In astrology, it’s agreed that the Sun and Moon, Mars and Venus are the significators of male and female. The Moon’s fluctuations and the lunar phase, which are the result of the Sun and Moon’s relationship with the Earth, is a fascinating measure of reproductive and behavioral cycles for all forms of life on our planet, from the simplest to the most complex life forms. Our Sun/Moon/Earth relationship is remarkable for the similarities and differences of the “Lights”: the Sun and Moon sizes are approximately the same from our vantage point; while the Sun’s apparent motion is regular, with its risings, settings, and declinations giving us consistent seasons, the Moon’s size and shape changes, and its risings, settings and declinations follow a complex series of cycles that can span decades.

And then there’s Earth’s position between Venus’s and Mars’s orbits. These two bodies are our planetary gender significators. Where the Sun and Moon could be defined as our father and mother, the husband and wife, Venus and Mars could be simply called woman and man. Could this relationship between our planet and those two bodies be an additional determinant of gender for Earthlings?

It’s been said that when we go to the hereafter, or when we’re still in the therebefore, gender does not exist nor is it relevant. Supposedly, before an incarnation takes place, we decide our gender along with other things, to learn specific lessons in our next life. Does that realm exist within our solar system and for our planet only? Or, does that pre-prenatal and post-incarnation realm lie outside our solar system, and do our “choices” for the next lifetime include which solar system we will be born into?

Let’s consider another solar system. What variables for living might exist elsewhere in our universe? Let’s imagine a hypothetical solar system, Stelluna. In Solar System Stelluna, there is one Sun that is the central star as with our solar system; it also has one sole planet that is capable of supporting life that we’ll call Tri. However, unlike our Earth, Tri has three Moons of different sizes with their orbits at wider distances from Tri. And as miraculous as our Sun/Moon/Earth setup, Tri’s three Moons and its Sun all have the same apparent size when viewed from that planet. The moons’ distances and orbits do not pose the danger of collision, allowing for regularity between their cycles. Thus the binary relationship that we have with our Moon and Sun does not exist there. On Tri, it’s possible for there to be two Full Moons and a Quarter Moon at once, or during another cycle there could be a solar eclipse, a Balsamic Moon and an early crescent phase at another time. Moreover, those moons could eclipse each other! How would that affect fertility cycles on Tri? Would there be four genders, or three kinds of feminine (lunar) principles? Is it possible that the closer moon to Tri would have a greater influence on tides and material growth, while the more distant moons would have psychological and subtler influences? Do moons always represent a feminine principle? Might the moon closer to the sun be more “in tune” with “male” solar energy, and combine male and female characteristics, while the moons closer to planet Tri could be more “feminine”, having more of a connection with birth and nurturing?

We may be able to get some answers to those questions by examining multi-lunar cycles within our solar system, where it may be possible to measure and infer possible lunar effects on planets even if they are far away, without earthly life, and possess thick cloud covers such as Jupiter and Saturn have. The larger planets have many moons: Jupiter and Saturn have over 30, Uranus at least 19, and Neptune 8. Some of them have larger equatorial radiuses than our Moon’s, which is at 1,737 kilometers. For example: Jupiter’s Ganymede is the largest at 2,631 kilometers; Saturn’s atmospheric Titan is 2,575; and Jupiter’s icy, cratered Callisto, with 2,400, and Jupiter’s volcanic Io, at 1,815. Others are not much smaller, such as Jupiter’s bright Europa, 1,569; and Neptune’s Triton, the coldest body in our solar system is 1,350 kilometers.

These multi-lunar complexes are very different from Earth’s one moon, Mars’s two, and Pluto’s three. It’s conceivable that their lunar effects are different, possibly stronger in relation to the Sun, since the Sun is distant and visually smaller than many of those moons. Alternatively, looking at the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, might their moons’ numbers and comparatively tiny size make their effects less consequential than our relatively larger and single Moon is for us? For an example of a lunar cycle different than ours and similar to our Stelluna example except the moons are different sizes, and Charon, Pluto’s principal moon, is much larger than our Moon is relative to Pluto. And also similar to Stelluna, with the Sun being very faint, Charon could have a stronger lunar effect than our Moon. Below are images that give us an intriguing idea of Charon’s unusual lunar phases.

Charon has a very long lunar cycle. Below is how the different phases of the lunar cycle would have looked in 1930, the year of Pluto’s discovery; the Sun was in Pluto’s southern hemisphere, at 53 degrees latitude. Notice that Charon is not completely round at its full phase, missing light in its northern portion: