Lilith: Serpent and Symbol of Transformation

serpent3images (1)

Meister Eckhart : The ground of the soul is dark

A reminder that I treat the myth of Lilith as just that, a myth, a powerful one that resonates today because of its psychological dynamic. Any ongoing dialogue with myths, dreams, stories, fairytales inter alia puts us back in touch with the deeper layers of the psyche, those inner forces that play themselves out on the world stage.

In the previous post we left Lilith brooding in the depths of the Red Sea. She felt her inner strength returning after what seemed an eternity, cleansed by her tears and the salt of the sea she now felt as salve; and her forging in the flames. It was time to end her isolation and return to the Garden of Eden to effect a change on the status quo.

In the most mysterious of ways she returns, disguised, as serpent, to beguile Eve to accept the apple and thereby disobey God’s admonition to not eat the fruits of The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil on pain of death and other dreadful punishments.

We know from the Creation story that Eve and Adam were expelled from Paradise and that women have been blamed ever after for this sinful act of accepting the fruit – the repercussions still felt today, even if unconsciously. I’ll write a later post about Eve and the temptation that was presented to her. But for the moment I want to negate that age-old myth of woman’s ‘sinfulness’ and say that Eve was the awakener for Adam, Lilith the awakener for Eve. To paraphrase Paul Tillich (Western theologian), the Fall represented ‘…a fall from the state of dreaming innocence…’ and awakening from potentiality into actuality; and that the ‘fall’ was necessary for the development of humankind, a symbol for the human situation, not a story of an event that happened ‘once upon a time’.

Can Lilith as serpent be a viewed as a harbinger of change and as symbol for transformation?

 Our first reaction to the temptress may be one where we instinctively recoil in distrust and fear. We have an archetypal disposition to fear this highly dangerous creature with forked flicking fangs. Historically, the symbolism of the serpent has the association of sexual temptation, of being against God, subversive and evil.

Lilith shed various skins in the depths of the Red Sea, shedding her anger, shedding her pain and sadness, feeling the lessening of the bonds, becoming tighter, and emerged to offer Eve choice and voice. Lilith knew that Eve was restricted in the Garden. She knew that Adam and Eve were entirely dependent on G.d the Father and that they were naive and obedient children with no real freedom for growth within those boundaries.

Lilith can be seen as a trailblazer in that she refused to remain repressed in the depths of the Red Sea. The brutal injury to her psyche from being expelled from the Garden for expressing herself almost broke her. The dark had served her well and for long and she knew her time had come. She was in touch with her anger and pain and stepped out from that place of extremity in her urge for healing and wholeness, never wholly achieved perhaps; but each little bit of understanding of the dark feminine within each of us, man and woman, brings us closer to wholeness and healing, individually and collectively. She challenged the patriarchal view that women were to be ‘obedient’. She donned the guise of serpent. The older paradigm of being in bondage in the depths of the Red Sea was a skin to be shed – it was too constricting, restricting; and its origins were blatantly unjust. There was no more symbolic way than to put on a new skin and arrive as serpent, the wisest of the creatures. She would live life in abandon but not in abandonment. 

We too face trials and tribulations and long to be bathed in the light, to be comforted and mothered in loving arms. We’ve all experienced times when we’ve felt sick, tired, betrayed, disappointed. We’re vaguely aware of the resentments building up inside us like a pressure cooker, or we feel our hearts hardening or closing down. The mothering that we yearn for a these times – some other to be a container for our sadness – may be unavailable. We need to look deep inside ourselves to find a way to acknowledge those dark energy bearing feelings of hopelessness and despair, rage, anger and woundedness. Our feelings and emotions are not to be dumbed down.

Many times our energy is not a polite one. It is the sort of energy used by Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama who refused to give up her seat on a bus for white men in 1955, a forerunner in challenging the legality of segregation. The Black Sash here in South Africa comprised of women started this movement in 1955 to protest against coloured people (inter alia) not being allowed to vote. Malala Yousafzai defied the Taliban edict of banning girls from receiving an education and took a bullet to her head.

We hiss loudly when we see gender discrimination, littering, undue use of plastic bottles, rape and mutilation of not only women and children, but of our land and sea. We hiss at those in the corridors of power who have only their profit line as goal. We’re doing a great deal of hissing and spitting at what goes on on our country under the leadership of our president and his sychophants – corruption is rampant and the use of tax payers money is used for the most nefarious purposes …

The feminine principle stands for all that is life-giving as well as life destroying, paradoxical though that is. It stands for chaos from which order emerges in a new transformative form. It is both joyful and grieving. It is dark and fecund, like the soil of the earth. It embraces ALL in life and in death. Pain and suffering, sorrow, grief, anger, destruction, wildness, non- conformity, death and darkness are all embraced by Lilith. She also embraces compassion, joy, creativity, light, playfulness, mothering, nurturing, birthing, ugliness and beauty. She devours and she transforms. Nothing is meaningless to her. She knows that ALL is part of the whole of life and death. Wanting only the good and light and the heights is an awful denial of the depths.

There is much in the literature where the serpent is revered: for example –

Aesculapius, the ancient Roman god of healing, is symbolised by two serpents representing the principles of sickness and healing, entwined around his staff. Serpents were renowned for their ability to seek out healing herbs and plants for treatment off illness in the population.

Hippocrates (460 BC) the father of western medicine, is represented to this day as a healer carrying a staff, around which is wound the serpent. My husband wears such a tie on which this emblem is.

The story of the Buddha tells how, after his many and various terrifying trials and tribulations brought on by Mara, he met his greatest trial while sitting under the Bo tree. Mara and her Furies sent a thunderbolt down from the sky to strike him down dead. But, at the ultimate moment the cobra, the King of Serpents, emerged from the shadow/darkness to offer the Buddha its hood for protection – which he accepted.

That which can kill can also cure. By bringing Lilith out of the shadows and acknowledging all sides of her, is a step towards healing and wholeness.

roses-with-thornsrose with thorns – like Lilith

with thanks to google images

next post: Eve

 

41 Comments on Lilith as Serpent and Symbol of Transformation

  1. Hi Susan – what a truly brilliant post … and one I need to come back to … and to refer to often. I’ve just been reading about Emily Hobhouse and her efforts to get Peace in WW1 in 1916 … and her efforts at helping the Boer in those Wars – she’s a relative by marriage … and I’ve written about her – though I am out of the ‘lineage’ as such. Black Sash I had many friends in the movement and on the edge when I lived in Jhb.

    I don’t know if you’ve heard of Judy Croome from Jhb … she wrote “Dancing in the Shadows of Love” … two posts on my blog, as she sent a prize for me and my mother .. in those early days. But the book resonates in reference to your post …

    I am learning … and ‘debating’ things of life … and so interesting when subjects start to tie in, even when not necessarily thinking about them.

    I forgot .. hope the tooth is sorted out … cheers Hilary

    • Hi Hilary and thank you for coming by! Glad it brought back memories of the Boer War (we need to remember the Black Africans who fought in it).. and Emily Hobhouse.

      I have heard of Judy Croome – will seek out that post of yours. Will you direct me to it please

      The tooth is in the throes … 🙂

      Susan

  2. Thank you Sharon and travel well. Have a great time. I’m sorry I hit reply on my cell ph and a similar message from me went directly to yr mail. My apologies

  4. Yes, the dark served her well. Thank you, Susan. I love the way you write about our inner Lilith energy as the fierce protective feminine. The earth, the disowned and downtrodden, and the suffering need our fierceness.

    I imagine the evil serpent was connected to demonizing various Goddess religions in northern Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. I think of the protective power of the Uraeus in Egypt, a feminine cobra image of Hathor, the feminine power that protects the divine and the throne–like the Cobra’s protection for Buddha.

    As others have said, thank you for the teaching in your posts. Our neglected or denied powers are often hidden in these archetypal myths.

    I am fond of snakes. I have a big black snake living under my front porch. I’m grateful she eats the mice and she makes me feel protected. Every woman who lives alone in the country needs her own wild snake.

    • Thanks Elaine – I’m smiling/laughing at your last sentence ‘Every woman who lives alone in the country needs her own wild snake’. Unsure whether my laugh is a nervous one! Somehow I STILL have the image in mind of when I saw a snake among the bushes – I was about 14 – and was walking on the beach, jumping on the rocks. This snake wriggled and I jumped, and ran all the way home, barefoot, terrified witless …

      I know that I would never harm a snake – it is said that if one kills a snake its partner will seek revenge.

      ‘The earth, the disowned and downtrodden, and the suffering need our fierceness’; – how true.

      Thank you again for your thoughtful response.

  5. I really enjoyed this post! It’s fascinating, and thought provoking. Thank you so much, Susan. I missed the earlier one about Lilith, and am going to read it now 🙂

    • Thank you Damyanti for coming by; she is a hero and as you say ‘..womankind repressed over the centuries’. I loved your flash fiction – I don’t know how I missed it so thank you for providing the link. Happy fiction writing, may your pen be swift and sharp.

  7. When I referred to Susan’s blogs a few hours ago, I was thinking of Susan and I also had in mind the commentators as well. I think that, when a person has reached a higher level of individuation, it is natural the this person would think and feel outside her/his egocentric box. There are many more “her” than “his” in this group, I have noticed. This comes about incidentally. I am not trying to make a general characterization about gender

  8. Gwynn, often I feel like I have not used the right words when I have tried to convey my thoughts, and I try to re-phrase what I have written. This could, in fact, be annoying to some. You said it correctly about the BIGGER PICTURE, perhaps also a Slight Tilt of Perspective. Basically, I am also trying to say that I value the sharp thinking, sensitive feeling, and attention to causes that matter that are evidenced in Susan’s blogs. I also have envy for the beautiful styles of writing comments as, for example, posted today by Sammy D.

    • Joseph, I so agree with you and Sammy in regards to Susan’s sharp thinking and intelligent posts. My brain no longer works that way, but I still appreciate the detail that Susan exhibits. In conversations, in days of old, I liked to be “Devil’s Advocate” and present another picture of the topic to see what people’s responses would be. I no longer do that, but I still wonder… I LOVE hearing various viewpoints about topics… the Bigger Picture too. Thanks for this conversation. Gwynn

  9. Susan, I love Gwinn’s creative comments—growth—seeing things that are wrong with life—change and growth. I think this is Thought-Catalytic. Your opening up the significance of Lilith to the people who have the opportunity to comment here brings us additional perspectives with Accumulating Momentum and Inner Transformation !!! As to one of the negative connotations of the word, “provoked,” I did not ally myself with that word in the context of feeling appreciative.

    • Thank you Joseph – I hope Gwynn reads your comment which I also appreciate. Many times it is the provocation that forces us to act.

    • Joseph and Susan, Thanks for your interest in my comment. I tend toward looking at everything through the BIGGER PICTURE and look for an “outward” meaning. Thus, my interpretation of Lilith. To me it sounds as if Lilith represents many sides of the coin and if she initially was associate with the bad … maybe she is also the healing aspect of life, as all must die for new to grow or change. I wish we were in the same room so we could discuss this issue. To me it is fascinating. But, I do think “out of the box.” Thanks to you both.

  10. This truly is a fascinating post. For me, it makes me think of cycles. Life changes constantly, a lot like nature. I think of the Fall of the Roman empire with the corruption of their leaders. We see this corruption in today’s leaders too. Does this mean that all will fall and we’ll have to rebuild again? Maybe Lilith actually stands for “growth”… seeing things that are wrong with life… so we have to discard them in order to change and grow. This is quite thought-provoking! Thank you!

    • Thank you Gwynn – sometimes life has to hit rock bottom and all the wounds have to be exposed before re-building can begin, from a clean slate. So much is happening in the world and I wonder whether if we’ll all experience a ‘Fall of the Roman Empire’ world-wide. It seems that way here in South Africa on more of a micro-level …

  11. I like how you point out the ambivalence inherent in the Lilith myth: That which kills can also cure. I believe that’s how antibiotics work and vaccines heal.

    As one commenter pointed out, your posts seem like lessons not just opinion pieces as so many are.
    I look forward to Eve!

    • Thank you Marian. Last year I heard that mambas – a huge and deadly poisonous snake – were being investigated for the use of their venom as a healing agent for pain! I remember noting that – if not mambas, then some snake in Central Africa –

      Eve – I must begin working on her.

  12. Dearest Susan – please take this as a compliment when I say I cannot read your blog posts at the same time I scroll through others while drinking my morning coffee. They are different in every way from the astute, lyrical way you present your ‘lessons’ to the depth and breadth of your subject matter. Today’s post – what struck me was the positional change you propose for Lilith, not as evil temptress as much as a necessary evil to bring us into our real human state, which is nothing like the Garden of Eden. How many times I’ve had to pull mothering from myself because I lacked it from Mother. Your example of Rosa Parks will stick with me for resilience and fortitude. Bless you, dear teacher and mentor!!

    • Dear sweet Sammy D – thank you. We often have to pull strengths from ourselves that we didn’t know we had when we come face to face with situations that we’re not familiar with or seemingly insurmountable obstacles. You use the example of pulling mother from yourself. I’ve done the same – pulled it out from nowhere it seemed. Somehow we find the resources – or the resilience, thinking back on your recent post. Yours I also cannot quickly read or skim through. Apart from the depth of them, I am usually filled with literary envy as well!

  13. Dear Susan;
    Do you think the fear is of transformation–change out of our patterns and habits that hold and also restrict?
    Susan

    • Dear Susan, thank you … I suppose some conscious habits are healthy especially when we know that the ‘habit’ within the pattern is a holding one. Perhaps we are complacent and comfortable in our lives, and we wonder whether we need any more ‘transforming’ and it may be wise to go with the flow … but life demands more of us I think, to become more conscious in this troubled world we find ourselves in, and each person’s increased consciousness, by looking within, effects a change in the outer.
      Susan

  15. William Wordsworth said, “the world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.”

    Coming and going, or late and soon, symbol and myth seem to affect our real actions.

    • Thank you again Joseph and for providing Wordsworth as the author of these wise words. Yes the value of symbol and myth are very real – such a rich source I feel for a better understanding of ourselves in the world .. at least that’s how I see it.

  16. I think it can not be under-emphasized each week that a symbol and a myth can play itself out in our daily lives, “coming and going, we lay waste our fortunes” on the world stage.

  17. I love your perspectives about lilith, to me this is an enlightening post leading me to a paradigm shift on understanding lilith as serpent and symbol of something that is positive. I remember my catechism class – the serpent was always a villain, very deceptive who cheated and manipulated eve by its temptation…. from then on I always looked at serpent negatively; thanks for bringing in a new insight and a new way of looking at the serpent, that was always associated with the evil. I love the way you ended your post, the last two lines that says:that which can kill can also cure….. and ofcourse one can never imagine a beautiful rose without thorns…. thanks for sharing… I am falling in love with your writings !!!

    • Thank you Genevive for your kind compliment – yes, most/many of us view the serpent as evil. The serpent’s response to Eve was a very tricky one. I may elaborate on that further – but it is seriously tricky!

  18. It is amazing how often the theme of leaving security (paradise) appears in therapy. A step into the unknown, which could mean leaving a parent, or a partner who represented a parent.

    My thoughts on this … if we walk away we live with guilt, unavoidably. if we stay we live with shame for not developing what wants to emerge into consciousness. It’s the choice between Scylla and Charybdis – rock and a hard place. It’s always a kind of birth.

    • Thanks Ashen – an important question you pose. Guilt is useful when it prompts us to act even if our act creates another kind of guilt. A rock and a hard place indeed … shame even more restricting. Another rock and hard place. Birthing is always hard. I will familiarise myself some more with Scylla and Charybdis – between at the devil and the deep blue sea if I remember correctly …

  19. Susan, would you give me permission to post this on my blog? I really enjoyed it. Actually, if you don’t mind, we can post all the Lilith posts…one after the other….on miraprabhu.wordpress.com. If you agree, then please, if you can, send me the posts via email. Again, with your permssion, I will slot them into my blog and use my own images – giving you credit, of course. If not, no worries, but I do enjoy these very much. Much love from Arunachala, dearest Susan!

    • Thanks so much Mira! We’ll be in communication about putting the Lilith posts on your blog. I’m glad you see her value – she reminds me of Kali! Love to you from Johannesburg dear Mira.

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