New Moon in Virgo: Lilith The Feminine Messiah

There’s a strong Lilith presence this new moon, in fact she seems to be everywhere all at once. Like hot plasma she comes through interstellar tunnels direct from the Galactic Centre with an impressive planetary entourage.  Originally an ancient wind demon of the night, Lilith dances in a grand fire trine this new moon with Vesta at 26 ° Aries; Vesta has been partnering with Chiron for much of the year and continues to do so even while Chiron has shifted into Taurus. On the other vertex of the trine sits the lunar south node at 28 ° Leo.

Pulling these archetypes together we might say that the wild, untamed and exiled feminine is remembering her sacred calling whilst deeply healing associated wounds and remembering her past.

As the lunar south sits on the anaretic degree of Leo, the past speaks of intense feelings and intuition rising from the unconscious about to take form as a conscious thought. It is the mermaid emerging from the ocean to take human form. In other words, bringing forth into consciousness the depths of consciousness. It is embodiment, the elan vital and the primordial feminine seeking re-embodiment and incarnation.

While I don’t necessarily connect Lilith with the deep watery realms or the mermaid archetype, she might well be the Melusine which in alchemical symbolism is a manifestation of Luna. In his Alchemical Studies Jung explicitly links Lilith and Melusine. Through his analysis of an alchemical text called The Ripley Scrowle, and its depiction of a serpent with a woman’s torso living in a tree, Jung notes that in medieval and alchemical traditions, Lilith and Melusine became interchangeable figures representing the Serpent of Paradise.

While Jewish folklore and tradition tell us that Lilith sired a host of demons, in Le Roman de Mélusine, it is not demons that Lilith gives birth to but a lineage of mortal kings and noble dynasties. It is worthwhile reflecting on this to gain a fuller understanding of how interaction and connection with Lilith affects men.

Beyond participating in this fire trine, Lilith (interpolated) sits almost exactly on the Galactic Centre by just 4 arc minutes. In this new moon Lilith is the direct messenger of The Great Mother archetype. From the Cosmic Womb, Lilith enters the wombs of human women; she guides the feminine soul back to remembrance of a time when roots and branches and the woman were as one — a living organic process or a primal matrix. Lilith is the serpent woman in the tree.

With roots deep in the earth and wings to fly to the holy on high, Lilith is the axis mundi, soul of the world, and bridge between spirit and matter. It is in her knowing of the ineffable name of God that allows her escape from the Garden of Eden— which could be seen as a state of unconsciousness and ignorance. This unifying relationship between spirit and matter is enhanced by Lilith’s harmonious sextile with Venus, at home in Taurus.

Lilith has access to the three worlds, the Chthonic world of deep earth as well as the above, she herself acting as the axis mundi or world soul between the two. Jung’s anima in The Black Books has a distinctly Lilith-like voice when she says:

“If I am not conjoined in the uniting of the Below and the Above, I break down into three parts: the serpent, and in that or some other animal form I roam, living nature daimonically, arousing fear and longing. The human soul living forever within you. The celestial soul, as such dwelling with the Gods, far from you and unknown to you, appearing in the form of a bird.”

Carl Jung, The Black Books– appendix c., p.370

The triplicity of Lilith’s existence is first referenced in an ancient poem, Inanna and the Huluppu Tree, where it is told that Lilith builds her home in the trunk of a willow tree in the temple precinct of Inanna. Her cohabitors are the Anzu bird who lives in the branches of the tree, and the serpent who coils herself around the base. Innana, wishing to use the wood of the tree to make a bed for herself, weeps at the sight of the Dark Maid who has taken up residence there. Gilgamesh arrives with his axe to help; he chops down the tree, kills the serpent, destroys Lilith’s home and causes the bird to fly to the mountains. Lilith flees to the wild uninhabited places. (see Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer, by Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer).

The myth of Gilgamesh is a story of the usurping of the Great Mother and the patriarchal take over.

This new moon, the feminine archetype, is reinforced through the Sun and Moon’s position in Virgo, the Virgin. Virgo rules the 6^th house of physical materialization of the soul’s intent through practical service, daily habits and rituals. Virgo represents the process of the integration of spirit and matter. In this we see another reinforcement of the Lilith archetype, both in the ability to unify the realms, and in the sovereignty of the virgin who remains whole in herself.

Virgo is pure alchemy; the ability to take the experiences of earthly life and material existence, and, through discrimination, and focused concentration refine it into alchemical gold.  We are being reminded to turn our energy inward, to contain it and make conscious decisions about how we use it. That Uranus has just turned retrograde yesterday also facilitates this process. It is a time to wind our fragmented and dispersed energy back from external chaos and apply it to our soul’s purpose.

With the lunar nodal axis at 28 ° Leo (south node) and 28 ° Aquarius (north node), the undercurrent processes of karmic clearing are activated. We are being cleansed on all levels.

 In an opposition with Black Moon Lilith, asteroid Kaali at 26 ° Gemini comes in with her sacred scimitar to cut away illusions of the ego, facilitating a profound process of death and rebirth. Together, Kaali the destroyer and Lilith the outcast force us to address the collective shadow and our individual shadows for the purpose of healing our deepest wounds.

Primal rage from the depths may rise and erupt causing uncomfortable truths to be expressed. This is especially likely with Uranus retrograde in Gemini. It could get messy, however within all of that, with Lilith on the Galactic Centre we are being asked to see the bigger picture. Chiron alongside Vesta wants us to transmute our wounds by remembering our soul’s sacred calling, while Virgo wants us to introduce discernment to the otherwise overwhelming processes involved in the rebirth of the soul.

The collective north node reminds us that we are currently transiting through a profound process of metamorphosis; we are also reassured that we are the butterfly in the chrysalis. Like Lilith we too get wings, even while our physical bodies are firmly rooted and anchored in the earth.

As she did with Eve, Lilith whispers in our ear, reminding us of something we have almost, but not quite forgotten — that full cosmic connection is not only within our grasp but is our birth right, and that the route to realise this is through a full expression of feminine consciousness including and especially through the body. The descent to the goddess is as necessary as transcendence to the father God, and that ultimately all is one. It is the many in the singular and the singular in the many; the male in the female and the female in the male.

For two millennia we have sought our redemption in an exclusively male Christ as the son of an exclusively male God. It hardly needs stating the devastating effect this has had on humanity, the earth and her creatures.

Lilith is the resurrected feminine Christ, come to redeem us and to heal our deepest wounds.

According to Peter Redgrove, Lilith may in fact be the female Messiah:

“There is a persistent rumour that she herself [Lilith] is the Messiah, come to redeem the divided souls of women, by virtue of her ability to circumnavigate the sky and traverse the depths of the abyss.”

I am seeing a mass shamanic soul retrieval initiated through women but with consequence for all. As individual women reconnect with their primal instincts, their intuitive knowing, their gut, their womb, their magic and their bodies, the old stories begin to crumble giving way to a world in which the feminine is not so easily silenced or bound.

Lilith speaks in the fire of inflammation and autoimmune conditions that affect many women whose stories lie buried in silent crypts. We find healing and release through words, through sharing, and through the recognition that the veil of shame and silence is not a protective veil, it is a shroud.

How much truth can we bear? What are we still hiding, what do we feel ashamed of, where do we feel broken, rejected, exiled or displaced?

What needs to be spoken, what spells need to be broken, what masks need to fall, and who or what do we need to call out? Under whose authority do we live, to whom or what do we give our energy, and how do we reclaim our sovereignty?

These are all the questions that Lilith asks if we allow ourselves to tune in to the deeper wisdom of our bodies where truth resides.

To add passion, direction, will and drive to this already combustible vibe, Mars is conjunct asteroid Lilith at 19 ° Cancer, opposite Black Moon Lilith (true) at 17 ° Capricorn (which happens to be my natal sun).

For myself I am attempting to bridge the gap between writing in metaphor, symbols, and archetypes through the language of astrology and depth psychology while at the same time, excavating the bones and the raw uncomfortable truths of the every-day lived experience, including historically — the merging of spirit and matter. Lilith is the bridge between worlds, the shaman, along with powerful allies who can, from an archetypal perspective, greatly aid this process.

Should you wish a deep dive into Lilith’s placement in your own chart, I am available to assist you in this.