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WHY LILITH?
Lilith came to me in one of the meditations from Lesson 4. I met her in a forest. At that time I didn‘t know that it was Lilith:
She just appeared in front of me on a clearing standing in the
sunlight. She was completely naked and had a green skin, black long
hair and a black spiral-shaped tatoo on her hips. She just opened
her arms and stood there, very friendly and waited for me. She didn‘t
say a word, but I knew that I had to give her my present.
It was something I had kept secret for a really long time. I felt that
it has something to do with one of my former lives. And this was locked
in the treasure chest. Now the Green Woman had it and she had also
opened the chest and so this „hidden treasure“ could go outside and
seemed to vanish in the air.
The Green Woman gave me her present. She laid her hands on my forehead so that I could feel her
energy flowing into my body.
She told me that I should concentrate on my studies and myself and that
she would be there to guide me to my Goddess. And I told her that she
should give me all the strength of being a woman.
When I was working on Lesson 7 I had just stopped taking the pill.
Somehow Lilith crossed my path during this time. Suddenly I read a lot
about her. So I decided to do a little ritual for her and my
menstruation:
I was very interested in the rite of passage topic from last lesson.
So I thought: why not doing a ritual for my menstruation?
I put a red candle on the altar and a bowl of red grape juice.
Then I cast the circle and invited Lilith. I asked her to share her female energy with me and I wanted to
thank her for me being a woman and being proud of myself and my body and my cycle.
I saw Lilith standing at the shore of an ocean, the water was red. She
showed me how to do the ritual, how to lift my arms above my head and
with her help I formed a blood-red energy ball and sent it out into the
sky over the Red Sea, where the energy ball kind of exploded and rained
down on me again filling me with the energy of Lilith.
During my Goddess Studies it became clearer to me why it should be Lilith:
I read about the Virgin and she made me think. I suppose there are many
aspects of Chrisitanity which influence my life. I don‘t think that I
was being raised in a very Christian surrounding. But still... I have
the feeling that the Virgin left her traces in my life. This is my
explanation for the kind of way that I have started. I have to find the
other Goddess(es) behind the Virgin again. I have to learn what has
gone lost for me through the centuries. I feel that I am on a good way.
The Goddess I‘m going to write about in my final project is LILITH. I
still wonder why it is her. But now I begin to understand. She wants to
show me what I lost between today and all my other lives before. I see
LILITH as my inner woman. But now she is not green anymore as I met her
in the forest. Her skin is completely red, fiery. She is naked. Her
black hair fall over her shoulders. There is the spiral tatoo again. It
still looks the same as it did when I met her in the forest.
LILITH is in me, but she needs time to get to the outside again. I know
that LILITH helps me. She is there to show me what it means to be a
woman again.
And so the Final Project was clear to me:
When I read the task first I didn‘t know which Goddess I should choose.
I had a look into my personal Goddess Pantheon and wrote down some five
or six names of Goddesses that had left a special impression on me.
Then I just surfed a little bit on the internet, I found a nice page on
which a woman offers her self-made Goddess dolls made of felt. I saw
the picture of a Goddess she called the „red moon Goddess“ and suddenly
I saw her in front of me: Lilith. She looked a bit like the woman I met
in my meditation - but she was not green, she was completely red and
naked and she had the black spiral-shaped tatoo on her body. So I
ordered my own Lilith doll which should become a kind of muse for my
work.
(image is of my Lilith made of felt on her altar)
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LILITH – The Name
Babylonian: "Lilitu" = "spirit of the air" or "sylph"
→ For me this is linked to words like "air/wind/breath/inspiration".
Here I see a close link to the Germanic rune "ansuz" which also means
air/wind/breath/inspiration. This rune is also a symbol for the
Germanic Divine family of the Aesir, and especially of Odin, the
highest and mightiest God of the Germanic people. So I think Lilith is
something very special and a Goddess who had/has very much power and
influence.
Also: "wind of the night" or even "protecting wind"
→ So Lilith is a Goddess of the Night.
Hebrew and Arabic: "lajil/layla" = "the Dark One/ the Black One".
People who see the negative side of her call her "vampyr" or "Venus aversa" (= "the reverse Venus")
Kanaanites: "Ba'lat" = "the Great Mistress/Arbitress".
→ So here she is linked to the Great Goddess and she seems to be some kind of Mother Goddess or Creatrix.
(first thoughts – a collage with keywords, oracle cards...)
Stories about LILITH
When you hear the name Lilith you mostly think of one story which we
all associate with the Bible. But the first stories of Lilith are much
older. In an old Sumerian story Lilith is the antagonist to Inanna.
One day Inanna found a tree near the river Euphrates. It was the first
tree on Earth and Inanna took it and put it into her garden. After some
years a snake a bird and (a) Lilith came to live in the tree. They
built their nest there. Inanna didn't want to have them in her tree, so
she asked her brother Utu, the God of the Sun, to cast them out, which
he did. Then he made a throne and a nice bed for his sister from the
wood of the tree and Inanna was happy. This story was written around
3000 BC.
Nearly 1000 years later there was the story of Gilgamesh. It sounded
similar, but there was a small difference: Utu couldn't help Inanna to
cast them out of her tree so she needed the help of the hero Gilgamesh.
He also made a throne and a bed for Inanna, but the wood was dead and
so she didn't feel well with the throne and the bed.
The most famous story about Lilith is the Hebrew one which is not in the Bible, but in some Jewish writings and the Kabbala:
There Lilith was the first wife of Adam. She also was made of clay and
so she was not a part of Adam. She refused to take the passive part
when they had sex, she didn't want to lie on her back. So she left
Adam. There are different versions of the story. Some say that she
actually was the snake who gave the apple to Eve. Some say that she
went to live on the shores of the Red Sea which actually consists of
her menstruation blood. Some say she became a kind of demon who ate her
own children or appeared in the dreams of Adam to "steal" his sperm.
Where does LILITH live?
Where to start first? From the Biblical stories we learn that she was the first wife of Adam.
So she lived in the Garden of Eden. Later she had to leave him and she went into the desert, on the shores of the Red Sea.
There she lived somewhere in the desert, in caves.
Then I asked myself: How did the whole thing look "in reality"?
Where do all these Sumerian, Babylonian, Akkadian stories come from?
I used a map of the Middle East, coloured it and I found out that
everything was more or less the same, but in different times. It is
said that Lilith was a Sumerian Goddess of the Sky. Sumer was the
oldest "country" in that part of the world. It existed from around 6000
BC to 2000 BC. Babylon soon followed and lasted from 1894 BC to 539 BC.
I also found out that the word "Eden" actually is of Sumerian origin
and means "steppe". It was a landscape that was first very fertile and
later dry. This is what really happened to that area.
In Sumer we can find the oldest cities in the world. For example Uruk.
Communicating with LILITH
In the stories about Lilith we learn that she communicates through
dreams - but these stories do see Lilith as a bad demon. She appears in
the dreams of Adam and other men to steal their semen for herself so
that she can give birth to demons.
She appears in the dreams of babies and little children. People feared
that a baby smiling in its sleep will be killed by Lilith if nothing is
done against it.
In the other stories Lilith doesn't seem to be very "communicative" -
She lives in Inanna's tree and is driven out of it. she flees into the
desert where she can't talk to anyone. She doesn't want to talk to the
angels who are sent by God. She only talks to Eve disguised as a snake
/ she sends the snake and offers her the apple...
As a kind of "air spirit" I would say that Lilith also talks to us through the wind - especially during the night.
In general it is said that Lilith can be a quite "uncomfortable"
Goddess to have contact with. She can show you your dark and hidden
sides (the Lilith in us) and the things we would like to hide. You
should also keep in mind that Lilith never ate a fruit of the Tree...so
that means she has another attitude towards being "good"/"bad"...
Lilith can be our "bad/dark/wild" side, so we should be well-prepared
if we talk to her.
With the help of Lilith I found not a dark side, but a very creative
side of me. You can say that Lilith talks to me through creativity and
craftwork. I was a bit surprised that I had this side. I started to
make necklaces and earrings out of „healing stones“ some time ago. Now
I also started crafting pendants from modelling clay. They all show a
picture of the Goddess.
 
(Earth Goddess necklace made of picture jasper)
LILITH`S companions – demons, angels and animals
Lilith is a solitary Goddess. In the old Babylonian stories she lives
in a tree, just with some animals by her side. When there is trouble
with Inanna she flees into the desert where she lives alone again.
In the Biblical stories she is the first wife of Adam but she doesn't get along whith him and flees again into the desert.
Sometimes it is written that a male companion of her was Samael. He was
an angel who rebelled against God and became a demon or fallen angel
afterwards. In some stories she actually is the snake who seduced Eve,
some say that she hid himself in the Golden Calf - so he seduced people
to forget their God and celebrated other Gods. Sometimes it is even
said that Samael is just another name of Satan himself.
Other stories mention Asmodeus as Lilith's companion.
He is a kind of demon king, the demon of lust - so he absolutely fits to Lilith.
If we see Lilith as the old Great Mother from the ancient Sumerian and Babylonian stories
I prefer her being a solitary woman. She is independent and free and doesn't need anybody around.
the serpent / snake - the animal which gave Eve the apple. Maybe it was Lilith herself in disguise,
maybe it was an animal that appeared on her order.
In many cultures the snake is seen as a symbol for primal energy, she represents the source of life.
Lilith as the Biblical first woman was actually the source of life. Also older cultures like the
Babylonians and Sumerians see Lilith as a Mother Goddess. The snake stands for transformation
and healing (for example the Rod of Asclepius)
the owl - the bird of the night. In the Babylonian language the name "Lilith" means something like "night wind".
So she is linked to the owl.
The owl stands for intuition, for the ability to see what others cannot see and to see the truth behind disguises and masks.
The owl also stands for death – so this is the typical connection to Lilith in the Biblical stories.
And the owl also stands for transitions and changes.
LILITH`S colors
The colours that are normally associated with Lilith are red and black.
The colors red and black are also associated with the devil and evil in general.
The color red also stands for menstruation, for energy, passion, action, strong will, sexuality and the creation of life.
Of course these are the topics of Lilith.
The color black relates to night, darkness, mystery, hidden things.
Black means power and independence, so this is another perfect color for Lilith.
LILITH`S elements
In my opinion Lilith is actually TWO elements.
Her Baylonian name means "night wind" - so Lilith is AIR. I have looked
up the elements in a book I have in my shelf at home. Jeanne Ruland
wrote a book about nature spirits/elementary spirits. I suppose this
book is not available in English...
Here Lilith is mentioned as the Hebraic winged Queen of the Air. Air
stands for the exchange of energies, inspiration and communication;
symbols are whirls of air and spirals. Air spirits live on mountains
and in high trees (-> link to the story about Inanna and her tree in
which Lilith lived) and in forests (where I met Lilith first). Air also
stands for spring and is again linked to the color green.
Text for an AIR ritual (own translation from a German text, abridged. Ruland – Feen Elfen Gnome – see sources)
Creation -
she dances with the wind
she blows here, whispers there
scurries on – never stays long
has to leave with movement.
Renewal, exchange of energies,
breathing in and breathing out
this is the measure you have to go.
Storm and refreshment -
Air carries an earthly and cosmic flair.
The breath of life is guarded here,
even if the spirit of the storm sometimes rages.
Creation shows herself in forms and figures,
mighty and yet fine are the acting forces.
Air carries thoughts – sometimes shakes our concepts.
In the silence you see narrowness and expanse.
Tame the sylphs until they vanish
so you can overcome obstacles.
The second element that Lilith personifies is of course FIRE.
Lilith's colors red and black support my idea, also the Biblical stories about her being a demon
which is linked to devil and hell and so represents fire.
Fire was given to Adam after he and Eve had been driven out of the Garden of Eden.
It is like the legend of Prometheus who gave the fire to mankind.
Fire has two sides, it can be used for us to help us, to warm us, to
nurture us. But it can also be used to destroy everything. It has a
"good" and a "bad" side. This is also represented by Lilith. I don't
like the Christian way of thinking about her. So I wouldn't say that
Lilith has a bad side - but she has a dark side. And not only she, all
women have the dark side. Fire is also Creation, a woman is a creatrix.
There is a fire in all of us
Text for a FIRE ritual (own translation from a German text, abridged. Ruland – Feen Elfen Gnome – see sources)
Fire and Light are always changing
they are inaccessible
they are not to grasp.
They are here and there
invisible but still everywhere.
Warming, gleaming,
loving, bright,
blazing, wild,
acting fast.
Fire changes,
it dissolves your shadows.
Just look at your shadows
let fire enlighten them.
Offer your fiery face so the divine light shines.
Light and fire redeem old walls
Chakra work with LILITH
Lilith best represents the root chakra. Liliths colours are red and
black - that's how I met her and that's how she feels for me. Lilith
means passion. Lilith means most of all sexuality. But Lilith also
stands for survival, individuality, courage and impulsiveness. That's
how I got to know her in all the stories I have read about her so far.
When I met her in my meditation she also meant support and grounding to
me. I know that she is at my side and teaches my how I should go on
travelling on the path I am walking at the moment.
Everytime I read about Lilith again or everytime I find new things that
are linked to Lilith in some way, I learn that the way will not be easy
for me. I feel that the chakra is still not completely activated. But I
also know that on my way I will learn a lot and I will also grown
spiritually.
Lilith is sexuality - this is also where I feel her most. Since we have
decided to omit every kind of contraception it is also a very important
part in our life. This decision was brought forward also by Lilith and
her gifts and lessons for me.
When to celebrate LILITH
LILITH is
red, fire, earth, heat, sexuality, fertility, passion, wild, free, independent, untamed...
All these are keywords for one special day during the wheel of the year: BELTANE.
So it is somewhere in between spring and summer.
Women celebrating rituals for fertility, the may pole, the Night of the Witches...
the "dark" side of women - seduction, lust, passion
This is LILITH
A feast day for Lilith is -according to my season for her – Beltane.
But I think Lilith can be celebrated whenever Woman wants to celebrate or strengthen her female side,
or her dark and independent side.
I think feast days for Lilith can also be days of our menstruation - perhaps the first day each month? Or the menarche?
So maybe you can celebrate Lilith in a ritual for young girls who experience their first period.
Decorating an altar for LILITH
According to the story of Lilith, Eve and the Garden of Eden I think that apples would be fine.
But I would just use them to decorate the altar. Nice, red apples.
Or pomegranates. It is believed that the apple in the Garden of Eden
originally was a pomegranate. It stands for fertility. During my
research I read that in Ancient Egypt the pips of pomegranates were
mixed with wax to produce some kind of vaginal suppository which could
be used as contraceptive. This gave women a bit of independence.
Syrup made from pomegranates is also said to help against nausea when you are pregnant.
For rituals or as altar decoration I think also a glass or bowl of dark red wine would be suitable for Lilith.
And - not a food offering, but an offering: blood, preferably menstruation blood.
Lilith is sexuality. So the oils and scents that evoke her should be aphrodisiac.
Like rose, muscatel sage, sandalwood, geranium, patchouli, ylangylang
I was thinking about the instruments to use when celebrating my Goddess Lilith. Lilith is a free, wild, untamed woman.
When I think of her I see her with a drum, preferably a small hand
drum. Maybe some kind of traditional drum from the Middle or Far East
like a tambourine or a wonderful goblet drum would be very fitting for
a ritual.
Conclusion
My journey to and with Lilith was a very personal one. She showed me how to live my female side.
And she also changed my life. She came to me right at that time when I was thinking about contraceptives,
pregnancy, sexuality, menstruation (my moon calendar).
She helped me to find the right way and to decide what should be decided.
Lilith‘s task (or my task?) now is over. We have reached new crossroads.
Lilith has accompanied me during a long and exciting time.
I stopped taking the pill in October 2014 to get rid of all the chemistry in my body.
We stopped using every form of contraceptive in April 2015.
I found out that I was pregnant in October 2015.
Our first daughter was born just some weeks ago at the end of May 2016.
Lilith and I had a journey together. We were free women, red and black.
Now I am a mother. A different Goddess will cross my path the upcoming months
to guide me on my new way, to help me with my new tasks.
I am thankful for all that I have learned from Lilith and I am looking forward to meeting another Goddess.
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Sources:
Books:
Ruland, Jeanne: Feen Elfen Gnome. Das Buch der Naturgeister. Schirner Verlag, Darmstadt 2010.
Stark, Roswitha: Rituale im Jahreskreis. Mankau Verlag, Murnau 2014.
Telesco, Patricia: 365 Goddess. HarperCollins, New York 1998.
Wauters, Ambika: Chakren verstehen. Librero Verlag, Kerkdriel (NL) 2015
Herzstück Ausgabe 01/2014. Seiten 26–31. FUNKE Women Group GmbH, Ismaning 2014
Internet:
http://www.elaria-starrider.com/blog/filzgoettin/
https://journeyingtothegoddess.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/goddess-lilith/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith
http://anthrowiki.at/Lilith
http://www.myss.de/Religion/lilith.html
http://www.artedea.net/lilith-autonome-widerspenstige-unbezahmbare-ahnin/
http://themotherhouseofthegoddess.com/ eCourse „Writing the Goddess“
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/eve-women/7evelilith.html
http://www.sisterzeus.com/pomegranate.htm
Oracle cards:
Marashinsky, Amy Sophia: Göttinnengeflüster
Francia, Luisa: Das Göttinnenspiel
Winter, Gayan Sylvie: Das Orakel der Göttin
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