Lilith, Saturn & The Moon Landing

On July 20^th, 1969, 33° Freemason, Presbyterian Elder, and NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin conducted a masonic ritual on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission. He carried a handsewn Scottish Rite flag embroidered with a double headed eagle, a Salem Cross, and the Freemasonry symbol. The flag was not left on the Moon, rather it was a symbol of Freemasonry’s extension into the cosmos. The flag represented the Supreme Council 33° Southern Jurisdiction.

Aldrin was chosen as special deputy to claim the Moon as Masonic Territorial Jurisdiction for the Grand Lodge of Texas. This was a symbolic and magical act for masonic authority on the Moon. From the ritual conducted that day, a lunar masonic Lodge was initiated: Tranquility Lodge No 2000.

As well as this act, Aldrin performed a Presbyterian Eucharist, consuming consecrated bread and wine on the vessel before setting foot on the lunar surface. This was not made public due to a caution from NASA’s Flight Operations Manager who discouraged Aldrin from broadcasting the ceremony. Instead, Aldrin encouraged listeners to give thanks in their own way before conducting a private ceremony on the Moon.

Previous controversy had ensued when on Christmas Eve 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 read the first 10 verses of the Book of Genesis in a live television broadcast. This prompted a lawsuit from an American radical secularist campaigner who claimed that NASA was violating the constitutional separation of church and state.

The Salem cross is a Christian symbol representing papal authority. Also known as the Pontifical Cross, it features three horizontal bars on a vertical staff. It is often carried before the Pope.

The biblical Salem has been identified with Jerusalem as an early name for the city. This is indicated by the liturgical poetry in Psalms which equates Salem with Zion, used as a synonym for Jerusalem.

The Salem Cross is also used within Freemasonry as an insignia of authority, denoting the highest rank within Scottish Rite Freemasonry.

There is another meaning of the Salem Cross centred around the city of Salem in Massachusetts, New England. This symbol is a simple diagonal cross that was used as a protective “hex mark” to ward off witchcraft and evil spirits. During the Salem witch trials of 1692- 1693, over 200 people were accused of witchcraft, with 30 individuals convicted and 19 (mostly women) executed by hanging. Others died in jail due to harsh conditions.

In the spirit of symbolic enquiry, I was intrigued to find these two distinct meanings of the Salem Cross. When I pulled up the chart for the day of the Moon ritual, 20^th July 1969, I saw that Saturn was at 8° Taurus in an exact conjunction with asteroid Lilith.

In the Talmud, a foundational early Jewish text which served as a basis for Jewish law, Lilith is a dangerous she-devil who is described as having wings, with long wild hair, and who preys on sleeping men to create demonic offspring. Later in the Zohar, Lilith is the Dark Queen consort of Samael and represents “Sitra Ahra”, the other side or evil.

It is interesting then, that at the moment of a masonic ritual involving the Cross of Salem, Saturn who among other things represents patriarchal authority, is in a conjunction with asteroid Lilith, she-devil of the Talmud. Symbolically this can be seen as a clash between rebellious, untamed and feminine instincts and structural patriarchal authority. It could also represent a symbolic take over.

Other notes of astrological interest are that Saturn is quincunx (inconjunct) the Moon, and Mercury is quincunx Dark Moon Lilith.

The question of whether the NASA astronauts went to the Moon or not does not deter from the symbolic meaning of the ritual, part of the most witnessed event of its time.