WHO IS LILITH?
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Lilith by John Collier |
Lilith is an enigma in Goddess lore. Ideas and theories abound, and stories are few. First wife of the Hebrew Adam, Goddess of night or birds, demoness, original Semitic Great Mother, the possibilities are endless. Lilith is all of this and more. Her enigmatic nature enables Her to be all She desires and all we desire of Her. Some of the names attributed to Her include:
Lady Air - Sumerian
Night with Moon - Sumerian
Hand of Inanna - Sumerian
The Beautiful Maiden - Assyrian
Screech Owl - Hebrew (from the book of Isaiah)
Wind Spirit - Babylonian
It has been very difficult to find many ancient worship sites or information about Lilith as Goddess. From what I have been able to find, it seems Her centers of worship were associated with Inanna and Astarte in the Middle East. She is a Tantric Goddess in many ways for She encourages women to explore their sexuality and embrace it as a sacred thing. Her title of Hand of Inanna (or Handmaid of Inanna) goes back to this idea. She was embodied by a Priestess who was a sexual initiatrix for young men in the temples of Inanna. Young women would serve in Her temples as Ardat Lili, "Young Women of the Wind", engaging in sacred sexual acts within the temple for various festivals and also for sacred magickal purposes.
Most reference Her from the Hebrew tradtion that makes Her into a demoness that seduces men and kills infants. I reject this.Stewart Farrar in The Witches Goddess says of Lilith, "Nowhere is the vigorous determination of patriarchy to suppress memories of the Primordial Mother more evident than in the Biblical Garden of Eden." He goes on to discuss what he has found and his opinion of the process of the demonizing of Lilith's name to the point where She is unrecognizable from what She originally was, and how he sees Her fall in Hebraic tradition as a rejection of independent femininity and female power. I have to agree. The small pieces we have from pre-Biblical writings are nothing like those from Talmudic stories. Her equation by the Hebrews with screech owls is symbolic of her connection with dark female power and magick, and male fears of both. Mr. Farrar says something else beautifully true, with which I have to agree, and I feel could be the basis for reclaiming this Goddess for ourselves as modern womyn. "Truths banished to the unconscious do acquire talons - representing both our fear of them and their ability to tear a way through the veils of hypocrisy and distortion with which we have tried to surround them. Only when we come to terms with them and integrate them with consciousness is their loveliness restored, so that their talons become feet again. Only when the night-owl is admitted to the sunlight can we appreciate the beauty of her plumage. Lilith, the true Mother of All Living, must be reacknowledged - so that she and Eve can become one again. For without that one, Adam is only half a man." The deep truth in this is that womyn must open their eyes and see their half selves as womyn raised in and influenced by patriarchy and reawaken their inner Lilith self. They must reclaim the divine rebel who will not submit, and reactualize themselves in all aspects: magickal, spiritual, and yes, sexual.
Sumerian Legend of Lilith translated by Charles Alexander Moffat, from The Lilith Gallery
Before the stars were born
Before people built great cities
The great mountain Atlen shook
And bled fiery blood
As it gave birth to Lilitu
The land all around burned
Many animals and people died
When Lilitu opened her eyes
Lilitu saw the ashes of her birth
And wept tears like rain
Lilitu's tears became rivers and streams
Flowers grew where Lilitu walked
Trees grew where Lilitu sat
The ashes became fertile soil
And an orchard became Lilitu's home
In Lilitu's orchard many animals are
People came to live in paradise
Lilitu gave them grain and taught them to harvest
Lilitu made bread and beer
The people rejoiced, ate and drank
One day a great prince came to the land of Atlen
He spied Lilitu and wooed her
But Lilitu spurned and rejected him
The great prince became very angry
He spied two lions and killed them both
Lilitu wept for the lions
She cradled their heads in her arms
The lions awoke to her tears
The lions licked away her tears and became strong
They became Lilitu's loyal friends
The great prince saw this
And again he wooed Lilitu
But Lilitu became a bird
She flew away from him
Angry, the prince began hunting birds
Lilitu saw this and was upset
To spite the prince she spat at him
And mated with a serpent
Lilitu gave birth very quickly
Her child was like no other
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