Lilith: Reclaiming a jewel in the dark

Greetings to each of you.

Though this surely isn't a new subject of musing and insight-querying for me, recent reading on Lilith brings the issue into a fresh, new and yes, somewhat raw, perspective for me.

My friend Jodi Flesberg Lilly told me about a book by Kelley Hunter called Black Moon Lilith -- about the archetype and myth of Lilith used in astrology. So I did some web-wandering and reviewed various articles I'd filed away about Lilith, and find that a common insight or perspective comes to mind once more.

According to Demetra George in her book, Mysteries of the Dark Moon, Lilith's earliest appearance in recorded history is as the 'beautiful maiden' who, in service to Inanna, "the Queen of Heaven", brings men in from the fields to participate in the sacred marriage rites.

George says that as the forces of Patriarchy take hold, the peoples' connection to the powers of the Goddess -- and their self-image as independent, equal, and sexually free -- must be shifted in favor of the Solar 'sky god' and the hierarchy that favors men.

In later stories, after the power of the Goddess had been supplanted by the Very Masculine Solar God of invaders,  Lilith is relegated to demonology, and is referenced as the first woman created as partner to Adam.

The story that was shaped through the eyes of Patriarchy said that Lilith refused to submit to an inferior position to Adam (quite literally!) and chose to head for the hills, remain independent, share herself with demons, seduce men, and kill innocent children.

Again, this is how the independent Lilith has had her story rewritten by the Patriarchs who found her example threatening, and used the rewritten story as a warning to all women who might express their independence and powerful sexuality.

These themes play out again and again in the cases of Mother Goddesses, wise women, priestesses, etc. who were eliminated, demoted or recast as harlots. Patriarchal 'fathers' reducing the great Goddess Ishtar to the 'Whore of Babylon', for example; or the Mysteries-adept and spiritual teacher, Mary Magdalene, to a prostitute; or Mary the mother of Jesus becoming a nonsexual 'virgin' (most people assuming that 'virgin' meant one who had not been 'despoiled' by sex, whereas there are esoteric interpretations of 'virgin' meaning pure-hearted, adept, etc.).

When the Lens is Distorted

Most contemporary references look at Lilith through the lens of the old-fogey (and misogynistic) Patriarchs, which means very distorted, and even outright lie. If we're going to use the archetypes, whether in astrology or psychology or art, they must be made whole and reclaimed, not simply used to perpetuate a distortion that keeps women (and men) fragmented.

Yes, since both men and women have access to the energies of Sacred Feminine and Sacred Masculine, the distortions of Lilith and Isis and others are as harmful to men, who cannot see their Sacred Masculine when the Sacred Feminine has been buried or distorted. It's like trying to see an accurate reflection of yourself in a mirror that's been shattered and covered with mud-spatter.

In the case of Lilith, like these other Goddesses and wise women, there is another, more whole story, some of which can be found by diligent research and some of which must be remembered and retold via other means, such as analeptic memory.

My brief research led me to an essay on Lilith by astrologer Antonia Langsdorf. Like a few others, Antonia begins to reintegrate Lilith ... to see another side to the 'dark Feminine' that harkens back to the era when women -- and Wise Women -- were revered, respected, appreciated and seen as equal to their Masculine counterparts.

When 'Darkness' was Revered

To the ancients, 'darkness' was not automatically associated with evil or devilry, as became the case post-Patriarchy. In the darkness, the void, a deep wisdom was held; creativity took shape; universes were gathered; mysteries were guarded. It was through the 'dark night' or the 'night sea voyage' that the initiate attained a much greater, deeper, higher, fuller, richer understanding ... a gnosis ... about the great mysteries of Life and the connection of all things in the One Intelligence, the Beloved.

In the darkness was a fallow time in which seeds prepared themselves and took root. In the darkness was the brightest light of all -- Eros and Phanes. And the Feminine powers of intuition, instinct and other Luna and body wisdom 'powers', are sourced in the 'darkness' because they can't be seen with the eyes of the Body -- they must be felt, seen with the inner eye.

Reclaiming our Lilith-Gifts

To me, it is vital to reconnect with Lilith -- this vibrant, wild, independent, beautiful, sensual, whole woman who said to Adam, "Are we not created equal?" and who defied the invader god' by refusing to slip into an unhealthy, dysfunctional dynamic that put the Goddess and the Feminine as lesser to the God and the Masculine, thus taking the divinity, Sacredness, and wholeness out of each.

Lilith means so much more, I'm sure, as do all of the stories and archetypes that restore the fullness and amazing brilliance of both the Sacred Feminine and the Sacred Masculine.

She -- they -- want us to find them, to remember them, to bring them through us into a restored and perhaps rejuvenated fullness of expression. The restoration and remembrance of the full Divine Feminine, in all of her fullness, fierceness, power, and equality, is vital to creating the shift in the world that is so needed now.

Listen, do you hear them speaking across the pathways of deep time and the frequencies of the Heart? What do they tell you?

This is a continuing conversation for me, so sign on to follow the Musings...

Love and blessings,
Jamie

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Image Credits: Lilith, from John Collier.

Comments

[Diva Carla]

The painting of Lilith with the snake resonate strongly with me, as I have the snake totem. There is also a reference there to one of my personal relationships, an old friend who is terrified of snakes, and without a shamanic bone in his body, associates them with me.

I have been musing about Ishtar. I had a chance to read the Gilgamesh epic recently and was struck by how evil Ishtar is, and by how equally evil Gilgamesh is. He is not a hero at all. Clearly by the time the Babylonians were writing on clay tablets, the Goddess and the Divine were already perverted. Who were these people who could create Ishtar and Gilgamesh in that image?

When I google Ishtar, I don't fine much. Does anyone know who she was before the Babylonians and Gilgamesh got a hold of her?

[Jamie Walters]

Greetings, Carla.

I, too, really loved the John Collier painting of Lilith. As with many of these portraits and stories of the Feminine and Goddess, and as you mentioned with Ishtar in the Gilgamesh myth, I'm struck at how often the depictions of the Feminine are pretty horrible. Often, in digging deeper, I've been profoundly moved by the pre-Patriarchal tellings, and quite saddened at how they were maligned, demonized, made into 'cautionary tales', etc.

Then again, this gives cause for rejoicing at the many male and female theologians and scholars whose work helps to correct the record, such that it can be, and reconstruct based on historical and archaeological findings.

It occurred to me while reading last night that something that I often hear or read in response to 're-tellings' is that it's 'reconstructionist history', but the reality is that HISTORY is reconstructionist, in that it seems to have always been coopted and retold by 'the winners' of whatever invasion or battle.

Two excellent resources that I've found are:

* Merlin Stone's book, When God Was a Woman

* Demetra George's book, Mysteries of the Dark Moon

Both are well-researched and tell a more full story, which is to say that the Feminine has all of the richness that is inclusive of compassion, loving kindness, generosity, right along with serious fierceness, the protectiveness of a Lioness for her cubs, and even cruelty.

Merlin Stone's book really focuses on the transition between the matriarchal Goddess-centered cultures and the shift that occurred as invaders from the North, with a much more patriarchal world view that included an angry God that seems to have had his origin as a fire and lava spewing volcano.

According to Stone, there were also survival issues (probably from living in a hostile climate and perhaps having ancestral recollection of some catastrophy). From the Patriarchy's perspective, independent and liberated women who thought they were equal were a threat to the survival of the species. That explains a lot.

I've also heard that Riane Eisler's book, The Chalice and the Blade, is excellent.

Others?

Sincerely,
Jamie

[Jamie Walters]

P.S. If I remember correctly from recent reading, Ishtar evolved out of Inanna, the Sumerian "Lady of Heaven" that was revered (and her high priestess, Enheduanna, was a daughter of the King and rather powerful in her own right. She's also the first recorded author in history. :)

Jamie

[Mary Mac]

What a beautiful site this is and beautiful women are finding their way here. Innana was my spiritual initiation guide. She took me to the most incredible places in the past 9 years. She is now a part of who I am and I am, well, me. Uniquely learning to express my Goddess/Self that pours through me. Mary Mac

[Julie Daley]

Lovely, Jamie,

Your words are always so full of wisdom and history and at the same time infused with heart and soul. I miss our times sipping tea and talking. Sending love, dear one.
Julie