A CELEBRATION OF THREE GODDESSES: LILITH

Lilith is known variously, according to orgins of local myth and spiritual tradition, either as a Demoness (Hebrew and Judaic Myth and Folklore) or as The First Human (also Judaic and in other branches or judaic folklore) and in that incarnation, mortal rather than divine.  Also known as a Goddess, and mother of Eve and subsequently Adam.  And so: Wild Mother of Humanity. 

Variously, we might relate to Lilith in many forms of manifesting.   Probably most familiar in her dark and corrupt form (traditional patriarchal view, perhaps, but may also serve women and men in our understanding of our shadow side and potential for fearsome and primal passion.) She has become increasingly, in this sense and in the spirit of freedom she represents, a symbol of feminist liberation. She can also be understood as human, rather than divine, or in some stories, is the first being and so our primary origin and a metaphor for early matriarchal societies: in other stories she was made alongside and at the same time as Adam, and so can represent equality and duality.  Later stories told her as having been born from Adam, which seems a bit silly to me.....   excuse my moment of levity, but as some myths changed and were altered to reflect the increasing domination of patriarchy over time, it seems that the men could not quite bear to leave the women with anything that was sacred to them: not even childbirth.....   Oh well, guys, Lilith is also to be admired as being the kind of woman who has really kept up with the changing times: very current, and you can have a lot of fun and adventure with her, too....   but you gotta respect her... or it gets heavy!  xx eva

LILITH THE DARKNESS SHINES WITH BEAUTY

in the night of the beginning there was darkness, a stillness almost solid a deep presence unseen

and Lilith breathed creating space within her and around; from Nut The Black Sky, emerged a Queen

an impulse born from the egg of an owl and a serpent who had conjoined in astral joyous dance

ancestress  of all those dangerous women, who turn mens heart to stone with the she devil glance

so the legends of the night of fear of superstition deny your granddaughters their blood line of glory

but never silenced, Lady Lilith comes in dreams, to girls, with wild passion, to sing her lusty story

they say she visits men too, compels them to masturbate, spill fertile seed when they are sleeping,

the shameful fantasies that monks had in their chaste cells were the nocturnal curse of Lilith creeping

out from the forests and the wilderness beyond the tamed garden of the book of laws and fathers rule

she who dances naked in the deserts and the unchartered land she is seductress, rebel, danger, cruel

these are the stories that separated women's heaven from earth:where rests a fox? a bird? nature's child?

what rhythms move you to aband the well-guarded territories of the known to leap joyful, spirit free, wild? 

the daughter of eve has no place to rest her head, she must make a nest inside an ancient sycamore

Lilith is not bound by time, nor civil obligation, politeness, she is wonder, bliss, mistress of sacred lore

she  will dance freely, naked, in the moonlight, she declares she will not marry, nor will she conform

she is the shocking illumination of uncertainty and possibility, the lightning in the fearful storm

Mother of Adam, GrandMother of Eve, sacred, shaped from soil and water, infused with fire and wind

she is the prophetess of freedom, she is not the victim of those who blame her when they have sinned

Lilith is She who blesses beauty, liberation, passion, the birthright of your daring and your muse of power

the snake that devours itself, swallows your body, sacramental Witch, Demoness,  her tongue her flower

a Maiden who laughs in exhilaration, mother who births your transitions in her breast, crone who will deliver

all her children, in the thread of Fates, back to the earth to ashes and to dust, blessed life taker death giver

She is Alpha, Omega, her solitude is poetry her loneliness your union when she enters, bliss:

Come to me Lilith cries the hot blood exile from the safer Garden, heal me with your kiss.

 (eva day)

This for me is just one personal moment of an approach or relationship to Lilith and her archetype.....  she is many shades and moods and an experience rather than a static presence.  I first discovered Lilith when I was in my early twenties, and amongst other traditions, was exploring The Kabbala and attending a weakly study and meditation group in that tradition.  A  major focus for this, of course, was the Kabbalistic Tree of Life  (or Qabbalistic.)     Lilith  is associated with "Da-at! on the Tree.  Da-at is The Void: the dark or deep place, the abyss which must be entered or traversed, in order to journey further into spiritual growth.  It may be full of fear, or a sense of deep loss, or not-knowing; it's gift is power (of creativity, of spirit, of courage and compassion) and vision. 
Lilith to me as a young woman, with a young child at the time, was a story of Grandmother of us all and mother of Eve - and a sense of female tradition of boldness and ownership of self.  (Rather than women's lives and bodies being owned by a patriarchal culture.)

None of this is to imply war between the genders, or a stereo type of a kind of stroppy female resentment.  Lilith can be equally harsh or benevolent to either sex: what she does require of us as that we meet ourselves in oour rawest form: sensuality, lust, laughter, wildness, fear and courage, sexual energy and the urge to pro-create and create.... she doesn't take a lot of ..... bullshit. 

To meet Lilith - whether you be male or female - I think you have to get past a lot of social niceties,  civilised conditioning and assumptions about human behaviour and our relationship to nature, to the life force and the divine: and just open to the energy and ecstasy, to desire and urge and the physicality of our creative processes.
(eva day)

eva day

After much frustration, I chose the John Collier painting of Lilith, as so many other images were sexualised in a rather commercial / commodity style, making her look a bit like a pole dancer, which was not the point at all!! Like a lot of Victorian Romantic art, again this is a very idealised image and slightly too "nice."  But it works in other ways, as she is very self-contained, in her whole manner and posture.  She is not referring to or engaged with anyone else, neither man nor woman, except the snake (sacred female symbol of wisdom, mystery and propesy, as well as sensual and sexual power.)  She is in a moment of self-love and being with her own nature.

Here is an image for the Tree of Life

 

Lilith is featured as first on my list of "Women of Inspiration" in an earlier post (trilogy of articles on outstanding women through history.) There, I featured her very briefly - leaving reader to do their own discovering - in her human form as "first woman" - free and bold.

I like the folk tales in which she leaves the tamed garden and refuses to return, and rejcts marriage to Adam.  On closing this trilogy of Goddesses, I find myelf thinking: we need to keep telling our stories:

women, men, children, alll of us story-tellers: not just our own stories, but the stories of one another, of those we seek to understand and have compassion for and of all people. Each of our individual stories reflects something of our collective story.

all good wishes, eva day