Full Moon May 23, 2024
The Full Moon is at 2 degrees of Sagittarius. Sagittarius rules beliefs, international affairs, travel, publi
shing, and religion. In its lower form is fundamentalism, international issues and issues related to publishing.
The Moon is conjunct with Lilith and opposite the Sun conjunct Venus, Jupiter, Terpsichore and Admetos…. So for this post, I will focus on our beliefs!
In my upcoming book Mary Magdelene; The Sacred Relationship Path to the Age of Aquarius (tentative title), I explore Lilith in depth. From the book:
In early Sumerian mythology, love poems between Innana and Dummuzi were sexual and explicit. One story of Iannana involves Lilith. The more familiar story of Lilith is that she was Adams’s first wife. The lesser-told story is the one told in the epic of Gilgamesh; a Sumerian tale that involves Inanna and a Huluppu tree. In this story, a snake is in the roots of Inanna’s tree and is described as ‘uncharmable’. The dark maiden Lilith is at the trunk and an Anzu-bird (lion-headed eagle) is seated on the branches. Innana has been growing and nurturing this tree, but now she wants to use it to create a seat and a bed. The clash of Lilith, the snake and the bird in the tree stops Inanna from being able to transform the tree into the creations she desires.
The Anzu bird is said to be the stealer of destinies. The snake, however, was a symbol of fertility and sexuality, and Lilith is traditionally a wind demon. Lilith’s name comes from the Sumerian word lilitu, which means a wind spirit or a female demon. But what exactly is a wind demon? In Akkadian, the four winds of the cardinal directions were wind spirits with the South West wind being female and the other four male. The wind was considered the breath of the demon.
It should be first understood that demons were not necessarily bad. Mesopotamian academic Irving Finkel reminds us that we cannot impose our conception of demons onto the ancients. Demons in this period held both good and bad qualities. They were simply spirits on the earth plane, intermediaries between the gods and humans. For example, the demon ruling over the Lilith, Pazuzu, was feared as the king of the southwesterly wind that brought famine and loved as the demon that protected children from other child-destroying demons.
In Mesopotamia, the wind direction associated with Lilith, the South West direction, was stormy and hot. It was recorded that many rainstorm came from southwesterly winds and that the wind moved counter to the “normal” wind, which blew in the other direction. Normal wind in Mesopotamia was North Westerly wind.
But why would wind be a demon? The wind is not uncommon in the world of ancient medicine. In Tibetan it’s called rlung; translated as ‘wind’, the Greek equivalent is pneuma, (where pneumonia comes from) and it is qi in the Chinese tradition. In the astrological/hermetic tradition wind can be inferred to be related to the humours (hot, dry, cold, wet), which in turn are connected to the cardinal directions. Wind is related to the seasons; heat in summer, wet in the shoulder seasons such as spring and autumn, and cold in winter. The manifestation of wind is matched to the seasons.
In Chinese medicine, healing is related to yin and yang, the balance of energy and it is often winds that throw this balance off causing illness.
Wind can be considered good until it becomes too much! Imagine your mother telling you to do up your jacket or you’ll “catch a draft”. Or that you are trying to light a fire… some ‘wind’ is needed to stoke the fire, but too much can blow the fire out!
Going back to Inanna’s story, we can say that the snake is energy (sexual energy) and Lilith, the wind demon is a hot and stormy wind which stokes the energy. Lilith was said to come and have sex with men at night, hinting at a wet dream or something that would cause him to be uninterested in sexual relations with his wife. In women “The ardat liliµ is a sexually frustrated and infertile female who behaves aggressively toward young men.” So to put it bluntly, Lilith is a hot summer wind that can throw sexual energy out of balance.
With this new understanding of Lilith and with Lilith conjunct the moon at this full moon, we can shift the winds of our understanding, allowing us to release or balance belief systems, specifically around sexuality. We can let go of our traditional idea of demons as all good or all bad. We shift its connection to our beliefs about sex, sexual expression and sexual health.
The ruler of the full moon is Jupiter. Jupiter is conjunct Venus at the last degree of Taurus. This expands and increases our desire for love and relationships to a heightened place. It has a feeling like “now or never”. Jupiter and Venus are also in an out-of-sign conjunction with the Sun now in Gemini. The Gemini Sun is curious and needs to explore. We want to explore love. We want to explore sex and sexual expression!
This is further evidenced by the Sun conjunct the asteroid Terpsichore. In Greek mythology, Terpsichore is one of the nine muses and goddesses of dance and chorus. Terpsichore is related to dance, aerobics, flexibility; coordination, agility, grace and mobility; It is also connected to body image/ego and body language. We have a strong desire to move, dance, sing and express!
The problem comes with Admetos (a hypothetical planet). Ademos is also conjunct the Sun. Admetos is associated with matters that get blocked and come to a standstill.
Pull it all together and it can be said that this full moon is an astrological retelling of the story of Inanna and the Huluppu tree. Venus and Jupiter are expanding our desire for love, and Terpsichore is enchanting us with a need to express ourselves. Lilith with the moon is stoking the hot winds of desire… putting the flames of our desires out of balance, and Admetos like the Anzu-bird is blocking our expression. We are likely to feel hot bothered and out of sorts!
Fortunately, the Full Moon is creating angel wings with Neptune at the last degree of Pisces and Pluto newly in Aquarius. This provides a place for the full moon to express her emotions and sense of being. One angel wing is the moon is trine and the Sun sextile to Neptune. This connects us with our intuition and feelings and provides an outlet for self-expression and creativity, especially if connected to a sense of spirituality. The other angel wing is the moon sextile and the Sun trine to Pluto. This gives us access to emotional control and the ability to channel our emotions in a desired direction. It also connects us to personal power, and since Pluto is in Aquarius, we can also connect to the power that comes from groups and cooperation.
All in all, this energy provides a means for transmuting “bad demons” or negative feelings about sex and sexual expression, and to channel any traumas into art or artistic expression. We have an opportunity to balance the winds, to release and to invite into our lives whatever will help bring yin and yang…. what is it for you? aligning chakras? tantra? Abstinence? A Pole dancing class?
The key to accessing the full power of this full moon is expressed in the Sabian symbol “two men playing chess”. The goal of the game is “checkmate”, which is to put the king in a position where he has nowhere else to go. Chess can teach us how to be strategic, aware of the entire board (our surroundings) and to tame our impulses. Ultimately it is a game of balance; the chess board being a famous symbol of good and evil, yin and yang.
Happy Full Moon in Sagittarius