Gloria Steinem and Eleanor Bach (1/28/12)
By Mark Lerner
Note to Readers: This feature is focused on a unique time, place and cause, and is not meant to be a complete biographical treatment of the lives of two remarkable women.
Upfront on Women’s Liberation, the USA Birth Chart, and a Revolution in Astrology
When America was born on July 4, 1776 – before the discovery of the 4 main asteroids – Pallas was located at 27 degrees of Aquarius with the Moon while Juno was placed at 21 Libra exactly opposite also undiscovered Chiron.
The U.S. Constitution did not give American women the right to vote and it was only via Amendment XIX – proposed by Congress on June 4, 1919 and ratified by the required number of states on August 18, 1920* – that our women (21 years of age and older) could vote. At the congressional proposal in early June, 1919, Pallas (representing fighting for justice, mental brilliance and wisdom) had just made a return in America’s birth chart and would make an empowering station or stopping point in the zodiac during that month. When the Amendment was ratified in August, 1920, Pallas stopped again at the first degree of the first feminine sign of the zodiac (Taurus). The Moon in Libra on ratification day exactly united with America’s Juno (symbolizing fair treatment under the law, empowerment in primary relationships, and the creation of peace and harmony in society). The Sun was nearing its annual union with Jupiter, in the royal sign of Leo, with both of these two, largest celestial bodies in our solar system (signaling an enormous expansion of consciousness) in an illuminating polarity to our nation’s natal Moon-Pallas conjunction in Aquarius. (*The Federal Government took 8 days – until August 26, 1920 – to declare that the 19th Amendment was officially part of the Constitution.)
The Equal Rights Amendment
While American women receiving the right to vote – which should have happened back in 1787 (Constitution) or 1791 (Bill of Rights) – was one step in the right direction of a true women’s liberation in this country, there were no equal rights for women across the board in society.
In 1921, suffragist Alice Paul wrote the Equal Rights Amendment (eventually introduced at the 1923 Congress for the first time). It reads as follows:
- Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction.
- Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
However, although the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was introduced into Congress year after year, it wasn’t until a very significant year in this story – 1972 – that this Amendment (at that time known as the 27th Amendment to the Constitution) was passed by the Senate on March 22 and sent to the states for ratification. The actual wording of the ERA was as follows:
Section 1. Equality of Rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.
The newly created state of Hawaii was the first to ratify the ERA – followed by 21 other states during 1972. Nevertheless, unless 38 states ratified the ERA by July 1982, it would not become law. When the time-limit ran out in the summer of 1982, only 35 states had ratified the ERA. Therefore, here we are in 2012 – 30 years or about one Saturn cycle in the zodiac later – and the ERA is still waiting in the wings for some kind of resurrection into the U.S. Constitution.
The Hidden Revolution of 1972
When 1972 began, Pallas made a station at the start of the year within 1 degree of the middle of fixed, powerful Taurus – where it had been in August, 1920, when women were given the right to vote. Simultaneously, Juno was in the middle of Libra and closing in on a union with its natal placement in the USA birth chart from July 4, 1776. With these two important asteroids appearing super-strong at the start of 1972, the prospect for some type of new revolution for women’s rights seemed to be at hand.
Only six years before, the National Organization for Women (NOW) had become a reality at the end of June, 1966. One of its founders and first president – Betty Friedan – had already become famous for her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique. Born on February 4, 1921, with her Sun at the main power point in the radical-change sign of Aquarius – and born during the same year that Alice Paul wrote the original ERA – Betty Friedan was a major force behind the 1972 movement to have a new ERA passed in Congress.
On the precise day the ERA passed the Senate (March 22, 1972) to be sent to the states for ratification, the largest asteroid Ceres stopped in the regal sign of Leo and made a direct station. This should have provided an enormous nurturing force and productive energy-field (Ceres type archetypes) allowing the ERA to be passed relatively quickly, but something blocked the passage. That “something” turned out to also be astrological, as Mercury had just gone retrograde while opposite shocking Uranus, and the Sun had just entered Aries but was simultaneously opposing Pluto in the sky (entrenched, underworld dynamics seeking to deny women their full rights). Meanwhile, battling for women’s rights was the Moon in its natural abode of Cancer (uniting with our nation’s natal Venus, Jupiter and Sun placements) while Venus in its natural home of Taurus was precisely on the Pallas station that began the year 1972 in the first place. Thus, the cosmic picture on this potentially historic date – March 22, 1972 – was a mixture of feminine power fighting an uphill battle against millennia of male dominance.
Another reason that the ERA failed to move ahead the right way in the spring of 1972 could be attributed to an “Almost Alignment” – a concept I wrote about in Inner Sight just a couple of months ago in the What’s New in Our World? section. Juno – so important in creating equal rights across the board in our society – had come within less than 1 degree of making a return at 21 Libra to its natal placement in the USA chart in early February, 1972, but then Juno stopped – just short of a precise conjunction to its USA position – and moved retrograde for over 3 months. Therefore, Juno retrograde when the ERA went to the states for ratification was moving in counterpoint to the direction of the Sun and Moon (which never go into reverse). When a celestial body is about to return to its natal placement in any birth chart and then stops just before its return to go into retrograde motion, there can be a profound let-down, a feeling of loss and exasperation, that a golden opportunity – about to be experienced – will not occur.
Enter Gloria Steinem and Eleanor Bach
The reason this AstroBiography is focused on Gloria Steinem and Eleanor Bach is that both of these women – in the 1972 time-period – revolutionized women’s consciousness as well as men’s consciousness via revolutionary acts. Gloria Steinem became the co-founder of Ms. Magazine – which first appeared as an insert at the end of 1971 in New York Magazine, but then came into being on its own in the beginning of 1972. Already a celebrity and well-known nationally and internationally, Gloria Steinem’s presence on the New York scene and in the publishing world created a new wave of literary expression for women’s rights in all spheres of life.
In synchronistic fashion, something shocking was about to occur in the field of astrology. Although the first 4 asteroids (Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta) had been discovered in 1801, 1802, 1804 and 1807, respectively, and had been considered to be planets when they were discovered, their status had been downgraded several decades later, due to their smallness as well as the discovery of a large number of other asteroids all orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. However, Eleanor Bach – a New York City based astrologer, who had been a professional since 1960 – was able to create the first ephemerides of Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta, allowing all astrologers to incorporate the zodiacal positions of these crucial celestial bodies in birth charts.
While Gloria Steinem and Eleanor Bach may have never officially met (although I have a strong feeling that Eleanor would have gone to either a lecture or convention where Gloria was a speaker), they were both living and working in New York City in 1972. I know this personally because I grew up in NYC and began my own astrology work in 1972 and almost immediately attended gatherings by Eleanor Bach at her home in lower Manhattan.
Eleanor Bach Revolutionizes Astrology
While women’s equal rights is the major message of this feature, the fact is that astrology had been heavily male-dominated for several thousand years – due to the male-named gods equating with almost all of the celestial bodies and planets (except Venus, and the Moon, which is really a satellite of the Earth). Not only did Eleanor Bach bring forth the goddess archetypes of Ceres (Mother), Pallas (Daughter), Juno (Wife-Partner) and Vesta (Sister) to the entire astrological community, but she opened the door to Zipporah Dobyns, Demetra George and a large number of female and male astrologers to explore these archetypes and publish extraordinary works of their own.
Eleanor went on to create a monthly periodical – Planet Watch – which was absolutely terrific because she understood how the 4 main asteroids worked in the real world, and therefore she kept writing brilliant articles about Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta in their Mundane Astrological expression. Since I was publishing the printed version of Welcome to Planet Earth astrology magazine (1981 – 2000) and she and I had become close friends and colleagues for over two decades, Eleanor graciously agreed to send articles to our journal on her newest findings on the asteroids. These appeared in our magazine in the 1990s.
It’s important to note that in 1986, Eleanor created another sensation with her self-published work entitled A Graphic Ephemeris of Sensitive Degrees: Planetary Stations and Eclipses from 1900 to 2000. In this masterpiece, she put forth her hypothesis – which she carefully confirmed – that there were what she called “Hidden Stations,” that celestial bodies which had previously stopped at specific degrees of the zodiac would continue to emanate a power or resonance for months or even years later. Therefore, the zodiac was being impregnated in a sense by every station and the qualities of the celestial bodies at those stations would have a life-flow and energizing spirit affecting all kinds of personal and worldly events into the future. This book of Eleanor’s is one of my most used astrological resources of the past 25 years.
Near the close of the written portion of her book, Eleanor asked the public to help explore the meanings of the next four asteroids that were discovered (Astraea, Iris, Hebe and Flora), and she related all of them, via mythology, to Juno. This brings us to the amazing connections between the charts of Eleanor Bach and Gloria Steinem, and to their mutual connection to America’s birth chart.
Eleanor, Gloria and America
The following synchronicities show up in the charts of Eleanor Bach and Gloria Steinem. Both are born with Jupiter in Libra – where the Jupiter placements are very close to the USA Juno. In mythology, Jupiter and Juno were husband and wife, or partners – even though their relationship was rather tempestuous (to say the least) most of the time. Both Eleanor and Gloria have elevated Moons in strong relationships to Jupiter (Eleanor by exact trine and Gloria by exact quintile of 72-degrees). They both have Venus (the key planet of overall feminine issues before the discovery of the 4 main asteroids) very prominent – where Eleanor has Venus exactly square her Lunar Nodal Axis and Gloria has Venus conjunct her Lunar North Node. This symbolizes the fact that both would revolutionize the Venusian concepts of love, creative artistry and social activity, and vastly broaden their meanings for women and men.
In addition, they both have Juno square Mars at birth – revealing them as fighters (Mars) for the empowerment of women (Juno) – and they both have Pallas (warrior for women’s justice and wisdom-keeping) prominent, as Eleanor has a rising Pallas close to Jupiter in Libra (the sign of relationships) while Gloria came into the world with a Pallas, Sun and Mars triple conjunction in fiery Aries. In regard to Pallas, it is amazing to realize that 26 days after Eleanor Bach’s birth, her Progressed Pallas made a station and went into reverse. When she published the first asteroid ephemeris (1972 & 1973), her Progressed Pallas had returned precisely to its natal placement. Remember that in the actual sky – at the beginning of 1972 – Pallas had made a station right at the power point in the middle of the first feminine sign of the zodiac – Taurus.
When you look at the top of their birth charts – the area having to do with higher levels of teaching and publishing (9th house) and career-professional influence and stature (10th house) – you see in both of their horoscopes that the Moon is with the two outer planets, Neptune and Pluto. For Eleanor, the Moon in Gemini is approaching both Pluto in Cancer and Neptune in Leo, whereas Gloria has a Leo Moon that had just united with Pluto in Cancer and is approaching Neptune in Virgo. This similarity of the Moon with two of the outer three planets reveals that both women were destined in the public awareness (the Moon rules the masses in Mundane Astrology) to change the generational understanding (Neptune and Pluto) of millions of women around the world, and create a deep-seated transformation within the fields of their expertise (women’s rights in society and the universal feminine characteristics within the realm of astrology).
The Rest of 2012
It is humbling and yet timely to realize that as this is being written and offered to Inner Sight readers, Pallas in the sky is returning to its natal position at 27 degrees of Aquarius in the USA birth chart while Juno enters Sagittarius (America’s Rising sign), such that Juno will make three crossings of our specific rising degree during this crucial presidential election year.
We already have a president –Barack Obama – who has appointed two women to the Supreme Court and the lone stationary celestial body at his birth is Juno – which happens to be at one of the strongest power points in the entire zodiac (0+ Aries – the birthing point of the zodiac itself). Juno not only represents women’s equal rights, in the broadest possible manner, but it is the smallest of the first four asteroids to be discovered. President Obama – whether you agree with his politics or not – has been fighting (particularly in several of his last few speeches) to make our armed forces smaller, as well as condensing governmental departments. One of the destiny factors bringing him into the presidency is to restore the diplomatic and treaty alliances we have with our allies (a very Juno concept internationally) while also emphasizing the “fairness doctrine” (a totally Juno archetype) in our society: that everyone should have a fair chance to succeed and everyone plays by the same rules. When you hear him enunciate these ideas, you are witnessing his stationary Juno at fiery 0 degrees Aries, ruling over much of his life-purpose.
If a Republican wins the presidency and the Senate turns Republican as well – giving a new president complete control of both branches of Congress – not only could the Obama health care bill be overturned, but Roe vs. Wade, making abortion legal nationally, could also be overturned by a Supreme Court that might be emboldened to side with the new, “apparent” conservative majority within our federal government.
On the other hand, on Election Day (November 6, 2012), the USA Progressed Moon in Libra will be exactly on top of our national Juno – something that hasn’t occurred in 27 years. The odds are that the public will want to recognize the Juno realm at that time and unless the Republicans become complete women supporters during the next 10 months, the cosmic picture may favor a win by the current president as long as young voters and independent-minded voters go to the polls – knowing what is at stake if the forces on behalf of women’s rights are defeated.
Eleanor Bach died on April 30, 1995, but Gloria Steinem continues her active life on behalf of women all over the world. With Juno and Pallas so prominent during this important year for America and humanity, we should be honoring the revolutionary achievements of Eleanor and Gloria – helping to make sure that the United States doesn’t fall into shadow as Uranus begins squaring Pluto seven times (starting this June and continuing into March 2015) and as Saturn squares our national Pluto in March/April and September, 2012. These heavy-duty planetary challenges often prevent the more subtle and sensitive vibrations – coming from the asteroids – to come into manifestation.
It is all of our responsibility (women and men) to keep the forces for women’s equal rights going strong and not let down our guard due to worry and doubt caused by concerns over the end-shift or rebirth of the Mayan Long Count of 5,125-years and other prophecies regarding the so-called “End of the World.” If we are not careful in the voting booths across our land this fall, a political-social-financial End of the World could unfold for our nation and we definitely don’t want that to occur. Therefore, vote with your heart, the historical understanding of what is at stake, and with the presence of Pallas and Juno guiding your choices.
Note: Click on each of the weblinks below to view a chart for Eleanor Bach and Gloria Steinem.
www.marklernerastrology.com/shop/images/BachEleanorWRKBF7.GIF
www.marklernerastrology.com/shop/images/SteinemGloriaWRKCI8.GIF
©2012 by Mark Lerner and Great Bear Enterprises, Ltd. All rights reserved.
