Revelations of the Dark Mother

Late 1998: Lilith speaks up on her own behalf: her exile from the Garden of Eden for the crime of disobeying Adam, her wanderings in the desert and the ocean, the plantings of her own gardens, her mating with the angel Lucifer, and the murder of her children by Caine and his descendants.

Revelations of the Dark Mother is Lilith's story, a counterpoint to Caine, and the story of the Bahari, those denizens of the World of Darkness who follow her. the pictogram for Lilith, which is composed of the joined pictograms representing the moon and the sun [together the pictogram for Lucifer] and allies [six leaves, as the six offspring of Lilith and Lucifer.

While Caine's story in the Book of Nod was more or less familiar ground World of Darkness-wise, Lilith's story is startlingly (perhaps disturbingly) fresh. Probably the best way to describe it, in fact, is mature. Not just mature in terms of content (I wondered a couple of times why this wasn't presented as a Black Dog product), but mature in terms of product design. There's a more sophisticated feel to the product, as if the designers had more to work with and more room to move. They certainly had the rich tapestry of the World of Darkness to play with, a tapestry that has grown significantly over the years. They've given Lilith a unique voice, too -- the text of Revelations reflects a strong, independent, magickal woman where the text of the Book of Nod hints at a raving, power-mad lunatic.

Lilith. This female figure has remained a part of Middle and Near Eastern religious mythology for roughly 5,000 years. Though she has existed in myths for thousands of years, the question of Lilith?s true origins remains a mystery. The solution to the enigma surrounding the ?birth? of Lilith may suggest that her name at one point referenced a widely worshipped creator goddess. However, her divinity has been continually diminished by the myths of male-dominated cultures with more developed written languages. Lilith?s fall has been long and far: from creator goddess to destroyer goddess, from deity to human, and from human to succubus-like demon. The terrifying Lilith of modern religious perception may be little more than a diminished and tainted shadow of the original creator goddess worshipped by such prehistoric Mesopotamian groups as the lost civilizations of Al- Ubaid and Çatalhöyük. Embodying both womb and tomb, the Dark Mother is as lovely as she is terrifying. Lilith screams to us from the shadows, demanding we either open our eyes to her ... or have them ripped out.

Lilith: Queen of the Night, Mother of Demons, First Wife of Adam, and one of my own patron Goddesses. Unfortunately, I have found that modern authors often leave much to be desired on the subject of Lilith. Modern interpretations of Her nature are presented as historical, and the historical facts themselves are regularly misrepresented. Does She originate in ancient Sumeria, a maiden connected to the Temple of Inanna? Was She once a benevolent Mother Goddess Herself, later demonized by patriarchal religious leaders? Is it female strength She embodies, or has She persecuted women for centuries via birth complications and crib death? Was she actually deleted from the story of Eden? These are some of the questions, myths, facts, and errors that will be covered in this essay- hopefully laying to rest the many misconceptions that surround this ancient and powerful figure.

I do not feel that any God or Goddess can be divorced from Their sacred mythologies. As I have stated elsewhere, a mythology is the soul of the God(s) it depicts. For instance, you and I both know today that the Gods did not build the city of Babylon with Their own hands. Yet, if one were to call upon the great Marduk, He would gladly share with us his full memory of constructing the city. Likewise, we know that Adam and Eve did not exist as the "first humans." Yet, Lilith has full memory of Eden, the Fall, and every other event depicted in Genesis and the various Judeo-Christian legends. It is thus that Lilith, though She is not now the vile and disgusting archdemon envisioned by the early Judaic peoples, is nevertheless affected by these conceptions of Her. Her darker aspects, even the nastiest ones, are a part of Her regardless of modern attempts to "liberate" Her from unpleasantness. Lilith was, in fact, not originally a benevolent Goddess who was raped by the patriarchy.

The first myth I wish to dispel is that Lilith was originally found in the ancient land of Sumeria. Her roots do certainly extend that far, but Lilith Herself is not to be found among that massive pantheon of Gods and demons. In order to explain how both of these particulars can be true at once, we must begin with some basic lessons in ancient Sumerian language- specifically the development of one word in particular:

In Sumerian, the word "Lil" means "Air." Enlil, for instance, was the Sumerian Lord (En) of Air (Lil). The oldest known term which we might suggest relates to Lilith would be the plural word "Lili" (feminine "Lilitu"), which was simply the same in Sumeria as our modern generic word "spirits." In fact, it was quite common in ancient languages for the same word for "air" or "breath" to be used for "spirit," as the breath was thought to be the evidence of life; the spirit of the person. Disembodied spirits, therefore, were themselves composed of the same substance. The very word "spiritus" is one such example- Latin for "to breath." The Hebrew "ruach" is another identical example. This suggests, therefore, that the Sumerian Lilitu were either a specific type of demon, or were simply "spirits" in general.

Lilith is often described as having been a Sumerian succubus. And, in fact, there were such creatures in Sumer-Babylonia who surely had their part in the Hebrew conception of Lilith. These beings were known as the "Ardat Lili." "Ardatu" was a term that described a young woman of marrying age. Thus, the Ardat Lili were sexually active female spirits- the succubi. It was believed that these night demonesses were the cause erotic dreams, by which they robbed the male of semen and spiritual vitality. Of course, there is also a male version of this entity- the incubus- but we need not address this creature here.

It is also interesting to note that the Sumerian word for "wantonness" was "Lulu." The word for "luxuriousness" was "Lalu." Also, the very word for "evil" was "Limnu." This has an obvious relation to the word Lili (and Ardat Lili specifically); not just in the similarity of pronunciation and spelling, but also in the very definition of the words. Keep in mind that these ancient languages did not possess the specific definition of our modern words. A single word would indicate any one of a number of related concepts.

This does not exhaust the etymology of Lilith. However, the word-play does not continue until the Hebrew Captivity in Babylon (600 BCE), and I do not wish to jump ahead just yet. Still concerning Sumer, there are two instances that are generally seen as proof of Lilith's existence there.

One is a legend, contained in the Gilgamesh Epic, in which a female demon takes residence within the Goddess Inanna's sacred Tree of Life- thus effectively stunting the Tree's growth and production. This demoness is supposed to be Lilith Herself, whom the hero Gilgamesh finally forces out of the Tree and into the desert.

However, it turns out that there is no basis for assuming this creature is Lilith, or even an Ardat Lili, after all. Apparently, the misunderstanding arises from a mistake in translation made by the historian and scholar Samuel Kramer. In the Epic, the demoness in the Tree is described as "ki-sikil-lil-la-ke," which Kramer suggested meant "Lila's maiden, beloved, companion, or maid." (I assume this is also the origin of Merlin Stone's mistaken suggestion that Lilith was the "maiden" of Inanna.) While the word for air/spirit is obviously present, there is no indication of a Lilith- anymore than the presence of the word "ki" (Earth) indicates the Earth Goddess Ki. Perhaps Kramer was concentrating on the two syllables "lil-la."

The second instance is the famous Sumerian plaque which depicts a woman with owl talons and wings, standing upon two lions, with two owls flanking her on either side. It has been assumed that this figure is Lilith specifically because of the above (mis)translation by Kramer (see bibliography) More specifically, the assumption was made first, and Kramer's work was provided as proof of Lilith's existence in ancient Sumeria. Of course, as the demoness of the Tree is not Lilith, than surely neither is the woman depicted in the sculpture.

Jumping ahead just a bit to a related point: In the Torah, there is said to be one reference to Lilith- Isaiah 34:14. The verse supposedly speaks of a screech owl, and this is said to indicate Lilith by way of the above-mentioned plaque (and the owls depicted thereon). This instance is even used to argue that Lilith's name is derived from the Hebrew term for "to screech." However, this is probably not the case. Instead, the Biblical reference seems to come directly from the term "Lilitu." It may very well be a direct reference to Lilith, however the spelling must be noted: In the Biblical passage the word is L I L I Th, while the name of Lilith is properly spelled "L I L O Th" (which is actually a plural, and will be covered later).

However, these are not the only indications of Her mistaken identity. For instance, the female on the Sumerian plaque holds not one, but two sets of Ring and Rod- the Sumer-Babylonian signs of authority. Inanna Herself is shown with these instruments when She moves to conquer the Underworld. Also, note the presence of Lions, which are signs of power and authority, as well as fertility. These also happen to be symbols associated with Inanna. It is most unlikely that the lowly demon driven away by Gilgamesh would be depicted among these holy symbols. Of course, others may argue that owls are a principal motif in the image as well- and owls were animals of bad omen and evil in Sumer-Babylonia. Thus, the plaque is surely a mystery, but in any case there is no hard evidence to support its identity as Lilith. One begins to wonder if this is not Inanna Herself as associated with the Underworld...

Before I go on, I wish to insert some modern insight on this subject. This plaque has been accepted as Lilith for quite a while now. And, surely this will not cease for quite some time (sadly, occultists are not always the first to research history from a scholarly perspective). Even I can not glance at this image without Lilith entering my mind, and I even interpret part of Her mythos by way of this owl-taloned figure. The modern association of Lilith with this image has given it its own validity (the same must also be said of the relation of Lilith with "to screech"), and therefore does not need to be cast aside for practical purposes. However, the historical facts should at least be understood and noted.

And so Lilith is not derived from the above two instances (the plaque or the Epic of Gilgamesh) after all. Instead, She most likely traces her roots strictly to the Lilitu and Ardat Lili- borrowed by the Hebrews from the Babylonians during the captivity in about 600 BCE. However, it must be kept in mind that Ardat Lili simply meant succubus, without indicating any specific being. This, then, brings me to another often overlooked point: the name Lilith itself is, in fact, an improper transliteration of the Hebrew. The Hebrew lettering is Lamed (L), Yod (I), Lamed (L), Vav (O), Tau (Th). The "-ith" should be spelled "-oth," which is the Hebrew feminine plural suffix. It may be that the earliest Hebrew references were not to "Lilith," but to "the liloth" (the spirits)- a curious cross of a Sumer-Babylonian word with a Hebrew suffix. More specifically, it referred to female spirits, and thus was probably little more than the Hebrew version of the Sumerian term Lilitu.

Yet, Lilith may have finally become a proper noun during or right after the Captivity. This is possibly indicated in the numerous Hebrew inscriptions, painted upon bowls, dated to around that time. These inscriptions picture a particularly nasty looking demoness by the name of Lilith, and the words are for protection against Her. However, I have personally found no direct evidence to support whether these bowls referred directly to one demoness or to a group of demonesses. The etymology may suggest the latter, while the existence of the singular Lilith in Hebrew mythos may suggest the former.

Luckily, we do appear to have a clue as to how "The Liloth" finally became "Lilith." This tentative answer lies in the Babylonian demoness Lamashtu. This horrible creature was, among other things, held responsible for "stealing babies from their mothers." More than likely, this indicates crib-death and perhaps still-birth- as the general concept of a demon in Babylon was more often than not an explanation for medical problems and sickness. As we know, crib death was shockingly common in the ancient world, and thus Lamashtu was one of the major, and most feared, demonic forces. She was, perhaps, a large enough cultural influence to be adopted by other peoples who had intimate contact with Babylon. People such as the Hebrews, who adopted quite a few major concepts from the Babylonian religion. Thus was Lilith's birth- a demoness who attacked men in the night, and women and babies during and after child-birth.

And, with this, the beginning is finished- while the story is just begun. Lilith appears to have lived on in oral tradition until the Talmudic times, where the popular mythos of Lilith is first presented in response to a contradiction in the Torah. The work in question is a tenth-century folktale called "The Alphabet of Ben Sira," where Lilith is presented as the first wife of Adam.