Religious Symbols
Black Moon Lilith
Notation
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Origin 1900 to 2000
Black Moon Lilith is not a body but a calculated point, most commonly the mean lunar apogee, the position in the Moon's elliptical orbit at which it is furthest from the Earth, measured from the geocentre; variant definitions exist, including a true or osculating apogee taken from the current position, and the values differ, so charts should state which is used. Its glyph is a dark crescent set upon a cross. The point entered astrology in the earlier twentieth century, and it should be distinguished from the Dark Moon Lilith of some older writers, a hypothetical second and very dark satellite of the Earth that was never observed; the two are separate things often confused. The precise origin of the glyph is not well documented. Interpretation draws on the figure of Lilith in Jewish legend, the first woman who refused submission, and the point is read for exile, refusal, raw appetite and what a person has been made ashamed of.
Facts
Form
Type of SymbolMathematical or scribal notation 1 Geometric FormA black or filled crescent set above a cross. 1 Origins
Origin Period Place of OriginModern Western astrology. 1 Learn More
A Calculated Point, Not a Body
Black Moon Lilith is not a physical object but an astrological name for the lunar apogee, the point at which the Moon's orbit lies farthest from the Earth, defined geometrically as the empty second focus of that elliptical orbit, since the Earth itself occupies the first focus. It is a calculated point rather than a body that can be seen. Because the Moon's elliptical orbit is itself slowly rotating, the apogee point does not stay fixed relative to the zodiac but precesses forward through the signs, completing a full circuit in roughly eight years and ten months, the fastest-moving of the major calculated points used in Western astrology.
Ephemerides differ on exactly how to compute it, some giving the smoothed mean position of this precession and others an oscillating true or interpolated position that tracks the Moon's actual, more irregular orbital wobble, so a chart's Lilith placement can shift somewhat depending on which method a given astrologer's software applies. This is distinct from the numbered minor planet 1181 Lilith, an ordinary asteroid discovered in 1927 that happens to share the name but has no orbital connection to the apogee point at all, a coincidence that has caused persistent confusion in popular astrological writing on the subject.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Lilith directly: "Black Moon Lilith is not a body but a calculated point, most commonly the mean lunar apogee, the position in the Moon's elliptical orbit at which it is furthest from the Earth, measured from the..."
Symbol Of
The symbol's own cited description identifies its glyph as that of this planet.
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