Lilith - The Black Moon & Pamela Geller

I'd never heard of Pamela Geller until I read reports of the shootings on Sunday at a Muhammad Art Exhibit & Contest in Garland, Texas, organized by her. The event was, in my opinion, deliberately provocative - a means of stirring up trouble disguised as something related to "free speech". Pamela Geller is, apparently, president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, an anti-Islamic organization that is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

I looked at Geller's natal chart at Astrotheme (HERE), noticed first that Black Moon Lilith is shown, conjunct Geller's natal Mars in Aries. Interesting!

Coincidentally, I had intended to re-air an old post of mine this week on that very topic: Black Moon Lilith. In that post, tidied up and re-posted below, I mentioned not being too keen on using mythology to interpret possible meanings of Black Moon Lilith in a natal chart. However, some might say that Ms Geller's case does rather fit the mythology - what do you think?



BLACK MOON LILITH

 Hat-tip for diagram to Mountain Astrologer

I have the uneasy feeling that a lot that is of dubious value to astrology has been written about Black Moon Lilith. I've pontificated on the subject in the past, but a re-airing of my thoughts for 2015 wouldn't be out of line.

Black Moon Lilith (aka here as BML) is a mathematically calculated point in an astrological chart, the point at which the Moon is at its farthest from the Earth - known as the Moon's "apogee". Some astrologers view the Black Moon as being not the apogee of the elliptical orbit, but the empty focus of the ellipse.....In practice, the Apogee and the Empty Focus can be thought of as being in the same place on the chart, but the difference in symbolism can be relevant. (See http://serennu.com for more detail).

I can accept the notion that this may well be a sensitive point in a natal or other type of chart, in the same way the angles,Vertex and Moon's Nodes are sensitive points. Anything more than that, for me, has to remain nebulous.

There are two ways of calculating BML - its True position and its Mean position. Some software uses one, and some the other. This adds further room for doubt about somewhat iffy cookbook type interpretations assigned to the Black Moon. Most of these appear to be based purely on mythology.

Even more confusion can arise unless it's realised that other celestial bodies also bear the name Lilith. There's an asteroid Lilith, as well as a hypothetical and controversial second Moon of Earth, often referred to as Dark Moon Lilith.

The astrological glyph for Black Moon Lilith (the Moon's apogee) is a thick black crescent Moon atop a cross. Asteroid Lilith has a different glyph which looks like a four-pronged fork with a tick at the right hand side of its base.

Astrologers who use BML seem to consider its significance to be somewhat negative, based purely on the mythical name it bears. "Lilith" - a storm demon, prostitute goddess.... name anything female and negative, and Lilith is it! I'm sticking to my theory that Black Moon Lilith is simply another sensitive point in the chart. Mythology? Bah humbug!

Hat-tip HERE for illustration

"Lilith is a female Mesopotamian night demon believed to harm male children. In Isaiah 34:14, Lilith is a kind of night-demon or animal, translated as onokentauros; in the Septuagint, as lamia; "witch" by Hieronymus of Cardia; and as screech owl in the King James Version of the Bible. In the Talmud and Midrash, Lilith appears as a night demon. She is often identified as the first wife of Adam and sometimes thought to be the mother of all incubi and succubi, a legend that arose in the Middle Ages ".
From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith)

Black Moon Lilith in my own natal chart lies in Aquarius (early or late in the sign depending on True or Mean version). The early version is only 2 degrees from my natal Sun; the later version is 1 degree from my relocated ascendant, so BML has followed me around! I'm not, and have never been, anything like a storm demon, night demon, femme fatale, or prostitute goddess, I promise! But the fact that BML is close to my natal Sun might have added to the intensity of effects I've experienced when Uranus and Neptune have transited natal Aquarius Sun in the past.

NOTE: There's an online ephemeris showing True and Mean positions of Black Moon Lilith in the 20th century, courtesy of Chris Mitchell - see HERE. Alternatvely Astrodienst can calculate BML's position in your natal chart, using their Extended Chart Selection.

Islam's Nativity and/or Calendar

It's not easy to read political blogs these days without coming across mention of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), which led me to dig out a guest post from the 2010 archives. It was written by an old friend of this blog, Gian Paul, living in Brazil. I've extracted the paragraphs particularly related to astrology to copy today. They are in the coloured box, below. The full post is HERE.

I think we all know that conflicts between Christianity and Islam are not going to be resolved soon, or ever. Flare-ups involving old groupings (al-Quaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Taliban, Shebab, Houthis, Boko Haram....etc), new groupings (e.g. ISIS), combinations of any or all of them, will continue for as long as we are now able to envisage.

What began as religious differences many centuries ago (some echo of which definitely remains), has morphed into a striving of the West to take total control of middle-eastern oil. When oil eventually runs out, or when the world becomes largely uninhabitable through climate change - whichever comes first - then a certain peace might descend upon this war-torn planet. What a sad reflection this has to be on our much lauded human, so-called, "intelligence".

As I once wrote in comments to Gian Paul: Islam is "a topic I haven't ever considered writing about myself, I always refuse to enter debates about the middle east, especially Israel/Palestine, as that usually proves to be "a hiding to nothing". The conflict has been going on for most of my lifetime and it'll not end anytime soon." I feel so sad and sorry for ordinary people in Iran and Iraq. Their nations' histories are so rich and, actually, the cradle of most civilisation. Their people began a quest for knowledge and art that is ongoing, still, in the West. People (especially in the USA) forget these things all too often.

So, for further consideration, a look at Gian Paul's notes on, and the chart he calculated for, one of the possible dates for the birth of Islam, which is also the date when the Islamic calendar begins.

The Arabs, mostly all Muslims, have a close connection with astrology. It's they who brought it back to the Christian world during the Middle Ages, when most of Spain was under their control and the Vatican had banned astrology from being permitted - except, it is reported, for the secret use of some of the Popes. (This, I guess, is one of the reasons the Vatican's Library is hermetically closed to outsiders).
(Illustration (left) = Blue Mosque in Istanbul)


Islam has a precise starting date: July 16, of the year 622. At Sundown (18 hours 44') at Medina. Mohammed had then had to flee from the violent opponents to his ideas in his home town of Mecca ("Prophet in his own land..."). At Medina where he had just arrived, on July 16, after a New Moon 3 days before had just passed, the Moon's crescent was becoming visible in the early night sky. And thus the crescent Moon turned out to be the symbol most Islamic nations carry in their national flags. This was the exact moment when Islam was "born". (Right = Flag of Turkey)






Permitted question: Here we have the first beginning of a major religion where the starting moment is precisely known; are we presented here with an astrological "gift"? (Rather then some obscure manipulation of dates as with the beginnings of Christianity).

An interpretation of Islam's horoscope is very revealing in terms of what this latest major world-religion represents. A stellium of 3 planets, Moon/Uranus/Neptune, opposed by Jupiter is the main "axis" of this map. Neptune and Uranus, in Virgo, opposite Jupiter in Pisces, the sign and main symbol of the Christian Era! Reinforced by the crescent Moon, a guarantee for a lot of "emotional spark" to develop between these two religions. An inconjunct aspect between Mars (in Virgo) and Pluto (in Aries) also indicates that if there will be conflict, it will be rather fierce (Mars) and fundamental (Pluto).

Since ever the two religions have been fighting either to conquer the other's lands, or to try to get them back (the Crusades, aiming at taking back Jerusalem and the Holy Lands). The Suez Canal, Oil, and of course, Israel...

IS ISLAM A THREAT ONE SHOULD FEAR?

GUEST POST by GIAN PAUL

The Arabs, mostly all Muslims, have a close connection with astrology. It's they who brought it back to the Christian world during the Middle Ages, when most of Spain was under their control and the Vatican had banned astrology from being permitted - except, it is reported, for the secret use of some of the Popes. (This, I guess, is one of the reasons the Vatican's Library is hermetically closed to outsiders).
(Illustration (left) = Blue Mosque in Istanbul)


Islam has a precise starting date: July 16, of the year 622. At Sundown (18 hours 44') at Medina. Mohammed had then had to flee from the violent opponents to his ideas in his home town of Mecca ("Prophet in his own land..."). At Medina where he had just arrived, on July 16, after a New Moon 3 days before had just passed, the Moon's crescent was becoming visible in the early night sky. And thus the crescent Moon turned out to be the symbol most Islamic nations carry in their national flags. This was the exact moment when Islam was "born". (Right = Flag of Turkey)






Permitted question: Here we have the first beginning of a major religion where the starting moment is precisely known; are we presented here with an astrological "gift"? (Rather then some obscure manipulation of dates as with the beginnings of Christianity).

An interpretation of Islam's horoscope is very revealing in terms of what this latest major world-religion represents. A stellium of 3 planets, Moon/Uranus/Neptune, opposed by Jupiter is the main "axis" of this map. Neptune and Uranus, in Virgo, opposite Jupiter in Pisces, the sign and main symbol of the Christian Era! Reinforced by the crescent Moon, a guaranee for a lot of "emotional spark" to develop between these two religions. An almost precise trine between Mars (in Virgo) and Pluto (in Aries) also indicates that if there will be conflict, it will be rather fierce (Mars) and fundamental (Pluto).
(Right = Flag of Pakistan)

Since ever the two religions have been fighting either to conquer the other's lands, or to try to get them back (the Crusades, aiming at taking back Jerusalem and the Holy Lands). The Suez Canal, Oil, and of course, Israel...

Some are intrigued, others proud and grateful that the bulk of the world's oil reserves are found in the Islamic Middle East. Allah's special gift to his followers, they say. Without that, the Arabs would not have been able to take the rest of the world hostage at various not so distant occasions. There were repeated conflicts around oil in the last 50 years, some costly wars in the Middle East, attentats by Al Queida and their allies in the USA, Britain, Iraq, India (Kashmir), Somalia, Yemen etc.

(Below map of Middle East taken from http://www.thedossier.ukonline.co.uk/maps_charts.htm)




But Islamic militancy also is to be found in behavioral patterns: head-scarfs and Mosques in provocative places, anathemas pronounced against writers (Salman Rushdie) or humorists depicting Mohammad, to cite the most controversial events.

Islam is by no means a united religion. There are the Sunni, the Shiite, the Druze etc. Often secular power and Islam (remember Saddam?), the Iranian Clerics, Khadafi in Libya etc. make particular alliances - and can be strange bedfellows. Oil has tended to unite them - and combined with that the existence of Israel at their doorstep. Or what unites them ideologically is foremost Israel and the equivocal role the Vatican has always been playing in the Orient.

There are however places in the world other then the West which are under much more serious threat of being "islamisized" than we are: the Philippines, much of Africa, part of India, Russia beyond the Urals, China in some sectors. Islam can be said to be a religion of "no fear" and expanding as no other. The Koran promises special rewards to whom dies for its faith. There is a better world promised in the beyond for all Muslims in general and more so even for the martyrs. This, for the simple-minded, stigmatized by some fanatic, can rapidly turn them into suicide-bombers or Taliban-type, fearless fighters.

What is going wrong in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Egypt's President Mubarak, a moderate Muslim, said years ago to Bush father and son that military intervention in the Islamic world by the West will never bring any results. Fight (and even catch) Bin Laden (left), another 300 will appear! It's a "Pandora's Box". And Mubarak knows his world. Egypt is under permanent internal threat of Islamic fanatics. So are Pakistan, Indonesia, to mention the most populated.

The problem of the Taliban, extreme "believers and fierce fighters" is that by opposing them they become fiercer. If left alone they will fall back into fighting each other. And so with the Iranians and the Iraqis. Providing the West can stop mixing up oil and "fighting for so-called democracy" (which few Muslims care for), an easier relation between these forces could probably be found.

For this Israel should be convinced (why not by threatening them with the withdrawal of unconditional support?) to play it's full part in de-fusing the powder keg (even nuclear) on which the whole of the Middle East + India/Pakistan are now sitting. And this once and for all. But as long as Israeli leaders can say in public that the US Government (Obama) is "easy to deal with", this can only help the Muslim fanatics in their argument that the USA is against Islam. Obama knows that, so he tried to establish some bridge in his ill-fated Cairo speech which as an only result earned him a much ridiculed Nobel price. Now exactly one year ago. Any results? It's not words that are needed. It's the West which should leave others alone and, as unfortunately now needed, has to learn to better control its frontiers. (Left: Bust of Golda Meir in New York)

The horoscope of Islam's beginnings is an inescapable fact. It can't be changed. What is possible is to take into consideration the inherent tension points, mentioned at the beginning of this post. And act accordingly, not by "patronizing" as the West is terribly inclined to do with others in this world.