Then, after having made such a long and difficult journey, they went home secretly and told no one else about what they had seen and done. Luke was a friend of Mary's, and there are many places in his gospel where it is clear that he was writing his gospel from her point of view and from a personal knowledge of her actions and thoughts. In its natural, external form, this Gospel appears to be written from the woman's point of view. It is therefore appropriate that the shepherds' experience is recorded only in Luke. The shepherds' experience was totally different from that of the Wise Men.
Shepherds are, obviously, keepers of sheep.
Sheep, like little children, represent innocence, so shepherds can be seen to be a symbol for the feminine use of the protection and care of little children. When the angels presented themselves to the shepherds, we see represented the feminine response to the Lord's Coming. Unlike the Wise Men, the shepherds were very near by when the birth took place. While they were watching their sheep the angel appeared to them, not as a star like that seen by the Wise Men, but as an angel. As soon as they saw it and heard the message their reception of it was so clear and immediate that they were able to draw even nearer and perceive that it was not just one angel, but a whole heavenly society.