Planets: Vulcan, Lilith, Transpluto, Odd Moons & Planets Generally

To conclude the section on planets, here are books on the Earth's Dark Moon aka Lilith, Vulcan & Transpluto, as well as on the planets generally & outer planets specifically:

Planets:

The Moon

Mercury-Saturn

Uranus-Pluto

Leftovers!

	THE PLANET VULCAN: HISTORY, NATURE TABLES - L.H. Weston, $12.00 A small, old book (about 1910), reprinted by the AFA. Vulcan is a small body orbiting inside the orbit of Mercury. It's rarely seen (it's tough to spot Mercury & we've tried), though has been seen traveling across the sun's disk. This is a very sketchy book, hardly enough to wet the appetite. The tables are nearly a century old and were only approximate then (perhaps useless now). Maybe this book will inspire someone to do the definitive research and bring Vulcan into the astrological community? Contents: The intra-Mercurial planet Vulcan; Modern observations; The observation of 1907; The elements of Vulcan; How to compute Vulcan's longitude; Astrological nature and effect of Vulcan; Tables of Vulcan; The heliocentric tables of Vulcan. AFA, 35 pages, paper.

	INTERPRETING LILITH - Delphine Gloria Jay, $23.95 Contents: Foreword, by Michael Munkasey Foreword, by Robert Carl Jansky A poetic excerpt from the lyric play, Lilith, of 1919 Introduction 1. Astronomical history & legends 2. The Lilith influence 3. Lilith through the signs 4. Lilith through the houses 5. Aspects to Lilith 6. Lilith in return charts Comment: This is a comprehensive book with extensive delineations of Lilith through the signs, in the twelve houses, and in aspect to the usual planets. I found the text to be wordy (close to two pages per sign, nearly three pages per house), but the delineations never quite became clear. Jay treats Lilith-to-planet aspects in a general way. We sometimes get notes on specific aspects (conjunctions, oppositions & squares, primarily), but the result is more of a wash. Under Facts About Lilith (pgs. 15-17), we learn that Lilith: Has two levels. Is impersonal. Is collective. Is "maturing" and "alien to sentiment" - which is presumably childish. Leads to extremes. Creates "fascination" - a word not immediately defined. Exaggerates desires. Likes Saturn. Lilith's house placement forces us to deal with our own immaturity. Lilith represents raw urges - emphasis in orginal. Provides creative talent for one's occupation, according to its sign placement. Magnifies the energies of aspecting planets. Is similar to Uranus. Responds strongly to it, as well as to Mars & Saturn. Is exalted in Gemini, falls in Sagittarius, dignified in Capricorn, detriment in Cancer. Which makes it a Mercury-Saturn planet. Lilith represents a shadow on the personality. Lilith represents the unconscious. On its higher level, Lilith sharpens the mind. Subjectively, Lilith introverts. "Lilith is the priestess in woman." (pg. 17) This looks scattershot to me, but there is a lot here. AFA, 133 pages. Read the book? Want to tell the world? How many stars (1-5) would you give this book? Tell us!

	LILITH INSIGHT: NEW LIGHT ON THE DARK MOON - Mae R. Wilson-Ludlam, $19.00 Contents: Introduction Lilith brought to light Lilith notebook Lilith in the signs Critical, malefic & azimine degrees Positive purpose of Lilith Lilith in the houses Lilith aspects Lilith in childbirth Progressed Lilith Lilith in the horary chart Lilith's havoc (case studies) The 40 day spiritual cycle The students shared their Lilith findings Lilith ephemeris, 1977-2000 daily; 2001-2016 monthly Beginner's keyword interpretation (general astrology, not for Lilith) Blank chart Comment: Lilith is the Earth's other, dark moon, visible only when it transits across the face of the sun, & so virtually unknown though recorded by astronomers since 1618. In the chapter entitled, Lilith Brought to Light, the author writes, Lilith is soulless, the wild within the tame, the blemish on the otherwise perfect surface, the hungering for outward attention . . . Sinister & hostile though she be, she is an attention getter. . . (pg. 1) Two pages later, Lilith Notebook starts with, The overall conclusion reached through this work is that inimical Lilith is a threat to making the right choices in life lead by mischance to mistakes of a regrettable nature. She is symbolic of man's vulnerability when chosing whether to take the positive or negative course of action. Lilith, then,is the lure to forbidden fruit. (pg. 3) This is better written, better focused, more comprehensive, than Delphine Jay's book. In the ephemeris, daily positions (1977-2000) are given to the nearest degree. AFA, 140 pages.

	THE LILITH EPHEMERIS - Delphine Jay, $20.00 Contents: Foreword Introduction Lilith Ephemeris, 1900-2000, set for noon, GMT. Positions are daily, one month to a page. Comment: Introductory material is in proper book-text (Times Roman, about 10 points, a bit dark). The ephemeris itself is in dot-matrix, but a very legible dot-matrix. Positions are to the nearest minute of a degree, which is quite good, for as much orbital information as is actually known about this moon. Supersedes Ivy Goldstein-Jacobson's pioneering work, because Ivy mistakenly presumed the year 1900 to be a leap year, which, in the Gregorian Calendar, it was not. (All of Ivy's positions, after February 28, 1900, are off by one degree. This has been known for some time.) Introductory notes provide historical background, especially concerning Soviet observations in the 1960's. AFA, 209 pages.

	LIVING LILITH: Four dimensions of the cosmic feminine - M. Kelly Hunter, $28.00 Contents: Acknowledgements Chart data List of illustrations 1. Lilith comes in dreams & myths 2. THe four Liliths in astrology 3. Lilith in the arts 4. The cosmic feminine in wisdom tradition 5. Lilith on the world stage 6. Interpreting Lilith 7. Living Lilith Appendix Bibliography Index Comment: In this book care is taken to distinguish between the asteroid Lilith, the Dark Moon Lilith (a secondary moon of the Earth), the Black Moon Lilith (a name for the Earth's barycenter. See the diagram here. It is physically inside the Earth itself), and, finally, the star Caput Algol, presently at 26 degrees, 17 minutes of Taurus. I knew of the first three. I had not heard of the Algol - Lilith connection. The author says the Hebrews knew the star by that name, quoting Richard Hinkley Allen, Star Names, Their Lore & Meaning. In Allen's book Lilith is described as Adam's nocturnal vampyre, aka, a succubus. If I were a merciful God & had succubi attacking my creation, I would certainly see to it that he had fundamental protection. And this isn't imaginary wishful thinking on my part. When my 8 year old daughter's sleep was plagued by discarnates, I got rid of them. To the best of their ability, this is what loving fathers do. In examining the Wiki entry for Lilith, there are repeated references to succubi. Which certainly fits the usual description of Lilith, but you will not find the words, "succubus" or its opposite, "incubus" in this book. As for the Hebrew usage of the word, Wiki says only, The Book of Isaiah 34:14, describing the desolation of Edom, is the only occurrence of Lilith in the Hebrew Bible. Hunter's book confuses Lilith, the sucubus, with Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of love & sex. Inanna is a fairly wild character, but, like an individual siren, she appears to those who are conscious. (Succubi & incubi are nocturnal & only affect sleepers.) This is an important distinction. Hunter's first chapter, on dreams & myths, is a mess. But we're astrologers, we want the astrology. Signs, houses, aspects, that sort of thing. Which is chapter 6. Behold: When we place our four Liliths in relation to Moon & Venus, we get a more complicated & relevatory picture of our feminine side [the author writes primarily for women]. Does one Lilith placement have a stronger connection to the Moon or Venus? Some charts show a dynamic interaction between these factors that brings the path of feminine consciousness to the fore in a compelling way. It may not mean smooth emotional seas, but rather an exploration of uncharted waters. (pg. 141) This is about as much delineation as you will find in the book. I wouldn't mind finding adjuncts to the traditional planets, but so often astrologers fail to do more than make superficial interpretations of planets/signs/houses, before rushing off to take up strange & exotic creatures. These creatures are then called upon to fill in the cracks in the astrologer's own understanding. This is unsatisfactory. On pg. 144 are guidelines for the asteroid Lilith. The keywords are rebellion and rejection. Martha Lang-Wescott's classic book is listed in the bibliography. Consulting that book, I find the asteroid Lilith involved in love-triangles, which can include (according to Martha) using a hobby or pasttime to thwart the affections of one's spouse. Hunter's more simplistic interpretation seems to be based on the previous chapters on art & politics. Pages 154-165 are delineations of "Lilith" through the signs. Hunter does not distinguish any of the three possible Liliths, save to mention that any of them, in Taurus, is a companion to Caput Algol, the 4th Lilith. Of this fancy, Martha says, Distinguish between the asteroid, Lilith, and "the dark moon, Lilith." These are different points with very different meanings. (Mechanics of the Future Asteroids, pg. 179. Emphasis in the original.) Dear Margaret Cahill, publisher: You put a lot of work into these books, and it gives me no pleasure to rip them to pieces. Could you, in future, please do basic research (a simple Wiki would do), and guide your authors to better results? The conclusions & opinions don't bother me so much as bad research that destroys everything built on it. The back of the book begins, In our twenty-first century renaissance, renewed interest in the goddess has brought many faces of the divine feminine into modern awareness. Lilith is one of the most alluring - and ancient. After five thousand years of smoky rumours, this female of ambiguous reputation remains a mystery. As seductive femme fatale, crib death hag or cosmic goddess, vampire or beacon of female integrity, she has continued to excite our cultural imagination. If we follow her trail back in time to seek the source of the fear & negativity she typically evokes, we often discover, not only a major shift in the collective human image of the feminine, but also something essential that needs to be redeemed in our personal lives. Wessex Astrologer, 212 pages. Read the book? Want to tell the world? How many stars (1-5) would you give this book? Tell us!

	THE BOOK OF LILITH - Barbara Black Koltuv, $12.95 Contents: Preface The Talmud on Lilith Introduction 1. Origins 2. Life & deeds 3. Lilith, the seductress 4. Lilith & the daughters of Eve 5. Cast out & redeemed Bibliography Comment: This is the mythology of Lilith, Adam's first wife, as viewed, for the most part, from the Talmud & Zohar. As I am unfamiliar with these books, I looked them up. The Talmud, a written collection of Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history, came about as a result of the end of the Jewish state in 70 AD. Prior to the loss of the Temple, this had been an oral tradition. The Zohar is a mystical commentary on the Torah, which is the Five Books of the Mosaic Bible, ie, the heart of the Old Testament. It first appeared in Spain in the 13th century, from sources which claimed it was from the second century, AD. From the back of the book we learn the author is a clinical psychologist & practicing Jungian analyst in New York. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1962. She specializes in love, sexuality & relationships, both human & archetypal. She has travelled in Mexico, Central & South America, Europe and North Africa. She has spent "a great deal of time" in Jerusalem. There is NO ASTROLOGY in this book, but it might be of interest to those of you looking for more information on the Lilith archetype. As is typical of modern authors, no effort is made to investigage clairvoyantly, nor metaphysically. As is typical, the author attempts to show how an "evil" thing is really something which we should respect & admire. In this regard, the very last words in the book are of interest: The fourth & final feminine quality carried by Lilith is that of God the mother & creatrix, in addition to God the father & creator. In this sense, Lilith is Adamath, the feminine red mother earth of woman's nature. She is the part of the feminine Self that modern woman needs to reconnect with in order to no longer be a spiritual outcast. Lilith can help women remember that: There was a time when you were not a slave, remember that. You walked alone, full of laughter, you bathed bare-bellied. You say you have lost all recollection of it, remember . . . you say there are no words to describe it, you say it does not exist. But remember. Make an effort to remember. Or, failing that, invent. (from Monique Witting, Les Guerilleres) - pg. 122. Koltuv not only correctly names Lilith as a succubi (pg. xi), but also describes her, more or less correctly, as a night demon who lays hold of men & women who sleep alone, causing erotic dreams & nocturnal orgasm. (Introduction, pg. xi). (The demon who attacks sleeping females is known as an incubi & appears as a male.) A succubi is a curious creature to make a heroine of, as, speaking as a male, we will kill them, or, failing that, suppress them (which, in fact, the male sex has), or, if that is not possible, we will become homosexuals & the race will end. This isn't logical. It's visceral. We don't like being preyed upon. Our opinion has not changed one whit from that of Adam, who, so far as I can tell, went eyeball to eyeball with God & forced God to try again. The female authors who advocate Lilith seem to have overlooked the male view, which would imply they are conflicted about the male sex, would it not? Or perhaps they wish we were invasive incubi, rather than flesh-and-blood men? For that matter, show me the woman who prefers an incubi to a real man. Show me even one. Lilith seems to be another subject where the more I study it, the less I like it, but that might just be me. Nicholas-Hayes, 127 pages. Read the book? Want to tell the world? How many stars (1-5) would you give this book? Tell us!

	PERSEPHONE IS TRANSPLUTO, The Scientific, Mythological & Astrological Discovery of the Planet Beyond Pluto - Valerie Vaughan, $12.95 There are planets beyond Pluto, they just haven't been sighted yet. Just as Neptune was predicted, then discovered, a planet beyond Neptune was predicted, and Pluto discovered instead. As Vaughan points out, the planet they were looking for was about 8 degrees from Pluto at the time of Pluto's discovery (a long, long way in a big 'scope). Rather than wait for astronomers, astrologers & mathematicians are already working out the orbit & astrological interpretation. Vaughan says the theme of Persephone/Transpluto is Separation/Reunion with a feminist slant. Find out more in this fascinating book. Contents: Astronomy and astrology; Discovery of a new planet; Rebirth of the feminine; Mythology as mystery - or the mis-story of herstory; Persephone's rulership of Libra - the union of dualities; New planet on the horizon; The mythology of scientific discovery; The resonance between astrology and astronomy; Searching for Trans-Neptune reveals evidence of Transpluto; After Pluto's discovery - the hunt continues; The astrological discovery of Transpluto; Persephone in the chart and in our lives; The modern era - Persephone in Cancer/Leo; Science, myth, astrology, history - the Persephone connection; The powerful feminine principle; Discovering a symbol-glyph for persephone; The celebration of ancient mysteries; Persephone, the myth and the planet; Persephone ephemeris 1900-2015. 254 pages including glossary and references. One Reed Publications, paper.

	PLANETS IN SIGNS - Skye Alexander, $18.95 Contents: Dedication Acknowledgments 1. Getting started 2. Astrological families 3. The Sun 4. The Moon 5. Mercury 6. Venus 7. Mars 8. Jupiter 9. Saturn 10. Uranus 11. Neptune 12. Pluto Sources About the author Comment: From the back of the book: What's your sign? Here's the complete picture - not just the Sun, but also the Moon & planets through all twelve signs of the zodiac. Alexander describes each of these heavenly bodies & its significance in the birth chart, then shows how the different signs color & shape the energies of the planets & lights. Each lucid analysis includes examples of famous people whose charts contain that particular planet-sign combination so you can see how others have utilized the energies. The signs of the zodiac are the most dramatic yet fundamental part of the birth chart. Early astrologers called them the Soul of Nature. C.G. Jung depicted them as archetypes. By looking at the signs in which the planets were positioned at your birth you'll discover your strengths & weaknesses, special talents & problem areas, potentials & inclinations in love, work, play, health & more. Alexander also covers the four elements & the three modalities - the building blocks of life - and reveals what it means to have a dominance or weakness of one of these significant factors in your chart. The sun, moon & planets through all 12 signs. Whitford, 272 pages. Read the book? Want to tell the world? How many stars (1-5) would you give this book? Tell us!

	PLANETS & PLANET CENTERED ASTROLOGY - Stephanie Jean Clement, $18.00 From the back cover: "Now for the first time we can cast charts on any planet, asteroid, or moon we choose....The broader perspective of 'Plants and Planet Centered Astrology' comes at a time when we need vision about our individual futures and the future of the planet Earth." Contents: Planets viewed alchemically; Sun and the moon; Heliocentric spiritual map; The planets and their charts. 176 pages including bibliography and glossary. AFA, paper.

Planets:

The Moon

Mercury-Saturn

Uranus-Pluto

Leftovers!

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