Lilith…as symbol for women in contemporary life

My first post on the creation story was ‘Adam’s Rib…and what came before’. In that post I wrote about Lilith, the first wife or partner of Adam in the Garden of Eden and how she was exiled to the depths of the Red Sea, to be never seen or heard of again.

My second post was ‘Lilith…a trailblazer’.

My third post was ‘Lilith: her crisis in the depths of the Red Sea’.

My 4th post was ‘Lilith-as serpent as symbol for transformation’.

This post will consider whether we have a ‘Lilith’ within us and if we do, what does she represent or symbolise? What image do we have of her? Is she alive or slumbering deep within our souls? What relevance does she have for us today?

In this blog I will touch on the polarities of Lilith, the first woman, exiled to the depths of the Red Sea for her ‘transgression’ in challenging Adam and heresy of all, challenging G.d and committing blasphemy. I will simply be making a few comments in the hope that you can see how she operates. I will write more on her at a later stage.

Lilith is both a blessing and a curse. She was a blessing in disguise – in the form of the serpent – in that by her courageous act of rebellion against the patriarchal status quo, she set in motion consequences that were far reaching, and of which we are really only now taking note. She also shows that striving for consciousness is a worthwhile task even if it means living temporarily in exile. She could stand, or sit, or swim, alone, as an independent woman with her own strengths. Lilith’s energy was fearsome and forceful. Her energy while brooding in the depths of the Red Sea, is the energy with which we need to be in contact. It is of great transformative power and needs to be carefully directed. It is the kind of energy that women used to get the vote, to ban pass books and to demand justice for rape victims. It is not a polite energy and yet becomes strident only when repeated injustices are perpetrated not only against women, but against men too.

It is said of Lilith that her energy is more destructive that creative, and she is variously known as the Bride of Satan, the Devil’s Consort and the tortuous serpent who, as a woman, seduces men by her intoxicating perfumes and scents, jewelry and clothing. She is known as the vengeful spirit who robs men of their sperm at night and who turns new born babes into demons as they take their first breath.

All of us, men and women, have projected and distorted our fear of this strong and willful woman. She is seen as all who we are not, she who is the container for the dark and earthy creative feminine. We have put her out there, as not belonging to us, and the hard work is bringing her back in again, allowing her into our psyches to her rightful place within us …

Her energetic force grew as a result of opposition and suppression. Her spirit was broken but not indefinitely. We need to relate to her, for who among us has not felt wounded, misunderstood and despairing. We need to be aware of Lilith’s divine and demonic powers. She is not to be cast out and banished. She needs to be redeemed through our conscious awareness of her. Barbara Koltuv, in her book The Book of Lilith (1986) says: “Experiencing Lilith in her many forms is part of the process of giving birth to the feminine self”. Awareness of the reality of her demonic powers leads to a decreasing of that power – a lessening of that power – in a way in which that forceful energy can be used more creatively and constructively.

From our darkness we long to be bathed in the light, to be comforted and mothered in loving arms. We have all experienced moments when we have felt tired or sick, betrayed or disappointted. We are vaguely aware of all 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 at these times – some other to be the 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. Any dark energy stored in darkness tends to become distorted. When we disregard that energy, it turns against us to our detriment.

All modalities of Lilith need to be experienced within ourselves. Her darkness and light; her manic and depressive moods; the sinner and the saint; her strengths and vulnerabilities; her wildness and conformity. Each polarity requires the other for its wholeness …

If we can admit her apparently opposing tendencies, courageously bringing her out of the shadows, we will be more whole and thus more empowered. There can be no sunlight without shadows. We have every right to fear the darkness of Lilith and her rage, but rage has meaning and purpose. Our emotions are in large part our energy. Highly charged emotions have a vibrational pattern; they are valuable in that they disturb us – they are meant to – for they help to illuminate and elucidate those highly charged emotions that lie festering in the dark and thereby bringing them out into the open. The deepest work is is usually the work on the very darkest corner of our souls.

Lilith was the bringer of Light, so that anger and rage at rejection and suppression in all its forms can be seen for what it IS. The primordial feminine very often appears as a monstrous serpent, yet it is out of that devouring darkness that energy can be transformed. The energy that has been used in blocking emotions is released and freed so that it can be used constructively. The light needs the dark. They belong together.