Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Lilith Conjunct Venus: Susanne Collins, author of "Hunger Games"




Susanne Collins and Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Katniss in the "Hunger Games".

Let me say that my heart just sunk when I discovered that Fairfax County Public Schools was teaching “Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins.  This huge money-maker about child sacrifice was a series of books that kids themselves loved to read on their own – there was no need to assign it to get them to read it.  But Collins promoted it as having literary merit – it was a retelling of the Greek classic of Theseus and the Minotaur, with a gorgeous and brave Persephone, Katniss Everdeen, in the role of a female Theseus.  Plus the echo of another great book acted as an esteemed ancestor – namely the “Big Brother is Watching You” dystopia of Orwell’s masterpiece novel, “1984”.

The book was perfectly timed to make a fortune – Pluto in Capricorn features Persephone more strongly than any other archetype.  Persephone goes back and forth between the Underworld and her own world.  She is both an ambassador of Hell, a queen in her own right, a “light-bringer” who is a harbinger of spring and new beginnings, and a courageous little “Eve” who protects her own people by making sure that the planet Earth produces enough to eat – hence the “hunger” in the title, “Hunger Games”, where the people of District 12 are coal-miners (Pluto in Capricorn referring to wealth under the earth) who live on the cusp of starvation.  Katniss Everdeen is also a “good angel” who has fallen into Hell, and the movie makes sure you don’t forget that by playing up her wings of fire as she speeds along in a chariot in the procession that welcomes the contestants to the 74th Hunger Games.

Katniss Everdeen isn’t merely channeling Persephone, however.  Artemis bleeds into her character as well.  Artemis is the Goddess of the Hunt, most often depicted with a quiver of arrows.  She has a twin brother, Apollo, who shows up as the other tribute from District 12, Peeta Mellark, in “Hunger Games”.  Artemis was associated with human sacrifice in ancient times, but was also said to be a protector of infants and children.  Go figure.

For a long time, I avoided the book completely, even though my middle school students assured me that the movie sequel, “Hunger Games:  Catching Fire” was even better than the blockbuster original film.  Pluto in Capricorn is all about demons running amok, and who wants to watch demons take over the minds of kids?  Yet the timing of the movie sequel’s release occurred just as Jupiter was conjunct Lilith, which occurs only once every 33 years.  The Lilith theme was so strong that I was going to have to swallow my scruples, and at least watch the movie.  To my surprise, I loved the first “Hunger Games” movie, and am now waiting anxiously for Netflix to release the second one.  My sick fascination with the story was no different from everyone else who was tapping the energy of Pluto in Capricorn and exalted Jupiter conjunct Lilith.  So much for scruples…

Let’s switch gears for a moment, and look at some observations.  These are mostly for the Lilith-Venus conjunction, with a tight orb.  I don’t have enough charts to be able to say with any certainty whether these are also true for hard aspects with a tight orb.

Lilith Conjunct Venus

  • Either a total Eve, or an adamant Lilith, independent and strong-willed.  Or the persona is total Eve or Lilith, if an actor.  Goldie Hawn has a very tight Lilith-Venus conjunction (think Eve) and Susanne Collins often has a bitchy, take-no-shit look on her face (think Lilith).
  • At least one commentator on Linda Goodman’s website (www.linda-goodman.com) mentioned that she thinks there is an ability to go back and forth between a submissive, loving woman and an aggressive, hard-ass personality.  There may be something to this, in the sense that this is a woman who potentially enjoys a sweeter, gentler relationship with one or two lucky men, even if she comes across as a bitch with everyone else.  I don’t have the natal charts to back this up, though.  It would make sense, however, if one considers that Venus is the bitch-goddess who beats the crap out of Psyche, as well as the more familiar goddess of sugar and spice.
  •  Increases creativity.  Not always by a whole lot, but the native plays in a band, or does gorgeous scrapbooks, or decorates cakes for extra pocket money, or something… 
  •  In particular, the conjunction makes money from things associated with Lilith – prostitution, BDSM, stripping, adultery, and abortion, but also dance school owner (Goldie Hawn), promotion of Jewish cultural enterprises, or bisexual writers whose love lives helped promote their careers (Francoise Sagan).  Rebekah Brooks, Rupert Murdoch’s gutter bitch, made her money by hounding the mothers of missing kids and the relatives of murder victims
  • The final one is a guess on my part, but I would bet the conjunction is highly competitive.  Venus doesn’t settle for second-best very often in love or money.


Now let’s take a look at Susanne Collins, who made a total fortune off of Lilith-themed literature.  She is a Leo born on August 10, 1962 with no published birth time, but in this case we almost don’t need one.  This image I got from Pinterest below says it all.

Collins has a lucky horoscope, with Mercury and Uranus tightly conjunct the royal star, Regulus, and Venus in the sign that it rules within a one degree orb of Lilith at 1 degree Libra.  She has the red hair frequently associated with Lilith.  Also noted is her Mars tightly conjunct the fixed star Bellatrix at 21 Gemini, the “bitch” star.  Bellatrix is known for being sharp-tongued and noticeably talkative or articulate.  Collins has said that it is her goal to write a “war appropriate story for every age of kids”.  One of the ancient associations of Lilith was that she could be found "at the head of armies".

Interestingly, Jennifer Lawrence, who plays Katniss Everdeen, is another Leo with a very lucky chart.  She was born August 15, 1990, and has no less than five planets in ruling or exalted signs – Sun in Leo, Mercury in Virgo, Jupiter in Cancer, Saturn in Capricorn, and Pluto in Scorpio.  There is no birth time available for Lawrence either, but I do note Lilith conjunct her Part of Fortune within a two degree orb – she has made more money from her role in the “Hunger Games” trilogy than any of her other films to date.   

The director of “Catching Fire”, Francis Lawrence (no relation to Jennifer Lawrence), also has True Lilith partile conjunct Pluto, suggesting wealth and power, in a strong opposition with his Aries Sun, and likely with his Aries Moon (again, no birth time is available).  An earlier director, Gary Ross, has Mean Lilith at 7 Aquarius conjunct Chiron at 6 Aquarius, in a tight T-Square with Mercury at 5 Scorpio and Uranus at 6 Leo.  Everyone associated with this film seems to have an elevated Lilith in some way.


What Did I Miss?
What's Next?


SOURCES
Time Magazine talks to the writer-creator of the “Hunger Games” and the director of “Catching Fire”, Francis Lawrence:


Café Neptune has a nice collection of pages on Lilith, with a catchy layout, which includes a profile of Goldie Hawn:


Five paragraph bio of Susanne Collins, for those who want to know a little bit more:

http://www.hypable.com/the-hunger-games/suzanne-collins-biography/

Why did Gary Ross quit as director of the "Hunger Games"?  Interesting from an astrological perspective - his natal Chiron did not mesh well with the overwhelming Lilith energy of making this series, even though by all accounts, he did a great job on the original film.

 http://www.vulture.com/2012/04/gary-ross-hunger-games-who-will-direct-catching-fire.html


Thursday, January 2, 2014

PART TWO Lilith in the 2nd House: Genius, Sinner, Psycho, Saint




Folks often want to know the difference between Lilith and Chiron.  Lilith is a gift-giver, but her gifts come with a price, because she is either a demon, or strongly associated with demons.  Chiron is a teacher and a healer, who hands out lessons, some of which can be very painful.  Chiron can also bring about tremendous healing, in unexpected ways.  But he isn’t a gift-giver in the sense that Lilith is.
 
Gifts are supposed to be something of a surprise, and Lilith’s gifts are.  They are hidden talents, and it takes time to realize that you even have something special there.  Usually, one spots the price paid right away (life is like that).  For some people, their entire destiny hinges on realizing the hidden gift of Lilith.  For others, the “gift” is an avocation, rather than a vocation, or just the development of a hobby that brings meaning to middle or older age.

Chiron’s lessons can feel a lot like Lilith’s “gifts”.  But Lilith does not heal the way Chiron does.  One could argue that she does heal in her guise as Mary Magdalene, who participated in the tremendous healing spirit of Jesus.  In her core energy as the first wife of Adam, she has tremendous power, but she is too damaged to provide her children with anything that might heal them. The New Testament hints at this in Mark 16:9, “After Jesus rose from the dead early on Sunday morning, the first person who saw him was Mary Magdalene, the woman from whom he had cast out seven demons.”

On an astrological level, I suspect we are dealing with the core energy of Lilith, and not her later evolution (although it may creep in to the 7th House if one is lucky).  Also, Lilith does appear to have a unique interaction with Chiron – a trine, and possibly a conjunction, between these two, can offer healing to the native, or to others around him or her, in some pretty unexpected ways.

Now, let’s explore some strong Lilith energy in the ladies…

Material Girls

2nd House Lilith Madonna may be the ultimate material girl – very wealthy (the world’s top-selling female recording artist of all time), highly entrepreneurial, and something of a psychopath in her desire to stay on top.  One reviewer noted, “that "Madonna is opportunistic, manipulative and ruthless—somebody who won't stop until she gets what she wants—and that's something you can get at the expense of maybe losing your close ones. But that hardly mattered to her.”

Sarah Palin is another material girl – the reason she gave up the governorship of Alaska had everything to do with earning easier money, and making more of it.  Palin has had Lilith play out in her life in a number of ways – she is something of an Alaskan Renaissance woman, and she attracted an incredible amount of hate from mainstream media once they picked up on her morally ambiguous actions.  She also suffered a fated and deeply painful Lilith encounter with her former boss, John McCain.  No woman has had a more disastrous debut in American politics.

There are “Material Boys” as well – Aristotle Onassis, Walt Disney, and Warren Buffet come to mind.  Some 2nd House Lilith folks are unabashedly about the money, and don’t feel any real ambivalence toward it the way Steve Jobs did.

Madonna

Looking back toward her youth, Madonna takes pride in the fact that she was a schoolgirl tease and a straight-A student.  In 1977, at the age of 19, she moved to New York with only $35.00 in her pocket.  She later said, “It was the first time I’d ever taken a plane, the first time I’d ever gotten a taxi cab…it was the bravest thing I’d ever done.”  She quickly found work as a back-up dancer, and not too long after her arrival in NY, was dragged into an alley when returning home from a rehearsal, and forced to perform fellatio at knife-point.

Astrologically, Madonna has a 9th House Jupiter-Neptune conjunction near the Mid-Heaven, and the whole shebang is in a tight square to Venus – this probably helped her to sell both sex (Like a Virgin) and religion (Like a Prayer).   Note the similarity of this configuration to the natal configuration of Pope John Paul II.  Recall that his Venus was tightly conjunct Ketu, and that Ketu makes a planet behave in a weird or uncharacteristic way – he was obviously not in it for the money the way Madonna was.

Her mean Lilith is tightly aspected in a grand trine with an angular Pallas Athene (independent, warrior woman, who does not need a man), and a hard-working 10th House Saturn.  She channeled Lilith seven ways to Sunday – in a classy way with the film, Evita, and in a trashy way, by simulating masturbation on-stage.  Her best songs were straight from the two sides of Lilith, as the following example suggests.

"I was surprised by how people reacted to "Like a Virgin" because when I did that song, to me, I was singing about how something made me feel a certain way—brand-new and fresh—and everyone interpreted it as 'I don't want to be a virgin anymore. Fuck my brains out!' That's not what I sang at all. 'Like a Virgin' was always absolutely ambiguous."

Madonna was all about explicit sexual imagery, a sense of style that came to define 1980’s fashion, and irreverent on-stage behavior – singing in front of burning crosses, and such.  She had an incredible number of costume and image changes – prompting one reviewer’s comment, “One thing you can say about Madonna…she’s had more incarnations than the Dalai Lama”.  Her conversion to Judaism was all part of the constant reinvention – and another echo of Lilith.

Madonna was also a total game-changer in the music industry.  Tony Sclafani from MSNBC had this to say about her musical legacy.
 
It's worth noting that before Madonna, most music mega-stars were guy rockers; after her, almost all would be female singers ... When The Beatles hit America, they changed the paradigm of performer from solo act to band. Madonna changed it back—with an emphasis on the female.

Others weighed in.  Camile Paglia called her a “true feminist”.  More significantly, Professor Colin Barrow of the Cranfield School of Management described Madonna as "America's smartest businesswoman ... who has moved to the top of her industry and stayed there by constantly reinventing herself".

MY NOTE:  2nd House Lilith frequently pays fastidious attention to design – Steve Jobs was obsessed with the design of his Apple products, and Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest designers who ever lived.   Even if there is no overt design ability, there can be a very strong discrimination on anything to do with matters of taste (the second house is the natural house of Venus in Taurus = beautiful possessions, or trashy possessions others think are cool.)  Madonna did this with fashion – when she cropped tops with crosses, everyone wanted their own version of that look, and when she wore boleros and layered skirts in her videos, girls started wearing that, too.

Sarah Palin

First, let me say that I admire Sarah Palin, while most other astrologers seem to hate her.  When John McCain was about to dump her, the media focused on how unprepared she was for basic questions on current events.  Her political record in Wasilla came under intense scrutiny.  The smear campaign became outrageous – soon bloggers were “proving” that her son Trig, who has Down’s syndrome, was actually her daughter Bristol’s baby, and that Palin had apparently faked the entire pregnancy.

Make no mistake, Sarah Palin has a challenging nativity – having five planets in Aquarius can’t be easy on anybody!  Note that this karmic signature is shared with her grandson, Tripp Johnston, who has a whopping six planets in Capricorn, and three more in Aquarius.

Nonetheless, when I look at her, I see an Alaskan Renaissance woman, if not an especially intellectual one.  She was captain of her high school basketball team, ran 10k races, hunted large game for food with her father before going to school in the morning, played the flute, ice fished, and took second place in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant, which won her a scholarship that helped her attend college.  Then she managed to get a job as a sports newscaster in Alaska after graduation, fulfilling her college dream.  Her grades were never especially good, but she more than compensated in any non-academic arena. In fact, one gets the sense that the compensation was deliberate.  Why she doesn’t get more credit for working her ass off to overcome learning disabilities by attempting to shine in every way outside the classroom is something I have never understood.

Her biography suggests that her body is curiously impervious to pain on occasion.  As a teenage basketball player, she displayed intense focus.  She played the championship game despite a stress fracture in her ankle, hitting a critical free throw in the last seconds.  Later in life, she apparently went through labor with her last child while on a long flight back to Alaska, and returned home to have the child, instead of opting for a delivery in Anchorage.

When I asked a conservative friend why so many liberal women seemed to hate Palin, I got a candid response that seems to make a lot of sense, at least to me.  “Envy,” my friend said, and added, “she excels at every type of sport and outdoor endeavor, AND she was beautiful, AND she has five children, AND she became governor of Alaska, AND she has a loyal husband who made her political career possible, AND she has a husband who would never cheat on her the way Hillary’s husband did.”

Astrologically, Palin shared a fated and tragic synastry with her running mate and boss, John McCain.  McCain is a maverick who has always trusted his instincts, and he was inexplicably drawn to Sarah.  Then, when he realized she wasn’t going to be able to hold up her end of the bargain, he dumped her.  There is a strong echo of the original myth of Adam and Lilith operating here.  Not surprisingly, McCain’s true Lilith at 15 degrees Libra is partile conjunct Palin’s Ascendant!

Strongly Visual Minds

Given the strong energy of Lilith in his art, one might expect a Lilith-Neptune aspect in the nativity of Jack Vettriano, even though his birth time on Nov 17, 1951 is unknown.  Sure enough, his mean Lilith squares Neptune (1 degree orb).

In the natural house of Venus, the Second House, Lilith’s gifts tend to be visual rather than verbal in nature.  There are important writers with Lilith in this house, but they aren’t always easy to understand.  2nd House Lilith natives Marcel Proust and Dane Rudhyar were known for their dense, convoluted writing style.  Natal 2nd House Lilith Antoine de Saint Exupery was known as much for his illustrations as for his text in his most famous story, “The Little Prince”.  2nd House Lilith F. Scott Fitzgerald was known for convoluted, mysterious plots that were difficult to decipher – as a high school student assigned to read, “The Great Gatsby”, I had no idea what Daisy Buchannan really did in that story, and the teacher certainly didn’t help me to discover it.  I had to watch the movie years later, or I would never have figured it out.

Lilith in this house is known for art and music and design.  Dane Rudhyar gets as much credit for his music as he does for astrology in some circles.  Polymath Albert Schweitzer noted the esoteric meaning of Bach’s compositions, and wrote criticism on the historical Jesus, although he is known mainly as a medical doctor and philanthropist.  Schewitzer’s magnum opus on Jesus is online – the writing style is clear, but I wouldn’t call it easy to understand.
 
2nd House Lilith Norman Rockwell became known for patriotic art that appealed to common people – it was clear, and easy for everyone to understand.  Steve Jobs made products that everyone loved looking at.  Alfred Hitchcock made the films that defined an era, but he was very dependent on his writers, although he did not like to admit it.

Jobs said he had always wanted to be an artist, but he saw himself primarily as a businessman.  He admits he was attracted to his sister, Mona Simpson, because she possessed the verbal acuity that he himself did not have.

Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock had a mind that liked to fuck with people.  He was overweight his entire life, even as a child (outcast Lilith in the house of the body).  He also had a sporadic, unconscious psychic gift for sensing the future, although this does not appear to be an attribute of Lilith.  According to Wikipedia, one of his early pieces, "Fedora" (1921), gave a strikingly accurate description of his future wife, Alma Reville (whom he had not yet met).

Hitchcock made great who-done-it films with a twist.  In “Strangers on a Train” (1951), two men casually meet, one of whom speculates on a foolproof murder technique. He suggests that two people, each wishing to do away with someone, should each perform the other's murder.  In “Dial M for Murder” (1954), Ray Milland plays the scheming villain, an ex-tennis pro who tries to murder his unfaithful wife Grace Kelly for her money. When she kills the hired assassin in self-defense, Milland manipulates the evidence to pin the death on his wife.  His most famous film, Psycho (1960), changed the horror film genre forever.

At least one woman accused Hitchcock of being a psychopath, Tippi Hedren, star of “The Birds” (1963).  If an interview Hedren gave in 2012 was accurate, it is pretty disturbing.  According to Wikipedia, “In 2012, Hedren described Hitchcock as a ‘sad character’; a man of ‘unusual genius’, yet ‘evil, and deviant, almost to the point of dangerous, because of the effect that he could have on people that were totally unsuspecting.’ In response, a Daily Telegraph article quoted several actresses who worked with Hitchcock, including Eva Marie Saint, Doris Day and Kim Novak, all of them appearing to refute Hedren's account of him.”

His fastidiousness and attention to detail also found its way into each film poster for his films. Hitchcock preferred to work with the best talent of his day—film poster designers such as Bill Gold and Saul Bass—and kept them busy with countless rounds of revision until he felt that the single image of the poster accurately represented his entire film.  Steve Jobs was also said to strongly echo this work style.

Leonardo da Vinci 

Da Vinci and Steve Jobs share some eerie similarities in their early lives.  Both were born illegitimate – da Vinci was given the name of his town of birth, since he wasn’t entitled to his father’s name.  Da Vinci’s mother abandoned him when he was five years old; it was the price she had to pay to have a chance of marriage to any man other than her son’s father.  Jobs’ mother gave him up in infancy, also in hopes of finally making a match.  She wanted her son to go to a college-educated couple, and attempted to block his adoption by Paul Jobs, who was not college educated.

When da Vinci was 14, he was apprenticed to one of the best artists of his day, Andrea di Cione (Verrocchio), in whose workshop he would have learned frame-making, gilding, bronze, metal, and plaster casting, drawing, leather-work, carpentry, sculpting, and painting.  He got a strong mentor in di Cione, and da Vinci remained loyal to him even after he set up his own shop and became a master in his own right.  Jobs also got an exceptional mentor in his adopted father, Paul Jobs, who had the skills to encourage his son’s mechanical genius at an early age.  Like da Vinci, Jobs would remain loyal to him for life.

Da Vinci was a vegetarian at a time when it was not a fad.  He loved animals and loathed war, and yet he was a highly recruited military engineer and weapons expert.  Jobs was a pescatarian (he ate fish, but did not consume any other meats).  His products were embraced by the military, and his company’s back-door cooperation with NSA is suspected, although not proven – see SOURCES.

Unlike young Jobs, da Vinci knew his real father as a child.  His father noted the child’s mental concentration – when he collected dead animals to use as models for a drawing, he was so focused that he didn’t appear to notice the odor of the decaying animals, which nearly overwhelmed his father.  Once da Vinci was older, some art scholars say he painted and repainted the Mona Lisa’s lips for ten years.  Jobs was said to have displayed similar compulsiveness, which drove many of his employees quietly crazy.

Da Vinci was primarily an artist.  He conceptualized a lot of drawings on paper that would become reality centuries later, but did little actual inventing.  The exception was an automatic bobbin that da Vinci actually built, but didn’t really know what to do with.  Much later, this invention made both the sewing machine and the manual camera possible.

Jobs was not an artist, although he liked them and wanted to be around them.  He does not get sole credit for any of his inventions, although his powerful sense of artistic judgment allowed him to shape the work of other people so it would sell.  Both men were hustlers – Jobs found a way to get all the components he needed for his early computer, and da Vinci flattered patrons to become a great man – his roster included the very best, Cesare Borgia, Giuliano de Medici, and Francis I, the king of France.

Some historians think there is evidence da Vinci may have tracked down his mother once he become a famous man, and that he quietly paid to support her in her final years.  Jobs is known to have quietly tracked down his own mother, and rebuilt a relationship with her.  He never let anyone replace his relationship with his adopted father, Paul Jobs, however.

Finally, Jobs made his name with a tablet called the IPad. With the advent of typeset printing, da Vinci built a collection of 116 books.  While many of his works perished over the centuries, he is remembered through the 4000 surviving pages of his notebooks.



ERRATA
MY NOTE:  When I wrote the Lilith series this past summer, I failed to notice that astrotheme.com was using True Lilith on its birth charts of celebrities, rather than BML.  In many cases, BML and True Lilith are located in the same house in the nativity.  However, some of the profiles in earlier articles undoubtedly describe a BML that is actually in a different natal house from what I stated, since I used nativities from astrotheme.com almost exclusively.  This will only add to confusion among readers who insist on knowing which Lilith they are dealing with, mean or true Lilith.

Although I plan to return to earlier articles to catch mistakes, I decided to let the house observations on Lilith stand.  Readers who wish to interpret Lilith in their own charts, or for those of family members, friends, or clients should keep in mind that a subject who has either mean or true Lilith in a specific house will often display attributes of that house.

Of course, this raises the inevitable question of which Lilith is more relevant, mean Lilith or true Lilith? 
 
The best way I know to answer this question is that if both mean and true Lilith participate in a tight conjunction with a fixed star, prominent angle, or another planet, or form a tight aspect like a T-Square or a Grand Trine with other planets or asteroids in the nativity, the person is likely to have a heightened experience of Lilith.  Even if only one Lilith makes these aspects, however, one may sense the spirit of Lilith keenly in one’s own life.

Example:  This author has 11th House true Lilith partile conjunct the fixed star Sirius, and 11th House mean Lilith (4 degrees Leo) in a Grand Trine with 3rd House Neptune (0 degrees Sagittarius) and 7th House Chiron (2 degrees Aries), along with mean Lilith in a Grand Cross with Saturn (2 degrees Taurus), Pallas Athene (3 degrees Aquarius), and Jupiter (4 degrees Scorpio).  Whew!

The take-home lesson here is that house attributes appear to be correct, whether mean or true Lilith is tenanted therein.

What's Next?
The Lilith-Venus Conjunction:  Suzanne Collins, Author of "Hunger Games"

What Did I Miss?
PART ONE  Lilith in the 2nd House:  Genius, Sinner, Twisted Psycho, Saint


SOURCES and NOTES

Retaliation for questions on Obama’s birth certificate turned into accusations that Palin faked her entire last pregnancy, and took her daughter Bristol’s child as her own.  Never mind that a couple of key dates don’t add up for this scenario to be likely.  There are a number of sources for this on the Internet.  I selected one of them, for its flavor.


The Quest of the Historical Jesus by Albert Schweitzer:


Tippi Hedren’s Telegraph interview on her relationship with Alfred Hitchcock:


Apple products in the military:


An interesting look at what is possibly an ongoing collaboration between the company Steve Jobs founded and the NSA, although it certainly isn’t portrayed this way.  There is no actual proof that Jobs was ever cozy with NSA personally.  Certain bloggers seem to think it likely anyway.  Readers may make up their own minds.


For a biography on Leonardo da Vinci, I used a good article from Investor’s Business Daily by Paul Katzeff.

http://news.investors.com/management-leaders-in-success/071813-664238-leonardo-da-vinci-was-a-multitask-genius.htm

***
Phoenix Noodle Soup, a contributor on astro.com, brought the following page to my attention.  It explains the astronomical difference between Mean and True Lilith, and will be interesting for anyone who worries about which Lilith to use (although this page WILL NOT tell you which one to use – it sticks to the astronomy).