame. This is also why women who consciously use that power are ostracized and persecuted. They aren’t just breaking the rules, they are exercising a source of power that exists outside the paternalistic structure.
For much of human history the only source to the power of the feminine (for both women and men) was through sexual desire. It has only been in relatively recent times that people with Venus aspecting the Lunar Nodes have been able to exercise the power of the Divine Feminine in other ways. Examples of this include feminists like Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, world leaders like Margaret Thatcher and athletes like Billy Jean King. All of these women had Venus aspecting the Nodes of the Moon and each found her own way of exercising that power.
At present the power of the Divine Feminine stands alongside the power of the Sun. In many ways they are indistinguishable. However, I think the future belongs to the people with Venus aspecting the Nodes. Planet Earth has become too crowded and too delicate to allow competing egos to run rampant. Leaders who can put aside ego and find common ground are the ones we will more and more be looking to. And these will be the people with Venus aspecting the Lunar Nodes.
