Lilith

On the subject of Lilith, viewed from an astrological perspective, it is easy to be confused. Consider the following description taken from https://darkstarastrology.com/three-liliths/: 

There are three Liliths in astrology that you can place in your chart. We have Black Moon Lilith, Asteroid Lilith and the lesser known Dark Moon Lilith. I used to see them together as the Triple Moon Goddess and thought it made sense to use them in that way. I then found out that Demetra George had come up with a similar concept about Lilith, so I thought we might be onto something. Comparing the three Liliths to the bible story she says:

“The Asteroid Lilith describes the first stage in the mythical journey where she is suppressed, humiliated and flees in a fiery rage to the desolate wilderness. The Dark Moon Lilith depicts the pain of her exile where she plots and executes revenge. The Black Moon Lilith shows how she transmutes her distorted image back into its natural healthy expression

Not to be outdone, this site includes a fourth, Osculating Lilith:

• Black Moon Lilith is also known as Mean Lilith. This Lilith uses the average orbit of the theoretical Black Moon. This is why she is called mean Lilith. Mean refers to the average, not her temperament. 

• Asteroid Lilith is the only Lilith that is an actual, verifiable physical body. 

• Osculating Lilith is also called True Lilith. Her orbit oscillates wildly this is why she is called true Lilith. This Lilith uses the real orbit of the Black Moon. Her orbit is the real orbit of the Black Moon rather than an average. This is another theoretical point. Some people, like Juan Antonio Revilla, believe that she is the most important Lilith and most accurately portrays Lilith’s uncontrollable nature. 

• Dark Moon Lilith is also called the Waltemath Black Moon, or Waldemath Black Moon. Some people have claimed to have seen this Moon, but those claims cannot be substantiated.

To find your Liliths, go to Astro.com, free horoscopes, extended chart selection and scroll to the bottom of the page. Copy and paste these numbers into the empty box on the bottom left side of the screen: 1181, H13, H21, H58
Press “Click here to show the chart.”

• Asteroid Lilith: 1181
• Osculating Lilith/ True Lilith: h13
• Black Moon Lilith/ Mean Lilith: h21
• Dark Moon Lilith/ Waldemath Black Moon: h58

The fixed star Algol (associated with Lilith) is at a fairly steady 26˚ Taurus. Algol is a star in the head of Medusa in the constellation Perseus.

I tried it and it works fine. However, an astrological chart is already cluttered enough. We have the luminaries (Sun and Moon) and the planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) as well as the recently demoted, dwarf planet Pluto. It's quite common to include Chiron, one of the Centaurs, and perhaps Ceres, the largest of the asteroids orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. These astronomical bodies are located within the circle of the zodiac and the circle of houses, all mutually interacting by casting various aspects to one another. To introduce one Lilith, let alone three or four, will complicate things even more, so there needs to be a good reason for doing this. Let's see if the inclusion of one, two, three or even four Liliths can really be justified.

Let's start with asteroid Lilith because it's the most straightforward to deal with. Here are some astronomical facts about the asteroid taken from Wikipedia:

1181 Lilith, provisional designation 1927 CQ, is a metallic asteroid from the middle region of the asteroid belt, approximately 23 kilometres in diameter. It was discovered on 11 February 1927, by Russian–French astronomer Benjamin Jekhowsky at Algiers Observatory in Algeria, Northern Africa, and named after French composer Lili Boulanger. The asteroid orbits the Sun in the middle main-belt at a distance of 2.1–3.2 AU once every 4 years and 4 months (1,587 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.20 and an inclination of 6° with respect to the ecliptic.

In terms of asteroid size, Lilith is rather puny. Ceres, the largest asteroid in the belt has a diameter of about 945 kilometres and can be spotted with a pair of binoculars. Other large asteroids include Pallas Athena, Juno and Vesta, all measuring in the hundreds of kilometres. It doesn't seem logical to assign too much importance to this little asteroid. I personally wouldn't include it in a chart analysis. The Dark Moon Lilith, also known as the Waltemath or Waldemath Black Moon, I would also dismiss because it's not really been proven to exist.

So that leaves us with the Black Moon Lilith (also known an Mean Lilith) and Osculating Lilith (also known as True Lilith). Let's try to differentiate between the two of these. A diagram will help:

The eccentricity of the Moon's orbit is highly exaggerated in the diagram above but it illustrates the idea behind the Black Moon. An ellipse has two foci: the Earth occupies one focus and other focus is empty. The line of sight from the centre of the Earth to this empty focus points to a position on the ecliptic and this should mark the position of the Black Moon Lilith. This empty focus is about 36,000 kilometres from Earth so it's not far away and, because of its proximity, there is a not inconsiderable difference between its geocentric and topocentric position in the zodiac.

What complicates the matter even more is that the Moon doesn't simply move around the Earth in a simple ellipse. What happens is that The Earth and the Moon both orbit around the centre of mass of the Earth and Moon. This is called the Earth-Moon Barycentre or EMB. It is about 4,671 km from the centre of the Earth or about 1,700 km below the Earth's surface. It is described further at the same site from where the diagram was taken:

The Moon travels along an elliptical path around the Earth. An ellipse has two focal points, and the other focal point, not occupied by the Earth has been called the Dark Moon, the Black Moon or Lilith. This is a slightly simplified definition, since, actually, the Moon and the Earth both move around their common centre of gravity, and the path of the Moon is not a neat ellipse, but a rather wobbly affair. One must distinguish between the mean orbit of the Moon, which is a slowly elongating ellipse, and the actual orbit, which vaccillates around the mean path, due to interference of various kinds. Just as there a "mean" and a "true" Lunar Node, so there is a "mean" and a "true" ellipse and a "mean" and a "true" Lilith. I write "true" in inverted commas, because the Moon's Node is only "true" about twice per month, when the Moon is actually on it, for the rest of the time, it is as "untrue" as the mean Node. In fact, when working with a point so close to the Earth, one should also take the great parallax into consideration, i.e. consider, from which point on the Earth one is actually looking at a point in the heavens. Astrology observes the planets geocentrically, as if from the Earth's centre, and not topocentrically, from the actual place of the observer.

This is getting complicated. Clearly the True Lilith is to be preferred over the Mean Lilith but is the inclusion of this difficult to calculate point in a chart really justified? I really don't think so. My feeling is that there's been a push to promote Lilith by one means or another because in the Hebrew tradition she is such a powerful figure (taken from Wikipedia):

Lilith is a figure in Jewish mythology, developed earliest in the Babylonian Talmud (3rd to 5th centuries). Lilith is often envisioned as a dangerous demon of the night, who is sexually wanton, and who steals babies in the darkness. The character is generally thought to derive in part from a historically far earlier class of female demons in ancient Mesopotamian religion, found in cuneiform texts of Sumer, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, and Babylonia. 

In Jewish folklore, from the satirical book Alphabet of Sirach (c. 700–1000) onwards, Lilith appears as Adam's first wife, who was created at the same time (Rosh Hashanah) and from the same dirt as Adam – compare Genesis 1:27. (This contrasts with Eve, who was created from one of Adam's ribs: Genesis 2:22.) The legend developed extensively during the Middle Ages, in the tradition of Aggadah, the Zohar, and Jewish mysticism. For example, in the 13th-century writings of Isaac ben Jacob ha-Cohen, Lilith left Adam after she refused to become subservient to him and then would not return to the Garden of Eden after she had coupled with the archangel Samael.

With the exception of Venus, all of the planets are male: Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune. Pluto is male as well of course. While the asteroid Ceres and the dwarf planet Eris are female, there is certainly a shortage of objects named after strong females in the traditional astrological chart. I've recently taken to including Ceres in my chart analysis but I won't personally include Lilith in any of her variants at the moment.

Ceres

UPDATE: posted 13th August 2020 (astronomical and not astrological in content) with link

Dwarf planet Ceres is an ocean world with salty water under the surface, NASA mission finds

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

Having just read a short article on the dwarf planet Ceres, I was motivated to locate its position in my own natal chart and investigate its astrological significance. It's pronounced SAIREEZ by the way, with the accent on the first syllable. I've mispronounced it for most of my life.

This was the article and here is an excerpt:

Dwarf planet Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and the only dwarf planet located in the inner solar system. It was the first member of the asteroid belt to be discovered when Giuseppe Piazzi spotted it in 1801. And when Dawn arrived in 2015, Ceres became the first dwarf planet to receive a visit from a spacecraft. 

Called an asteroid for many years, Ceres is so much bigger and so different from its rocky neighbours that scientists classified it as a dwarf planet in 2006. Even though Ceres comprises 25 percent of the asteroid belt's total mass, tiny Pluto is still 14 times more massive. 

Ceres is named for the Roman goddess of corn and harvests. The word cereal comes from the same name. 

Ceres was found by an astronomer searching for a star. He thought he found a comet, but with the help of other astronomers decided it was a planet. As more objects were found between Mars and Jupiter, scientists decided Ceres should be called an asteroid—the largest in the region we now call the main asteroid belt. Then, in 2006, Ceres was reclassified as a dwarf planet—the closest one to Earth. 

The largest body in the asteroid belt, Ceres has amassed a number of references in science fiction stories of the 20th and 21st centuries. In the TV series The Expanse, Ceres is inhabited by humans, and in the PC Game Descent, one of the secret levels takes place on Ceres. 

In the video game Destiny, Ceres was colonised by an alien race called the Fallen at the end of humanity's Golden Age. Ceres was later destroyed by a civilisation of post-humans who inhabit the Asteroid Belt. 

In my own chart, Ceres is located in 11d34m of Leo and thus very close to my natal Pluto. Interestingly, transiting Ceres returned to its natal position on January 30th of this year (2018) and is today (8th February 2018) in 9d32m of Leo and thus trine my natal Mars-Venus. It is currently retrograde so, in its current cycle, it first reached its natal position on October 31st 2017 and will reach it again, moving forward, on May 5th 2018. Just prior to this, on May 1st, it will be conjunct the transiting North Node of the Moon in about 10d30m of Leo. So around this time, natal Ceres, transiting Ceres and the transiting North Node of the Moon are pretty much in the same location.

In my natal chart, Ceres in 11d34m of Leo forms a quintile aspect to my natal Moon (separation of 73d06m) and aspects Sun, Venus, Mars and Chiron (by trine), Uranus and Neptune by semisquare (separation of 44d42m), Neptune (by sextile) and of course Pluto (by conjunction). That's an impressive list of aspects. Ceres orbits the Sun every 4.6 years. As for its astrological significance, this site proved most illuminating and the content is worth displaying here in full, with the most salient parts in red:

Astronomical Description

Ceres is the largest of the main belt asteroids and was the first to be discovered on January 1, 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi, who was making a star catalog at the Observatory of Palermo, which he founded. Shortly after Ceres' discovery, she disappeared behind the Sun, but was "rediscovered" on paper by Carl Friedrich Gauss, who devised a method for calculating an object's orbit from only three accurate positional measurements. She was subsequently relocated on January 1, 1802 by Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers in the position calculated by Gauss. Olbers later discovered the asteroids Pallas and Vesta.  Ceres is part of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and orbits the Sun every 4.6 years. Her diameter is 955 kilometres and she is just barely visible to the naked eye, but easily seen with binoculars. 

Mythological Background

Ceres was the Roman goddess who was originally known as Demeter to the ancient Greeks. She was the daughter of Saturn and Rhea and was swallowed by her father along with her sisters Vesta and Juno as well as her brothers, Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto.  After being freed by Jupiter, these gods and goddesses became the ruling family of ancient Greece. Her gift to humanity was grain and as such was known as the goddess of agriculture and the harvest.  Thus, she was the one who provided nourishment for humanity and was worshipped as such.  She was also the mother of Persephone, a beautiful maiden, with whom she was exceptionally close.  Together, the pair watched over the Earth and allowed it to provide its abundance throughout the year.  This mother and daughter were so enamoured with each other, however, that all suitors were rejected, as the two didn't want to be separated. This, of course, did not go over too well with some of the gods who thought Persephone was pretty damn hot, particularly those nice ankles of hers.

One day Persephone was wandering in the Nysian fields and became fascinated by the hundred-bloomed narcissus.  She picked one of these lovely flowers and was enveloped in its seductive fragrance when the earth opened up beneath her. She was immediately seized by Pluto, god of the Underworld, who had been lusting after her for quite some time, wanting her to become his bride and queen. As soon as he descended below with his prize, the earth resumed its previous state, leaving no sign that anything unusual had occurred.

It didn't take long for Ceres to realise her daughter was missing. For many days she refused to eat, sleep or bathe, but instead wandered about with flaming torches, trying to find her daughter. She eventually encountered the crone goddess, Hecate, who told her to discuss the matter with the Sun god, Helios, who saw everything. Helios told her of the abduction, which had been executed with the approval of Zeus, with whom Pluto had conspired to take Persephone as his bride. Ceres was not only devastated but enraged at the betrayal and, disguised as a mere human, wandered the earth for a while to avoid associating with any of the gods of Mt. Olympus. She acted as a nanny for the son of King Celeus until she eventually revealed her identity and ordered a temple and altar be built for her.

Ceres retired to her temple, where her mourning for Persephone continued. As her grief turned to anger, she cursed the earth such that nothing would grow, neither crop nor fruit of any kind, imposing famine and starvation on mankind. The people prayed to Zeus for relief, who realised that if the humans all died there would be no one left to worship the gods. The gods attempted to reason with Ceres, but she refused to listen or show any mercy unless her daughter was returned to her. Eventually, Zeus relented and sent Hermes to the Underworld to demand Persephone's release. Persephone had likewise been in mourning and fasting, refusing all food and drink. Pluto agreed to let her return, but deviously offered Persephone several pomegranate seeds to quench her great thirst prior to her departure. Not knowing that the pomegranate was the symbol of sexual consummation, Persephone partook, which confirmed her marriage to Pluto. This is a good reason why young women should pay better attention in school, because sometimes it's what you don't know that bites the hardest.

When Persephone returned to the surface, she and her mother had a joyful reunion. However, when Ceres found out that her daughter had consumed the pomegranate seeds, she realised she'd been tricked, since Persephone was still married to Pluto. She reinstated her curse of the earth and the gods were basically back where they started. Eventually, Zeus proposed a compromise, that for each pomegranate seed she'd eaten that Persephone would spend a month in the Underworld as Pluto's bride. The remaining months could be spent on earth with her mother. Thus, each spring Persephone emerges from the Underworld to rejoin her mother. At this time, the earth once more comes alive with vegetation and the harvest is allowed. In the fall, however, when Persephone must return to the Underworld, Ceres once again commands the earth to be barren, until Persephone's return the following spring. Ceres, like so many goddesses, was one vindictive woman and it wasn't a good idea to mess with her.

Astrological Implications

Astrologically, one thing indicated by Ceres' placement in the horoscope will be which area is most important in regard to parental nurturing and the kind of lessons to be derived from the mother-child relationship. For example, if Ceres is in Aries, being allowed and encouraged to be independent will be important as well as being commended for their drive and energy. In Taurus, being comfortable and provided for in a material manner will prevail. Gemini would imply the need for mental stimulation; Cancer, the need for a significant amount of attention and nurturing; Leo, to be the centre of attention; Virgo, for perfection and being of service; Libra, strong relationships and fairness; Scorpio, sexual expression; Sagittarius, a strong belief system and worldly knowledge; Capricorn, ambition and status; Aquarius, friends and being part of a group; Pisces, transcendence and fantasy. It also can indicate the manner in which a person will nurture others in adulthood. 

The lack of nurturing or encouragement in these areas from one's mother will drive them to seek such elsewhere and if it's blatantly missing or contradicted, it can cause significant emotional trauma and potential identity crises as the person will know there is something missing in their life, but probably won't be able to identify exactly what. The basic tenets of self-esteem are related to early nurturing which, if absent, has repercussions that can take a lifetime to overcome, if ever. Remember that Ceres cuts both ways, as a parent and a child. We also tend to replicate that with which we grew up; patterns established in our childhood tend to reappear with our own offspring in one way or another. Parents also can project their own aspirations or fears onto their children, causing various frustrations for all concerned.

Thus, Ceres tells much about a person's experience and relationship with their mother, particularly if the charts are compared of both mother and child. Transits of Ceres will introduce events represented by the themes in the Ceres/Persephone myth or bring past issues to the surface for resolution. I have yet to see a client who is having "mother issues" who doesn't have something going on involving Ceres in their natal chart transits. Nearly everyone has "mother issues" of some description from their past, and these transits stimulate situations that force us to confront and resolve them.  

As the goddess of agriculture, Ceres can also indicate a "green thumb," love of gardening, or strong interest in food and its preparation. Likewise, if negatively aspected it can be indicative of eating disorders, particularly if food was used during childhood as a punishment by its withdrawal or as a reward. Thus, Ceres can lend astrological clues to a plethora of weight and body-image disorders. On a more positive side, a person's interest in food, from its growth to preparation, can be found in Ceres placement. For example, someone with Ceres in Sagittarius may be inclined to nurture those from other cultures or may have a propensity for preparing international cuisine. 

Ceres also relates to separations and the subsequent sense of loss. It defines grieving style and how a person will deal with their pain. It can also relate to secrets between mother and child; neither person ever entirely knows the other, regardless of how close they may think they are. No matter how much a child loves his or her mother, at some point the need to grow up and seek a mate is likely to arise. This does not mean that they love their mother any less, only the need to progress beyond the role of a child. On the other hand, those that never leave home or are inordinately attached to their mother can also be indicated.  Separations and estrangements from one's mother, no matter what the cause, are also to be found in one's natal chart as well as transits of Ceres throughout the signs, houses, and aspects to the other planets. The more attached we are to someone or something, the more likely we are to be faced with a separation at some point as the energy invested will energise its polarity as well. Frequently, it is only through letting go of something that we allow something new and invigorating to come into our lives.

Sharing of a loved one is another principle in the Ceres myth. In essence, the stereotypical "mother-in-law from hell" could easily be a woman who cannot share her child. Ceres - Pluto aspects often indicate those who will have to share their children with ex-spouses and often undergo ugly custody battles or family kidnapping experiences.  If these individuals don't learn to share, they'll inevitably have to face either the burdens of single parenthood or perhaps be denied access to their offspring entirely. On the other hand, Ceres can impart strong parenting and nurturing capability that allows an individual to assume the role of both parents comfortably.

On the darker side, such things as child abuse and abductions can likewise be reflected in Ceres' placement and hard transits. Of course the ultimate separation is death, as represented by the Underworld. Ceres is often active in death charts, particularly those who die suddenly or in accidents, situations analogous to being kidnapped by Pluto. Death is something that everyone has to deal with, sooner or later. Unlimited grief and mourning at a certain point become self-defeating and hinder your growth. This is another lesson Ceres is wont to convey. 

The richness imparted to a Natal Chart through Ceres is indeed worth consideration, particularly if a person is having difficulty with any issues reflected in the Ceres myth. A trained astrologer can interpret Ceres' placement in the Natal Chart and subsequent transits, yielding clues to the issues at hand. In some cases, for deep-seeded issues, the client will be referred to a trained psychologist to work through those things that go beyond his or her own capability to resolve alone. If Ceres is retrograde in a Natal Chart, as typical of retrograde planets, the energy will be internalised and not expressed as easily, which can complicate any other issues associated with natal aspects or transits.