The Symbolism of Lilith
John Collier, Lilith (1887)
Preface
Why would I choose to write about such a shocking and obscure subject? Because I believe it is a key to understanding the seductive nature of today’s culture. I believe that for the shock and extremity of the Lilith type, we have shied away from it. But for the images and ideals so inverted and evil, so proudly flaunted today, we must expose what is upside down and, seeing its image more clearly, only need to flip it right side up to find truth and beauty.
I attribute my aptitude for symbolism to one of my favorite speakers and icon carver, Jonathan Pageau. In fact, he does not give the Lilith type much attention whereas I believe she is imminently applicable. For some in our postmodern era, a symbolic worldview does not come easily. I strongly recommend delving Jonathan Pageau’s Youtube Channel to acquire it.
Introduction
Lilith is a figure rarely regarded, even by those in the religious sects from which she comes, and her myth has no monolithic tradition. But, I believe, the very inclination to create and retell her story, even until today (especially as it is twisted today), evinces its signifigance. Painting with broad brush strokes, I hope to present a portrait of Lilith in which you may see resemblance of the charms of this age. She is essentially the archetypical shadow side of femininity and simultaneously a personification of the feminine aspects of evil.
Typology
In a sense, types are a kind of symbol. They are characters that represent an archetype. In biblical theology, they are a shadow of an antitype (or fulfillment). The authors of the new testament use the words τύποι (type), σκιὰ (shadow), ὑποδείγματι (copy), and σημεῖον (sign) in relation to typology.
Romans 5:14 RSV
Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type [τύπος] of the one who was to come.
They are also narrative patterns that teach us wisdom and help us to understand the world as we can see the same patterns in our lives and in the world. Here is one of many examples of the didactic use of a pattern in biblical literature.
Credit to Dr. Tim Mackie https://bibleproject.com/classroom/introduction-to-the-hebrew-bible/
The biblical authors are telling a story in such a way that reveals a pattern of distrust in God (disobedience) and taking things apart from his providence. In the case of Genesis 16, Sarah had been promised a child born to Abram and herself, but chooses to get one by other means. We can examine each iteration of the pattern to understand how the type works. Biblical authors play with the pattern by interchanging roles. Above, Sarah fills the serpent role; she is the one whispering advice into the human’s ear. Hagar (which literally means foreigner or immigrant) parallels the forbidden fruit, taken. In such wise, Lilith is like Hagar in that she is victimized by a higher power and like the serpent in that she is a seductress. In a way, she is the feminine counterpart of the devil, an amalgamation expressed in the painting shown above. There are plenty of typological threads, even in just the passages cited below, of which I acknowledge the masculine evil lest you suspect I twist these texts to demonize women.
Academics and archeology can be used to supply evidence for the existence of a “type” in ancient culture and thought. Academia also makes statements like “the rabbis invented Lilith”, implying the myth is somehow unreliable. But that misses the point; not historicity, but rather applicability, is the main value of the type. A type does not need to have a monolithic tradition or even an explicit textual reference to be real and it does not have to be real in a materialistic sense to be meaningful or applicable. As Jonathan Pageau says, “Symbolism happens”, meaning a symbol is a real thing that manifests itself in the world fractally. In this sense, it is not just a metaphor that means something else. Neither is it only nor always an icon that corresponds to something real. Rather, it is a pattern that we can use to recognize the nature of something in a way that transcends a materialistic understanding. To drive this home, look at any of the visions in the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John and ask: is the value in this of materiality or even historicity? No! Not even morality. They are lenses through which we see and understand the world.
A final note on the coherence of typology and patterns. At its root, the type is just an idea, like a seed, until it is manifested more concretely. Because of the fractal nature of these manifestations, no example will be identical to another. So, we need to be able to hold a balance between precise description and loose association. Every analogy has unity where meaning is found and fringes where it falls apart.
Extrabiblical Sources
Hopefully, the above explanation of types alleviates any concerns about the use of extrabiblical sources, deuterocanonical or lesser. Regardless, the authors of the new testament read apocryphal works, referenced them, and even quoted them in their writings. I will not, here, waste anyone’s time setting out to prove that.
Lilith in Tradition
As previously said, there is not one monolithic textual tradition of Lilith. The demonological basis of the myth is in ancient Mesopotamia, pre-dating the biblical corpus (see the appendix) in which she is a night spirit that seduces men and preys on children. Only later, in medieval Jewish texts, was she explicitly cast as a woman (human). But I believe the type is seen quite clearly, albeit implicitly, lurking in the more familiar Hebrew texts. Therefore, I will begin to flesh out her portrait by surveying those and then collate various fragments of the Lilith tradition to form a sort of composite. Notice the pattern emerge.
Eve
The primeval narratives of Genesis 1-11 are the typological template of the entire Hebrew bible. The meaning packed therein is invaluable. Particularly, Genesis 3 provides the elemental pattern of all human corruption.
Genesis 3 (Partial) RSV
Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lᴏʀᴅ God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, 'You shall not eat of any tree of the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. … Then the Lᴏʀᴅ God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent beguiled me, and I ate." The Lᴏʀᴅ God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above all wild animals; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." To the woman he said, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."
The woman is seduced by a supernatural being. The word here for subtle refers to the ethereal nature of this higher being as well as the craftiness of his speech. In the words of Saint Ephraim the Syrian, “the Evil One poured out his poison in the ear of Eve”. She is seduced into transgressing a sacred boundary (taking the fruit). The Hebrew word above for “childbearing” (וְהֵרֹנֵךְ) means conception or, more generally, bringing forth children, not labor. As a result of the transgression, she suffers infertility and problematic children. Further, she is at odds with her mate. He will rule over her but she will struggle for power. This post-fall power-struggle between couples is manifested especially as scheming on the part of the woman and we see that fleshed out in virtually every generation as the pattern cycles throughout the Torah. But Eve’s is a very subtle expression of the Lilith type, such that I hesitate to call her a type of Lilith. I would say that the trajectory of Eve’s deviation is Lilith. Appropriately, we will see how the type is brought to her pinnacle (and her end) in the final book of the canon of scripture.
The Daughters of Men
Genesis 6:1-4 RSV
When men began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose. Then the Lᴏʀᴅ said, "My spirit shall not abide in man for ever, for he is flesh, but his days shall be a hundred and twenty years." The Nephilim [or fallen ones] were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.
Supernatural beings take women, violating a cosmic and sacred boundary. Their wives bear problematic children (the Nephilim). Historian Loren T. Stuckenbruck says, “women constitute the locus where boundaries between different parts of the cosmos are most likely to be violated.” This concept was ingrained in the mind of the second-temple-period Jew and was the idea behind Saint Paul’s instruction for women to wear head coverings “because of the angels”. These sons of God are “little g” gods who, in the supernatural worldview of the bible, rebel against God’s hierarchy and accept worship due to the Lᴏʀᴅ. This is an important motif in the pattern of the Lilith type and we will see it reappear. “His days shall be a hundred and twenty years” does not mean that humans would have a shorter lifespan. It is a countdown to the flood which you can calculate by following the genealogies of the surrounding chapters. The flood was the de-creation needed to wipe out the iniquity of the Nephilim and of the world. According to tradition (i.e. The Book of Giants, The Book of Enoch, Jubilees), these Nephilim were brutal giants that killed and ate humans. This is also the rationale for the Joshua conquests as the Amorites were descendants of the Nephilim. This connection between cosmic boundaries and foreign relations is relevant as, in biblical literature, marriage with foreign women is analogous to transgression of the cosmic boundary between earthly and supernatural; they are mirrored.
The previous passage of Genesis is an abrupt and strange one. As the late Dr. Michael Heiser said, “if it’s weird, it’s important” and he was an expert in the weird stuff of the Old Testament. May his memory be eternal. 1 Enoch is a Jewish text which expounds Genesis 6:1-4. 1 Enoch is actually quoted in the Epistle of Jude, and referenced elsewhere in the New Testament, such as in 2 Peter 2. The New Testament authors valued this story.
1 Enoch Chapters 6-8 (translation by R.H. Charles Oxford)
And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.' And Semjaza, who was their leader, said unto them: 'I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.' And they all answered him and said: 'Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.' Then sware they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. And these are the names of their leaders: Samlazaz, their leader, Araklba, Rameel, Kokablel, Tamlel, Ramlel, Danel, Ezeqeel, Baraqijal, Asael, Armaros, Batarel, Ananel, Zaqiel, Samsapeel, Satarel, Turel, Jomjael, Sariel. These are their chiefs of tens. And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go in unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another's flesh, and drink the blood. Then the earth laid accusation against the lawless ones. And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Semjaza taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, 'Armaros the resolving of enchantments, Baraqijal (taught) astrology, Kokabel the constellations, Ezeqeel the knowledge of the clouds, Araqiel the signs of the earth, Shamsiel the signs of the sun, and Sariel the course of the moon. And as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven.
Building upon the observations of the Genesis 6 passage, the sinister nature of the unholy union (“lusted after them”, “a great sin”, “defile themselves with them”) is more clear. They bear vampiric, abominable offspring. Much like the serpent divines forbidden counsel to the woman, the angels teach the women of forbidden and vain things. There is a thread here in these first few passages of ethereal beings with subtle bodies taking on corporeal bodies through a sort of possession of women. The bodies of the women are potential, fertile soil, in which they can grow their own bodies to manifest their purposes on earth. Even the women themselves become instruments of the powers above which, if you haven’t already inferred, is integral to the Lilith type.
Sarah
Tobit 6:9-14 RSV
When they approached Ecbat′ana, the angel said to the young man, “Brother, today we shall stay with Rag′uel. He is your relative, and he has an only daughter named Sarah. I will suggest that she be given to you in marriage, because you are entitled to her and to her inheritance, for you are her only eligible kinsman. The girl is also beautiful and sensible. Now listen to my plan. I will speak to her father, and as soon as we return from Rages we will celebrate the marriage. For I know that Rag′uel, according to the law of Moses, cannot give her to another man without incurring the penalty of death, because you rather than any other man are entitled to the inheritance.” Then the young man said to the angel, “Brother Azari′as, I have heard that the girl has been given to seven husbands and that each died in the bridal chamber. Now I am the only son my father has, and I am afraid that if I go in I will die as those before me did, for a demon is in love with her, and he harms no one except those who approach her. So now I fear that I may die and bring the lives of my father and mother to the grave in sorrow on my account. And they have no other son to bury them.”
Here a woman is possessed by a demon in her womb. The connection between the spiritual and sexual is seen so clearly here. Notice the women in all of these passages so far are first and foremost victims.
Solomon’s Wives
3 Kingdoms 11:1-8
Now King Solomon loved many foreign women: the daughter of Pharaoh, and Moabite, Ammonite, E'domite, Sido'nian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lᴏʀᴅ had said to the people of Israel, "You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods"; Solomon clung to these in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not wholly true to the Lᴏʀᴅ his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ash'toreth the goddess of the Sido'nians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lᴏʀᴅ, and did not wholly follow the Lᴏʀᴅ, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
Again, the connection between the spiritual and conjugal is played out here. Solomon’s forbidden union with foreign women leads to his worship of foreign gods.
Lady Folly
Proverbs 2:16-19 RSV
You will be saved from the loose woman, from the adventuress with her smooth words,
who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God;
for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the shades;
none who go to her come back nor do they regain the paths of life.
Proverbs 7:10-27 RSV
And lo, a woman meets him, dressed as a harlot, wily of heart.
She is loud and wayward, her feet do not stay at home;
now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait.
She seizes him and kisses him, and with impudent face she says to him:
"I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows;
so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.
I have decked my couch with coverings, colored spreads of Egyptian linen;
I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
Come, let us take our fill of love till morning; let us delight ourselves with love.
For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey;
he took a bag of money with him; at full moon he will come home."
With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.
All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast
till an arrow pierces its entrails; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life.
And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
Let not your heart turn aside to her ways, do not stray into her paths;
for many a victim has she laid low; yea, all her slain are a mighty host.
Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.
Proverbs 9:14-18
She sits at the door of her house, she takes a seat on the high places of the town,
calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way,
"Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!" And to him who is without sense she says,
"Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant."
But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
In these lyrics we find a more practical warning against the loose woman. We can see seduction by the harlot as misplaced feminine compassion; it is placed on the competent man rather than the incompetent child. Plain as the advice may be, the biblical author mythologizes the harlot according to the typological thread we’ve been following.
Jez’ebel
3 Kingdoms 16:30-32 RSV
And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lᴏʀᴅ more than all that were before him. And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jerobo'am the son of Nebat, he took for wife Jez'ebel the daughter of Ethba'al king of the Sido'nians, and went and served Ba'al, and worshiped him. He erected an altar for Ba'al in the house of Ba'al, which he built in Sama'ria.
3 Kingdoms 21:4-7
And Ahab went into his house vexed and sullen because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him; for he had said, "I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers." And he lay down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no food. But Jez'ebel his wife came to him, and said to him, "Why is your spirit so vexed that you eat no food?" And he said to her, "Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said to him, 'Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if it please you, I will give you another vineyard for it'; and he answered, 'I will not give you my vineyard.'" And Jez'ebel his wife said to him, "Do you now govern Israel? Arise, and eat bread, and let your heart be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite."
3 Kingdoms 21:23-26
And of Jez'ebel the Lᴏʀᴅ also said, 'The dogs shall eat Jez'ebel within the bounds of Jezreel.' Any one belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat; and any one of his who dies in the open country the birds of the air shall eat." (There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lᴏʀᴅ like Ahab, whom Jez'ebel his wife incited. He did very abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lᴏʀᴅ cast out before the people of Israel.)
4 Kingdoms 9:22 RSV
And when Joram saw Jehu, he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" He answered, "What peace can there be, so long as the harlotries and the sorceries of your mother Jez'ebel are so many?"
4 Kingdoms 9:30 RSV
When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jez'ebel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and adorned her head, and looked out of the window.
4 Kingdoms 9:36-37
When they came back and told him, he said, "This is the word of the Lᴏʀᴅ, which he spoke by his servant Eli'jah the Tishbite, 'In the territory of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jez'ebel; and the corpse of Jez'ebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the territory of Jezreel, so that no one can say, This is Jez'ebel.'"
Again, we see a king go after the gods of his foreign wife. There is certainly an echo of the incompetent husband, scheming wife dichotomy. “Get up!”, Jez’ebel says to her sedentary husband, “I will give you the vineyard”. She is a mother of “harlotries and … sorceries”, gilded with the vanities of Azazel. We’re given a prophetic vision for the end of such a figure, one rehashed in The Revelation.
Revelation 2:20-23a RSV
But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jez'ebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practice immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will throw her on a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her doings; and I will strike her children dead.
The Apparition, Gustave Moreau, 1876.
Herodias
Mark 6:14-29
King Herod heard of it; for Jesus' name had become known. Some said, "John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; that is why these powers are at work in him." But others said, "It is Eli'jah." And others said, "It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old." But when Herod heard of it he said, "John, whom I beheaded, has been raised." For Herod had sent and seized John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Hero'di-as, his brother Philip's wife; because he had married her. For John said to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." And Hero'di-as had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe. When he heard him, he was much perplexed; and yet he heard him gladly. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and the leading men of Galilee. For when Hero'di-as' daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will grant it." And he vowed to her, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom." And she went out, and said to her mother, "What shall I ask?" And she said, "The head of John the baptizer." And she came in immediately with haste to the king, and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." And the king was exceedingly sorry; but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard and gave orders to bring his head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.
The story of John the Baptist, Herodias, and Herod rhymes with that of Elijah, Jezebel, and Ahab. The king has an illegitimate relationship which leads to an increase in corruption. The prophet has some favor with the king (Herod "heard him gladly") but the strange woman entices her husband by presenting this forbidden fruit before him. The king kills the prophet almost in spite of himself.
The Beast and The Harlot
Revelation 17:1-18 RSV
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who is seated upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the dwellers on earth have become drunk." And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and bedecked with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication; and on her forehead was written a name of mystery: "Babylon the great, mother of harlots and of earth's abominations." And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her I marveled greatly. … And he said to me, "The waters that you saw, where the harlot is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the harlot; they will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and giving over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman that you saw is the great city which has dominion over the kings of the earth."
Lilith is brought to her full fruition in John’s vision. She is Babylon, a city of evil, who entices and ensnares the world with her charms. Through desire, the seed of the serpent has conceived sin in her, rendering her womb a barren void which she fills with the blood of the saints. She will be devoured by the very force to which she binds herself.
See the appendix for more sources from various traditions which I reference throughout this work.
The Composite Lilith
I hope that my survey has been thorough enough that a rehashing feels redundant. At any rate, an image of Lilith emerges from these interconnected portrayals of evil consorting with femininity to corrupt it. She is a victim of seduction become seductress. She is a creation, violated by the evil one. His poison fills her womb, rendering her baren. It goes to her head, blinding her to her atrocious behavior, making her his marionette. And without lifeblood flowing through her, she requires the blood of men and the flesh of children.
One may feel a disconnect between the victimhood of Eve, for example, and the rebellion of Ben Sira’s Lilith or the seduction of the Mesopotamian Lilith (see the appendix for sources). But for a couple reasons, I believe both aspects (affliction and agency) are essential to the type. First, the instances of the type in holy scripture lend to the existence of this duality. Second, that the duality is innate to the type; a vampire was once bitten.
By LeGrebe on DeviantArt
Mother of Demons
Harlot
Blood Sucker
Witch
End of all flesh
Snatcher
Enchantress
Babylon
Wife of Samael, the devil
Patron of abortions
Icon of sexual deviance
Queen of Hell
Lilith in The World
“In most manifestations of her myth, Lilith represents chaos, seduction and ungodliness. Yet, in her every guise, Lilith has cast a spell on humankind.”
–Janet Howe Gaines, Biblical Archaeology Society
The Economy of Hell
I traveled to Las Vegas for work a couple years ago. Freshly imbued with the symbolic worldview by Jonathan Pageau, I found it easy to see the fractals of cosmic patterns everywhere. Just off the strip, Fremont Street is a hotspot for revelry, populated by contortionists, evil clowns, and dominatrices. A bright animation cycling on the dome above struck me as particularly sinister. It began with the likeness of a phallus, which transformed into a man (reducing man to the most crude form of his sexual desire). Images of dice and bottles followed, representing the indulgences of greed and gluttony. This animation, I think, succinctly reveals that the economy of the Vegas life is the economy of Babylon. With a few easy steps through the threshold of a casino, I’m swaddled by immensely warm air, welcoming me to stay for a while. The flashing lights, like the harlot on her balcony, call out, presenting you with a false beauty, saying you deserve much, but you give more than you signed up for and, in the end, have everything taken from you. This is the essence of “the world”. Coddled in her bosom, you fall asleep to the tune of a satanic lullaby.
Hurt People Hurt People
The Lilith type is manifested most literally in victims of sexual abuse. I am nothing close to an expert in trauma, psychology, or anything of the like. But the trope of victim become abuser is common knowledge. Nevertheless, I hope to approach this sensitive topic with care.
A person victim to a manipulative relationship may themselves become a manipulator. A woman sexually abused may herself turn around and seduce others. Something has been taken from them and they cope by taking from others. Or they have been under someone’s control and, therefore, learn controlling behavior. Or they have been used and objectified and now use relationships as a means to leech emotional resources.
Lilith is an image of violation resulting in the inability to produce life and, sadly, there is a proven correlation between rape and infertility. In reality, the issue is complex and not always a simple, physiological matter. The mental state of the victim, namely her damaged trust in men, may reduce her ability to connect emotionally or be intimate, to integrate in a healthy marriage relationship.
“Stress and post-traumatic stress disorder (which is commonly associated with sexual trauma) can cause a malfunctioning release of cortisol and impact the part of the brain that controls ovulation, causing missed or irregular menstrual cycles.”
“Trauma and/or PTSD can also contribute to other mental health challenges that could influence fertility, like eating disorders or substance use.”
Interestingly, there is an intersection between demonic possession of women by fallen angels and the psychology of victims of sexual abuse, namely, in interviews of the aforementioned late Dr. Michael Heiser with the practitioners of a ministry for such victims who have accounts terrifyingly substantive of the reality of Heiser’s supernatural worldview. The practitioners have some shocking testimonies.
“Audrey and I work together with a population of people that have undergone severe trauma, human trafficked, if you will. And that term is broad in our definition. It would go from what most people understand and know as being human trafficked in the sex trafficked across the world. But it also includes those who have survived satanic ritual abuse, who have survived governmental experimentation, like the Bourne Identity or MK-Ultra. And that's the clientele we’ve worked with.”
“Well, in the human trafficking realm, that would be to create a person who will perform sex acts for people over and over again. They mindlessly will perform that because that’s what their mind’s been controlled to do. … The other piece I would say that is to start the process as a child in order for them to get them into spiritual captivity early would be in like Satanism, they’d have a two or three year old in a ritual kill a baby and they would tell that little child that they just killed baby Jesus. And so Jesus and God has nothing to do with them now. So in that little child's mind, she’s toast. Everything else that happens after that in a little 2-3 year old mind, God’s not there, God doesn't care. She killed baby Jesus. … He turned His back on her. … Yes, he turned his back on her so don't even ask. So now this child is left to herself to survive this evil coming at her so she just builds a very strong solar system in her mind, then she can survive anything. … I’m on my own. I can do it all by myself. I can’t trust anyone.”
“For every survivor that is coming out of trauma-based mind control with an understanding, the biggest understanding is: the perpetrators used the gifts and the calling that Yahweh gave you and they have vampirized your gifting and calling. They use it and they didn't want you to know that it's really yours. And for Kingdom purposes to walk out the Kingdom of Heaven right here, this is yours to do and they never wanted you to know that. That ignites the survivor to say, "Oh my word, you mean this is mine? I thought they developed it in me!" No–the gifting is yours. They have vampirized it for their use.”
The Devouring Mother
The Devouring Mother is a psychological archetype referring to misplaced or superfluous maternal compassion resulting in overdependence and incompetence of the recipient. The obvious application of this type is in parenting. But we also see this manifest in the wider culture. I think a clear example is in the concept of “safe spaces”. A panel of scholars touch on this idea in Episode 12 of a seminar on Exodus produced by The Daily Wire in which Jordan Peterson says, “It’s not safety god, it’s safety goddess and it’s the devouring mother … and [she] is then the predator … because if you’re the person who insists that everything be made as safe as possible, you are now the snake in the garden”. People grow and mature through adversity but they become incompetent narcissists through perpetual safety and unconditional acceptance. Here you can see Jordan Peterson and Russell Brand grapple with this typology. I was quite surprised, myself, to see how their organic conversation aligned quite neatly with the schema I’ve presented here. It’s almost like there’s something to it.
One dimension of this cultural manifestation that transcends the political is the modern western obsession with ridding ourselves of suffering through the comforts of medication, digital distraction, drugs, alcohol, etc. Suffering is inevitable. But if we suffer rightly, we are strengthened and refined.
Proverbs 17:3 (Robert Alter translation)
Silver has a crucible and gold a kiln,
And the Lᴏʀᴅ tries hearts.
James 1:2-4 RSV
Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials,
for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Neopaganism
Paganism is the worship of the created rather than the creator. It is widely known that idolatry and adultery are analogous in biblical literature. Lilith is a symbol in which these spiritual and physical deviances are fused. This is the essence of paganism of which she is both high priestess and temple prostitute.
We have seen a resurgence of paganism (neopaganism), a return to the follies which began to disappear from the earth after Christ the Word of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil. The specific groups who may be described as such are too arrayed and eclectic to survey. I will let some of their content speak for itself.
This disordering of hierarchy (created above creator) manifests in extreme environmentalist attitudes essentially resembling pantheism. To one of my peers, I heard someone say, “Nature is my god”, when asked about her religion.
In James Cameron’s film, Avatar (2009), the biological network of the planet, Pandora, constitutes a female deity called “Eywa”. The portrayed colonial genocide of indigenous peoples and environmental disruption for the sake of capital gain by the resources therein alludes to very real and heinous acts done on earth. But Cameron misses the mark in that this virtue signaling centers around the notion that nature itself is ultimate. Of his fellow earthlings, the protagonist says, “they killed their mother.” Certainly, the earth and all it contains is a gift. It sustains us and we should steward it well. But it is not spiritual like humans.
Years ago, the symbol, HE>I, was popularized on the island of Oahu, being printed on stickers and apparel. It refers to the words of John, the Forerunner about the Christ being greater than himself and serves as a reminder for the Christian to be humble. More recently, “SEA>I” has appeared on bumpers to signal primacy of the ocean while simultaneously mocking religion.
The Feminist Movement
“The traditional depiction of Lilith from ancient Mesopotamia through medieval Kabbalah presents an antitype of desired human sexuality and family life. Lilith not only embodies people’s fears of how attraction to others can ruin their marriages, or of how risky childbearing and raising children are, but also represents a woman whom society cannot control—a woman who determines her own sexual partners, who is wild and unkempt, and who does not have the natural consequences of sexual activity, children.
The contemporary feminist movement found an inspiration in this image of Lilith as the uncontrollable woman and decisively changed the image of Lilith from demon to powerful woman. In 1972 Lilly Rivlin published an article on Lilith for the feminist magazine Ms., with the aim of recovering her for contemporary women. The Jewish feminist magazine Lilith, founded in the fall of 1976, took her name because the editors were inspired by Lilith’s fight for equality with Adam. An article in the introductory issue spelled out Lilith’s appeal and rejected the understanding of her as a demon. Since then, interest in Lilith has only grown among Jewish feminists, neo-pagans, listeners to contemporary music by women (highlighted in the Lilith Fair), poets, and other writers. A useful recent book collecting many articles and poems on Lilith, with specific focus on her importance for Jewish women, is Whose Lilith? (1998). As Lilly Rivlin writes in her “Afterword,” “In the late twentieth century, self-sufficient women, inspired by the women’s movement, have adopted the Lilith myth as their own. They have transformed her into a female symbol for autonomy, sexual choice, and control of one’s own destiny.”
A novel in which Lilith is recast as a heroine
Revelation 14:8 RSV
Another angel, a second, followed, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of her impure passion."
The Theotokos
“By means of the serpent the Evil One
poured out his poison in the ear of Eve
The Good One brought low His mercy
and entered through Mary’s ear
Through the gate by which death entered,
Life also entered, putting death to death.”
Lilith is the Anti-Mary; she is the trajectory of Eve’s deviation. She is the mother of all demons. She is Ezekiel's nymphe in her blood. She is like the daughters of men, taken and raped by the sons of god. She is Sarah, possessed with Asmodeus in her vacuous womb. She is the harlot, bound to the beast of Babylon. She is Persephone, taken in her innocent youth, made both queen and slave of the dead. She is like Eve, filled with the poisonous thoughts of the Serpent. Unlike the serpent, the Logos is loving and pure, filling all things with his light and life without violation, filling the soul that says, “yes”. So much is illuminated by a proper understanding of the incarnation.
“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord;
let it be to me according to your word.”
It’s as if Lilith is the most obscure and yet profound mystery of the kingdom of darkness in the same way that the Theotokos is the most precious treasure of Orthodox Christianity. Just as the Lilith type has been overlooked or, worse, praised, the place of the Theotokos in theology has been discarded by so many, resulting in a denigration of the feminine in culture.
Mother of the Light
All-containing container of the uncontainable
Bride of God
Sealed fountain, pouring forth the water of life
The City of God
Restoration of Adam, ransom of Eve
A life-giving garden, bearing the most beautiful and sweetest fruit
The ornament of the virtues
Beauty and boast of all women
Protection of orphans
The glory, crown, and delight of virgins
Mother of God
Greater in honor than the cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim, you without corruption gave birth to God the Word and are truly the Mother of God, you do we magnify!
The Soul
The Theotokos is our model for the spiritual life. As she received the Logos in her womb, so we receive Him in our hearts. In this way, the soul is feminine. Through submission to his love, we are transformed into a temple of the Holy Spirit and conduct His life and light to the world.
1 Peter 5:8 RSV
Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
The evil one does not wish for our life and freedom (he cannot grant it), but rather our bondage and destruction. He is the origin of all corruption. But take heart, Christ has destroyed his works on the cross.
☦
O Death, where is your sting?
O Hell, where is your victory?
Christ is risen, and you are overthrown.
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen.
Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice.
Christ is risen, and life reigns.
Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave.
For Christ, being risen from the dead, has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages.
Amen
Further Reading
Jewish Virtual Library: Lilith
Jewish Women’s Archive: Lilith
Biblical Archaeology Society: Lilith
Appendix
Ben Sira’s Lilith
The Alphabet of Ben Sira is a satirical work from the Middle ages. Genesis contains two distinct accounts of creation. In Genesis 1, mankind is created, male and female. In Genesis 2, male is created and female is formed from his side. Assuming the woman created in Genesis 1 is not Eve, Ben Sira provides this theory as a resolution.
The Alphabet of Ben Sira 78
When God created the first man Adam alone, God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” [So] God created a woman for him, from the earth like him, and called her Lilith. They [Adam and Lilith] promptly began to argue with each other: She said, “I will not lie below,” and he said, “I will not lie below, but above, since you are fit for being below and I for being above.” She said to him, “The two of us are equal, since we are both from the earth.” And they would not listen to each other. Since Lilith saw [how it was], she uttered God's ineffable name and flew away into the air. Adam stood in prayer before his Maker and said, “Master of the Universe, the woman you gave me fled from me!” The Holy Blessed one immediately dispatched the three angels Sanoy, Sansenoy, and Samangelof after her, to bring her back. God said, “If she wants to return, well and good. And if not, she must accept that a hundred of her children will die every day.” The angels pursued her and overtook her in the sea, in raging waters, (the same waters in which the Egyptians would one day drown), and told her God's orders. And yet she did not want to return. They told her they would drown her in the sea, and she replied. “Leave me alone! I was only created in order to sicken babies: if they are boys, from birth to day eight I will have power over them; if they are girls, from birth to day twenty.” When they heard her reply, they pleaded with her to come back. She swore to them in the name of the living God that whenever she would see them or their names or their images on an amulet, she would not overpower that baby, and she accepted that a hundred of her children would die every day. Therefore, a hundred of the demons die every day, and therefore, we write the names [of the three angels] on amulets of young children. When Lilith sees them, she remembers her oath and the child is [protected and] healed.
There is a power struggle between the woman and her mate. She refuses the subordinate position. She transgresses the cosmic boundary. She defies God’s orders. Her children are demons and her actions result in their death. “According to one version of the tale, she told them that she could not return to her first husband because she had already slept with the ‘Great Demon.’” Now we see Lilith take on more agency in this portrayal. It’s as if the expression of Lilith in tradition matured alongside the anima of Lilith in the world.
The Zohar
Isaiah 34:8-15 RSV
For the Lᴏʀᴅ has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into brimstone; her land shall become burning pitch. Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up for ever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever. But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it, the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. He shall stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plummet of chaos over its nobles. They shall name it No Kingdom There, and all its princes shall be nothing. Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches. And wild beasts shall meet with hyenas, the satyr shall cry to his fellow; yea, there shall the night hag alight, and find for herself a resting place. There shall the owl nest and lay and hatch and gather her young in her shadow; yea, there shall the kites be gathered, each one with her mate.
These animals allude to demons. The same kind of allusions occur in Psalm 90(91).
Zohar 3:19a (From Alan Humm’s Lilith Page)
“When the Holy One, blessed be He, will bring about the destruction of the wicked Rome, and turn it into a ruin for all eternity, He will send Lilith there, and let her dwell in that ruin, for she is the ruination of the world. And to this refers the verse, and there shall lie down Lilith and find her a place of rest (Isaiah 34:14).”
The Babylonian Talmud
“Rabbi Ḥanina said: It is prohibited to sleep alone in a house, and anyone who sleeps alone in a house will be seized by the evil spirit Lilith.”
Gilgamesh and the Huluppu-Tree
From a reconstruction and translation of the sumerian text by Samuel N. Kramer:
“a dragon had set up its nest at the base of the tree, the Zu-bird had placed his young in its crown, and in its midst the demoness Lilith had built her house. … [Gilgamesh] slays the dragon … the Zu-bird flees … Lilith, terror-stricken, tears down her house and escapes to the desert.”
Notice the harmony with Genesis 3: The tree, the serpent, the woman, and the exile to barrenness.
Jewish Women’s Archive
From an article by Rebecca Lesses:
“The liliths are known particularly from the Aramaic incantation bowls from Sassanian and early Islamic Iraq and Iran (roughly 400–800 C.E.). These are ordinary earthenware bowls that ritual specialists or laypeople from the Jewish, Mandaean, Christian, and pagan communities, who lived in close proximity in the cities of Babylonia, inscribed with incantations in their own dialects of Aramaic. A drawing of a bound lilith or other demon often appears in the center of the bowl. The bowls’ purpose was usually to exorcise demons from the house or from the body of the clients named on the bowls, or to turn back malevolent magic that others had practiced against the clients.
The liliths appear in lists of evil spirits that often refer to the “male and female liliths,” reflecting the ancient conception that these evil demons could appear in either male or female form. The bowl-texts accuse the liliths of haunting people in dreams at night or visions of the day. One text describes the liliths “who appear to human beings, to men in the likeness of women and to women in the likeness of men, and they lie with all human beings at night and during the day” (Montgomery 117). Thus one prominent characteristic of the liliths is that they attack people in the sexual and reproductive realm of life. It is no wonder, therefore, that some of the writers of the bowl-incantations employed the language of divorce to rid people of the liliths. The liliths also attack children. One of the bowls accuses “Hablas the lilith, granddaughter of Zarni the lilith” of “striking boys and girls” (Montgomery, 168). Another text says that this lilith “destroys and kills and tears and strangles and eats boys and girls” (Montgomery, 193).”
“Another, related demoness was Lamashtu, who threatened new-born babies and “had a disagreeable taste for human flesh and blood.” The figures of Lamashtu and the lilû and lilitu demons eventually converged to form one type of evil figure that seduced men and women and attacked children (Hutter).”
The predatory aspect is highlighted here.
From the same article:
“Lilith became a figure of cosmic evil in medieval Kabbalah. In the thirteenth-century “Treatise on the Left Emanation,” she became the female consort of Samael (Scholem, 1927; Dan). The “Great Demon” of the Alphabet of Ben Sira was given the name of Samael. According to earlier midrashim he had seduced the serpent to evil in the Garden of Eden and he was long identified as the angel of death and the guardian angel of Rome. In the “Treatise on the Left Emanation,” Samael and Lilith emanated together from beneath the Throne of Glory as a result of the sin of the first humans in the Garden of Eden. Their mythological characteristics were further developed in the Zohar (Tishby; Scholem 1974). There, Lilith and Samael emanated together from one of the divine powers, the sefirah of Gevurah (Strength). On the side of evil, the Sitra Ahra (the “Other Side”), they correspond to the holy divine female and male: “Just as on the side of holiness so on ‘the other side’ there are male and female, included one with the other” (Tishby, II: 461). Lilith attempted intercourse with Adam before the creation of Eve, and after the creation of Eve she fled and ever after has plotted to kill newborn children. She dwells in the “cities of the sea” and at the end of days God will make her dwell in the ruins of Rome (Tishby).
In the Zohar Lilith’s demonic sexuality comes especially to the fore. She attempts to seduce men and use their seed to create bodies for her demonic children. The Zohar recommends the performance of a special ritual before sexual intercourse between husband and wife, in which the husband should turn his mind to God and say, “Veiled in velvet, are you here?/Loosened, loosened (be your spell)!/Go not in and go not out!/Let there be none of you and nothing of your part!” (Scholem 1965: 157). She is the seductive harlot who leads men astray, but when they turn to her, she transforms into the angel of death and kills them (Tishby)”
Jewish Virtual Library
“From these ancient traditions, the image of Lilith was fixed in kabbalistic demonology. Here, too, she has two primary roles: the strangler of children (sometimes replaced in the Zohar by Naamah), and the seducer of men, from whose nocturnal emissions she bears an infinite number of demonic sons. In this latter role she appears at the head of a vast host, who share in her activities. Belief in her erotic powers led some Jewish communities to adopt the custom of sons not accompanying their dead father's body to the cemetery because they would be shamed by the hovering presence of theirdemon step-siblings, born of their father's seduction by Lilith. In the Zohar, as in other sources, she is known by such appellations as Lilith, the harlot, the wicked, the false, or the black. (The above-mentioned combination of motifs appears in the Zohar I, 14b, 54b; II, 96a, 111a; III, 19a, 76b.) She is generally numbered among the four mothers of the demons, the others being Agrat, Mahalath, and Naamah. Wholly new in the kabbalistic concept of Lilith is her appearance as the permanent partner of Samael, queen of the realm of the forces of evil (the sitra ahra). In that world (the world of the kelippot) she fulfills a function parallel to that of the Shekhinah ("Divine Presence") in the world of sanctity: just as the Shekhinah is the mother of the House of Israel, so Lilith is the mother of the unholy folk who constituted the "mixed multitude" (the erev-rav) and ruled over all that is impure. This conception is first found in the sources used by Isaac b. Jacob ha-Kohen, and later in Ammud ha-Semali by his disciple, Moses b. Solomon b. Simeon of Burgos. Both here, and later in the Tikkunei Zohar, there crystallizes the conception of various degrees of Lilith, internal and external. Likewise we find Lilith the older, the wife of Samael, and Lilith the younger, the wife of Asmodeus (see Tarbiz, 4 (1932/33), 72) in the writings of Isaac ha-Kohen and thereafter in the writings of most kabbalists. Some of these identify the two harlots who appeared in judgment before Solomon with Lilith and Naamah or Lilith and Agrat, an idea which is already hinted at in the Zohar and in contemporary writings (see Tarbiz, 19 (1947/48), 172–5).”
Persephone
From Greeka’s telling of the myth:
Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, the goddess of harvest and fertility. She was a lovely girl, attracting the attention of many gods, Hades, god of the underworld, most of all. He was amazed by her youth and beauty. One day, while the young girl was playing and picking flowers in a valley, she beheld the most enchanting narcissus she had ever seen. As she stooped down to pick the flower, the earth beneath her feet suddenly cleaved open and through the gap Hades himself came out on his chariot with black horses. Hades grabbed the lovely maiden before she could scream for help and descended into his underworld kingdom while the gap in the earth closed after them. A distraught and heartbroken Demeter wandered the earth looking for her daughter. Helios, the all-seeing Sun god, revealed to her that Persephone had been kidnapped by Hades. Helios suggested that it was not such a bad thing for Persephone to be the wife of Hades and queen of the dead. But to punish the gods and to grieve, Demeter decided to take indefinite leave from her duties as the goddess of harvest and fertility, with devastating consequences. Zeus realized that if he wouldn't do something about his wife's wrath, all humanity would disappear. He promised Demeter to restore Persephone to her if it can be proved that the maiden stays with Hades against her will. The crafty Hades learned this agreement and tricked his reluctant bride, who was crying all day and night from despair, to eat a few seeds of the pomegranate fruit. This was the food of the Underworld and every time someone ate even a few seeds, he would desire life in the Underworld. When the gathering in front of Zeus took place and Persephone was asked where she would like to live, she answered she wanted to live with her husband.
Persephone is both queen and slave of hell.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Of The Witch, C.S. Lewis writes:
“But she's no Daughter of Eve. She comes of your father Adam's... first wife, her they called Lilith. And she was one of the Jinn.”
The Oxford definition of Jinn:
(in Arabian and Muslim mythology) an intelligent spirit of lower rank than the angels, able to appear in human and animal forms and to possess humans.
"the rebellious jinn lead men astray"
Blade Runner 2049
“That barren pasture. Empty, and salted. The dead space between the stars.”
In Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Niander Wallace, suffering from a God Complex, embodies the Luciferian attempt to create life and take glory outside of God’s providence. The quote above is his description of the infertile womb of one if his replicants (clones). Jonathan Pageau has a great video on Symbolism in this film.
