Little Girls and Princesses

There seems to be a lot of concern from Mothers these days over not wanting their daughters to pretend that they are Princess. I remember hearing a Fresh Air interview with comedian Sarah Silverman saying that she loves to talk to little girls about being Princesses and about telling secrets. Knowing Silverman's style of humor this is probably done just to irk the Mothers who are freaking out whenever adults drag their girls into these non- PC conversations.

I remember how upset my own Mother used to get over my obsessions with wanting to be a Princess and with my love of the color pink. My Father on the other hand loved it. I was his little girl.

And I had a boyfriend for a while who had a 4-year old daughter who was obsessed with all things pink and purple. He loved how silly the whole thing was. And even more I think he loved how much it upset the little girl's Mother. I sort of wonder if this whole thing is now peaking with the Pluto in Libra Mothers who are super sensitive to not wanting to see their daughter's power taken away from them by any relationships or by a society that expects them to be all ruffly and Hello Kitty.

I heard a great interview with an author who has just written a book about this today. Unfortunately I lost the name of the book and the author. She was talking about women in middle age are still obsessed with Hello Kitty. There is some boutique in San Francisco which sells Hello Kitty champagne to adults who never grew up. I love Hello Kitty myself and I remember being admonished for that affection by my Mother.

So, I just want to share some findings which branches off from my research about Children and Divorce and this whole Princess thing that might have to do with a particular phase of development in little girls. In Divorce situations one would look at this phase as turning into an element of trauma which can manifest later in life in connection with the Jupiter cycle. In this case one hopes that it is just a phase that a child needs to work through in order to learn how to handle her own Jupiterian energy. We all know what a boundless bottle of Joy Jupiter is, after all.

What little boys go through might be completely different, but I have found that this part of a little girl's development corresponds really well with the first Jupiter square, trine and opposition which take up most of a child's development between the ages of 3 and 6 when the Princess stuff seems to be strongest. I think I may have my Romans mixed up with my Greeks. Jupiter is the Roman equivalent of Zeus in ancient Greece so either way I'm talking about the same guy.

In classical astrology, Jupiter is the Father of Pallas Athene. Pallas Athene, the Goddess of Wisdom, has an interesting birth story in that she has no Mother. She is born by popping directly out of her Father's head. So, I sort of wonder if this age is connected with a bonding ritual between daughter and Father which makes the Mother feel left out or which at least excludes the Mother. It would be difficult to say for sure, but sort of interesting. I'm pretty sure that within the stress of divorce, a daughter might develop a really difficult relationship with her step-mothers at this age. It's almost a given that a step-mother will complain about how manipulative her step-daughter is at this age and how she needs to have her Father's attention. For some weird reason step-mothers rarely say the same thing about the step-sons.

Either way, Jupiter is ruler of the sign of Sagittarius which rules all things having to do with giving opinions. At the age of 3 childrens' vocabularies are expanding at a very rapid rate, something like 9 words a day. This is the age (approximately) of the first Jupiter square. By the time of the first Jupiter trine, an easy aspect, children are developing "potty mouth." By the time of the first Jupiter opposition at around Age 5.5, they are learning about telling all kinds of stories, true and false. The point is, storytelling is a big part of all this Jupiter energy. In order to tell a story a person will begin to create all kinds of new roles and environments. Princesses, Castles and Magical Lands are just status quo. Well, and Jupiter likes to sit on a bar stool as well, but don't tell the kids that.

And to add to this, we also see the strong influence of Jupiter's other Classical rulership, the sign of Pisces. Pisces rules the Imagination and all the Fairy tale types of stories. Total Fairy Princess stuff. I used to know a 50 year old Pisces woman who used to grab everything and stick it on her head and say it was a crown. One can see how the Astrology says that a child's life is extremely involved in Jupiterian types of activies. I suppose I assume that one could direct one's child into applying for a Master's degree or in shooting some Heroin if one wants to put things in the adult perspective of typical Jupiterian activities, but perhaps the Princess thing is just a phase that many little girls have to go through.

The talk show I heard today was interesting -- the one with the author and book title I can't remember. Mothers calling in were very alarmed about how their daughters were developing unhealthy attitudes towards sexuality by expressing too feminine a side which they felt was connected with this Princess thing. There was a story about a first trip to the dentist in which the dentist kept the child under control by talking about Princess imagery. I have trouble connecting the inside of a mouth with being a Princess, so that's some pretty crazy Neptune imagination right there. This might be a rich kid thing anyway. Maybe poor kids don't have this obsession with Princesses at all.

They talked about how little girls are learning about their looks around this age, and playing dress up. There's the obsession with pink and purple. A Father called in and agreed that he had observed the same things in his daughter. But he noticed that his daughter had grown out of it.

Also interesting to note is that the first Pallas Athene return happens between Age 4 and 5. The other modern feminist types of asteroids come at this age as well. So perhaps Mothers can try to develop that imagery in their daughters' lives as well. From what I've observed they naturally do anyway. Ceres is the great Mother imagery. Some little girls probably still like to play dolls. Maybe Modern Mothers should teach them how to drive a tractor instead. Don't know if little girls go through any Juno phases at this time, she's Zeus' wife. I know my friends and I thought about marriage a lot at that age.