Lilith The Demoness
A cult in Mesopotamia is said to be related to Lilith by early Jewish leaders. According to the hypotheses proposed by William F. Albright, Theodor H. Gaster, and others, the name Lilith already existed in 7th century BC. and Lilith retained her Shedim characteristics through out the entire Jewish tradition.[29]
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, houses, and temples. In magical texts of that era, they could be either malevolent or benevolent.[30]
The cult originated from Babylon, then spread to Canaan and eventually to Israel.[31] 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.[32]
Shedim in Jewish thought and literature 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, God created the shedim, but did not create their bodies and forgot them on the Shabbat when he rested.
The second is that they are descendants of demons in 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, some people were scattered and became Shedim, Ruchin, and Lilin.
In Akkadian the terms lili and lilitu mean spirits. Some uses of lilitu are listed in The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (CAD, 1956, L.190), in Wolfram von Soden's Akkadisches Handwörterbuch (AHw, p. 553), and Reallexikon der Assyriologie (RLA, p. 47).
Lilith (Hebrew: ?????; lilit, or lilith) is a Hebrew name for a figure in Jewish mythology, developed earliest in the Babylonian Talmud, who is generally thought to be in part derived from a class of female demons Lili?u in Mesopotamian texts; which refer to her as Abyzou.
 |
| Amulet depicting Abyzou whipped by Arlaph |
Abyzou is the name of a female demon. Abyzou was blamed for miscarriages and infant mortality and was said to be motivated by envy (Greek: f????? phthonos), as she herself was infertile. In the Jewish tradition she is identified with Lilith, in Coptic Egypt with Alabasandria, and in Byzantine culture with Gylou, but in various texts surviving from the syncretic magical practice of antiquity and the early medieval era she is said to have many or virtually innumerable names.
Abyzou (also spelled Abizou, Obizu, Obizuth, Obyzouth, Byzou etc.) is pictured on amulets with fish- or serpent-like attributes. Her fullest literary depiction is the compendium of demonology known as the Testament of Solomon, dated variously by scholars from as early as the 1st century AD to as late as the 4th.
Demonology is the systematic study of demons or beliefs about demons. It is the branch of theology relating to superhuman beings who are not gods. It deals both with benevolent beings that have no circle of worshippers or so limited a circle as to be below the rank of gods, and with malevolent beings of all kinds. The original sense of "demon", from the time of Homer onward, was a benevolent being, but in English the name now holds connotations of malevolence. (In order to keep the distinction, when referring to the word in its original Greek meaning English uses the spelling "Daemon" or "Daimon".)
Demons, when regarded as spirits, may belong to either of the classes of spirits recognized by primitive animism; that is to say, they may be human, or non-human, separable souls, or discarnate spirits which have never inhabited a body. A sharp distinction is often drawn between these two classes, notably by the Melanesians, several African groups, and others; the jinn, for example, are not reducible to modified human souls; at the same time these classes are frequently conceived as producing identical results, e.g. diseases.
The word demonology is from Greek da?µoo?, daimon, "divinity, divine power, god"; and -????a, -logia.
The earliest reference to a demon similar to Lilith and companion of Lillake/Lilith is on the Sumerian king list, where Gilgamesh's father is named as Lillu.[1][4] Little is known of Lillu ("Wind[wer]man"; or Lilu, Lila) and he was said to interfere with women in their sleep and had functions of an incubus, while Lilitu appeared to men in their erotic dreams.[1][5][6]
Such qualities are further suggested by the Semitic associations made with the names Lila and Lilitu, namely those of lalu, or wandering about, and lulu, meaning lasciviousness.[7]
The Assyrian Lilitu 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.[1] They were highly sexually predatory towards men, but were unable to copulate normally. They were thought to dwell in waste, desolate, and desert places.
 |
| Pazuzu |
Like the Sumerian Dimme, a male wind demon named Pazuzu was thought to be effective against them.[8][9]
Other storm and night demons from a similar class are recorded around this period:
- Lilu, an incubus
- Ardat lili ("Lilith's handmaid"), who would come to men in their sleep and beget children from them
- Irdu lili, the incubus counterpart to Ardat lili.[10]
 |
| Lamashtu |
In Mesopotamian mythology, Lamashtu (Akkadian dLa-maš-tu; Sumerian Dimme dDim3-me) was a female demon, monster, malevolent goddess or demigoddess who menaced women during childbirth and, if possible, kidnapped children while they were breastfeeding. She would gnaw on their bones and suck their blood, as well as being charged with a number of other evil deeds. She was a daughter of the Sky God Anu.
Lamashtu is depicted as a mythological hybrid, with a hairy body, a lioness' head with donkey's teeth and ears, long fingers and fingernails, and the feet of a bird with sharp talons. She is often shown standing or kneeling on a donkey, nursing a pig and a dog, and holding snakes. She thus bears some functions and resemblance to the Mesopotamian demon Lilith.
In Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, Pazuzu (sometimes Fazuzu or Pazuza) was the king of the demons of the wind, and son of the god Hanbi. He also represented the southwestern wind, the bearer of storms and drought.
Pazuzu is often depicted with the body of a man but with the head of a lion or dog, talons instead of feet, two pairs of wings, the tail of a scorpion and a serpentine penis. He is also depicted with the right hand upward, and the left hand downward; the position of the hands means life and death, or creation and destruction.
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, proclaim His glorious splendor 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], by the guilt of the ages of [those] smitten 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 "deeply involved in the realm of demonology," an exorcism hymn.
Another text discovered at Qumran, conventionally associated with the Book of Proverbs, credibly also appropriates the Lilith tradition in its description of a precarious, winsome woman - The Seductress (4Q184).
The ancient poem - dated to the first century 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:
Her house sinks down to death,
And her course leads to the shades.
All who go to her cannot return
And find again the paths of life.
- Proverbs 2:18-19
Her gates are gates of death, and from the entrance of the house
She sets out towards Sheol.
None of those who enter there will ever return,
And all who possess her will descend to the Pit.
- 4Q184
However, what this association does not take into account are additional descriptions of the "Seductress" from Qumran that cannot be found attributed to the "strange woman" of Proverbs; namely, her horns and her wings:
"a multitude of sins 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 to explicate a much broader, supernatural threat - the threat of the demoness Lilith.
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 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 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)
"[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 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 ghosts 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 years, and wore clothes of fig on his body for a hundred and thirty years. - That statement [of R. Jeremiah] 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:
“She wanders about at night, vexing 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.
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 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.[40]
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. 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 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 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 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.[41]
An alternative story 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 (q'lippa) was created around the brain" and this husk spread and brought out another husk, which was Lilith.
 |
| Lamia |
Another similar monster was the 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.[52]
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.[53] (Some depictions of Lamia picture her as having wings and feet of a bird, rather than being half serpent, similar to the earlier reliefs of Greek Sirens and the Lilitu.) One source states simply that she is a daughter of the goddess Hecate.
Another that Lamia was subsequently cursed by the goddess Hera to have stillborn 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.[54]
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.[55]
Her gift was the "mark of a Sibyl," a gift of second sight.
Zeus was said to have given her the gift of sight. 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.[54]
The Empusae 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, succubae, or lilim is derived from this myth.
Karina of Arabic lore is considered Lilith’s equivalent.[56]
She is mentioned as a child-stealing and child-killing witch. In this context, 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 is when Karina will cause her chaos.[57]
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. The Karina will continuously try to create discord between the woman and her husband.
Here, Karina plays the role of disrupter of marital relations, akin to one of Lilith's roles in Jewish tradition.
The depiction of Lilith in Romanticism continues to be popular among Wiccans, feminists and in other modern occultism.[59]
Ceremonial magic
Few magical 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 the Order of Phosphorus (see excerpt below). Lilith appears as a succubus in Aleister Crowley's De Arte Magica.
Lilith was also one of the middle names of Crowley’s first child, Ma Ahathoor Hecate Sappho Jezebel Lilith Crowley (b. 1904, d.1906), and Lilith is sometimes identified with Babalon in Thelemic writings.
A Chaos Magical rite, based on an earlier German rite,[62] offers a ceremonial Invocation of Lilith:[63]
Dark is she, but brilliant! Black are her wings, black on black! Her lips are red as rose, kissing all of the Universe! She is Lilith, who leadeth forth the hordes of the Abyss, and leadeth man to liberation! She is the irresistible fulfiller of all lust, seer of desire.
First of all women was she - Lilith, not Eve was the first! Her hand brings forth the revolution of the Will and true freedom of the mind! She is KI-SI-KIL-LIL-LA-KE, Queen of the Magic! Look on her in lust and despair!"
- Lilith Ritus, from the German by Joseph Max
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.
The book was allegedly saved from the ashes of Dr John Dee's library at Mortlake in the 1580s.
In modern 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 being called "Baphomet" or the "Goat of Mendes," also known in Luciferianism as the "God of Witches."[66]
Writings 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 and Cain. Likewise, Lilith is said to have been Cain's actual mother, as opposed to Eve.
Lilith here is seen as a goddess of witches, the dark feminine principle, and is also known as the goddess Hecate.[67]
Wicca
 |
| Burney Relief, Babylon (1800-1750 BCE). The figure in the relief was sometimes identified with Lilith, based on a misreading of an outdated translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Modern research has identified the figure as either Ishtar or Ereshkigal. |
Many early writers that contributed to modern day Wicca expressed 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.[68][69]
Gerald Gardner asserted that there was continuous historical worship of Lilith to present day, and that her name is sometimes given to the goddess being personified in the coven, by the priestess.
This idea was further attested by Doreen Valiente, who cited her as a presiding goddess of the Craft:
“the personification of erotic dreams, the suppressed desire for delights”.[70]
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, Anath and Isis.[71]
According to one view, Lilith was originally a Sumerian, Babylonian, or Hebrew mother goddess of childbirth, children, women, and sexuality[72][73][74] who later became demonized due to the rise of patriarchy.[75]
Other modern views hold that Lilith is a dark moon goddess on par with the Hindu Kali.
Notes
1. Hurwitz (1980)[page needed]
2. Sayce (1887)[page needed]
3. Fossey (1902)[page needed]
4. Patai (1942)[page needed]
5. Raphael Patai p. 222, The Hebrew Goddess 1978, 3rd enlarged edition from Discus Books New York.
6. T.H. Jacobsen, "Mesopotamia", in H. Frankfort et al., Before Philosophy: The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man.
7. Hurwitz p.50
8. Goddesses and Demons: Some Thoughts by Johanna Stuckey
9. Black, Jeremy and Anthony Green. Gods, Demons, and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press 2003. p. 118
10. Patai p.222
11. Erich Ebeling and Bruno Meissner, Reallexicon der Assyriologie, Walter de Gruyter 1990[page needed]
12. S.H. Langdon p.74
13. Hurwitz p.58
14. Kramer translates the Anzu as "owl," but most often it is translated as "eagle," "vulture," or "bird of prey."
15. "Inanna and the Huluppu Tree": One Way of Demoting a Great Goddess by Johanna Stuckey
16. Chicago Assyrian Dictionary 1956. Chicago: University of Chicago.
17. Dalley, Stephanie. Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh and others. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 1991
18. Hurwitz 64
19. Hurwitz p.34-35
20. AncientNearEast.net. Lamaštu (Lamashtu)
21. Britannica, s.v. "Lamashtu"
22. Margi B. Lilith
23. Hurwitz p.39
24. Hurwitz p.40
25. Hurwitz p.41
26. Summers, Montague (2003). Vampire: His Kith and Kin. Kessinger Publishing. pp. 356. ISBN 978-0766176034.
27. "The Old Testament (Vulgate)/Isaias propheta". Wikisource (Latin). http://la.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Old_Testament_(Vulgate)/Isaias_propheta. Retrieved 2007-09-24.
28. "Parallel Latin Vulgate Bible and Douay-Rheims Bible and King James Bible; The Complete Sayings of Jesus Christ". LatinVulgate.com. http://www.latinvulgate.com/verse.aspx?t=0&b=27&c=34. Retrieved 2007-09-24.
29. Hurwitz p. 53-54
30. Leick 1998: 30-31
31. Hurwitx p. 54-55
32. Hurwitz p. 54
33. Humm, Alan. Lilith in the Alphabet of Ben Sira
34. Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 174
35. Segal, Eliezer. Looking for Lilith
36. Schwartz p.7
37. Schwartz p 8
38. Schwartz p.8
39. Ibid
40. Patai p.229-230
41. Patai p.230
42. Patai p231
43. Patai p232
44. Patai p.231
45. Patai p244
46. Humm, Alan. Lilith, Samael, & Blind Dragon
47. Pataip246
48. R. Isaac b. Jacob Ha-Kohen. Lilith in Jewish Mysticism: Treatise on the Left Emanation
49. Humm, Alan. Lilith picture: with Adam & Eve
50. Lilith Amulet-J.R. Ritman Library
51. Humm, Alan. Kabbalah: Lilith's origins
52. The Lilith Myth
53. Hurwitz p. 43
54. Hurwitz p.43
55. Hurwitz p.78
56. Hurwitz p.136
57. Hurwitz p.137
58. hurwitz p.138
59. The Feminism and Women's Studies site: Changing Literary Representations of Lilith and the Evolution of a Mythical Heroine
60. "Lilith's Cave," Lilith's Cave: Jewish tales of the supernatural, edited by Howard Schwartz (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988) [1]
61. Seidel, Kathryn Lee. The Lilith Figure in Toni Morrison's Sula and Alice Walker's The Color Purple
62. Lilith-Ritus
63. The Invocation of Lilith
64. Barbelith Underground
65. Tyson, Donald.LIBER LILITH:A Gnostic Grimoire
66. Stills, Robert. Church of Lucifer
67. Ford, Michael. Black Witchcraft: The Foundations of the Luciferian Path
68. Grimassi, Raven.Stregheria: La Vecchia Religione
69. Leland, Charles.Aradia, Gospel of the Witches-aAppendix
70. Lilith-The First Eve/Published at Imbolc 2002
71. Grenn, Deborah J.History of Lilith Institute
72. http://www.thaliatook.com/AMGG/lilith.html[unreliable source?]
73. Hurwitz,Siegmund Excerpts from Lilith-The first Eve
74. goddess.com.au-Lilith
75. Koltuv
76. R. Buckland
77. Joëlle de Gravelaine in "Lilith und das Loslassen", Astrologie Heute, Nr. 23.
78. Margi B. The Angelic Influence [unreliable source?]
79. Martha Lang-Wescott
80. Pistis Sophia Unveiled by Samael Aun Weor, page 339, at Google books
81. Psychic Self-Defence by Dion Fortune, page 126-128, at Google books
82. Gnostic teaching's course on Kabbalah: Klipoth
Comments
Post a Comment