Now Lilith was the first wife of Adam, well before the creation of Eve. She had been created along with him to be his helper, as the Torah states "Male and Female He created them." Now Lilith was the first wife of Adam, well before the creation of Eve. She had been created along with him to be his helper, as the Torah states "Male and Female He created them."
However, Lilith was not so suited as a companion for Adam. There was little on which they could agree. In his attempt to mate with Lilith, Adam demanded missionary position. However, Lilith refused. "We were created equal, and thus we shall make love in equal positions."
Adam replied that he, being the Image of the Elohim, would not stoop to such a level as to be equal to Lilith, who was simply one of the many beasts of the field. She was created as his helper, and that is how she would remain.
Lilith, however, was far more than Adam had imagined. She went straight away to Yahweh, and used her prowess of seduction upon Him. Yahweh, known for his soft heart toward women, was finally lulled into revealing His sacred Name unto her. Thereupon Lilith pronounced the Divine Name, and flew away from the Garden and Adam forever.
She took residence within a cave upon the shores of the Red Sea, where to this day she finds Her shelter Within. She accepted the demons of the world as her lovers, and spawned many thousands of demon children in only a short time. It is thus that the world became populated with demons, and how Lilith came to be called the Mother of Demons--wife of Asmodeus, the King of Demons. In this aspect, she was called the Younger Lilith.
Adam, meanwhile, found that he regretted wishing Lilith away. He went to Yahweh and stated his case for the return of Lilith. Yahweh agreed that a creature of Eden should not so easily depart that realm, and dispatched three Enforcer Angels to retrieve her.
These three, Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangeloph, soon found Lilith within her cave, and demanded her return unto Adam by order of Yahweh. If she refused, they informed her, they would slay one hundred of her demon children each day until she decided to return.
Lilith exclaimed that even this fate was better than returning to Eden and submission to Adam. As the Enforcers carried out their threat, Lilith also made a terrible proclamation. In return for the pain delivered upon her, she would slay the children of Adam. She swore to attack children, and even their mothers, during child-birth. She also swore that all newborns were in danger of her wrath--baby girls for twenty days after birth, and boys for eight. Not only this, but she vowed also to attack men in their sleep. She would steal their semen to give birth to more demon children, which would replace those slain each day.
However, even Lilith was not without feeling. She also made one other promise: wherever she saw displayed the names of the three Angels who opposed her, no one in that place would be in danger from her actions.
Adam literally translates as "Mankind." He is all of us--male and female, young and old. He is, basically, civilization. Adam is the Image of the Divine; he, and all physical things, are the final result of Divine Manifestation. On the Qabalistic Tree of Life, Adam is Malkuth (Kingdom), the physical world. In Qabalistic psychology, Malkuth refers to the conscious mind. Thus, Adam is our consciousness. He is our egos, our waking selves. Adam is everything about us that imposes "proper behavior" within society.
Lilith, created along with him, is the Shadow Self. She is our subconscious, that part of us that is most animal like, defiant, uncivilized, passionate, and basically natural. She is sex. She is everything that our (screwed-up) society frowns upon; a society that has been taught for thousands of years to suppress everything within us that is most natural and enjoyable. She is just as described by the Religious interpretation--she is Babylon.
Eve is also our subconscious. However, she is that small part of our inner-selves that our conscious-selves have gotten full control over. She has no free-will of her own--being wholly a part of Adam. She is that part of ourselves that, as a civilized people, we will show to others. Eve is what has been programmed into us as "acceptable." She is the polar opposite of Lilith. She and Lilith together form the whole of the inner self.
(Let me point out that this interpretation of Adam and Eve/Lilith as the conscious and subconscious is a rather old one. The Lovers Card of the Tarot uses this symbolism, with the addition of an Angel who represents the Higher Self.)
Samael is the Archangel of Gevurah (Severity) upon the Tree of Life. He is the embodiment of Divine Severity. He is the Prince of the Seraphim--those Fiery Serpents who, at one point, Yahweh sent to punish the Israelites (see the Exodus). Samael is hardship.
Lilith's demon spawn are our own personal demons. They are neurosis and harmful criminal behavior. They are the imbalances in the mind that can lead to our destruction.
And these are the characters of the Lilith Mythos. The above interpretations of them must be held in mind at all times through the following. If so, certain aspects of the Myth begin to make a certain kind of modern sense.
For instance, Adam's insistence that he mate with Lilith in the missionary position becomes the civilized mind's attempt to reign in and suppress the animal within--to be superior to it. Lilith's flight from Eden, and to the Cave, is the banishment of our natural animal instincts to the dark recesses of our minds. Even when Adam wishes She would come back, it is too late and the damage has been done.
What damage is this? Lilith spawned thousands of demon children. These demons are born within the locked away and forgotten parts of our minds. Even though we attempt, as the Angelic Enforcers, to hunt down and slay as many of them as we can, the tide is too great to be turned; we have suppressed that which can not be suppressed. Lilith, in Her darkness, has grown the Owl Talons. By nature a beautiful creature--as our natural selves are in fact beautiful--Lilith now has the means and motive to rip us to tiny shreds. She attacks us while we sleep; and with our semen--the facts of our very daily lives--she spawns more and more demons. Before she is finished, she will slither her way back into our minds--as the Serpent in the Garden. Our conscious selves will not even see it coming; while we are occupied with our day to day foolishness, Lilith will be sweet-talking Eve into taking the fatal bite. She will attack us below the surface, in that part of ourselves we have long-since thought conquered. One moment we suddenly find ourselves with break-downs, outbursts, causing harm to others, and social and personal ruin. We have experienced the Fall from Grace.
This also applies on a social level, not simply within the mind of the individual. When viewing the myth from the wider angle, we see where Samael comes into play. What happens when the things that are natural and beautiful are suddenly labeled as wrong? They then begin to attract the dregs of society. Once there were Goddess Temples, and Priestesses adept at Sex Magick. Now, we have prostitution, strip-clubs, and brothels which are seed-beds of abuse, harmful drugs, and disease. The people who frequent these places are usually dirty and immature people with little to no social value. Individuality and Self expression is now gang activity, and social outcasts. Children who display this individuality spend their time in the principal's office or the in the corner. They are labeled as bad kids, and so bad kids they believe they are.
This is where the Rabbinical view of Lilith comes into play. The sleazy clubs, the gangs, the criminal behavior are all very seductive on the outside. The glamorous people are the Rebels who break laws and harm people. Bonnie and Clyde, Billy the Kid, Al Capone--these are our heroes. Yet, if we allow Lilith to seduce us with Her beauty, she will finally show us the ugliness that lies under her dressing. That is, when she rips into us with her Talons. The gangster is shot in a drive-by, and thus ends his glory. The prostitute has her throat cut, or dies of an overdose. And the man who frequents the brothel dies of AIDS, or perhaps as a lonely old man because a real relationship was ever beyond him.
This is the Marriage of Lilith to Samael. He is Lilith's Talons. He is the hairy male lower half of her body. These things which are so beautiful and natural actually BECOME dirty and harmful. This, in turn, fuels the view that these things are harmful in and of themselves. Society literally eats itself from the inside out--and this is the Marriage of Lilith to God. As in the Qabalistic interpretation, the flow of Divinity has been tainted; Samael/Lilith is in control, and what is good has twisted into evil. Lilith should be our ally, and yet we are pitted in combat against her. If Adam can not be forced to accept his Lilith, then Lilith will destroy him. But, those in control in society maintain that control through the suppression of Lilith--our defiance and freewill--and they would sooner see us destroyed than to lose that control.
And here enters yet another character in the Mythos: Cain. It is little known that Cain was born--not of Adam and Eve--but of Eve and the Serpent during the Temptation. Thus, Cain is actually the child of the interaction between Eve and Lilith/Samael. The clashing of the acceptable and non-acceptable. In short, Cain--full of hate, jealousy, and anger which finally explodes into murder--is the very corrupt society thus far described. His brother Abel, who was born of Adam and Eve, is the world that we wish could exist. Abel is a hope that will forever be slain by Cain.
Thank the Gods that it is not really quite as bad as all of that. There are respectable brothels and strip-clubs. There are those who display self-expression in childhood who, somehow through all of the abuse, still grow up to become respected artists of all kinds. There are those who understand the sacredness of sex. In short, there are those few who have refused to allow Samael to be wed to Lilith. Instead, they have invited Lilith to return to the Garden--promising Her that She can play mistress just as much as he plays master. They have attempted to join Lilith and Eve together, and to return them both to their rightful place within Adam. They strive to become Adam Kadmon--that Supernal Man(kind) who is greater even than the Angels.
Of course, few, if any, of us have attained that success. However, perhaps there is hope. Perhaps there will even return a day when a couple could make love on the street and no one bat an eye. Perhaps a day when a person could be individual and even a little rebellious without turning to crime to do so. Of course, no Utopia will ever exist in full. However, just as the Medieval Qabalist strove to unite God and His Shekinah, so too should we strive to unite Eve and Lilith, and both of them with Adam within ourselves. Only then will we have the power to rebuild the inner Temple, and aid the Shekinah's return to Adonai. Only then does Abel have a chance at survival.
This is my view of Lilith. She is the Mother of the Night, and all the dark beauty that lies within it. Lilith is the Hidden Mysteries which society would rather I not know. Lilith is my Mother, and I am one of Her demons--who wishes to take part in the dismantling of Adam's misguided way of thinking and acting. I am Adam, and I have rejected my foolish concepts of superiority over Lilith.
Lilith has Her dark side, of course. If I let Her rule over me, then She would drain my vitality as the Succubus that She is. She would rule me to the point of being little more than a thoughtless animal, useless to myself or anyone else. Instead, I accept Lilith in equality. Just as the Wiccan God is to the Goddess, I am both Her son and Her lover.
