The first part of what follows is a reprint from a past issue of ‘ECLIPSE’ on Black Moon Lilith; after that I have a few things to say about today’s conditions.

Black Moon Lilith is found at the ‘empty’ focal point within the Moon’s elliptical orbit (an ellipsis has two focal points—in this case, the Earth occupies one, the other is the Black Moon—so an energy point rather than a body). Where Black Moon Lilith is, we must have complete Truth; she connects us to our most basic integrity and needs, to those things that honor us as god and goddess, as deserving of equal right and equal treatment. She carves away what shames us, dishonors us, or refuses to recognize our right to control our own lives.

Where we find Black Moon Lilith in the chart, we find the point where we can’t allow pretensions, delusions, or behavior that disrespects ourselves, perpetrated by us or received from others. Often Lilith must destroy before she can renew—in that way she represents a compulsive point in the chart that both hypnotically attracts us and simultaneously repels us, as in the process of claiming our Black Moon we meet all those dark things that dishonor us, or that we have ignored or denied, or that enrage us.

The association of (all forms of) Lilith with sex is, I think, almost inadvertent; it seems that in any culture that wants to control behavior, certain fears are invoked, and linking sex and death is one of the most basic ways to tie together a primal urge with a primal fear, in the hope of preventing free sexual expression—so when characterizing Lilith in a patriarchal society where defiance is the worst crime, and death treated as the ultimate punishment, equating defiance with death brings sex along for the ride, so to speak. It’s worth noting, though, that the ‘crime’ the Lilith of the Garden of Eden is charged with, just after her insistence on equality and her banishment, is sex with demons. Sounds to my mind much more like a smear campaign than anything else, where all the cultural taboos are pinned to those figures whose behavior most threatens cultural stability (and so the power elite)

Why is all that important to today? Black Moon Lilith and Zeus are conjoined, while both sesquiquadrate Ceres; this grouping of BML-Zeus is also opposed Uranus-Vesta, with Pluto and Mercury making a T-square, and a trine to the Sun and quincunx to Chiron (though none of these will perfect as the Ceres and Zeus contacts will). Venus conjoins Pluto, with a result that echoes the other aspects, and Mars quincunxes Uranus, spurring us toward spontaneous, surprising, or original action.

The totality of today’s contacts suggest that wants and goals are driven by things we’re not acknowledging, or by rage or power needs not recognized, and it’s in our failure to see our own too-reverent attitude toward ourselves and our impulses that we run the risk of communicating or thinking in a destructive way. We can handle it by trying to maintain a respectful distance in our relationships (no matter how close they are), and by giving the wants and wishes of others as much weight in consideration as we give our own. It’s one of those rare days where in trying to make things happen that are important to us we may unwittingly overstep and destroy what we might otherwise cherish, if only we weren’t so busy.

Today’s word image is Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor. What does the conjuring of her image mean to you? What does it bring to mind? Whatever she evokes may figure significantly in your day. For me it’s all that talk of lavender eyes–so I’m on the lookout for the color as a synchronicity flag.