The moon is a they: ungendering the cosmos

image description: a bright, full moon casts light on the clouds below. image is tinted a dreamy red-orange.

If you’ve spent any time in spiritual and/or queer circles, you’ve doubtless been told that the moon is a she. That the moon represents the divine feminine, as a corollary to the sun’s masculine energy.

As a feminist, this reinscription of the gender binary onto the cosmos has never sat right with me. If the sun is a boy, and the moon is a girl, then where does that leave everyone outside the binary? And who decided which was which?

People typically reply: the moon is a symbol of feminine energy, not of women per se.

Everyone has feminine and masculine energy inside them.

Still, this easy duality of feminine vs. masculine energy doesn’t seem much better than women vs. men. If feminine energy represents a group of feminized traits, such as receptive, open, sensual, and masculine energy represents another “opposite” group of masculinized traits, such as assertive, decisive, and bold…

… then aren’t we just back at square one?

Nevertheless, this post isn’t about deconstructing gender in spirituality. I’m aware that people have their personal spins on feminine and masculine energy that are not binaristic, sexist, or gender-limiting.

Instead, I want to encourage us to practice more autonomy over the way we think about the cosmos.

If understanding the moon as radiant feminine energy does something positive for you — if it connects you more deeply to nature and your understanding of divine femininity — then great!

But if this framework feels limiting, ditch it.

No one said the moon has to be a she. The moon can have whatever fucking pronouns you want, because the moon is a fundamentally ungendered celestial body.

One that all of us have a relationship to.

This might be obvious to some.

But if you’ve hung around these Moon as the Divine Feminine circles long enough, you can start to forget that you have agency to choose the gender or non-gender of your divine bodies.

After all, this cultural script is repeated countless times: from religious texts to tarot card decks, yoga sequences, and every spiritual practice in between.

But you have every right to flip the cultural scripts you’ve been given.

Sometimes, the moon as the divine feminine resonates with me. More often, it cuts me off from connection.

So more often, these days, I simply invoke the moon — and the other natural bodies I feel reverent towards — in their divine gender rainbow form. 🏳‍🌈

Photo by Altınay Dinç on Unsplash