LILITH - Hebrew Myths
From "Hebrew Myths" by Robert Graves and Raphael Patai:
Some say the God created man and woman in His own image on the Sixth Day, giving them charge over the world, but that Eve did not yet exist. Now, God had set Adam to name every beast, bird and other living thing. When they passed before him in pairs, male and female, Adam --being already like a twenty-year-old man-- felt jealous of their loves, and though he tried coupling with each female creature in turn, found no satisfaction in the act. He therefore cried: "Every creature but I has a proper mate!" and prayed God would remedy this injustice. [1]
God then formed Lilith, the first woman, just as He had formed Adam, except that he used filth and sediment instead of pure dust.
From Adam's union with this demoness, and with another like her named Naamah, Tubal Cain's sister, sprang Asmodeus and innumerable demons that still plague mankind. Many generations later, Lilith and Naamah came to Solomon's judgement seat, disguised as harlots of Jerusalem. [2]
Adam and Lilith never found peace together, for when he wished to lie with her, she took offence at the recumbent position he demanded. "Why must I lie beneath you?" she asked. "I also was made from dust, and am therefore your equal." Because Adam tried to compel her obedience by force, Lilith, in a rage, uttered the magic name of God, rose into the air and left him.
Adam complained to God: "I have been deserted by my helpmeet." God at once sent the angels Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof to fetch Lilith back. They found her beside the Red Sea, a region abounding in lascivious demons, to whom she bore 'lilim' at the rate of more than one hundred a day. "Return to Adam without delay," the angels said, "or we will drown you!" Lilith asked: "How can I return to Adam and live like an honest housewife, after my stay beside the Red Sea?" "It will be death to refuse!" they answered. "How can I die," Lilith asked again, "when God has ordered me to take charge of all newborn children: boys up to the eighth day of life, that of circumcision; girls up to the twentieth day. None the less, if ever I see your three names or likenesses displayed in an amulet above a newborn child, I promise to spare it."
To this they agreed; but God punished Lilith by making one hundred of her demon children perish daily; [3] and if she could not destroy a human infant, because of the angelic amulet, she would spitefully turn against her own. [4]
Some say that Lilith ruled as queen in Zmargad, and again in Sheba; and was the demoness who destroyed Job's sons. [5] Yet she escaped the curse of death which overtook Adam, since they had parted long before the Fall.
Lilith and Naamah not only strangle infants
but also seduce dreaming men, and one of whom, sleeping alone, may become their victim. [6]
There are TWO THREADS in Genesis: the good Lamech and the evil Lamech. The Good Lamech would give us COMFORT through Noah who removed the Godly Seed from the "mearly beast-like people." The Evil Lamech gave birth to the Cainiste including Jubal, Jabal, Tubal-Cain and Naamah. Both their names and the names of their mothers tips the reader off to the fact that this was a THREAD of music, murder and madness. Jubal "handled" musical instruments WITHOUT AUTHORITY. The others used the arts and crafts to take people captive and make the PAY for the free food God had given them. The god EA as the father of musical sorcery and other "weapons" is exactly the evil Lamech of the Torah. The composite name GENUN (Geni, Adept, Kabiri etal) in the accounts written by ancient people who knew the common base of literature and the original languages.
Notes:
[1] Divergences between the Creation myths of Genesis I and II, which allow Lilith to be presumed as Adam's first mate, result from a careless weaving together of an early Judean and a late priestly tradition. The older version contains the rib incident.
Lilith typifies the Anath-worshipping Canaanite women, who were permitted pre-nuptial promiscuity.
§6. Therefore, brethren, because we know and have seen that from the beginning it was through woman that the adversary had access unto men, and to the end he will accomplish it by her- for she is the weapon of Satan, and through her he fights against the champions. Through her he makes music
at every time, for she became as a harp for him from the first day. For because of her the
curse of the
Law was established,
and because of her the promise unto death was made. For with pangs
she bears children and delivers them to death. Because of her the
earth was cursed, that it should bring forth thorns and tares.
As Anath's image was melded into that of the Minoan Bird Goddess, the penises became snakes again, and the aegis a cloak. The result helped to effectively concealed Athena's ancient Libyan origins while unwittingly reintroducing some of the older symbols. The sacred rite in which Anath's consort, represented by the last of the grain harvest, died during the ritual of the last sheaf's reaping and division into food and seed was cut out altogether. Such drastic action was required to further match her to Libyan Athena, who consorted with no man unless she wished to conceive a child by other than parthenogenetic means. Conversely, Anath was never associated with giving birth unless she had taken an animal form. Anath was a famous warrior and powerful protector, a sort of 'ultimate woman' Anath (h6067) an-awth'; from 6030; answer; Anath, an Isr.: - Anath. Anan (h6049) aw-nan'; a prim. root; to cover; used only as denom. from 6051, to cloud over; fig. to act covertly, i. e. practise magic: - * bring, enchanter, Meonemin, observe (-r of) times, soothsayer, sorcerer. Anan (h6051) aw-nawn'; from 6049; a cloud (as covering the sky), i. e. the nimbus or thunder-cloud: - cloud (-y). Anammelek (h6048) an-am-meh'-lek; of for. or.; Anammelek, an Assyrian deity: - Anammelech.
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Time after time the prophets denounced Israelite women for following Canaanite practices; at first, apparently, with the priests' approval -- since their habit of dedicating to God the fees thus earned is expressly forbidden in Deuteronomy XXIII:18.
SHE, of course, is Lucifer in the Garden of Eden and the Mother of harlots in Revelation 17) whose "minsiters" or sorcerers were rhetoricians, singers and instrument players.
§6. Consider and observe, my hearer, that if God had given a hope to Sodom and to her fellows, He would not have overthrown them with fire and brimstone, the sign of the last day of the world, but would have delivered them over to one of the kingdoms to be chastised. As it is written that when Jeremiah caused the nations and kingdoms to drink the cup of wrath, he said concerning each one of the cities, that after they shall drink the cup, I will turn back the captivity of Elam, of Tyre, of Zidon, of the children of Ammon, and of Moab, and of Edom. [Jer. xxv. 15-27 ; xlviii. 47 ; xlix. 6, 39.] Concerning each one of these kingdoms he said:-In the last days I well turn back her captivity.
Now we see that Tyre was inhabited, and was opulent after she had wandered seventy years, [Is. xxiii. 15, 16, 17.] and after she had received the reward of her harlotries and after she had committed fornication with all kingdoms.
And she took the harp, and played it sweetly, and multiplied her music.Isaiah 23:11 He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the Lord hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds thereof.
Isaiah 23:12 And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest.
Isaiah 23:13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.
Isaiah 23:14 Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste.
Isaiah 23:15 And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.
Isaiah 23:16 Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.
Isaiah 23:17 And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.
Isaiah 23:18 And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.
Lilith's flight to the Red Sea recalls the ancient Hebrew view that water attracts demons. "Tortured and rebellious demons" also found safe harbourage in Egypt. Thus Asmodeus, who had strangled Sarah's first six husbands, fled "to the uttermost parts of Egypt" (Tobit VIII:3), when Tobias burned the heart and liver of a fish on their wedding night.
[2] Lilith's bargain with the angels has its ritual counterpart in an apotropaic {1} rite once performed in many Jewish communities. To protect the newborn child against Lilith --and especially a male, until he could be permanently safeguarded by circumcision-- a ring was drawn with natron, or charcoal, on the wall of the birthroom, and inside it were written the words: "Adam and Eve. Out, Lilith!" Also the names Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof (meanings uncertain) were inscribed on the door. If Lilith nevertheless succeeded in approaching the child and fondling him, he would laugh in his sleep. To avert danger, it was held wise to strike the sleeping child's lips with one finger -- whereupon Lilith would vanish.
[3] 'Lilith' is usually derived from the Babylonian-Assyrian word 'lilitu,' 'a female demon, or wind-spirit' -- one of a triad mentioned in Babylonian spells. But she appears earlier as 'Lillake' on a 2000 BC Sumerian tablet from Ur containing the tale of "Gilgamesh and the Willow Tree." There she is a demoness dwelling in the trunk of a willow tree tended by the Goddess Inanna (Anath) on the banks of the Euphrates. Popular Hebrew etymology seems to have derived 'Lilith' from 'layil,' 'night'; and she therefore often appears as a hairy night-monster, as she also does in Arabian folklore. Solomon suspected the Queen of Sheba of being Lilith, because she had hairy legs. His judgement on the two harlots is recorded in 1 Kings III:16. According to Isaiah XXXIV:14-15, Lilith dwells among the desolate ruins in the Edomite Desert where satyrs ("se'ir"), reems {2}, pelicans, owls {3}, jackals, ostriches, arrow-snakes and kites {4} keep her company.
Lucifer is: 1966. heylel, hay-lale´; from 1984 (in the sense of brightness); the morning-star:--lucifer.
The word Halal or the "praise" word mostly of the Warriors under David points to all of the names, names of instruments and styles of playing instruments as effeminate. h 1984 gives us a way to MARK Lucifer or Zoe:
[4] Lilith's children are called 'lilim.' In the _Targum Yerushalmi_, the priestly blessing of Numbers VI:26 becomes:
"The Lord bless thee in all thy doings, and preserve thee from the Lilim!" The fourth-century AD commentator Hieronymous identified Lilith with the Greek Lamia, a Libyan queen deserted by Zeus, whom his wife Hera robbed of her children. She took revenge by robbing other women of theirs.
[5] The Lamiae, who seduced sleeping men, sucked their blood and ate their flesh, as Lilith and her fellow-demonesses did, were also known as 'Empusae,' 'forcers-in'; or 'Mormolyceia,' 'frightening wolves'; and described as 'Children of Hecate.' A Hellenistic relief shows a naked Lamia straddling a traveller asleep on his back. It is characteristic of civilizations where women are treated as chattels that they must adopt the recumbent posture during intercourse, which Lilith refused.
That Greek witches who worshipped Hecate favoured the superior posture, we know from Apuleius; and it occurs in early Sumerian representations of the sexual act, though not in the Hittite. Malinowski writes that Melanesian girls ridicule what they call 'the missionary position,'{5} which demands that they should lie passive and recumbent.
[6] 'Naamah,' 'pleasant,' is explained as meaning that 'the demoness sang pleasant songs to idols.' 'Zmargad' suggests 'smaragdos,' the semi-precious aquamarine; and may therefore be her submarine dwelling. A demon named Smaragos occurs in the Homeric Epigrams.
Naamah or Na'amah (Hebrew: נעמה, meaning pleasant) is a figure in Jewish mysticism. She is a succubus and fallen angel, and is generally regarded as an aspect or relation of Lilith.[citation needed] Naamah is said to have engaged, like Lilith, in intercourse with Adam.
The name Naamah appears in the Hebrew Bible as the daughter of Lamech, sister of Tubal-Cain and half-sister of Jubal. (Genesis 4:22) She may or may not also be the wife of Noah or his son Ham. (See: Wives aboard the Ark) The meaning of her name is argued among Hebrew scholars; it refers either to her virtuous nature ("pleasing" to God (YHVH)) or to a penchant for idolatry (singing "pleasant" songs to pagan idols). She is regarded as the inventor of divination.
Naamah appears in the Zohar as one of the four angels of prostitution, the mates of the demon Samael. Her fellow succubi are Lilith, Eisheth Zenunim, and Agrat Bat Mahlat. She is generally identified with the daughter of Lamech. According to Robert Graves, this Naamah is a counterpart to the one who appears in Genesis, and she is regarded, like her mortal counterpart, as a patron of divination and music. Naamah is often named as the mother of the demon Asmodai, the consort of the Lesser Lilith (Lilith and Samael's daughter). In Gnostic Kabbalah, she is called Nahemah.
- pps 65 - 69
{1} Apotropaic. "Intended to ward off evil."
{2} Reems. Thanks to Diccon Frankborn (dickney@access.digex.net) for the following:
The reem -- properly, re'em, pronounced roughly "ray-em" -- was the aurochs, the largest and most dangerous wild ox that ever lived.
{3} The owl is particularly sacred --if that's the right word-- to Lilith. A Sumerian relief, now popularly available in reproduction, shows her with owl's feet, standing on the backs of a pair of lions and holding the Sumerian version of the Ankh in each hand.
{4} Kites. A carrion-bird, related to the vulture.
{5} Now you know where the term comes from!
Love is the law, love under will.
7.31.08