Lilith, Adam 1st Wife

1

LILITH, The First Wife of Adam?! (1)

Presentation Prof. Dr. Mr. Maqsood hasni 

2

CONTENTS Bibliography of LIliTh 3 Fiction, Poetry and Art based on Lilith 13 Who is Lilith? 17 Lilith Bibliography 18 Lilith 19 LILITH the First Wife of Adam? 51 A Modern Development: Images of Lilith in Literature, Art, and Artifacts 51 Lilith, Mother of Witches 62 Women, Religion and the Devil Incarnate 72 Lilith, Adam's mythological first wife 83

LILITH - THE FIRST EVE 90 Lilith's Children 102 Lilith is much, much more 108 Red Hair Facts 111 Lilith 113  A Globally- RECOGNIZATION LILITH 117  Lilith 120

Lilith 128 Lilith: Adam's first wife 132

Looking for Lilith149 Lilith, Woman's Encyclopedia 162 Lilith, Woman's Encyclopedia 167  Lilith’s Daughters169 Lilith, the first wife of Adam? 196 Adam? 196 Who is the true Lilith 202 Lilith 202  A Real Lilith 213 Lilith,  An ancient Sumerian and Mesopotamian fertility goddess 219

3

bibliography of LIliTh The original version of this bibliography was put together by  Thomas R. W. Longstaff ([email protected]), drawing partly from responses to a query on the ioudaios discussion group ([email protected]). I  have formatted it for the Web. In addition to bibliography, some of the original respondants also  sent comments and suggestions which I have included.  I have also merged in Alejandro in Alejandro Gonzalez 's 's bibliography. In addition to these sources, I have added  a good deal of material myself over the last year or so.  If you don't see something that you think should be here, please bring it to my attention.[   AH   ]

Abarbanel, Nitzah. Eve and Lilith [*Havah ve-Lilit*], Bene-Brak: BarIlan University Press. 1994. Ahrens, W. Hebräische Amulette mit magischen Zahlenquadraten. Berlin, 1916. Bacher, Wilhelm. "Lilith, Königin von Smargad", Monatschrift für  Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judenstums 19 (1870): 187-189. Breslau. Bailey, Lloyd R. Biblical Perspectives on Death. Overtures to Biblical  Theology , 5, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979. Baring, Anne &  Cashford, Jules. The Myth of the Goddess: evolution of an image . London: New York, N.Y., Arkana, 1993. Baumgarten, Joseph M. Revue de Qumran (1992): Boyle, Darl MacLeod, Where Lilith Dances. New Haven:Yale, 1971 (1921) Bril, Jacques. Lilith, ou, La Mère Obscure. Paris: Payot, 1981. Bitton, Michele. "Le mythe juif de Lilith [microform]: de la feminite demoniaque au feminisme." Doctoral dissertation (Universite de Provence, Aix en Provence), 1988. Budge, E.A. Wallis. Amulets and Superstitions, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1930. [pp. 212-238, 283-4.]

4

Cantor, Aviva. "The Lilith Question." Lilith 1 (1976): (Also: In On Being a Jewish Feminist: A Reader , ed. Susannah Heschel. New York: Schocken Books, 1983.) Cavendish, Richard. The Powers of Evil in Western Religion, Magic, and  Folk Belief . New York: Putnam, 1975. Chadourne, Marc. Dieu crea d'abord Lilith. Paris: Fayard, 1938. Colonna, M. T.. Lilith e la luna nera e l'eros rifutato, Florence, 1980. Colonna, M.T. "Lilith, or the Black Moon." Journal of Analytical  Psychology , Oct 1980: 325-50. Corelli, Marie. The Soul of Lilith. New York: Lovell, Coryell & Co., 1892. Couchaux, Brigitte. "Lilith." In Brunel, Pierre, Dictionnaire des Myths Littéraires. Paris: Éditions du Rocher, 1988. [English tr.: Companion to Literary Myths, Heroes and Archetypes, London and New York: Routledge, 1992]. Creuzer. Symbolik und Mythologie der alten Völker, besonders der  Griechen, Leipzig and Darmstad, 1840/1. (reprinted: Hildesheim, Zürich and New York, 1990.) Dan, Joseph. The Hebrew Story in the Middle Ages . Jerusalem, 1974. ---. "Samael, Lillith and the Concept of Evil in the Early Kabbalah".  AJSreview 5 (1980): 17-40. Dan, Joseph and Kiener, Ronald. "Treatise on the Left Emanation (by Isaac b. Jacob ha-Kohen". In The Early Kabbalah. New York: Paulist Press, 1986: 165-182. Dijkstra, Bram. Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in Finde-JSiecle Culture. New York: Oxford U. Press, 1986. Edwardes, Allen. The Jewel in the Lotus: A Historical Survey of the Sexual Culture of the East . New York: Julian Press, 1962. Eisenstadt, J. D., ed. Ozar Midrashim. Israel, n.d. "Lilith". Encyclopaedia Biblica eds. Cheyne & Sutherland, London, 1902.

5

Farber, Walter, ed. Schlaf, Kindchen, Schlaf! Mesopatamische BabyBeschwörungen und -Rituale. Mesopotamian Civilizations, 2. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1989. Farrar, Janet & Stewart. The Witches' Goddess: the feminine principle of divinity . London: Robert Hale, 1995. Frankfort, Henri. "The Burney Relief."  AfO 12 (1937). Pp. 128-35. Gaster, Moses. "Beiträge zur vergleichende Sagen- und Märchenkunde. X. Lilith und die drei Angel", Monatschrift für Geschichte und  Wissenschaft des Judenstum 29 (1880): 553-565. Breslau. ---. "Two Thousand Years of a Charm against the Child-Stealing Witch." Folk-Lore 11 (1900): 129-161. ---. Ma'aseh Book 2 vols. Philadelphia, 1934. Gaster, Theodor Herzl. "A Canaanite Magical Text." Orientalia, 11. Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1942. Pp. 41-79. ---. The Dead Sea Scriptures, in English Translation. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 1976. Pp. 371-373, 504. Geller, Markham J. "Eight Incantation Bowls." Orientalia lovaniensia  periodica, 17. Leuven, Instituut voor Orientalistiek, 1986. Pp. 101-17. Ginzberg, Louis. The Legends of the Jews. Translated by Henrietta Szold, Paul Radin and Boaz Cohen. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1909-1938. [I: 65; V: 87 ss, 147-8; VI: 289] (also: New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956.) Gonzalo Rubio, Concepción. La angeología en la literatura ab ínica y  sefardí , Barcelona: Ameller, 1977. [Pp. 25, 50-52, 54-55.] Gordon, Cyrus H. "Aramaic Magical Bowls in the Istanbul and Bahgdad Museums." Archiv Orientální , 6 (1934): 319-34. Praha. Gottleib, Rabbi Lynn. "The First Tale." In Taking the Fruit: Modern Women's Tales of the East , ed. Janes Sprague Zones. 17-21. San Diego: Woman's Institute for Continuing Jewish Education, 1989. Gourmont, Remy de. Lilith suivi de Theodat . Paris: Societe du Mercure de France, 1906.

6

Gravelaine, Joelle de. Le retour de Lilith: la lune noire . Paris: L'Espace bleu/Hachette, 1985. Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths. New York: Penguin Books, 1960. Graves, Robert and Raphael Patai. Hebrew Myths: The Book of  Genesis. Garden City: Doubleday, 1964. [Spanish tr.: Los mitos hebreos. Tr. y Luis Echávarri. Madrid: Alianza, 1986.] Gustafson, Fred. The Black Madonna. Boston: Sigo Press, 1990. Handy, Lowell K. "Lilith". Anchor Bible Dictionary . New York: Doubleday, 1992. Vol. 4, p. 324f . Heschel, Susannah, ed. On Being a Jewish Feminist: A Reader . New York: Schocken Books, 1983. Hufford, David. The terror that comes in the night : an experiencecentered study of supernatural assault traditions . Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982. Hurwitz, Siegmund. Lilith, die erste Eva: eine Studie uber dunkle  Aspekte des Wieblichen. Zurich: Daimon Verlag, 1980, 1993. [English tr.: Lilith, the First Eve: Historical and Psychological Aspects of the Dark Feminine. Translated by Gela Jacobson. Einsiedeln, Switzerland: Daimon Verlag, 1992.] [ISBN: 3-85630-545-9] Isbell, Charles D. Corpus of the Aramaic Incantation Bowls. SBL Dissertation Series, No. 17, Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1975. Killen, A. M. "La légende de Lilith", Revue de littérature comparée 12 (1932): 277-311. Koltuv, Barbara Black. The Book of Lilith . York Beach, ME: NicolasHays, 1986. Kraeling, Emil Gottlieb Heinrich. "A Unique Babylonian Baby lonian Relief."BASPR, 67 (1937). Pp. 16-18. Krämer, K. "Babylonisches Gut in syrischen s yrischen Zaubertexten." Mitteilungen der Altorientalischen Gesellschaft 4 (1928/9): 110-4.

7

Kramer, Samuel Noah. "Gilgamesh and the Huluppu-Tree: A reconstructed Sumerian Text." Assyriological Studies of the Oriental  Institute of the University of Chicago 10. Chicago: 1938. Krappe, A. H. "The Birth of Eve." In Occident and Orient: Gaster   Anniversary Volume, ed. B. Schindler. 312-322. London: Taylor's Foreign Press, 1936. Lacks, Roslyn. Women and Judaism: myth, history, and struggle. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1980. Lambert, W. L. (G.?). "Inscribed Pazuzu Heads from Babylon." Forschungen und Berichte 10. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1958. Pp. 4147 Lassner, Jacob. Demonizing the Queen of Sheba. Boundaries of  Gender and Culture in Postbiblical Judaism and Medieval Islam, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993. Levi, Israel. "Lilit et Lilin." REJ , 68 (1914):15-21. Levi, Primo. Lilit e altri racconti , Turín, 1981. [Spanish tr.: Lilit y otros relatos, Barcelona: Península, 1989] Martinez, Florentino Garcia. The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated . 1996. Matt, Daniel Chanan. Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment . New York: Paulist Press, 1983. Meissner, Bruno. Babylonien und Assyrien. Heidelberg, C. Winter, 1920-25. Milgrom, J. "Some Second Thoughts About Adam's First Wife." In Genesis 1-3 in the History of Exegesis, ed. G. Robbins. Lewiston, ME: Edwin Mellen, 1988. Montgomery, James Alan. Aramaic incantation texts from Nippur . University of Pennsylvania. The Museum. Publications of the Babylonian section, vol. 3. Philadelphia, University museum, 1913. ---. "Some Early Amulets from Palestine."  JOAS, 31 (1911): 272-81. Naveh, Joseph and Paul Shaked. Amulets and Magic Bowls: Aramaic  Incantations of Late Antiquity . Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1985.

8

Nitzan, Bilhah. Qumran prayer and religious poetry . Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994. Opitz, Dietrich. "Ausgrabungen und Forschungsreisen: Ur."  AfO 8 (1932). Pp. 328-31. Paglia, Camille. Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. New York: Vintage, 1991. Patai, Raphael. Adam ve-Adama [Man and Earth] . Jerusalem: The Hebrew Press Association, 1941-1942. ---. Gates to the Old City . Detroit: Wayne State Universtiy Press, 1981. ---. The Hebrew Goddess. Third Enlarged edition. New York: KTAV Publishing House, 1978. (Also: Wayne State University Press, 1990.) Pirani, Alix, ed. The Absent Mother: Restoring the Goddess to Judaism and Christianity . Plaskow, Judith. "The Coming of Lilith: Toward a Feminist Theology." In Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion, ed. Judith Plaskow and Carol Christ. New York: Harper and Row, 1979a. Pritchard, James B., ed. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old  Testament . Princeton, New Jersy: Princeton Universit5y Press, 1969. P. 658. Rappoport, Angelo S. Myth and Legend of Ancient Israel, with an Introduction and Additional Notes by Raphael Patai  P atai , 3 vols. New York: Ktav, 1966. (Reprinted: London: Senate, 1995, 2 vols; I: 77-79.) Redgrove, Peter. The Black Goddess and the Sixth Sense . Bloomsbury, 1987. (Also Paladin, 1989.) Ribichini, Sergio. "Lilith nell-albero Huluppu." Atti del l° Convegno Italiano sul Vicino Oriente Antico (Roma, 22-24 Aprile 1976). Orientis Antiqvi Collectio 13. Rome. Pp. 25-33. Rigney, Barbara Hill. Lilith's Daughters: Women and Religion in Contemporary Fiction. Madison: U of Wisconsin, 1982.

9

Schäfer, P. "Jewish Magic in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages."  Journal of Semitic Studies 41 (1990): 75-91. Scholem, Gershom. Kabbalah. Jerusalem, 1974. [Spanish tr.: Grandes temas y personalidades de la Cábala, Barcelona: Riopiedras, 1994.] ---. "Lilith." In Encyclopedia Judaica. Jerusalem, 1972. Pp. 245-249. Schrire, Theodore. Hebrew Amulets, London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1966. Schorr, O.H. "Malachim, Shedim Umazzikim." HeXaluz , 7 (1865): 1622. (8 (1869): 3-16) Frankfort. Schwartz, Howard. Lillith's Cave: Jewish Tales of the Supernatural . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989. ---. "Mermaid and Siren: The Polar Roles of Lilith and Eve in Jewish Lore". The Sagarin Review , Vol. 2, 1992, pp. 105-116. Scot, Reginald. The Discoverie of Witchcraft . New York: Da Capo Press, 1971. Schaafsma, Karen. "The Demon Lover: Lilith and the Hero in Modern Fantasy." Exrapolation Spring 1987 Vol. 28, No. 1. Selbie, John A. "Lilith." In Dictionary of the Bible, ed. James Hasting and John A. Selbie. Edinborough/New York: Scribners & sons, 1909. Starck, Marcia & Stern, Gynne. The Dark Goddess: dancing with the shadow . Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1993. Stern, David and Mirsky, Mark Jay. Rabbinic Fantasies: Imaginative Narratives from Classical Hebrew Literature. Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1990. Pp. 183-184. Torczyner, H. "A Hebrew Incantation against Night-Demons from Biblical Times." JNES 6 (1947). Pp. 18-29. Trachtenberg, Joshua. Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study of Folk  Religion. New York: Atheneum, 1982. (Also: New York: Meridia Books, 1961.) Orig. published 1939.

10

Waite, Arthur Edward. The Holy Kabbalah : A Study Of The Secret  Tradition In Israel As Unfolded By Sons Of The Doctrine For The Benefit And Consolation Of The Elect Dispersed Through The Lands  And Ages Of The Greater Exile . Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1976.

Wolkstein, Diane and Kramer, Samuel Noah. Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth. Harper & Row, NY, 1983. Yassif, Eli. "Pseudo Ben Sira and the 'Wisdom Questions': Tradition in the Middle Ages." Fabula 23 (1982): 48-63. ---. Sippurey ben Sira be-yame ha Binayyim [The Tales of Ben Sira in the Middle Ages]. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1984. Zoller, Israel. Lilith. Rome, 1926. (Reprinnt from Revista di   Antropologia 27). ---. "Lilith." Filologische Schriften, 3 (1929): 121-42.

11

Fiction, Poetry and Art based on Lilith Or in which she plays a major role Anthony, Piers. Incarnations of Immortality . A series of novels which include: On a Pale Horse, Bearing an Hourglass, With a Tangled Skein, Weilding a Red Sword , Being a Green Mother , For the Love of Evil , ...  And Eternity .

Dame, Enid. Lilith and Her Demons. Merrick, NY: Cross-Cultural Communications, 1986. Gourmont, Remy de. Lilith. Paris, 1892. [E.t.: Heard, John, tr, Lilith, a Play . Boston: John W. Luce Co., 1945.] Heeley, David Anthony (1971-). Lilith. First of Darkness and Light  trilogy. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1996. Le Compte, Eduard. I, Eve. New York: Atheneum, 1988. McDonald, George. Visionary Novels: Lilith, Phantasies. New York: Noonday Press, 1954. Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. "Lilith. For a Picture", in Poems, London: Dent, Everyman's Library, 1961. Shaw, Bernard, (1856-1950). Back to Methuselah. A metabiological   pentateuch. London: Constable and company ltd., 1927. Simpson, Elizabeth Leonie. I, Lilith. Brooklyn, N.Y.: The Smith, 1991. Sterling, George. Lilith. 1926. Williams, Charles (1886-1945). Descent into Hell . Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1993, 1949. movie. Blood Ties. Richard and Esther Shapiro Entertainment, Inc., 1991. movie. Bordello of Blood . Tales from the Crypt. Universal, 1996.

12

various. The dybbuk of delight: an anthology of Jewish women's  poetry . Nottingham: Five Leaves Publications in association with the European Jewish Publications Society, 1995. [ISBN: 0907123570]

Bibliographic Comments: David Armstrong, York University writes: In his book Biblical Perspectives on Death, Bailey 1979 notes that

incubus/succubus spirits could cause disease, kill small children (perhaps an early ref to "crib death"), and have more than just social intercourse with adults. These demons were called lili (female) and lilu (male) [page 10-11, I think].

 Joseph M. Baumgarten writes:

On Llit (Lilit), it just so happens that she is metioned in a $Q 4Q text, which led me to re-evaluate the possibly demonic nature of the seductress in 4Q184 in a paper just published in Revue de Qumran. I refer there to the long history of this demoness, Lilit.

 According ot Marc Bregman (Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem): The Israeli newspaper, Yediot Ahronot , Friday 22/4/1994 carries a brief review of [Nitzah [Nitzah Abarbanel, Eve and Lilith [*Havah ve-Lilit*]]

The author analyses the emergence of these two feminine types in patriarchal culture using both Freudian and Jungian theories.

Daniel Cohen: The Absent Mother: restoring the goddess to Judaism and Christianity 

edited by Alix Pirani (published in England by a branch of HarperCollins, so should be easy to get) contains a historical article by Asphodel Long with some original insights on Lilith (the book also has some modern poetry on themes relating to Lilith). Asphodel Long has also written her own book In a Chariot Drawn by  Lions (with both a British and a US publisher - Women's Press and Crossing Press, respectively). It's a fine book, by a scholar for a general audience. It's mainly concerned with Wisdom as the female face of God in Judaism, but drawing connections with Wisdom aspects of goddesses of the ancient Near East; not so much on Lilith, though.

13

Marsha B. Cohen comments (in a note to Robert Kraft):

Discussion of [11QPsAp a and 4Q510-511] in Bilhah Nitzan's Qumran  prayer and religious poetry . Chapter 8 on "Magical Poetry," p. 227+. LeGrand Cinq-Mars comments:

Rather ancillary at best, but not irrelevant, is [David [David Hufford's] Hufford's] ethnographic or folkloristic study of a certain kind of quasi-dream experience known in Newfoundland as "hagging", that is, being beset by a "hag".  Alejandro Gonzalez writes:

On Kramer, "Babylonisches Gut...": Gut...": sobre supervivencia de Lilitu en Lilith. On Montgomery, Aramaic Incantation Texts...: Editions of various amulets against Lilith, in Aramaic. Rebecca Lesses writes:

One little known source of information on Lilith that I would suggest would be the Babylonian incantation bowls, which frequently mention both "lilita" and "lilin" (i.e., male and female liliths) -- not just a single lilith. You could look at Isbell Isbell's 's "Corpus of the Aramaic Incantation Bowls" and Naveh and Shaked's Shaked's two books on Aramaic Incantations of  late antiquity (both published by Magnes Press). Michael Swartz writes:

On Lilith, as you can see, there is an extensive literature, including a few important articles by Scholem. There is also R. Patai's, The Hebrew Goddess. A "classic" source is also the Alphabet of ben Sira, edited by Yasif and translated in Stern and Mirsky's, Rabbinic Fantasies,, and discussed by J. Dan in Ha-Sippur ha-`Ivri . See also the Fantasies magical bowls from Nippur in Montgomery, AIT . Daniel Wing writes:

I just thought you'd like to know (If you don't already.) That Lillith plays a fairly large part in Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality  series of novels. She is especially involved in the Fourth, Sixth, and Seventh books. Additional Comments: Herb Basser calls attention to the following materials:

sab 151b,eruv 18b and 100b bab bat 73b , nida 24b, num r 16:16, buber's tanh. shelach, and places like zohar 2:267b and 3:119a. and adds:

14

Of course Isaiah 34:14 is a good place to begin to start thinking about lilith. She also exists in the plural-- lilia-- liliths. lilith aka igra-- inhabiter of roofs and other joints made strong appearances in incantantation bowls until joshua ben perachia divorced her with a get. she and her 18000 cohorts ride around tractate pesahim and some parallels in with night shades pulled down having made it out of gen r. but actually she comes in a number of  varieties being a true princess of the night. But why is she a succubus rather than a succuba or even a scuba? She can be warded off if you know the right psalms.

15

Who is Lilith? Lilith is an extremely controversial figure within Jewish folklore. Lilith's name is not included in the creation story of the Torah but she appears in several midrashic texts texts.. Her symbolism, history and literature are debated among Jewish scholars, feminists and other intellectuals. There are multiple origin stories for Lilith but the most popular history told views Lilith as the first wife of Adam. According to the "first Eve" story Lilith was created by God from dust and placed to live in the garden with Adam until problems arose between Adam and Lilith when Adam tried to exercise dominance over Lilith. Lil ith. One story tells that Lilith refused to lay beneath Adam during sex. She believed they were created equal, both from the dust of the earth, thus she should not have to lay beneath him. After Adam disagreed, Lilith fled the Garden of Eden to gain her independence. Adam told God that Lilith had left and God sent three angels, Senoi , Sansenoi , and Sammangelof , to retrieve her. The three angels found Lilith in a cave bearing children but Lilith refused to come back to the garden. The angels told her they would kill 100 of her children every day for her disobedience. In revenge, she is said to rob children of life and is responsible for the deaths of still-born infants and crib deaths (SIDS). Male children are at risk of Lilith's wrath for 8 days after birth (until circumcision) and girls are at risk for 20 days. Although Lilith stole children's lives in the night, she agreed not to kill the children who had amulets of either of  the three angels. After the angels' departure, Lilith tried to return to the garden but upon her arrival she discovered that Adam already had another mate, Eve. Out of revenge, Lilith had sex with Adam while he was sleeping and "stole his seed." With his seed she bears 'lilium,' earth-bound demons to replace her children killed by the angels. Lilith is also said to be responsible for males' erotic dreams and night emissions. Another theory says that Lilith is impregnated, thus creating more demons by masturbation and erotic dreams. d reams.

16

Lilith Bibliography  Lilith: a power symbol?

The open-ended nature of the Lilith symbol has allowed different groups to use her as a destructive female symbol or a symbol of  female power. Many feminists see Lilith as not only the first woman but the first independent woman created. In the creation story she refuses to allow Adam to dominate her and flees the garden despite the consequences. In order to retain her freedom she must give up her children and in retaliation she steals the seed of Adam. In one account of this story, Lilith is said to "mount Adam" (click (click here for this version). This version of the story implies that Lilith sexually violated Adam; however, other stories portray Lilith as a demoness who kills children and takes advantage of men while they are sleeping. Jewish halakhic law forbids the spilling of a man's seed and Lilith takes advantage of this, during masturbation and erotic dreams, and uses it to replenish her own offspring. Although Lilith is controversial some feminists have used her as a symbol of empowerment. For example, one Jewish feminist magazine is called Lilith labels itself as an "Independent Jewish Woman's Magazine." The publishers use Lilith as a title because they believe she is a symbol of independence. However, those who still think of her as a demoness could turn it around and once again label feminists as male bashers or men-haters. They see Lilith as wicked and vengeful towards men and children. With any symbol or icon used by feminists, especially within a religious context, there will be controversy and opposition. Whether or not the story of Lilith is accurate is not the main issue. The "first Eve" version of the story gives Lilith a role that many women can identify within Judaism and other religious traditions. She is an independent woman who challenges the oppressive system in which she is placed. Stealing the lives of children represents a certain madness that accompanies her solitude and exclusion. Despite Lilith's downfalls, she still remains a symbol of 

17

power simply by her survival and mysteriousness. She is open for interpretation and therefore allows women to reinterpret her symbolism and power within the tradition.

LILITH thumb|275px|Lilith (1892) by [[John Collier (artist)|John Collier in Southport Atkinson Art Gallery]] thumb|275px|Lady Lilith painted by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1866-68 (altered 1872-73)Lilith () is a character in Jewish mythology, mythology, found earliest in the Babylonian Talmud, Talmud, which is generally thought to be ṯu   in Mesopotamian texts. related to a class of female demon demonss Līlī ṯ  However, Lowell K. Handy (1997) notes that "Very little information has been found relating to the Akkadia Akkadian n and Babylonia Babylonian n view of these demons. Two sources of information previously used to define Lilith are both suspect." The two problematic sources are the Gilgamesh appendix and the Arshlan-Tash amulets below. In Jewish folklore, folklore, from the 8th-10th Century  Alphabet of Ben Sira onwards Lilith becomes Adam Adam's 's first wife, who was created at the same time and from the same earth as Adam. This legend was greatly developed during the Middle Ages, Ages, in the tradition of Aggadic of Aggadic midrashim,, the Zohar and Jewish mysticism. midrashim mysticism. In the 13th Century writings of Rabbi Isaac ben Jacob ha-Kohen, for example, Lilith left Adam after she refused to become subservient to him hi m and then would not return to the Garden of Eden after she mated with archangel Samael.. The resulting Lilith legend is still commonly used as source Samael material in modern Western culture, literature, occultism, fantasy and horror.

18

Etymology

The semitic root L-Y-L layil in Hebrew Hebrew,, as layl in Arabic Arabic,, means "night". Talmud Talmudic ic and Yiddish use of Lilith follows Hebrew. In Akkadian the terms lili and līlītu mean spirits. Some uses of  līlītu are listed in The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (CAD, 1956, L.190), in Wolfram von Soden's Soden's AHw,, p.553), and Reallexikon der   Akkadisches Handwörterbuch (AHw  Assyriologie (RLA, p.47). The Sumerian she-demons lili have no etymologic relation to Sumeria Sumerian n lilu, "evening." Archibald Sayce (1882)Sayce (1887) considered that Hebrew Lilith ; and Akkadian Akkadian:: līlītu are from proto-Semitic proto-Semitic.. Charles Fossey (1902)Fossey (1902) has this literally translating to "female night being/demon", although cuneiform inscriptions where Līlīt and Līlītu refers to disease-bearing wind spirit spiritss exist. Another possibility is association not with "night", but with "wind", thus identifying the Akkadian Lil-itu as a loan from the Sumerian lil , "air" — specifically from Ninlil , "lady air", goddess of the south wind (and wife of Enlil of Enlil)) — and itud , "moon". Mesopotamian mythology

Although widely repeated in secondary and tertiary sources the possible references to Lilith in Mesopotamian mythology are now disputed: The spirit in the tree in the Gilgamesh Epic

Samuel Noah Kramer (1932, published 1938) translated ki-sikil-lil-lake as Lilith in "Tablet XII" of the Epic of Gilgamesh dated c.600 BC. "Tablet XII" is not part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, but is an later Akkadian translation of the latter part of the Sumerian poem of  Bilgames and the Netherworld. Netherworld . The ki-sikil-lil-la-ke is associated with a serpent and an zu bird, bird, In Bilgames and the Netherworld  N etherworld , a huluppu

19

tree (willow) grows in Inanna Inanna's 's garden in Uruk Uruk,, whose wood she plans to use to build a new throne. After ten years of growth, she comes to harvest it and finds a serpent living at its base, a Zu bird raising young in its crown, and that a ki-sikil-lil-la-ke made a house in its trunk. Bilgames/Gilgamesh is said to have smitten the snake, and then the zu bird flew away to the mountains with its young, while the ki-sikil-lil-lake fearfully destroys its house and runs for the forest. Kramer's identification is repeated without question or justification justific ation by Manfred Hutter in the article on Lilith in Dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible (1999) Suggested translations for the Tablet XII spirit in the tree include kisikil as "sacred place", lil as "spirit", and lil-la-ke as "water spirit". but also simply "owl", given that the lil is building a home in the trunk of  the tree. A connection between the Gilgamesh ki-sikil-lil-la-ke and the Jewish Lilith was rejected by Dietrich Opitz (1932) and other scholars, finally being rejected on textual grounds by Sergio Ribichini (1978). The bird-foot woman in the Burney Relief 

Kramer's translation of the Gilgamesh fragment was used by Henri Frankfort (1937) and Emil Kraeling (1937) to support identification of a woman with bird-feet in the Burney relief as relief as related to Lilith, but this too is rejected by more recent scholarship. The Arslan Tash amulets

Theodor Gaster (1942) mistakenly identified an incantantion in the Arslan Tash amulets as a pre-Jewish reference to Lilith, but Torczyner (1947) identified the amulets as a Jewish source.

20

The vardat lilitu demons

The word lilu means spirit in Akkadian, and the male lili and female lilitu are found in incantation texts from Nippur, Babylonia c600 BC in both singular and plural forms. Among the spirits the vardat lilitu, or maiden spirit bears some comparison with later Talmudic legends of  Lilith. A lili is related to witchcraft in the Sumerian incantation Text 313. Siegmund Hurwitz

Much of the popular information found in non-academic sources regarding Lilith is taken from reprints of out-of-copyright works which are now outdated, for example Moses Gaster (1880), R. Campbell Thompson (1908), W. O. E. Oesterley (1930) , , and confuses Jewish and Assyrian sources. The following material in this section of the article, in particular  secondary citation from Siegmund Hurwitz, requires verification and  replacement with primary academic sources:

According to Siegmund Hurwitz the figure of Lilith L ilith first appeared in a class of wind and storm demons or spirits as Lilitu, in Sumer Sumer,, circa 4000 BC. The phonetic name Lilith is traditionally thought to have originated in Ancient Israel, Israel, and to have pre-dated at least 700 BC.Hurwitz (1980) Akkad,, who were the earliest known Semitic speakers, and Sumer Akkad Sumer,, who were the earliest civilizations inhabiting Mesopotamia Mesopotamia,, developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis with widespread bilingualism bilingualism.. The bilateral influence of Sumerian of Sumerian and Akkadian is evident in all areas, including syncretism between their gods, where each adopted the other's deities. In Sumerian, Lilith was referred to as Ki-sikil-lil-la-ke, and, in Akkadian, it was Ardat-lili . The Assyrian and Babylonian cultures descended from these early cultures.

21

Lilû, father of Gilgamesh

Another proposed connection to Lilith is on the Sumerian king list, list, where Gilgamesh Gilgamesh's 's father is named as Lilû.Hurwitz (1980) Patai (1942) Little is known of Lilû, and he was said to interfere with women in their sleep and had functions of an incubus incubus,, while Lilitû appeared to men in their erotic dream dreams.Hurwitz s.Hurwitz (1980) Raphael Patai T.H. Jacobsen, "Mesopotamia", in H. Frankfort et al., Before Philosophy: The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man . Such qualities as lalu, or wandering about, and lulu, or lasciviousness, from Akkadian (Semitic (Semitic)) language have been associated as sources for the names Lila and Lilitû., but some Sumerologists say Lilû is purely Sumerian. Lilitû demons

The Assyria Assyrian n lilitû were said to prey upon children and women and were described as associated with lions, storms, desert, and disease. Early portrayals of such demons are known as having Zu bird talons for feet and wings. They were highly sexually predator predatoryy towards men but were unable to copulate normally. They were thought to dwell in waste, desolate, and desert places. Like the Sumerian Dimme Dimme,, a male wind demon named Pazuzu was thought to be effective against them. Lilith's epithet was "the beautiful maiden". She was described as having no milk in her breast breastss and as unable to bear any children.Raphael Patai p. 222 Other storm and night demons from a similar class are recorded from Akkadian texts around this period. The Ardat-lili is from Ardatû, which is a young unmarried woman or maiden maiden,, also sometimes a title of  prostitutes, and lilitû. These "maiden liltû" lil tû" would come to men in their sleep and beget children from them. Sick men would also be described as being seized by Ardat-lili Their male counterparts, similar to an incubus,, were the Irdû-lili These demons were incubus w ere originally storm and

22

wind demons; however, later etymology made them into night demons.

Lamashtû

Lamashtû or Labartu (in Sumerian Dimme) was a very similar Mesopotamian demon to Lilitû , and Lilith seems to have inherited many of Lamashtû's myths. She was considered a demi-goddess and daughter of Anu, the sky god. Many incantations against her mention her status as a daughter of heaven and her exercising her free will over infants. This makes her different d ifferent from the rest of the demons in Mesopotamia. Unlike her demonic peers, Lamashtû was not instructed by the gods to do her malevolence; she did it on her own accord. She was said to seduce men, harm pregnant women, mothers, and neonates, kill foliage, and drink blood and was a cause of disease, sickness, and death. Some incantations describe her as "seven witches". The space between her legs is as a scorpion, corresponding to the astrological sign of Scorpio of Scorpio.. (Scorpio rules the genitals and sex organs.) Her head is that of a lion, she has Anzu bird feet like Lilitû, her breasts are suckled by a pig and a dog, and she rides the back of a donkey. Other texts mention Lamashtû as the hand of Inanna/Ishtar in place of Lilitû and Ardat-lili. Gallû and Alû

Two other Mesopotamian demons have a close relation to Lilitû: Gallû and Alû Alû.. Alû was originally an asexual demon, who took on female attributes, but later became a male demon. Alû liked to roam the streets like a stray dog at night and creep into people's bedrooms as they slept to terrify them. He was described as being half-human and half-devil. He appears in Jewish lore as Ailo ; here, he is used as one of Lilith's secret names . In other texts , Ailo is a daughter of Lilith that

23

has had intercourse with a man. m an. The other demon, Gallû, is of the Utukkû group. Gallû’s name, like Utukkû Utukkû,, was also used as a general term for multiple demons. Later , Gallû appears as Gello Gello,, Gylo, or Gyllou in Greco-Byzantine mythology as a child-stealing and childkilling demon. This figure was, likewise, adapted by the Jews as Gilû and was also considered a secret name of Lilith's. Lilitû, Inanna's hand

Stephen Langdon (1914) claims that Babylonian texts depict Lilitû as the sacred prostitute of the goddess Ishtar Ishtar,, the Assyrian and Babylonian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna Inanna.. Hurwitz similarly claims that older Sumerian accounts assert that Lilitû is called the handmaiden of Inanna or "hand of Inanna". The Sumerian texts state, "Inanna has sent the beautiful, unmarried, unma rried, and seductive prostitute Lilitû out into the fields and streets in order to lead men astray." That is why Lilitû is called the "hand of Inanna". Lilith in the Bible

There is an ongoing scholarly debate as to whether the concept of  Lilith occurs in the Bible. The only possible occurrence is in the Book of  Isaiah 34:13-15, describing the desolation of Edom of Edom,, where the Hebrew word liyliyth appears in a list of eight unclean animals, some of which may have demonic associations. Since the word liyliyth is a hapax legomenon in the Hebrew Bible and the other seven terms in the list are better documented, the reading of scholars and translators is often guided by a decision about the complete list of eight creatures as a whole: Isaiah 34:13 Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of  jackals  jackals, an abode for ostriches. 14 And wild animals shall meet with hyenas; the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; indeed, there the night bird (liylith)

24

settles and finds for herself a resting place. 15 There the owl nests and lays and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow; indeed, there the hawks are gathered, each one with her mate. (ESV) ( ESV)

Hebrew text

Hebrew: ‫ונח‬ֹ‫מ‬ָ ּ‫לה‬ָ ‫ה‬ָ‫צא‬ְ‫מ‬ָ‫ ו‬ּ ,‫ית‬ִ‫ליל‬ִּ Hebrew (ISO (ISO 259): 259):

 ׂָ‫ ו‬ְ ,‫אים‬ ‫ה‬ָ‫גיע‬ִּ‫ר‬ְ‫ה‬ִ ‫שם‬  ָׁ -ְ‫אך‬ַ ;‫רא‬ ָ‫ק‬ְ‫ י‬ִ ‫ה‬ ּ‫ע ו‬ֵ‫ר‬ֵ -‫ל‬ַ‫עיר ע‬ ִ‫ש‬ ִּ‫י‬ִ -‫ת‬ֶ‫יצים א‬ִּִ ‫ש‬ ּ‫ו‬ׁ ‫ג‬ְ‫פ‬ָ‫ ו‬ּ

34:14 "And shall-meet the he-calls hisliyliyth and she-finds 34:15 there the , and , and , and she-gathers under her-shadow: also they-gather, every one with . Eberhard Schrader (1875) and Moritz Abraham Levy (1885) suggest that Lilith was a goddess of the night, known also by the Jewish exiles in Babylon. Babylon. Schrader and Levy's view is therefore partly dependent on a later dating of Deutero-Isaiah of Deutero-Isaiah to the 6th century BC, and the presence of Jews in Babylon which would coincide with the possible references to the in Babylonian demonology demonology.. However this view is challenged by some modern research such as by Judit M. Blair (2009) who considers that the context indicates unclean animals. Greek version

The Septuagint translates the reference into Greek as onokentauros, apparently for lack of a better word, since also the se'irim, "satyrs", earlier in the verse are translated with wi th daimon onokentauros. The "wild beasts of the island and the desert" are omitted altogether, and the "crying to his fellow" is also done by the daimon onokentauros. Latin Bible

25

The early 5th-century Vulgate translated the same word as Lamia. The translation is: "And demons and monsters shall meet and the hairy ones shall cry out one to another, there vampires: she lay down, and found rest for herself...". According to vampirologist Montague Summers (1928), this particular species of owl is associated with the vampiric Strix of Roman legend. English versions

Wyclif's Bible (1395) preserves the Latin rendering Lamia: Isa 34:15 Lamya schal ligge there, and foond rest there to hir silf. The Bishops' Bible of  of Matthew Matthew Parker (1568) from the Latin: Isa 34:14 there shall the Lamia lye and haue her lodgyng. The Geneva Bible of  of William William Whittington (1587) from the Hebrew: Isa 34:14 and the shricheowle shall rest there, and shall finde fi nde for her selfe a quiet dwelling. Then the King James Version of the Bible (1611): Isa 34:14 "The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island island,, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest." The "screech owl" translation of the KJV is, together with the "owl" (, probably a water bird) in 34:11 and the "great owl" (, properly a snake) of 34:15, an attempt to render the passage by choosing suitable animals for difficult-to-translate Hebrew words. Later translations include: night-owl (Young, 1898) night-spectre (Rotherham, Emphasized Bible, Bible, 1902) night monster (ASV ASV,, 1901; JPS 1917, NASB NASB,, 1995) vampiress (Moffatt Translation, 1922) vampire night hag (RSV RSV,, 1947) •

•

•

•

•

26

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Lilith (Jerusalem (Jerusalem Bible, Bible, 1966) lilith (New (New American Bible, Bible, 1970) Lilith (NRSV (NRSV,, 1989) Lilith (The (The Message (Bible), (Bible), Peterson, 1993) night creature (NIV (NIV,, 1978; NKJV NKJV,, 1982; NLT NLT,, 1996, TNIV TNIV)) nightjar (New World Translation, Translation, 1984) night bird (English (English Standard Version, Version, 2001)

Jewish tradition Dead Sea Scrolls The appearance of Lilith in the Dead Sea Scrolls is somewhat  more contentious, with one indisputable reference in the Song for a Sage (4Q510-511) and a promising additional  allusion found by A. Baumgarten in The Seductress (4Q184). The first and irrefutable Lilith reference in the Song occurs in 4Q510, fragment 1:

And I, the Instructor, Instructor, proclaim His glorious splendour so as to frighten and to te[rrify] all the spirits of the destroying angels, spirits of the bastards, demons, Lilith, howlers, and [desert dwellers…] and those which fall upon men without warning to lead them astray from a spirit of understanding and to make their heart and their […] desolate during the present dominion of wickedness and predetermined time of humiliations for the sons of lig[ht], l ig[ht], by the guilt of the ages of [those] smitten smi tten by iniquity – not for eternal destruction, [bu]t for an era of humiliation for transgression. Akin to Isaiah 34:14, this liturgical text both cautions against the presence of supernatural malevolence and assumes familiarity with Lilith; distinct from the biblical text, however, this passage does not function under any socio-political agenda, but instead serves in the same capacity as An Exorcism (4Q560) and Songs to Disperse Demons (11Q11) insomuch that it comprises incantations—comparable to the Arslan Tash relief examined above—used to "help protect the faithful against the power of these spirits." The text is thus, to a community

27

"deeply involved in the realm of demonology", an exorcism hymn. Another text discovered at Qumran Qumran,, conventionally associated with the Book of Proverbs, Proverbs, credibly also could appropriate the Lilith tradition in its description of a precarious, winsome w insome woman—The Seductress (4Q184). The ancient poem—dated to the first century c entury BC but plausibly much older—describes a dangerous woman and consequently warns against encounters with her. Customarily, the woman depicted in this text is equated to the "strange woman" of Proverbs 2 and 5, and for good reason; the parallels are instantly recognizable: However, what this association does not take into account are additional descriptions of the "Seductress" from Qumran that cannot c annot be found attributed to the "strange woman" of Proverbs; namely, her horns and her wing wings: s: "a multitude of sin of sinss is in her wings." The word "seductress" here does not refer literally to "prostitute" or at the very least, the representation of one, but one who tempts men into sin. The sort of individual with whom that text's community would have been familiar. The "Seductress" of the Qumran text, conversely, could not possibly have represented an existent social threat given the constraints of this particular ascetic community. Instead, the Qumran text uses the imagery of Proverbs of Proverbs to explicate a much broader, supernatural threat – the threat of the demoness Lilith. Li lith. Talmud

Although references to Lilith in the Talmud are sparse, these passages provide the most comprehensive insight into the demoness yet seen in Judaic literature, which some speculate sp eculate to echo Lilith's purported Mesopotamian origins and prefigure her future as the perceived exegetical enigma of the Genesis account. Recalling the Lilith we have seen, Talmudic allusions to Lilith illustrate her essential wings and long

28

hair,, dating back to her earliest extant mention in Gilgamesh: hair "Rab Judah citing Samuel ruled: If an abortion had the likeness l ikeness of  Lilith its mother is unclean by reason of the birth birth,, for it is a child but it has wings." (Niddah 24b) "[Expounding upon the curses of womanhood] In a Baraitha it was taught: She grows long hair like Lilith, sits when making water like a beast, and serves as a bolster for her husband.” ('Erubin 100b) Unique to the Talmud with regard to Lilith is her insalubrious carnality, alluded to in The Seductress but expanded upon here sans unspecific metaphors as the demoness assuming the form of a woman in order to sexually take men by force while they sleep: "R. Hanina said: One may not sleep in a house alone [in a lonely house], and whoever sleeps in a house alone is seized by Lilith.”  (Shabbath 151b) Yet the most innovative perception of Lilith Li lith offered by the Talmud appears earlier in 'Erubin, and is more than likely inadvertently responsible for the fate of the Lilith myth for centuries to come: "R. Jeremiah b. Eleazar further stated: In all those years [130 years after his expulsion from the Garden of Eden] during which Adam was under the ban he begot ghost ghostss and male demons and female demons [or night demons], for it is said in Scripture: And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years and begot a son in own likeness, after his own image, from which it follows that until that time he did not beget after his own image… When he saw that through him death was ordained as punishment he spent a hundred and thirty years in fasting,, severed connection with his wife for a hundred and thirty fasting

29

years, and wore clothes of fig of fig on his body for a hundred and thirty years. – That statement [of R. Jeremiah] J eremiah] was made in reference to the semen which he emitted accidentally.” (‘Erubin 18b) Comparing 'Erubin 18b and Shabbath 151b with the later passage from the Zohar Zohar:: “She wanders about at night, vexing v exing the sons of men and causing them to defile themselves (19b),” it appears clear that this Talmudic passage indicates such an adverse union between Adam and Lilith. Shedim cults

A cult in Mesopotamia is said to be related to Lilith by early Jewish leaders. According to the hypotheses proposed by William Will iam F. Albright, Theodor H. Gaster, Gaster , and others, the name Lilith already existed in 7th century BC. and Lilith retained her Shedim characteristics throughout the entire Jewish tradition. Shedim is plural for "spirit" or "demon". Figures that represent shedim are the shedu of Babylonian mythology. These figures were depicted as anthropomorphic, winged bulls, associated with wind. They were thought to guard palaces, cities cities,, houses, and temple temples. s. In magical texts of that era, they could be either malevolent or benevolent. The cult originated from Babylon, Babyl on, then spread to Canaan and eventually to Israel. Human sacrifice was part of  the practice and a sacrificial altar existed to the Shedim next to the Yahweh cult, although this practice was widely denounced by prophets who retained belief in Yahweh Yahweh.. Shedim in Jewish thought and literature l iterature were portrayed as quite malevolent. Some writings contend that they are storm-demons. Their creation is presented in three contradicting Jewish tales. The first is that during Creation Creation,, God created the shedim, but did not create their bodies and forgot them on the Shabbat when he rested. The second is

30

that they are descendants of demons in i n the form of serpents, and the last states that they are simply descendants of Adam & Lilith. Another story asserts that after the tower of Babel of  Babel,, some people were scattered and became Shedim, Ruchin Ruchin,, and Lilin Lilin.. Folk tradition

A Hebrew tradition exists in which an amulet is inscribed with the names of three angel angelss (Senoy (Senoy,, Sansenoy Sansenoy,, and Semangelof ) and placed around the neck of newborn of newborn boy boyss in order to protect them from the lilin until their circumcision circumcision.. The 8th-10th Century Alphabet of Ben Sira is considered to be the oldest form of the story of Lilith Lili th as Adam's first wife. Whether this particular tradition is older is not known. Scholars tend to date the Alphabet between the 8th and 10th centuries AD. (The attribution to the sage Ben Sira is considered false, with the true author unknown.) The amulets used against Lilith that were thought to derive from this tradition are in fact, dated as being much older. The concept of Eve having a predecessor is not exclusive excl usive to the Alphabet, and is not a new concept, as it can be found in Genesis Rabbah. Rabbah. However, the idea that Lilith was the predecessor is exclusive to the Alphabet. According to Gershom Scholem, Scholem , the author of the Zohar, R. Moses de Leon, was aware of the folk tradition of Lilith. He was also aware of another story, possibly older, that may be conflicting. The idea that Adam had a wife prior to Eve may have developed from an interpretation of the Book of Genesis and its dual creation accounts; while Genesis 2:22 describes God's creation of Eve from Adam's rib, an earlier passage, 1:27, already indicates that a woman had been made: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." The

31

Alphabet text places Lilith's creation after God's words in Genesis 2:18 that "it is not good for man to be alone"; in this text God forms Lilith out of the clay from which whic h he made Adam but she and Adam bicker. Lilith claims that since she and Adam were created in the same way they were equal and she refuses to submit to him: After God created Adam, who was alone, He said, 'It is not good for man to be alone.' He then created a woman for Adam, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, 'I will not lie below,' and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.' Lilith responded, 'We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.' But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air. Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: 'Sovereign of the universe!' he said, 'the woman you gave me has run away.' At once, the Holy One, blessed be He, sent these three angels Senoy , Sansenoy , and Semangelof , to bring her back. Said the Holy One to Adam, 'If she agrees to come back, what is made is good. If not, she must permit one hundred of her children to die every day.' The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom they overtook in the midst of the sea, s ea, in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians were destined to drown. They told her God's word, but she did not wish to return. The angels said, 'we shall drown you in the sea.’  'Leave me!' she said. 'I was created only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days.’ 

32

When the angels heard Lilith's words, they insisted she go back. But she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God: 'Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no power over that infant.' She also agreed to have one hundred of her children die every day. Accordingly, every day one hundred demons perish, and for the same reason, we write the angels' names on the amulets of young children. When Lilith sees their names, she remembers her oath, and the child recovers. The background and purpose of  The Alphabet of Ben-Sira is unclear. It is a collection of stories about heroes of the Bible and Talmud Talmud,, it may have been a collection of folk-tale of folk-tales, s, a refutation of Christian of Christian,, Karaite Karaite,, or other separatist movements; its content seems so offensive to contemporary Jews that it was even suggested that it could be an antiJewish satire satire,, although, in any case, the text was accepted by the Jewish mystics of medieval Germany. The Alphabet of Ben-Sira is the earliest surviving source of the story, and the conception that Lilith was Adam's first wife became only widely known with the 17th century ‘‘Lexicon ‘‘Lexicon Talmudicum of  Johannes  Johannes Buxtorf . In the folk tradition that arose in the early Middle Ages Lilith, a dominant female demon, became identified with Asmodeus with Asmodeus , King of  Demons, as his queen. Asmodeus was already well known by this time because of the legends about him in the Talmud. Thus, the merging of  Lilith and Asmodeus was inevitable. The second myth of Lilith grew to include legends about another world and by some accounts this other  world existed side by side with this one, Yenne Velt is Yiddish for this described "Other World". In this case Asmodeus and Lilith were believed to procreate demonic offspring endlessly and spread chaos at  every turn.Schwartz p.8 Many disasters were blamed on both of them, causing wine to turn into vinegar, men to be impotent, women unable

33

to give birth, and it was Lilith who was blamed for the loss of infant  life. The presence of Lilith and her cohorts were considered very real  at this time. Two primary characteristics are seen in these legends l egends about Lilith: Lilith as the incarnation of lust, causing men to be led astray, and  Lilith as a child-killing witch, who strangles helpless neonates.  Although these two aspects of the Lilith legend seemed to have evolved separately, there is hardly a tale where she encompasses both roles. But the aspect of the witch-like role that Lilith plays broadens her archetype of the destructive side of witchcraft. Such stories are commonly found among Jewish folklore. Kabbalah Kabbalistic mysticism attempted to establish a more exact relationship between Lilith and the Deity. With her major characteristics having been well-developed by the end of the Talmudic period, after six  centuries had elapsed between the Aramaic  the  Aramaic incantation incantation texts that  mention Lilith and the early Spanish Kabbalistic writings in the 13th century, she reappears, and her life history becomes known in greater  mythological detail. Her creation is described in many alternative versions. One mentions her creation as being before Adam's, on the fifth day, because the "living creatures" with whose swarms God filled the waters included  none other than Lilith. A similar version, related to the earlier  Talmudic passages, recounts how Lilith was fashioned with the same substance as Adam was, shortly before. A third alternative version states that God originally created Adam and Lilith in a manner that the female creature was contained in the male. Lilith's soul was lodged in the depths of the Great Abyss. Abyss. When God called her, she joined Adam.

34

 After Adam's body was created a thousand soul  thousand  soul s from the Left (evil) side attempted to attach themselves to him. However, God drove them off. Adam was left lying as a body without a soul. Then a cloud  descended and God commanded the earth to produce a living soul. This God breath God breathed ed into Adam, who began to spring to life and his female was attached to his side. sid e. God separated the female from  Adam's side. The female side was Lilith, whereupon she flew to the Cities of the Sea and attacks humankind . Yet another version claims that Lilith was not created by God, but emerged as a divine entity that  was born spontaneously, either out of the Great Supernal Abyss or out  of the power of an aspect of God (the Gevurah of Din ). This aspect of  God, one of his ten attributes (Sefirot), at its lowest manifestation has an affinity with the realm of evil and it is out of this that Lilith merged  with Samael . According to The Alphabet of Ben-Sira Lilith was Adam's first wife.  An alternative story links Lilith with the creation of luminaries. The "first light," which is the light li ght of Mercy (one of the Sefirot   ), appeared  on the first day of creation when God said "Let there be light." This light became hidden and the Holiness became surrounded by a husk of  evil. ”A husk (klippa) was created around the brain brain"" and this husk  spread and brought out another husk, which was Lilith.  Adam and Lilith

300px|thumb|left|Adam holding on to a child while Lilith appears on a tree. The first medieval source to depict Adam and Lilith in full was the Midrash Abkir (ca. Abkir (ca. 10th century), which was followed by the Zohar and  Kabbalistic writings. Adam is said to be perfect until he recognizes either his sin or Cain's fratricide that is the cause of bringing death into the world. He then separates from holy Eve, sleeps alone, and  fasts for 130 years. During this time Lilith, also known as Pizna or 

35

Naamah , desired his beauty and came to him against his will. She

bore him many demons and spirits called "the plagues of  humankind".Patai p232 The added explanation was that it was through  Adam's own sin that Lilith overcame him against his will. thumb|"Lilith" from Michelangelo's " The The Temptation of Adam and Eve ".  A common iconographic depiction of the serpent of Eden in late Medieval and Renaissance art. Older sources state clearly that after Lilith's Red Sea sojourn, she returned to Adam and begat children from him. In the Zohar, however, Lilith is said to have succeeded in begetting offspring from  Adam during their short-lived sexual experience. Lilith leaves Adam in Eden, as she is not a suitable helpmate for him. She returns, later, to force herself upon him. However, before doing so she attaches herself  to Cain and bears him numerous num erous spirits and demons. Samael and Lilith

The mystical writing of two brothers Jacob and Isaac Hacohen, which  predates the Zohar  Zohar by by a few decades, states that Samael  that  Samael and and Lilith are in the shape of an androgynous being, double-faced, born out of the emanation of the Throne of Glory and Glory and corresponding in the spiritual  realm to Adam and Eve, who were likewise born as a hermaphrodite hermaphrodite.. The two twin androgynous couples resembled each other and both "were like the image of Above"; that is, that they are reproduced in a visible form of an androgynous deity.  Another version that was also current among Kabbalistic circles in the Middle Ages establishes Lilith as the first of Samael's four wives: Lilith, Naamah , Igrath, and Mahalath and Mahalath.. Each of them are mothers of demons and have their own hosts and unclean spirits in no number. The marriage of archangel  of archangel Samael  Samael and and Lilith was arranged by "Blind  Dragon", who is the counterpart of "the dragon that is in the sea". Blind Dragon acts as an intermediary i ntermediary between Lilith and Samael:

36

Blind Dragon rides Lilith the Sinful -- may she be extirpated quickly in our days, Amen! -- And this Blind Dragon brings about the union between Samael and Lilith. And just as the Dragon that is in the sea (Isa. 27:1) has no eyes, likewise Blind Dragon that is above, in the likeness of a spiritual form, is without eyes, that is to say, without  colors.... (Patai81:458) Samael is called the Slant Serpent, and Lilith is called the Tortuous Serpent. The marriage of Samael and Lilith is known as the "Angel Satan" or  the "Other God,"  but it was not allowed to last. To prevent Lilith and Samael's demonic  children Lilin from filling the world, God castrated Samael. In many  17th century Kabbalistic books, this mythologem is based on the identification of "Leviathan the Slant Serpent and Leviathan the Torturous Serpent" and a reinterpretation of an old Talmudic myth where God castrated the male Leviathan and slew the female Leviathan in order to prevent them from mating and thereby  destroying the earth. After Samael became castrated and Lilith was unable to fornicate with him, she left l eft him to couple with men who experience nocturnal emissions. A 15th or 16th century Kabbalah text  states that God has "cooled" the female Leviathan, meaning that he has made Lilith infertile and she is a mere fornication. The Two Liliths

 A passage in the 13th century document called the Treatise on the Left

Emanation says that there are two Liliths, the lesser being married to the great  demon Asmodeus demon  Asmodeus.. In answer to your question concerning Lilith, I shall explain to you the essence of the matter. Concerning this point there is a received  tradition from the ancient Sages who made use of the Secret  Knowledge of the Lesser Palaces, which is the manipulation of demons

37

and a ladder by which one ascends to the prophetic levels. In this tradition, it is made clear cl ear that Samael and Lilith were born as one, similar to the form of Adam and Eve who were also born as one, reflecting what is above. This is the account of Lilith which was received by the Sages in the Secret Knowledge of the Palaces. The Matron Lilith is the mate of Samael. Both of them were born at the same hour in the image of Adam and Eve, intertwined in each other.  Asmodeus the great king of the demons has as a mate the Lesser  (younger) Lilith, daughter of the king whose name is Qafsefoni. The name of his mate is Mehetabel daughter of Matred, and their daughter  is Lilith. thumb|right|Lilith tempting [[Eve into eating the forbidden fruit . 15th Century.]]  Another passage charges Lilith as being a tempting serpent of Eve of Eve's: 's:  And the Serpent, the Woman of Harlotry, incited and seduced s educed Eve through the husks of Light which in itself is holiness. And the Serpent  seduced Holy Eve, and enough said for him who understands. And all  this ruination came about because Adam the first man coupled with Eve while she was in her menstrual impurity – this is the filth and the impure seed of the Serpent who mounted Eve before Adam mounted her. Behold, here it is before you: because of the sins of   Adam the first man all the things mentioned came into being. For Evil  Lilith, when she saw the greatness of his corruption, became strong in her husks, and came to Adam against his will, and became hot from him and bore him many demons and spirits and Lilin. (Patai81:455f) This may relate to various late medieval iconography of a female serpent figure, believed to be Lilith, tempting Adam and Eve. The prophet Elijah prophet Elijah is said to have confronted Lilith in one text. In this encounter, she had come to feast on the flesh of the mother, with a host of demons, and take the newborn from her. She eventually  reveals her secret names to Elijah in the conclusion. These names are

38

said to cause Lilith to lose her power: lilith, abitu, abizu, hakash, avers hikpodu, ayalu, matrota… In others, probably informed by 

The Alphabet of Ben-Sira , she is Adam's first wife. ( Yalqut Yalqut Reubeni   , Zohar 1:34b, Zohar  1:34b, 3:19) Lilith as Qliphah

thumb|Adam, Lilith, and Eve, c. AD 1210, base of trumeau, left portal, West Façade, Notre Dame, Paris. Lilith is listed as one of the Qliphoth , corresponding to the Sephirah Malkuth in the Kabbalistic Tree Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Life. The demon Lilith, the evil  woman, is described as a beautiful woman, who transforms into a blue, butterfly-like demon, and it is associated with the power of  seduction. The Qliphah is the unbalanced power of a Sephirah. Malkuth is the lowest Sephirah, the realm of the earth, into which all the divine energy flows, and in which the divine d ivine plan is worked out. However, its unbalanced form is as Lilith, the seductress. The material world, and  all of its pleasures, is the ultimate seductress, and can lead to materialism unbalanced by the spirituality of the higher spheres. This ultimately leads to a descent into animal consciousness. The balance must therefore be found between Malkuth and Kether  and  Kether   , to find order  and harmony. Greco-Roman mythology  Another similar monster was the Greek Lamia Greek  Lamia , who likewise governed  a class of child stealing lamia-demons. Lamia bore the title "child  killer" and was feared for her malevolence, like Lilith. She has different  conflicting origins and is described as having a human upper body  from the waist up and a serpentine body from the waist down.(Some depictions of Lamia picture her as having wings and feet of a bird,

39

rather than being half serpent, similar simil ar to the earlier reliefs of Greek  Sirens and the Lilitu.) One source states simply that she is a daughter  of the goddess Hecate Hecate.. Another, that Lamia was subsequently cursed  by the goddess Hera to have stillborn still born children because of her  association with Zeus; alternately, Hera slew all of Lamia's children (except Scylla) in anger that Lamia slept with her husband, Zeus. The grief caused Lamia to turn into a monster that took revenge on mothers by stealing their children and devouring them.Hurwitz p.43 Lamia had a vicious sexual appetite that matched her cannibalistic  appetite for children. She was notorious for being a vampiric spirit and  loved sucking men’s blood. Her gift was the "mark of a Sibyl," a gift of  second sight. Zeus was said to have ha ve given her the gift of sight. sig ht. However, she was "cursed" to never be able to shut her eyes so that  she would forever obsess over her dead children. Taking pity on Lamia, Zeus gave her the ability to remove and replace her eyes from their sockets. The Empusa Empusae e were a class of supernatural demons that Lamia was said to have birthed. Hecate would often send them against travelers. They consumed or scared to death any of the people where they  inhabited. They bear many similarities to lilim. It has been suggested  that later medieval lore, succubi   , or lilim is derived from this myth. Arabic mythology Lilith is not found in the Quran or  or Haddith Haddith.. The Sufi occult writer 

 Ahmad al-Buni (d.1225) al-Buni (d.1225) in his Shams al-Ma'arif al-Kubra (Sun of the Great Knowledge, Arabic:) mentions a demon called  the mother of 

children a term also used "in one place" in i n the 13th Century Jewish Zohar and Zohar  and is therefore probably derived from Jewish mythology.  Another Islamic legend recounts an encounter between King Solomon and a giant woman demon, Karina.

40

Lilith in the Classical German period Lilith's earliest appearance in the literature of the Romantic period  (1789–1832) was in Goethe's 1808 work Faust Part I   , nearly 600 years after appearing in the Kabbalistic Zohar  Kabbalistic Zohar : Faust :

Who's that there?  Mephistopheles:: Mephistopheles

Take a good look.

Lilith. Faust:

Lilith? Who is that?  Mephistopheles:

 Adam's wife, his first. Beware of her. Her beauty's one boast is her dangerous hair. When Lilith winds it tight around young men She doesn't soon let go of them again. ( 1992 1992 Greenberg translation, lines 4206–4211 )  After Mephistopheles offers this warning to Faust, he then, quite ironically, encourages Faust to dance with "the Pretty Witch". Lilith and Faust engage in a short dialogue, where Lilith recounts the days spent in Eden. Faust: [dancing with the young witch]

41

 A lovely dream I dreamt one day  I saw a green-leaved apple tree, Two apples swayed upon a stem, So tempting! I climbed up for them. The Pretty Witch:

Ever since the days of Eden  Apples have been man's desire. How overjoyed I am to think, sir,  Apples grow, too, in my garden. ( 1992 1992 Greenberg translation, lines 4216 – 4223 ) Lilith in the Victorian period thumb|250px|Lady Lilith by  by Dante Dante Gabriel Rossetti . The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood   , which developed around 1848, were greatly influenced by Goethe's work on the theme of Lilith. In 1863, Dante Gabriel Rossetti of Rossetti of the Brotherhood began painting what would  be his first rendition of "Lady Lilith", a painting he expected to be his "best picture hitherto" Symbol  hitherto" Symbol s appearing in the painting allude to the "femme fatale" reputation of the Romantic Lilith: poppies Lilith:  poppies (death and  cold) and white rose roses s (sterile passion). Accompanying his Lady Lilith  painting from 1863, Rossetti wrote a sonnet  sonnet entitled  entitled Lilith , which was first published in Swinburne's pamphlet-review (1868), Notes on the

Royal Academy Exhibition:

42

Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told  (The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,) That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive,  And her enchanted hair was the first gold.  And still she sits, young while the earth is old,  And, subtly of herself contemplative, Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave, Till heart and body and life are in its hold. The rose and poppy are her flower; for where Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent   And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare?  Lo! As that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went  Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent   And round his heart one strangling golden hair. (Collected Works, 216) The poem and the picture appeared together alongside Rossetti's  painting Sibylla Palmifera and the sonnet Soul's Beauty. In 1881, the

Lilith sonnet was renamed " Body's Body's Beauty" in order to contrast it and 

43

Soul's Beauty. The two were placed sequentially in The House of Life collection (sonnets number 77 and 78). Rossetti wrote in 1870: This is in accordance with Jewish folk tradition, which associates Lilith both with long hair (a symbol of dangerous feminine seductive power  in both Jewish both Jewish and  and Islamic  Islamic cultures), cultures), and with possessing women by  entering them through mirrors. The Victorian poet  poet Robert Robert Browning re-envisioned Lilith in his poem "Adam, Lilith, and Eve". First published in 1883, the poem uses the traditional myths surrounding the triad of Adam, Eve, and Lilith. Browning depicts Lilith and Eve as being friendly and complicitous with each other, as they sit together on either side s ide of Adam. Under the threat of death, Eve admits that she never loved Adam, while Lilith confesses that she always loved him: Browning focused on Lilith's emotional attributes, rather than that of  her ancient demon predecessors. Scottish author George author George MacDonald also MacDonald also wrote a fantasy novel entitled 

Lilith , first published in 1895. MacDonald employed the character of  Lilith in service to a spiritual allegory about sin and redemption. Many  of the traditional characteristics of Lilith mythology are present in the author's depiction: Long dark hair, pale skin, a hatred and fear of  children and babies, and an obsession with gazing at herself in a mirror. MacDonald's Lilith also has vampiric qualities: She bites people and sucks their blood for sustenance. In modern occultism

44

The depiction of Lilith in Romanticism continues to be popular among Wiccans, Wicca ns, feminists and in other modern occultism occultism.. Ceremonial magic Few magical  Few  magical orders orders dedicated to the undercurrent of Lilith, featuring initiations specifically related to the arcana of the "first mother" exist. Two organizations that use initiations and magic associated with Lilith are the Ordo Antichristianus Illuminati and Illuminati and the Order of Phosphorus. Phosphorus. Lilith appears as a succuba in in Aleister  Aleister Crowley's De Arte Magica. Lilith was also one of the middle names of Crowley’s first child, Nuit Ma  Ahathoor Hecate Sappho Jezebel Lilith Crowley (b. 1904, d.1906), d. 1906), and  Lilith is sometimes identified with Babalon in Thelemic  Thelemic writings. writings. A Chaos Magic al al rite, based on an earlier German rite, offers a ceremonial Invocation of Lilith:  A 2006 "creative occultist" work by ceremonial magickian ceremonial  magickian Donald  Tyson , titled Liber Lilith, details the "secret" cosmology for the 'Mother  of Harlots' and spawn of all nightbreed monsters, Lilith.Tyson, Donald. The book claims to have been saved from the ashes of Dr of  Dr John Dee's Dee's library at Mortlake at Mortlake in the 1580s, but no evidence that this book existed  before the 21st century can be found. Tyson himself states that while the grimoire itself is esoterically sound, the historical details surrounding it are a "fictional wrapper" created in order to make the book more interesting. Modern Luciferianism In modern Luciferianism , Lilith is considered a consort of Lucifer  of Lucifer and and is identified with the figure of Babalon of Babalon.. She is said to come from the mud  and dust, and is known as the Queen of the Succubi . When she and  Lucifer mate, they form an androgynous being called " Baphomet  Baphomet " or 

45

the "Goat of Mendes," also known in Luciferianism as the "God of  Witches."  Writings by Michael by Michael W. Ford   , including The Foundations of the

Luciferian Path , contend that Lilith forms a part of the "Luciferian Trinity" consisting of herself, Samael  Samael and  and Cain Cain.. Likewise, Lilith is said  to have been Cain Cain's 's actual mother, as opposed to Eve Eve.. Lilith here is seen as a goddess of witches, the dark feminine principle, and is also known as the goddess Hecate Hecate.. Wicca Many early writers that contributed to modern day Wicca day  Wicca expressed  special reverence for Lilith. Charles Leland associated  Leland associated  Aradia  Aradia with Lilith: Aradia Lilith:  Aradia , says Leland, is Herodias , who was regarded in stregheria folklore as being associated with Diana as chief of the witches. Leland  further notes that Herodias is a name that comes from West Asia, where it denoted an early form of Lilith. Gerald Gardner asserted Gardner asserted that there was continuous historical worship of Lilith to present day, and that her name is sometimes given giv en to the goddess being personified in the coven, by the priestess. This idea was further attested by Doreen by Doreen Valiente , who cited her as a presiding p residing goddess of the Craft: “the personification of erotic dreams, d reams, the suppressed desire for delights”. In some contemporary concepts, Lilith is viewed as the embodiment of  the Goddess , a designation that is thought to be shared with what  these faiths believe to be her counterparts: Inanna , Ishtar   , Asherah  ,  Asherah ,  Anath and  and Isis Isis.. According to one view, Lilith was originally a Sumerian, Babylonian, or Hebrew mother goddess of childbirth, children, women, and sexuality who later became demonized d emonized due to the rise of 

46

 patriarchy. Other modern views hold that Lilith is a dark moon goddess on par with the Hindu Kali . Astrology In modern Western astrology   , "Dark Moon" Lilith, is not an actual   phase of the moon, but is the empty focus of the ellipse described by  the moon's orbit (the other focus occupied by the Earth). Dark Moon Lilith is often employed in i n astrological chart readings. "The Dark Moon describes our relationship to the absolute, to sacrifice as such, and  shows how we let go.”  The moon's hypothetical apogee point (the point at which it is furthest  in its orbit from the Earth), is known as "Black Moon" Lilith. It is said  to signify instinctive and emotional intelligence in astrological charts. The asteroid 1181 asteroid 1181 Lilith is also sometimes used in astrology. Western mystery tradition The western mystery tradition associates Lilith with the Klipoth of  kabbalah. Samael Aun Weor in Weor in The Pistis Sophia Unveiled writes that  homosexuals are the "henchmen of Lilith." Likewise, Li kewise, women who undergo willful abortion, and those who support this practice are "seen in the sphere of Lilith." Dion Lilith." Dion Fortune writes, "The Virgin Mary is reflected in Lilith," and that Lilith is the source of "lustful dreams."  Indeed, if one meditates on negative (or inverted) Binah , one readily  finds Lilith; to worship Lilith Li lith is to use the power of the Holy Spirit for  negative purposes. Feminist Theology In a paper on the subject of feminist of feminist theology   , Deborah J. Grenn, of  the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, has argued that Lilith Lili th was a

47

mother goddess whose demonization was designed to keep women alienated from their own 'original sources' of power and spiritual  authority. The case is argued for "a reinterpretation of the divine as embodied by the Semitic goddess Lilith, she who has been represented and misrepresented in a variety of sacred texts".

Popular culture 19-20th century Armenian writer  Avetik  Avetik Isahakyan wrote a story  entitled " Lilit  Lilit ". ". Lilith is the name of two fictional American comic book characters owned by Marvel Comics. Both characters exist in the Marvel  Universe. The first is a superheroine, daughter of Dracula of  Dracula and, like him, a vampire, although her powers and weaknesses differ from most other vampires. The second is an evil demon sorceress. In Diablo II: Lord of Destruction Lilith is a demon whom players have to defeat in order to gain access to Tristram. Known as the "Mother of   All Demons", she gives birth to demons called cal led the Lilin which have lives of their own, but always remain obedient to their mother. Lilith Clay is a young superheroine who occasionally appears in DC  Comic's Teen Titans titles. In the show Supernatural show Supernatural (TV Series) she is the first demon that  Lucifer created after his outcast from heaven to mock m ock the humans. She holds the deals of humans and then breaks seals through out the fourth season. She is killed at the end of the fourth season to break  the final seal that sets Lucifer free.

48

In 1996, Black Metal band  Metal band  Ancient released  Ancient released the album The Cainian Cronicle, featering the song Lilith's Embrace. Added with various v arious Doom Metal elements, Metal elements, the song tells the story of Lilith in her  character as the Succubus. In April 2010, British extreme metal band  metal band Cradle Cradle of Filth announced  their new concept album, Darkly Darkly Venus Aversa , to be "based  on Adam's first wife, the lascivious Demoness Lilith". Lilith is the ranking demon of Satan of Satan in the Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers by Piers Anthony   , though she goes by many similar names. She is used to help try to corrupt many of the Incarnations, until she falls in love with the Incarnation of War and deserts Satan for him. Lilith Sternin is a supporting character played by Bebe by Bebe Neuwirth on the American sitcom Cheers , and the spin-off Frasier  spin-off Frasier   , as the wife then ex-wife of Frasier Crane. In The Chronicles of Narnia ,  , Jadis  Jadis (the White Witch) is a descendant  of Lilith.  An episode of The Naked Archaeologist'' Archaeologist'' dealt with Lilith and her

origins. In the fictional Nightside bookseries by Simon R. Green, Green , Lilith plays a great role. Not only did she create c reate the location the books take place (the Nightside), but she also is the mother of the protagonist of the story. Lilith appears in an episode of CBS of CBS Radio Mystery Theater entitled "Land of the Living Dead." Two pilots, Kent Floyd and Terry Bridgewater, find themselves trapped in a mysterious land that is home to all the humans throughout history who have disappeared. Judge Joseph Crater and Amelia Earhart are referenced specifically. specifically . Lilith, as the first human to ever disappear, is the leader of the community.

49

Lilith appears in Neon Genesis Evangelion (anime) shown crucified and impaled with a spear named the "Lance "Lance of Longinus", Longinus", the same lance used to pierce the side of Jesus of  Jesus during his crucifixion. The character Rei Ayanami is later revealed to be the human vessel for Lilith's soul. Lilith is a recurring demon in the Megami Tensei series, usually as a powerful demon of the succubus ("Night") family.

LILITH The First Wife of Adam? Everyone has been told from the day they were born that Adam was the first man and Eve was the first woman to walk on this earth, but is that true? 

The Hebrew's mystify that the first woman was Lilith Lilith.. Adam cried to God, "Every creature but I have a proper helpmate." Some say God created Lilith out of filth and sediment instead of pure dust. And others say she and Adam were born back to back from the same dust. Lilith and Adam quarreled consistently, because she refused to accept Adam "the man" as her superior. She also disapproved dis approved of the posture he demanded when making love. Lilith said, "Why must I lie beneath you when we were made from the same dust and therefore are equal?' But Adam, not listening to her, tried to force her to obey. Lilith, enraged, uttered the 'Ineffable Name' of God, rose into the air, left Adam and Paradise. But according to Moslem tradition, before leaving, she cohabited with the Devil and gave birth to the jinn (spirits of  Mohammedan mythology, supposedly able to assume the forms of  men and animals). It is also said that before leaving, she slept with Adam and gave birth to the Shedim or evil spirits. Adam complained to God, "I have been deserted by my helpmate." So God dispatched three angels (Sennoi, Sansanui, and Samangluf) to go

50

find Lilith and bring her back. They found Lilith by the Red Sea, a region alive with lustful demons and insisted that she return. I will call the Sirens from the sea, And ye Liliths, come ye from the desert, And ye Shedim and dragons (Tannim) from the forests. Lilith asked them, "How can I return to Adam after my stay by the Red Sea?" The angels told her that she will die. Lilith said, "How can I die when God has made me in charge of all newborn children?" The angels ang els responded saying, "For not returning to Adam, God has placed upon you the most incurable penalty of losing one hundred of your offspring each day". Outraged over God's punishment, she seeks her revenge by strangling newborn children while they sleep: boys up to the eighth day and girls up to the twentieth day of life. But if Lilith finds an angelic amulet or a circle drawn with the names of the three angels over the infants cradle, she must spare their lives. For it was a promise she made to the angels. But when God was told about the promise by the angels, he threw in an added punishment. If a child is spared, Lilith would have to turn against one of her own children. To get through the curse that was placed upon her, she not only seeks the houses of women in child-birth, she would also attack men sleeping alone. He against whom the wicked Utukku hurled himself, Whom in his bed the wicked wic ked Alu covered, Whom the wicked ghost by night overwhelmed, Whom the great Gallu assaulted, Whose limbs the wicked god lacerated, Whom Lamashtu possessed with a seizing hand, Whom Labasu overwhelmed, Whom the Seizer Fastened upon, Whom The Maid of Lilu chose, The man, whom the Maid of Lilu pressed to her bosom . Her offspring from these unions were Lilim or Lilin, demons with human bodies. Names of Lilith

51

There are many names to describe Lilith: Lili th: Lilu, Lillu, Maid of Lilla, Lilitu, bogey-wolf, night hag, screech owl, the flying one, nightjar, winged, she-wolf, child stealing witch, Maid of desolation. In doing my research, there is no mention of Lilith in the KJV (King  James Version), NIV (New International Version), NJB (New Jerusalem Bible) or JPS ( Jewish  Jewish Public Society) as being the wife of Adam. The KJV Bible only mentions a reference of Lilith in Isaiah 34: 14&15: 14) The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr (a mythical creature, half man, half goat) shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there and find for  herself a place of rest.15) There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch and gather under her shadow; there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.

Another translation written in Modern Hebrew language: Isaiah 34:14

Wildcats shall meet hyenas, Goat-demons shall greet each other; There too the lilith shall repose And find herself a resting place.

ysh`yh 34, 14

wpgshw Syym `t -`yym ws `yr `l - r `hw yqr` `k - shm hrgy`h lylyt wmS ` lh mnwH

The New English Bible translates: Marmots shall consort with jackals, and he-goat shall encounter hegoat. There too the nightjar shall rest, and find herself a place for repose. The Interpreter's Bible only comments on certain verses of Isaiah's chapter 34. They are 1-6, 8-11, 8- 11, 14 etc. The comment for chapter 14 says: The demons of popular superstition, including Lilith, Lil ith, the storm demon or night hag, which haunt ruins and waste places, have taken  possession of the former homes of men. Lilith's Development

The story of Lilith's development began from "maid of desolation" (ardat lili ) of Babylonian tradition, a demon of waste places who originally lived in the garden of the Sumerian Inanna. As the name of 

52

demon, Lilit (Hebrew) is etymological related to the Sumerian lil "wind" and not as some once supposed, to the Hebrew laylah "night". It is said that Lilith is a notable figure in Gnostic heresy. The heresy is based on Genesis 1:27, which says, "male and female created he them." Whereas the version in Genesis 2:18-22 says, "God made Eve from the ribs of Adam." Jewish narration often went on a thematic basis: they would discuss along a theme, and sometimes get ahead of  themselves in an attempt to keep the theme clear, and then go back and fill in the blanks. The discussion quoted in the Treatise on the Left Emanation by the Rabbi Isaac Ben Jacob Ha-Kohen is an example. The Testament of Solomon, surviving in a Greek text, which is

estimated to have been written between the first century and the fourth century, has the earliest version of what became the Lilith legend. It also serves as the earliest summary of demons, who appear to King Solomon in succession at his invocation, and is the earliest text to cast King Solomon in the role of sorcerer, which became primary model for him in subsequent Jewish Jewis h lore. Among the demons compelled to appear is one who has all the witch like characteristics of  Lilith. After using his magic powers to summon demons, King Solomon commands them to identify themselves. Among them is Obizuth, who describes herself in terms virtually identical to those later associated with Lilith:  At night I sleep not, but go my rounds over all the world and visit  women in childbirth. Divining the hour I take my stand, and if I am lucky I strangle the child...I am a fierce spirit of myriad names and  many shapes.

At this point, Solomon demands to know by which angel she can be defeated (as every demon has an opposing angel that is its nemesis), and Obizuth replies: "By the angel of God called Afarol, also known as Raphael, If any man knows his name and writes it on an amulet for a woman in childbirth, then I shall not be able to enter her". This is the earliest text referring to the amuletic tradition of warding off this demoness, which became so central a part of the Lilith legend. This description links Obizuth even closer to Lilith because the name Lilith has long been associated with laylah "night." Could Lilith still be killing the infants of today?

53

For more than four decades, scientists have been searching without success for a solution to the agonizing agoniz ing mystery of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). SIDS has traditionally been defined as the silent killer of any infant or young child sleeping in its crib that is unexplained by history, and in which a through post-mortem examination fails to demonstrate an adequate cause for death. A baby who dies under these mysterious circumstances did di d not choke, smother, or strangle. Nor was a slight cold the cause of death. It is known there are more males who have died from SIDS then females. It's emphasized that because SIDS is a diagnosis of exclusion, it is possible that the true incidence of SIDS is over-reported. For example, SIDS is often listed as a cause of death in the absence of an autopsy. Lilith is no longer an object of fear. Since the mid- 1970's, however, she has reappeared in various guises, in Jewish poetry and fiction alike, she has been reclaimed by American Jewish women as a model of female strength and independence. A Jewish feminist magazine named Lilith has been in print since 1976, and a number of Jewish female theologians, re-examining the accounts of creation c reation in Genesis 1:27. These reclamations of Lilith may, therefore, be seen as a part of  a more general awakening of interest in female images and symbols within tradition. The magazine, Lilith Lilith,, was started because of "the Jewish eminist: conflict in identities," in the Jewish woman. Work Cited

Graves, Robert and Raphael, Patai. Hebrew Myths: The Book of  Genesis. New York: 1983. "Lilith." Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend . n.p. Vol 2. 1950. "Lilith." The New English Bible. Oxford University Press, 1976. Pierce and Washabaugh. "Lilith." The Interpreter's Bibl e. e. Vol 5. 1956. Schwartz, Howard. Lilith's Cave. n.p. 1945. "Lilith." Langond, Stephen,H. Semitic Mythology . Boston: n.p. pp.362365. 1931. NetCom On-line Communication. http://www.cs.rutge...christan/faq/ lilith. p. 4. NetCom On-line Communication. http://lark.cc.ukan...n/lilith/ lilith2.gif. p. 5. NetCom On-line Communication. http://lark.cc.ukan...n/lilith/ lilith.gif  "Lilith." Ginzeberg,Louis. The Legends of the Jews. Philadelphia: Jewish Public Society. Vol 5. p. 39-41. 1942. Koltum, Elizabeth. The Jewish Feminist: Conflict in Identities, New York:The Jewish Women, 1976.

54

 A Modern Development: Images of  Lilith in Literature, Art, and   Artifacts "Gilgamesh and the Huluppu Tree" (2000 BCE)

Usually found as part of the Epic of Gilgamesh of 2400 BC, this tale contains the earliest mention of Lilith. She is here associated with Eden and is portrayed as fearsome.

"The Lilith Relief" (circa 2000 BCE)

Sumerian terra-cotta relief which features Lilith as the primary figure. Lilith is identified as a succubus.

Isaiah 34:14 (circa 900 BC)

This scripture is the site of a much contested incidental literary reference to Lilith. While the word sometimes translated as "Lilith" has been variously translated as "night hag," "night demon," etc., the passage, nevertheless, associates a Lilith-like creature with the desert, night, evil, and flight.

Testament of Solomon (200 CE)

Although the character in question is "Obizuth," she describes herself in terms that correlate almost perfectly with wi th Lilith. This text contains the earliest textual reference to the amuletic tradition of warding off Lilith, the demoness.

The Talmud (400 CE)

This text contains four incidental mentions of Lilith as a winged, she-demon of the night. Although it alludes to the succubusmyth associated with Lilith, it does not show any connection with Adam at all.

"The Nippur Bowls" (circa 600 CE)

Incantation bowls found near the ancient colony of Nippur. This set of archeological artifacts contains 40 bowls, 26 of which

55

feature Lilith. Her guises as the child-slayer and succubus are  joined together in the incantations inscribed here. The Alphabet of Ben Sira (800 CE)

Controversial text by an unknown author, generally g enerally believed to be the "founding text" for the Lilith myth as it is known today. The Lilith of The Alphabet account is the insubordinate first wife of Adam, created from dust as his equal, who fled Eden.

Book of Raziel (circa 1100 CE)

This literary reference draws upon the Hebrew amuletic tradition of warding off Lilith during childbirth. She is here associated with Adam and Eve.

The Zohar (1200 CE)

This central work of Jewish mysticism depicts Lilith in all of her various guises: 1) Lilith as "female of Samael." Seductive and beautiful, Lilith sleeps with men and then kills them. (Zohar I 148a-148b). 2) Lilith begets demons from her intercourse with sleeping men and inflicts diseases on them. (Zohar I 19b). 3) The story of creation (Lilith/Adam/Eve) is "resolved" by making Lilith Adam's first wife. (Zohar III 19a). 4) Lilith is described as a strangler/murderer of children. (Zohar I 19b).

Hebrew Amuletic Tradition (circa 900-1800)

Numerous archeological artifacts which focus on Lilith. Primarily used during child- birth to keep Lilith away, these were worn by the pregnant woman and/or hung on her walls. Some of these artifacts also draw on the facets of Lilith's identity as a succubus and as the first wife of Adam.

Jutta (1565)

German play about Johanna, the granddaughter of Lilith and the only woman known to have been pope. As a backdrop to this plot, the existence of Lilith is explained.

Paradise Lost (1667)

Contains an apparent allusion to Lilith in the single phrase "snake witch."

Faust (1808)

Lilith briefly appears in the Walpurgis Night scene of this work by Goethe. She is portrayed as a beautiful seductress with long, flowing hair, and Mephistopheles explains to Faust that Lilith was Adam's first wife.

"Lamia" (1819)

Poem by John Keats presenting the first Romantic portrayal of  Lilith. She is excessively beautiful and is trapped in the form of a snake until freed by Hermes so that she can find the love of her youth, Lycius. She and he live together happily, with him unaware of her mythical past, until, at their wedding, the

56

philosopher Apollonius declares Lilith's name and causes c auses her death. Lycius, unable to live without her, dies also. "La Belle Dame sans Merci" (1820)

Ballad by John Keats which draws upon themes of "Lamia." The unnamed "La Belle" is an enchantress/phantasm who seduces even the strongest of men. She can be read as representing Lilith herself or simply the femme fatale image of which Lilith is a part.

"Lady Lilith" (1863 and 1864-1868?)

Two paintings by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (watercolor and then oil version) which depict Lilith sitting in a magical boudoir/bower space, combing her long, ensnaring hair in a mirror.

"Lilith," later published as "Body's Beauty" (1868)

Sonnet written by Dante Gabriel Rossetti to accompany "Lady Lilith." She is described as Adam's first wife and possibly implicated in the Fall of Man. The poem emphasizes Lilith's affiliation with the snake and ends with Lilith castrating/killing the universalized young man with her "strangling golden hair."

"Eden Bower" (1869)

Ballad by Dante Gabriel Rossetti which elaborates on the themes of "Lilith." Although this poem represents the first time that Lilith is directly implicated in the Fall of Man, it is also here that Lilith truly makes her transformation. By reading the poem from a feminist perspective, it can be seen s een that Rossetti gives Lilith the power of narrative voice, a voice which was historically denied her, and explodes the dichotomy between good and evil, thereby undermining traditional responses to the myth of Lilith

"A Sea-Spell" (1868) and "The Orchard-Pit" (1869)

Two poems by Rossetti which tell of other "femme fatales" who are not necessarily Lilith but, nonetheless, draw upon the symbols and imagery of the Lilith myth. The unnamed femme fatale of "The Orchard Pit" is more explicitly associated with Lilith while the Siren of "A Sea-Spell" merely echoes the theme of  Lilith.

"Adam, Lilith and Eve" (1883)

Poem by Robert Browning where a thunderstorm drives Lilith to confess that she truly loved Adam, and Eve to confess that she truly loved another man. After the storm is over, Adam naively laughs and dismisses their tales as falsehoods.

"Lilith" (1887)

Painting by the Honorable John Collier which pictures sexuality between Lilith and the snake. While most older sources indicate that Collier's inspiration was Keats' "Lamia," the picture more

57

accurately seems to represent the sexual scenes between Lilith Li lith and the serpent in "Eden Bower." La Fin de Satan (1886)

Novel by Victor Hugo where Lilith is combined with Isis and is portrayed as hideous and bloodthirsty, "the world's black soul."

"La Fille de Lilith" ("The Daughter of Lilith") (1889)

Story by Anatole France about Leila, the daughter of Lilith. Lilith and all of her children are bound to the earth in immortality -because they were not involved in the fall from grace --and are described as "neither good nor evil."

Lilith (1892)

Play by Remy de Gourmont which gives a cynical and erotic account of the traditional creation story as described in the sacred Jewish texts. Depicts the myth of Lilith as a completely sexualized being who plots revenge on Adam and Eve only so that she can have sex with Adam.

"Lilith" (circa 1892)

Painting by Kenyon Cox where Lilith coddles and kisses the snake. In a lower panel of the painting, Lilith is shown in the Tree of Knowledge with the body of the Snake. Lilith is handing the forbidden fruit to Eve and she, in turn, passes it to Adam, thus creating a chain of destructive femininity. (* It should be noted that during the late 1800s, images of  snakes and women were widespread in art and literature. Archetypal females portrayed with snakes included Salammb�, Eve, Lilith, and Lamia. The list compiled here only includes references to Lilith explicitly and also some references to Lamia that seem to indicate an implicit representation of Lilith as well (such as Keats' "Lamia" and Waterhouse's "Lamia" paintings). For more information on images of women and serpents in finde-si�cle culture, see Dijkstra's Idols of Perversity, pages 305313.)

Lilith (1895)

Novel by George MacDonald where the hero is forced down a path of painful initiation by the seductress Lilith.

"Lilith" (1896)

Story by Henry Harland in which the hero is a poverty stricken, deaf-mute sculptor named Straham. He creates a clay casting for a statue of Lilith and develops a close bond with the statue, sacrificing everything to keep it from being ruined by the coldness of the winter. He stumbles upon an old woman in the street (Lilith herself) and debates over assisting assis ting her or going back to his statue. He finally finall y opts for the former, but when he

58

gets home his statue has shattered. Much later, he starts the figure again, and when it is exhibited he becomes famous. "Lamia" (1905)

Painting by John William Waterhouse in which Lamia kneels before Lycius as the snake-skin falls from her body. Clearly depicts a scene from Keats' poem "Lamia," but also, more generally, depicts Lilith as the universalized femme fatale. (See illustration #20).

Der Heilige und die Tiere (1905)

Play by Victor Widmann in which Lilith is delivered from evil by a saint.

"Die Kinder der Lilith" (1908)

Poem by the German storyteller Isolde Kurz which rejects as absurd the tradition of Lilith as a winged demon who deserted Adam. Kurz asserts that Lilith must have originally been like an angel and capable of deep insight. Adam, the "lump of clay," was created in God's boredom and Lilith, a charming, elfin creature, was given to him as a companion, in the hopes that something new, something disorderly striving for order, would come out of  the contrast between their natures. Lucifer creates Eve to distract Adam from Lilith -- his rival. Lilith flees in despair and gives birth to a child that will lead Adam's other children to spiritual perfection, as God had intended.

"Lamia" (1909)

Second painting of this title by John William Waterhouse, often known to paint multiple paintings upon the same theme. Lamia is seated alone at a river bank, looking at her reflection in the water. The snake-skin she has recently shed is at her feet. Again, this painting clearly speaks to Keats' "Lamia" but also contains elements which refer to the more general femme fatale, including Lilith. (See illustration #21).

"The Avenging Spirit" (1920)

Poem by Arthur Symons which identifies Lilith and Lamia as mother and daughter, united in evil. The Snake plays a primary role in the poem as a symbol of sexuality, lust, and evil.

Back to Methuselah (1922)

Play by George Bernard Shaw in which Lilith is the personification of creative development, the mother of Adam, Eve, and all humankind. Lilith bestowed upon Eve her greatest gift -- curiosity. The last act is set in the year 31,920 and Lilith has the last word, concluding that the experience (experiment) of human development has been worthwhile and humanity is on its way to eliminating cruelty, hypocrisy, and death.

Dieu crea d'abord Lilith (1935)

59

Novel by Marc Chadourne where Lilith sows ruin, death and an incurable despair before disappearing to no one knows where, in despair herself and still a rebel. She may/may not be dead. Delta of Venus (1969)

Book of "erotica" by Anais Nin, which features a character named Lilith. Lilith here is described as "sexually cold," but it is not her own fault, for her husband neglects to show any real sexual interest in her. Says Nin, "It was wa s something to be done quickly, for his sake. For her it was a sacrifice."

Pope Joan (20th c.)

A reworking of the German play "Jutta"

"Lilith Prints" (1974)

Pornographic, passionate images of a transcendental sexual creation including Adam, Eve, Lilith, Satan, and God.

"Lilywhite Lilith" (1974)

Song on Peter Gabriel's album "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" in which Lilith is the guide of the soul through the Underworld.

"Lilith" (1981)

A midrash on the text of Genesis 3:7 which explains how Lilith comforted Eve when she was told to cover her body. Eve had felt that Adam must not have liked her body and, thus, was ashamed. Lilith supports her and gives Eve the confidence and determination to speak up to Adam. The two women embrace as good friends.

La Papesse ou la legende de la papesse Jeanne et de sa compagne Bartolea (1983)

A play by Odile Ehret which reworked the "Jutta" story.

La Papesse (1983)

A novel by Claude Pasteur also based on the "Jutta" story.

"The Story of Lilith and Eve" (modern)

Modern Jewish tale by Jakob Lind in which Lilith and Eve are aspects of one female.

Lilith: A Metamorphosis (1991)

Novel by Dagmar Nick in which Lilith tells her version of the story of Adam's experiences in the Garden of Eden, why he and Eve are expelled, and why she herself is transformed into a snake.

From Lilith to Lilith Fair (1998)

Authorized story of the evolution of the Lilith Fair, with an introduction by Sarah McLachlan, founder of the event, stating her own abbreviated version of the Lilith myth. Demonstrates the way in which Lilith is defined in modern culture: the first strong, independent woman, a true feminist heroine.

60

Which Lilith? (1998)

Subtitled "Feminist Writers ReCreate the World's First Woman," this book contains modern feminists' cogitations upon who Lilith is/might be. The authors describe the text as "contemporary midrash," commentary on biblical text, and assert that "Jewish women have a need to imagine Lilith."

Lilith, Mother of Witches

If Lucifer was the first male rebel in creation then Lilith has to be the first female. And what a rebel she was: the first feminist; the first witch; the first sexually assertive woman; the first divorcee! As a figure she is an inspiration, a mentor and a guide; a woman who deliberately exiled herself from paradise in search of  nothing more substantive than freedom, nothing more important imp ortant than freedom. For there is nothing more important. In tradition she takes many shapes, drawing to herself the creatures of  the dark and the night, not just witches but Jinn, vampires and demons of all sorts. In Hebrew her name means ‘screech owl’ and she is sometimes depicted in the form of a bird-woman. ‘Lilith’ is also related to the Semitic root word for ‘night.’  She is depicted in Jewish lore sometimes as a beautiful young woman, at other times a hag. She is also depicted as a woman from head to waist, with fire down below, which, I suppose, might very well be a comment on her sexual appetite. :-)) In other depictions the lower parts take the form of a snake. She also takes on a complete animal form, most usually a large black cat, an owl or a snake. It’s possible that she may have emerged in some ancient traditions as a tree spirit. In one Sumerian myth ‘Dark Maid Lilith’ lives as in a sacred tree with a snake and a sacred bird as companions. In her most familiar form she appears in Jewish legend as the first wife of Adam, created not from his rib, like Eve, but from the Earth itself at the same time as her partner. Because of this she demanded equal status, which included refusing always to take the ‘missionary position’  when they had sex, seeing that as an admission of submissiveness. And that was not her style; oh, no. When Adam attempted to force her she gave voice to the secret name of the Creator, which allowed her to

61

leave Paradise on wings. All attempts to bring her back failed; for if  the angels threatened Lilith threatened even more. In some accounts Lilith is unfertile; in others she is mother to a host of  demons, the Lilin or Daughters of Lilith. The father of  these girls is uncertain, with suggestions ranging from Samael, the fallen angel, or even Asmodeus. Lilith is also the original succubus. She continues to have a strong presence in Jewish fairy-tales and folklore. In the Sephardic tradition she is La Broosha, which simply means ‘the witch.’ Here she often appears as a large black cat. There seems to me to be some Greek influences in the general make up of Lilith, in that the owl is her sacred bird, as it is for Pallas Athena, and she derives strength from the Moon, associating her with Artemis. In whatever manner she is a potent symbol, the great mother, an inspiration to all witches, an example to all women. www.youtube.com/watch Sat, October 24, 2009 - 12:34 PM Your discussion of Lilith as the first sexually assertive female brings to mind my thoughts on the patriarchal viewpoint of male/female relationships in our western culture as being grossly out of step with the reality of our natural world. I have perceived a strong, even dominant Feminine energy pervasive in our humanity, even if currently buried under attempts to suppress it out of fear and male feelings of  inadequacy in the face of its full power. One only need reflect upon the dismal failure rate of the traditional, Christian patriarchal view of  mating and bonding to see something is out of step. Lilith is an equal force, not subservient, and no doubt at times dominant with adoring and devoted male energies. Might she be the allure within the male soul toward the Woman on top; the Siren; she who reaches out and takes from her male devotees what She demands; the Succubus we long for, even as we tremble in her prescience. Lynne Sun, October 25, 2009 - 3:41 PM I really liked these posts about Lilith & cheix, I kind of agree with where your coming from, but feel that patriarchy as we see it now, is an evolvement from `maybe` a time Woman gave up her powers rather than have it taken away aw ay from Her. It’s an interesting concept I feel. There `may` have been a time when women voluntarily gave up (so to speak) the illusions of power & self autonamy..settling for a way of life that may have been less dangerous. Though this is only my

62

opinion & thoughts. I feel women have always had the power, they only have allowed men to think otherwise! I also feel that most women would rather be doms (given a choice) than subs. female sexual stimualtion usually is most active when she is `on top` in some way. Thus indicating a primal dominance inate in all us females. Just my thoughts..maybe mad, maybe not! Loki... Sun, October 25, 2009 - 5:39 PM I don't really feel the division between male and female; it's a biological quirk that beats out other land-based procreative methods for large / high-energy-needs mammals. Underneath the trappings of  physical gender and the resultant behavioral strategies that apes tend to invent around those physical genders, I find no compelling spiritual difference between "woman" and "man". Psychological differences, yes - I reason that these are conditioned and not innate differences. It's all in the apes' mind. Male, female.... it's a style thing. That said, it's not terribly difficult to reason out why patriarchal religion and society have made Lilith out to be so horrifying and wicked~! Nor why I find her so amazingly hot. Karan

Thu, April 22, 2010 - 6:05 PM I don’t want to seem like a bothersome person. I am a bothersome person...My mom always said I was of no Good. Hopefully the same reply will come from your Ladies to .. What I wanted to imply was that...Isn’t Lucifer like some sort of Venus personification? I mean of course it has nothing to do with rebellion. It seems logical enough that the Christian church took apron the virgin marry title and had to demonize anything .At least a women like Venus or Aphrodite... Do you see what I mean by that? It has nothing to do with rebellion .If Rebellion is what you seek...Then you should read the Hebrew book and its mention of the Goat that comes from the West and brings down the Ram and rebels against all the stars of heaven and so forth... I am not sure about lillth .It seems to be created recently in years as a sort of Mix of Christian Satan snake Lucifer and Lillith .This is a Christian creation and you guys seem to favor it and help those crazy Christian Dogs to rule otherwise..

63

I do understand that a rebellious and dangerous goddess would be more akin to the Egyptian goddesses’ .Which for some reason you guys might not like. Since the African Americans claim that the whole of Egypt was only black people and some people might not like that. Is it true or not? That I cannot speak of... I do believe it was a sort of  mixed race .Black and lighter skinned colored people were there. Either way... Hither in her Form as a lioness...She was quite rebellious... Also baste...The cat goddess. Considered the Devovere... Yes the mention of the black cat and lillith makes sense... Still that’s a Egyptian Idea... I understand mixing different entities and making them into a single whole would be quite difficult ...It’s Art if you can make different elements work together... Like the snake and the Hawk for example... That sort of thing takes mastery to do... Not saying you don’t have what it takes. This is just my ideas of why it doesn’t work for me... My own personal views...Not some guys’ views... For example... A Cat and a Snake don’t go well... So if you would.. Go for the cat goddess thing and then add to it that its also a goddess of  Snakes. Then that’s a bit odd... That’s one of the reasons why the Indians don’t mention a cat   goddess...Since there Affiliation with that and Snake?? Kali is quite a rebellious woman...She hates anyone telling her what to do...And yes the Sexual element is there. The Erotic Tartaric version of  Kali does exist... My only mention is that...? It would be nice for once... If there was a System of goddesses that were somewhat connected and dint attack each other and where diverse... Mahavidyas perhaps? Still they don’t have the cat goddess or a Hawk or an eagle... Since they have the snake... so its all hush till he arrives... Ahh and yes...The Snake and Cat go well in the Egyptian religions? The Egyptians are quite a mystery Tho i would mention that the HAWK seems to like the snakes...and perhaps its authority over the snake proves like...A sort of respect gods and Goddesses have for each other. It was the Egyptian system to show utmost respect for each other and have names of gods and goddesses to work in harmony... Now that’s god... The Greeks were good at that to...And what a beautiful civilization all these were...And all destroyed and a new Thorn in development is

64

fundamentalist Christians and there boring Demons... Lillith only to me seem to be mentioned in a lot of horror movies lately and a lot of stories about her... Perhaps she is the bitch goddesses ..Who keeps confusing everything that is reality as barking Dogs do...Thinking they know better... sorry if I seem aggressive .This is the only way I can talk if I need to get the messed out there .. Plus it’s not a Dog...it’s a JACKAL... Jai Ma Kali Karan

Thu, April 22, 2010 - 6:13 PM Sorry to not mention. This folk tales of Lillith. Might be a True Ideal... The Witch with the Long nose? Is this some sort of Jewish Prank...? I bet that how they see it... Still, I still think. The female bitch connection with a Ggoddess is degrading. Who ever takes that into consideration is not a friend of  mine... Since it’s the jackal. They are confusing c onfusing The Dog for the Jackal ... The  jackal will scare the shit out of any Dog Witch... Sister of Isis who slept with Osiris and had a Bastard child called Anubis... Jackal headed Ggod and also depicted as a jackal .. His name means... the Royal Child... Mother Kali.. The One I believe can tame any hunger... Has a mount as a jackal... NOT A FEMALE DOG...Mistake... I know this since... the  jackal apparently is quite predominant in Africa and in parts of Asia... Which I have the pleasure of living in both places at particular time... association to Death and destruction... Some sort of Morality lacking...Which will of course piss most of the Christians...Which is fun for me... Jai Ma kali Loki...

Mon, April 26, 2010 - 4:41 PM

65

"Witches" - the popular fiction version - were given long noses in order to make them appear ugly. The idea was to persuade people to consult doctors*** instead of witches; the peaked hat shows they are out of  style, the green skin shows they are unhealthy, the warts and nose show that they are ugly, and the connotation of age shows that they are senile. This propagandistic image of witches is fairly old, dating back to the advent of Judaism; the full 'archetype' of the green evil witch is about 200 years old and far more related to kerugmatik / common Christian reaction than Jewish. Here’s an article that's not too dense: draeconin.com/database/witchhunt.htm *** the words "doctor" and "professor" originally mean "he that speaks for God / he who is not questioned" FIRE...

Mon, May 10, 2010 - 4:37 PM Hey Anastasia! Yin and I were just talking about Lilith and she just did a really cool erotic art piece of Lilith with a Tarot kinda flavor. Anyway, check out this link for some really cool information on Lilith, especially her pre Hebrew source with the Sumerians. She was the Handmaiden of Ishtar at one point. www.lilithgallery.com/library...ith.html We have a garden devoted to her at Nipper. Jody Larson shot a picture of Wyldefyre holding an apple out to our friend, Solitaire's, pet snake in Liliths Garden, in our pictures. Check it out if you haven't seen it. One of the reasons I thought Lilith's Fair was appropriately named was because of the overwhelming sense of empowered Feminine Divine it seemed to set loose. Much needed in Patriarchal cultural times. It has been tough on us since the Bronze Age. lol Been awhile since I have been here. Hi Adya and friends!  Adya

Sat, May 22, 2010 - 6:07 PM

Hi all, Hi Firedancer, good to see you here again:) been rethinking Lilith- Lilitu-Belili, who or what she may have been,

66

and what to call her... my take is that she often is confused with Ereshkigal and Inanna, who also seem to have fragmented roles and positions, and power, when earth or sea was split from heaven, and underworld, at some appointed time in the past. i often think, perhaps, they were all one and the same goddess? Case in point, the popular image "Queen of the Night" relief plaque that I believe is stored in the London museum is often taken to be Lilith. Copy here, bottom right: www.matrifocus.com/LAM05/spotlight.htm "Some scholars interpret this winged goddess as Lilith and so a lilitu, but she too is probably Inanna (Williams-Forte 1983: 189; Wolkstein &  Kramer 1983: 51). This seal provides another part of Inanna's nature. Not only does its arrangement present the goddess's duality — of both of the upper world and the underworld — but it suggests that she joins the two. Like the huluppu tree, she stands with feet, roots, in the underworld and head, branches, in the heavens, her body, the trunk,  joining them. She herself could be interpreted as the "cosmic tree of  life" and death (Campbell 1965: 64)." Tara

Tue, May 11, 2010 - 3:13 PM

The earliest stories of Lilith date considerably earlier than the Hebrew to the Sumerian texts. It was to Suma that many of the Hebrew stories find their roots. It was here that the story of Lilith telling Adam that the only acceptable relationship between a man and a woman was based on equality. Nor did the Sumerians believe that either Adam or Lilith was created out of the Earth, nor that Eve came from Adams rib. The Sumerian story is that both Adam and Eve were hybrid humans created by the Anunnaki, who came from the stars and needed a work force to mine precious metals and grow foods. It was, Nin-Khursag, the Lady of the Mountain, and the daughter of Anu, the Great Father of the Sky, and Ki, the Earth Mother, who was their chief geneticist that took the early humanoid inhabitants inhabi tants and genetically engineered them with Anunnaki genes to create “mankind”. Lilith (Lillake), The Beautiful Queen Consort of the Gods, the Handmaiden of Inanna, I nanna, on the other hand, was herself a full-blood Anunnaki, which is why she would accept no subservient position to Adam, who was, along with Eve (Khawa), were created by Nin-Khursag, the Lady of Life, and Enki, the Lord of the Earth and Waters. Lilith herself was the daughter of  Nergal, King of the Netherworld and Eresh-Kigal, Queen of the Netherworld, and took Adama in training to “civilize” him and teach

67

him how to become the leader of the new race of man. Lilith then mated with Enki and produced Luluwa, who was to become the wife of Qayin (Cain), the Serpent King of Kish, who was the son of  the mating of Eve and Enki. Adam and Lilith had no offspring, but he and Eve had four, Hevel (Abel), Lebhudha, Noraia and Sat-Naal (Seth). We also have the Sumerians to thank for the story of Noah and the flood, as well as the story of Moses floating down the Nile Ni le to be taken into the house of the king, although al though the river wasn’t the Nile, it was the Tigris or perhaps the Euphrates, and the King was Sumerian, not Egyptian. Like so many biblical stories, there is a lot of “borrowing”  between cultures. In fact, the two brother gods, Enki and Enlil, later became merged into the single Hebrew god after the exodus when the deities worshiped by the Israelites coming out of Egypt had to be integrated into that of the Hebrews in the “promised land”. When looked at closely, one was a god of peace and love, while the other was a god of smiting and retribution. When you understand this, you may understand why the Hebrew god has both qualities now, and in the early literature, the reference was to gods (plural), not god.

68

Women, Religion and the Devil  Incarnate When analyzing the texts and development of the Jewish and Christian religions, one can find both negative and positive things written about the female sex. Some interpret various excerpts to be positive and others interpret the same passages to be negative. Most importantly, various interpretations can be given giv en to laws written forbidding women to do certain things, and demanding that they do others. When people have analyzed analyz ed these laws and texts, a common interpretation is that the inferior treatment of  women and the subordination of women by men in the past led to the deionization of women in these religions. In the eyes of some ancient priests, rabbis and philosophers, just as the devil in the Bible and in history is viewed as a bad creature who only wishes to put men off their path and corrupt the life on man, so too was the women viewed as a corrupt creature who wished to tarnish the life of man. There are many chapters and quotes in the Hebrew Torah that lead to the belief that women are inferior to men. This so-called inferiority is one of the major view-points that led people to believe that women were not worthy of the afterlife and of many objects men were able to achieve. The inferiority also led to the belief that the woman was an incarnate of the devil and acted in evil ways. One of the major and most famous texts that lead people to believe that women were inferior to men is the story of the Garden of Eden and the creation of Adam and Eve. Genesis Two  “presents man as leader and woman as helper, follower and subordinate.” (Osburn, 114) Over time, various interpretations have been given on Eve’s role in the banishment from the Garden

69

of Eden and the committing of the infamous i nfamous sin. Many people believe that the Devil approached Eve to sin, rather than Adam, because women were gullible and prone p rone to sinning. (Osburn, 112) Some analyzers of the text say that Eve was the assistant of the devious serpent and others say she was not at sole fault for committing the sin in the Garden of Eden. (Higgins, 1) It is written in Genesis that Eve first took fruit from the tree, ate the fruit and then gave a piece p iece to her husband, Adam. One reading this excerpt would surely say that it was Eve who committed the sin, as she was the one who physically took the fruit from the tree and convinced her husband to do so. Eve cannot control her desires, and convinces her husband to have the same lack of control. Many people take from this that Eve was the one who should be punished and that Eve was corrupting Adam. This goes along with the religious idea that women are the partners of the devil, who are solely seeking to corrupt men. Many parallels can also be found between the serpent and Eve, which led people to believe that Eve was the devil, as the serpent was often interpreted as such. Just as the serpent is deceiving, so is Eve in her effort to make her husband sin. This demonic parallel gave many people the foundation for linking women with the devil. (Higgins, 4) Genesis states that man created Adam from the dust, and then created Eve from the rib of Adam, thereby stating that woman was merely a sub-creation of G-d, not even coming from the dirt, but coming from a piece of man. This may be interpreted as a physical subordination. Woman is underneath man forever, as that is how woman was created in the first place. Many other incidents in the Torah make its readers believe that women were not as important as men. In the times of Moses, King Pharaoh ordered all first-born Jewish males to be killed in the Nile River. However, he completely disregarded the females. This shows us the lack of care for female. The Torah also states that Jewish women are not allowed to be b e priests. A last example is that Jewish law states that when a woman gives birth to a boy, her body remains unpure for a week. However, if a woman births a girl, her body remains unpure for two weeks. These examples that come directly from Jewish law give clear evidence to the subordination of women in the time of the Bible. Women were not regarded as equal beings to men and this subordination led to

70

demonization. Without equality of genders, men, the church and many religious adversaries needed reason to disregard women and give an explanation for their inequality. Within Judaism, there exists a myth of a Matriarch Era, in which women were strong matriarchs that ruled without love lov e or compassion. They were cruel rulers who needed to be overpowered, and men did just that. The male sex fought the women and won to become the dominant patriarch in the family. Followers of this myth attribute the subordination of women to the domination of women during this era. Women were w ere thought to be cruel creatures, similar to the devil. They were evil, mean, and powerful people who used a strong hand against the men of the time. (Myers, 1) The Jewish anonymous tale of Lilith, dating back to the 9th century and cited in the book, “The Alphabet of Ben Sira,” is about a woman who supposedly lived alongside Adam in the Garden of Eden. The tale is another myth that entails people to believe of women as devil creatures, who only seek to do evil. The story tells us that a woman, Lilith, was created at the same time as Adam, and demanded equality with Adam. Lilith refused to be a subordinate partner for Adam and eventually escaped the Garden of Eden. The name Lilith was supposedly a name meant to be given to a devil. This is the first connection made with the female and the devil in this myth. It is believed that after leaving the Garden of Eden, Lilith lived a life as devilish as one could imagine, murdering children and seducing men. Even today, religious Jewish households fight to keep Lillith and her demonic ways far from the home. (Myers, 4) While many incidents in the Torah lead people to believe that women are subordinate to men, there are also many instances and philosophical phi losophical interpretations that lead us to believe that Gud created man and woman to be equals on earth. Many excerpts from the Bible can be interpreted in various ways, both negative and positive. For instance, God’s written name, spelled with the Hebrew letters yud, kay, vuv, kay, involve both masculine and feminine letters in the Hebrew language. The letter yud is a masculine one, and the letter hay, often pronounced kay when used in spelling the name of G-d, is feminine. This spelling indicates G-d’s actual name, thought to be too holy to be said out loud or even written on paper. A name this sacred combines the masculine and the feminine to create something unworthy of human utterance. G-d

71

created His name to be something He wanted both genders to share, and the indication of male and female in such a holy and sacred name proves this. (Munk, 117) Many other things lead us to believe in the equality between man and woman as ordered by G-d and all the Jewish people in the past. The Talmud, a book of Jewish traditions and laws, states that, “in the merit of righteous women we were redeemed from Egypt, and in the merit of righteous women our future redemption will come." (Talmud Sotah 11b)

The Talmud attributes the freedom of the Jewish people to the hands of the women of that time. Jewish families therefore worship Jewish women and women in the family are meant to carry out many responsibilities of the religion. The woman begins the Sabbath ceremony with the lighting of the candles and cares for the Jewish home. The interpretation of the womb by many is just another symbol of  loveliness that is involved with the woman’s body. The womb is something that creates life. This life is not tainted with sin or any evil. It is a new life that can do anything and be anything, as it is pure. If  something like this is entailed within the woman’s body, we can ask how something so pure can come from an evil creature. It is another a nother signification that Judaism believes in the purity and equality of women. (Munk, 144) However, while some look at women in the Jewish religion as lovely beings that care for their family, take on responsibilities in their faith and are the creator of their families, famili es, there are many interpretations for ways in which Jewish women were not treated well within their faith. There were many acts that men were w ere allowed to do and women were not, leading again to the idea i dea that women were subordinate to men. Women could not testify in court, appear publicly or talk to strangers. These were all acts appointed solely for men, and the Jewish faith disregarded women entirely when contemplating these acts. One act that is perceived both negatively and positively by people in

72

the Jewish faith is the dipping of women into the Mikvah. The Jewish religion calls for women to dip themselves in a Mikvah, a bath used in the Jewish religion to cleanse the female body before sacred times and during their menstruation cycle. The menstruation cycle in general was perceived by some to be dangerous in the Jewish faith. Some found it a burden and some found it spiritual and meaningful. Many Jews believed that menstruation was another terrible thing about women that made them subordinate to men. The Bible says, “And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even.” (Leviticus, 15:19) During the menstruation cycle, women were believed to be unpure and had to separate themselves entirely from men, having separate bedrooms and separate rituals entirely for the week. The subordination of women in the Bible, while having mixed reactions in the Jewish faith, lead the Christian church to convince it’s followers that women were the devil. The church attempted to equal femininity with heresy. Being a woman was equally as bad as going against the church and worshipping other things and other G-ds. During the Renaissance, the church even led campaigns against women to say the devil in them was insatiable. The church relied on the demonization of  women during these campaigns and needed its followers to agree with them in demonizing women. (Denike, 12) Many Christians follow the statement of Paul, that says, “Wives, be subject to your husbands…the husband is head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.”  (Osburn, 115) This quote leads to the Christian subordination of  women and confirms the subordination. "Do you not know that you are each an Eve…You are the Devil's gateway…You destroyed so easily God's image, man. On account of  your dessert even the Son of God had to die." This quote came from St. Tertullian, who like many church leaders of the time, believed women to be evil incarnates of the devil that were at fault for any corruption of man. With this particular quote, q uote, we are led back to one Christian interpretation of the Garden of Eden tale. St. Tertullian believed that Eve was the initial temptress who steered man in a wrong way and therefore deserved to be punished in the same way that man was punished at the time. He makes direct reference to linking women with the devil. He perceived women to be the devil’s  “gateway” into our world, and into the minds of men on earth. (Denike, 17) While many Christians believed that women were the devil, or an

73

incarnation of the devil, many Christians based their treatment of  women off of Jesus, who was believed to treat all men and women as equal. The fact that Jesus treated women so well during his time was very progressive. Women were usually not regarded or respected, and were certainly not treated as equals. Jewish religion during that time told people not to teach women the words of the Torah. However, Jesus denied this law and taught women anyways. (Luke, 10:38-42) Jesus allowed women to be disciples, had discussions on religion with women and had women care for him. We have also been told that many of Jesus’ followers were women and that he never turned his back on women who wished to learn his ways. Jesus went against Jewish laws by treating women fairly at that time. (Osburn, 125) Mary Magdalene was a figure fig ure in the New Testament that represents the progressive treatment of women in Christianity, especially by Jesus. When Jesus was resurrected, Matthew tells us that Mary Magdalene was one of the first people to greet him upon his return. This statement tells us how important Mary Magdalene, a woman, was in the life of Jesus. She was the follower who was with him in this most holy time of Jesus’ life and she was the follower we are initially told about. (Matthew, 28:9-10) Many other Christian writings, however, tell us to push away witches and followers of the devil, meaning women of the time. The Canon Episcopi was an early Christian document detailing thoughts on witchcraft and women as influenced by the devil. The book went on to describe witchcraft and it’s dealing with the devil. It describes the church’s take on witchcraft, as well, stating that, “those who believe such things have lost their faith fai th and no longer belong to G-d.” (Denike, ( Denike, 27) The Canon Episcopi bases its teachings upon the story of Diana, the Pagan goddess of fertility and children. It condemns the followers of Diana and says that the “cults” who worship her should be done away with. Diana worshippers were viewed as followers of the devil and this was another basis to accuse women of witchcraft. (Denike, 27) The treatment of women today in Christianity is an incredibly debatable topic, possibly the most debated in the church today. (Osburn, 1) Between religious interpretations of the Bible and current misogynistic outlooks of women in culture, the status of women in the church is not a status that can be defined. Many women today are reverends over their churches. St. Claire is just one example of a saint who was a woman, showing us Christianity’s appreciation for women. However, while many Christians have progressed, many followers still

74

believe that women today are subordinate to men, going along with the old belief that women are evil beings. (Osburn, 4) The Jewish faith today has progressed in some ways and in some ways has remained the same. Judaism is divided into three separate observances: Reform, Conservative and Orthodox. Orthodox followers tend to follow the old way of Jewish life. They do not allow women to be rabbis or to sit alongside men at temple, as they believe it will lead to the impure thoughts of men during services. s ervices. Women are not allowed to read from the Torah and are not presented with the same rituals as men during the services. This strongly ties in with old beliefs that women lead to the corruption of men. However, in less religious practices, such as Reform and Conservative practices, female rabbis reside over many of the congregations. Women read from the Torah and are embraced during services. They are often given the same roles as men during the reciting of prayers and the reading of the haftorah, the weekly Jewish lesson. In conclusion, the scriptures of the Christian and Jewish religions have shown us that through the subordination of women in the past, the two religions took it upon themselves to demonize women. Women were thought of as sub-creations of man, having covenants with the devil in order to corrupt man. However, women were also sometimes regarded with respect, love and humility and were often thought to be the bearers of children, purity and love. Through these various interpretations, one could see that women were regarded with all types of emotions and opinions and although the religions sought to demonize women for their so-called provocative nature, the demonization was not successful as women are commonly regarded as equals today. Bibliography 

Bock, Darrell L. Luke 9:51-24:53. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 1996. Denike, Margaret. "The Devil's Insatiable Sex: A Genealogy of Evil Incarnate." Hypatia Vol. 18, No. 1 (2003): 10-43. Hendricksen, William. Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 1981. Higgins, Jean M.. "The Myth of Eve: Ev e: The Temptress." Journal of the American Academy of Religion Vol. 44, No. 4 (1976): 639-647. Levine, Baruch A. Leviticus: The Traditional Hebrew Text. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society Of America. Mesorah, ArtScroll /. Schottenstein Edition of the Talmud - English Full

75

Size [#11b] - Sotah volume 2 (folio 11b). Brooklyn: Artscroll / Mesorah, 2000. Munk, Michael. The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet (Artscroll (Mesorah Series)). New York: Artscroll, 1986. Myers, Jody Elizabeth. " The Myth of Matriarchy in Recent Writings on Jewish Women's Spirituality." Jewish Social Studies, New Series Vol. 4, No. 1 (1997): 1-27. Osburn, Carroll. Women in the Church: Reclaiming the Ideal. Abilene: Abilene Christian Univ Press, 2001. Ranft, Patricia. Women and the Religious Life in Premodern Europe. New York: Diane Pub Co, 1996.

Lill Lillit ith h and and the the Devi Devil  l  March 16, 2010 By Annie

Todays guest writer is Scottish Poet, Carole Bone, whose first published piece, “Lilith and Devil” has been kindly reproduced for readers to enjoy along with some background information about the piece and her inspiration behind it. Lilith and the Devil

My thoughts are dark like Lilith’s night My dreams like Vincent’s crows in flight Despair my enemy – my comrade Are shadows real or just charade The Devil grins and winks at me Come dance with me and you will see Dance with the Devil quick quick slow Better the Devil that you know Like an old friend he stands by me And promises to set me free

76

Cut my bonds and free my soul Just pay the ferryman his toll Pandora’s box of dark delights Tempt me in the Moon dark nights Delicious pain won’t let me go It comforts and torments me so And when at last released to light Still feel the teasing sultry night Call me like a secret love Iron hand in velvet glove The Devil laughs and speaks to me Of all these things to help me see That angels know these things I know For as above is so below Carole writes:

I feel rather humble to be asked as ked for advice to would be b e poets – but I would say write from the heart whatever you write – I think it shows in your writing. I would like anyone reading my poetry to be moved by the imagery and words. I think it’s impossible to have someone know exactly what you meant when writing because inevitabley people put their own interpretaion on it and you are not in control of that so you have to be aware that others will take meaning from your poem you did not intend and be ok with that. As a child I loved nothing more than when my English teacher gave us an essay to write. I could never contain myself to the set number of  pages allocated. A fact, which would would be of no surprise to anyone who knows me…. However it was many years later after some particularly trying events in my life, when Pam Blair, one of many wonderful and inspiring women that came into my life at that time, suggested writing my thoughts down as a way of clarifying them. I took her advice and slowly, stirring somewhere deep inside like a dormant seed suddenly getting the right conditions to grow, came the notion that I would like to write something more structured…..

77

The idea incubated for a while in the dark recesses of my mind, slowly germinating and unfolding like a green shoot from the earth to present itself on to the blinding white light of a blank page on my computer screen. There, suddenly popping up on its smooth open expanse was a poem… or the makings of one. For some strange reason my thoughts and feelings seemed to flow more easily expressed in rhyme. More ideas came and one or two two more poems. I was enjoying it immensely and I began to wonder if what I was writing was any good and could I learn to write “proper” poetry? Enter the formidable and very talented Anne Whitaker. I first met Anne when I was studying that other subject which had come to absorb me so much at this time, Astrology. I knew Anne had taught English in the past and I valued her opinion highly as a very astute and intelligent woman. I knew she would pull no punches punches but also that any positive comments would be honest, stimulating and encouraging. Anne has been a wonderfully constructive and inspirational influence ever ever since. On her suggestion I sent the poem featured here “Lilith and the Devil” to a highly respected American Astrology bi-monthly magazine, “The Mountain Astrologer”. Astrologer”. It was accepted for publication much to my delight. The inspiration for “Lilith and the Devil” came from many sources. In myth Lilith was a wind demon, a succubus and a stealer of babies and was said to have lain with the devil. In folklore she was Adam’s first wife and like him God made her from the earth ergo she considered herself Adam’s partner and equal. Her wrath at Adam’s subsequent rejection of her when she would not be submissive to him sexually, or any other way, seemed strangely in tune with women today and all the benefits and burdens that modern life and equality has afforded them. Recent thought puts a positive slant on the legend, speculating that Lilith represents the independent female who is self sufficient and confident rather than the savage vengeful demon. In Astrology Lilith is represented by the black moon, a theoretical point in the horoscope that describes a dark facet of our nature. By sign, house and aspect she is descriptive of hidden depths and a negative side of ourselves we prefer not to face. Such rich tales invoked many images as I contemplated the less savoury side of human nature and how we often struggle to cope with things like sorrow, pain, loss, anger and despair but also how we can surprise ourselves by rising to the challenges life presents with remarkable strength we were unaware lay within us and how growth, experience, understanding and transformation are often the unexpected rewards.

78

It occurred to me that many of these themes were rather similar to the principles of birth, death and renewal linked with the sign of  Scorpio. Intense, obsessive and capable of renewing itself phoenix like from experiences that would floor others, Scorpio is a sign that is no stranger to the dark side of human nature. Renewal and rebirth are highly positive Scorpio traits but when negative it is a sign that can hold on to its pain closely, nursing nursing it to itself. itself. Jealousy, revenge and bitterness are traits than can eat away aw ay at the negative Scorpio type. As I pondered on thoughts of Lilith and Scorpio, images and themes started to take shape on my blank page as “Lilith and the Devil”. The second line of the poem is inspired by Vincent Van Van Gogh. His final work “Wheatfield with Crows” is a dark and broody painting reflecting the artist’s troubled frame of mind, particularly at that time. Within a month of completing it he went for a walk near the spot where he painted the picture and shot himself. He died three days later. The line “Delicious pain won’t let me go – it comforts and torments me so” came from reflections on the struggle man has always had with his conscience, with temptation of all kinds and their consequences, which in turn led me to thoughts thoughts of Pandora’s Box. The myth of Pandora’s box is a cautionary tale of curiosity and how once we know something innocence cannot be regained. This theme is paralleled in the bible when the Devil persuades Eve to tempt Adam with the apple of  knowledge. NB. For those of you like myself (of the titian persuasion) I digress here to insert an interesting side note on a myth on red hair which historically has many superstitions attached to in (Van Gogh had red hair too). In many classical paintings, Eve is depicted as a blonde until after she tempts Adam with the apple. Thereafter she is depicted as a redhead. Lilith was also redhaired so maybe Adam should have stuck stuck with Lilith….. Astrology is based on polarity, meaning nothing can be understood without its opposite principle, good and evil, angels and demons, dark and light, assertion assertion and aggression, aggression, yin and yang. One cannot be understood without the other. Therein lies the meaning of the last line of the poem. Astrological tenet is that all life in the cosmos is linked in cycles reflected at every level of existence. What happens in the macrocosm is reflected in the microcosm.  “As above is so below.” 

79

…and Lilith – well like all women - Lilith was way ahead of her time! Carole is mother to two magical boys and wife for thirty three years to

a Capricorn who is without doubt her rock. Would be astrologer; astrologer; this subject has kept her (relatively) sane by helping her to understand the contradictory pulls existing in her nature between the home-loving dreamer and the restless seeker after knowledge….. And all channeled through a shy Virgo Rising.

Lilith, Adam's mythological first wife The Hebrew word "torah" can mean at least five different meanings: (1) A "law" either secular or sacred. s acred. The plural (i.e.,"laws") would be "torot." (2) The Mosaic Law given to Moses at Mt. Sinai. (3) The first five books of the Bible, attributed to Moses as the author (i.e., Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy).These five books are the same for Jews and Christians. The original language in Classical (Biblical Hebrew). These books are also known as the Pentateuch ("penta"=five). (4) The totality of the Hebrew Scriptures. (5) The physical scroll on which the first five books of the Bible are written. I would assume that when w hen your daughter's teacher referred to "the Torah" she was either referring to definition 3 or 4 above (most likely #4 based on what I am about to relate). But no matter how you understand "Torah" the idea of a wife before Eve does not occur at all. This idea is a rabbinic tradition and is completely non-Biblical (and I would add, quite anti-Biblical). This first wife is referred to as "Lilith." Following is the basic myth:

80

"According to Hebrew legend, the first woman God created as a companion for the first man Adam was a strong-willed lady named Lilith. (See Graves and Patai's Hebrew Myths and Reuther's Womanguides.) As both had been created from dust, Lilith considered herself equal to Adam. (They differed anatomically, anatomic ally, of course, with the Bible referring to a male as one who 'pisseth against the wall' [1 Sam. 25:34; 1 Kings 14:10; 21:21].) Lilith objected to having to lie beneath Adam during sexual intercourse, but Adam would have it no other way. Lilith up and left him, winding up in rabbinic tradition as a baby-killing demoness who seduces sleeping men. Lilith is mentioned in Isa. 34:14, though the KJV renders lilith as 'screech owl.' This first wife of Adam may safely be called the world's first uppity woman. "With Lilith departed, Adam was back where he started, being without a fit helper. According to a Hebrew tradition cited in Graves and Patai, God let Adam watch while he put a second woman together. The process of anatomical assemblage was so disgusting that Adam found the woman repulsive even though she was beautiful when finished. God sent this first Eve away and tried again: while Adam slept, Yahweh created the Eve found in Genesis 2 from Adam's rib. God presented her to Adam, who said happily, 'This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man' (Gen. 2:23)." (http://www.hobrad.com/andg.htm#GENDER) Another source provides some more information: "Early theologians had a real problem with the status of women in regard to Genesis. Here is this supposedly weak creature twisting Man around her finger and bringing death on the entire race. A 'logical' answer presented itself in splitting woman into the Madonna/whore dichotomy. There was even a Biblical basis for Lilith. Genesis 1:27 reads, 'So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created c reated them.' Set opposite Genesis 2, in which Adam is created first and Eve is an afterthought to appease his loneliness, many see this as evidence that Adam had two wives. "Lilith is this first wife. Since she was made of the earth, like Adam, she became proud and refused to lie beneath him during intercourse. This violated the command to be fruitful and multiply, since she was not being impregnated. Some traditions hold that she was impregnated and bore demons from him. The evidence for this is the

81

statement in Genesis 5:3 'Adam begat a son in his image,'implying there had been sons not in his image. He pushed the issue of her submission, and she uttered the Holy Name of God and flew away. "Adam complained to God and he sent three angels to reason with her. They found her coupling with fallen angels near the Red Sea and bearing more demonic children. She refused to return but promised to spare Adam's children if the names of the angels: Sanvi, Sansanvi and Semangelaf were written near them. Even today, some parents will charcoal a magic circle with the words 'Adam and Eve barring Lilith' on the wall near their baby, and write the names of the angels on the door. "Eve was created out of Adam as her replacement. Some say God let Adam try making the next one, but the creation was so horrible God destroyed it before even giving it i t life. An amusing Victorian story claims a dog ran off with Adam's rib and devoured it before God found him, so Eve was made using one of the dog's ribs. "Lilith did not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and hence is immortal. She was rewarded for service by Asmodeus, the demon of lechery, luxuriousness and evil revenge. She now rules one of the levels of Hell in the company of Namah, Machlath, and Hurmizah. Her power is over newborn children and women in childbirth. She may take boys up to the eighth day and girls up to the twentieth. She is also the mother of the Lilim or Lilot, the Djinn, and the succubui and incubi. Other Biblical references: Isaiah 34:14 'night hag' (NIV translates it as 'Desert creatures' and 'night creatures.' and Psalm 91 'terror by night'." (http://www.vampyres.com/faqs/faq13.html) For more in information on Lilith, "Adam's first wife," see the following references (particularly the first in the list). She is identified with demons, vampires, and other satanic things: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Topics/Lilith http://www.jewishgothic.com/vampire.html http://www.lilithmag.com/resources/lilithsources.shtml The Apostle Paul warned us to adhere ad here to the word of God rather the tradition of men: "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition

82

of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. (Col 2:8) Jesus also warned us against putting aside the word of God in favor of the traditions of men: "Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?" Matt 15:3 "you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition." (Matt 15:6) "Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men." He [Jesus] was also als o saying to them, 'You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.'" (Mark 7:8-9) Following is an article "Night Monster" from the International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, which discusses Lilith: NIGHT MONSTER (Nit'-mon-ster) (lilith; Septuagint onokentauros; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) lamia): I. THE ACCEPTED TRANSLATION 1. Professor Rogers' Statement 2. Exception to the Statement II. FOLKLORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 1. Paucity of References 2. References in Highly Poetical Passages 3. The References Allusive 4. Possibility of Non-mythological Interpretation 5. The Term lilith. I. The Accepted Translation. - The term "night-monster"' is a hypothetical translation of the Hebrew term lilith, used once only, in Isa 34:14. The word is translated in the King James Version "screech-owl," margin "night monster," the Revised Version (British and American) "night-monster," margin "Lilith." The term "night-monster" is also an interpretation, inasmuch as it implies that the Hebrew word is a Babylonian loan-word, and that the reference indicates a survival of primitive folklore.

83

1. Professor Rogers' Statement: Concerning this weird superstition, and its strange, single appearance in the Book of Isaiah, Professor Rogers has this to say: "The lil, or ghost, was a night-demon of terrible and baleful influence upon men, and only to be cast out with many incantations. The lil was attended by a serving maid, the ardat lili ("maid of night"), which in the Semitic development was transferred into the feminine lilitu. l ilitu. It is most curious and interesting to observe that this ghost-demon lived on through the history of the Babylonian religion, and was carried out into the Hebrew religion, there to find one single mention in the words of one of the Hebrew prophets" (Religions of Assyria and Babylonia, 76, 77). 2. Exception to the Statement: Exception is to be taken to this statement, admitting the etymological assumption upon which it rests, that "lilith" is a word in mythology, on the ground that the conception of a night-demon has no place in the religion of the Hebrews as exhibited in the Scriptures. It is certainly worthy of more than passing notice that a conception which is very prominent in the Babylonian mythology, and is worked out with great fulness of doctrinal and ritualistic detail, has, among the Hebrews, so far receded into the background as to receive but one mention in the Bible, and that a bald citation without detail in a highly poetic passage. The most that can possibly be said, with safety, is that if the passage in Isaiah is to be taken as a survival of folklore, it is analogous to those survivals of obsolete ideas still to be b e found in current speech, and in the literature of the modern world (see LUNATIC). There is no evidence of active participation in this belief, or even of interest in it as such, on the part of the prophetical writer. On the contrary, the nature of the reference implies that the word was used simply to add a picturesque detail to a vivid, imaginative description. All positive evidence of Hebrew participation in this belief belongs to a later date (see Buxtorf's Lex., under the word "Talmud"). II. Folklore in the Old Testament. - Attention has been called elsewhere to the meagerness, in the matter of detail, of Old Testament demonology (see DEMON, DEMONOLOGY; COMMUNION WITH DEMONS). A kindred fact of great importance should be briefly noticed here, namely, that the traces of mythology and popular folklore in the Bible are surprisingly faint and indistinct.

84

We have the following setof items in which such traces have been discovered: "Rahab" (rachabh), mentioned in Job 9:13; 26:12; Isa 51:9; "Tanin" (tannin), Isa 27:1; "Leviathan" (liwyathan), Job 3:8; Ps 74:14; Isa 27:1; Ezek 29:3; Job 41:1 passim; the "serpent in the sea," in Amos 9:3; "Seirim" (se`irim), 2 Chron 11:15; Lev 17:7; 2 Kings 23:8; Isa 13:21; 34:14; "Alukah" (`aluqah), Prov 30:15; "Azazel (`aza'zel) Lev 16:8,10,26 "Lilith" (ut sup.), Isa 34:14-15. A review of these passages brings certain very interesting facts to light. 1. Paucity of References: The references are few in number. Rahab is mentioned 3 times; Tannin (in this connection), once; Leviathan, 5 times; the serpent in i n the sea, once; Seirim, 5 times (twice with references to idols); Alukah, once; Azazel, 3 times in one chapter and in the same connection; Lilith, once. 2. References in Highly Poetical Passages: These references, with the single exception of Azazel to which we shall return a little later, are all in highly poetical passages. On general grounds of common-sense we should not ascribe conscious and deliberate mythology to writers or speakers of the Bible in passages marked by imaginative description and poetic imagery, any more than we should ascribe such beliefs to modern writers under like circumstances. Poetry is the realm of truth and not of matter of fact. In passages of this tenor, mythology may explain the word itself and justify its appropriateness, it does not explain the use of the term or disclose the personal view of the writer. 3. The References Allusive: All these references are in the highest degree allusive. They exhibit no exercise of the mythological fancy and have received no embroidery with details. This is most significant. So far as our specific references are concerned, we are dealing with petrified mythology, useful as literary embellishment, but no longer interesting in itself. 4. Possibility of Non-mythological Interpretation: Every one of these words is sufficiently obscure in origin and uncertain in meaning to admit the possibility of a non-mythological interpretation; indeed, in several of the parallels a non-mythological use is

85

evident. Bible-Dict. writers are apt to say (e.g. concerning lilith) that there is no doubt concerning the mythological reference. The reader may discover for himself that the lexicographers are more cautious (see Brown, Driver, and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, in loc.). The use of "Rahab" in Job 26:12 is not mythological for the simple reason that it is figurative; the use of "Leviathan" in Isa 27:1 and Ezek 29:3 comes under the same category. In Job 40 and 41, if the identification of behemoth and leviathan with hippopotamus and crocodile be allowed to stand and the mythological significance of the two be admitted, we have the stage where mythology has become a fixed and universal symbolism which can be used to convey truth apart from the belief in i n it as reality (see LEVIATHAN; L EVIATHAN; "Job," New Century Bible, p. 335; Meth. Rev., May, 1913, 429 ff). The sea serpent of Amos 9:3 is not necessarily the dragon or Tiamat, and the use of the term is merely suggestive. The term se`ir is in literal use for "he-goat" (Num 15:24, et al.) and is doubtful throughout. Ewald translates it "he-goat" in Isa 34:14 and "Satyr" in 13:21. It means literally "shaggy monster" (Vulgate, pilosus). We do not hesitate on the basis of the evidence to erase "Alukah" (Prov 30:15, the Revised Version (British and American) "horse-leech," by some translated "vampire") and "Azazel" (Lev 16:8, etc.), interpreted as a "demon of the desert," from the list of mythological words altogether. As ripe a scholar as Perowne ("Proverbs," Cambridge Bible) combats the idea of vampire, and Kellogg ("Leviticus," Expositor's Bible, in loc.) has simply put to rout the mythological-demonic interpretation of Azazel. Even in the case of lilith the derivation is obscure, and the objections urged against agains t the demonic idea by Alexander have not altogether lost their force (see Commentary on Isaiah, in loc.). There is a close balance of probabilities in one direction or the other. 5. The Term lilith: One further fact with regard to lilith must be considered. The term occurs in a list of creatures, the greater part of which are matter-of-fact animals or birds. A comparative glance at a half-dozen translates of the passage Isa 34:11-14 will convince any reader that there are a great many obscure and difficult words to be found in the list. Following Delitzsch's translation we have: "pelican," "hedge-hog,"

86

"horned-owl," "raven," "wild-dog," "ostrich," "forest-demon" (se`ir), "night-monster." This is a curious mixture of real and imaginary creatures. Alexander acutely observes that there is too much or too little mythology in the passage. One of two conclusions would seem to follow from a list so constructed: Either all these creatures are looked upon as more or less demonic (see Whitehouse, Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible (five volumes), article "Demon," with which compare West M. Alexander, Demonic Possession in the New Testament, 16), or, as seems to the present writer far more probable, none in the list is considered otherwise than as supposed literal inhabitants of the wilderness. The writer of Isa 34:14, who was not constructing a scientific treatise, but using his imagination, has constructed a list in which are combined real and imaginary creatures popularly supposed to inhabit unpeopled solitudes. There still remains a by no means untenable supposition that none of the terms necessarily are mythological in this particular passage.

LILITH - THE FIRST EVE By Anthony Roe

Published at Imbolc 2002

According to Rabbinical mythology, the Talmudists say that Adam had a wife before Eve, whose name was Lilith. Refusing to submit to Adam, she left Paradise for a region of the air. She still haunts the night as a specter, and is especially hostile to new-born infants. Some superstitious Jews still put in the chamber occupied by their wife four coins, with labels on which the names of Adam and Eve are inscribed, with the words, “Avaunt thee Lilith!” The fable of Lilith was invented to reconcile Genesis i with Genesis ii. Genesis i represents the simultaneous creation of man and woman woma n out of the earth; but Genesis ii represents that Adam was alone, and Eve was made out of a rib, and was given to Adam as a helpmeet for him. In Eden Bower D G Rosetti says “ It was Lilith, the wife of Adam … / Not a drop of her blood was human,  / But she was made like a soft sweet woman.” Goethe introduced her in his Faust. The mage is introduced by Mephistopheles to various apparitions on Walpurgis Night in the Hartz Mountains. Presented with a whirling crowd, Faust asks: “Who's that?” Mephistopheles replies:  “Her features closely scan - ‘Tis the first wife of the first man”. “Who,

87

say you?” asks Faust; and the Spirit answers: “Adam's first wife, Lilith.  / Beware - beware of her bright b right hair, / And the strange dress that glitters there: / Many a young man she beguileth, / Smiles winningly on youthful faces, / But woe to him whom she embraces!”  In Assyrian demonology, a female demon appears, represented as winged, with disheveled hair. Such demons were banished from Hebrew religion, and hardly appear in the Old Testament except in poetic imagery. But these ‘hairy ones', nocturnal ‘goblins', are exactly like the Arabian jinn . They haunted waste and desert places in fellowship with jackals. There is a Mohammedan story of Bilkis, Queen of Sheba, who married Solomon. She had hair on her ankles and was thus shown to be a jinniyyah by descent. The Arab writers say that Lilith was an evil spirit, the first wife of Adam, and that her children were the jinns or devils. She is said to have had 784 children, as the letters of her name have this numerical value. Her name is found in the Assyrian inscriptions as Li-lit, ‘the black', an ‘evil spirit'. She was said to have stimulated ‘nocturnal impurities', and to have been more especially dangerous to married women at the birth of their first child, upon which occasion the Arabian nurses still s till throw stones at the foot of the bed to drive her away. The night devil of Isaiah xxxiv, 14, she was especially feared in Babylonia where a special class of priests, the Ashipu , were employed to ward off the harmful effects of witchcraft. Her designation was originally applied to certain spirits of the northern Semites; it was only later that it was applied to the person of Lilith of the Talmud, the first wife of Adam. She may be equated with the ghoul of pre-Islamic myth and with Ninlil , the Babylonian goddess. A very common practice, constantly found in the Mesopotamian exorcism tablets is that of the use of magic knots. These were w ere tied by the ashipu for the protection of  a pregnant woman. A magic knot could be tied by a sorcerer or witch to invoke spirits and to gain power over an enemy. By loosing of the knot the power of an evil spirit was broken. One of these maqla tablets, directed against witchcraft, ends with the words, “Her knot is loosed, her sorcery is brought to naught, and all her charms fill the desert”, where the desert symbolizes the underworld. Rabbinic literature is full of the doings of Lilith, who bore Adam devils and spirits. Whoever slept alone in a room was likely to be beset by her. The Rabbis believed, too, that a man might have children by allying himself with a demon, and although they might not be visible to human beings, yet when that man was dying they would hover round his bed, to hail him as their father. At the funeral of a bachelor the

88

Jews of Kurdistan cast sand before the coffin to blind the eyes of the unbegotten children of the deceased. Among the Jews in Palestine, Lilith (or the evil eye in general) is averted from the bed by hanging a charm over it consisting of a special cabalistic paper in Hebrew together with a piece of rue, garlic, and a fragment of looking glass. It is said sometimes that women find their best gowns, which they have carefully put away in their bridal chests, have been worn by female spirits during their confinement, because they did not utter the name of God in locking them up. On the first possible Sabbath all the relations assemble in the woman's room and make a hideous noise to drive away the evil spirits. We may note that Asmodeus was the counterpart of Lilith, as being dangerous to women. Cognate with the concept of Asmodeus is the curious Arab belief in a female demon accompanying every woman, and having as many children as her counterpart. Just as Lilith took the place of Eve, evidently this spirit is intended, in one of her phases (that of bearing children), to do d o the same for each man. She is very dangerous to pregnant women and newly married people; that is to say, just as Asmodeus becomes jealous of interference with his rights, so does this female spirit admit of no dallying with other women. She is said to destroy the creative power of men and to make women barren, and to her is due epilepsy as the penalty for pouring water over the threshold of the door without naming God, on a Friday, or to quench the fire. She may appear as an owl, a Jewess, a camel, or a black man. There is a story that Solomon once met a singular looking woman and asked her whether she was jinn or human. She answered that she was the female spirit spi rit “ … that puts hatred between husband and wife; I make women miscarry; I make them barren; I make men impotent; I make husbands love other men's wives, women other men's husbands; in short, I do all contrary to the happiness of wedded life”. In The Testament of Solomon, one Obizuth is the name of the female spirit that visits women in childbirth, and if she is lucky she strangles the babe. According to Rabbinical tradition among the Jews, Lilith has her strange story thus related in Jewish legends. “When the blessed God created the first man, whom he formed alone, without a companion, he said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone': and therefore he created a woman also out of the ground, and named her Lilith. They immediately began to contend with each other for superiority. The man said: ‘It behoves thee to be obedient; I am to rule over thee'. The woman replied: ‘We are on a perfect equality; for we are both formed out of the same earth'. So neither would submit to the other.

89

Lilith, seeing this, uttered the Shem-hamphorash ”, that is, pronounced the name  Jehovah , “and instantly flew away through the air. Adam then addressed himself to God, and said: ‘Lord of the universe! The woman whom thou gavest me, has flown away from me'. God immediately dispatched three angels to bring back the fugitive. He said to them: ‘If ‘I f she consent to return, well; but if not, you are to leave her, after declaring to her that a hundred of her children shall die every day'. These angels then pursued her, and found her in the midst of the sea, in the mighty waters in which the Egyptians were to be afterwards destroyed. d estroyed. They made known to her the divine message, but she refused to return. They threatened, unless she would return, to drown her in the sea. She then said: ‘Let me go; for I was created for no other purpose than to debilitate and destroy young infants; my power over the males will extend to eight days, and over the females to twenty days, after their birth'.  “On hearing this, the angels were proceeding p roceeding to seize her and carry her back to Adam by force: but Lilith swore by the name of the living God, that she would refrain from doing any injury to infants, wherever or whenever she should find these angels, or their names, or their pictures, on parchment or paper, or on whatever w hatever else they might be written or drawn: and she consented to the punishment denounced against her by God, that a hundred of her children should die every day. Hence it is that every day witnesses the death of a hundred young demons of her progeny. And for this reason we write the names of these angels on slips of paper or parchment, and bind them upon infants, that Lilith, on seeing them, may remember her oath, and may abstain from doing our infants any injury”. Another rabbinical writer says: “I have also heard that when the child laughs in its sleep in the night of the Sabbath or of the new moon, the Lilith laughs and toys with it; and that it i t is proper for the father, or mother, or any one that sees the infant laugh, to tap it on the lips, and say, ‘Hence, begone, cursed Lilith; for thy abode is not here'. This should be done three times, and each repetition should be accompanied with a pat on the mouth. This is of great benefit, because it is in the power of Lilith to destroy children whenever she pleases”. Lilith warrants special attention, not only as principal female demon, but because, unlike others mentioned, she was conceived to possess human rather than animal form, and also on account of her prominence in the later Jewish literature. li terature. According to Rabbinic teaching Lilith was the night demon par excellence . By a mistaken etymology the name was supposed to be derived from the Hebrew word lailah , (‘night'), a derivation favoured by the similarity of the two

90

words, and also by the fact that Lilith was supposed to be specially active at night-time. Modern scholars prefer p refer to associate it with the Sumerian word for ‘wantonness', and explain her as the demoness who inspires lust. However, it is very probable that she is referred to in Psalm 91 where the psalmist says: “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night”. In the Rabbinic literature Lilith is usually portrayed with long flowing hair, and as possessing wings. She is the queen of the Lilin , which form one of the great classes of demons. It is enjoined that a man should not go out alone at night because an evil spirit, Agrath bath Mahlath , (to be identified with Lilith), together with eighteen myriads of destroying angels, roams about and is permitted to destroy anyone whom she meets. Though specially dangerous to children, the Lilin also attack men. Thus the injunction that a man be forbidden to sleep alone in a house, lest, ignoring this warning, he be seized by Lilith. Formulas for exorcizing Lilith are given. This Jewish conception of Lilith appears to have much in common with the empousa of the Greeks and with the strix and lamia of the Romans. Whilst the name and leading characteristics were clearly derived from the Babylonian demonology, the conception may also have been influenced by Persian ideas. Alone among the spirits known through Jewish Jewis h tradition, Lilith retained her position during the Middle Ages, and indeed strengthened it by virtue of the closer definition of her activities. Originally a wind-spirit, derived from the Assyrian lilitu , with long dishevelled hair, and wings, during Talmudic times the confusion of her name with the word for night transformed her into a night spirit who attacks those who sleep alone. Laylah appears also as the angel of night, and of conception. Out of the assimilation to one another of these two concepts grew the view that prevailed during the Middle Ages. Though Lilith and the popularly derived plurals, the lilin , and the liliot , appeared often in nondescript form, merely as another term for demons, as when we are told that the liliot assemble in certain trees, the lilits proper possessed two outstanding characteristics in medieval folklore which gave them distinct personality: they attacked new born children and their mothers, and they seduced men in their sleep. As a result of the legend of Adam's relations with Lilith, although this function was by no means exclusively theirs, the lilits were most frequently singled out as the demons who embrace sleeping men and cause them to have nocturnal emissions which are the seed of a hybrid progeny. It was in her first role, however, that Lilith terrorized medieval Jewry. As the demon whose special prey is lying-in women and their babes, it was

91

found necessary to adopt an extensive series of protective measures against her. All sorts of means are used to circumvent the malign influences of  Lilith and her demons and both men and women appear to be in need of this protection. According to the usual amuletic practice, wearing an amulet inscribed with her name protects against her activities and this practice accounts for the numerous amulets thus found inscribed. Amulets inscribed with the name of Lilith alone can possibly have been worn by men and indeed could be worn by everyone with advantage at all times but those inscribed with the alternative names of Lilith or with the names of the angels sent in pursuit of her, were intended to be of  use to women only, particularly near the time of their delivery. The usual custom was to write these charms on pieces of paper and hang them around the mother's bed and even until recent times, the ‘Song of Degrees' (Psalm 121) was thus written and used. Metallic amulets inscribed with this psalm were worn by men as well as women at all times and became an article of decoration. They are extremely common. Elijah the Prophet, that great performer of miracles, on one occasion encountered Lilith, doubtless secure in the fact that he was himself  originally an angel and so immune from her attentions. Elijah's angelic name was Sandalphon , and he is one of the greatest and mightiest of  the fiery angelic hosts. He imposed restrictions on Lilith's activities which, after dire threats, she was compelled to accept. The most important of these conditions was that if any of the numerous names of Lilith were inscribed near a childbed, and particularly if the inscription of Psalm 121 was associated with it, Lilith would be compelled to abandon her right to injure that particular mother or her child. In addition, the names of the three angels who were sent to recall her to her wifely duties d uties and whose message she disobeyed were w ere to be equally effective in neutralising her activities. We have seen that Lilith undoubtedly derives from very ancient sources, appearing as Lilatu , ‘a female demon' in Assyrian literature and earlier still as Lillaku in Sumerian tablets of the story of Gilgamesh in which she was supposed to have lived in a willow tree. A connection between these similarly named demons can scarcely be denied. According to David de Pomis (Venice, 1587 CE) Lilith is a wild animal, or an evil spirit, or, as some say, a bird, which flits about alone at night and fills the air with wailing. Solomon ben Abraham (Salerno, 1160 CE) said that Lilith “grows out of the wind just as the salamander grows from the fire”. Lilith represents the classical example of the

92

succubus in Jewish mythology. The incubus is a spirit which, taking the semblance of a man, has intercourse with mortal women. The succubus is a similar spirit which in the form of a woman behaves in a like manner with mortal men. The Hebrew Lilith was regarded as queen of the succubi by the theologians who spent much time investigating such matters. St Augustine states that “devils do indeed collect human semen, by means of which they are able to produce bodily effects”. St Thomas Aquinas did much to prove that incubi and succubi were demons sent to tamper with frail humanity. But in the 17th century CE Peter Sinistrari made the unorthodox claim that such visitants were not demons but semi-angels who honoured mankind by contact, echoing Gnostic ideas. Many renowned people, including Caesar, Alexander the Great, and Plato, have the distinction of descent from such unnatural unions, which is not impossible when one takes into consideration that Hieronymus relates a story of a young woman who called for help against the attack of an incubus, which, on being pulled from under the bed where it had rushed to hide, proved to be none other than the good Bishop Sylvanus. The succubus has always been a rarer phenomenon than the incubus. There are far more male than female devils. Pico della Mirandola tells us that he knew an old man of eighty-four years who had slept for half  his life with a female devil; and another of seventy, who had enjoyed the same advantages. Sprenger reports that a German magician “had carnal connection with a woman before the very eyes of his wife and friends who were present during this action ac tion but were prevented from seeing her form”. Gregory de Tours tells of a holy bishop of Tuvergne, Eparchius, who had also been exposed to the temptations of a demon. He awoke one night with the thought of praying in the church; he arose and left for the church; on arriving he found the basilica resplendent with an infernal light and filled entirely with demons, who committed the most horrible deeds in front of the altar; he saw Satan in women's clothes sitting in the bishop's chair and presiding over these immoral mysteries. “Infamous whore”, he cried, “thou art not satisfied with poisoning all and everything with thy pollutions, thou even defamest God's sacred spots with thy loathsome body”. “Since thou give me the name of whore”, answered the prince of demons, “I shall present you with many instances of it and will make you lust after the body of woman”. Satan disappeared di sappeared in a cloud of stench but he kept his word and poor Eparchius felt the torments of the fleshly appetites every night until his death. The similar temptations of St Anthony are too well known to need repeating. Despite the saint's advanced and revered age Satan did not disdain from decorating his lonely hermitage with obscene and passionate pictures.

93

In The Sayings of Rabbi Eliezer , Samael (Satan) is charged with being the one (in the guise of a serpent) who tempted Eve and seduced her. In Jewish tradition Lilith was the bride of Samael. She predated Eve, and had relations with Adam in Paradise. According to Rabbi Eliezer, Lilith bore Adam every day 100 children. The Zohar describes Lilith as  “a fiery female who at first cohabited with Adam” but, when Eve was created, “flew to the cities of the sea coast”, where she is “still trying to ensnare mankind”. In the Cabala she is the demon of Friday, and is represented as a naked woman whose body terminates in a serpents tail. The rabbis regard Lilith as the first temptress, as Adam's demon wife, and as the mother of Cain. In Talmudic lore, as also in the Cabala, most demons are mortal, but Lilith will “continue to exist and plague man until the Messianic day, when God will finally extirpate uncleanliness and evil from the face of the earth”. The scholar Scholem says in an article that Lilith and Samael “emanated from beneath the throne of Divine Glory, the legs of which where somewhat shaken by their joint activity”. It is known of course that Samael was once a familiar figure in Heaven, but not that Lilith was up there also, assisting him. Lilith went by a score of names, some of which she revealed to Elijah, when she was forced to do so by the Old Testament prophet. Moses Gaster in his Studies and Texts in Folklore lists some of these: Abeko, Abito, Amizo, Batna, Eilo, Ita, Izorpo, Kea, Kokos, Odam, Partasah, Patrota, Podo, Satrina, Talto . Another listing is given by Hanauer in his Folklore of the Holy Land , namely: Abro, Amiz,  Amizu, Avitu, Bituah, Ik, Ils, Kalee, Kakash, Kema, Partashah, Petrota, Pods, Raphi, Satrinah, Thiltho. Other sources provide:  Abyzu, Ailo,  Alu, Gallu, Gelou, Gilou, Lamassu, Zahriel, Zephonith. The name of the

land to which Lilith betook herself in her flight from Paradise is recorded as Zamargad , near the Red Sea, where she set up her abode and mated with the demons who were well known to be living on those shores.

Her principal copulation there was with wi th the archdemon Beelzeboul. The fruit of their union, a nameless male demon, yet writhes, enchained by King Solomon, at the bottom of the Red Sea. Of Lilith's other numberless progeny few are known. Yet Y et obscure texts do name one son and a daughter, Hurnim and Hurmiz respectively. Also, Arabian tradition tells of a lone daughter of Adam who emulated her nefarious practices. This daughter of Adam, Anak , is apparently to be blamed for belief in talismans and other evil practices. This lady, so it is said, was the first “to reduce the demons to serve her by means of charms”. God had given Adam a sprinkling of magic words, just to enable him to control a few spirits, and these words he communicated to Eve. She preserved them quite faithfully until Anak extracted them from her

94

while she slept. It is not stated how this robbery was effected; perhaps the words were impressed in cuneiform characters on clay tablets, or she may have extracted them as did Isis from the great Sun god Ra ; however, once Anak was in possession, she “conjured evil spirits, practised the magical art, pronounced oracles, and gave herself up openly to impiety”. Interestingly, the name of Lilith survives in an ancient curse of Coptic Christian origin. This text on parchment, preserved in the Louvre, is uttered to separate a man from a woman. It comes from the tenth century CE. The utterance, to be written on a blade-shaped parchment goes: “ Tartari, Saro, Ptha, Astabias, Thatha, Eibethatha, Lahkimaia, Kaha, Alaha, Lilith, put hatred and separation, put hatred and separation between Sipa son of Siheu , and Ouarteihla daughter of Cauhare. They must not be able to look at each other's faces, yea, yea!”  Amulets to protect pregnant women and women in child-bed were as common among the Hebrews as among pagan nations. Wallis Budge gives details in his treatise on amulets. They were written upon parchment, and also upon the door and walls of the chamber wherein the woman lay. And if they were to be really effective, the texts had to be written in ink in which holy incense had been mixed, and even the copyist had to be a man ceremonially pure and a believer. One of the most important and powerful child-bed amulets is contained in the rare Hebrew work generally known as the Sepher Raziel , ‘The Book of  Raziel', bequeathed to the faithful by the preceptor angel of Adam himself. This amulet contains figures fig ures representative of Adam, Eve and Lilith. Above these are the names of the three angels sent after Lilith, Senoi, Sansenoi, and Semangeloph. There seals are given. The Hebrew text says that the woman will be protected by the name of  God from all the evils and calamities which are enumerated therein. This amulet had a double purpose. The three figures of the angels and their names and seals protected the newly born infant and its mother. And the text warded off any and every evil which Lilith might attempt to do to either. Contained in the text are the names of the Seventy Great Angels whose protection is secured by the amulet. Two other amulets are illustrated in the Book of Raziel. At the four corners are the names of the four rivers of Paradise, Pishon, Gihon, Prath and Hiddekel. Inside two concentric circles is the Hexagram, or so-called ‘Shield of Solomon' and fourteen groups of three letters and the words “Go forth thou and all the people who are in thy train”, and permutations of the initial letters of the Hebrew words for ‘holiness' and ‘deliverance'. Between the circles are the names of Adam, Eve, and Lilith, the three angels, and also that of the angel Khasdiel, with

95

the words: “He hath given his angels charge concerning thee, that they may keep thee in all thy ways. Amen. Selah.” Another amulet is similar, except that the two triangles of the hexagram are arranged base to base. In the inner circle are fourteen groups of three letters which have esoteric significations. Concerning apotropaic procedures to ward of the influence of Lilith and her cohorts, Gershon Scholem describes an antidemonic rite both ancient and curious. He says that until quite recently, and indeed occasionally to this day, Jewish burials in Jerusalem were often marked by a strange happening. Before the body was lowered into the grave ten men danced round it in a circle, reciting a psalm which in the Jewish tradition has generally been regarded as a defence against demons, i.e. Psalm 91, or another prayer. Then a stone was laid on the bier and the following verse v erse (Genesis xxv, 6) recited: “But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away”. This strange dance danc e of death was repeated seven times. The rite, which in modern times has been unintelligible to most of the participants, has to do with Cabalistic conceptions about sexual life and the sanctity of the human seed. Here we have an entire myth, the object of which is to mark m ark off the act of generation from other sexual practices, which were interpreted as demonic in nature, and especially from onanism. According to Talmudic tradition, demons are spirits made in the Friday evening twilight, who, because the Sabbath has intervened, have received no bodies. From this later authorities drew the inference, implicit in the Talmudic sources, that the demons have been looking for bodies ever since, and that this is why they attach themselves to men. This entered into combination with another idea. After the murder of Abel by his brother, Adam decided to have no further dealings with his wife. Thereupon female demons, succubi, came to him and conceived by him; from this union, in which Adam's generative power was misused and misdirected, stem a variety of  demons. The Cabalists took up these old conceptions of demonic generation in pollution or other practices. They are systematized in the Zohar, which develops the myth that Lilith, queen of the demons, or the demons of her retinue, do their best to provoke men to sexual acts without benefit of a woman, their aim being to make themselves bodies from the lost seed. To the Cabalists, the union between man and woman, within its holy limits, was a venerable mystery, as one may judge from the fact that the most classical and widely circulated Cabalistic definition of mystical

96

meditation is to be found in a treatise about the meaning of sexual union in marriage (Joseph Gikatila, c.1300 CE). Abuse of a man's generative powers was held to be a destructive act, through which not the holy, but the ‘other side', obtains progeny. An extreme cult of  purity led to the view that every act of impurity, whether conscious or unconscious, engenders demons. Abraham Saba, an early sixteenth century CE Cabalist who had come to Morocco from Spain, was first to establish a strange connection between this conception and a man's death. All the illegitimate children that a man has begotten with demons in the course of his life appear after his death to take part in the mourning for him and his funeral. For all those spirits that have built their bodies from a drop of  his seed regard him as their father. And so, especially on the day of  his burial, he must suffer punishment; for while he is being carried to the grave, they swarm around him like bees, crying: “You are our father”, and they complain and lament behind his bier, because they have lost their home and are now being tormented along with the other demons which hover bodiless in the air. According to others, the demons claim their inheritance i nheritance on this occasion along with the other sons of the deceased and try to harm the legitimate children. Those who dance seven s even times round the dead man do so in order to form a sacral circle, which will prevent these unlawful children from approaching the deceased, sullying his corpse, or doing other harm. Hence the verse from Genesis about the ‘sons of  the demonic concubines', whom Abraham sent away lest they harm Isaac, his legitimate son. A similar rite, in which the bier is set down on the ground seven times on the way w ay to the cemetery, has the same purpose. Most important of all, the Cabalists strictly forbade the children, and especially the sons of the deceased from escorting him to his last resting place. In his lifetime, it was held, a pious man should expressly forbid ‘all his children' to follow him to the grave; by so doing, he will keep his illegitimate demonic offspring away and, in case any of them should nonetheless get through to his grave, prevent them from endangering his true children, begotten in purity. It is known that some Jews in their lifetime sternly ordered their children not to make the slightest plaint or weep until the dead body in the cemetery had been purified by washing, cleansing, and the cutting of  the finger and toenails, because the unclean spirits are thought to have no further part in the body, once it is cleansed. Another noteworthy rite is connected with similar conceptions. Especially in a leap year, the Cabalists fasted on Monday and Thursday of certain weeks in the wintertime, in order to ‘correct', by special prayers and

97

acts of penance, the taint which it is said a man inflicts on his true form by involuntary ejaculation in the night and by masturbation. But it is not only in unlawful sexual practices that Lilith takes a hand. Even legitimate union between man and wife is endangered by her, for here too she tries to infringe on the domain of Eve. Accordingly, we find widespread observance of a rite recommended by the Zohar, the purpose of which was to keep Lilith away from the marriage bed: “In the hour when the husband enters into union with his wife, he should turn his mind to the holiness of his Lord and say: ‘Veiled in velvet - are you here? / Loosened, loosened be your spell! / Go not in and go not out! / Let there be none of you and nothing of your part! / Turn back, turn back, the ocean rages, / Its waves are calling you. / But I cleave to the holy part, / I am wrapped in the sanctity of the King.' Then for a time he should wrap his head and his wife's head in cloths, and afterwards sprinkle his bed with fresh water”. The symbolism of erotic demonic activities is encountered down the ages, even by such as the venerable Doctor Dee in his workings with Edward Kelley. On 15 August 1584 CE their first Prague action began with an extraordinary series of alchemical visions. Madimi appeared, in apocalyptic mood: “Woe be to women great with child, for they shall bring forth monsters … Woe unto the Virgins of the Earth, for they shall disdain their virginity, and become concubines for Satan”. According to Cabalistic tradition, quoted by Dion Fortune, Lilith taught wisdom to Adam; and he could c ould not forget her. This writer also quotes another tradition which holds that it was Lilith who performed the office of the Serpent in tempting Adam to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. A rare illustration of this appears in Queen Mary's Psalter (1553 CE). In The Secret Doctrine , Madame Blavatsky regards Lilith as having appeared in the primordial ages, and describes her as  “An ethereal shadow … an actual living female monster millions of  years ago”. She is linked by the theosophists with the planet Saturn. The importance attached to Lilith in witchcraft is attested by Doreen Valiente, who regarded her as one of the presiding goddesses of the Craft, calling her “the personification of erotic dreams, the suppressed desire for delights”. According to Gerald Gardner there is a tradition of  the continuous worship of Lilith to the present time in witchcraft, and that hers is the name sometimes given to the Goddess being personified, in ritual, by the coven Priestess. Leland in his EtruscanRoman Remains identifies Lilith with Herodias, or Aradia. He notes that she is mentioned in the old Slavonian spells and charms, and therein has twelve daughters, an instance of the witches thirteen perhaps. In Irish tradition Lilith gives her favours especially to ‘celibates, mystics

98

and hermits'. Yeates calls the Sidhe her ‘children'. In Voudoun she is assimilated with the loa Erzulie. Modern magicians have deliberately used the mechanism of intercourse with spirits s pirits in their rituals of  magica sexualis . The activities of such as Crowley and his adherents are perhaps too well known now from published accounts to warrant any exposition here.

Lilith's Children By Scott D. Hurley  (10 Oct 93)

Throughout the ages humanity has seen and known the supernatural to be around and among them. It has often reacted in fear, horror, shock, wonder, and, occasionally, jealousy to these beings. But one question has always troubled the minds of those mere mortals as the seek to come to grips with the existence of such forces--why are these entities so marked, so different from us... at once graced with power we can barely comprehend, and cursed to their fate? There have been many answers given by countless numbers of those who ask, but some find elements of the Truth... This is the tale given by the Order of the Amaranth, a most ancient anc ient cabal of sorcerers that remembers the dim reaches of humanity's origin... At the beginning of all time, when humans first arose and were given divine life, we were but beasts, driven by the same urges and instincts as the animals, and little better. But then one Power, perhaps Prime itself, shaped from the earth certain fruits, and charged them with the power of Change. From all those humans extant in that day, it selected two, a male and a female, to shape and guide towards Awakening, such as it knew. To make the two worthy of the Change, it embued in them the awareness that would allow them to make conscious

99

choice...and it bade them to give it the respect that was its due. It then presented to them the fruits that were the instruments of its Change and declared to them, "Know my creations that these fruits are of me, and that should you consume them, you take me into yourself...but be warned, you must chose which of them you would partake of--one will grant you the power to last through all of time, as do I. The other will grant you the ability to know why things are, but will instill in you a desire to master all, which will be denied to you by your short time in this world. Or you may chose to partake of neither, and remain here with me." Sensing the good fortune and the protection that they would have with the One, the two were reluctant to eat either of the fruits before them. In time the female grew pregnant, and with that came the quickening of knowledge--the One would shelter her and her mate for all of time, but it would not protect their children. c hildren. Something within her rebeled at this, and then her eyes came to rest upon the trees that bore the fruit that was offered to them. She considered each of them in turn, and rejected eating of them--should she partake of the fruit that would forbid her from withering and perishing, p erishing, and protect her from all the forces of the Earth, she would lose what wisdom she had gained, and become but a beast again...one that would remain so for all time. The other was no better, for what gain could be had by knowledge that would be scattered to the endless wind? She dwelled upon it for a much time, then, later that night, while she was contemplating it, she felt the other heart beating within her, and she came to a realisation. Quickly, lest she falter, she moved to the trees and plucked one fruit from each. She then ate of the fruit of  knowledge and wonder, and, with it still fresh in her mouth, declared, "Even as I eat of one fruit for myself, I eat of the other for my child!" She then partook of that which would hold one safe from all earthly harm. The two merged within her, and in that instant she did Awaken and Change, and became immortal. The One felt the transformation from afar, and was troubled by her deed. It came before her and said, s aid, "What have you done, creature? Why did you choose other than I gave you?" And she replied, "I am not a creature, I am as thou! My name is Lilith, and I am both Awakened and Immortal, as shall be my child!" This declaration touched something within the One, and part of itself that it had never considered seperate resonated to her cry. It's pattern had been disrupted, and this could not be had! Yet it could not destroy it's creation, and this began to drive it mad. In anger and fury it declared,

100

" You would be as me, and have all of thine do as they would? *NEVER*! Though earthly force can harm you not, I cast thee out of  this world, find the endless wastes beyond as your home!" With this the One cast out Lilith, and turned back to its work, even as it felt it's essence begin to frament. Suddenly, where before there had been but the One, now there was the Triat. Weaver continued to weave the pattern of the One, though now without purpose and inspiration. The Wyld new inspiration and creativity without end, but could give none of  it form. And the Wyrm began to feed itself, and was perverted from what it's purpose was, seeking to undo all and begin again... And now only Lilith's Children can set the balance right. After Lilith was cast out of the Realm by the One, she wandered in the endless void, seeking purpose in the nothing which bounded the One's creation. She knew that though she was now at once immortal and awakened no force could ever bring her harm, and that she could determine her own fate in Eternity. But what w hat was to be gained as an outcast from the Realm she had known k nown for all of her brief existence. She longed for others of her kind, but this desire she knew would be be soon met, for the child that was forming within her would soon be born, and it would partake of all of her strengths. Lilith would need a place to raise the child, however, and since the mortal world was denied her, she would make her own Demesne. To this she worked her Will upon the primordial Tapestry, and therein forged a Realm at once like and unlike the one from which she had been exiled. In this place there need be no hardship, and she even created life itself that would not die, as it existed as a part of this realm. No sooner had she completed her hearth, than the child came due... Her daughter was a fair lass, l ass, and inherited all of her mother's great gifts, from her eternal nature to her power to shape the Tapestry about her. Yet the powers of which Lilith had partaken had weakened slightly when they were passed on to her child, but this was of little matter. When the child grew old enough to discern the world about her, she chose a name for herself--Arathea. By the time she had grown into a full woman, she and her mother had expanded the realm in which they dwelled, but, in time they grew lonely for the companionship of others. Lilith had told her daughter of the wrath of  the One, but time had passed, and perhaps they could reconcile with the One. They resolved to venture outside their self-made world, and one day did.

101

Lilith could not believe what had transpired in the seeming few years shewas within her home domain. Where before there had been only an endless void, now there were strains of the Tapestry *everywhere*, in patterns and forms varied almost beyond comprehension. When she turned towards the heart of it all, she saw the world she had once called home transformed in a manner that should could not quite define. Still, she sought the companionship of others of her kind, and hoped that she might find her another mate to share eternity with. When mother and daughter entered the world, they found that the humans of which Lilith had sprung had changed in a strange fashion. They had become aware of the world about them, and sought to reshape it to their will, yet they did so in a manner quite different from that which Lilith used. Instead of merely Willing something to be or to change, they had to work it with their hands, creating tools to reshape and build their dream. Confused and bewildered by the behaviour of  her kin, Lilith took her daughter to the place where the One had once dwelt--but found there only a barren, featureless site. There was no trace of the One, or her former mate, but the strange taint that had been seen earlier was almost palpable p alpable here. What had happened in the little time that she had been b een gone? Lilith called out with her power, seeking to find the One so that she might reconcile with it. She could not find it, but another heard her call. It answered from the very world around her, resonating through her very being. She had touched Gaia, the world spirit. From her Lilith learned that generations had passed since she left the world--that since the domain she had created c reated was only tenuously connected to this one, it's exact time and place shifted randomly in regard to this one. This she could accept, but what she learned next filled her with utter horror--her actions had somehow caused the One to fragment, and now the shards of the One strove in different directions, failing to continue the plan that the One had formed. One, which called itself  Weaver, had created another mate for the male which had been Lilith's. Their children grew and spread, hearing their creator's call, and seeking to further it's plan. But the inspiration which had been the One's had broken away from the Weaver, and now was known as the Wyld. The Wyld was impotent and helpless, for though it conceive of  ideas without end, it lacked lack ed the power of the Weaver to make things permanent, and only the rare creation survived. surviv ed. Worst of all was the Wyrm, which madly followed the last command of the One, to undo what had been done, but it sought to destroy ALL, not that which deviated from the One's original plan. The Triat was skewed, and in it's conflict tore at the very lifeforce li feforce of Gaia, the One's creation.

102

Lilith felt great guilt at what had happened in her absence and vowed to attempt to restore the balance, so that the One's creation might continue on it's rightful course. In this fashion she might atone for her deed, and reconcile with the memory m emory of the One. Her daughter, however, saw little of this world that pleased her, and begged to return to the domain they had formed for themselves. Lilith felt that the burden was hers to carry, and agreed to her daughter's request. But first they would find the companions they sought, and for that end they took Gaia's advice and left the world to seek the new existence, which was called the Tellurian for that which would aid them. It was on this journey that the other Children of Lilith were to be quickened... "What is Fate? It is the certainty that occurs when, given a chance to alter a decision; you know that you would not have acted any other way. It is in this fashion that Fate and free will can coexist, but all falls before Chance's caprice."

Sumerian/Assyrian Terra Cotta Relief of Lilith: This is a classic example of Lilith, shown with wings and wearing a multiple-horned mitre, both characteristic of Sumerian portraits of high divinity (much like a halo in Christian art). In her hands she carries farming tools/round wooden knives which are used for planting and sowing crops, but can also double as weapons in times of war. 

103

Bird-feet is typical of most ancient Lilith sculptures and engravings. The lion and owl are sacred animals to Lilith because they are both creatures that feed and protect their young, and do so viciously and without fear. Thus Lilith is also a goddess of protection, in addition to agriculture/fertility. Collection of Col. Norman Colville. 



Side View of the Relief 

Sumerian Statue - Protectorate Lilitu: This partially broken statue has been b een reassembled together by archeologists. It was found in Sumerian ruins, in what is now believed to be a small temple to Lilith. The statue is unique because it is one of  very few free-standing statues of Lilith, shown here with bird feet. The statue is worn, but the features are still visible and she appears to stand in a protective and caring fashion. 

Greek Statue - Lilith Crying: This is believed to be a Greek or Turkish statue of Lilith, unearthed in what is now modern Turkey. Her wings have been broken off, as have her feet and lower torso. 

Babylonian Clay Plaque: This baked clay plaque from the Old Babylonian period (200016000 BC). It shows Lilith standing on the backs of two goats, which were used primarily for food and milk (and thus symbolic of  motherhood). Lilith is again show with bird feet and wearing a multiple-horned mitre as a sign of divinity. Paris, Louvre. 

Roman Lamp: Possibly a fake 'Roman Period' with copy of Burney relief. It was auctioned around the turn of the 21st Century and auction records are kept confidential. Both the owner and the buyer are unknown and the piece has never had its age or authenticity verified. If it is a real Roman lamp, then its possible it was made during the time when the Roman Empire had spread east-ward, taking over much of the middleeast. Furthermore, it bears a startling resemblance to both the Babylonian plaque and the Sumerian relief above. 

 Judeo-Christian - Lilith, Adam & Eve:

104

The Judeo-Christian version of Lilith frequently compares Lilith with Satan and the snake. It demonetizes Lilith, taking away her bird feet and replacing it with a serpentine tail. All of the images below were created during the 1400s to 1500s in Europe, a period which is heavily laced with superstitious gynophobia and misogyny. The images are NOT based upon the Bible on ben-Sira, but are instead based upon warped versions of the Judeo-Christian myth with a heavier emphasis on Satan and the snake. Keep in mind that at this point in history most people were illiterate i lliterate and the Christian belief that the snake is Satan had not yet been established.

Lilith is much, much more

Lilith is not merely the television wife/ex-wife of Fraser Crane on Cheers or Fraser . Lilith is much, much more. She has made cameo appearances as the first wife of Adam in the Garden of Eden (but dumped him when he whined just a bit too much), as the paramour of  lascivious spirits in the Red Sea or the bride of Samael the Devil (both cases of slander and libel), as the Queen of Sheba and Zemargard (i.e. men such as Solomon the Wise do not do stupid things; they are bewitched by seductive women!), and as the Consort of God Himself in fifte fifteen enth th-ce -cent ntur uryy Ca Cabba bbalilism sm (the (the latt latter er which which was was just just one one more more  justification for The Albigensian Crusade). But her greate greatest st role role seems likely to be as handmaiden to The Great goddess, inanna.

105

The earliest representations of Lilith seem to be as a great winged Bird goddess, a wind spirit, or one associated with the Sumerian, Ninlil, goddess of the Grain, and wife to Enlil. As the “hand “hand of Inanna”, Lilith Lilith was notorious for bringing men from the street and fields of war to Inanna’s temple for holy sexual rites, in which the intention was to civilize the people. The sacred sexual customs were, in fact, considered the greatest gift of Inanna. As Adam’s first wife, however, Lilith really got into trouble with the patria patriarch rchy. y. She had the the audacity audacity to want to be treate treated d as Adam’s equal. According According to Hebrew Hebrew mythology, mythology, the Babyloni Babylonian an Talmud, Talmud, the Zohar , and the  Alphabet of Ben Sira, Lilith refused to lie below Adam, and thus set the archetypal example example for later feminists. God allegedly threatened her by decreeing if she did not submit to Adam, that “one hundred hundred of her children children would die every every day.” Lilith chose chose exile. This This really got Adam’s Adam’s goat! goat! Despite Despite being ostensibly ostensibly happy happy about having Lilit Lilith h out out of his his life life (and (and late laterr bles blesse sed d with with a subs subser ervi vien ent, t, if not not occa occasi sion onal ally ly misg misgui uide ded d Eve) Eve),, Adam dam appa appare rent ntly ly neve neverr gave gave up resenting resenting Lilith Lilith for having having chosen exile exile to being with with him. Not a lot has changed in thousands upon thousands of years: A woman deciding her life is better alone than with a particular man is still the height of  insult to that male. The male patriarchal traditions, therefore portrayed the situation as one in which the first woman on Earth, who was created equal to man and a free spirit to boot, would be condemned to survive for eternity as a she-devil, mating with demons and devils and bearing monsters instead instead of human children. children. “This image image was to serve serve as a threat and warning to any woman who might consider leaving her husband or defying male authority.” [1] But it was all to no avail. avail. For now Lilith, Lilith, as the sexiest sexiest aspect aspect of the Dark goddess, at a time in The Great Cycle known as the Dark of  the Moon, is back, stirring up trouble, and reminding us all of “a time in the the anci ancien entt past past when when wome women n were were hono honore red d and and prai praise sed d for for initi initiat atin ing g and and fully fully ex expr pres essin sing g thei theirr pers person onal al free freedo dom m and and sexu sexual al passion.” [1] And if you think she's not fully capable of raising havoc with the patriarchy, consider the classic portrait of  Lilith by Hon John Collier, 1887. In addition to the good news that “Frodo Lives”, Lilith is also present; if only as an Archetype within every male and female, a primal, instinctive feminine sexuality. Lilith’s type is the free and unrestrained animating, pulsating, transforming sexuality that evokes the original

106

orgiastic aspect of The Great Goddess. She is that part for which the masculine both fears and longs for -- the woman who runs with the wolves! Lilith is the the woman who refuses refuses to nurture nurture men, men, and thereby thereby threatens their survival. As the goddess of the Dark Moon, Lilith “ruthlessly destroys all that is not our true true individuality or appropriate life path. She will not lead us us to our goal by revealing what it is, but rather by eliminating everything that it is not. The black aspect of Lilith closes closes all the wrong doors that face us.” [1]   “Th “Thee blac blackk Lili Lilith th in us will will accep cceptt nothi othing ng less less than than our our true rue individuality, not in the sense of separateness, but in the sense of who we intrin intrinsi sica cally lly are. are. When When we are are secur securee in acknow acknowle ledgi dging ng and expressing our true self, we do not falsify ourselves in order to be acce accept pted ed by othe others rs.” .” “Con “Conse sens nsus us does does not not requ requir iree the the kind kind of  compromise that pressures us to give up our essential values while mediating with another person.” [1] In all respects, Lilith’s charging to the forefront during the Precessional Cycle’s Dark of the Moon, is the good news. It’s also a slight taste of  what is to arrive with the ultimate Return of the Goddess in the very near future. Say, maybe, around 2012 A.D..

107

Red Hair Facts Lilith is most commonly considered the first wife of Adam in the Garden of Eden biblical narrative, a woman who will not be dominated by man. The legend tells us that when Adam demands that Lilith lie beneath him for copulation, she refuses, insisting that they are equals. When Adam scoffs at this idea, she curses him and leaves, running to a new home on the banks of the Red Sea. There, she is said to fornicate with demons and produce many demon offspring. Meanwhile, Adam complains about his lonely state to his creator, saying, “The woman you made for me has fled.”  In the story, God sends three angels to fetch Lilith and bring her back to Adam, but she will have none of it. She refuses to return return to a life where she is considered subordinate. The angels, named Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof, warn her that God will kill 100 of her children every day that she does not return. Lilith becomes so enraged at their unjust request that she curses the angels and all of humanity, vowing that she will take revenge on any woman who would submit to such a status. This promise sets off hundreds of years of superstition surrounding pregnancy, childbirth, and the first weeks of human life, as instances of infant mortality and labor complications are attributed to the willful she-demon Lilith. Back at the Garden, Adam is given a new, more pliable companion named Eve. The angels have struck an uneasy détente with Lilith, who has agreed to spare the lives of women and children wearing an amulet that bears the names of the angels themselves. themselves. She does not fare as well in the deal, since God makes good on his promise to kill her children as punishment for her stubborn insistence on living an

108

independent life. What price could be higher? And yet, she is compelled to live as her spirit demands. Anything else is not an option. Of course, as with all faith and folklore, Lilith’s story has roots and elements far older and more widespread than the common anecdotes like the one above. Long before she was designated as a mate for Adam, other cultures spoke of a wind w ind demon or a night creature with a very similar name and modus operandi. The Canaanites called her Baalat. An ancient goddess of Sumer and Babylonia was named named Belitili, or Belili. One ancient Ur tablet from around 2000 B.C.E. speaks of a goddess named Lillake. Even further back, the Sumerians of 4000 B.C.E. feared the Lilitu, a group of storm demons bearing diseases and death. It seems that as humanity has aged, we have added new layers to Lilith, layers which expand her reach and influence in our communal psyche. Not content to leave Lilith’s sins at disobedience and child-killing, ancient cultures also saw an opportunity to depict her as a creature c reature of  lust and wantonness. She and her succubae minions were said to catch men sleeping and seduce them in the hopes of breeding more demon offspring. She has been called the mother of all the plagues of the world, and some traditions depict her coming back to Eden and forcing sexual relations with either Adam or Cain, or both.

109

Lilith By John Collier (1892) Usually, these stories say that these liaisons produced several demon offspring who went on to breed more demon offspring, all of whom continue to trouble humanity to this day. Despite the severity of these charges, the Lilith persona has endured throughout history, garnering supporters as well as detractors. Some look upon her as a champion for the rights of the individual, or more specifically, for the rights of women. Others respect her rebellion as the difficult and lonely choice of true freedom. Robert Burns, in his poem “Adam, Lilith, and Eve,” empathizes with her, postulating that it was Lilith who truly loved Adam, rather than the submissive wife he preferred. So this is the complex character connoted c onnoted in the element called Black Moon Lilith who appears on our astrology chart. chart. How do we reconcile images of this wanton, child-killing she-devil with our current life and its evolutionary path? We will explore this question further in subsequent posts, as our conclusions may help to interpret our deepest emotions as well as our cultural beliefs.

110

Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Poem "Lilith," Later Published as "Body's Beauty"(1868)

First published in 1868 in Swinburne's pamphlet-review, "Notes on the Royal Academy Exhibition," the sonnet entitled "Lilith" "Li lith" was written to accompany the painting "Lady Lilith." The poem and picture appeared alongside Rossetti's painting "Sibylla Palmifera" and the sonnet "Soul's Beauty," which was written for it. In 1870, both of these poems were published among the "Sonnets for Pictures" section of Rossetti's Poems. In 1881, however, "it occurred to Rossetti to contrast the two as representatives of fleshly and spiritual beauty," and thus he transferred them to "The House of Life" (Baum 181). The Lilith sonnet was then renamed "Body's Beauty" in order to highlight the contrast between it and "Soul's Beauty," and the two were placed sequentially in "The House of Life" (sonnets number 77 and 78). Because Rossetti originally named the sonnet "Lilith" and only changed the name to highlight the contrast between it and "Soul's Beauty," this study will refer to it by its original name. "Lilith" reads as follows: Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told (The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,) That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive, And her enchanted hair was the first gold. And still she sits, young while the earth is old, And, subtly of herself contemplative, Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave, Till heart and body and life are in its hold. The rose and poppy are her flower; for where Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare? Lo! as that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent And round his heart one strangling golden hair. (Collected Works, 216). Much like "Lady Lilith," "Lilith" celebrates the pleasures of physicality. As an enchantress, she "draws men to watch w atch the bright web she can weave," but she does not invite them to be mere voyeurs of her charms (line 7). Instead, she invites them to her and then ensnares them in her "web" of physical beauty, ultimately causing their death (line 8).

111

"Subtly of herself contemplative," a phrase echoing Pater's famous description of the "Mona Lisa," highlights Lilith's attitude of  "voluptuous self applause," an attitude which was so visually apparent in Rossetti's painting (Baum 185). As in her picture, Lilith is placed among the rose and poppy, symbolizing sterile love and sleep/death, images which add to her representation as an attractive and desirable, yet deadly, woman. Lilith's golden hair echoes the "bright" hair hai r of which Goethe wrote in Faust and Rossetti painted in "Lady Lilith." Rossetti thus borrows the image of ensnaring and strangling hair directly from Goethe. Although it is used as an instrument of death in the end, its physical beauty is what Rossetti first draws attention to, describing it as "the first gold" (line 4). Yet it is the "spell" cast by her fetishized hair which eventually penetrates, emasculates, and kills the "youth" of this poem (line 13, Bullen 139). The Lilith portrayed in this sonnet is undoubtedly the first wife of  Adam, for Rossetti tells this to his readers outright, setting this knowledge off in quotes as if to inform an audience whom he did not think would be familiar with the legend. Her existence as the first wife is highlighted in the description of her hair as "the first gold" and in the revelation that she could deceive even before the snake, representing Satan (or possibly Lilith herself) during the Fall. The emphasis on the snake in this poem is severe. Not only is it introduced early in the sonnet, but his/her image is invoked again through the alliteration present in lines 10-11. The pronouns "his" and "her" can be used interchangeably here because the poem does not make clear whether Rossetti intends for the snake snak e and Lilith to be seen as one or as separate entities. In I n either case, the "soft-shed kisses" of  Lilith do seem to draw upon Keats' image of Lamia, the snake-woman. And while the cause of the male m ale character's death is Lilith's "one strangling golden hair," this hair can also be seen as a metaphor for the coiling body of a snake. The extensive snake imagery in the poem can also be read as an indication of Lilith's powerful sexuality, as Jan Marsh indicated when she stated, "the sexual qualities of her nature are barely concealed beneath the insistent Freudian imagery" (Sisterhood, 235). This reading of the snake imagery certainly continues the theme of  sexuality present in Rossetti's other portrayals of Lilith, while not prohibiting the snake from being read simultaneously as an actual character.

112

In light of the fact that this poem was first published only one year prior to "Eden Bower," one might expect that Rossetti would have told similar versions of the Lilith legend in these two poems. Under this assumption, one could easily make the case that "Lilith" portrays Lilith as becoming incarnated in the snake in order to cause Adam's demise, much as is told in the ballad of "Eden Bower." Early critics recognized this possibility, stating: "Lilith's snake-like form seems to coil in every line of the sonnet, and leaves one with almost a feeling of suffocation at the imagery of the last line" (Boas 105, emphasis added). This reading is possible because of the unidentified "youth" in line 12, a character that can be read as Adam. If seen as Adam, the second stanza of this sonnet seems to play out the demise of Adam, at Lilith's hand. Lines 10 and 11, therefore, would indicate that Lilith is incarnated in the body of the snake. Line 12 would then regress to the past tense and explain how "that youth's eyes burned at thine," indicating the simultaneous lust and anger Adam felt when Lilith refused to lie beneath him. Then, Lilith would have sent her "spell" through him, possibly referring to the way in which she became incarnated as the snake in order to deceive Adam and Eve, causing their Fall. Finally, Adam is left with "his straight neck bent," defeated, lifeless, dead. Much like Keats' "La Belle Dame sans Merci," "Lilith" can be read as a warning for men against all womankind. It warns that any woman so beautiful as Lilith, so self-contented and powerful, will cause nothing other than a man's death. The image of castration in line 13 -- she "left his straight neck bent" -- results directly from her "spell," her excessive beauty, her voluptuous body, her long, flowing hair. Thus, while the experience of being with Lilith, of loving her physically, may surpass any other mortal experience -- much like the experience of  loving the femme fatale of "La Belle" -- it will ultimately result in symbolic castration through the loss of power or, even, literal death.

113

 A Globally  RECOGNIZATION LILITH In order to prove a common root; legends should become more interwoven the further back in history we go. In other words, stories from different cultures should begin to have similar traits. The story of  Noah’s ark is an excellent example. Tales of Global floods are present in many religions outside of Judaism, Christianity, and Islamic. Furthermore, most of these tales are related in that they each tell not only of a great deluge, but also of a limited population of animals and people who survived the catastrophe by some form of divine foreknowledge of it. This worldwide sharing of a common theme between cultures, religions, and peoples would w ould tend to indicate that there existed at one time a root story, which has been handed down through different societies and over time has been altered to fit specific regions. In researching the legends about vampires a single name surfaces continually like a beacon. That name is Lilith. Lilith is believed by some to be the first wife of Adam, a woman who existed prior to the creation of Eve. The story basically states that Adam and Lilith were each created from dust. Lilith’s dust was dirtier than Adam’s. When Adam approached her for the purpose of having sex, Lilith refused to be subservient to him, questioning why she should be made to lie

114

beneath him. When Adam attempted to force her, she s he called upon the secret name of God and fled from Eden to the banks of the Red Sea. There, she mated with demons and gave birth to demons until God sent three angels to make her return to Adam. Lilith claimed that due to the things she had done since leaving him she could not return to Adam. The angels told her that if she did not return to Adam, she would die. Again Lilith argued, stating that she had been created immortal, a being which could not die. The angels then told Lilith that one hundred of her children would be slain for each day that she refused to return to Adam. In response, Lilith vowed to kill one unprotected child for every one of her children that was destroyed. An arrangement was reached and God created c reated Eve for Adam while Lilith became the first vampire and slipped into the role of  being Queen of the Demons, alternately seducing men and eating children, and making guest appearances throughout history. Those who have read the Bible, however, may know that there is no mention of any such person as Lilith in the book of Genesis, although she is mentioned in the book of Isaiah (34:14). There is also no mention of Adam ever having had a first wife. Delving a bit deeper, one may discover a Lilith Lil ith mentioned in the Midrash. Further investigation will show the recurrence of the tale of the first wife of  Adam in the Talmud. For those who are unfamiliar with these books, the Midrash is a collection of Hebrew legends, and the Talmud is a Hebrew text, written by rabbis as a type of written interpretation of  oral traditions associated with the Torah. The Old Testament of the Bible is essentially the Christian version of the Torah and therefore the Torah and its associated books become a good resource for researching Biblical mythology. In returning to our topic, we see repeated in the Midrash the belief  that Adam had a wife before Eve. Lilith is never named as this first wife. She is However, mentioned four times in the Talmud as a longhaired demon. Since this is the form that Adams first wife is reported to have taken after leaving him, we can reasonably assume that the two myths have become intertwined over time, making Lilith the first wife of Adam. The belief that Adam had a first wife at all is based on the fact that the creation of man and woman is described twice in the story of creation. c reation. The first description, “as man and woman He created them,” varies greatly from the second description,  “God formed man from the dust... and the Lord fashioned into a woman the rib, which He had taken from the man.” The reasoning of  the rabbis who wrote the Midrash was that the variations in the two

115

descriptions meant that they were actually related to two separate incidents. It is important to note however, that this line of reasoning is flawed by two major arguments. The first of these arguments is the fact that each of these descriptions tells not only of the creation of a woman, but also of a man. If the rabbis had been correct in reaching their conclusion, then one must assume that God did not merely create one man and two women. The implication would be that God created two women and two men. The second argument involves the fact that both descriptions of creation also explain the populating by God of a planet with plants and animals. To follow the thinking of the rabbis, one must in fact accept the theory that God created not only two men and two women, but also two entire planets, each containing oceans, rivers and atmospheres, and each thriving with life.So where did the story of Lilith come from and how did it come to be b e so closely related to the story of creation? The answer to that question comes in understanding a bit about the early Hebrews. The Hebrews believed that their god was w as the one true God and that all other gods worshipped by their neighboring nations were in fact demons. They incorporated this belief into their teachings by associating the gods of other nations with wi th demons in their own religion. It is in this manner that the Babylonian god Baal becomes Baalzbub (or Beelzebub). The same is true of Lilith. She is not in herself a character relevant to Judaism; she is a fragment of other religions, which was incorporated into Judaic tradition to give name to a demon created out of the misunderstanding of the two parts of the story of creation. The rabbis drew from a wealth of mythology provided by their Mesopotamian neighbors, primarily the Canaanites, the Sumerians, and the Greeks. Each of these cultures cul tures has, in their respective pantheons, a goddess who fits the basic description of Lilith, without the first wife of Adam bit bi t of course. Since we are looking for the roots of the vampire, and not a marital record of Adam, that part of the myth is basically irrelevant to us anyway. It served merely as a platform from which to begin our investigation of the theory of first vampire, which we will continue now by exploring the pantheons of the esopotamian neighbors of the Hebrews.

116

Lilith BibliographyDiscuss Bibliography Discuss By Rebecca By  Rebecca Lesses

Until the late twentieth century the demon Lilith, Adam’s first wife, had a fearsome reputation as a kidnapper and murderer of children and seducer of men. Only with the advent of the feminist movement in the 1960s did she acquire her present high status as the model for independent women. The feminist theologian judith theologian  judith plaskow’s plaskow’s midrash on the story of Lilith played a key role in transforming Lilith from a demon to a role model. As an individual Lilith is first known from the Alphabet of Ben Sira, a provocative and often misogynist satirical Hebrew work of the eighth century c.e., c. e., but the liliths as a category of  demons, along with the male lilis, have existed for several thousand years. The Bible mentions the lilith only once, as a dweller in waste places (Isaiah 34:14), but the characterization of the lilith or the lili (in the singular or plural) as a seducer or slayer of children has a long prehistory in ancient Babylonian religion. J. A. Scurlock writes, “The lilûdemons and their female counterparts the lilitu or ardat lilî-demons were hungry for victims because they had once been human; they were the spirits of young men and women who had themselves died

117

young.” These demons “slipped through windows into people’s houses looking for victims to take the place of husbands and wives whom they themselves never had.” Another, related demoness was Lamashtu, who threatened new-born babies and “had a disagreeable taste for human flesh and blood.” The figures of Lamashtu and the lilû and lilitu demons eventually converged to form one type of evil figure that seduced men and women and attacked children (Hutter). The liliths are known particularly from the Aramaic incantation bowls from Sassanian and early Islamic Iraq and Iran (roughly 400–800 C.E.). These are ordinary earthenware bowls that ritual specialists or laypeople from the Jewish, Mandaean, Christian and pagan communities, who lived in close proximity in the cities of Babylonia, inscribed with incantations in their own dialects of Aramaic. A drawing of a bound lilith or other demon often appears in the center of the bowl. The bowls’ purpose was usually to exorcise demons from the house or from the body of the clients cli ents named on the bowls, or to turn back malevolent magic that others had practiced against the clients. The liliths appear in lists of evil spirits that often refer to the “male and female liliths,” reflecting the ancient conception that these evil demons could appear in either male or female form. The bowl-texts accuse the liliths of haunting people in dreams at night or visions of the day. One text describes the liliths “who appear to human beings, to men in the likeness of women and to women in the likeness of men, and they lie with all human beings at night and during the day” (Montgomery 117). Thus one prominent characteristic of the liliths is that they attack people in the sexual and reproductive realm of life. It is no wonder, therefore, that some of the writers of the bowl-incantations employed the language of divorce to rid people of the liliths. The liliths also attack children. One of the bowls accuses “Hablas the lilith, granddaughter of Zarni the lilith” of “striking boys and girls”  (Montgomery, 168). Another text says that this lilith “destroys and kills and tears and strangles and eats boys and girls” (Montgomery, 193). The few references to Lilith in rabbinic literature point to a figure very much like the female lilith of the incantation bowls. Rabbi Óanina (b. Shab. 151b) refers to the sexual danger that the lilith constitutes for

118

men: “It is forbidden to sleep in a house alone, and whoever sleeps in a house alone, a lilith seizes him.” Two other references to the lilith point to her physical appearance: she has wings and long hair. Drawings of the liliths or demons on the incantation bowls bear out these details of physical appearance. “Rav Judah said in the name of  Samuel: An abortion with the likeness of a lilith, its mother is impure because of the birth, for it is a child, but it has wings” (BT Niddah 24b). Lilith’s image as a dangerous demon persists in the Alphabet of Ben Sira, where she becomes the first wife of Adam (Stern; Yassif 1984). As Scholem (1974) remarks, this tale “sets out to explain the already widespread custom of writing amulets against Lilith.” God created Lilith from the earth after the creation of Adam. They immediately began to fight over who would be on top during sexual intercourse. Lilith said,  “We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.” Lilith then pronounced God’s name and flew away into the air. At Adam’s request, God sent three angels to bring Lilith back, but she refused. According to one version of the tale, she told them that she could not return to her first husband because she had already slept with the “Great Demon.” She told the angels a ngels that she was created only to sicken newborn babies babi es and that she had dominion over males until the eighth day (when the boy is circumcised) and over females until the twelfth day after birth. The angels then told her that they would not force her to go back b ack to Adam as long as she agreed to leave the child alone when she saw an amulet inscribed with the angels’ names and forms. Many amulets have been made against Lilith that refer to this tale. For example, exampl e, Sefer Raziel (Amsterdam, 1701) contains instructions, with drawings, of how to make an amulet against Lilith. Even today, it is possible to purchase amulets made according to this model in Jerusalem shops that sell religious articles. Lilith became a figure of cosmic evil in medieval Kabbalah Kabbalah.. In the thirteenth-century “Treatise on the Left Emanation,” she became the female consort of Samael (Scholem, 1927; Dan). The “Great Demon”  of the Alphabet of Ben Sira was given the name of Samael. According to earlier midrashim he had seduced the serpent to evil in the Garden of Eden and he was long identified as the angel of death and the

119

guardian angel of Rome. In the “Treatise on the Left Emanation,”  Samael and Lilith emanated together from beneath the Throne of Glory as a result of the sin of the first humans in the Garden of Eden. Their mythological characteristics were further developed in the Zohar (Tishby; Scholem 1974). There, Lilith and Samael emanated together from one of the divine powers, the sefirah of Gevurah (Strength). On the side of evil, the Sitra Ahra (the “Other Side”), they correspond to the holy divine female and male: “Just as on the side of holiness so on  ‘the other side’ there are male and female, included one with the other” (Tishby, II: 461). Lilith Li lith attempted intercourse with Adam before the creation of Eve, and after the creation of Eve she fled and ever after has plotted to kill newborn children. She dwells in the “cities of  the sea” and at the end of days God will make her dwell in the ruins of  Rome (Tishby). In the Zohar Lilith’s demonic sexuality sexuali ty comes especially to the fore. She attempts to seduce men and use their seed to create bodies for her demonic children. The Zohar recommends the performance of a special ritual before sexual intercourse between husband and wife, in which the husband should turn his mind to God and say, “Veiled in velvet, are you here?/Loosened, loosened (be your spell)!/Go not in and go not out!/Let there be none of you y ou and nothing of your part!”  (Scholem 1965: 157). She is the seductive harlot who leads men astray, but when they turn to her, she transforms into the angel of  death and kills them (Tishby). The traditional depiction of Lilith from ancient Mesopotamia through medieval Kabbalah presents an antitype of desired human sexuality and family life. Lilith not only embodies people’s fears of how attraction to others can ruin their marriages, or of how risky childbearing and raising children are, but also represents a woman whom society cannot control—a woman who determines her own sexual partners, who is wild and unkempt, and who does not have the natural consequences of sexual activity, children. The contemporary feminist movement found an inspiration in this image of Lilith as the uncontrollable woman and decisively changed the image of Lilith from demon to powerful woman. In 1972 Lilly Rivlin published an article on Lilith for the feminist magazine Ms., with the

120

aim of recovering her for contemporary women. The Jewish feminist magazine Lilith, founded in the fall of 1976, took her name because the editors were inspired by Lilith’s fight for equality with Adam. An article in the introductory issue spelled out Lilith’s appeal and rejected the understanding of her as a demon. Since then, interest in Lilith has only grown among Jewish feminists, neo-pagans, listeners to contemporary music by women (highlighted in the Lilith Fair), poets and other writers. A useful recent book collecting many articles and poems on Lilith, with specific focus on her importance for Jewish women, is Whose Lilith? (1998). As Lilly Rivlin writes in her  “Afterword,” “In the late twentieth century, self-sufficient women, inspired by the women’s movement, have adopted the Lilith myth as their own. They have transformed her into a female symbol for autonomy, sexual choice, and control of one’s own destiny.”  Bibliography Books

Dame, Enid, Lilly Rivlin, and Henny Wenkart, eds. Which Lilith?  Feminist Writers Re-create the World’s First Woman . Introduction by Naomi Wolf. Northvale, NJ: 1998. Montgomery, James. Aramaic Incantation Texts from Nippur . Philadelphia: 1913. Naveh, Joseph, and Shaul Shaked. Amulets and Magic Bowls: Aramaic  Incantations of Late Antiquity . Second edition. Jerusalem: 1987. Naveh, Joseph, and Shaul Shaked. Magic Spells and Formulae. Jerusalem: 1993. Patai, Raphael. The Hebrew Goddess. 1967. Third enlarged edition. Detroit: 1990. Chapter Seven is devoted to Lilith. Scholem, Gershom. On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism. Trans. Ralph Manheim. New York: 1965.

121

Scholem, Gershom. On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead: Basic  Concepts in the Kabbalah. New York: 1991. Schrire, Theodore. Hebrew Amulets: Their Decipherment and  Interpretation. London: 1966. Tishby, Isaiah. The Wisdom of the Zohar. 3 vols. Trans. David Goldstein. Oxford: 1989. Trachtenberg, Joshua. Jewish Magic and Superstition. 1939. Reprint, N.Y.: 1970. Yassif, Eli. The Hebrew Folktale: History, Genre, Meaning. Trans. Jacqueline S. Teitelbaum. Bloomington: 1999. Yassif, Eli. Tales of Ben of Ben Sira in the Middle Ages (Hebrew). Jerusalem: 1984. Articles

 “The Alphabet of Ben Sira.” In Rabbinic Fantasies, edited by David Stern and Mark Jay Mirsky, 167–202. Philadelphia: 1990. Dan, Joseph. “Samael, Lilith, and the Concept of Evil in Early Kabbalah.” In Essential Papers on Kabbalah, edited by Lawrence Fine, 154–178. New York: 1995. Hutter, M. “Lilith.” In Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, edited by Karel van der d er Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter W. van der Horst. Leiden: 1995. Lesses, Rebecca, “Exe(o)rcising Power: Women as Sorceresses, Exorcists, and Demonesses in Babylonian Jewish Society in Late Antiquity.”  JAAR  JAAR 69 (2001): 343–375. Levine, Baruch, “The Language of the Magic Bowls.” In A History of  the Jews in Babylonia, Vol. 5, edited by Jacob Neusner, 243–373. Leiden: 1970.

122

Plaskow, Judith. “The Coming of Lilith.” In Religion and Sexism: Images of Women in the Jewish and Christian Traditions, edited by Rosemary Ruether, 341–343. New York: 1974. Scholem, Gershom. “Lilith.” In Kabbalah, by Gershom Scholem, 356– 360. Jerusalem: 1974. Scholem, Gershom. “New Contributions to the Discussion of Ashmedai and Lilith” (Hebrew). Tarbiz 19 (1947/8): 165–175. Scholem, Gershom. “The Kabbalah of R. Jacob and R. Isaac, the sons of R. Jacob ha-Kohen” (Hebrew). Madda‘ei ha-Yahadut 2 (1927): 244– 264. Publication of “Treatise on the Left L eft Emanation” by R. Isaac ben R. Jacob ha-Kohen. Scurlock, J. A. “Baby-snatching demons, restless souls, and the dangers of childbirth: medico-magical means of dealing with some of  the perils of motherhood in ancient Mesopotamia.”  Incognita 2 (1991): 137–185. Teugels, G.M.G. “The Creation of the Human in Rabbinic Tradition.” In The Creation of Man and Woman: Interpretations of the Biblical  Bibl ical  Narratives in Jewish and Christian Traditions, edited by Gerard P.

Luttikhuizen, 107–127. Leiden: 2000 Did you know that Eve wasn't the first woman created by God? Apparently, not according to Jewish Midrash. It was Lilith. Last night I watched the History Channel show Banned from the Bible II , and they exposed this possibility that Adam's first wife wasn't Eve, but Lilith. The Jewish Midrash explains it by claiming that God indeed created man and woman on the sixth day, that being Adam and Lilith. However, Lilith did not follow the idea that she should be submissive to Adam, and Adam didn't like that. (And this may explain why Frasier's wife was named Lilith, too--you know Frasier?NBC? Cheers? Okay.) So, God apparently agreed with Adam and said that he would make Adam a mate from Adam's own rib, so that the woman made with a piece of Adam would know to be submissive to Adam. Thus, the story in Genesis that Adam went into a deep sleep and God made Eve from Adam's rib.

123

Lilith apparently was banished and made out to be a demon. Or, as the Jewish Midrash describes, that Lilith was made a demon. (Was she being the jealous lover in the guise g uise of a snake? Or did God change Lilith into a snake? For the sake of all humanity, I would hope God was more kind to Lilith than that.) However, "Everything "Everything derives from woman," woman," according to Midrash: Genesis Rabbah, 17. So, how can man dominate woman? Is this the intent of God when He created woman, for man to dominate woman and for woman to completely submit to man? In a perfect world, sure this would work, because man would not be human and do stupid things to subordinate and severely impair woman's gifted role in life. But, no. God's creation in Eve caused caus ed the "original sin," as Adam submitted to Eve's encouragement to eat the forbidden fruit of the tree of life. I'm sure God was shaking his head in disbelief that Eve, the woman who was created to be submissive to Adam would be the undoing of the entire human race. Eve was supposed to be submissive to Adam, not to a snake. And Adam was so gullible. I mean, where's Adam's balls here? Why didn't he stand up to Eve and just say NO? (Too bad Nancy Reagan wasn't alive then.) All our anguish because Adam was a wimp. He couldn't live with God's first creation of woman. (Maybe Lilith was the one with the balls, not Adam??) What was so flawed with Lilith, anyway? Why couldn't God give marriage counseling to Adam and Lilith, so they could work out their differences and learn to love each other? This really throws a wrench into the Catholic thinking that a man and woman are bound for life in matrimony, with no reprival for divorce. Look at it this way: The first man and woman bound together by God, was put asunder (Was God really okay with this?), and God basically scrapped Lilith and then created Eve to mate with Adam. Could this event actually have been the first "original sin"??? Could this have a direct effect on the "original sin" of Adam and Eve? (Someone has got to create a play or Broadway show on this whole drama between Eve, Lilith and Adam.) Did Lilith get a bum rap on this? Men have been playing this one-up game with women, apparently since the beginning of time. Men in power creating cultures that subdue and diffuse the powerful gift gi ft of women. Women were created by God to give life, and most women also have the power to care and nurture that life. Men, when they play pl ay their games to force submission on women, forget their own role to provide for women and to provide

124

for their offspring, and men forget their role in relation to God and their world. Women, being of the mind to care and nurture, have taken up the slack of men. It has been that life-giving power of women of women that have created the greatest strides in human rights around the world. world. It seems that men want to break dance and show off, when God would prefer ballroom dance.

Lilith The figure of Lilith, daughter of the goddess Mehitabel, is a very complex one . Her image differs from culture to culture, as patriarchal values begin to gain dominance .

Ancient Sumeria In ancient Sumeria she was regarded as the "left hand" of the Great Goddess Inanna. She assisted her by bringing the men to the goddess' temples, to worship her, by participating in "Tantric" rites with the temple-women. As a result of this role, Lilith became known as seducer of men and as harlot. Among the Semitic speaking peoples of Mesopotamia she was first a figure similar to Lil, a Sumerian goddess of destructive winds and storms. When Hebrew/Semitic morals became dominant in the Near East she was equated and merged with Lamashtu, a demonic female spirit (sometimes witch) known in Syria as a killer of children. Here she acquired her characterization as a winged demon of the night [1], as dangerous vampire and succubus (Zohar), as mother of the incubi and as screech screeching ing night-owl (Bible). It is these personas that we will examine. How important is the idea of sexuality to the Creation of Lilith or was Lilith a benevolent Goddess who was raped by the coming Patriarchy. Sexuality

125

Sexuality is an important dimension of the human personality. It is an integrated unique expression of the idea of self, a self that encompasses the physiological and psychosocial process inherent in sexual development and sexual response. Sexuality is woven into the fabric of what it means to be human, and maybe into what it means to exist. Throughout history and time unrecorded, sexuality has had a profound role. This role is predicated on the idea that sex underlies much of who and what we are. The ideas of sexuality and identity flow together and expressed positively all enjoy the fruits of labor. However for our discussion today we want to look at the historical foundation for when it is not expressed positively or at least not in accordance with the cultural norms of the time. For the topic of this article we will examine the Goddess Lilith. We will look at her history form both a Kabalistic ideology as well as, Sumerian and Egyptian. Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told (The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,) That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive, And her enchanted hair was the first gold. And still she sits, young while the earth is old, And, subtly of herself contemplative, contemplative, Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave, Till heart and body and life are in its hold. The rose and poppy are her flower; for where Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare? Lo! as that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent And round his heart one strangling golden hair. (Collected Works, 216). Christian Bible

Genesis I: 27 read: "And Elohim created Adam in His Image, in the Image of God He created him; male and female He created them." 

Genesis II: 18 and 22 read: "And Yahweh said, 'It is not good for Adam to be alone. I will make a fitting helper for him.'...And Yahweh fashioned the rib that He had taken from the man into a woman; and He brought her to the man." It has been said that Genesis I and II are simply two separate Creation stories. That Genesis II was developed from a Sumerian story. It is also believed that Genesis I is a later creation of the Hebrew Priesthood. To people such as this scripture is the ultimate truths, the two versus create a contradiction that demands explanation and reconciliation. Adam was created to perfection. He was created in the perfect image of "Elohim." Of course, God is not seen as

126

being either male or female, instead as the mother and the father. Then Adam (which translates as "Mankind") must also have originally been male and female in one. To be otherwise would have been to be unbalanced, and thus imperfect. Adam's perfection was said to be even greater than that of the Angels. In fact, in this view, Adam was not a human at all - but a Cosmic Being known as Adam Kadmon. He was the Archetype upon which humans would later be based. Now, enters the passages from Genesis II. Just as the Unity of God was divided in two (the separation of the Waters by the Firmament) to create the Universe, so to was mankind created by the separation of the Archetypal Man into "its" two halves - male and female. Thus, woman was separated from man, and Adam Kadmon became an unbalanced creature - a human. This imperfection finally led to the Fall, the manifestation of the Human Race from Archetypal to the Actual. The woman was called Eve, which literally translates as "Life." Mankind was given Life, and the rest is history. As Adam's First Wife

Explanation number two, though just as Kabalistically useful in its own right, is vastly more fun - especially in terms of the myth. This is where Lilith enters the picture as the first wife of Adam. The verse from Genesis I, it can be explained as a hint to the entire Lilith affair. Genesis II:20 even helps back this up: "And the man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and  to all the wild beasts; but for Adam no fitting helper was found." 

The animals of the Earth had been created for the strict purpose of being helpers to Adam, and Lilith was among them. But, Lilith had failed, and no other beast came even close (apparently Lilith was the only animal enough like Adam to be a candidate at all). It is this divergences between the two versus, which allows Lilith to be presumed as Adam's first mate. It is funny that the clumsy menstruations of a bunch of  prehistoric men would create a feminist lighting rod that’s still charged in our present day. Lilith typifies the Freud-worshipping women, who are the revolutionary force behind the ideals of sexual politics. The idea of pre-nuptial promiscuity, while rejected by Israelite women was common practice of the Sumerians’ as well as other peoples during this time. Even with this, the idea of  Lilith would have died as rules and roles involving women changed. However, it didn’t, it persisted and still persist today. Could it be because, liberation was and still is needed, that the prophets of sexual transcendence are correct. That the sexual difference between men and women will always create this disparity and need for one to be controlled by the other. Or could it be something simple, yet insidious by it very existence.

127

Could the idea of Lilith persist because she persists? Is it so difficult for an, energy being, one who was created with a different life force, a different set of  rules to still exist, and to still hold sway over the ideas she sees as injustice to her sisterhood of women. She may not be Eve, but maybe she is Eve’s Sexual Mother her awakening. Maybe she takes the seed of those in slumber for her own erotic ends, maybe just maybe, that is the blood. And the Blood is the Life. Notes 1.

↑

Babylonian Talmud, Epstein Translation, Socino Press (1978)

Talmud citations are informed by the translations of I. Epstein. (The Babylonian Talmud. London: Socino Press, 1978) and Raphael Patai, Patai81, pp. 184f.). The Coming of Lilith: Essays on Feminism, Judaism, and Sexual Ethics, 19722003.... Hunt J Am Acad Relig.2006; 74: 998-1001 http://lilith.abroadplanet.com/goddess.php Plaskow, Judith. The Coming of Lilith: A Response Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion - Volume 23, Number 1, Spring 2007, pp. 34-41

128

Lilith: Adam's first wife Saturday, May 2, 2009

Did you know that Adam had a wife before Eve? No, she isn't mentioned in the Bible and the story is that while Eve is written, Lilith is spoken and hence the details are hazy. This is what I could find. According to Jewish folklore, Lilith was Adam's first wife. God made them from a single form of clay, as equals, and when he had completed them he separated them with one swift cut. Lilith and Adam were anxious to be joined again, so Adam asked Lilith to lie down beneath him. Lilith wasn't keen and challenged Adam wanting to know why she had to be underneath when they were equals. Why did he have to dominate when they were two halves made of the same clay? clay ? Adam tried to force her, but they were also of equal strength and he did not succeed. So Adam turned to God for help, lamenting about Lilith's Lil ith's defiance and refusal to serve him. She was banished b anished from the Garden of Eden and turned into a demoness. Adam was then given a second wife, Eve, who was fashioned from his rib to ensure her obedience to her man. And the rest is Biblical history. So, there you have it- the story of Lilith, Adam's first wife and the world's very first feminist. I'd heard of Lillith before. God save us from disobedient women hey? MAY 3, 2009 1:02 PM

129

Elisa said... Oh yes! I think we would make wonderful demonesses Jaime. I bags not having red hair like Lilith though... MAY 3, 2009 8:31 PM Jaime said... It's the red hair that obviously made her such a trouble maker though isn't it? MAY 3, 2009 9:08 PM Elisa said... You know what they say about rangas. MAY 3, 2009 9:19 PM Mac Yourselfathome said... They make hot Deputy Prime Ministers? (and they have ginger pubes) MAY 3, 2009 9:28 PM  jay_jay26 said... *correction* Lilith does not appear in the original texts of the Torah. However, liliths are actually demons with female form that kills babies of  Sumerian origin that are mention once in the bible on Is 34:14. The Lilith legend (Lillith, Adam's First Wife) that you mention here, was written in the "Alphabeth of Ben Sira" an anonymous book that satirized Jewish traditions between the 8th and 11th century (AC); it was made like that, because back then Jewish parents used some amulets to prevent babies from dying. Lillith (as Adam's first wife) doesn't appear in the Talmud either. Ah, Eve was created from the rib, meaning she's the same as Adam; not from a foot, as if she's s he's inferior,

130

or his head, as if she's superior. The Zohar (another sacred Jewish book, used a lot in Kabbalah) mention a simmilar story: a female demon who wants to be with Adam (he already having Eve), gets mad because she cannot get close to him, and decides to slay babies. She's mentioned again in the Zohar as the wife of Samael (the king of  demons). MAY 26, 2009 8:57 PM Anonymous said... Why God Din't crated Eve when he created Adam and he only decided to create Eve when he saw tha Adam was sad, so he did not have any intention to create a woman for Adam, Also Why the name of this woman is "Eve" so close to "Evil" Could someone answer it? JUNE 2, 2009 1:12 PM JohnPaul said... The story of Lilith as Adam's first wife is pieced together from many sources, but is ultimately based on two verses in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. Genesis 1-27 describes the creation of mankind on the sixth day, male and female, from the dust of the earth, in the image of God, to share equally in dominion over all the earth. This first woman is not named and nothing more is said about her in the Bible. In Genesis 2-22,later, after the original origina l creation, after Adam has been placed in the Garden of Eden alone, introduced to all the animals, etc, God puts Adam to sleep, takes out one of his ribs, and makes Eve out of it, for the specific purpose of serving as Adam's "help meet" (sexual partner, cook, etc?) These are obviously two different "first women" in the Bible. The real explanation of this is, of course, that Genesis was written by at least two, and possibly as many as five different writers, at different places and times, later mixed together. Incidentally, the Hebrews stole most

131

of Genesis from Babylonian mythology during their 80 years of  captivity in Babylon. If it was really written by God, then it must have been the Babylonian god Marduk. JUNE 2, 2009 5:37 PM

Anonymous said... Adam only had one wife- Eve. Women weren't made to be obedient to men and that is not why she was made from him. Lilith doesn't even exist JUNE 10, 2009 10:02 PM Lo said... Interesting story, but it is a story none the less. God created Adam and Eve. Eve is Adam's ezer. This Hebrew word is most often interpreted as the notorious and ambiguous "help meet", but is more accurately translated as "sustainer beside me". I once heard it described beautifully: "Eve was taken from Adam's side to be equal with him, from under his arm for him to protect her, and from next to his heart so he will always love her." It is truly a tragedy that something so amazing and literally heaven-sent is too often made ugly and so much less than it could be. - A cherished wife and follower of Jesus JULY 8, 2009 6:21 AM

Anonymous said...

132

Reading all that old crap from history can really mess up ones mind sometimes, but you have to look at reality. Love is a action, Men don't know what love really is, unless they are willing to admit "man" has been MEAN to "woman" through out history, and women have been degraded through man, only money can degrade a women through man's sneaky ways. Men see visually, and that is love to them at first, women they take heart. Once a man m an takes heart, he understands a woman's point of view how unfair man has been to women, then they become equal, "REAL LOVE". AND, The GOLDEN RULE is: One should behave toward others as one would have others behave toward oneself. All culture's rule. Christianity All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye so to them; for this is the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:1 Confucianism Do not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state. Analects 12:2 Buddhism Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. Udana-Varga 5,1 Hinduism This is the sum of duty; do naught onto others what you would not have them do unto you. Mahabharata 5,1517 Islam No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. Sunnah Judaism What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is

133

the entire Law; all the rest is commentary. Talmud, Shabbat 3id Taoism Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss. Tai Shang Kan Yin P’ien Zoroastrianism That nature alone is good which refrains from doing another whatsoever is not good for itself. Dadisten-I-dinik, 94,5 Any ways, most can't follow this rule sadly to say. Look at the reality of this world is. Their are straving people in the world, and the churches are pretty well off in money, so much invested in churches, and not to the straving people. Does Jesus really like a build all fancy and trimmed up to the fullest of everything it has in it? i t? OR Does Jesus want people to be fed, helped in which ever way they may be needed in help. The Churches are to selfish to see the whole point of Jesus, and yet the churches collect money and live rightously under god, with out giving it a second s econd thought how many homeless people are on earth with out food, shelter, and ragged clothes to ware. Where are the workers of the churches to busy pretending to work for God, and fooling the nation. Thinking the are rightous just because they work in the church and forgetting about the needy. How many lost homes...lately? The real Church is the body, and "MAN" built church out of GREED, for what is that building mean to someone dieing in the gutter? The money that built the church, should go to helping each other in need. So when I say men see visually...yep the sure do. Men creat they own sin's. and...money is the root of all evil. They trick women to their little games by the traditions of men, some call it being MACHO, I call it MEAN. I hope that you understand what I told you, was out of good faith...and the 10 commandment are "never" to be rules out of life.

134

They are their for a GOOD reason, he followed his God Laws, not man's laws. Which are changed by man, tratitionally, Even the Sabbath day, today is "ruled out" to Sunday. Man's Law, Blue Law, Roman Law what ever you may call it, it is not the sabbath day, Jesus never changed this law, and neither can man. So I say to you keep being good in your hearts, and may-be someday, us Women can rule the nation on love first, and make it a better world, because man can't alone. They have screwed up to much any how, look at all the warring they have caused, through out history. Do women do this? No they would rather kiss their baby's and want them safe. Take good care, Debbie JULY 15, 2009 6:46 AM

Anonymous said... wow. never knew this piece of information his kinda questions God's sense of fairness tho. he penalized eve jus coz she was so headstrong of not being inferior to adam.that is so messed up and hypocritical. JULY 26, 2009 1:09 AM Anonymous said... love the story, but thats all it is, infact thats all it all is, stories, entertaining sure, but not something to live by JULY 28, 2009 9:43 PM

135

Mica said... What Adam's 2nd wife the before Eve & after Lilith... The Alphabet of Ben Sira Midrash goes even further and identifies a third wife, created after Lilith deserted Adam, but before Eve. This unnamed wife was purportedly made in the same way as Adam, from the "dust of the earth", but the sight of her being created proved too much for Adam to take and he refused to go near her. It is also said that she was created from nothing at all, and that God created into being a skeleton, then organs, and then flesh. The Midrash tells that Adam saw her as "full of blood and secretions," suggesting that he witnessed her creation and was horrified at seeing a body from the inside out. Ben Sira does not record this wife's fate. She was never named, and it assumed that she was allowed to leave the Garden a perpetual virgin, or was ultimately destroyed by God in favor of Eve, who was created when Adam was asleep and oblivious. It should be noted here, that both Lilith and the Second Wife are free from any curse of  the Tree of Knowledge, as they left long before the event occurred AUGUST 18, 2009 10:56 AM Anonymous said... Wow, Mica, I had never heard about this third wife. Do you have a more specific source to point to? I would be quite interested in reading the related passages. SEPTEMBER 19, 2009 2:53 PM Anonymous said... Did you know Adam didn't exist? SEPTEMBER 19, 2009 10:46 PM

136

Anonymous said... Tsk Tsk that’s what Lilith got for disobeying God. SEPTEMBER 20, 2009 11:16 PM

Anonymous said... The comments on this blog are better than the blog post itself. I wish I could thumb up some better information than what is up there. So which is it? Real or not real lilith? SEPTEMBER 20, 2009 11:59 PM

Anonymous said... Lilith is actually older then the bible/Adam myth and anything assoicated with it. Lilith is dipicted as "the hand of Inanna", an ancient Sumerian Goddess who predates Christianity. Any inclusion in the Adam story is an attempt to rewrite ancient Gods/Goddesses into more contemporary forms. SEPTEMBER 21, 2009 2:32 PM

Anonymous said... nephilims, lilith, missing books and pages from the bible the truth should be told, god made us so that we may find a away to go back to him in heaven but he made satan a real evil angel who has got some followers, now for the truth: (1) RF.I.D CHIP is in the book of revlation it is a chip a very mirco chip so small it is the same size as rice grain it is implanted in your arm or your forehead very man and woman, girl,

137

boy, and baby the rich and the poor will a chip implanted in them (2)MISSING BOOKS- THE GOSPEL OF judas, mary magdalene, thomas, enoch, jesus christ, arch michael, adam and eve, andrew, barnabas, nicodemus.... (3)THE TRUTH ABOUT THE CHURCH'S: the true churh is inside of you not in a building or going to church to change your life to hear a man or a woman to speak it is not the truth it is mainly to control the masses the more people to control and influence them to do there bidding, pages have pulled out the bible for 1 reason and that is CONTROL AND INFLUENCE... GOD BE WITH YOU TILL MEET AGAIN!!!!!!!! SEPTEMBER 23, 2009 5:49 PM Anonymous said... Adam and Eve bore no daughters. Cain and Abel couldn't have children. Adam and Lilith must have had daughters,or we wouldn't exist.King James only "allowed" what he thought should be in the Bible, not what really should've been in the Bible. It was a control issue by Government. sound Familiar? SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 10:20 AM elizabeth erin greenfield said... There is another story about lilith--you can reference ellen frankl for it better, but it says that she had wanted to be equal with adam, and adam refused, so she was not banished but rather left Eden, refusing to settle. After she left, Adam was lonely, and three angels were sent by Gd to try to convince her to return to Eden and Adam--and she consented, on the condition of equality. When Adam refused this, she refused to return. It was at this time that some midrashim about her

138

claim that she was cursed, that she would bear countless children but have to watch 100 of them die each day. On a side note, there was a legend that because of this, she would sometimes haunt women in labor, and in yiddishkeit, women in labor would hold a pendant with the names of the three angels who had tried to appeal to Lilith as a protection against her during labor. OCTOBER 21, 2009 8:37 PM

Anonymous said... All of these comments and half go south on another subject...anyone ever see the fact of the bible bib le no matter which you grab- when man was made he was"created in OUR image? who is the our in this...most pple believe in ONE GOD regardless of name but how could ONE god be an OUR....unless one could return in time or find a complete written story in true original form not a interpretation of another we will never know and will always disagree... FEBRUARY 3, 2010 5:31 AM Siv said... Why not ask a clairvoyant? Ask a dozen, get 12 different stories, and build up a skeleton of the core that disseminates of all the stories. Ask 30 more, and do the same. After a 50 stories, you should be b e able to tell the difference from the channelers own illusions and fears from the real story. And youll get a dramatic story of love and anguish, better than tv.. FEBRUARY 18, 2010 9:27 PM

Anonymous said...

139

The point here is that neither Lilith nor Eve was created to be subserviant to man ("Adam"). My Creator did not give me life only for me to live that life l ife as a lesser being to just serve the opposite gender. Child bearing is one of the most powerfull phenominons in this world - a man could never do it, left on their own - men would not exist. That is not feminist its fact. FEBRUARY 23, 2010 7:31 AM Anonymous said... Genesis is "The first book of Moses" - so Moses is credited as having written it. Jewish, Messianic, and Hebrew religious tradition ascribes authorship of the Torah to Moses through a process of divine inspiration. The Zohar, the most significant text in Jewish mysticism, states that the Torah was created prior to the creation of the world, and that it was used as the blueprint for Creation. According to dating of the text by Orthodox rabbis, though some place it earlier, that the revelation of the Torah to Moses occurred in 1312 BCE at Mount Sinai. So we get how important Moses is right? There are two clear references to human creation within "Genesis The first book of Moses". (1.27 - So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 1.28 - And God blessed them, and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it) That was on the fifth day.

140

After that - days six and seven are detailed. And then after that (2.7 - then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being). The name "Adam" is referenced G3.17. (2.22 - and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man)."Eve" is referenced G.20. So according to Genesis there was a male and female couple before Adam and Eve - and they were created on the 5th day. So back to the topic - Lilith .. Writings of two brothers, Jacob and Isaac Hacohen, predates the Zohar (which I mentioned above) by a few decades, states that Samael and Lilith are in the shape of an androgynous being, doublefaced, born out of the emanation of the Throne of Glory and corresponding in the spiritual realm to Adam and Eve, who were likewise born as a hermaphrodite. The two twin androgynous couples resembled each other and both "were like the image of Above"; that is, that they are reproduced in a visible form of an androgynous deity. Two twin androgynous couples - what, like siamese twins? Yep. The first pair were created at the same time - male and female. And on reading the bible passage it makes sense. Read it - Genesis 1.27. With the second pair one was created from the other G2.23 - Then the man said "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh". siamese twins again. Adam and Eve. It's very possible that Lillith was indeed the first woman. And Samuel

141

the first man. Adam and Eve were the 2nd man and woman. Adam and Lillith did hook up though. Lillith gets some terrible mentions as being a harlot, demon, etc all over the place throughout varying religions. The first medieval source to depict Adam and Lilith in full was the Midrash Abkir (ca. 10th century), which was followed by the Zohar and Kabbalistic writings. Adam is said to be perfect until he recognizes either his sin or Cain's homicide that is the cause of  bringing death into the world. He then separates from holy Eve, sleeps alone, and fasts for 130 years. During this time Lilith desired his beauty and came to him against his will. She bore him many demons and spirits called "the plagues of humankind". The added explanation was that it was through Adam's own sin that Lilith overcame him against his will. Weird how throughout religious history beautiful red haired hai red women with a modicum of sensed power are so quickly crushed underfoot in a male dominated religion / world. Lillith strikes me as similar to Mary Magdeline. But that's just my take ;) MARCH 28, 2010 2:50 AM Anonymous said... I'm afraid you're wrong February 23, 2010 7.31am. Genesis 3.16 - To the woman he said "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.

142

According to the Old Testament all women from Eve on are punished for her taking the apple from the tree and males rule over females. Read it for yourself. When they were created both of these people were pure right? The serpent tells Eve to take the apple and eat it so she does - cause she's pure and how would she know anything was out to cause her harm. And she offers it to Adam who shares it with her. Eve is punished for her purity. Adam is not. MARCH 28, 2010 3:01 AM

Shaleyra said... Actually, the real reason why she left was because Lilith warned Adam. She told him that if he kept putting her below him she was going to leave. He didn't change. So she said 4 words in their language which mean "God". To say the name is to name the person and everything about the person. That name could not be b e said. So God gave her wings and she left to Heaven. The other stuff about being a demon was just added by men to ensure their position as idiots who think they rule everything. APRIL 5, 2010 9:48 AM

Anonymous said... Reading this story from an objective point of view, I have come to an interesting thought. Before in history there have been multiple multipl e species of humans. Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons for example, lived at the same time, but neanderthals were overcome by the more capable cro-

143

magnons, who did interbreed with them. Perhaps Lilith was an example of a variant species of human. That would explain why when Adam tried to mate with her by b y getting on top of her, she refused, because some species of primates only mate facing each other or sitting up. As the story says, the first man and woman came from the same origins, but that could mean that they descended from the same common ancestor, but were slightly different species. Then Eve, who was said to be created from Adam's rib, could have been from the same ancestor and of the same genetic g enetic makeup as Adam. Either that, or the reference to Eve being cloned from Adam's side could allude to budding, a primitive reproductive process. The species that predated mammals, but eventually led to their existence, might have been a primitive animal that reproduced through budding, and Eve was a result of a genetic mutation that resulted in 'male' and 'female'. It is interesting to note that an experiment a few years back traced all human mitochondrial DNA back to one female. So it is likely that we are all descended from one woman who successfully bred to create the foundation of the human race. Would be fascinating to be able to go back in time and see what all really happened at the origin of our species. APRIL 16, 2010 9:20 PM

Michael said... I adore you Lilith ... may your spirit endure into eternity my precious lover. JUNE 24, 2010 11:49 AM

Anonymous said...

144

I had a Swedish friend that got a old Swedish bible form a prison priest in Island. That Bible started with the creation of Lilith and Adam. I personally don't believe in todays Bible anyway, I red most of it, and frankly, I don't like murder, concurring and answering to power/leaders that much... And the fact that women are pretty much labelled as evil, stupid and inferior in the first chapters, put me off at an early stage, hehe. Why in the world would I follow a religion that diminishes me? Makes me puzzle why someone would actually... Not to mention that every "great story" of the Bible was written by others loong before the Christians came along with their pens. I would never let religion narrow down my spirituality :) PS: just saw a "show" from a baptist church when the wife of the priest had this hole speech about the importance of letting your man lead and you follow, so don't think it's all in the past.. Un mito que me fascina Lilith es un mito que incomoda a la mayoría de los hombres ya que los deja como niños malcriados que corren a llorar con papi cuando una mujer fuerte no les cumple sus caprichos. Aquí la historia tomada de Femina: ... Posted by Fabián Bautista at September 21, 2009 2:34 AM ELISA

A woman encroaching her late 30's, married m arried to a political junkie and mamma to gorgeous Seb and Max.

145

Looking for Lilith By: Eliezer Segal 

The feminist critique of conventional values has not overlooked the Jewish tradition. Whether or not one acknowledges the validity of all the charges that have been leveled against the treatment of women in Jewish law and theology, it is hardly possible to ignore these issues. As one who is normally sympathetic with feminist aspirations, I have often been disappointed with the scholarly standards of the debate, especially when it has been directed towards the classical texts of  Judaism. In the course of polemical ideological exchanges, I find too frequently that sweeping generalizations are being supported by flimsy or questionable evidence, with a disturbing disregard for factual accuracy and historical context. As an example of this sort of scholarly sloppiness, I wish to discuss an intriguing Hebrew legend that has found its way into dozens of recent works about Jewish attitudes towards women. The legend in question was inspired by the Bible's dual accounts of the creation of the first woman, which led its author to the conclusion that Adam had a first wife before his marriage to Eve. Adam's original mate was the demonic Lilith who had been fashioned, just like her male counterpart, from the dust of the earth. Lilith Lil ith insisted from the outset on equal treatment, a fact which caused constant friction between the couple. Eventually the frustrated Lilith used her magical powers to fly away from her spouse. At Adam's urging, God dispatched three angels to negotiate her return. When these angels made threats against agains t Lilith's demonic descendants, she countered that she would prey eternally upon newborn human babies, who could be saved only by

146

invoking the protection of the three angels. In the end Lilith stood her ground and never returned to her husband. The story implies that when Eve was afterwards fashioned out of  Adam's rib (symbolic of her subjection to him), this was to serve as an antidote to Lilith's short-lived attempt at egalitarianism. Here, declare the feminists matronizingly, we have a clear statement of the Rabbinic Attitude towards Women! There is only one slight problem with this theory: The story of Lilith Lili th is not actually found in any authentic rabbinic tradition. Although it is repeatedly cited as a "Rabbinic legend" or a "midrash," it is not recorded in any ancient Jewish text! The tale of Lilith originates in a medieval work called "the Alphabet  of Ben-Sira," a work whose relationship to the conventional streams of Judaism is, to say the least, problematic. The unknown author of this work has filled it with many elements that seem designed to upset the sensibilities of traditional Jews. In particular, the heroes of the Bible and Talmud are frequently portrayed in the most perverse colours. Thus, the book's protagonist, Ben-Sira, is said to have issued i ssued from an incestuous union between the prophet Jeremiah and his daughter. Joshua is described as a buffoon too fat to ride a horse. King David comes across as a heartless and spiteful figure who secretly delights in the death of his son Absalom, while putting on a disingenuous public display of grief. The book is consistently sounding the praises of hypocritical and insincere behaviour. So shocking and abhorrent are some of the contents of "the Alphabet of Ben-Sira" that modern scholars have been at a loss to explain why anyone would have written such a book. Some see it as an impious digest of risqué folk-tales. Others have suggested that it was a polemical broadside aimed at Christians, Karaites, or some other opposing movement. I personally would not rule out the possibility that it was actually an anti-Jewish satire--though, to be sure, it did come to be accepted by the Jewish mystics of medieval Germany; and amulets to fend off the vengeful Lilith became an essential protection for newborn infants in many Jewish communities. Eventually the tale of Lilith was included in a popular English-language compendium of Rabbinic legend, and some uncritical readers--unable or unwilling to check after the editor's sources--cited it as a representative Rabbinic statement on the topic. As tends to happen in such instances, subsequent authors kept copying from one another until the original error turned into an unchallenged historical fact. Certainly there are volumes of real texts and traditions that could benefit from a searching and critical feminist analysis, and it is a

147

shame to focus so much intellectual energy on a dubious and uncharacteristic legend of this sort. First publication: Jewish Free Press Feb. 6 1995. Bibliography: • * J. Dan, the Hebrew Story in the Middle Ages, Jerusalem, 1974. • * J. D. Eisenstadt, ed., Ozar Midrashim, Israel, n.d. MALE & FEMALE HE CREATED THEM... Genesis I: 27 reads: "And Elohim created Adam in His Image, I mage, in the Image of God He created him; male and female He created them." Genesis II:18 and 22 read: "And Yahweh said, 'It is not good for Adam to be alone. I will make a fitting helper for him.'...And Yahweh fashioned the rib that He had taken from the man into a woman; and He brought her to the man." Today, we know that Genesis I and II are simply two separate Creation stories. Genesis II derives from a Sumerian story, while Genesis I is a later creation of the Hebrew Priesthood (created by the Deuteronomic School around 700 BCE). However, to a people who were quite determined to take the Scriptures as ultimate ul timate Truth, such a contradiction was not welcome at all. It demanded an explanation that reconciled both stories. Explanation number one is perhaps the best—Qabalistically speaking. As we know, Adam was created to perfection. He was created in the perfect image of "Elohim." Of course, God is not seen as being either male or female, but as both at once. Even the Name Elohim is a feminine word (Eloah—Goddess) with a masculine plural suffix. Thus, if  God is male and female, the mother and the father, then Adam (which translates as "Mankind") must also have originally been male and female in one. To be otherwise would have been to be unbalanced, and thus imperfect. And thus was Adam's perfection, said to be even greater than the Angels. In fact, in this view, Adam was not a human at all—but a Cosmic Being known as Adam Kadmon. He was the Archetype upon which humans would later be based. Now, enters the passages from Genesis II. Just as the Unity of God was divided in two (the separation of the Waters by the Firmament) to create the Universe, so to was mankind mank ind created by the separation of  the Archetypal Man into "its" two halves—male and female. Thus, woman was separated from man, and Adam Kadmon became an unbalanced creature—a human. This imperfection finally led to the Fall, the manifestation of the Human Race from Archetypal to the Actual. The woman was called Eve, which literally translates as "Life." Mankind was given Life, and the rest is history.

148

Explanation number two, though just as Qabalistically useful in its own right, is nevertheless vastly more fun—especially mythologically speaking. This is where Lilith enters the picture as the first wife of  Adam. The verse from Genesis I was thus explained as a veiled hint to the entire Lilith affair. Genesis II:20 even helps back this up: "And the man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to all the wild beasts; but for Adam no fitting helper was found." The animals of the Earth had been created for the strict purpose of being helpers to Adam, and Lilith was among them. But, Lilith had failed, and no other beast came even close (apparently Lilith was the only animal enough like Adam to be a candidate at all). The next seen in the Scripture is where Yahweh breaks down and decides to chance separating Adam into his two halves of male and female. Without worrying over specific developments, I will simply relate the entire tale as it came to be after all. Following is the story of Lilith: THE MYTHOS: LILITH'S DEFIANCE Now Lilith was the first wife of Adam, well before the creation of Eve. She had been created along with him to be his helper, as the Torah states "Male and Female He created them." However, Lilith was not so suited as a companion for Adam. There was little on which they could agree In his attempt to mate with Lilith, Adam demanded missionary position. However, Lilith refused. "We were created equal, and thus we shall make love in equal positions." Adam replied that he, being the Image of the Elohim, would not stoop s toop to such a level as to be equal to Lilith, who was simply one of the many beasts of the field She was created as his helper, and that is how she would remain. Lilith, however, was far more than Adam had imagined. She went straight away to Yahweh, and used her prowess of seduction upon Him. Yahweh, known for his soft heart toward women, was finally lulled into revealing His sacred Name unto her. Thereupon Lilith pronounced the Divine Name, and flew away from the Garden and Adam forever. She took residence within a cave upon the shores of the Red Sea, where to this day she finds Her shelter Within. She accepted the demons of the world as her lovers, and spawned many thousands of  demon children in only a short time. It is thus that the world became populated with demons, and how Lilith came to be called the Mother of  Demons—wife of Asmodeus, the King of Demons. In this aspect, she was called the Younger Lilith. Adam, meanwhile, found that he regretted wishing Lilith away. He went to Yahweh and stated his case for the return of Lilith. Yahweh

149

agreed that a creature of Eden should not so easily depart that realm, and dispatched three Enforcer Angels to retrieve her. These three, Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangeloph, soon found Lilith within her cave, and demanded d emanded her return unto Adam by order of  Yahweh. If she refused, they informed her, they would slay one hundred of her demon children each day until she decided to return. Lilith exclaimed that even this fate was better than returning to Eden and submission to Adam. As the Enforcers carried out their threat, Lilith also made a terrible proclamation. In return for the pain delivered upon her, she would slay sl ay the children of Adam. She swore to attack children, and even their mothers, during child-birth. She also swore that all newborns were in danger of her wrath—baby girls for twenty days after birth, and boys for eight. Not only this, but she vowed also to attack men in their sleep. She would steal their semen to give birth to more demon children, which would replace those slain each day. However, even Lilith was not without feeling. She also made one other promise: wherever she saw displayed the names of the three Angels who opposed her, no one in that place would be in danger from her actions. And thus is the legend of Lilith. It does not end here by any means, and I will be adding to it as this document continues. I will go over the basic Hebraic interpretations (Folk and Religious), the later Qabalistic interpretation, the modern interpretation, and then I will conclude with my own interpretation. Chapter 10: Adam's Helpmeets (a) Having decided to give Adam a helpmeet lest he should be alone of  his kind, God put him into a deep sleep, removed one of his ribs, formed it into a woman, and closed up the wound, Adam awoke and said: 'This being shall be named "Woman", because she has been taken out o f man. A man and a woman shall be one flesh.' The title he gave her was Eve, 'the Mother of All Living''. 1 (b) Some say that God created man and woman in His own image on the Sixth Day, giving them charge over the world; 2 but that Eve did not yet exist. Now, God had set Adam to name every beast, bird and other living thing. When they passed before him in pairs, male and female, Adam-being already like a twenty-year-old man-felt jealous of  their loves, and though he tried coupling with each female in turn, found no satisfaction in the act. He therefore cried: 'Every creature but I has a proper matel', and prayed God would remedy this injustice. 3 (c) God then formed Lilith, the first woman, just as He had formed Adam, except that He used filth and sediment instead of pure dust.

150

From Adam's union with this demoness, d emoness, and with another like her named Naamah, Tubal Cain's sister, sprang Asmodeus and innumerable demons that still plague mankind. Many generations later, Lilith and Naamah came to Solomon's judgement seat, disguised as harlots of Jerusalem'. 4 (d) Adam and Lilith never found peace together; for when he wished to lie with her, she took offence at the recumbent posture he demanded. 'Why must I lie beneath you?' she asked. 'I also was made from dust, and am therefore your equal.' Because Adam tried to compel her obedience by force, Lilith, in a rage, uttered the magic name of God, rose into the air and left him. Adam complained to God: 'I have been deserted by my helpmeet' God at once sent the angels Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof to fetch Lilith back. They found her beside the Red Sea, a region abounding in lascivious demons, to whom she bore lilim at the rate of more than one hundred a day. 'Return to Adam without delay,' the angels said, `or we will drown you!' Lilith asked: `How can I return to Adam and live like an honest housewife, after my stay beside the Red Sea?? 'It will be death to refuse!' they answered. `How can I die,' Lilith asked again, `when God has ordered me to take charge of all newborn children: boys up to the eighth day of life, that of circumcision; girls up to the twentieth day. None the less, l ess, if ever I see your three names nam es or likenesses displayed in an amulet above a newborn child, I promise to spare it.' To this they agreed; but God punished Lilith by making one hundred of her demon children perish daily; 5 and if she could not destroy a human infant, because of the angelic amulet, she would spitefully turn against her own. 6 (e) Some say that Lilith ruled as queen in Zmargad, and again in Sheba; and was the demoness who destroyed job's sons. 7 Yet she escaped the curse of death which overtook Adam, since they had parted long before the Fall. Lilith and Naamah not only strangle infants but also seduce dreaming men, any one of whom, sleeping alone, may become their victim. 8 (f) Undismayed by His failure to give Adam a suitable helpmeet, God tried again, and let him watch while he built up a woman's anatomy: using bones, tissues, muscles, blood and glandular secretions, then covering the whole with skin and adding tufts of hair in places. The sight caused Adam such disgust that even when this woman, the First Eve, stood there in her full beauty, he felt an invincible repugnance. God knew that He had failed fail ed once more, and took the First Eve away. Where she went, nobody knows for certain. 9 (g) God tried a third time, and acted more circumspectly. Having taken a rib from Adam's side in i n his sleep, He formed it into a woman; then

151

plaited her hair and adorned her, like a bride, with twenty-four pieces of jewellery, before waking him. Adam was entranced. 10 (h) Some say that God created Eve not from Adam's rib, but from a tail ending in a sting which had been part of his body. God cut this off, and the stump-now a useless coccyx-is still carried by Adam's descendants. 11 (i) Others say that God's original thought had been to create two human beings, male and female; but instead He designed a single one with a male face looking forward, and a female face looking back. Again He changed His mind, removed Adam's backward-looking face, and built a woman's body for it. 12 (j) Still others hold that Adam was originally created as an androgyne of male and female bodies joined back to back. Since this posture p osture made locomotion difficult, and conversation awkward, God divided the androgyne and gave each half a new rear. These separate beings He placed in Eden, forbidding them to couple. 13 Notes on sources: 1. Genesis II. 18-25; III. 20. 2. Genesis I. 26-28. 3. Gen. Rab. 17.4; B. Yebamot 632. 4. Yalqut Reubeni ad. Gen. II. 21; IV. 8. 5. Alpha Beta diBen Sira, 47; Gaster, MGWJ, 29 (1880), 553 ff. 6. Num. Rab. 16.25. 7. Targum ad job 1. 15. 8. B. Shabbat 151b; Ginzberg, LJ, V. 147-48. 9. Gen. Rab. 158, 163-64; Mid. Abkir 133, 135; Abot diR. Nathan 24; B. Sanhedrin 39a. 10. Gen. II. 21-22; Gen. Rab. 161. 11. Gen. Rab. 134; B. Erubin 18a. 12. B. Erubin 18a. 13. Gen. Rab. 55; Lev. Rab. 14.1: Abot diR. Nathan 1.8; B. Berakhot 61a; B. Erubin 18a; Tanhuma Tazri'a 1; Yalchut Gen. 20; Tanh. Buber iii.33; Mid. Tehillim 139, 529. Back 2 Top Authors’ Comments on the Myth: 1. The tradition that man's first sexual intercourse was with animals, not women, may be due to the widely spread practice of bestiality among herdsmen of the Middle East, which is still condoned by custom, although figuring three times in the Pentateuch as a capital crime. In the Akkadian Gilgamesh Epic, Enkidu is said to have lived with gazelles and jostled other wild beasts at the watering place, until civilized by Aruru's priestess. Having enjoyed her embraces for six days and seven nights, he wished to rejoin the wild beasts but, to his surprise, they fled from him. Enkidu then knew that he had gained

152

understanding, and the priestess said: 'Thou art wise, Enkidu, like unto a godl' 2. Primeval man was held by the Babylonians to have been androgynous. Thus the Gilgamesh Epic gives Enkidu androgynous features: `the hair of his head like a woman's, with locks that sprout like those of Nisaba, the Grain-goddess.' The Hebrew tradition evidently derives from Greek sources, because both terms used in a Tannaitic midrash to describe the bisexual Adam are Greek: androgynos, 'man-woman', and diprosopon, 'twofaced'. Philo of  Alexandria, the Hellenistic philosopher and commentator on the Bible, contemporary with Jesus, held that man was at first bisexual; so did the Gnostics. This belief is clearly borrowed from Plato. Yet the myth of  two bodies placed back to back may well have been founded on observation of Siamese twins, which are sometimes joined in this awkward manner. The two-faced Adam appears to be a fancy derived from coins or statues of Janus, the Roman New Year god. 3. Divergences between the Creation myths of Genesis r and n, which allow Lilith to be presumed as Adam's first mate, result from a careless weaving together of an early Judaean and a late priestly tradition. The older version contains the rib incident. Lilith typifies the Anathworshipping Canaanite women, who were permitted pre-nuptial promiscuity. Time after time the prophets denounced Israelite women for following Canaanite practices; at first, apparently, with the priests' approval-since their habit of dedicating to God the fees thus earned is expressly forbidden in Deuteronomy xxIII. I8. Lilith's flight to the Red Sea recalls the ancient Hebrew view that water attracts demons. 'Tortured and rebellious demons' also found safe harbourage in Egypt. Thus Asmodeus, who had strangled Sarah's first six husbands, fled 'to the uttermost parts of Egypt' (Tobit viii. 3), when Tobias burned the heart and liver of a fish on their wedding night. 4. Lilith's bargain with the angels has its ritual counterpart in an apotropaic rite once performed in many Jewish J ewish communities. To protect the newborn child against Lilith-and especially a male, until he could be permanently safeguarded by circumcision-a ring was drawn with natron, or charcoal, on the wall of the birthroom, and inside it were written the words: 'Adam and Eve. Ev e. Out, Lilith!' Also the names Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof (meanings uncertain) were inscribed on the door. If Lilith nevertheless succeeded in approaching the child and fondling him, he would laugh in his sleep. To avert danger, it was held wise to strike the sleeping child's lips with one finger-whereupon Lilith would vanish. 5. 'Lilith' is usually derived from the Babylonian-Assyrian word lilitu, ,a female demon, or wind-spirit'-one of a triad mentioned in Babylonian spells. But she appears earlier as 'Lillake' on a 2000 B.G. Sumerian

153

tablet from Ur containing the tale of Gilgamesh and the Willow Tree. There she is a demoness dwelling in the trunk of a willow-tree wil low-tree tended by the Goddess Inanna (Anath) on the banks of the Euphrates. Popular Hebrew etymology seems to have derived 'Lilith' from layil, 'night'; and she therefore often appears as a hairy night-monster, as she also does in Arabian folklore. Solomon suspected the Queen of Sheba of  being Lilith, because she had hairy legs. His judgement on the two harlots is recorded in I Kings III. 16 ff. According to Isaiah xxxiv. I4I5, Lilith dwells among the desolate ruins in the Edomite Desert where satyrs (se'ir), reems, pelicans, owls, jackals, ostriches, arrow-snakes and kites keep her company. 6. Lilith's children are called lilim. In the Targum Yerushalmi, the priestly blessing of Numbers vi. 26 becomes: 'The Lord bless thee in all thy doings, and preserve thee from the Lilim!' The fourth-century A.D. commentator Hieronymus identified Lilith with the Greek Lamia, a Libyan queen deserted by Zeus, whom w hom his wife Hera robbed of her children. She took revenge by robbing other women of theirs. 7. The Lamiae, who seduced sleeping men, sucked their blood and ate their flesh, as Lilith and her fellow-demonesses did, were also known as Empusae, 'forcers-in'; or Mormolyceia, 'frightening wolves'; wolv es'; and described as 'Children of Hecate'. A Hellenistic relief shows a naked Lamia straddling a traveller asleep on his back. It is characteristic of  civilizations where women are treated as chattels that they must adopt the recumbent posture during intercourse, which Lilith refused. That Greek witches who worshipped Hecate favoured the superior posture, we know from Apuleius; and it occurs in early Sumerian representations of the sexual act, though not in the Hittite. Malinowski writes that Melanesian girls ridicule what they call `the missionary position', which demands that they should lie passive and recumbent. 8. Naamah, 'pleasant', is explained as meaning that 'the demoness sang pleasant songs to idols'. Zmargad suggest smaragdos, the semiprecious aquamarine; and may therefore be her submarine dwelling. A demon named Smaragos occurs in the Homeric Epigrams. 9. Eve's creation by God from Adam's rib-a myth establishing male supremacy and disguising Eve's divinity-lacks parallels in Mediterranean or early Middle-Eastern myth. The story perhaps derives iconotropically from an ancient relief, or painting, which showed the naked Goddess Anath poised in the air, watching her lover Mot murder his twin Aliyan; Mot (mistaken by the mythographer for Yahweh) was driving a curved dagger under Aliyan's fifth rib, not removing a sixth one. The familiar story is helped by a hidden pun on tsela, the Hebrew for 'rib': Eve, though designed to be Adam's helpmeet, proved to be a tsela, a 'stumbling', or 'misfortune'. Eve's formation from Adam's tail is an even more damaging myth; perhaps

154

suggested by the birth of a child with a vestigial tail instead of a coccyx-a not infrequent occurrence. 10. The story of Lilith's escape to the East and of Adam's subsequent marriage to Eve may, however, record an early historical incident: nomad herdsmen, admitted into Lilith's Canaanite queendom as guests (see 16. 1), suddenly seize power and, when the royal household thereupon flees, occupy a second queendom which owes allegiance to the Hittite Goddess Heba. The meaning of 'Eve' is disputed. Hawwah is explained in Genesis III. 20 as 'mother of all living'; but this may well be a Hebraicized form of  the divine name Heba, Hebat, Khebat or Khiba. This goddess, wife of  the Hittite Storm-god, is shown riding a lion in a rock-sculpture at Hattusaswhich equates her with Anath-and appears as a form of Ishtar in Hurrian texts. She was worshipped at Jerusalem (see 27. 6). Her Greek name was Hebe, Heracles's goddess-wife. I do not feel that any God or Goddess can be divorced from Their mythos. As I have stated elsewhere, a Mythology is the Soul of the God(s) it depicts. For instance, you and I both know that the Gods did not build the city of Babylon with Their own hands. Yet, if one were to call upon Great Marduk, He would have full memory of constructing the city. Likewise, we know that Adam and Eve did not exist as the "first humans." Yet, Lilith has full memory of Eden, the Fall, and every other event depicted in Genesis and the various v arious Hebraic Legends. It is thus that Lilith, though She is not the vile and disgusting ArchDemon envisioned by the early Judaic Peoples, is nevertheless affected by these conceptions of Her. Her Dark aspects, even the nastiest ones, are a part of Her, regardless of modern attempts to "liberate" Her. Lilith was not originally a benevolent Goddess who was raped by the Patriarchy. Kabbala: Lilith's Origins Note that the following passages are either informed by or related to the traditions of Lilith as Adam's first wife, referred to in the Alphabet of Ben Sira. Scholem concluded that references to Lilith in the Zohar were based on the Alphabet. [AH] Moses b. Solomon of Burgos In contrast to the above, the following passages appear to be unaware of any tradition of Lilith as Adam's first wife. Rather, she is mated to Samael (King of the demons, something like Satan) from the beginning Lilith is called the Northerner, because Out of the north the evil breaks forth (Jer. 1:14). Both Samael, king of the demons, and Lilith were born in a spiritual birth bi rth androgynously. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is an epithet for both Samael and Grandmother Lilith (e.g. the

155

Northerner). As a result of Adam's sin, both b oth of them came and confused the whole world, both the Upper one and the Nether one. (Based on the ed. of G. Scholem, quoted in Patai81:453) THE RELIGIOUS INTERPRETATION At this point I will include a Christian addition to the Lilith Mythos. Though it may not figure into the Hebraic views of her, it still stil l relates. This addition concerns Lilith's involvement with the Fall from Eden. Perhaps the most famous version of this Christian Lilith is the Sistine Chapel paintings by Michealangelo. In this She is shown as a halfwoman half-snake and is credited with being the very Serpent who instigated the Fall from Eden itself. Apparently, Lilith was not satisfied with her vows of revenge as they were, and decided to attack Adam where he least expected it— through his new wife, Eve. Perhaps even an amount of jealousy is involved here. Of course, it was Satan who was said to have been the serpent in the Christian viewpoint. And, indeed, Lilith is said to be the wife of Satan (or, from the Hebrew angle, the wife of Samael). The Serpent was a  joint effort between these two to take revenge upon Adam and cause them to Fall from grace. Lilith provided the body of the serpent, while Samael was the voice. As the wife of Samael (rather than Asmodeus), she is known as the Elder Lilith. I have all ideas that this Serpent-Lilith was a result of the Rabbinical view of Lilith—She who seduces men from the True Path of God, thus causing them to fall from grace as Adam did. Within the mythologies of King Solomon, we meet Lilith on a number of occasions, usually known as the Queen of Sheba. Solomon had suspicions that this queen was in fact Lilith, and thus devised a plan to know for sure. After inviting her for a visit to his palace, he had the floor altered so as to appear as a pool of ankle-deep water. When the queen arrived, she lifted her skirts to walk through the pool, and Solomon was able to just barely glimpse her overly-hairy legs. This was the Rabbinical image of Lilith—a dark and beautiful seductress from the waist up, yet hairy and ugly from the waist down. In many cases, she is actually a male from the waste down. This, of  course, is the part of the body that would most be concealed from view. Only one intimate with wi th her would find out the horrible truth— after it was too late. Of course, this is a metaphor. Lilith represents that which appears beautiful on the outside. She is sex, indulgence, and everything that one desires to do which breaks the Laws of God. She is all of the things in life which tempts

156

and seduces the man off of the Path of God, and into the ways of evil. Only after she has seduced the man, and he is firmly within her grasp, does she reveal her true nature of ugliness. In this, Lilith far predates the Christian concept of the Pan-like Satan. THE QABALISTIC INTERPRETATION And here we find that the plot thickens. The Qabalists created yet another chapter in the life of Lilith, which stems directly from the above Religious ideas. As Lilith had come to represent those things that God frowned upon, so too did she come to symbolize the ways of  the entire world at large. She was the ways of the Pagans, who did not frown upon sex, indulgence, and fun, who lived around the Judaic Peoples. She symbolized all those who would break the Torah, and she was anyone who would attack the Israelites. Most of all, she was Babylon. Before I continue, it is important to explain the principals involved. Though these concepts developed well after the Second Temple had been destroyed (in 70 AD), the Temple itself plays a large role in the Mythos. Also involved are Adonai (The Lord), and His Bride the Shekinah (Hebrew for "Presence"). This mythos is a development of earlier Pagan ideas, where the union of the Male and Female aspects of the universe are seen as paramount to the continued existence of all Creation. This was known as the Sacred Marriage. In the middle Eastern cultures, a newly anointed King was ritually married to the Goddess, and thus to the Kingdom itself. Likewise, the Qabalists depicted Adonai as a King, and the Shekinah was [the people of] Israel herself. There was one single place where Adonai would join with the Shekinah, one place holy enough to sustain the Divine Sex. That place was the Temple of Solomon. Once in the year, the Couple had joined together within it's walls, and the Divine Light of goodness shone throughout the world. However, the Temple had been destroyed, and its i ts treasures carried into foreign and Pagan lands. With it went the perfect union of Adonai and His Kingdom. He withdrew from the world, refusing to meet the Shekinah in an impure fashion. The Shekinah Herself was taken captive by the foreign peoples and was there raped by them continuously. The Shekinah is the physical plane, and therefore could not retreat from it. Her rape was symbolic of mankind's rape of the world and the Israelite people. And here, once again, enters Lilith. As before stated, Lilith symbolized the very foreign people who held the Shekinah captive. Lilith was their evil ways—and now those evil ways were in control. How? Because

157

Adonai could not be without a female partner. There could be no God without—in some sense—Goddess. Thus, in an effort to sustain a balance, Adonai took Lilith Herself as His consort. Being what She was, Adonai felt no pity in uniting with Her in impurity. She was, quite simply, His harlot. Thus it was that one half of the Divine Force which sustained the Universe was tainted—allowing the evil of mankind to be supreme and unstoppable. Lilith was the Dark Shekinah—the polar opposite of that Holy Goddess. She had made Her final jump from demoness to Goddess—the Wife of God. The Qabalist felt his duty was to strive to reunite the Shekinah with Adonai, and thus cast Lilith away forever. The Sabbath was on example of this. Because of the holiness of this day, Lilith had no power to remain with Adonai, and was forced to retreat to the desert where She screamed in pain until the day came to an end. It was during this time that Adonai had the best chance of reuniting with the Shekinah—and the Qabalist did all he could to help through purity and godly living. This symbolism is even hinted at in the Christian Revelation, where the Whore of Babylon is supplanted in power by the Bride, the wife of the Lamb. This was the final outcome of Lilith, and here you have Her mythos in full: First wife of Adam, wife of Asmodeus, wife of Samael, the Serpent of the Tree of Knowledge, and finally the wife of God. From here, I will briefly explain the modern interpretation of Her, and you will see why I disagree with most of it so strongly: Page visited @ Mon Nov 22 6:32:39 CST 2010 LILITH'S WOLRD © 2001 LIA Flameware, Inc. I nc. From: Claudia Slate To: Zhahai Stewart Msg #35, 14-Jan-89 Subject: Re: Lilith In response to your request for information on Lilith, Li lith, I looked her up in "The Woman's Encyclopedia ofMyths and Secrets" by Barbara Walker Walker and published published by Harper and Row. (1983). this book was strongly recommended to me by a Dallas parapsychology teacher, (male at that), who felt felt I might enjoy enjoy and benefit from this this study of sexism, which is dealt with in the book from both historical and mythical viewpoints. I found this information, which I have paraphrased for the most part.

158

Lilith, (also know as Lilit), was a relic of an early rabbinical attempt to assimilate the Sumero-Babylonian Goddess Belit-ili, or Belili, to Jewish mythology. to the Canaanites, Lilith was Baalat, the "Divine "Divine Lady". Hebraic tradition said Adam married Lilith because he grew tired of  mating with animals, a common custom of Middle-Eastern herdsmen, though the Old Testament declared it a sin. Moslems were insistent on the male-superior sexual position and apparently Lilith was not Moslem, disagreed with Adam and flew away to the Red Sea. God sent angels to bring Lilith back, but she refused refused to return. return. She Supposedly spent her time mating with wi th "demons" and gave birth to "a hundred children a day". day". (Busy woman!) So God had to produce Eve as Lilith's more docile replacement. Lilith became the "Great Mother" of settled tribes who resisted invasions of nomadic herdsmen represented by Adam. Adam. Early Hebrews disliked the Great Mother who is said to have drunk the blood of Abel after he was slain by Cain. Lilith's Red Sea was another version of Kali Ma’s Ocean of Blood, which gave birth to all things. There may have been a connection between Lilith and the Etuscan divinity Leinth, who had no face and who waited at the gate of the underworld along with Eita and Persipnei, (Hades and Persephone) Persephone) to receive the souls of of the dead. The underworld underworld gate was a yoni and a lily, which had no face. Admission into the underworld was often mythologized as a sexual union. The lily or lilu, (lotus) was the Great Mother's Mother's flower yoni, whose title formed Lilith's name. The story of Lilith disappeared from the Bible, but her daughters, the lilim, haunted men for over a thousand years. The lilim were thought responsible for nocturnal emissions and the Jews still made amulets to keep away the lilim well into the middle Ages. Greeks adopted the lilim and called them, Lamiae, Empusae, or Daughters of  Hecate. Christians also adopted them and called them them harlots of hell or succubae. They believed that Lilith laughed every time a Christian man has a wet dream. The Daughters of Lilith were supposedly very beautiful and presumed to be so expert at lovemaking that after an experience with one, a man couldn't be content with a mere mortal woman. 1084 From:

Zhahai Stewart

159

To: Claudia Slate 01:29pm Subject: Re: Lilith

Msg #83, 20-Jan-89

Thanks for the information about Lillith. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite answer my questions about Lillith, which are not so much what the myth or legend is, as how was it propagated down thru history to us? A while ago, someone here suggested that Lillith L illith was expunged from the Christian Bible. Others, more knowledgeable about that than I, gave reasons that that was unlikely as a Christian era event, without postulating postulating a monumental conspiracy. OK, if Lillith is at least as old as the bible, how did the myth or legend get propogated? Was there lost ancient written material? Or was it propagated orally orally for many generations even after some or many of the books of the Old Testament were written down? Or did it arise later? later? As for the lovemaking of the daughters of Lillith, sounds kinda fun. (Maybe we should ask David Rice about that?) that?) Do the the sons of Pan spoil mortal mortal women women as well? :-) Barbara Walker’s Encyclopedia is interesting, but seldom gives very thorough sources. It is apparently apparently worth worth keeping keeping that grain of salt onhand. I just got her Tarot cards & book; pretty powerful images, I thought. I haven't tried a reading with them yet. Thanks for the info! B*B ~z~ --* Origin: Adelante - 300 meters above Boulder, CO (Opus 1:104/93) From: Tony Iannotti To: Zhahai Stewart 10:52am Subject: Re: Lilith

Msg #116, 24-Jan-89

As I understand it, Lilith is said to be as old as the bible, because she is mentioned in the Mishna, a form of commentary on the Pentateuch. Whether she was ever in what is now canonical, i.e. Genesis per se, is hard to prove or disprove. The Mishna was an oral tradition for much longer. She has been b een identified with Ishtar in much

160

the same ce” way as Mercury to Thoth to Wotan. I don't think there is a literal or philological p hilological connection. * Origin: OPERA DEII = BaphoNet-by-the-Sea (718)499-9277 (Opus 1:107/293) 1085 From: Antony Landsman To: Zhahai Stewart 03:58pm Subject: Re: Lilith

Msg #122, 10-Jan-88

> Have you any insight as to where the Lillith myth > originates? For example, what are the oldest documents? > That mentions Lillith? If indeed Lillith goes back back at least > As far as the beginnings of the Old Testament, was that > Myth carried verbally even while the rest of the Adam & Eve > Show was written? Or did Lillith originate later? Lillith is mentioned in an esoteric Jewish text called the Midrash. It is a compilation of mystical interpretations surrounding the Torah (Old Testament). It was handed down orally along with the the rest of the Talmud and was written down in the Middle Ages when the Rabbis thought that these teachings might be forgotten. Apparently Lillith was created at the same time as Adam (see the initial reference to the creation of man "Man and Woman" Woman" he created created them but somehow disappeared from the scene due to her rebelious nature. I think that she was probably the primary Goddess in the region prior to the advent and revolution of the Jehovah followers. I also tend to believe that Innana was one of her descendants. Blessed Be --- QuickBBS v2.03 * Origin: Canyonlands BBS, Moab Utah: The most scenic s cenic place on Earth (1:15/27)

161

89

From: Inanna Seastar To: Antony Landsman

Msg #145, 25-Jan-

07:32pm Subject: Re: Lilith

The only Lilith likely to be found in _my_ family huluppu-tree is Lilith Velkor... :-) On a more Sirius note (even though I don't use Sirius any more; I use Gnome), there is no question that Inanna is a third- or latergeneration goddess in the Sumerian pantheon. I rather suspect that the image of Inanna as THE Goddess before whom all other deities at least swear a little fealty comes from Uruk. Inanna was the matron goddess of Uruk, and most of our legends and such concerning her were dug up (literally) in Uruk. The myth of the huluppu-tree shows a young Inanna, in a young Uruk, trying to get help from other deities of  other, older cities to get rid of a problem that was too big for her to handle at the time. The problem problem is solved by Gilgamesh, King of  Uruk, rather than by any foreigner. Likewise, the tale of Inanna &  Enki & the _me's_ (civic virtues), shows a young goddess of a young city who has managed to elevate her her city into the the first rank. In winning the _me's_ from Enki, Inanna adds to them by the time she gets her her virtuous cargo back back to Uruk. I do not recall whether whether Lilith was formally mentioned as being in Inanna's lineage, though. Blessed Bheer--drinking Enki under the table--Inanna 1086 --- Gnome v1.30 * Origin: The Lizard King--Inanna Seastar's Place (1:104/45.5) ZS> “As for the lovemaking of the daughters of Lillith, Sounds ZS> kinda fun. (Maybe we should ask David Rice about That?) Er, were you interested in some phone numbers? It's Extreamly hard work to love a daughter of Lilith, but the Rewards are undeniably worth it. I’ve started an extended study on strong Lilith women vs.

162

The domesticated Eve ones. So far, with only only about 18 Tallies in (painstakingly and personaly researched with Great, er, debauch, with plans on adding many hundreds of  More into the study), the following has been observed: Most American men give out long before the Lilithian Lili thian woman (or any other) will. Lilith will say "Excuse me, kind sir," (As she can't remember his name at the moment). "You’re not Finished, are you?!" and Eve will say "Gee, that was great!" And reach for the batteries and flee into the bathroom for an hour. Lesbians tend to be strongly Lilithian. This may be because "The only thing men are good FOR they aren’t good AT,” as The true and and valid saying goes. Also, most if not all men are little cry babies, and Lilith can't stand for that nonsence. Conversly, Eve women always knew men make horrible lovers, But resign themselves to 4 minutes of sex twice a week, when They’d rather have 16 hours of sex every day. This is why, Perhaps, Eveian women make such good Catholics. If your typical male pig says, rightly, that a woman's place is in the bed, Lilith will say "Eat shit shit and die!" and Eve will say "Yes, dear," and hate herself.

163

Lilith, Woman's Encyclopedia

 ________________________________________ Claudia Slate Wrote:

In response to your request for information on Lilith, Li lith, I looked her up in "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" by Barbara Walker and published by Harper and Row. (1983). This book was strongly recommended to me by a Dallas parapsychology teacher, (male at that), who felt I might enjoy and benefit from this study of sexism, which is dealt with in the book from both historical and mythical viewpoints. I found this information, which I have paraphrased for the most part. Lilith, (also know as Lilit), was a relic of an early rabbinical attempt to assimilate the Sumero-Babylonian Goddess Belit-ili, or Belili, to Jewish mythology. to the Canaanites, Lilith was Baalat, the "Divine Lady". Hebraic tradition said Adam married Lilith because he grew tired of  mating with animals, a common custom of Middle-Eastern herdsmen, though the Old Testament declared it a sin. Moslems were insistent on the male-superior sexual position and apparently Lilith was not Moslem, disagreed with Adam and flew away to the Red Sea. God sent angels to bring Lilith Lili th back, but she refused to return. She supposedly spent her time mating with "demons" and gave birth to "a hundred children a day". (Busy woman!) So God had to produce Eve as Lilith's more docile replacement. Lilith became the "Great Mother" of settled tribes who resisted invasions of nomadic herdsmen represented by Adam. Early Hebrews disliked the Great Mother who is said to have drank the blood of Abel after he was slain by Cain. Lilith's Red Sea was another version of Kali Ma's Ocean of Blood, which gave birth to all things. There may have been a connection between b etween Lilith and the Etuscan divinity Leinth, who had no face and who waited at the gate of the

164

underworld along with Eita and Persipnei, (Hades and Persephone) to receive the souls of the dead. The underworld gate was a yoni and a lily, which had no face. Admission into the underworld was often mythologized as a sexual union. The lily or lilu, (lotus) was the Great Mother's flower - yoni, whose title formed Lilith's name. The story of Lilith disappeared from the Bible, but her daughters, the lilim, haunted men for over a thousand years. The lilim were thought responsible for nocturnal emissions and the Jews still made amulets to keep away the lilim well into the Middle Ages. Greeks adopted the lilim and called them, Lamiae, Empusae, or Daughters of Hecate. Christians also adopted them and called them harlots of hell or succubae. They believed that Lilith laughed every time a Christian man has a wet dream. The Daughters of Lilith were supposedly very beautiful and presumed to be so expert at lovemaking that after an experience with one, a man couldn't be [missing] Lilith is mentioned in an esoteric Jewish text called the Midrash. It is a compilation of mystical interpretations surrounding the Torah ("Old Testament"). It was handed down orally along with the rest of the Talmud and was written down in the middle ages when the Rabbis thought that these teachings might be forgotten. Apparently Lilith was created at the same time as Adam (see the initial reference to the creation of man "Man and Woman" he created them) but somehow disappeared from the scene due to her rebelious nature. I think that she was probably the primary Goddess in the region prior to the advent and revolution of the Jehovah J ehovah followers. I also tend to believe that Innana was one of her descendants. Blessed Be Summary: An alternate origin to the Slayer mythos Categories Author Rating Chapters Words Recs Reviews Hits Published Updated Complete BtVS/AtS Non-Crossover > Dark phouka FR18 1 10, 568 7 18 3,7901 013 3 Sep 05 13 Se Sep 05 Yes Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all extant characters are the copyright of Joss Whedon and 20th Century Fox. No infringement is intended. Author's Notes: I never liked Joss' origin for the Slayer, so I decided to do my own, one that made m ade more sense to me. I originally came across

165

the story of Lilith in Neil Gaimon's Sandman series and later learned that it is indeed part of Jewish folklore. All feedback is appreciated. Dedication: To Melanie, a true friend and a better fan, as she understands that in every writer, there is a small, yapping ego that needs constant feeding.

Lilith’s Daughters Time was. Time is, and in the world, there are many stories – stories of beginnings and endings, of endings which are beginnings, and beginnings which are endings. All stories, no matter their time, are true in their own manner. And so it is true that while the Earth is some four and a half billion years old, it is also true that it was created some six thousand years ago over the course of six days, and it is true again that while humankind evolved from an ape-like ancestor some three million years previously, the first man was named Adam, and given to him and his progeny was dominion over the Earth. So it is true, and so it is true that when the Earth had form – land and seas, night and day – the Old Ones wandered its face, living what we would find to be incomprehensible lives of cruelty and pleasure in cruelty. It is true, in this manner, that the last of the Old Ones to leave this plane, our world having grown inhospitable to their kind, bit a human and drank that human’s blood. That human died, and a demon possessed his body, and that is how the first vampire came into our world. Later, in this same story, a group of wise men took a girl from her family and tribe, chained her to a rock, and summoned a demon that, instead of possessing, infused the girl with its powers of strength, agility, healing, and hyperacute senses. That girl became the Slayer of  vampires, and her legacy was inherited by still more girls, and those girls were guided and trained by the inheritors of the group of wise men who brought the first Slayer into being. This story is true. But, it is a story told by men, just as the story of the first man and the garden where he walked with his Creator is told by men. There are other stories, stories told by women, and these stories are true.

166

One story still told today by b y both men and women (though the men almost always tell the ending wrong) is that the first man was not created alone. From the dust as he was called into being, a woman was also called. She formed at his side, and as he was given a name, Adam, she was given her name, Lilith. For a time, Lilith and Adam dwelt together as husband and wife in the garden, and they spoke to and walked with their Creator. Adam, however, took it into his head that because he was male, the husband, the man, the taller and stronger of the two, he should have dominion over Lilith, the female, the wife, the woman, the weaker. w eaker. When the story is told properly, the listener never hears what Adam and Lilith’s Creator would have said about such a difficulty. Lilith, finding no way to be with her husband and not be subject to him, took it upon herself to leave the garden and wander the face of the Earth. As the story has been told, by men who weren’t there, Lilith became the mother of monsters and demons. She, denied the role of true womanhood because of her disobedience, stood over the cradle of  newborns in hopes of stealing their lives away. Again, this story is true, in a manner of speaking. But that is not the story we speak of. Adam, for his part, had two more wives. The second he refused before she was even named. He had seen her form up from the dust – marrow, blood, pink lungs, throbbing heart – and had been unable to see her as a whole person, only a disturbing film of far too juicy biology. She was released back to the dust without ever knowing her own story. The third was Eve, and she became the mother of all humankind – in the stories of men – because she was obedient and loving and an easy target for blame. However, this is not Eve’s story. This is not a story told by men, wise or otherwise. This is a story told by women with hair as white as ash and fewer teeth than living children. It is a story told in the menstrual huts, around the fire, late at night. It is a story told to girls when their sisters have been called away by a different fate than husband and babe and hearth. This is the story: The tribes of humankind spread through the cradle c radle of Africa, and their campfires were more numerous than the stars in the sky. In an evolutionary sense, they were wildly successful. Their societies, their oversized brains, their ability to use language and abstract thought to their advantage guaranteed them a place above the predators of the plains, above that of the herd animals, above that of the trees and

167

grasses. While a human or two might be lost to accident or opportunistic cheetah, while disease might strike and burn out a camp or a clan, while a mother might die trying to birth the child in her womb, still humans spread, begetting more humans and filling the land with their kind. Why, one could not walk along the shore of the largest water for two days without seeing evidence of humanity. For all this, the grandmothers watched with worried eyes. The grandmothers were the ones who saw to it that no child went hungry. For all the boasts of the hunters, the grandmothers were the ones who made sure there was food to eat around the campfire – not meat, perhaps, but roots, nuts, berries, and grains. The grandmothers brought the new lives into this world and sang the dying out of it. They watched their children, children’s mates, children’s children, and the rest of the complex social skein that made up their people, the first people. They watched, and they saw a frightening thing appear like the first cloud of a storm that will wil l spawn tornadoes and send rivers over ov er their banks. There were those, among their children, child ren, the first people, who were not human. Oh, they wore the bodies of humans, men and women. They walked about under the sun of the world and its moon as well. They spoke and scratched, ate and shat, slept and woke just as humans do, but there was something awry with them. These ones, rare but less so than a generation previously, would shout in anger when there was nothing at which to be angry. One of the men laughed as a beast charged him during the hunt, and his kinsman was badly injured trying to rescue him. A woman ignored the cries of her child when it sat to close to the fire and was burned. A girl lured her sister out of the camp and pushed her into a ravine. A man killed his friend because the friend had married a woman he wanted. A boy beat his younger brother for following him through the camp. A father cut open the belly of his dog while it was still alive. A young man raped the sister of his mother and hit her on the head with a rock so s o she could not tell anyone what he’d done. The grandmothers saw this, and they saw that these people, these happenings were unacceptable to their people, but when their mothers had been alive, they were unheard of, and when their grandmothers were alive, they were unthinkable. They met, as was their way, when their children and children’s mates and children’s children were asleep.

168

 “There are too many of us,” said the second oldest, and her words were slurred because she had only a few teeth left in her head.  “What would we do about it?” asked the youngest grandmother. Her hair was not entirely white yet, but she four of her five children still lived, and she was respected accordingly. “Do we hunt the wrong ones down like so many gazelle?”   “And what if we are wrong?” asked another, known for her weaving skills and temper. “Are we not then become what they already are?”   “As if any of you, or I myself, could throw a spear and hit anything but our own feet,” answered the very oldest, blind in one eye and with wi th a grip like rawhide tied wet and allowed to dry.  “There are other ways to hunt than with a spear,” replied the second oldest.  “My son’s mate’s brother struck his mate’s child,” one of the grandmothers’s said. “A child! He did it when he thought no one would see, but the child’s sister did, and she told me.”   “My sister, who is married into the clan that hunts three days’ walk from here, tells me there is a woman in her tribe that tells stories, untrue stories, of what one woman says of another, behind the other’s head. My sister tells me this woman has seen fights started and friendships broken and smiles when each happens. My sister tells me this woman pinches her child to make it cry and then sings to it until it stops.”  There was a long pause as the grandmothers considered. Whatever the hunters might say, boasting as they came home with pieces of  meat carved off the bone of some stupid animal that blundered onto one of their spears – whatever they might say, the grandmothers were the ones who said “we stay here this summer” or “the water will turn bad before the next full moon, we must move”.  “Will your sister hunt this woman as her son hunts a lion that has tasted us?” the weaver asked. The woman shook her head. “No. She says s ays she is no hunter, not of her own people. She does not know what to do.” 

169

The oldest of them, thin and twisted as a gnarled branch, pushed a branch into the fire. The light of it reflected from her good eye. Her gaze was steady, and the light glowed as though its home was truly in her skull.  “We will call the Eldest,” she said. “We will speak to her of this, and we will ask her what should become of us, who are not hunted and cannot hunt ourselves. We will abide by her words.”  The other women did not speak, though they held themselves silent and still with a sudden tension. It faded into an air of resignation. They were grandmothers because they knew what was necessary was not necessarily pleasant and that there was no thing to be done which would find the doing without a price of some sort. To speak to the Eldest took a heavy toll. First, the grandmothers had to prepare the summoning. It was not done lightly. The rain that made m ade the grass grown, which fed the antelope, which fed the people, could come heavily enough to drown a whole tribe if a river shifted its banks in the night. The sun which warmed the earth could kill a child in one long day. The Eldest, who cared for the people as her own grandchildren, would not come and go with nothing more than a bony hug. She had not been summoned in living memory, and the stories of  her last visit were told on any occasion when a child wandered away from the camp and was devoured. The Eldest came only during the dark of the moon, and the summoners had to be women, mothers, specifically mothers who had lost at least one child and could no longer bear another. All the grandmothers in that tribe stood for the summoning. The men of the tribe, long limbed hunters who could run as long as there was a sun or moon in the sky, trembled in fear and were glad to take their leave. They were, after all, people of good sense. The mothers and children moved to spot beside the river, for all the risk of flash flood. The grandmothers cleared a large area of scrub and brush, tent and hide. Using a stick and a long rope of woven leather, they inscribed a circle in the ground, and along it they poured blood from a fresh kill, ground shells from the shore of the largest water, ash from the fires of  the last year, and precious salt. They marked their bodies with ochre and more blood. They built a pyre of the driest wood they could find in a morning’s walk from the camp – dry to burn hot and clear. They waited until the sun had set and the sky was completely dark.

170

On skin drums, they beat a rhythm that carried over the plains. The heat of the fire made each of them slick with sweat, and the patterns they’d drawn on their bodies became blurred.  “We call you,” the oldest of the grandmothers said.  “We call you,” the others responded. The words they used were of a language ancient even to the first people. It was no longer spoken when the sun was in the sky, but only by grandmother to mother to daughter, taught during the ceremony when a girl was recognized as a woman, one who could bring forth life. The men had a story about this language – how it came about and why it was not longer spoken – but none were so foolish as to relate their story when there were women about.  “Eldest,” the oldest grandmother called. “We seek your wisdom in the dark of the moon. Walk with w ith us, Grandmother!”   “Walk with us!”  There was a moment, when the wind wi nd died and the frogs stopped calling, when even the beat of the drum was absorbed into the silence of the night. The center of the fire pulled p ulled in on itself and reversed, becoming not a radiating light and warmth, but a moving dark and stillness.  “I walk with you, my daughters,” a voice spoke from within the fire. She was there, the Eldest, the first woman, and from each woman’s vantage, the Eldest looked directly at her, into her, and spoke to her and no one else. Each grandmother spoke of those in their people who were not of their people, who hurt and a nd harmed at a whim, and multiplied as the people multiplied. Each one knew the Eldest listened in grave silence to her words.  “My daughter,” the Eldest spoke, “the people are no longer hunted as they once were. Your spears and fires chase away the very beasts who once pulled down those of your families who were not whole in one manner or another. Now you are grown into something new, something stronger, and these unwhole ones who walk wal k among you are the price.” 

171

 “That they are born, yes,” the oldest grandmother g randmother answered, “that they die, certainly. But must they prey on us? Must the price also be the blood and tears of the whole?”   “You may choose,” the Eldest replied, “a different hunter, one who matches your people as they walk now. But be warned. As the lion pulls down the old and sick and the cheetah takes the very young, this hunter may not choose only the unwhole.”   “I do so choose,” the oldest grandmother spoke.  “Then step into my arms, daughter,” Lilith said. The other grandmothers beat the rhythm upon the drums again agai n and wailed a high keening note. It was nothing to lose their eldest to summon the Eldest, nothing and everything. Those who could bear to watch did so and later said – in the deep of a moonless night, which was the only time any could be prevailed upon to speak of it – that the eldest and the Eldest appeared to speak for a moment, and then the Eldest leaned over and kissed the eldest on her wrinkled forehead and took her in her arms as a mother embraces her daughter. The fire flared back into roaring sound, light, and heat and then just as abruptly snuffed out in a gust of wind. The grandmothers, after a long moment of total silence, drew close to the circle in which the fire had burned. In the center, pillowed on cold ashes, was a woman, almost a girl. Her hair was black and curled tightly against her skull. Her eyes, when she opened them, were clear and brown. Her mouth, when she spoke, held all her teeth. She could not have been older than a new mother, perhaps sixteen or seventeen summers. Yet, when she spoke, it was with the oldest grandmother’s voice, wisdom, and knowledge. She embraced each of her sisters, for the grandmothers had seen each other through births, deaths, matings, and all the other terrors of life. She called each by name and a nd bade them goodbye, for it is not proper for the hunter to speak to those it hunts. She left them and was not seen again, not by waking folk or by those whose hearts still beat the next morning. In time, the first people came to recognize that the dark of the moon was when a tribe member might go missing, never to be seen alive again. The hunters, when they could be persuaded to track the person, found only tracks that left a tent or hut and went in a line as straight as a taut rope to meet another pair p air of tracks. There, should any go

172

that far, they would find a corpse with wide, staring eyes and two neat wounds in the neck. At first, no one would bury such a thing. It was an unnatural death for an unnatural person. But when the thing only lay there, untouched by carrion eaters, bloated and horrible – or in a few, rare, even more unsettling instances, was simply gone the next night – they took to burying the corpse and setting stones over it. Long after the grandmothers who summoned the Eldest had died, and their grandchildren had died, white and withered, the grandmothers of  the tribe understood that this was the price. The people remained human. Any who were born and became strange, interested in pain and causing it, rarely made it to the age of mating. If, rarely, a girl or woman who was not unwhole was lost, it was said that she had become a hunter and would protect the people against the unwhole. Every few generations, a hunter might come across a deep place in the earth, where night always stood, and the feeling of the cool, damp earth was that of crouched death. The wiser of the hunters would whisper a short prayer and back out carefully, never to return and never to mention it to another soul. Once – only once – was a hunter so foolish as to tell his friends and insist they come with them. Among them, they decided to rid themselves of a rival by tying him with thongs and leaving him in the cave, watching from a safe distance to be sure of the man’s end. When the grandmother, the hunter of the people, emerged and found a terrified man, wide eyed and gagged, she paused. A simple look into him proved that he was no monster, only a man frightened out of his wits. She held his mind in the palm of hers and broke the thongs which bound him.  “Watch,” she bade him. As he did, she moved in the manner of a large cat intent on prey. The men hiding around the cave ran, but none made it more than the length of his own body. When the hapless man returned to his mate, he wept in relief and horror. He was alive, and three men were dead. The grandmother, the hunter of his people, had broken one’s neck by twisting his head around, torn the throat out of the second with her claws, and the third, the hunter who had found her lair, she had bent his head back and held him like a lover, and then drank his blood like a thirsty man drinking water from a skin.

173

This, then, would have been the whole of the story – told by grandmother to granddaughter in the menstrual hut, around the fire, or on a night when the moon does not appear. It would have been a story told to explain what became of certain members of the tribe, to venerate the grandmother who became a hunter of her people in order to protect them, and to explain how one thing must always cost another. It would have been this and little more, and humankind would have grown into the fullness of its destiny never knowing of  Slayers and vampires, had it not been for one particular woman and a man that she loved beyond the bounds of death. She was the third daughter of the man with the second largest herd, and her mother had died shortly after she was weaned. She was clearc leareyed and intelligent, and spent much of her childhood caring for her sisters and brothers. As she grew closer cl oser to womanhood, she took notice of the younger son of the chief’s mother. He was strong and clean-limbed, a good hunter, and a man who respected the prerogatives of the women in the village. She found, on the evening when the shepherds returned with their flocks for the spring slaughter, that he would distribute two or three tender kids to the old women and men and the children who had lost both parents to Grandmother Death. Once, he brought her the skin of his finest goat, and gifted g ifted it to her. It was a skin of high quality, unmarred and covered in silky brown hair. It was a clear sign that he was interested in being her mate, when she was of an age to take one. Her grandmother took note and spoke to the chief’s mother of the matter, and it was agreed upon that they would be good mates together and would raise healthy children. The tribe looked upon it as something s omething that would come about when the time was right, as they looked forward to the rains and the sunrise. And then, on a night when the moon would not show its face, the girl was called from her sleep sl eep by a song. She awoke to find fi nd the rest of her village deeply asleep. Even the boys who would stay awake almost until the morning, watching the herds and the huts, were slumped in sleep. The dogs that watched their village slept, and the dark sky was filled with music that made her chest ache with grief and hope. She rose and left her sleeping skins behind, pausing only to wrap shawl woven from the fleece of the sheep of the chieftain’s herd around her shoulders. The music called her with a beat that made her ribs vibrate in time. It shone from the direction of the river-that-runsafter-heavy-rains with a clarity that rivaled the morning sun’s. She followed it, walking through the village, past the central fire, and

174

beyond the wards tied to trees encircling the huts. She paused only once, to look at the sky and the arching, nebulous glow that stretched across the bowl that sheltered the world w orld and her people. It was a fairly long walk. She had to cross the empty bed of the river, leaving clear footprints in the mud of the middle channel. She saw the glowing eyes of predators, but they did not come any closer, and she continued to walk without fear. When she came through a knot of  trees, she found a woman standing in a clearing, and beyond her were more women. As she stepped closer, the other women w omen formed a loose circle around her.  “I greet you, granddaughter,” the woman in the center said.  “I greet you, grandmother,” the girl replied. She knew now what would happen, and found that her mind was clear and no worry or fear stood in it. The woman stood, as night did in the sky, clear and calm. Her hair, eyes, and teeth were untouched by age. ag e.  “I have called you, granddaughter, to be one of us.”   “We have called you,” the women around her repeated in soft voices.  “As your people have grown, so have ours. We are the hunters, the protectors. We take from your people those who would do them harm.”   “We are the predators,” the other women breathed. “We are the sisters. We walk with the night, and we walk with death.”   “Will you join us?” the woman asked. There was a moment when the girl thought of her father, her sisters, her brothers, and most especially, the youth she wished to be mated to.  “If I say no?” she asked, clear-eyed and unafraid.  “Then this is a dream you will forget on waking,” the woman answered, “and you will mate the youth you long for and give him strong sons and daughters, live out the measure of your life, and die di e in the fullness of time.” 

175

 “And if I say yes?” the girl asked.  “Then you shall meet Grandmother Death from the shelter of my arms, and in a day’s time, before the moon can claim more than a sliver of light, you will awaken, and be a sister to us, and hunt those who were once your people. You will keep them in health and watch the world change and grow, and in time, when the world is as far removed from this as a crone is from the infant she was born as, you will meet your end.”  The girl considered the woman before her and those around her. Each – tall and short, slender as a reed and solid as a stone, pretty and ugly – was beautiful as the night around them. Strength and grace radiated from each. To be strong, to protect her people, p eople, to have sisters that would never age or die…  “I say yes.”  The woman before her held out her arms, as though welcoming a daughter home. The other women stepped closer, until the girl was surrounded. She stepped into the woman’s embrace and accepted ac cepted a kiss on the forehead. The music, which had fallen away, re-emerged, its beat rattling her bones. Her breath b reath quickened. As the woman held her close, the girl found her head tilting back, almost in sleep, exposing her throat. She felt the other women take her hands and hold them up so that her arms were extended to either side of her. The bites – at throat, wrists, and elbows – hurt, but it was a pain that did not matter. As her mind swam and she began to arch in a strange ecstasy, she felt in her turn the minds of all those around her. They were sharp as a well-knapped blade, welcoming, and clear as settled water. They sang to her, and as her knees buckled under the weight of  her body, they supported her. Death rose within and around her, like a low place filling with water. Hands held her, and the pain of the bites retreated. Her head filled with a buzzing grayness. Something was held to her mouth. She tasted blood. It was gone, and another took its place, and another, a nother, and another. Later, she would understand that each woman had opened a vein and returned some of 

176

what they’d taken to her, thus completing the bond. At the time, she felt only that she was an infant, suckled by all the mothers of the tribe. She was precious, loved beyond the telling of it, a child brought forth from life into death. She died. When her father tracked her footprints and found her body, he knelt and wept at her side. The oldest grandmother of the tribe was called forth, to confirm what many thought were only stories told to frighten children. The woman, shriveled and wrinkled, touched the body, feeling throat, wrists, and elbows. She told the hunters to look at the ground and say whether there had been one other person or more than one other person. When the hunters could say that there had been others there, the old woman nodded.  “She has been taken by those who hunt the unwhole,” the old woman said, slurring through gums with no teeth. “She will guard us, our children, and our children’s children.”  The youth whom the girl loved and who loved her in return stood off to one side, not looking at the girl’s body, only holding his spear tightly in both hands.  “Leave, all of you,” the old woman said. “I will watch her until her spirit returns, after the sun sets.”  So they left, and in the camp, the women set up a wail of grief. Yet, when the sun fell, and the girl stirred as her spirit returned to her, the youth who loved her and was loved in return waited, hiding. The old woman watched with careful eyes. Even to her it had been a story, but to her grandmother it had been real, and when members of  the tribe disappeared and their bodies were later found, untouched by the carrion eaters, the story was told – an explanation that many didn’t really believe. The elder men of the village spoke, calling such stories old women’s tales. The girl moved, blinked her eyes and then wiped them with the fingers of her left hand. She rolled up onto an elbow and regarded the old woman.

177

 “You are dead,” the old woman said. “You are dead, and you walk with the grandmothers of our people. Do you know where to go?”  The girl nodded her head, mute.  “Then go, grandmother,” the old woman said. “Take with you the blessings of our people, and tell the grandmother who took you from us that we pay the price for her protection, though it grieves us.”  The girl nodded again, got to her feet, and looking out over the hills, hill s, chose her direction and left at loping l oping run. The old woman climbed slowly and painfully to her feet. She would not, she thought, see another wet season, and that did not sadden her. There were things even an old woman would be better off not knowing or seeing with her own eyes. The youth, who had watched all this, followed his love, running fast enough to catch her before the rise of the next hill. She heard him long before he thought she would and stood waiting. He stopped, and they regarded one another for a moment.  “There is no promise spoken between us,” he said, s aid, “still I did not think to lose you to any rival.”   “Death is not a rival,” the girl answered, her voice raspy and dry.  “Is it not? The Old Ones called you, and you went. I love you still. Will you not stay with me?”  The girl shook her head. “The dead do not stay with the living, my heart. There is nothing left for them to share.”   “And what shall I do, oh my heart, now that you are dead and stand before me and speak with your voice, saying you will not stay?”  She looked at him, tilting her head to the side. “You will mate with another woman. She will give you strong sons and daughters. You will live out the measure of your life, and die in the fullness of time knowing that I loved you and love you still. I will love you when the earth has changed beyond the knowing of it, and our people are as different from what they are now as a crone is from the infant she was born as.” 

178

Though there was no sound the youth could hear, she turned her head in a different direction and listened.  “My sister calls me, and I must go,” she said.  “Go then, Old One” the youth answered. “Go, and know k now that my heart is crushed and burnt and will never hold love for another.”  She left, and after he watched her run until he could see her no longer, he stood until the stars had traveled half their path across the sky. Then, without a word, he returned home. The story would have ended there, a small, sad note to add flavor to the original terms. For the stories told by the grandmothers, by those who hunt the unwhole and protect the people, p eople, are not stories the rest of humanity know. Surely, though, there are traditions among even them, and a girl or woman is not chosen to join them without good g ood reason. Surely, there are things for each newly made grandmother to learn, just as babes must learn as they grow. There are stories, surely, as to why no man was ever chosen. There are stories, surely, as to what w hat the newest grandmothers thought and said and did when the ones they left behind grew old and perished. There are stories, surely, as to what the newest grandmothers felt when they took their first kill. There are stories, surely, to explain why when a girl or woman is called, it is done by a group of grandmothers, and when they are turned, it is by the whole group or by none at all. But again, these are not stories for us to know. There is instead, the story told of the youth that loved a girl who became a grandmother. Though he grew to handsome manhood m anhood and was much coveted by the women of his village and the neighboring villages, he never did take a mate. He left his flock to the mate of his sister and turned towards hunting, instead. He was, to his people, cold and distant, though still counted among their number. One day, the men of the village v illage hunted an old lion. The lion had been forced out of its own tribe by a young rival, and lacking mates to hunt for it, it had turned to easy prey. A child had been stalked along the banks of the river, taken, killed, and partially eaten. His mother had collapsed in grief. His father and brother called the village men together and there was an agreement made to hunt and kill the lion responsible. The chief went to his younger brother and asked him to lead the men to the lion.

179

Only enough men to protect the village from a rival people remained. All the rest old enough to carry and throw a spear went with the chief’s younger brother. With only a day of tracking, the old lion was found, but it was wary, crafty, and more dangerous than its age would seem to allow. The chief’s brother stepped between it and one of the youngest hunters after it feinted to an escape and went the other way. He saved the boy’s life, but in return was clawed across the stomach and sent reeling into the dirt. When the lion was dead, its skin was used to carry the handsome man once loved by an Old One back to his home and to his people. The spirit-talker and herb-woman cared for him, but both said his life would be done before the sun rose on the next morning. That night, as the man sweated and groaned in pain, the moon did not rise. The people of the village fell into a deep sleep, and there were none to hear the silent footfalls of one girl, long since dead. She stepped into the hut and let the curtain fall behind her. There was no light, as the stone lamp had been allowed to die. The spirit-talker slept in a heap to one side of the man’s pallet. The man, still awake in the midst of his pain and his coming death, looked up with dry, agonized eyes.  “I walk with death, oh, my heart,” he whispered.  “And did I not tell you,” she answered, “that I love you and will love you beyond death and when the earth is no longer as it was, I will still love you.”  She carried him out of the hut as a woman carries a sick child and walked to a dark and hidden place she had chosen long ago for just this purpose. There, as tenderly as a young lover, she bent his head back and drank his blood, and as death closed around him like still, dark waters, she cut open a vein in her wrist and gave it to his mouth, and he suckled from her as any child might. And so he died. And for love, the destruction of many people and all the Old Ones was wrought. The village, once green and filled with laughing children, was a blasted, hellish place. Even in the cool dark of a spring night, the flames of pain and death flickered in the shadows unleavened by any

180

moonlight. Figures of dark grace stepped into the circle at the middle of the village, where one toothless old woman stood by the fire that had once warmed dozens.  “This is your doing,” the woman pointed at them with a bony finger.  “The dead outnumber the living, and scavengers chew on the bones I have no strength to bury. How is this your promised protection, oh, grandmothers?”  The women surrounded her, but in her fury, the old woman did not care. “Three children did I bury before my hair was white. Three! And I was counted lucky, for five lived to mate and bear their own. Now, my children and their mates and their children are dead. My sister, her mate, her children, their mates, and their children are dead. This is no sickness come to claim the old and the weak. This is not the culling of  the unwhole. There is no word for this slaughter, for this betrayal. I curse you for it.”  One of the women stepped forward, her hands held out, palms to the darkened sky. When she stepped fully into the light, the old woman could see the tracks of tears down her face.  “Never in my time,” said the woman, as clear-eyed and smooth-faced as a girl of fifteen, “nor in the time of my maker or her maker, has this happened. We have failed you, for we took into our number a girl who chose love and betrayal. She made the creature who began this, and it has made more of its kind, and now they outnumber us.”   “And what shall you do?” the old woman asked, bitterly, “Oh, grandmother of our people, how shall you protect us from your misbegotten children? How will you restore the balance that let my people thrive?”   “Our Eldest comes, and with her, we shall summon our Maker. We will answer for our sister’s betrayal.”  In one of the nearby villages, it was not the old women who spoke in anger, but the men.  “Long have we turned to them for guidance,” gui dance,” one man gestured. “Too long! What say should a withered old woman who brings no meat, no hides, and no glory to our people have? It is because of them that we die in the jaws of monsters our fathers could not have dreamt of.” 

181

 “What strength do the old women have that can protect us?” asked another. “My father’s brother tells me that in his village, the young men banded together and fought one of these creatures. c reatures. They brought it to the ground and stabbed it with their spears many times. When one spear found its heart, it became the dust and ash of an old hearth. Two of them died in that fight. Can an old woman do such a thing?”   “Where are the ones sworn to protect us?” a third asked. “I have heard stories since I was a child at the breast of my mother. They take the unwhole from our people, and we flourish. Why do they not take these creatures? If ever there was a thing which walked upon the earth that was unwhole, it is these.”  Other men, some old and some young, pled for forbearance. All answers did not come on the swiftest wings. The Old Ones had been called, as they had not been called in the memories of the oldest villagers, nor from the stories of the oldest people the villagers could recount. There would be an answer when the moon rose yet cast no light. Yet that, it would seem was not enough. The women, ancient as the bedrock they stood upon, circled the fire and called to their Maker as none had called to her since their beginnings. The Eldest stood at the western most point of the circle, where the sun had set and where sharp eyes could see the dark moon rise. For the length a gazelle could run unwinded, women stood, surrounding the fire. There were more women there than lived in any ten villages. They had come from every hollow of the earth where humanity’s children dwelt. Never before had all of them stood together in one place, and not a breath stirred among them. Bound with thongs and words of power, another woman lay at her feet. She did not struggle, only lay, looking with empty eyes on the fire. The flames flared and soared s oared into the air as they sang the old songs. They called Her by Her name, which had not been spoken in millennia. The flames twisted, brightened, and then pulled in on themselves, becoming a darkness so deep that its shadows seemed as light as the daytime sky. She had come.  “You called, my daughters,” she spoke in a voice that was the sigh of  wind and the call of a dying bird. “You called, and I have come.”   “Mother,” the Eldest, the first of the grandmothers called to protect her people, said, “forgive us, Mother, for in our foolishness, we have brought destruction on those we sought to protect. This one, a

182

daughter of our own, took a man she loved when he was close to death. She turned him as we have turned our sisters, without her sisters’ knowledge, without her sisters’ consent, and without her sisters’ aid, as you told me so long ago that we must have. Now it walks this earth with its progeny, and none of our grandchildren are safe from its hunger.”  There was a long silence as their Maker, the first woman, studied them with sad eyes. “You were warned, my daughters.”   “We were,” the Eldest agreed, “and for so long, the warning was heeded. But this one felt that her love lov e for a man was more important than our duty to our children and children’s children.”   “And you, my child?” Lilith asked the woman bound at the Eldest’s feet. The Eldest picked her up as one might a very small child.  “Forgive me,” the woman whispered in a voice destroyed by screaming. “I thought my love would walk with me until the very earth was changed from what it is. I thought his strength and his skill and his goodness would protect our people all the more. But it was not so. He died, and now, something stares out of his eyes and speaks with his voice, but it is not him. It is cruel and cares nothing for the people of our village. It killed them, all of them, in the course of one night. It laughed as my brothers’ and sisters’ blood ran down its arms.”  Had one looked closely, they would w ould have seen on her the marks of a long battle – scars of depth and width that would have killed a living woman in moments.  “It is,” the Eldest spoke again, “in one body, all the evil, all the unwholesomeness, all the cruelty that I came to you all those moons ago and gave up my life to fight. It has spawned more like it, so many more that were we each to kill one, still they would drown us in their numbers. Are they not stopped, our children will w ill cease to exist.”  Their Maker, the first woman, once named by her Creator, and called Lilith, the mother of demons, stepped out of the fire. She stood before the Eldest and the one who had betrayed all for love. She put a hand to the woman’s cheek.  “You know the price?” Lilith asked. The woman nodded. “Forgive me, grandmother.” 

183

 “You are forgiven,” Lilith replied. Under her fingertips, the woman sighed as her skin turned grey, her body turned to dust, and she crumbled into what all Lilith’s daughters and Eve’s children were made of. The thongs that had bound her slipped from the Eldest’s hands and fell to the dusty ground.  “My daughters,” Lilith spoke, “what is your wish?”   “What must we do to protect our children?” the Eldest asked.  “You must die,” Lilith answered. In the village, the men’s argument continued long past the rise of the dark moon. Finally, one of the women of the village – tall, strong, and apt to take her staff to the head of anyone she thought was being foolish – strode into the center and demanded d emanded the men be quiet.  “She has come,” the woman said. “She has come, and she has said that she will speak to us.”  Even in the stunned silence that followed, no one heard the footfalls of  the Eldest. When she walked to the center of the village, where the fire burned high, she walked wreathed in shadow. Where the stories spoke of her as shining with youth and strength, she was pulled in on herself and coated with a thin layer of dust. Her eyes were bleak circles that no one could bear to meet.  “My sisters walk with death,” she said, her voice raw, like two sticks rubbed together, “and soon I will follow them, for we failed you. But before death claims me, I am given one last task, to provide you with one who will hunt the hunters, one who will protect you as I and my sisters once did, one who will die in the fullness of time and pass the skills and strength I bequeath on to the next.”   “Let me be the one!” one of the men called. c alled. He was young and strong s trong and felt the grief of those who had died heavy on his shoulders.  “I shall be the one,” said another man, one who felt he had much to prove and thought this would be the time to do so.  “No,” a third called, “let it be me!” 

184

More and more men spoke out while the women looked on, lost and fearful.  “QUIET!” the tall woman yelled at the top of her voice. The Eldest, tired and scraped thin, gazed at them, and they cast their eyes down, unable to meet hers. “As my Maker left her mate to wander the earth, so I cannot give my strength to any man. Choose a girl, the strongest and bravest of all you know, for she will bear the grief of me and mine. Bring her to the cave where night stands tomorrow night before the dark moon has risen. There will I give her all that is mine to give.”  The men argued long after the Eldest had left, long after the sun had risen, and almost until the sun had set.  “I will not send my daughter to that creature’s arms,” one of the elder men declared.  “Why should we send any of our daughters or granddaughters?”  another asked. “To die fighting the creatures c reatures that hunt us? They would not last a night. None of them are hunters.”   “How are we to bind our village with others if not by marrying our daughters to their sons? Shall we send our daughters to their deaths when we will profit more by marrying them to the men we choose?”   “Do we not choose one girl, we will all die before we can profit by any marriages,” one of the wiser ones said. That stymied them for a time, and they argued on. Whose daughter? Who would lose out on potential sons-in-law and grandsons by letting their daughter be taken to the cave where night stands? Why should they have to choose so? Had the Old Ones not failed them? Why should they sacrifice the wealth of their offspring because of someone else’s failure? Finally, one man stood forth. He was not well thought of, for his wife and daughters did not always answer to him. His herd was one of the smaller ones, for he would rather spend his days drinking fermented goat milk than tending to it. His sons were lazy, and none of the village women would countenance being married to any.

185

 “You may have my second daughter,” the man said. “For she brings me no joy, nor profit, though she is strong and brave.”  The other men considered. It was true that his second daughter was strong and brave. As a child, no beating had deterred her from following the hunters, for she thought the tracking of some animal the best adventure possible. She had knocked down one of the biggest boys in the village for hitting a dog with a stick. When her father had gotten drunk, she had yelled at him and called him names so that the whole village could hear his shame. She was unmarriageable, and the women in the village despaired of teaching her to spin, weave, cook, or care for children. She, it was true, would be no great loss. When they came for her, she fought them, for she sensed they bore her no good will. She was bound and gagged and carried to the cave where night stands, and they arrived just before the sun set. Inside, one man pounded stakes into the ground, and then tied each of the girl’s wrists to a stake, so that she could stand, but not run away. Night fell, darkness came, and the moon rose without shedding any light.  “You will leave us,” the Eldest said to the men who stood s tood around the girl.  “We will not,” the eldest man answered. “We will know what gifts you give and what power you work, for the girl is ours, even after you have finished with her.”   “Leave us,” the Eldest repeated and looked at each man in turn.  “Now.”  They left, and the girl and the Eldest stood together. The Eldest reached out and untied the gag and other bonds that held the girl. Rubbing her mouth, the girl looked at the Eldest.  “I know what you are,” the girl said.  “Do you know what you shall become?” the Eldest asked.  “No,” the girl shook her head.  “You, my daughter, will be the hunter of those who hunt your people. You will be stronger, faster, and more able than any man who now walks the earth. You will hunt the night and slay those that step in

186

your path, and when you die, another will be called to take your place until there are either no more of the creature c reature that hunts your people or there are no more of your people.”  The girl thought about it. “What will become of you?” she asked.  “I will die, for there must always be a price paid, and my time on this earth is done.” She looked at the girl. g irl. “I do not mind it, my daughter. I have lived so long, all my children, my children’s children, and their children have lived and mated and birthed and died more times than you have drawn breath. I will be pleased to join them and my ancestors.”   “What if I say no?” the girl asked.  “Then I die without giving my strength to any, and those who hunt your people will do so until none remain.”  The girl looked at her feet. “Around the fire, the storytellers talk about this hunter or that, who went on a journey or slew a great beast or took fire from the beak of a bird that had flown to the sun. The stories they told of women, the women always stayed in the village. They might say or do clever things, but they never tried their strength against an enemy, they never protected their people.”  The Eldest laughed, a laugh that creaked with age, a laugh that was surprisingly joyful. “Oh, my daughter, da ughter, those are not the only stories told. Wait until you may enter the menstrual hut, and then you will hear new stories that will please your ears.”  The girl smiled, shyly, for this was the first time she had told her thoughts on such matters and the first time another had taken her wishes seriously.  “Now, come, my daughter,” the Eldest said. “For it is time and past time.”  The men stood outside the cave, well outside the cave, waiting.  “She must be guided by us,” one of them said, “for what girl knows how to throw a spear properly?” 

187

 “She must be bound to our counsel,” said another, “for what girl knows how to choose which enemy to fight today and which enemy to fight the next?”   “She must live and die under our watch,” said the third, “for how else will we know who the next chosen one is, to be guided and counseled?”  The talked until the sun rose and the moon set, and when it did, a figure emerged from the cave where night stands. She was still a girl. She still held herself with the awkward grace of a girl who hadn’t met her full growth yet. She paused blinking in the bright light, but she didn’t try to shield her eyes. Instead, she held her hands before her, looking at the thin coating of gritty dust that covered them.  “You!” one of the men called. “Come here, girl, that we may see you.”  She looked up at him with wi th an expression he could not fathom. After a moment, she walked over to the three men and looked each straight in the eye.  “You must remember, child,” the second man said, gesturing with his spear, “that you are still a girl and still a member of the village, for all that you are a spear to be thrown from our hands at those who hunt us. We-“ Without warning, the girl jerked the spear sp ear from his hand in one motion.  “I am no spear,” she said, and with another smooth motion, she snapped the spear in two. “I am no unthinking weapon to be used by you, old man. I am a lioness, and I will hunt whatever I choose.”  All three men began shouting at her, exclamations of shock and disgust, exhortations to be a proper girl child, and prayers to the Creator to punish such a proud and disobedient child.  “Why don’t you sew yourself up in sheep skins, old man,” she spoke over their voices, “for that is what your words sound like to me m e – the bleating of old rams. Then I could stake you out, as you did me, and draw my prey to me, the better to slay it.”  That silenced them, and they stared at her with mouths open.

188

She looked at the ends of the broken b roken spear in her hands. The Eldest had charged her with her duty and had explained in detail the many ways she could carry it out. These two jagged ends of clean wood would be a good start. Without another word or glance, she left the men behind to walk back to her village. The men were left to scramble after her without dignity. On a night when the moon was dark, the eldest women of the village gathered in the menstrual hut. One tossed herbs on the fire, another dropped hot rocks into a carved bowl of water to heat it for tea, and a third beat slowly on a skin drum.  “Two cycles of the moon,” the eldest said through her toothless gums,  “and the Chosen One has slain more of these creatures than any group of hunters. I think we shall be safe again.”   “For a time,” the next agreed, “but how many people are there? My grandson walked for a year y ear and came to the end of land at the edge of  a great water, and the people there told him of even more people across the water, and people beyond them. Wherever there are people, these creatures will follow, and there is only the one Chosen One.”   “There must be help for her,” a third remarked.  “She sleeps on a bed of bones,” said sai d a fourth, “when she sleeps at all. She has no family, no friends. She rests, she trains by hunting all the creatures that move over the earth, and she slays these Old Ones, these demons.”   “The men who watch her – useless watchers, pah! – they are no help,”  help, ”  the first answered.  “We shall help her,” said the second woman, sipping the tea before it had cooled. “We shall keep her stories s tories and tell them. We shall follow her life and the lives of those who follow her. Our daughters will protect her daughters.”   “And where we can help,” said the fourth woman, “we shall help. For are we not the eldest of our people? p eople? Are our people not the eldest of  all people? Do we not hold the knowledge of our ancestors? Is she not our daughter, our granddaughter in her own way?” 

189

The other three women considered, sipping their tea. Each Eac h one, after a moment, nodded her head in agreement. And those women, their daughters, their granddaughters, and their great-granddaughters walked beside the Slayer for a time until they withdrew, husbanding their strength for at time when they and only they could help the Slayer. The Watchers, as they came to be known with some scorn, walked a different path. As for Lilith, no living liv ing person had spoken to her since her daughters gave up their immortal lives to protect their own children. At least, that is the story I have heard. In a cave where night stood though the sun burned brightly overhead, a group of women sat on stony ground around a fire that was no fire. The women ranged from girls not yet of an age to enter a menstrual hut to those well old enough to bear their own children. With them were several men, young men and men old enough to have grown children. The cave was crowded, but opposite of the entrance, three of  the women sat with space around a round them. One sat in a trance, her arms outstretched and beckoning, her hair white as moonlight. The other two sat on either side of her, clean-limbed, strong, worn from battle, and filled with hope. The other women all sat, facing the fire, watching with enraptured faces. The fire that was no fire moved like still, dark water and cast shadows that seemed brighter than the daylight outside. At its heart was the figure of a woman. Her skin was shining ebony, her eyes clear and deepest mahogany, her hair black and tightly curled against her skull. Her teeth flashed when she smiled.  “And that, oh, my daughters,” she said, s aid, “is a story that has not been told for time out of mind, but it is my story to tell you.”  There was a long silence as they absorbed it.  “Remarkable,” Giles murmured, cleaning his glasses on the hem of his shirt. “Nowhere in any of the texts I’ve ever read has there been any hint of this.”   “Indeed, son of Adam,” Lilith smiled at him. “For is that not the way of  stories? One wins out over another and is i s told more, remembered more. That does not mean, son of Adam, that it is the only story, or the best one.” 

190

 “But wait,” Faith put her hand out, “what about the old ladies who promised to help us? Are they all gone? Was the lady Caleb killed the last one?”   “She, my daughter, was the last l ast of her clan, but there are other clans and other women, waiting to be called upon.”  Buffy, lost in thought, stared up at Lilith, and the woman – the first woman, who had walked in the garden of her Creator and over the face of the earth as humanity formed – bent over her.  “Oh, my daughter, you are not alone. a lone. You never were. Your sisters walk beside you in life and in death. Yours is a heavy burden, but you have the strength to bear it, and your people are the better for it.”  With a thumb, Lilith smoothed a tear from Buffy’s cheek and kissed her on the forehead.  “So…” Xander began, “what now?”   “There are still vampires,” Robin answered from where he leaned against a stalagmite. He would not meet Lilith’s gaze.  “There are those who hunt your people, oh, son of my daughter,” she agreed. “And so long as there are, my daughters will walk the earth to protect the children of Eve. What happens next, what stories will be told of you, oh, my daughters, that is for you to decide.”  From each person’s point of view, Lilith spoke to them in words no other could hear.  “Daughter of Eve,” she told Willow, “you walk in my shadow. Take care not to linger too long. It is good, too, to walk in the sun with your sisters.”   “Cousin,” she spoke to Dawn, “I greet g reet you, though you remember me not. I call you daughter, for you are sister of my daughter.”   “Son of Adam,” she said, and Xander looked up, “I thank you. There is always a price to pay, and yours has been greater than most. May you walk in strength.” 

191

 “Son of Adam, great is the debt my daughters owe to you,” she said to Giles. “Had the first of the Watchers been as you are, surely my daughters would have thrived from the beginning.”  He looked into her eyes, the only one present who could stand to meet them for any length of time.  “There is one who would speak to you through me,” Lilith continued, and in the blink of an eye, her face and shape changed, and Giles’  breath caught in his throat. Later, when asked, he could not recall the words she said, only the sudden scent of her, the timbre of her voice, v oice, and the bone deep knowledge of love and joy.  “Jenny,” he whispered. And then, with a sound that was more felt than heard, the fire fi re inverted and became a roaring beacon, filling the cave with noise, heat, and light. Willow reeled back and was caught by Faith. She heaved a deep breath as her hair turned red again, though a few white strands stood out in the light that painted the cave. A voice breathed through the cave, and all within heard it.  “Farewell, my children…my daughters. I will see you once more, in the fullness of time.” 

192

Lilith, the first wife of Adam? The Alphabet of Ben Sira is considered to be the oldest story of Lilith as Adam's first wife. The concept of Eve having a predecessor is not exclusive or new to the Alphabet, as it can be found in Genesis Rabbah. Lilith is believed to have originated as a female Mesopotamian storm demon associated with wind. The figure of Lilith first appeared in a class of wind and storm demons or spirits as Lilitu in Sumer around 4000 BC. The phonetic name Lilith is believed to have originated in ancient Israel before 700 BC. Although references to Lilith in the Talmud are sparse, some passages provide an insight into the demoness yet seen in Judaic literature. The Talmudic allusions to Lilith illustrate her characteristic wings and long hair, dating back to her earliest extant mention in Gilgamesh: "Rab Judah citing Samuel ruled: If an abortion had the likeness of Lilith its mother is unclean by reason of the birth, for it is a child but it has wings" (Niddah 24b), and, "In a Baraitha it was taught: She grows long hair like Lilith, sits when making water like a beast, and serves as a bolster for her husband” ('Erubin 100b). The idea that Adam had a wife prior to Eve might have come from an interpretation of the Book of Genesis and its dual creation accounts. While Genesis 2:22 describes God's creation of Eve from Adam's rib, an earlier passage 1:27 indicates that a woman had been made, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them". The Alphabet text places Lilith's creation after God's words in Genesis 2:18, "It is not good for man to be alone". In this text God creates Lilith out of the clay from

193

which he made Adam but she and Adam bicker. Lilith claims that since she and Adam were created in the same way they were equal and she refuses to submit to him:  “After God created Adam, who was alone, He said, 'It is not good for man to be alone.' He then created a woman for Adam, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, 'I will not lie below,' and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.' Lilith responded, 'We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.' But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air.”   “Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: 'Sovereign of the universe!' he said, 'the woman you gave me has run away.' At once, the Holy One, blessed be He, sent these three angels Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof, to bring her back.”   “Said the Holy One to Adam, 'If she agrees to come back, what is made is good. If not, she must permit one hundred of her children to die every day.' The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom they overtook in the midst of the sea, s ea, in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians were destined to drown. They told her God's word, but she did not wish to return. The angels said, 'We shall drown you in the sea.’”   “'Leave me!' she said.’I was created only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days.’”   “When the angels heard Lilith's words, they insisted she go back. But she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God: 'Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no power over that infant.' She also agreed to have one hundred of her children die every day. Accordingly, every day one hundred demons perish, and for the same reason, we write the angels' names on the amulets of young children. When Lilith sees their names, she remembers her oath, and the In folk traditions of the early middle ages, Lilith became identified with Asmodeus, King of Demons, as his queen. The second myth on Lilith included legends about existence of  another world. Asmodeus and Lilith were w ere believed to procreate demonic offspring endlessly, spreading chaos. Many disasters were

194

blamed on them, such as causing wine turning into vinegar, men becoming impotent, women unable to give birth, and death of infants. child recovers.”  There are two main characteristics in these legends about Lilith: Lilith as the incarnation of lust, causing men to be led astray, and Lilith as a child-killing witch. The aspect of the witch-like role that Lilith plays broadens her archetype of the destructive side of witchcraft. The Kabbalah mysticism attempted to establish a more exact relationship between Lilith and the Deity. Her origin has many versions. One mentions her creation as being before b efore Adam's, on the fifth day, because the ‘living creatures’ with whose swarms God filled the waters included none other than Lilith. Lil ith. Another version recounts how Lilith was created with the same substance as Adam was, shortly before. A third version states that God originally originall y created Adam and Lilith in a manner that the female creature was contained in the male. Lilith's soul was lodged in the depths of the Great Abyss. When God called her, she joined Adam. After Adam's body was created a thousand souls from the Left (evil) side attempted to attach themselves to him. However, God drove the evils evil s off. Adam was left lying as a body without a soul. Then a cloud descended and God commanded the earth to produce a living soul. This God breathed into Adam, who began to spring to life and his female was attached to his side. God separated the female from Adam's side. The female side was Lilith, whereupon she flew to the Cities of the Sea and attacked humankind. Yet another version claims that Lilith was not created by God, but emerged as a divine entity that was born spontaneously, either out of the Great Supernal Abyss or out of the power of an aspect of God (the Gevurah of Din). This aspect of God, one of his ten attributes (Sefirot), at its lowest manifestation, has an affinity with the realm of evil and it is out of this that Lilith merged with Samael. According to The Alphabet of Ben-Sira, Lilith was Adam's first wife. Another legend of the Kabbalah faith links Lilith with the creation of  luminaries. The ‘first light’, which is the light of Mercy (one of the Sefirot), appeared on the first day of creation when God said, “Let there be light”. This light became hidden and the Holiness became surrounded by a husk of evil. “A husk (klippa) was created around the brain” and this husk spread and brought out another husk which was Lilith. Another version that was also current among Kabbalah circles in the middle ages establishes Lilith as the first of Samael's four wives: Lilith,

195

Naamah, Igrath, and Mahalath, each of them being mothers of  demons. The marriage of archangel Samael and Lilith was arranged by the ‘Blind Dragon’, who is the counterpart of ‘the dragon that is in the sea’. The Blind Dragon acts as an intermediary between Lilith and Samael: Blind Dragon rides Lilith the Sinful. And Blind Dragon causes the union between Samael and Lilith. Just as the Dragon that is in the sea (Isa. 27:1) has no eyes, likewise Blind Dragon that is above is without eyes, that is to say, without colors (Patai81:458). Samael is called the Slant Serpent, and Lilith is called the Tortuous Serpent. The marriage of Samael and Lilith Lili th is known as the ‘Angel Satan’ or the  ‘Other God’. To prevent Lilith and Samael's demonic children Lilin from filling the world, God castrated Samael. In many 17th century Kabbalah books, this concept is based on the identification of   ‘Leviathan the Slant Serpent and Leviathan the Torturous Serpent’ and a reinterpretation of an old Talmudic myth. m yth. After Samael became castrated and Lilith was unable to fornicate with him, she left him to couple with men who experience nocturnal emissions. A 15th or 16th century Kabbalah text states that God has ‘cooled’ the female Leviathan, meaning that he has made Lilith infertile and she is a mere fornication. Another passage charges Lilith as being a tempting serpent of Eve's:  “And the Serpent, the Woman of Harlotry, incited and seduced Eve through the husks of Light which whic h in itself is holiness. And the Serpent seduced Holy Eve, and enough said for him who understands. And all this ruination came about because Adam the first man coupled with Eve while she was in her menstrual impurity - this is the filth and the impure seed of the Serpent who mounted Eve before b efore Adam mounted her. Behold, here it is before you: because of the sins of Adam the first man all the things mentioned came into being. For Evil Lilith, when she saw the greatness of his corruption, c orruption, became strong in her husks, and came to Adam against his will, and became hot from him and bore him many demons and spirits and Lilin (Patai81:455f). Lilith is listed as one of the Qliphoth, corresponding to the Sephirah Malkuth in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The demon Lilith is described as a beautiful woman, who transforms into a blue, butterfly-like demon, and it is associated with the power of seduction. Another similar monster was the Greek Lamia, who likewise governed a set of child-stealing Lamia demons. She has different origins and is

196

described as having a human upper body from the waist up and a serpentine body from the waist down. Lamia had a vicious sexual appetite that matched her cannibalistic appetite for children. The Empusae were a class of supernatural demons that Lamia was said to have birthed. In Arabic lore, Karina is considered Lilith’s equivalent, mentioned as a child-killing witch. Karina plays the role of a ‘shadow’ of a woman and a corresponding male demon, Karin, is the ‘shadow’ of a man. Should a woman marry, her Karina marries the man’s Karin. When the woman becomes pregnant, Karina will cause her chaos. She will try to drive the woman out and take her place, cause a miscarriage by striking the woman and if the woman succeeds in having children then her Karina will have the same number of children she does. Karina will continuously try to create discord between the woman w oman and her husband. Karina plays the role of disrupter of marital relations, akin to one of Lilith's roles in Jewish tradition. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (around 1848), was greatly influenced by Goethe's work on the theme of Lilith. Lil ith. In 1863, Dante Gabriel Rossetti of the Brotherhood began painting what was his first rendition of ‘Lady Lilith’. Symbols appearing in the painting allude to the ‘femme fatale’ reputation of the Romantic Lilith: poppies (death and cold) and white roses (sterile passion). Some Magical Orders dedicated to Lilith, featuring initiations specifically related to the arcana of the ‘first mother’ exist. Two organizations that use initiations and Magic associated with Lilith are the Ordo Antichristianus Illuminati and the Order of Phosphorus. A 2006 ‘creative occultist’ work by ceremonial magickian Donald Tyson, titled Liber Lilith, details the ‘secret cosmology’ for the 'Mother of  Harlots' and spawn of all night breed monsters, Lilith. In Luciferianism, Lilith is considered a consort of Lucifer and is identified with the figure of Babalon. She is said to come from the mud and dust, and is known as the Queen of the Succubi. When she and Lucifer mate, they form an androgynous and rogynous being called ‘Baphomet’ or the ‘Goat of Mendes’, also known in Luciferianism as the ‘God of  Witches’. Writings by Michael W. Ford, including i ncluding The Foundations of the Luciferian Path, claim that Lilith is a part of the ‘Luciferian Trinity’  consisting of herself, Samael and Cain. Lilith is also said to have been Cain's actual mother, and not Eve. Lilith here is seen as a goddess of 

197

witches, the dark feminine principle, and is also known as the Goddess Hecate. Early writers of modern day Wicca had special reverence for Lilith. Charles Leland associated Aradia with Lilith: Aradia, says Leland, is Herodias, who was regarded in Stregheria folklore as being associated with Diana as chief of the witches. Leland further notes that Herodias is a name that comes from West Asia, where it denoted an early form of Lilith. According to one view, Lilith was originally a Sumerian, Babylonian or Hebrew mother goddess of childbirth, children, women and sexuality who later became demonized due to the rise of patriarchy. Other modern views hold that Lilith is a dark moon goddess on par with the Hindu Goddess Kali. The Western Mystery Tradition associates Lilith with the Klipoth of  kabbalah. Samael Aun Weor in The Pistis Sophia Unveiled claims that homosexuals are the ‘henchmen of Lilith’. Similarly, women who undergo willful abortion, and those who support such practice are  ‘seen in the sphere of Lilith’. Dion Fortune writes, "The Virgin Mary is reflected in Lilith," and that Lilith is the source of ‘lustful dreams’. If  one meditates on negative (or inverted) Binah, one readily finds Lilith; to worship Lilith is to use the power of the Holy Spirit for negative purposes. In a paper on the subject of Feminist Theology, Deborah J Grenn, of  the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, argued that Lilith was a mother goddess whose demonization was designed d esigned to keep women alienated from their own 'original sources' of power and spiritual authority. It is argued for ‘a reinterpretation of the divine as embodied by the Semitic Goddess Lilith, she who has been represented and misrepresented in a variety of sacred texts’.

198

Who is the true Lilith In the old legend Lilith is the first woman to incarnate on earth. Her name originates from the Jewish-Sumer tradition. Her name was erased in the Genesis chapter of the Torah. For that reason we all forgot about her. Only here and there her name looms up in other Jewish literature like the Midras, Talmud, Kabala and the Alphabet of  Ben Sira. In Babylonian inscriptions her name is sporadically found as well as on some Persian amulets. The quest for the true nature of Lilith starts by the Old Testament. In the official new translation of the Torah by the Jewish Publication Society everyone can read: Genesis 1:26: And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all al l the creeping things that creep on earth.” 1:27 And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 1:28 God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fertile and increase, fill the earth and master it; and rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on earth.” … 1:31 And God saw all that He had made, and found it very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Close examination of these words learns God created several people, male and female, at least one couple and possibly more. He gave the order to be fertile and to multiply. multiply . So one might expect that after a while there were more people. Male and female he created them, which can be read as a man having male and female qualities in him and a woman also having male and female qualities in her. Complete creatures living in splendid wholeness. God did not give them a name. That’s the omission. The question of the names of those first people has puzzled many scholars. The main assumption is there name was Kadmon-Ish (H. Blavatsky) or Adam-Ish (JPS). The translation of Ish is ‘life’, more specifically ‘human life’. Ish is found in the name of the Goddesses Ishtar and Ish (in Greek Isis). Next the creation of human life is explained for the second time. Genesis 2:7 the LORD God formed man and woman from the dust of  the earth. He blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. 2:8 The LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom he had formed. ….. 2:15 The LORD God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to till and tend it. Note how the word ‘man’, an expression for both man and woman, is

199

changed in ‘the man’ as though a woman does not exists. Summarising Adam-Ish had 4 duties. 1) To be fertile and multiply, 2) to master the earth and rule it 3) to till Eden and 4) to tend Eden. Every thing seems to be well but then suddenly a problem rises. Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for man to be alone; I will make a fitting helper for him. What? Is there a problem? Did god make a mistake? Something odd is at hand. According to the plan man and woman should be mating intimately in Eden, ruling over the earth tilling and tending Eden. But somehow they were lonely. Did they fail to perform one of their duties? Maybe they were not pairing enough. The story looses it clarity. We do not read man complaining. God is complaining. Next god brings in a solution for the problem. Genesis 2:19 And the LORD God formed out the earth all the wild beasts and all the birds of  the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that would be its name. 2:20 And the man gave names to all the cattle and to all the birds of the sky and to all the wild beasts; but for Adam no fitting helper was found. Here for the first time the name Adam pops up without Ish. The suspicion grows Adam-Ish were not producing p roducing enough off-spring. God brought the beasts to Adam-Ish to show them how those animals were mating. See, this is how you do it. Summarizing there are two problems now. 1) Man is still alone, assuming the original problem was not solved and 2) for Adam no fitting helper was found. God failed to solve the initial problem. On the contrary he only increased the problem. The problem now is Adam, a man, who still is of both male and female nature. Next God again does something to solve the problem, whatever the real problem might have been. A very rigorous and historic event takes place. Genesis 2:21 So the LORD God cast a deep sleep upon the man; and, while he slept, He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that spot. 2:22 And the LORD God fashioned the rib that He had taken from the man into a woman; and He brought her to the man. No matter you take this serious s erious or not, this story is part of our culture. Hopefully somewhere in the middle East hidden in the desert sand the true story of Lilith still is to be found. The man Adam was split in two. His female part was taken away and transformed in a woman with no male part. Man and woman were transformed in dualistic creatures. First man and woman were living in Eden as complete creatures and after the surgery they became dualistic. After this splitting incident you might expect god was content c ontent again. And yes he was but not for long. Not much after he gets pissing red hot mad and kicks Adam and Eve

200

out of Eden. After the splitting incident the woman, not split in two, got the name Lilith. The question puzzling many scholars is what has happened to her? Like Adam-Ish Lilith also had to name the animals and she did. Then she had to name herself and she was able to express her unpronounceable name. So she was not a problem p roblem and was set free. But Adam did not pass the test and was split in two. After that the bible only deals with Adam and Eve and its off-spring and Lilith is denied. The quest for Lilith continues and focuses on historic commentaries on this denial of Lilith. A lot of speculations, reconstructions and fantasies were born ever since. Most of them are horrible, terrifying, awful and disgusting in an extend that it cannot be true. What is told about her are dirty lies to discredit her, inconsistent and contra dictionary. They made a demon out of her. Here follows an at random selection. - From the Haggadah: To banish his loneliness, Lilith first was given to Adam as wife. Like him she was created out of the dust of the ground. But she remained with him only a short time, because she insisted upon enjoying full equality with her husband. She derived her rights from their identical origin. With the help of the Ineffable Name, which she pronounced, Lilith flew away from Adam, and vanished in the air. Adam complained before God that the wife he had given him deserted him and God sent forth three angels to capture her. They found her in the Red Sea, and they sought to make her go back with the thread that, unless she went, she would w ould lose a hundred of her demon children child ren daily by death. But Lilith preferred this punishment to living with Adam. She takes her revenge to by injuring babies - baby boys during the first night of their life, while baby girls are exposed to her wicked designs until they are twenty days old. The only way to ward of the evil is to attach an amulet bearing the names of her three angels captors to the children, for such has been the agreement between them. Commentary: In the Red Sea Lilith supposedly mated with all the bad spirits in the area and gave birth to innumerable Lilin, her demon sons. - Gershom Scholem, Zohar 1:34b: ‘And He took one of his sides and closed up the place with flesh.’ [Gen.2.21] In the ancient books, I have seen it said that the word ‘one’ means ‘one woman’, that is the original Lilith, who lay with him and from him conceived. But up to that time she was no help to him, as it is said, ‘but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him. - Zohar 3:19: There is a female, a spirit of all spirits, and her name is Lilith, and she was at first with Adam. In the hour when Adam was

201

created and his body became completed, a thousand spirits from the left [evil] side clung to that body until the Holy one, blessed be He, shouted at them and drove them away. But Adam was lying down, a body without spirit, and his appearance was green because of all those spirits that surrounded him. In that moment a cloud descended and pushed away all those spirits. And when Adam stood up, his female was attached at his side. The holy spirit which was in him grew and spread out to this side and that side and grew here and there and thus Adam became complete. Thereafter the Holy One, blessed be He, sawed Adam in two, and made the female. And He brought her to Adam in her perfection like a bride to the canopy. When Lilith saw this, she fled. She is in the cities of the sea and she is still trying to harm the sons of the world. - Zohar 1:19b: After the primeval light was hidden, a husk was created for the brain, and that husk spread out and brought forth another husk which was Lilith. And when she emerged, she went up and down towards the little faces and wanted to attach herself to them and be shaped after them and did not want to depart from them. But the Holy One, blessed be he, removed her from there and placed her down below. He created Adam to perfect this world. As soon as Lilith saw Eve affixed to the side of Adam, and saw in them the beauty of  above, she flew off from there and wanted as before to attach herself  to the little faces. But the guardians guardi ans of the gates of Above did not let her. The Holy One, blessed be He, rebuked her and cast her into the depths of the sea and she remained there until Adam and Eve sinned. Then the Holy One, blessed be He, brought her up from the depths of  the sea and gave her power over all those children, the little faces of  the sons of man, who are liable to punishment because of the sins of  their fathers. And she went and roams in the world and finds children c hildren liable to punishment and caresses them and kills them. - First there were Adam and Lilith. Lilith did not want to lie under Adam as a pairing mate. She did not want to submit herself to Adam and fled by pronouncing her Ineffable I neffable Name. Adam complained to God his loneliness. So god created Eve who did submit herself to him. Lilith fled away and became a demon. But when Adam and Eve were thrown out of paradise, Adam, set up by God against Eve, was adulterous with Lilith. Lilith gave birth to hundreds demons which break in to lonely people like roaming ghosts. After the reunion of Adam and Eve, Lilith became the queen of all demons. Commentary: Comm entary: Apparently Adam compromised and did accept Lilith not wanting to lie under, mating on her terms. - When Adam and Eve were living in Eden and Lilith was a refugee, the spirit of Lilith took possession of a snake. This snake seduced Eve and impregnated her. A bastard was born even before Adam and Eve

202

created their own off-spring. By wise of punishment Eve started to menstruate. Thereafter Adam wanted to impregnate Eve but by her impurity Adam became corrupt and impure himself. Lilith intimidated by the vastness of Adams corruption got a hold on Adam and gave birth to many demons and spirits called the Lilin. Those are perverted fantasies of male scholars, some more intelligent than others, but most of them totally ridicule. Religion had become a man’s case. No one knows what really has happened. Still something had to be explained to the folk. It was presented as secret knowledge only accessible for the chosen ones. A vast cult of amulets and proverbs were created to keep the demon Lilith outdoors. - Man should never sleep alone in a house, because Lilith takes every man in her power. She is the night monster. She causes erotic dreams and gets pregnant of masturbating man. She bears him demons that keep on hanging around him. - Lilith is setting up to promiscuity. - She sets up women into witchcraft and black magic. - Lilith was cut out of Adam and ever since Adam is not able to see her. She is her shadow. (Commentary: This one bears some kind of  truth) - She is a longhaired winged creature with nymphomaniac tendencies. - You have got demons, devils and liliths. - She is the mother of all demons. - After doom was spread out over ov er her, she ate all her hundred children which turned into demons, the Lilin. This was so much to her liking that she decided to eat each night hundred children. - The demonic trinity is called Lilith, Samuel and the woman Harlot (the real snake). - Lilith gets at ease in the desert together with the Hyena, the Goat demon between the satyrs and the owls. - She is the enemy of Eve and jealous on her children. She wants to kill babies. For girls the first 20 days are crucially dangerous and for boys the eighth day. With amulets, permanent guarding and circumcision the danger of Lilith can be warded of. - She was the first Eve, an independent soul, at Adams side. She succumbed a power game with Adam and fled in the wilderness. Each night she gives birth on hundred demons and sends them to kill children and to bother man who sleep alone. Those are fairytales. This is high class demonization, stupid and down to earth. The tabloid press is nothing compared with it. Man’s fantasies written by man’s hands. Quite Freudian to picture Lilith as a woman that did not want to lie under. How come she seduces lonely man

203

when she did not want to give sexual aid to Adam? Did she regret? I don’t think so. It does not make any sense. How come Adam needed help and Lilith did not. Was Adam such a helpless wretch? Those stories are made to create fear. Those stories are political poli tical propaganda against women. Since the rise of the age of Aries, 4500 years ago, the man took the power and war is the rule. Since then all Goddesses slowly were thrown out of power and demonised culminating in this one Lord God being a man.

204

Lilith By: F. Levine First Published: 2000-06-15  Last Modified: 2006-04-20 Lilith does not appear in Genesis, nor is she mentioned in the Bible or other major religious works. But the stories of her as  Adam's first wife, and her subsequent "occupation" as a demoness, have existed for centuries.

Some say she was borrowed from the Assyrians, but others claim she was born out of a redundancy in Genesis. In Genesis 1:27, we read: And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female he created them. But soon after, in Genesis 2:7, we read the familiar account of God creating man alone, out of the dust, and in 2:20-23, the well-known story of the creation of Eve from Adam's rib. Why two accounts? And why is woman created with man in the first, but from man in the second? One answer proposed long ago was that we are reading about two women, formed in two different ways. But if that's the case, what happened to the first woman? Why Lilith Left Adam

205

The first woman, it is said, was Lilith, created at the same time and in the same way as Adam, just as all the animals, male and female, were made at the same time and in the same way. But Lilith wasn't like Eve. She argued with Adam constantly (particularly over sexual position), claiming that they were equal in every respect, and he should make no claims to the contrary. Eventually, enraged, she uttered the Name of  God, grew wings, and flew away from the Garden of Eden. She hid in a cave by (or under) the sea, where she had (presumably more liberated) relations with demons, and bore them children. Lonely and angry, Adam complained compl ained to God. God sent three angels to bring Lilith back. These were SNVY, SNSNVY, and SMNGLF (which could be pronounced as Sanoi or Sanvi; Sanasanoi or Sanasanvi; and Smengelef or Samnaglof). They caught up to her, and threatened that her children would die if she didn't return. She fought them off, saying, "Don't you know I exist only to harm mothers and infants?" They agreed to let her go, but only if she agreed to forever after flee when presented with the three angels' names and images. Why did she say, at least according to some versions of the stories, "Don't you know I exist only to harm mothers and infants?" It seems strange, since she was by then a mother herself. Perhaps by this time she felt ostracized and abandoned, that the angels' presence signified she was at fault. Now she would forever take revenge on those very women who found happiness in the ideal she had been b een punished for rejecting. Adam and Lutins

Adam, by some accounts, wasn't a pillar of morality himself. In some stories, after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Adam separated

206

himself from Eve for a time, and was had relations with Piznai, a daughter of Lilith. Their union produced a number of lesser demons, including one called Agrimas. These demons are called lutins. But as we know, Adam and Eve did ultimately manage to survive together, and they and their children went on to populate the earth. And what about Lilith? She became known as the Queen of the Demons, and is described as having long, wild hair and wings. Sometimes she is presented as the consort of Ashmedai, king of the Jewish demons; other times, as the companion of Samael, the purely evil ruler of the godless demons. Banim Shovavin and Lilot 

Lilith and her children serve as incubi and succubi, mating with mortals in their dreams to produce various hybrid demons. Some of these are

called banim shovavin, "mischievous sons" who try to claim a birthright from their human father and harm legitimate heirs. To this day Lilith and her daughters, the lilot , remain spiteful of the human children of Adam and Eve, and will attack mothers in labor and young children, unless repelled by the names and images of the three perusing angels. In centuries past women in labor would wear amulets to protect them from Lilith, and even hide iron knives under their pillows to ward her off. A Kinder, Gentler Lilith? Not Exactly, But...

More recently, many people have been sympathetic toward Lilith, viewing her was a victim and an early feminist. It is argued that Lilith, like the wild women of Greek tragedy and mythology, was created to frighten woman into assuming a particular and subordinate role in society. The independent woman was a dangerous woman, a menace, a killer.

207

I won't argue that Lilith's actions of seduction and murder are justified, but I will put forth a new view to explain her behavior. I've listed Lilith among the demons, because that is what she is generally considered to be. But I don't think she really is. If Lilith was created with Adam, then she is human (albeit one who has allegedly used the Holy Name to sprout wings). wings) . And if she fled the Garden without ever eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (and even which occurred after her departure), d eparture), then she is still not only immortal, but amoral. In other words, she's like a malicious child, acting out of need, on impulse, and out of simple selfishness. Because she has not eaten of the Tree, she doesn't know her envy and jealousy are sins. She cavorts with demons because she doesn't know it's wrong. She kills because she doesn't know it's wrong. By setting herself apart from humankind and God, she has never had the opportunity to experience healthy relationships of any kind. Once identified as a demon, however, no one (certainly no mortal) would go near her, much less try to help her. Viewed from this angle, she comes across as something more like an abandoned child who has grown up without guidance than the Queen of the Demons. And perhaps that's what makes her so dangerous. Suggested Reading

If you enjoyed this article and want to learn more, I recommend: Stern and Mirsky, Rabbinic Fantasies: Imaginative Narratives From Classical Hebrew Literature. Jewish Publication Society, 1990. Full Listing »

Issacs, Ronald H. Ascending Jacob's Ladder: Jewish Views of Angels, Demons, and Evil Spirits. Jason Aronson, 1998. Full Listing »

208

Scholem, Gershom. Kabbalah. Keter Publishing House Jerusalem, Ltd., 1974. Full Listing » Budge, Sir E. A. Wallis. Amulets and Superstitions. Dover, 1978. Full Listing »

Naveh, Joseph and Shaked, Shaul. Amulets and Magic Bowls: Aramaic  Incantations of Late Antiquity . Magnes Press, Hebrew University,

Jerusalem, 1985. Full Listing » Schrire, T. Hebrew Amulets: Their Decipherment and Interpretation. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1966. Full Listing » Nigal, Gedalyah. Magic, Mysticism, and Hasidism. Jason Aronson, 1994. Full Listing » Schwartz, Howard. Lilith's Cave: Jewish Tales of the Supernatural . Oxford University Press USA, 1991. Full Listing »

209

 A Real Lilith  Zip Dobyns

There are many astrologers in the Far East who feel no need to consider Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. There are many astrologers who are not about to clutter up their charts cha rts with Vesta, Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Chiron, all of which I consider indispensable in chart interpretation. Imagine the dismay when we offer them ten more minor planets! Al H. Morrison and J. Lee Lehman of New York are the benefactors who have presented us with these ten new opportunities (challenges?) A lot of astrologers will say “thanks but no thanks.” But I react like a kid turned loose in a candy factory. My problem is, there is never enough time to do a proper job of investigation, so I am just tackling one of the new asteroids in each issue of The Mutable Dilemma. Icarus was discussed in the Gemini issue, and the evidence has continued to accumulate since June. Some interesting cases were sent to me by Nancy Barnhart, especially Spiro Agnew who had natal Icarus in his first house conjunct Ceres, with progressed Sun conjunct them within minutes when he was forced to resign as Vice President of the United States. If Ceres is one of the keys to Virgo and hence one’s job, the combination is certainly appropriate for a come-down in one’s job through personal over-reach. Another interesting case is Billy Carter. During his days of playing games with the Libyans and his admission of alcoholism and going in for treatment, he had progressed Icarus square progressed Sun, the latter in Taurus in its own fifth house. Still another case is Yoko Ono who had progressed Icarus conjunct her natal Sun when John Lennon was killed. There are two possible times for Yoko, but the one used by most astrologers puts the Icarus-Sun combination in the Sun’s house, the fifth. The theme that seems to be coming through is the danger of the over-reach when Icarus is involved in fire patterns; aspects to fire planets, in fire houses, or fire signs (in that order of importance). im portance). After The Mutable Dilemma went to press, I located the chart on the finding of part of Marcia Moore’s body and found that transiting Icarus was conjunct Marcia and Sunny’s natal Icarus positions at the time of the discovery just as it was on Hinckley and Reagan’s at the time of the shooting. I’m still not putting Icarus in everyone’s chart, but when I suspect that I’m dealing with a person or situation where it would be prominent, I do check it out, and I usually find strong aspects. One last case which I hope will have a happier ending is Diana Spencer whose progressed Icarus was on her seventh house cusp when she married Prince Charles of England. The marriage opened up the potential of becoming a Queen in time, as well

210

as mother of a future King or Queen. Icarus only implies a fall if we are reaching beyond our capacities. It will be fascinating to see if she becomes Queen in 1989-90 when progressed Icarus will conjunct her natal Sun in the seventh house. To hammer again at a theme that is seen regularly in our pages, anything important in the character and consequent destiny will be shown repeatedly in the horoscope. If any new object or technique is valid and useful, it has to repeat what the chart already says, but it may amplify or clarify the message. If we keep on adding new asteroids, as I expect to do, we will have to have a computer. It is just too time consuming to calculate that many factors by hand. It is primarily because I do not have the new ten asteroids on the computer that I do not look at them regularly. But it is also als o an encouraging indication of understanding of the meaning of the new planets when we can say in advance, “This person looks like an Icarus type,” or a Lilith type, or whatever, and then check to see if the asteroid is involved in close and appropriate aspects in the chart. Before we leave Icarus (which is becoming one of my favorites), I will mention that although Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne did not have an Icarus conjunction between their charts, they had a natal square. Also, Mary Jo’s progressed Icarus was square Ted’s natal Sun while Ted’s progressed Icarus was opposite his Moon-Neptune conjunction in the 8th house and trioctile his Pluto in the 7th house. If Jim Eshelman’s rectification of Mary Jo’s chart is close to accurate, her progressed Icarus was conjunct her local, progressed Ascendant while Ted’s natal Icarus was conjunct her natal IC. But this article is supposed to be about Lilith. I titled it the real Lilith to distinguish it from the imaginary, invisible Moon with the same name. The imaginary Lilith seems to have first appeared in an ephemeris printed in England in the 19th century. The name and movement were the same as Ivy Goldstein’s ephemeris, but the positions were different. That is, Lilith Lil ith was said to move three degrees a day backward through the zodiac, but the English ephemeris put it in a different part of the zodiac. Still a third ephemeris was once shown to me in Florida, again giving the same three degrees a day motion but putting the phantom Lilith in a different sign than either of the other sources. The counts against a moon Lilith Lil ith include: 1. the fact that no real physical object has that kind of regular motion; 2. it would have to be around 2-1/2 times as far from Earth as the Moon to move three degrees a day; 3. at that distance, a body might not be able to maintain an orbit around earth, but if it did, the attraction of the moon and the sun would create an extremely erratic orbit.

211

When all these astronomical realities are added to the combination of several claimed ephemerides and the whole idea of an invisible object, I have felt justified in ignoring Lilith. But I did take the time to check out a few charts, using Goldstein’s positions, and did not find it meaningful. The asteroid named Lilith, in contrast, is a visible small planet with a normal motion that varies from day to day and includes both direct and retrograde periods. To differentiate the two in writing about them, we might refer to the imaginary Moon as M-Lilith and to the asteroid as A-Lilith. The balance of this article will deal only with the asteroid. In the Lilith ephemeris, J. Lee Lehman suggests that Lilith indicates the unconscious and a-rational side of the mind. When prominent in current patterns, it is said to indicate a time of testing with a need to explore the unconscious. Al H. Morrison, in a comment in the ephemeris of one of the other new asteroids mentions that most people experience Lilith as negative and as a denial of sex. In mythology, Lilith was the first woman, created with and equal to Adam, the first man. When she refused to be subordinate to Adam and he insisted, she left and God made Eve from one of Adam’s ribs, to be subject to Adam. Some of the mythology associates Lilith with dangerous childbirth and hostility towards children; some with acting as sexual temptress to mortal males. As we always stress in our work with astrology, it is a pragmatic subject. Myths are starting places, but only extensive experience will confirm or deny the accuracy of the old traditions or of the new theories. My first effort in looking for a meaning for Lilith was to put it in all the horoscopes in Lois Rodden’s book of famous women; that is, all who were born in this century since the ephemeris covers 1900 to 2000. My first observation was that it was not a denial or block to sex. Among the Hollywood ladies noted for their sexy s exy reputation, we can mention Jayne Mansfield who had it exactly conjunct the Descendant, making a station at her birth, her daughter, Jayne Marie Mansfield, who had it on the cusp of the 12th house in exact semi-sextile to a Venus-Sun conjunction in Scorpio, Jane Fonda with it conjunct c onjunct Jupiter in Aquarius and opposite Pluto who w ho switched from a sexpot role to a serious actress and political activist, Farrah Fawcett who has it conjunct Mars in the 8th house, opposite Pluto, with Saturn and Sun more widely involved in the configuration. Jean Harlow, known as the  “blonde bombshell,” had it square her Sun-Icarus conjunction, and octile Uranus, Tuesday Weld, noted for teen-age affairs, alcohol, and pills, has it closely conjunct Mars and square Sun and semi-sextile Ascendant, with a wider conjunction to Uranus, and Raquel Welch, another star mainly known for her gorgeous figure, has it exactly on the Descendant, three degrees from Neptune. Shirley MacLaine who

212

played a happy hooker in i n fourteen films has her Lilith conjunct c onjunct Venus within a few degrees in the sign Pisces. Where not specified, aspects are within one to two degrees. Quite a different collection of individuals with a prominent Lilith seem to share an interest in the occult and involvement with witchcraft, including Sybil Leek who has it exactly on the Descendant with a close sextile to Uranus on one side and a two-degree orb sextile to Pluto on the other side, and Pat Montandon who had it conjunct a first house Saturn within minutes, and who was cursed by a disgruntled guest and then dogged by disasters for a year. In contrast to Pat’s real-life brush with witchcraft, Elizabeth Montgomery played a liberated witch in the television series “Bewitched”. She has Lilith conjunct her 4th house cusp, closely trine Mars and octile Saturn in Aquarius. Still another collection can be made of people involved in power struggles of one sort or another. Angela Davis, the avowed Communist professor in the University of California who spent years fighting the establishment has the Lilith, Uranus, Mars conjunction in Gemini mentioned for Tuesday Weld, but it is first house for Davis where Weld has it in the 12th house. Davis fought openly while Weld lived in the fantasy world of Hollywood, drink, drugs, and affairs. A number of  women fought for or over their children, with Lilith connected to the fifth house. Madalyn O’Hair who opposed prayer in school and took the battle clear to the Supreme Court only to have hav e her son become a Christian and renounce his mother’s atheism, had Lilith in her 5th house of children. Marianne Alireza married an Arab and when he decided to divorce her, she fought through the courts to retain custody of the children—an unheard of situation in the Moslem world. Her Lilith is also in the 5th house of children. Anita Bryant fought to protect her children from homosexual teachers. She has Lilith Lil ith conjunct Pluto which rules the 5th house, with Scorpio on the 5th cusp, and the Pluto-Lilith Pluto-Lili th conjunction is in a close T-square to Saturn, Moon, and the nodes of  the Moon; all in fixed signs for power struggles, but in mutable houses for ethical issues and with media attention. The cases of women who were devoted to their children, whether that devotion was always wise, certainly does not support the myth of Lilith as hostile to children. It does fit the mythical demand for equality with a mate; the refusal to be subordinate. A number of the famous women in Lois Rodden’s book have close conjunctions of Lilith and Pluto. Besides Anita Bryant, there is Pearl Bailey with a history of four or five marriages; Betty Ford who became First Lady when her husband became President of the U.S.A. who has the conjunction in Cancer in the 10th house, marking her role as mother of four children and often single parent since her husband traveled a great deal; Queen Margarethe of Denmark who was born to

213

power as a royal princess and became the first female to rule Denmark. Ruby Keeler’s Pluto-Lilith conjunction was in Gemini in the 11th house, in a grand trine to Moon-Saturn in Aquarius in the 7th house and Icarus in Libra in the third house. Though her early life was a struggle, she eventually married happily and retired to raise four children. A variation on the power theme comes with wi th Patty Hearst who started as victim of a kidnapping, joined her rebel captors, and ended up with a period in jail. Patty’s Lilith is conjunct Saturn in Scorpio. Winnie Ruth Judd, a convicted murderer, had Lilith in the 10th house at the midpoint of Pluto and Neptune. Charles Manson, charismatic leader, involved in occultism and convicted instigator of several murders, has Lilith in Aries in the twelfth house closely conjunct the Antivertex (similar to another Ascendant) and conjunct Hidalgo (to ( to be considered in a later issue of The Mutable Dilemma). Manson’s Mars-Neptune conjunction in the fifth house was closely quincunx Lilith and Antivertex. Both Pluto and Lilith may be keys to a dogged persistence to the end, to death if necessary. Part of the lesson of letter eight is is recognizing when we have gone far enough, knowing how to let go. We may end chapters consciously or invite it unconsciously with any of  the water factors in astrology. The normal focus of water is inward, but when it is mixed with other elements, as it usually is, or when we have not yet learned to handle that part of life, self-mastery may become control of others. Mixtures of letters eight and ten often seek or are given executive power. Another princess who became a Queen is Beatrix of Holland with Lilith in Capricorn in the 10th house in a close conjunction to Mercury. Still another person concerned with power is Betty Friedan, well-known feminist, who has Lilith conjunct her Sun-Icarus conjunction, all in Aquarius, opposite Neptune and trine the MC, showing a self-made radical, not someone born to the purple. Then there is Rose Mary Woods, the famous secretary to Richard Nixon who is presumed to have erased the incriminating inc riminating portion of a tape about his involvement in the Watergate scandal that eventually cost him the Presidency of the U.S.A. Rose Mary has Lilith L ilith exactly on the Ascendant opposite Icarus on her Descendant. For Christina Onassis, Lilith conjunction Venus in Sagittarius in the 8th house is a key to the power of vast inherited wealth but also to multiple marriages. By the time I had worked through the charts in the Rodden book, and put Lilith in a variety of charts of family, friends, clients, etc., I was getting a sense of Lilith as another Pluto in the chart, or we might say another form of letter eight. It seemed to be symbolizing all the varied potentials of Pluto; the use of sex as a way to power, power struggles

214

to achieve equality, interest in the occult including witchcraft, inheritance, and royalties in other cases, power coming through marriage or through birth into royalty, etc. For the moment, I have accepted as a working hypothesis that Lilith can be read as similar to Pluto: basically a search for self-knowledge and self-mastery which would include the unconscious association suggested by J. Lehman but not noted much in the Rodden book charts. When we turn the power out instead of in, and try to control the world instead of ourselves, then Lilith and Pluto can symbolize a variety of power activity. Like Pluto, Lilith seems to want a mate and is often prominent in people who have long and devoted d evoted marriages, or (more often) in people who have multiple marriages. It is not easy to achieve equality in marriage, and I think Lilith symbolizes a search for it and will not settle for less

Lilith

215

an ancient Sumerian and  Mesopotamian fertility goddess Lilith (Lilitu) was an ancient Sumerian and Mesopotamian fertility goddess. She was a mother goddess, a protector of children, a fierce warrior and an agricultural goddess. She was worshipped by people seeking to have good crops and many children. She even had assistants. Like angels are to the Judeo-Christian god, Lilith had Mariliths: Six armed women with snake tails who were skilled gardeners and fabulous warriors at the same time. Mythology and stories about Lilith are not really well known however, because most of  them have been obliterated by competing religions. But there are other versions of Lilith. For example, in Greece Lilith is the goddess of the black moon (Artemis is the goddess of the full moon and Hecate is goddess of the crescent moon). In Greece she was also revered as a fertility goddess, helping to conceive children and grow crops. Legends and myths about Lilith originate in ancient Mesopotamia, but persist as far away as Malayasia. She has many subtle name variants from region to region. But not all the legends about her are good. Judeo-Christianity has replaced the old mythology with a new mythology: Lilith as succubus. No longer is she a goddess, but instead an immortal succubus, the mother of all succubi, a stealer of children and a seductress of men. This anti-Lilith mythology is found in the combined mythology of  Islam, Judaism and Christianity. The how and why this happened is simple. Men are often afraid of women with power. The modern Judeo-Christian religions all believe that there is only one god, and that this god is a HE. If we go back further into the origins of  these religions, there is actually two gods: Jehovah (the male counterpart) and Yahweh (the female counterpart). The modern versions of these religions ignore Yahweh and favour only Jehovah. So historically "God" is both male and female, but the modern versions of  these religions firmly believe that "God" is male.

216

This is an idea that is reinforced by the usage of "Lord", "He", "Him" and "the Holy Father", all of which point to "God" being masculine. Combine that with the Adam and Eve myth, wherein Adam is created first as a "copy" of God, "in his own image". Plus almost all of the figures in the various versions of the bible are male. Abraham, Lot, Moses, Joseph, Jesus Christ, King Solomon... Santa Claus (Saint Nicholas) isn't even in the bible, but he's still male. The Pope, the Cardinals, Catholic priests... all male. The female version of the goddess Yahweh has basically been eradicated. All we have left is male dominated religions. Lilith makes a very interesting deviation in Judeo-Christianity however. Instead of being a fertility goddess, who helps women conceive children, she has been transformed into a sexual miscreant. Suddenly sex and conception is evil. Sex is a sin, or so the bible tells us. We have to remember that the bible (the ( the different versions of it) weren't actually written down until hundreds of years after the death of Christ, and when they were written down, different people (all men) wrote different versions and mass produced them. In Christianity, the version most commonly used is the King James version, a version which religious scholars working for King James wrote. But other versions tell drastically different di fferent stories. In the ben-Sira (a) version Lilith makes a dramatic appearance, not as a succubus, but as the counterpart to Adam. Lilith and Adam were created together, both made out of clay, at the exact same time. Afterall, Yahweh/Jehovah created all the animals (male and female animals) at the same time, why shouldn't they create humans at the same time? In ben-Sira (b), a slightly different version, Adam is created first, and Lilith is created immediately afterwards. In ben-Sira (c), Lilith is made of mud instead of clay. In whatever version you read, the story still finds a way to make women appear inferior. "Soon, they began to quarrel with each other. She said to him: I will not lie underneath, and he said: I will not lie underneath but above, for you are meant to lie underneath und erneath and I to lie above. She said sa id to him: We are both equal, because we are both created from the earth. But they didn’t listen to each other. When Lilith saw this, she

217

pronounced God’s avowed name and flew into the air. Adam stood in prayer before his Creator and said: Lord of the World! The woman you have given me has gone away from me. Immediately, the Almighty sent three angels after her, to bring her back. The Almighty said to Adam: If she decides to return, it is good, but if not, then she must take it upon herself to ensure that a hundred of her children die each day. They went to her and found her in the middle of the Red Sea. And they told her the word of God. But she refused to return. They said to her: We must m ust drown you in the sea. She said: Leave me! I was created for no other purpose than to harm children, eight days for boys and twenty for girls. When they heard what she said, they pressed her even more. She said: I swear by the name of the living God that I, when I see you or your image on an amulet, will have no power over that particular child. And she took it upon herself to ensure that, every day, a hundred of  her children died. That is why we say that, every day, a hundred of her demons die. That is why we write the names Senoi, Sansenoi and Semangloph on an amulet for small children. And when Lilith sees it, she remembers her promise and the child is saved.”  The words "I will not lie underneath" could be reference to sexual positioning (and has been used by religious scholars who prefer the missionary position), but it can simply mean that Lilith does not want to be treated like a slave. During the 20th and 21st century Lilith has seen a cultural revival, largely due to the feminist and post-feminist movements. She has become a feminist icon, a sexually aggressive woman who wants to be treated equally. Men have words for such women. We call them sluts, bitches, whores, hoes, fem-nazi-bitches. The word feminist is treated by men (and sometimes women) as if its a bad word. They think it means female superiority when in reality its just equality. Which brings us full circle, back to ancient history and mythology, because myths are often just blurred facts that have been altered with time. In Greek mythology, Amazons lived l ived to the east of Greece, in the area of Sumeria, Mesopotamia and Palestine. Thanks to archeologists, we now know that that particular area, stretching from Egypt to Iran Iran,, believed in equality. Men and women treated each other equally in Egypt and Sumeria.

218

From the Greek perspective, where men were considered superior (largely due to Greek mythology where w here Zeus is king of the gods, and also due to Aristotle, who said that women were soulless), the idea of  women being treated as equals was wa s such a strange thought. Women in Greece were slaves. They had no souls. s ouls. A society where women were equals would be considered backwards, hence the term "Amazons" has come to mean women who are in control, a society where women are considered superior. Except they weren't superior, the Amazons were simply equals, and it mirrors our modern problems with people misunderstanding the meaning of the word "feminist". Male-haters, lesbians, dykes... names we sometimes call feminists, but its far from the reality. Most feminists are actually heterosexuals, married and have children. If anything, they are far more likely to be more aggressive and open about their sexuality. s exuality. Like most modern women are. The fact is that all women who believe in equality are feminists. Many simply don't know it because they've been confused by men who say feminists are "male-hating dykes". Sadly, most women are likely to say "Oh, I believe in equality, but I'm not a feminist." They don't realize that they really are a feminist, but they're afraid of being called a "male-hating dyke". And not all men hate feminists. Many men prefer women who are aggressive and/or androgynous because they are simply more compatible people. Not everyone wants a woman who bends to every whim a man has. Such a woman is more like a slave, a woman who has been corrupted into believing she is inferior. Which brings me back to religion. When a person is raised with a misogynistic (women-hating) religion like Christianity and fed ideas like "women should stay home to cook and clean" or "women are only good for making babies", it destroys the woman's self-esteem and at the same time provides a lazy alternative. That isn't to mean that being a housewife is an easy job, but it certainly is an easier career alternative. It doesn't require any serious education, they don't have to worry about social stigma, they don't have to worry about competition in the workplace and a host of other reasons. Overall its a less stressful environment, but it comes with one fatal flaw: Men

219

commit adultery so they can sleep with more sexually aggressive women. And so now we are back to the Lilith as succubus/seductress. The home-wrecker, the secretary, the mistress, the other woman your husband is fucking. Its very easy to hate the woman who destroys your nice happy/lazy existence of being a carefree housewife. She destroyed your life and because you don't have a job and you don't have an education to get a decent job, you can't afford to take care ca re of  the kids. Since you don't have money of your own, the custody battle could be expensive and while women are favoured in custody cases, men have equal opportunity to gain custody, and have a monetary advantage because if they have the money, they in theory can provide a better home for the children. Next thing you know, the husband is fucking the nanny and you've been replaced. So yes, being a housewife is a noble thing to do, but get an education anyway. No matter how much the husband claims he loves his wife, there is always the potential for adultery. And so its very easy to think of the other woman badly. How dare she! She stole your husband! How and why? why ? Because she's more aggressive. Its not that she is a bad person. She's not. If the husband fell in love with her and ditched the wife, then she must have some nice qualities. Its not that the wife isn't nice either, this has nothing to do with niceties. Its about the husband wanting a woman who is more aggressive and with whom he feels more compatible with. Not all women who find out their husbands are cheating however get a divorce. Quite often, especially in a religious family, they simply ignore the affair (and sometimes have their own affairs). They may hate the mistress, but they choose to remain in the marriage because they're afraid to rock the boat. An unhappy unhap py marriage seems easier than being an unhappy divorcee with no children, no education and no job. The church reinforces the idea that couples are married for life, til death do us part, but in reality church leaders don't have a clue what its like to be in abusive/adulterous marriage. Unless the priests have been abusing the choir boys, the priests have never had sex in their lives and they certainly have never had a serious relationship. A priest

220

really should not be providing marital advice, because they have no marriage experience. From the priestly perspective, it is very easy to blame the mistress. She tempted the male. Its all her fault! If she wasn't so aggressive, none of this would have happened. She seduced him, so its all her fault. Wrong! The husband just as easily could have had an affair with another woman who was not aggressive at all. The mistress doesn't need to be aggressive at all. Quite often the mistress doesn't even know the man is married. So its certainly not the fault of the mistress. Blaming her is ignoring ig noring the real problem: The Sex within the Marriage. Maybe the husband doesn't feel excited by his wife. She is boring in bed. Maybe she doesn't want to have sex regularly. Maybe he has simply lost interest in her. Maybe its a communication problem and when the two aren't talking they aren't having sex either. Any kind of  dispute and/or a lack of sex will make both the husband and wife want to look elsewhere for their pleasure. There is the flip side of the succubus: The incubus. In Biblical mythology, incubi are fallen angels who had sex with mortals and were cast out of heaven. They wander the earth as "sex demons", seducing women or raping women and impregnating them. A common theme is the woman being ravaged in her sleep by an incubus and becoming pregnant. The children of incubi are said to be rapists. In the modern marriage, the incubi is the man in the affair. Something is wrong in the marriage, woman meets man, they get it on, she gets pregnant and suddenly the husband wonders why the baby has red hair... in ancient times amongst superstitious people, it was very easy to blame a rapist or a sex demon or even witchcraft. Anything but adultery, which could get the adulteress stoned to death. Quite often if  a male committed adultery, no one cared. But if a woman did and she got pregnant, it was a huge problem. The witchcraft issue is an interesting one and I deliberately said "red hair" above. Witchcraft was used an excuse to kill people with red hair during the middle ages. Today red hair is extremely rare because it

221

was essentially mass genocide based upon hair colour. But its not just witchcraft. In paintings and depictions, Lilith and seductresses are often depicted as having red hair, symbolic of a more aggressive sexuality. Whether red heads are more sexual or not, its i ts difficult to say. But we can say that people tend to view others based on what they look like. Women don't look very muscular, therefore we tend to think they are weak. And after years of being told they are weak, women start to believe b elieve they are weak. Except that strength isn't defined by sex, its defined by exercise. Women who are exercise more do look more muscular and toned. No steroids required. Being told they are weak for years and years reinforces the belief and as a result many women don't exercise as much as they should. They think they are weak and become weak as a result of a lack of exercise. In this day and age, men are becoming weak too. Too much sitting on the couch watching tv or sitting s itting in front of the computer is creating a generation of fat, lazy, weak men and women. The heaviest thing they carry is the shopping bags filled with Coca-Cola and twinkies. I have a term that I use to describe these fat people: Its Generation XXL. In the United States this is a huge problem. HUGE as in fat, and also HUGE in terms of numbers. 72% of adult Americans are overweight, including 29% who are OBESE. Everyone in the country is starting to look like the Venus of Willendorf. This fatness is not unrelated to Lilith, because Lilith is symbolic of  fertility and sexuality. Fat people are not sexy, but they're also not very fertile. Obese women have heart problems which result in lowered fertility rates. The related problems have to do with egg fertilization, heart disease in the fetus leading to the body naturally aborting the fetus, premature babies. In extreme cases the weight of  the stomach weighing down has even squashed, choked and/or suffocated the baby. While women are encouraged to eat a fair fai r bit during pregnancy in order to ensure a healthy baby, an already obese woman will become even more obese and will certainly have fertility problems as a result. Even if the baby is born, it will also have heart and liver problems due to a fatty diet during the pregnancy.

222

And perhaps more importantly, on a sexuality level, obesity really hampers a person's sex life. Finding a mate who is willing (or desperate enough) to have sex with the Venus of Willendorf is quite tricky. In combination, the obesity problem combined with marital infidelity is almost a definite. If either the male or the female becomes overweight, a loss in sex drive and sexual activity is almost certain. Both sexes are much more likely to cheat if their spouse is overweight and unattractive. Perhaps this could explain why infidelity is so common in the United States, because the USA has so many weight problems and is the fattest country and the most adulterous. Sexuality, feminism and health issues (whether its AIDS, pregnancy or obesity) will always be linked together. Pregnancy itself is not a feminist issue, but the process of becoming pregnant or preventing pregnancy is. The choices women make, like whether they choose to use a condom or the pill or both is directly related to their sexual beliefs and their feminist beliefs. A woman who forfeits the choice to her boyfriend or husband is forfeiting her rights. At the same time a sexually aggressive woman may simply believe in "cumshots" and firmly believe that unprotected penetration is okay, provided the man is confident in his ability to control his ejaculation. Therefore when it is time to ejaculate, he may end up doing so on her ass, her stomach or (like they often do in porn movies) on her face. Hence the term "cum-catcher", a term many women find offensive. Another term "cunt" is considered VERY offensive, despite the fact that many feminists now believe we should use the word in the clinical sense. "Cunt" is the proper English word. "Vagina" is Roman military slang, because the word actually means "swordsheath". Thus there is a movement to replace the word vagina and start using the word cunt more regularly, so it will lose its negative aspects and eventually it will no longer be a bad word. The United States may pride itself as being advanced on moral issues like feminism, but the truth is that they are still far behind European countries like France and England, the birthplaces of modern feminism. Far too many Americans are still living in a "missionary" belief system when it comes it comes to sex, despite the advances of sex researchers like Dr. Kinsey.

223

During Bill Clinton's sexual controversy there was several key themes: Do blowjobs/oral sex count as adultery? Is Monica Lewinsky a slut or a sexually aggressive woman? Should Hillary have filed for divorce? Why didn't Hillary file for divorce? Why did Americans care so much about sex in the oral/oval office? From Bill Clinton's perspective, he was trying to cover his ass. Lying to congress is not allowed, but pretending to be stupid is apparently okay. He didn't think oral sex counted as real sex. Or so he said, but he was basically pretending to be stupid in order to prevent being impeached. Monica Lewinsky IS sexually aggressive, and she's only a slut if you think she is. Clinton is more at fault than she is. His sexual advances on multiple women are well known. Whats interesting is how it causes a split in American politics. The feminists tended to side with Monica Lewinsky, supporting her sexual aggression while the homemakers/married women tended to side with Hillary. Meanwhile American men (the vast majority of them) just supported Clinton himself. The infidelity of a nation of men came together in common support of a president who proved he really is like the common man, because the common man cheats on his wife. And apparently the common woman (Hillary Clinton) ignores it and continues with the marriage. We assume therefore that despite his infidelity, that Bill Clinton must still be a loving husband, but he must also be good in bed if his wife still wants him. The whole scenario is like a Jerry Springer episode, but on a national stage of political events. The Clinton family became the most popular presidential family in US history. Bill Clinton's approval rating was the highest any president had ever seen. That approval rating helped win Hillary Clinton her senate seat in New York State, and it will certainly help her when she runs for US president in 2008. For her the choice of staying with Bill was a no brainer. She wants to be president. Americans will not elect a divorcee. So while many Americans assume Bill must be good in bed, the truth of why she stayed with him is far more politically motivated. A person would almost wonder if Clinton's sexual scandal was a deliberate ploy to raise his popularity by allowing the common person to identify with him.

224

In contrast most Americans do not identify with George W. Bush. The wealthy son of an oil magnate, a fake-cowboy, studied at Yale because his father is an alumni, snorts cocaine, hemorroids and apparently has no sex drive at all. Most Americans don't even know what his wife's name is, whereas Hillary Clinton is a household name. Bush's treatment of women is quite profound. Of his inner circle, there is only one woman: Condoleezza Rice. Bush invaded abortion privacy by making abortion records publicly available, thus women who had abortions when they were younger could now be potentially blackmailed. He cut funding to women's shelters not only in the United States, but also abroad. He increased funding to dubious religious groups which oppose women's rights. In state of Texas where he was governor for 4 years, in a rather strange obscenity law, women are allowed to go topless, but only if they are white. Condoleezza Rice is currently the National Security Advisor, but what experience does she have? Before Bush was elected, Ms Rice was an oil tycoon. She knows nothing about security issues. She has no military background at all. What she does KNOW is the oil business. As the only female in the group, she is certainly voted down in meetings with Bush's advisors, but she remains in the White House because she doesn't care that she is the only woman. She cares about money. And that is the downfall of many women in business and/or politics. Far too many women measure their success by monetary wealth, not by what they achieve. Some women achieve happiness by having children, having successful careers, accumulating wealth, gaining fame, helping others, or finding love. If we go back to the original Lilith myth in the ben-Sira version of  the bible, we find that what Lilith wanted to be happy was a loving mate who treated her equally. In the Garden of Eden, there was no need for wealth or career, so the only pleasure beyond that was children. A loving mate, equality and the possibility of children. Money, career and fame are secondary. Far too many people firmly believe b elieve in fame and fortune. Yes, we need money to survive and being famous is a very nice feeling too. It would be really nice to have lots of money, retire early and spend your time helping others. Adam and Lilith were essentially retired. They had no need for wealth. Fame was non-existent because there was no other people and likewise the idea of helping others and adultery didn't exist for the same reason. It was life in a vacuum/paradise, but even then

225

the battle of the sexes managed to destroy what should have been complete happiness. The battle of the sexes rages on today and will certainly continue to rage in the future. In many ways modern sexuality is much more confusing. Women are confused as to what men want. Do they want big tits and voluptuousness, or do they want anorexic women with perky breasts? In the United States there is even the BBW (Big Beautiful Woman) movement which tries to convert men to a new idea of beauty, wherein fat is sexy. Likewise for men, times are changing. Being handsome no longer is the thing. Now men have to be handsome and hairless from the neck down. Shaved chests, shaved back, shaved asses, and sometimes even shaved legs and penises. The modern idea of male beauty is starting to look very metrosexual and androgynous. But that idea doesn't apply to all women. Some women want hair, muscles, tans, no tans, long hair, beards, body piercings, tattoos... our ideas of what is beautiful is becoming more diverse as our society and culture changes. Its difficult to predict where sexuality will lead us in the future. Bisexuality is more common than previously thought and sexual freedom is butting up against religious stereotypes/beliefs. Gay marriages are already completely legal in Canada and will soon be completely legal in the United States. Religious people will try to stop it, but it will happen anyway. Whenever sexuality pushes for more freedom, religion tends to stick its nose into the business and try to demonify the topic. If we all listened to the bible, then women would all be slaves, homosexuals would be executed, and everyone would be using the missionary position. Lilith will always be a dual image of  demon and goddess, with sexual repression on one side and sexual freedom on the other.