Lilith, Chiron, Pholus, Nessus and the Centaurs

Lilith, Chiron and the Centaurs.

What is Lilith?

Lilith is the name given to three altogether distinct phenomena, an asteroid, the Moon's apogee (sometimes known as Black Moon), and a hypothetical second Moon to the Earth (sometimes known as Dark Moon).

Asteroid Lilith

The asteroid Lilith (1181) has a geocentric period of about four years. Its glyph represents the upturned palm of a hand. It signifies conflict resolution (sometimes the incapability to attain this); divided loyalties; favoritism; issues of personal and sexual power, domination (particularly in male nativities) and violence; doubts over the integrity or loyalty of partners; female sexual assertiveness, fantasies, independence and lust; a lack of sexual commitment; love triangles; manipulative relationship behavior; a non-submissive disposition, particularly with regard to gender roles for women; negotiation and compromise ability; repressed anger (sometimes leading to vindictive behavior); personal independence; resentment arising from rejection; rivalry for affection, commitment or fidelity; sexual expectations or criticism; subterfuge in relationships; an uncompromising stance over beliefs; and the use of sex as a weapon of vengeance or domination.

Afflicted, Lilith can signify the inability to reach consensus before issues of power can be resolved; perceptions of femininity as being 'bitchy' or evil (particularly in male subjects); or even sexual abuse.

Transits to Lilith bring issues of comparison, competition, preference or rejection to the fore, often with some activity keeping partners relatively apart temporarily, leading to feelings of neglect and jealousy. They can also provoke confrontations with gender role stereotypes. When activated by transits, eclipses or progressions, Lilith placed strongly natal can manifest as a period of sexual disinterest or involvement in love affairs.

In synastry, aspects to Lilith indicate the necessity for those involved to negotiate compromises; and potential sexual difficulties arising from anger, fear, suspicion or rejection.

Apogee (Black Moon) Lilith

In the Moon's orbit of the Earth it periodically reaches its closest distance (perigee) and then its furthest distance (apogee). The longitude of its apogee is known as Lilith or Black Moon. Lilith in this sense is a much more major astrological consideration than either the small asteroid or the altogether questionable 'dark Moon'. The true position of apogee Lilith varies greatly from the often calculated mean position, and includes periods of retro gradation. The geocentric period of apogee Lilith is about nine years; while its glyph is a black Moon sitting over a cross.

Apogee Lilith is believed to be a point of instinctive and emotional intelligence, whereby individuals can gain contact with and feel their inner heartfelt truths and soul longings and passions. Since at Lilith the Moon is more distant from the Earth than usual, the Sun gains relative prominence, and Lilith is also associated with the unveiling of illusions, the illumination of self-defeating behavior patterns, the exorcism of self-centered desires, and the coming into closer contact with Earth wisdom. A strongly placed Lilith favors art, creativity, detachment from social norms, emotional sensitivity and vulnerability, an uncompromising will, and unconventional relationships. Natal apogee Lilith retrograde is thought to offer past life indications judged by its sign and house placement.

Only conjunctions and oppositions to apogee Lilith within a three degree orb are considered in interpretation. Such aspects to Sun, Mercury or Venus in females are thought to heighten the expression of their sexuality in their public image; those to the Moon can indicate difficulties connected with pregnancy and childbirth; and those to Mars favor the expression of independence, sometimes attracting opposition from men.

In female nativities, a strongly placed Lilith shows consciousness of one's instincts, and confident governance of one's sexuality and childbirth needs; while more negative manifestations of the placement of Lilith can be social isolation stemming from unorthodox manners of functioning, and unsuitable sexual partners. In male nativities, a strongly placed Lilith attracts the individual to equal, fair relationships with strong females, who in turn are attracted to such types as him.

Transits from apogee Lilith bring pain and uncomfortable, uncontrolled emotions in matters connected with the transited planet, and sometimes manifest as vengefulness.

In synastry contacts, apogee Lilith brings a sense of soul connection characterized by a mergence of personal and impersonal attributes, but with an inclination towards intensity, the uncovering of deep-seated desires, and some danger of obsessiveness and pain.

Hypothetical Moon (Dark Moon) Lilith

In 1618 there was a reported sighting of an apparent second Moon orbiting Earth. Sporadically ever since, speculative attention has been focused on this and other reports of such sightings, and the name Lilith has been given to them collectively, although the corporeal existence of such a Moon has never been proven and it stands to reason that almost certainly there is none and that the reported sightings had other explanations. Nonetheless, in 1918 the eminent astrologer Sepharial took the idea seriously enough to coin the name Dark Moon and publish a speculative ephemeris of its position, based on observations of perturbations to the lunar orbit. This idea was built on later by the astrologer Delphine Jay. Astronomically, Dark Moon Lilith is supposed to have a geocentric period of 119 days and to orbit at three times the distance of the Moon, while its diameter is said to be about one quarter that of the Moon.

Supposed influences of Dark Moon Lilith include objectivity, and a creative instinct that seeks impersonal expression through aesthetic, creative, mental or spiritual outlets. The glyph for Dark Moon Lilith is a zero bisected by a diagonal line from bottom left to top right that extends beyond its limits.

References: Alan G. Hefner

LILITH A female demon of the night who supposedly flies around searching for newborn children either to kidnap or strangle them. Also, she sleeps with men to seduce them into propagating demon sons. Legends told about Lilith are ancient. The rabbinical myths of Lilith being Adam's first wife seem to relate to the Sumero-Babylonian Goddess Belit-ili, or Belili. To the Canaanites, Lilith was Baalat, the "Divine Lady." On a tablet from Ur, ca. 2000 BCE, she was addressed as Lillake.

One story is that God created Adam and Lilith as twins joined together at the back. She demanded equality with Adam, failing to achieve it, she left him in anger. This is sometimes accompanied by a Muslim legend that after leaving Adam Lilith slept with Satan, thus creating the demonic Djinn.

In another version of the myth of Lilith, she was Adam's first wife before Eve. Adam married her because he became tired of coupling with animals, a common Middle-Eastern herdsmen practice, though the Old Testament declared it a sin (Deuteronomy 27:21). Adam tried to make Lilith lie beneath him during sexual intercourse. Lilith would not meet this demand of male dominance. She cursed Adam and hurried to her home by the Red Sea.

Adam complained to God who then sent three angels, Sanvi, Sansanvi and Semangelaf, to bring Lilith back to Eden. Lilith rebuffed the angels by cursing them. While by the Red Sea Lilith became a lover to demons and producing 100 babies a day. The angels said that God would take these demon children away from her unless she returned to Adam. When she did not return, she was punished accordingly. And, God also gave Adam the docile Eve.

According to some Lilith's fecundity and sexual preferences showed she was a Great Mother of settled agricultural tribes, who resisted the invasions of the nomadic herdsmen, represented by Adam. It is felt the early Hebrews disliked the Great Mother who drank the blood of Abel, the herdsman, after being slain by the elder god of agriculture and smithcraft, Cain (Genesis 4:11). Lilith's Red Sea is but another version of Kali Ma's Ocean of Blood, which gave birth to all things but needed periodic sacrificial replenishment.

Speculation is that perhaps there was a connection between Lilith and the Etruscan divinity Lenith, who possessed no face and waited at the gate of the underworld along with Eita and Persipnei (Hecate and Persephone) to receive the souls of the dead. The underworld gate was a yoni, and also a lily, which had "no face." Admission into the underworld was frequently mythologized as a sexual union. (see Tantrism) The lily or lilu (lotus) was the Great Mother's flower-yoni, whose title formed Lilith's name.

Even though the story of Lilith disappeared from the canonical Bible, her daughters the lilim haunted men for over a thousand years. It was well into that Middle Ages that Jews still manufactured amulets to keep away the lilim. Supposedly they were lusty she-demons who copulated with men in all their dreams, causing nocturnal emissions.

The Greeks adopted the belief of the lilim, calling them Lamiae, Empusae (Forcers-In), or Daughters of Hecate. Likewise the Christians adopted the belief, calling them harlots of hell, or succubi, the counterpart of the incubi. Celebrant monks attempted to fend them off by sleeping with their hands over their genitals, clutching a crucifix.

Even though most of the Lilith legend is derived from Jewish folklore, descriptions of the Lilith demon appear in Iranian, Babylonian, Mexican, Greek, Arab, English, German, Oriental and Native American legends. Also, she sometimes has been associated with legendary and mythological characters such as the Queen of Sheba and Helen of Troy. In medieval Europe she was proclaimed to be the wife, concubine or grandmother of Satan.

Men who experienced nocturnal emissions during their sleep believed they had been seduced by Lilith and said certain incantations to prevent the offspring from becoming demons. It was thought each time a pious Christian had a wet dream, Lilith laughed. It was believed that Lilith was assisted in her bloodthirsty nocturnal quests by succubi, who gathered with her near the "mountains of darkness" to frolic with her demon lover Samael, whole name means "poison of God" (sam-el). The Zohar, the principal work of the Kabbalah, describes Lilith's powers at their height during the waning of the moon.

According to legend Lilith's attraction for children comes from the belief that God took her demon children from her when she did not return to Adam. It was believed that she launched a reign of terror against women in childbirth and newborn infants, especially boys. However, it also was believed that the three angels who were sent to fetch her by the Red Sea forced her to swear that whenever she saw their names or images on amulets that she would leave the infants and mothers alone.

These beliefs continued for centuries. As late as the 18th century, it was a common practice in many cultures to protect new mothers and their infants with amulets against Lilith. Males were most vulnerable during the first week of life, girls during the first three weeks. Sometimes a magic circle was drawn around the lying-in-bed, with a charm inscribed with the names of the three angels, Adam and Eve and the words "barring Lilith" or "protect this newborn child from all harm." Frequently amulets were place in the four corners and throughout the bedchamber. If a child laughed while sleeping, it was taken as a sign that Lilith was present. Tapping the child on the nose, it was believed, made her go away.

Chiron

CHIRON The centaurs are celestial bodies orbiting between Saturn and Neptune, typically following very elliptical paths. Collectively they are regarded by Melanie Reinhart as indicating inclinations and drives that require integration or overcoming in the course of self-development; and the transcendence of the personal ego and narrowly earthly consciousness.

The first centaur discovered, Chiron, has a period of about 49 years. It comes within the orbit of Saturn for a third of its cycle, and exceeds the perihelion distance of Uranus (but not its mean distance from the Sun) at aphelion around 9آ؛ Aries. Its glyph represents a key. It is accorded astrological influence in connection with the path of its eccentric orbit between Saturn and Uranus and, to some extent, with the reputation of the name 'Chiron' in ancient mythology.

With these considerations in mind, the influence of Chiron is thought to partake of both the material and psychological realities of Saturn and the inventive mental perspectives of Uranus; and it can manifest in its expression as either the inherent conflicts between these energies, or their smoother-integrated combination, and the anchoring of Uranian wisdom and understanding in reality. It challenges the individual to bridge the disparity between the Saturnian and Uranian principles, bringing inner transformation and the healing of Saturnian restrictions in the process.

Chiron is believed to signify the ability to heal others; belief in the superiority of one's own knowledge and ways; the challenging of limited established perspectives and views with original or different ones; education and teaching ability; an exaggerated sense of personal suffering and affliction; the expansion of the universal perspective beyond materialism or dualism while retaining its anchoring in matter; freedom from restrictive cultural, parental or societal ideas or codes related to its sign and house placement; the handling of the crisis of adolescence whereby individuation is sought but parental allegiances and family pressures and values remain binding; higher knowledge that can be taught outwardly to the world or inwardly as guidance to the spirit; holistic understanding; liberation through compassion; medicine; the opening of the heart to suffering; rebellious, willful nonconformity; the search for a cure; the seeking of means to circumvent established rules and codes; self-healing from within; and the union of mind with body and intellect with instinct.

Chiron's placement in signs where it is closer to or within the orbit of Saturn stresses its more practical and personal side; while its placement in signs where it is closer to the orbit of Uranus emphasizes its more mental and transpersonal side.

When within the orbit of Saturn, around 20؛ Leo to 27؛ Scorpio, Chiron confers the strongest centering in the self; a sense of being unprotected by boundaries from the outside world; sensitivity to the integrated oneness of the universe; a tendency to construct artificial boundaries and defense structures such as intellectualization, immersion in the collective, or pushing oneself outwards into society, in order to compensate for this insecurity; a tendency to project parental filters onto the transpersonal or divine realm; and sometimes an inclination, whether overtly or subtly, to make demands of others, and to feel the need to be the centre of attention.

When at the orbit of Saturn, around 10؛-20؛ Leo or 27؛ Scorpio to 7؛ Sagittarius, Chiron confers an equal connection with the inner (personal) and outer (transpersonal) realms of existence, bringing confusion as to whether one is responding to the outside world or it is responding to oneself. It confers at once the capability to rapidly translate internal changes into outward realities; and a strong intuitive impressionability in response to changes in the outside world.

When outside the orbit of Saturn, around 7؛ Sagittarius to 10؛ Leo, Chiron brings a lack of centering in the self, bringing a relative freedom from ego, together with a feeling of having sustained a fundamental loss of some facet of the self or the awareness thereof; the need to regain what is lost; the seeking of learning and development through connection with and involved activity in the outside world; and the aptitude for concretizing whatever inspirations and discoveries are made on that journey. If moving towards aphelion (its furthest distance from the Sun), Chiron outside the orbit of Saturn brings greater social involvement. If moving towards perihelion (its closest distance to the Sun), Chiron outside the orbit of Saturn focuses more on the quest for inner rediscovery.

Furthermore, whatever its distance at the moment of birth, if natal Chiron is approaching perihelion, the life direction is shown to favor the outward expression of the existing personal world, while if it is approaching aphelion it favors the intake of transpersonal or spiritual energies.

Aspects to Chiron connect the significations of the aspected planet to an intuitive higher understanding. Harmonious aspects promote the personal search for uniqueness, rewarding it, while inharmonious ones manifest as an apparent rejection and inhibition of the expression of the personal vision, mostly stemming from internal conflict and the seeking to present outwardly one's originality and differences from others (in manners and areas indicated by the sign and house placement of Chiron), which frequently manifests antagonistically and irritatingly to others, who therefore show resistance. Afflictions to Chiron can also show limitations to understanding; over reliance on authority or dogma; self-doubt; or spiritual disquiet.

Transits of Chiron manifest in the breaking of rules; connections with the expectations of parents or authorities; delays and restrictions be leaguing desired life changes; interactions with mentors; and turning points in life.

In synastry, Chiron promotes exchanges of an educational and healing nature.

Originally, Chiron was a Thessalian god of healing, but in later Greek mythology he survived as one of the centaurs. Unlike the others of his race, Chiron was wise and had an extensive knowledge of the healing arts. He had been the tutor of, among others, Asclepius, Theseus, and Achilles. When he was accidentally hit by a poisonous arrow shot by Heracles, Chiron relinquished his immortality (in favor of Prometheus) in order to escape the pain by dying. After his death he became the constellation of Sagittarius. Chiron is regarded as a son of Cronus and Philyra.

References: Alan G. Hefner

Pholus

Another Centaur, Pholus, has a period of about 90 years, and an orbit that runs between just within that of Saturn and close to that of Neptune. It signifies impulses consciousness of which is only partial, and consciousness of whose motivation is absent, and has been associated with drug addiction, and the renewal of dreams and visions. Aspects from Pholus indicate matters (as identified by the aspected planets) from which the consciousness remains disconnected, although there is potential for such a connection being developed. Impulses governed by the aspected planets may therefore be blind, hasty and disastrous in outcome. But with regard to more intangible realms, Pholus confers a visionary and mediumistic capability.

The son of Ixion, who offered hospitality to Heracles, in contrast to the other Centaurs. During the fight between Heracles and the Centaurs, Pholus was accidentally killed by the hero.

Transits from Pholus to the nativity intensify the natal points contacted, and bring sudden insight inciting unusual courses of action with unpredictable consequences. Transits by conjunction to the angles bring rapid changes via temporary instability.

Nessus

The orbit of a third centaur, Nessus, runs between just outside Saturn and beyond Neptune towards Pluto and has a period of 124 years. It signifies emotions and psychological urges of which consciousness would be personally liberating and beneficial; self-liberation through the embracing of one's less accepted inwardly burning emotions as a valid component of self; the tendency to interpret the present through the filter of psychological complexes inherited from the past; awareness of the patterns of interaction between people, locations and matter; deep-seated psychological motivations (including vengeance and recompense for and transition from past hurts) for sexual desire and lust; the development of integrity and self-empowerment; levels of personal empowerment or disempowerment conditioned by past experiences with others; illusory promises of salvation whose unveiling is liberating and protecting; and repercussions of treachery and power misuse.

In Greek mythology, a centaur who wanted to violate Deianira, the wife of Heracles. When they were crossing the river Euenus in Aetolia, Heracles let the centaur carry his wife on his back. When Heracles saw Nessus' intentions, he shot him with an arrow. Before he died, however, Nessus gave Deianira his blood and told her that it would ensure Heracles' love for her for ever. When she later gave a garment soaked in the centaur's blood to her husband, it poisoned him.

References: Demetra George and Douglas Bloch; Martha Lang-Westcott; M. Kelley Hunter; Bistra Spirieva; Melanie Reinhart

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