In Astrology, your birth chart is the blueprint of your soul, and femininity and masculinity its two inseparable halves.
This play of duality is exemplified in the masculine and feminine zodiac signs.
They represent two opposing modes of being and advancing in life. The ideal is to bridge these parts of your soul and make them work together in a joint mission towards balance.
Do Astrological Signs Have a Gender?
Astrology classifies zodiac signs using 3 distinct categories: modality, element, and gender. As a category, gender divides the signs into two groups: masculine or feminine., but in astrology, the traits themselves are not linked to biological gender and are spiritual in nature.
Gender is a complex category in metaphysics but most theological systems including astrology agree that sets of traits can be characteristic of either feminine or masculine.
For example, if you’re a Leo and you’re ruled by the masculine Sun, you’re likely to be outgoing and seize every opportunity to be the center of attention.
But if you’re a deep and receptive Cancer (Feminine), too many people means too much vibrational data to absorb so you find yourself not wanting to be the center of attention. This antithesis to the masculine outgoing nature is the feminine, a crucial player in the balancing act.
Here is a chart of the Astrological Signs and their masculine/feminine association:
| Masculine Signs: | Feminine Signs: |
|---|---|
| Aries | Taurus |
| Gemini | Cancer |
| Leo | Virgo |
| Libra | Scorpio |
| Sagittarius | Capricorn |
| Aquarius | Pisces |
In the rest of this article, we will be looking deeper into how gender plays a role in astrology and how it can be used to help you understand rich aspects of your personality.
Why Are there Masculine / Feminine Signs?
Many studies today are showing that women can have more traditionally masculine traits and men can exhibit the gentler qualities of empathy and nurture. But to astrology, this is old news.
To answer why zodiac signs are divided into masculine and feminine, our best bet would be to take a closer look at the metaphysical nature of gender.
In astrology, gender has always been a spectrum between two essential polarities – positive and negative. Positive represents the masculine and negative the feminine. These two polarities are neutral mechanisms of nature, which we divided into two separate concepts to explain the larger mechanism at play.
Here is a table showing the difference between Masculine and Feminine energy. It is based on the theories of Chinese traditional medicine of Yin and Yang (click here to read more).
| Masculine (Yang) + | Feminine (Yin) – |
|---|---|
| Active | Passive |
| Extroverted | Introverted |
| Out-going | Reserved |
| Logical | Intuitive |
| Assertive | Receptive |
| Impulsive | Methodical |
| Outer-oriented | Faced inward |
| Odd numbers | Even numbers |
| Hot | Cold |
| Right | Left |
Masculine and Feminine each have unique qualities. In Traditional Chinese Medicine it is believed that everyone has both of these energies, and having them circulate clearly is the key to good health.
Because of their essential neutrality, none of these characteristics are fixed to biology.
Just like being a woman is associated with certain roles in society but not fixed or defined by them (motherhood, caregiver, emotional support) and a man with others (breadwinner, protector, voice of logic), femininity and masculinity stand for the roles certain neutral forces play in order to describe their interaction with each other.
The physical category – man and woman, shows the interaction between these energies on the level of society. The metaphysical ones explore the ether, and the blueprint of reality before it physically manifests.
Masculine Signs: What Does It Mean?
As a force in nature, masculinity is the driving energy that makes everything run. It’s constantly looking for motion and expansion.
It wants to touch every atom in the universe and leave its code. It’s the positive charge of the polarity, the one that emits the energy and never runs dry.
The essential compulsion of masculine zodiac signs is to reproduce, so it constantly has new energy that needs to be refined and turned into matter.
If you’re a masculine zodiac sign, you are a real people magnet and constantly want to share all that intense energy with others. When you socialize, you always dominate the vibe. At work, you excel in controlling the strategy and bringing fresh ideas from the limitless source you’re connected to.
Masculine planets are Sun, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, and Uranus.
The negative manifestations of masculine energies are aggression, narcissism, and isolation. If the positive polarity is overrepresented in your natal chart, your vibration might be charged to repel energy (people and manifestations) instead of pulling it closer.
Your lesson is to learn feminine skills in order to avoid burnout, anxiety, and even aggression.
Feminine Signs: What Does It Mean?
Where the masculine sign has the tendency to overthink, the feminine knows the art of quiet contemplation. If you’re a feminine sign, you will rarely work yourself into burnout. You know when to stop and soothe yourself, go inward, and recharge.
The feminine planets are Moon, Venus, Neptune, and Pluto.
As inner planets, Moon and Venus have the most direct influence on us and make sure that the feminine energy is evenly spread out. As feminine celestial bodies, they filter the light and energy that is constantly coming towards us and going through us.
They don’t themselves emit this light and energy – that’s the job of the masculine Sun. But they take in that light and energy and transform it so that it creates the play of light which is the foundational essence of the known and visible universe.
The Moon is satisfied just reflecting the light of the Sun back at us and making our nights perfectly light.
If you have your Sun or Moon in a feminine sign, you don’t have a problem working incognito and letting someone else take the spotlight.
The negative traits sometimes associated with the feminine are codependency, manipulation, obsession, and in the case of Scorpio – even aggression. The lesson of the feminine is to express emotions clearly and assert them in their environment in an artistic or creative way.
The Elements and Masculine/Feminine Energy in Astrology
The talk of gender in astrology really can’t be done without examining the elemental forces associated with the polarities.
That’s why the category of elements always overlaps with gender, each element being either feminine or masculine.
This gives us an interesting insight into which modes of being and interacting are considered feminine and which masculine.
Here is a chart showing the Masculine Elemental Signs of Fire and Air, and the Feminine Signs of Water and Earth.
| Active | Passive |
| Masculine | Feminine |
| Fire | Air | Water | Earth |
| Aries | Libra | Cancer | Taurus |
| Leo | Gemini | Pisces | Virgo |
| Sagittarius | Aquarius | Scorpio | Capricorn |
Masculine Signs
🔥 Fire Signs 🔥
Masculine signs under the leadership of the fiery Sun are preoccupied with their image and this can make them seem egotistical and self-centered. But if you’re a fire sign, you need to know what vibes you give off and whether they’re adequate.
As the Sun you are the dominant vibration, and people probably come to you to get energized. You’re the life of the party and you live to party.
Because you have no brakes, you serve a vital role in society.
You set the trends people follow and don’t shy away from voicing your opinion.
You are confident and charismatic, which makes people gather around your ideas and make something happen.
💨 Air Signs 💨
Air signs like to spice things up and get people moving. But they are more emotionally reserved and focused on societal change.
If you’re an air sign, your method is intellectual rebellion. You instigate change through language, organized speech, writing, or by making cutting-edge advancements in science and tech.
In the Tarot deck, the swords represent the air signs and they represent words.
You can sometimes hurt people with harsh words without being emotionally invested in the situation. For this reason, you can come across as cruel and cold. But you really didn’t mean it, your mind is just a constant conversation between ideas and you tend to forget the less logical and more gentle and compassionate side of life.
Feminine Signs
💧 Water Signs 💧
Water signs are Pisces, Cancer, and Scorpio. They are the deepest people you’ve ever met and know-how to thread the chaotic waters of emotion.
They’ll instruct you in spiritual matters, write poetry and enchant you with their immersive art and dreamworld.
If you’re a water sign, you’re probably an idealist and believe that utopia is achievable.
You’ve probably even looked for it through religion, and found out that you can help the world by just being a deep, strong presence that gives confidence to the ideal.
Your approach to life is to go with the flow, and you completely trust the rivers that are carrying you.
You don’t plan much and rely on your strong faith and connection with the universe to sail through the troubles. Take care not to become too dreamy and lose touch with the material world.
The imagination and emotional spectrum you have access to are endless, and it can occupy too much of your attention.
🌎 Earth Signs 🌎
Earth signs are Virgo, Taurus, and Capricorn, and their shared characteristic is the grounded and methodical approach to life.
If you’re an earth sign, you’re also effective at contemplation like your fellow water signs.
Your resources are also inner ones, and you need self-reflection to recharge and collect yourself. But unlike emotional Pisces for example, you make sure not to wander too far from the earth and have pragmatic rather than poetic takeaways from your self-talk.
You are detail-oriented and would definitely be a Ravenclaw.
Another feminine characteristic embodied by earth signs is the magnetism with which they draw energy and matter towards themselves. This trait is the reason earth signs are the most effective manifesters.
If you’re in this group and no major planetary positions are jinxing it, you’ll probably find a way to become a millionaire by the time you leave this earth.
Are Zodiac Traits Different for Men or Women?
Every astrologer who knows what they’re doing will probably tell you that your sun sign is just a small piece of a complex puzzle. When it comes to the traits you have and how you’re likely to express them, studying the whole birth chart will probably give you the clearest answers.
But according to some astrologers, like Francesca Oddie, how you read your birth chart might depend on whether you’re a man or a woman.
They believe that women act more like their moon sign, while it’s men that are influenced by their sun sign.
The Sun is considered to be a masculine planet because it symbolizes outward expression, extroversion, ambition, and ego – all of the masculine traits.
The Moon, on the other hand, is heavily related to hormones, female reproductive organs, receptivity, and emotion.
In Conclusion
To help out with the categorization, astrology divides zodiac signs into masculine and feminine.
Each category represents a set of physical properties and personality traits that either describe the feminine or the masculine archetype.
These traits are not fixed to our biological gender, and men can exhibit traditional female characteristics and vice versa.
The goal is to integrate both energetic charges and work closely with the higher forces that transcend gender, polarity, and all division.
