When astrologers say masculine and feminine, it has nothing to do with male, female, or sex organs — it's one of the first steps in determining a planet's condition in a chart. The Sun, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter are masculine; Venus and the Moon are feminine. Mercury is the exception, a true hermaphrodite that can express either way depending on whether it rises before or after the Sun — before makes it masculine, after makes it feminine. This breaks down how that placement works using whole sign houses, and touches on how a planet's sign can pull it toward the opposite expression, like Jupiter turning soft and receptive in Pisces instead of its usual bold Sagittarius confidence. Know thyself. Balance your energy.
Takeaways
Masculine and feminine in astrology are classifications of planetary condition, not gender — the Sun, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter are masculine; Venus and the Moon are feminine.
Mercury is the exception — a hermaphrodite planet that reads as masculine if it rises before the Sun in the chart, or feminine if it rises after.
A planet's sign placement can shift its expression toward the opposite quality — Jupiter in Sagittarius runs at its most masculine, while Jupiter in Pisces expresses softer, more receptive, more intuitive qualities.
With that being said, when we say masculine and feminine, off top, people's minds go to male, female.
Speaker A:
But astrologically speaking, it has nothing to do with male.
Speaker A:
Female.
Speaker B:
Yeah, it has nothing to do with your.
Speaker B:
Your.
Speaker B:
Your sex organs either.
Speaker A:
No, no, no, not at all.
Speaker A:
So to begin with, one of the first steps in determining a planet's condition in a chart is how masculine or how feminine planet that is in question.
Speaker A:
Do you have a feminine planet that's an.
Speaker A:
In extreme feminine conditions, or does this feminine planet lean more towards a masculine expression?
Speaker A:
Is this masculine planet more rough, rugged and raw, or does it lean more towards a feminized expression?
Speaker A:
Do you know the masculine planets, Walter?
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
Sun, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, if I'm not mistaken, right?
Speaker A:
Are the masculine planets.
Speaker A:
And what are the feminine planets?
Speaker B:
Venus and the moon.
Speaker B:
I don't know why they only have two feminine and the rest are masculine.
Speaker A:
But.
Speaker A:
Well, like the song says, this is a man's world.
Speaker B:
Well, exactly.
Speaker B:
We can.
Speaker B:
We can.
Speaker B:
We can probably attribute that to.
Speaker B:
To, you know, to the patriarchy.
Speaker A:
But.
Speaker B:
But actually, I will say so.
Speaker B:
So, for example, Jupiter, when Jupiter is in sag, that's its most masculine expression.
Speaker B:
But when it's in Pisces, like it is right now, it's that Jupiter and Pisces is basically expressing, like, its feminine quality.
Speaker B:
So it's.
Speaker B:
It's softer, like you said, it's gentler, it's slower, it's more receptive, it's more intuitive.
Speaker A:
Well, you.
Speaker A:
You jump in the head a little bit, but.
Speaker B:
I'm giving an example.
Speaker A:
Yeah, I would.
Speaker A:
I would agree with you.
Speaker A:
I would agree with you.
Speaker A:
We did leave a planet out.
Speaker A:
Do you know which one?
Speaker B:
For the.
Speaker B:
For the feminine.
Speaker A:
Yeah, for the masculine and feminine, we did leave the planet out.
Speaker B:
Which one?
Speaker A:
Mercury.
Speaker B:
Ah, okay.
Speaker B:
But Mercury is a hermaphrodite.
Speaker A:
What does.
Speaker A:
What does hermaphrodite mean?
Speaker B:
It's both.
Speaker B:
It could be either or.
Speaker A:
Yes, Mercury can be either masculine or feminine.
Speaker A:
Do you know what determines Mercury's masculinity?
Speaker B:
The sign that it's in?
Speaker A:
No, it depends on if it rises before or after the sun.
Speaker B:
Okay, so if it rises.
Speaker B:
If it rises before the sun, it's masculine.
Speaker A:
Correct.
Speaker B:
And if it rises after the sun, it's more feminine.
Speaker A:
Correct.
Speaker B:
I. I was gonna say you basically want to have.
Speaker B:
Well, not that you want to, but so, like, if the sun is first in your chart and then Mercury comes after you see the sun on top of Mercury, basically the Mercury is more feminine.
Speaker A:
Depending on.
Speaker A:
If you are looking at your chart, you have to remember that the planets move counterclockwise in the same signs.
Speaker A:
Move.
Speaker A:
No, the planets move clockwise.
Speaker A:
No, counterclockwise.
Speaker A:
Counterclockwise.
Speaker A:
And the signs move clockwise.
Speaker A:
Either.
Speaker A:
Or one of those.
Speaker A:
When you looking at the.
Speaker B:
No, I think I. I think you got it right.
Speaker A:
I got it right?
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
All right.
Speaker B:
Yeah, I think you got it right.
Speaker A:
All right.
Speaker A:
So when you looking at the.
Speaker A:
Your birth chart.
Speaker A:
Planets.
Speaker A:
If the sun.
Speaker A:
Let's just say the sun is in your first house.
Speaker A:
Planets.
Speaker A:
That if Mercury's in the 12th, 11th, it rose before the sun.
Speaker A:
If it's.
Speaker A:
If it's in the second, it rose after the sun.
Speaker B:
Got it.
Speaker A:
All right.
Speaker A:
Now that.
Speaker A:
Now that we established the planets, the next thing we need to establish is the masculine and feminine signs.
