The surreal and shocking tale of the “silent twins” June and Jennifer Gibbons is now the subject of a series of podcasts. Intelligent, creative and well-read, with ambitions to become authors, they started life with a speech impediment and were then relentlessly and racially abused and bullied at school, withdrew into themselves and became electively mute. A teenage crush gone wrong pulled them into a vortex of alcohol and drugs, then petty pilfering and arson of empty buildings, as a result of which they were extraordinarily deemed psychopathic and sent to Broadmoor for the Criminally Insane, housed with serial killers, chatted up creepily by Jimmy Savile. There they stayed for 11 years until moved to a low-security institution at which point June died.
They operated within their own shut-off, slight sinister world where they appeared to be resentful and jealous of each other, yet acted in unison.
They were born 11 April 1963 in Aden, Yemen with Windrush Caribbean immigrant parents. Their chart with no birth time is not too illuminating apart from one configuration which caught my eye – Mercury in Taurus opposition Black Moon square Mars, which could be interpreted as having a bearing on their angry silence as far as the outside world is concerned.
I confess to knowing next to nothing about the Black Moon so this is a fishing expedition for feedback. It purportedly indicates the dark side or shadow and what is taboo – which would certainly fit where these poor girls ended up. Their Mercury was also trine Uranus Pluto. When they were sent to Broadmoor in 1982 tr Pluto was square their North Node and tr Saturn opposed their Aries Sun.
A skip round other charts:
Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper and Thomas Hamilton, the Dunblane shooter had Black Moon on their Ascendant. Jimmy Savile may have had his Black Moon conjunct his Moon, Ted Bundy certainly did and Hug Hefner had his Black Moon opposite His Moon.
I have no idea whether any of this is relevant and the Gibbons twins were not either evil or criminal, just muddled teenagers who had withdrawn into themselves.
Add ON: Marjorie Wallace in her book gives 8.10am as the birth time with twins being born ten minutes apart. This puts Mercury in the 12th square a 3rd house Mars and a 3rd house North Node – which makes sense given the 3rd house rules communication – in general and with siblings, so rivalry and competition and a 12th house Mercury is fairly inward looking.
I have seen a stressed 3rd house in an individual where it badly affected their ego structure – not self-esteem so much as ego in the clinical sense as that which allows us to interface with the outside world.
Originally I had thought the Jordan twins were the ones that I remembered that continually stalked this doctor and his family. The law as it was then couldn’t do anything about it. I believe that the doctor and his family moved house three times only for the twins to find them. Eventually the law changed and he was able to get an injunction against them.
Of course this isn’t them. But I think they too practiced silence until they fell out with each other. I was wondering ifcanyone else remembered that case.
What a fascinating and difficult journey for the Gibbons twins; with life seriously testing their endurance and Aries Sun will to survive (natal Sun sextile MC-Saturn).
Reminded me of Maya Angelou, another Aries Sun who experienced childhood trauma and then became electively mute (speaking only to a brother) for about five years –
https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Angelou,_Maya
It looks like they could also have a Yod with Uranus (4th house) sextile Black Moon (6th house) inconjunct Jupiter (11th house).
In the copy of the book I have, written by Marjorie Wallace in the 1980’s (in chapter one), she states that June arrived first, with Jennifer arriving 10 minutes later, and then goes on to say that it happened at 8.10 am. But, it’s a little confusing as I can’t figure out if she means that June arrived at 8.10 & then Jennifer was at 8.20, or the other way round…
What I meant to say, was that in the book by Marjorie Wallace, a birth time of 8.10 am is given but it’s a little confusing as to which twin came first.
Thanks for the time
BM Lilith is wild, insubordinate and fights for justice and equality until death.
She is obstinate, untamed and she will not bow down. She indulges in, appreciates and explores sexual taboos / fetishes. She is a warrior, but consequently knows much suffering due to her nature. She is often misunderstood, mislabelled, blocked and cast out.
True BML is conj my Asc, which scares TF out of me consideing the men listed in the above article.
I believe there is an asteroid called Lilith. Black Moon Lilith, which is more widely referred to by astrologers as “Lilith”, is a non-physical point in the sky like the MC and Asc.
There is a mean BML, and a true BML.
I heard somewhere that the two (mean and true) BML points form a BML “corridor” between them which seekers should study using important points or planets on their charts that lie within that field.
All Lilith points and asteroids can be found on Astrodienst’s Extended Chart Selection in various ways.
The asteroid is object #1181 on the asteroid name / number list.
The mean BM Lilith is found under the main drop down Common Elements menu. True BML has now been placed on the list of other Horoscope Factors drop down menu under “h13”.
There is also a BML (interpolated) point on that site now. I haven’t been introduced to that.
It’s complicated, but ironically it all reflects the messy, hard to contain or define nature of Lilith.
I have BML exactly conjunct my North Node.
There’s a channel on YT called ‘Esoterica’, hosted by a Doctor Justin Sledge (it’s excellent btw) which features several videos comprehensively delving into the origins and myths surrounding the figure of a ‘Lilu’ (one of many female demons who plagued mankind) in ancient Mesopotamia and in Jewish folklore – she appears in the biblical Book of Isiah for example. She is depicted on pottery bowls, naked, winged and with long black serpentine hair, often including faux incantations to ward off evil spirits. Rabinical literature describes the Lilu as a kind of succubus and warns, “It is forbidden to sleep in a house alone, and whoever sleeps in a house alone, a lilith seizes him.” It was thought that Lilith, vampire-like sucked the life force from young men while they slept. She was also responsible for any children who died in infancy so it was important to ward off any possibility of that, with incantations and protective spells.
In fact the Mesopotamian Lilith seems to encompass everything that a Patriarchal society would fear in womankind in general – she is untamed, childless, wild, sexually voracious and destructive.
The Mesopotamian astrologer/astronomers used the Lunar Apogee in their calculations. In Chinese horoscopic astrology, the Lunar Apogee is personified as a being called Yuebi, a place in the horoscope where the forces of sexuality manifest. It seems they were influenced by the Mesopotamians, Greeks, Indians and Egyptians.
“the Iranian Ɨl or Semitic Lilith, a demon common throughout the Near East, associated with illness, and
the deaths of mothers and infants. The name Ɨl “apparently derives from
Iranian Ƙl ‘red.’” A related figure in the Jewish tradition is Lilith, a demon
thought to kill children. As James A. Montgomery explains, “The genus
appears in the Babylonian incantations, as masculine and feminine, lilu and
lilit, along with an ardat lili.” With respect to the depiction of the deity he
notes, “Nakedness and disheveled hair are standing descriptions of the Lilith,
witch, etc.” (From Journal of Chinese Buddhist Studies Vol 30, 2017)
With regard to the Gibbons twins, I think it’s interesting that Lilith in some myths was an outcast, an outsider, doomed to wander about and give birth to demons. Female rage and sexual energy are depicted in so many mythologies – Kali also has wild hair, and skulls – like Yuebi in some paintings. Lion headed Sekhmet is another contender. Once you start looking, they are everywhere. “Deadlier than the male” eh?
I remember this case well, thank you Marjorie.
In February 1933 Christine Papin, who with her younger sister, Lea – both worked as domestic maids – violently attacked their employer and her adult daughter, stabbing and beating them to death with knives and blunt instruments and gouging the women’s eyes out. It was a crime that shocked France.
Christine and Lea were given to paternal and maternal aunts and uncles to raise because their mother was considered at the time to be cold, unable to nurture and incapable of mothering the sisters. Chistine has a Scorpio Midheaven, Mars in Scorpio in the 10th and Moon in Aries in the 3rd which is the focal point if a T Square with Uranus opposition Neptune across the Ascendant/Descendant. Her Moon conjuncts Black Moon Lilith within 2 degrees. Interestingly, the synastry between the sisters has Christine’s BML as the focal point of a Yod with Lea’s Mercury sextile Jupiter as well as a Yod involving Christine’s BML on Lea’s Scorpio Jupiter.
So I’m adding Black Moon to that list of mine of stuff in astrology I am still confounded and unconvinced by: eclipses (you never really get how is it supposed affect someone who is touched by this event by transit), nodes, and Chiron.
Is Black Moon the same as Lilith? And how many Liliths are there? I think three?
What each means is another matter altogether…