Venus + Lilith
The following is an excerpt from Deconstructing the Myth of Soulmate: Your Guide to Venus Retrograde in Leo (a 7 week excursion that started 3 weeks ago but is still available for purchase)
The astrology of this week features the second of three conjunctions between Venus and Black Moon Lilith*, currently combining their energies in the 23rd degree of Leo. Lilith brings in themes that are highly relevant and resonant for this Venus retrograde period, escorting us into the realms of Venus’ invisibility where her and our own shadow material becomes more prominent. As always, the invitation is to pay attention to how the themes might (or might not) be resonant for you.
Lilith’s mythology connects us with the primal feminine. In The Pregnant Virgin, Jungian analyst Marion Woodman defines feminine as something that exists beyond gender identity: “the part of us…that comes to consciousness through going into darkness, mining our leaden darkness until we bring the silver out.”
When I add the word “primal” in front, I am specifically calling out the more instinctive and often chaotic elements of our unconscious worlds. Those that include sudden or cultivated rage, grief, anger, magnetism, willfulness and sexuality as well as the unwieldy depths of hopelessness and despair.
The next few paragraphs combine information from research I have done over the year as well as some paraphrased material from M. Kelley Hunter’s amazing book Living Lilith, which has influenced my own thinking on Lilith enough that I have a hard time piecing out what parts of my thoughts came from where.
Lilith first shows up in cuneiform literature found unearthed in the Tigris and Euphrates River valleys, land that also gave birth to the Sumerian tradition and stories of Inanna’s descent. The stories of Inanna were inspired by the movements of planetary Venus, which was carefully tracked by Babylonian and Sumerian astronomer-astrologers of the region.
The most cohesive versions of Lilith’s story are contained in the Zohar, although there is some disagreement about when they were added. In short, Lilith is the first wife of Adam. In some versions, she is made from impure sediment and he from dust. Which was apparently pure (sounds like an Old Testament addition to me!).
Adam considers himself to be superior and therefore expects Lilith to be submissive to him. She’s not into that and, claiming equality while refusing to be submissive to him sexually or in any other way, refuses and rebels. In some versions, Lilith is then cast out of the garden. In others, she chooses to fly away, seeking exile over submission. In others, she is approached by three demons. Lilith herself tends to end up as demon, consorting with evil spirits and spawning demon babies. Yahweh threatens to kill a hundred of these demon babies a day unless she returns. She refuses.
And so, you know, Adam gets a new, good, submissive wife. Eve. (<— yes, that is sarcasm)
In many of the stories we have about her, Lilith is a frightening figure who has a dual nature as a demon on the one hand and a goddess consort on the other:
“Lilith speaks to women and men from their innermost desires and fears, tempting us beyond safe boundaries, enticing us to dive into the void, to ride the undercurrents that pull us into or out of our egoistic personalities into unfamiliar seas. The experience of Lilith is highly personal. She seems to know just what places to touch that will bring you to your edges. Is she an evil seductress or a strict daimon of the soul?”~M. Kelley Hunter, Living Lilith
Lilith chooses exile and freedom, although for an energy as instinctive as what she represents I don’t know what kind of choice that is. All instinctive energy can be is free. Regardless, it is not without grief and despair. A grief and despair so great that it perhaps feels unwieldy. Completely overwhelming. I can’t help but imagine the kind of wrath and rage that might coalesce as a defense against all that grief. It might in fact be called demonic. Can you imagine being cast out of paradise for the “sin” of wanting equality? Or wanting to be who you actually are?
The first time I engaged Lilith’s energy while in trance was during her conjunction with the galactic center. I was consumed with the sound of shrieking and saw an image of a being standing on the edge of a black hole. Literally screaming into the void.
The second time, I closed my eyes and saw a woman in the center of some kind of tomb with giant cinder blocks surrounding her. She was so angry she was able to make the blocks explode with the force of the rage undulating out from within her. Both visions were during a time in my life when Lilith was highly active in my chart. I was called to work with her. And yet, my body could not handle the energy.
Many of us might feel the resonance of Lilith within our stories of coming out or being shunned or cast out due to who and how we love. As trans and LGBQ rights face increased restriction and hate crimes rise, many of us are confronted with new fears and roiling anger.
We might feel it in the seeming madness of rejection. Or jealousy. Or loss.
We might feel it in the complete cosmic clusterfuckery of un-nameable emotions that spin through use at a time when so much is at stake, and yet kyriarchical powers insist on greed, hoarding and dominance rather than prioritizing the health of our planet and its beings.
Inanna + Lilith
The myth of Inanna is an important on for Venus retrograde cycles, as it describes the descent of a Sumerian goddess (known as Ishtar or Astarte to the Assyrians and eventually Isis to the Egyptians) who was celebrated as the embodiment of love and who was honored in sacred sexual ritual.
My favorite book about Inanna is Descent to the Goddess by Sylvia Brinton Perera. It is a psychological analysis of the myth from the Jungian perspective and takes the reader through the Inanna’s emergence as a Great Goddess who finds herself caught up in shifting paradigms: from matriarchal to patriarchal civilizations. The masculine gods associated with the latter ultimately judged Inanna’s sexual rites, and indeed uninhibited, uncontrolled sexuality itself, as blasphemous and worthy of punishment and domination.
Some of the themes of these sacred rites made their way into the Old Testament, and onwards from there, but even the name of the goddess Astarte was eventually distorted into Asteroth - a demon. In that way and many others, the ceremonial and ritual strength of the cultures of “pre-history” have been demonized, brutalized and cast aside.
Lilith shows up in Inanna’s mythology as a handmaiden to the goddess, which was a somewhat precarious role during the Sumerian civilization due to aforementioned paradigm shifts, again begging the question: is Lilith demon or divinity?
In one of the earliest stories, a huluppu tree (one of many symbols of Lilith) is uprooted during a wild storm, and swept down a river. Inanna finds the tree tangled in some brush and pulls it from the water. She tends to the tree, and it essentially becomes the original garden of Eden. She plans to make the tree her throne and marriage bed.
Creatures begin to appear in the tree. A serpent winds itself among the roots. A bird nests in its branches. The “dark maid” - Lilith - finds a home in its trunk. These wild, untamed energies interfere with Inanna’s plans, as she is not yet ready to embrace the potentially dangerous power of these creatures. She needs to establish herself on her own terms.
Inanna calls in her brother, Gilgamesh, to get rid of the creatures. He kills the serpent and chases away the bird. But Lilith refuses to be chased away and cannot be dominated in any way…
…and so she chooses exile.
Here in the heart of one of most influential goddess myths is once again a core concept repeated in multiple ways in multiple cultures: the apparent inevitability of casting out.
In this story, what is cast out is the serpent — which represents the powers of the earth and the subtle life-force that resides within all of us (Kundalini) that is then grounded back into the earth through roots and rooting, the principle of eternal return and transformation — and the bird. Many different birds are referenced, but for our purpose here what is important is recognition that the bird represents the spirit, or the world above.
Lilith, then, residing in the trunk of the tree, is connected to both. She is a conduit between the above and the below. Inanna is not yet ready to make contact with the unconscious realms of the serpent or the ecstatic realms of the spirit, although she does get there in later mythologies when she descends to the underworld and confronts Ereshkigal, who is an aspect of the dark goddess — the unconscious.
What we are dealing with in the current astro weather includes the energy of Lilith in Leo. In Leo, Lilith underscores the primacy of creative self actualization and the drive we have to express ourselves as authentically as possible.
Sounds like a good thing, right? It can be. But Lilith is often unwieldy as is, and so in a fire sign can be more willful, dominant and prone to impulsivity with a big ol' dose of crank. There might be parts of you arising that feel no longer willing to be caged or exiled.
If you are feeling sensitive to Lilith’s themes during this retrograde, know that you are not alone. Seek support as needed. I recommend the work of adrienne maree brown and Sonya Renee Taylor as resource and guide. For folks who are my patrons, we’ll have space to process at the next Full Moon Call/Community Hangout on August 31.
It might also be helpful to make a note of what is coming up now. Notice if any of those themes were resonant on or around June 28, when Venus and Lilith came together for the first time. The last of the three conjunctions takes place in 0 Virgo on October 9, when you might find the themes and feelings arising again, likely alongside some resolution or diffusing of the energy.
*I use mean Black Moon Lilith in my work, as the symbolism has been more consistently revelatory than when I use true Black Moon Lilith, the latter of which is currently at 5 Leo.
Multimedia explorations:
Evening on the Ground (Lilith’s song) by Iron and Wine
Amanda is a queer astrologer who is very into relational, evolutionary and psychological astrologies. You can support her work — and get rad incentives like monthly AstroCircles, New Moon ritual guidance and one on one sessions if you want them — on Patreon. Please share this article if its contents were meaningful to you.
