Selene, by Albert Aublet

There are so many new bodies and points in the astrological pantheon it’s difficult to keep up with them all, or even most of them.  But every now and then one pops up that becomes important in my work.  I started working with Chiron practically from the beginning of my career when I started studying in 1983 – it had recently been discovered and resonated very strongly with me.  I started working with the Black Moon Lilith a few years ago when I noticed she conjoined my Moon/Pluto conjunction.

The White Moon Selene is a theoretical point that has been linked to divinity and spiritual leadership, and an unfinished research project that I started a few years ago reveals this point to be prominent in the charts of spiritual leaders. The Dalai Lama has the WMS conjunct his Moon and Neptune. Oprah (don’t laugh! She is a spiritual teacher of our time and was a gateway of many in the mainstream to learn more) has WMS exactly opposite Saturn and squaring her Sun/Venus conjunction. Pope Francis had WMS exactly trine Pluto. Joanna Macy had WMS opposite Venus.

When I started this project in 2020 there wasn’t much information available about the White Moon Selene (or Selena). At that time I found this article  that said

During the 1980’s, the highly influential Russian astrologer Pavel Globa invented a point to serve as the symbolic/thematic opposite of Black Moon Lilith. Known as белая Луна (White Moon) or Селена (Selena), it seems to be as common (perhaps slightly more so) as the ‘Astrological Planet’ Proserpina. The usual symbol for this point is W. Globa defined this point as a ‘Hypothetical’ circling the Zodiac in exactly 7 years.

When the article was written in 2016 it appeared that this point was used almost exclusively in Russia and Ukraine.

There has been some discussion since then among astrologers about what exactly this point consists of. Not being much of an astronomer geek myself I asked my colleague Richard Nolle about it. He posted about this in his May update back in 1919 here:

It’s been said that White Moon Selena is the opposite of Black Moon Lilith. By this reckoning, since the latter is the lunar apogee point (where the Moon in its elliptical orbit is farthest from Earth), it would follow that the former is the lunar perigee point (i.e. closest to Earth).

Astrologers use either the true Black Moon Lilith, which is the true oscillating position, or the mean BML which averages the positions. Richard suggests “If it’s the real lunar perigee you want, just use true (NOT mean) Lilith, and look for its opposition to the Moon. That’ll get you within a minute or two of arc precision [for the White Moon Selene]. My friend Leah Whitehorse arrived at the same conclusion and has a great article from 2023 here.

In my work, the Black Moon Lilith represents a primal rage against the patriarchy (read my article from 2017 here). Lilith has been associated with feminism because of the story told in the medieval Islamic document The Aleph Bet of ben Sira which recounts this story:

When the Holy Blessed One created the first Adam alone, They (the angels) said to him (Genesis 2:18) “It is not good for this Adam to be alone.” They created for him a wife out of the Earth like he had been, and called her Lilith. Immediately they began to challenge each other. She said “I will not lie below” and he said “I will not lie beneath you, but only on top.”

Lilith was banished and various editions of the story has her killing infants and all kinds of nefarious things, and then of course Eve was created out of Adam’s rib so that she would be a helper to him. (The Genesis story omits any reference to Lilith and just reports that no suitable partner was found.)

At any rate, if the Black Moon Lilith represents our rage against oppression and injustice, the White Moon Selene appears to represent the highest expression of our incarnation. As the counterpoint to the Black Moon Lilith, she may inspire the elevation (not repression!) of our human drives into spiritual light and divine compassion. If the Black Moon Lilith encapsulates our rage and fury at the unfairness of life, the White Moon Selene may serve to raise our consciousness so that we may see clearly with a more divine eye. The name of the Greek Moon goddess Selene itself derives from the Greek word selas meaning “light” or “brightness.”

The goddess Selene is often depicted with a crown of stars, lighting up the night skies – shining a light in the darkness of the material world. More research is needed, but perhaps the astrological White Moon Selene appears as a guide into the realm of divine wisdom and mercy.

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