Painting by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, depicting a scene from Kalevala, a Finnish epic poem. The warrior Lemminkainen had been killed, his body hacked to pieces and thrown into the dark river that flows through the Underworld. His mother, having collected the parts from the river and sewn them back together, looks up to see a single bee bringing back honey from the halls of the god Ukko, a wondrous ointment that would bring her son to life. This suggests Lilith as a mother, the lengths and dark depths to which she would go for her child, and the projection of the (sacrilegious) idea of taking resurrection into her own hands.

A Little on Lilith

Lilith is an attractor—it’s one of those qualities we almost hate to recognize in her, as it’s so much easier to call her a bad girl; we’re so much more comfortable dismissing her as a problem, rather than recognizing that there are things about her that draw us to her, things we might like to have or be ourselves. She is said to sleep with demons—but isn’t that what a patriarchy that had been defied would say about the one who defied it? It’s undeniable that her dark qualities have a hypnotic pull; she is the shadowy alley we enter, the deep beyond the cliff’s edge that tempts us to step over, the lightless closet into which we reach, because we want to know. That was said to be Eve’s sin, a desire to know; it’s also said that Lilith returned to the Garden of Eden as the serpent who famously offered the Apple of Knowledge to Eve, hesitant, I-came-from-the-rib-not-made-of-an-equal-portion-of-creation-‘dust’-as-was-his-first-wife. Lilith is something more: she’s the woman (or the anima in men) that knows who she is: an equal to anyone else, in that most important sense of the word, the one describing our equality at the level of our basic humanity—and by seeing herself as equal, she succeeds in claiming equal rights, she succeeds in claiming the right to know, and asks permission from no one to do so.

What is Lilith’s real power? In demanding equality she became a screen for projection of all that the social sphere deemed undesirable—and so Lilith may speak much more of the power others attribute to those things they think they are not; she is a catch-all for everything deemed ugly and wrong, everything termed degrading to the feminine ideal within a culture. But with high Self-esteem as her hallmark, the source of her compelling and attractive nature may lie within us: she is an attractor because she has declared herself free and equal in a way we all desire to be, as well.

7 June our empowerment options come instinctively—either we know what to do, or we just don’t. Those who routinely block the unconscious will feel lost. Relationships and/ or finances get in the way of making uninhibited choices or taking action freely, and we may find ourselves resenting what we otherwise really need and want in our lives—the other possibility is that we find ourselves uncomfortable or unhappy trying to accommodate someone we love, or the needs of our pocketbook. We are sure of our values and what we’re dedicated to, and this clears the mental arena and makes perceptions unusually sharp (barring the empowerment/ unconscious conundrum) (Perfecting today: Juno conjunct Sedna, Venus quincunx Mars, Sun trine Vesta and parallel Mercury)

Today’s image is an early summer garden already overrun with growth. Though some might see this as evidence of abundance, it can be overwhelming for a gardener–too much to do! This image corresponds to what a great many of us have been going through lately–too much happening in our lives to handle all at once. What we need to remind ourselves of is that all this new growth is good, that it offers us tremendous choice, that it will mature at its own rate, and that all we need to do is keep our eye on what we really care about.

8 June beauty may blossom in some ugly places, and amazing transformations may, for one day, become routine. Relationships or financial situations may alter in a heartbeat—but if one or the other does change, it won’t be something you weren’t able to anticipate if you are honest with yourself. In fact, that may be the theme today: honesty brings reward, even if that reward is only that one knows the truth, especially in terms of resources or with others. That’s actually good, as it’s clear the reality picture needs modification, especially as this applies to how and where what we’ve learned from our wounds, or our Chirotic skills, may be better employed. (Perfecting Today: Venus trine Pluto, Sun quincunx Saturn, Chiron square Sun-Earth axis)

For much more, including material on Merc and Neptune retrograde and the upcoming Full Moon, please subscribe!