Q&A: Why are pagans worshiping the demon Lilith all of a sudden?

“It is not that uncommon for the deities of one culture to be reinterpreted as the demons of another. Lilith is likely a rare case of a demon from one culture being reinterpreted as a deity of another.”

That’s not the whole story though. Before Lilith was a demon, she is thought to have been a deity from other goddess-worshiping cultures in the Mediterranean/Middle East, one where worship quite often included fertility rites and sex magick/rituals.

She was literally demonized by the conquering patriarchal Jewish religion which came afterwards. She is not truly a demon being wrongly glorified by deluded feminists. Instead she can be seen as a case where a “demonized” deity is in fact simply being returned to her original position.

In the Jewish tradition, Lilith has long represented things such as infant death, miscarriage, impotence, etc. However, she is also seen as representing the female desire for sovereignty (erotic and otherwise), and the dangers to society this has represented over the years.

As a result, she is not meant to be “endearing.” She is not a sweet, loving goddess but instead one who is sure of herself and willing to stand by her convictions no matter what the cost. She is meant to be powerful, strong and yes, maybe even a little bit terrifying (especially to those who would seek to control her).

Just because she is a female deity or mythological figure doesn’t mean she should be sugar and spice and everything nice. In fact, that’s exactly the point of reclaiming Lilith. For women, to reclaim Lilith means reclaiming all the parts of themselves which have been silenced, oppressed and erased: their desire, their rage, their capacity for self-determination.

I have worked with Lilith in ritual before and I do not worship her–I work with her. I evoke her strength of character and capacity to defend herself, her ability to feel righteous anger at oppression, and her belief in herself as a person with integrity and a right to have and express her desires, wants and needs.

As a woman in a patriarchal culture, it’s something I’ve struggled with over a lifetime. When I work with Lilith, I meditate on what she represents and thank her for reminding me that I have a right to self-determination and self-expression, no matter how “demonically” selfish others around me might think that to be.

Lilith: The Original Feminist Icon

I recently acquired this pendant showing the Seal of Lilith on the front.

I’m still not sure if I’m ready to begin working with Lilith in ritual, but I do know that I’ve been somewhat obsessed with her since I’ve learned of her story.

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For those of you who don’t know, Lilith was Adam’s first wife in the Garden of Eden.
She was made at the same time Adam was, of the same material (not of his rib like her successor Eve), and believed herself to be equal to her male counterpart.

When Adam forced himself on her sexually, she chose to leave the Garden of Eden and pursue an independent life on her own.

This is where the story gets controversial. What did Lilith do after she left the Garden of Eden?

According to many sources (especially traditional Jewish texts), Lilith became a demonic goddess, who consorted with demons out in the wild territories far from God, bearing their devilish children and stealing the children of other women shortly after they were born.

Although this is what the majority of “tradition” has to say about Lilith, I’m not convinced. I personally count myself among those who would see Lilith as the original independent woman, the godmother of all feminists who choose to respect themselves and their power to choose their own path.

I think it’s likely that the majority of negative press Lilith has received has been constructed as the instrument of a patriarchal system, who would have other women who are starting to get certain independent ideas in their heads to think twice about disobeying the male-dominated social order.

I, for one, have a lot of respect for this mythical woman, who shows us that women were created in equality with men, and who deserve to have their rights respected, and refuse to tolerate any less.

Although I’m still unprepared to follow some of the more traditional uses of Lilith’s seal, I will still choose to honor her and let her seal represent the values of independence, self-respect, and fiercely expressed femininity.

Lilith reminds me that taking the path of conviction and honoring your full self as a woman can be difficult (if not seemingly impossible at times). Although she never recovered in the eyes of her society of origin, she was true to herself and lived a life of brave authenticity, which is something I will always admire.

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“Supposing that Truth is a woman–what then?”

Nietzsche asks us to consider the possibility (in his preface to Beyond Good and Evil) that “all philosophers … have failed to understand women,” and by extension, the Truth that she represents.

Maybe a feminine conception of truth will be opposed to the dogmatism of western philosophical history.

A feminist epistemology would approach the nature of truth differently. Instead of looking for one objective Truth, it would acknowledge the many relative Truths that we are able to experience.

From ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’

hc3a9lc3a8ne_cixous_par_claude_truong-ngoc_2011“And why don’t you write? Write! Writing is for you, you are for you; your body is yours, take it. I know why you haven’t written. (And why I didn’t write before the age of twenty-seven.) Because writing is at once too high, too great for you, it’s reserved for the great-that is for “great men”; and it’s “silly.”

Besides, you’ve written a little, but in secret. And it wasn’t good, because it was in secret, and because you punished yourself for writing, because you didn’t go all the way, or because you wrote, irresistibly, as when we would masturbate in secret, not to go further, but to attenuate the tension a bit, just enough to take the edge off. And then as soon as we come, we go and make ourselves feel guilty-so as to be forgiven; or to forget, to bury it until the next time.”

–Hélène Cixous

She is right, I have personally always felt that way. But now I’m the same age Cixous was when she started to write, and I’m finding I can’t escape it anymore. I’m encouraged by her words, urging me to finally take ownership of my body and my mind and my work.

Thanks,Hélène.

The Name of the Rose

When I was 23 years old, I took a walk by the river near my father’s house on an early summer day. While walking behind our neighbor’s yards, my eyes fell on a single red rose, the only one of its kind behind the fence. Stunned by its singular beauty, I stopped for a only moment, before I shuddered and hurried to continue on my way.

I quickly rushed away, scared my neighbor would see me and confront me. I walked away as fast as I could manage, but not because I was afraid he’d be upset at my intrusion on his land, that was only an incidental afterthought.

Without wanting to, I imagined the man would come down to where I stood, smile, and hold out to me the severed bloom, this innocent wounded beauty.

“What’s wrong with that?” I questioned myself. “You should be thinking of how fortunate you’d be instead.”

But my allegiances had spontaneously established themselves.

I now only had sympathy for the rose.

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Not long afterwards, I discovered the poetry of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. I accepted it as a gift, and I felt thankful that she had written what I’d been too timid to even admit to myself.

So in gratitude to her, I chose to translate a poem of hers which spoke the words I’d never even allowed to become conscious. 

Proof of the Apparent Danger that, Once Possessed, Beauty is then Abandoned

Rose incarnate flaunts proudly to the meadow,
bathed in cochineal and carmine:
luscious, in lush open fields;
but no, for being beautiful
you will also be sorry.
Do you see, the first white light rushing
towards the Dawn?
So the risk becomes more imposing
as much as one’s beauty grows more impressive.
Don’t believe it makes you invincible:
If, misguided, you consent,
to be cut by an insolent hand
for the seduction of beauty and fragrance,
When guilty cheeks can no longer blush
you will also be sorry.
You see the charm which collects
assurances with his courtesies?
Then don’t esteem beauty
more potent than lust.
Run from the calculated caress;
if, imprudent and ingenuous,
you convince yourself that you are loved,
you’ll find yourself coming;
who, in coming to be possessed,
will also be sorry.
Surrender your beauty to nobody,
for it’s a crime that your perfection
should serve as conquest for his vanity.
Take pleasure in ordinary eminence,
without finding yourself the servant
of one who, once conquered,
won’t properly respect you;
you who, singularly had,
will also be sorry.

Anyway, even today, I think of the rose with compassion. I don’t believe we’re really that different, after all.