Lilith As Goddess
by Eliza Yetter
(written 2003 / revised 2007)

The Goddess

Lilith dates back to the bird-serpent goddess of antiquity. In Sumeria, she was portrayed as having both the wings and claws of a bird. Some reliefs show her lower half as being the body of a serpent or she is shown as a serpent with the head and breasts of a woman.

There are many possibilities as to her early goddess names: Belil-ili, Belili, Lillake [7], or Ninlil [12].

She was a goddess of agriculture as well as the "hand of Inanna". She was said to dwell in the trunk of the Huluppu-tree:

"Then a serpent who could not be charmed
Made its nest in the roots of the huluppu-tree.
The Anzu-bird set his young in the branches of the tree.
And the dark maid Lilith built her home in the trunk." [11]

Lilith also helped women in childbirth and nursed infants.

Recent translations of her name are varied and range from "screech owl"[13], lilah which is darkness or night in Hebrew, to Lilitu which is said to be the Babylonian word for "evil night-spirit."

Her symbols are the crossroad, owl, serpent, tree, and dark moon.

The Hebrew Lilith

When Jewish patriarchy overtook the land, they made Lilith evil in order to stop the people from worshipping her.

In Kabbalistic tradition, Lilith was made the first wife of Adam. Some sources say that Lilith was Adam's spirit wife. Other sources claim that Lilith was fashioned from the earth at either the same time as Adam or before Adam. This made Lilith Adam's equal.

As Adam's equal, Lilith refused to lie on her back while Adam took the dominant position in sex (missionary style). Lilith believed that they should make love as equals (the beast with two backs). Adam was adamantly against this, wanting his wife to be submissive, and Lilith left the Garden of Eden.

God then supposedly gave Adam Eve, a docile woman of the flesh.

Eventually, Lilith was portrayed as the foe of Eve. It was Lilith in serpent form who seduced Eve to eat the fruit of knowledge. No doubt the first wife wanted the second wife to see what a jerk Adam was and that Lilith also wanted Eve to open her eyes and come into the fulness of herself, her womanhood.

When both Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, Adam endured a period of celibacy as penance. During this time, Lilith was said to have caused nocturnal emissions from Adam (night hag). She collected his semen and impreganted herself with it, giving birth to demons.

These children of Lilith were called Lilin or Lilim, "night-demons."

The goddess who once protected mothers and infants was now portrayed as a demoness who caused abortions and murdered infants in their sleep. The Jewish people believed that when a baby laughed or smiled in its sleep, it was being entertained by Lilith, and the parents would quickly bop the infant on the nose to distract the infant from the goddess. It was also believed that she came to children in the form of an owl and drank their blood.

Despite the Jewish attempts to erradicate this ancient goddess, she can still be found in her truer, albeit symbolic, form in their literature:

"During a protracted and dangerous confinement take earth from the crossroads, write upon it the five first verses of this Psalm, and lay it upon the abdomen of the parturient; allow it to remain until the birth is accomplished, but no longer. . ."[5]

Lilith and Sexuality

Lilith, as "hand of Inanna," would gather men from the streets and lead them to the temples of the sacred prostitutes. Later, as the first wife of Adam, she refused to lie beneath Adam and be his submissive. Instead she chose to have sex with "evil" spirits and beget more demons. (Who could blame her?)

Lilith was comfortable with her sexuality, something that frightened the Jewish patriarch who believed that merely having sex for pleasure was a form of abortion. In recent times, Lilith has morphed into the succubus and incubus or the night hag who sits on the chests of men and causes them to have perverse dreams so that they will ejaculate. She could take the form of either a man or a woman:

". . .who appear to mankind, to men in the likeness of women, and to women in the likeness of men, and with men they lie by night and by day."[10]

Men fear Lilith because she knows the power of her sexuality and she knows that her sexuality has power over men. Like Circe, she turns men into beasts or pigs by opening the doorways to their deep and primal sexual desires. Such desires are forbidden by the Jewish and Christian cults.

Women, who are like the submissive Eve, also fear Lilith because of the power she holds. But, as has been shown in the myth of the garden of Eden, Lilith is not an enemy of womankind. She holds the ancient fruit of knowledge, the secrets of our deepest sexual nature, and she is willing to offer this fruit to us.

Lilith as Vampire

As the mother of all demons, Lilith has recently been linked to either giving birth to the first vampires or being the first vampire.

This fallacy is linked to past Jewish superstitions in that Lilith drank the blood of children while in the form of an owl.

In a Rabbinical frenzy to drive Lilith's worshippers away from the goddess, they made up lies such as this which contradicted her earlier functions as a protectress and helper of birthing mothers and infants.

Select Bibliography

[1] Tyson, Donald. Sexual Alchemy: Magical Intercourse with Spirits. Llewellyn Publications; St. Paul, Minnesota. 2000.

[2] Gadon, Elinor. The Once and Future Goddess. Harper San Francisco. 1989.

[3] Hoyt, Olga. Lust for Blood: The Consuming Story of Vampires. Scarborough House; Lanham, MD. 1984.

[4] Chevalier, Jean and Gheerbrant, Alain. The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols. Translated by John Buchanan-Brown. Penguin Books. 1996.

[5] The Complete Edition of the 6th and 7th Books of Moses: or Moses' Magical Spirit Art. "Published for the trade." No copyright or publisher given.

[6] Graham, Lloyd M.. Deceptions and Myths of the Bible. Carol Publishing Group; NY. 1993.

[7] Walker, Barbara G.. The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. Harper San Francisco. 1983.

[8] Stone, Merlin. When God Was a Woman. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers; NY. 1976.

[9] Sjoo, Monica and Mor, Barbara. The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth. Harper San Francisco. 1991.

[10] Budge, Sir E.A. Wallis. Amulets and Superstitions. Dover Publications, Inc.; NY. 1978.

[11] Wolkstein, Diane and Kramer, Samuel Noah. Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth. Harper and Row, Publishers; NY. 1983.

[12] Stone, Merlin. Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood: A Treasury of Goddess and Heroine Lore from Around the World. Beacon Press; Boston. 1990.

[13] Gimbutas, Marija. The Language of the Goddess. Harper San Francisco. 1991.