One story is that God created Adam and Lilith as twins joined together at the back.-http://pantheon.org/articles/l/lilith.html
Lilith by Alan G. Hefner A female demon of the night who supposedly flies around searching for newborn children either to kidnap or strangle them. Also, she sleeps with men to seduce them into propagating demon sons. Legends told about Lilith are ancient. The rabbinical myths of Lilith being Adam's first wife seem to relate to the Sumero-Babylonian Goddess Belit-ili, or Belili. To the Canaanites, Lilith was Baalat, the "Divine Lady." On a tablet from Ur, ca. 2000 BCE, she was addressed as Lillake. One story is that God created Adam and Lilith as twins joined together at the back. She demanded equality with Adam, failing to achieve it, she left him in anger. This is sometimes accompanied by a Muslim legend that after leaving Adam Lilith slept with Satan, thus creating the demonic Djinn. In another version of the myth of Lilith, she was Adam's first wife before Eve. Adam married her because he became tired of coupling with animals, a common Middle-Eastern herdsmen practice, though the Old Testament declared it a sin (Deuteronomy 27:21). Adam tried to make Lilith lie beneath him during sexual intercourse. Lilith would not meet this demand of male dominance. She cursed Adam and hurried to her home by the Red Sea. Adam complained to God who then sent three angels, Sanvi, Sansanvi and Semangelaf, to bring Lilith back to Eden. Lilith rebuffed the angels by cursing them. While by the Red Sea Lilith became a lover to demons and producing 100 babies a day. The angels said that God would take these demon children away from her unless she returned to Adam. When she did not return, she was punished accordingly. And, God also gave Adam the docile Eve. According to some Lilith's fecundity and sexual preferences showed she was a Great Mother of settled agricultural tribes, who resisted the invasions of the nomadic herdsmen, represented by Adam. It is felt the early Hebrews disliked the Great Mother who drank the blood of Abel, the herdsman, after being slain by the elder god of agriculture and smithcraft, Cain (Genesis 4:11). Lilith's Red Sea is but another version of Kali Ma's Ocean of Blood, which gave birth to all things but needed periodic sacrificial replenishment. Speculation is that perhaps there was a connection between Lilith and the Etruscan divinity Lenith, who possessed no face and waited at the gate of the underworld along with Eita and Persipnei (Hecate and Persephone) to receive the souls of the dead. The underworld gate was a yoni, and also a lily, which had "no face." Admission into the underworld was frequently mythologized as a sexual union. (see Tantrism) The lily or lilu (lotus) was the Great Mother's flower-yoni, whose title formed Lilith's name. Even though the story of Lilith disappeared from the canonical Bible, her daughters the lilim haunted men for over a thousand years. It was well into that Middle Ages that Jews still manufactured amulets to keep away the lilim. Supposedly they were lusty she-demons who copulated with men in all their dreams, causing nocturnal emissions. The Greeks adopted the belief of the lilim, calling them Lamiae, Empusae (Forcers-In), or Daughters of Hecate. Likewise the Christians adopted the belief, calling them harlots of hell, or succubi, the counterpart of the incubi. Celebrant monks attempted to fend them off by sleeping with their hands over their genitals, clutching a crucifix. Even though most of the Lilith legend is derived from Jewish folklore, descriptions of the Lilith demon appear in Iranian, Babylonian, Mexican, Greek, Arab, English, German, Oriental and Native American legends. Also, she sometimes has been associated with legendary and mythological characters such as the Queen of Sheba and Helen of Troy. In medieval Europe she was proclaimed to be the wife, concubine or grandmother of Satan. Men who experienced nocturnal emissions during their sleep believed they had been seduced by Lilith and said certain incantations to prevent the offspring from becoming demons. It was thought each time a pious Christian had a wet dream, Lilith laughed. It was believed that Lilith was assisted in her bloodthirsty nocturnal quests by succubi, who gathered with her near the "mountains of darkness" to frolic with her demon lover Samael, whole name means "poison of God" (sam-el). The Zohar, the principal work of the Kabbalah, describes Lilith's powers at their height during the waning of the moon. According to legend Lilith's attraction for children comes from the belief that God took her demon children from her when she did not return to Adam. It was believed that she launched a reign of terror against women in childbirth and newborn infants, especially boys. However, it also was believed that the three angels who were sent to fetch her by the Red Sea forced her to swear that whenever she saw their names or images on amulets that she would leave the infants and mothers alone. These beliefs continued for centuries. As late as the 18th century, it was a common practice in many cultures to protect new mothers and their infants with amulets against Lilith. Males were most vulnerable during the first week of life, girls during the first three weeks. Sometimes a magic circle was drawn around the lying-in-bed, with a charm inscribed with the names of the three angels, Adam and Eve and the words "barring Lilith" or "protect this newborn child from all harm." Frequently amulets were place in the four corners and throughout the bedchamber. If a child laughed while sleeping, it was taken as a sign that Lilith was present. Tapping the child on the nose, it was believed, made her go away.
Lilith - Demons, Demonology, and Evil in Judaism and Christianity Lilith is thought be the demon of waste places who originally lived in the garden of the Sumerian goddess, Innana, queen of heaven. http://www.deliriumsrealm.com/delirium/articleview.asp?Post=177
Lilith (Part 1) posted by Krista | 3/30/2003 10:34:49 PM | Permalink | Stumble It! Sumerian Lilith Lilith on Persian Incantation Bowls Lilith in the Hebrew Bible Sammael and Lilith: Counterparts to Adam and Eve Lilith as Adam's First Wife Lilith's Refusal to Return to Adam Lilith as Wife of Sammael
Welcome to welcome. Billions and billions of stars and earths in the sky’s, We should take one of the earth from the sky with our prayer and love make it’s heavens also, We are the one of the tree, Exchange our fruits each other, We will reach in the Heaven or Heaven will reach our near, are you ready? Let start, Love God and love each other.
Lilith (Part 1) posted by Krista | 3/30/2003 10:34:49 PM | Permalink | Stumble It!
Sumerian Lilith
Lilith on Persian Incantation Bowls
Lilith in the Hebrew Bible
Sammael and Lilith: Counterparts to Adam and Eve
Lilith as Adam's First Wife Lilith's Refusal to Return to Adam
Lilith as Wife of Sammael
http://www.khorsheed.com/pages/e-502-h-adam.html
Adam's Other Wife
According to Hebrew myth, Eve was not Adam's first wife. That distinction, such as it was, belonged to one by the name of Lilith. Everybody agrees that Adam and Lilith did not get along, mainly because of sex. The tale goes that when Adam wanted to lie with her, Lilith took offense at the prone position he demanded. "Why must I lie beneath you?" she asked. "I am your equal."
Adam, having none of it, tried to force his will upon her. Outraged, Lilith invoked the name of God, rose into the air and disappeared.
Adam whined to God that his helpmate had left him. God, gamely hiding the fact that Adam was beginning to get on his nerves, dispatched three angels to find Lilith and bring her back. As some storytellers have it, she refused, choosing instead a life of lecherous pleasure by the Red Sea, where she bore demon children at the rate of 100 a day. As this version of the myth would have it, God was angered by her refusal to return to Adam and punished her by making 100 of her children die daily.
Others claim that Lilith became a queen, and God let her live in peace. She is simply the victim of bad press concocted by misogynistic Greek men who took offense at her uppity refusal to submit to Adam and mistranslated the creation story from its original language.
Lilith doesn't appear in Genesis, and the only biblical reference to this mystery woman is a single line in Isaiah that mentions her as a female demon. A Canaanite demon called Lilitu, who tormented men, may have inspired the Hebrew Lilith. This demon has been traced back even further to Babylonian mythology.
The Lilith demon was later depicted as a slayer of infants and women in pregnancy and childbirth. She came out at night and drank human blood. Sound familiar? Lilith may have been the first vampire, predating Count Dracula by thousands of years. Regardless, Lilith's departure left Adam spouseless and in need of a companion. So God created Eve. But Adam's relationship with Eve proved to have its own problems, especially after the snake convinced her to take an apple from the Tree of Knowledge, and Adam took a bite.
And thus we all lived ever after.
http://www.childrenofmary2001.com/
... AND FALL OF MAN ...''
http://www.childrenofmary2001.com/new_page_4.htm
http://sallymorten.blogspot.com/2007/10/alll-bit-adam-and-eve.html
All a bit Adam and Eve.
http://www.thebiblerevival.com
http://www.geocities.com/Fanglady/Lilith.html
Lilith
<CENTER> <H3><B>The Identity of Lilith </B></CENTER></H3> <P><B>Early theologians had a real problem with the status of women in regard to Genesis. Here is this supposedly weak creature twisting Man around her finger and bringing death on the entire race. A "logical" answer presented itself in splitting woman into the Madonna/whore dichotomy. There was even a Biblical basis for Lilith. Genesis 1:27 reads, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Set opposite Genesis 2, in which Adam is created first and Eve is an afterthought to appease his loneliness, many see this as evidence that Adam had two wives. <P>Lilith is this first wife. Since she was made of the earth, like Adam, she became proud and refused to lie beneath him during intercourse. This violated the command to be fruitful and multiply, since she was not being impregnated. Some traditions hold that she was impregnated and bore demons from him. The evidence for this is the statement in Genesis 5:3 "Adam begat a son in his image," implying there had been sons not in his image. He pushed the issue of her submission, and she uttered the Holy Name of God and flew away. <P>Adam complained to God and he sent three angels to reason with her. They found her coupling with fallen angels near the Red Sea and bearing more demonic children. She refused to return but promised to spare Adam's children if the names of the angels: Sanvi, Sansanvi and Semangelaf were written near them. Even today, some parents will charcoal a magic circle with the words "Adam and Eve barring Lilith" on the wall near their baby, and write the names of the angels on the door. <P>Eve was created out of Adam as her replacement. Some say God let Adam try making the next one, but the creation was so horrible God destroyed it before even giving it life. An amusing Victorian story claims a dog ran off with Adam's rib and devoured it before God found him, so Eve was made using one of the dog's ribs. <P>Lilith did not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and hence is immortal. She was rewarded for service by Asmodeus, the demon of lechery, luxuriousness and evil revenge. She now rules one of the levels of Hell in the company of Namah, Machlath, and Hurmizah. Her power is over newborn children and women in childbirth. She may take boys up to the eighth day and girls up to the twentieth. She is also the mother of the Lilim or Lilot, the Djinn, and the succubui and incubi. <P>Other Biblical references: Isaiah 34:14 "night hag" (NIV translates it as "Desert creatures" and "night creatures." and Psalm 91 "terror by night" <P> <CENTER> <H3><B>Connection With Vampires</B></CENTER></H3> <P>Lilith is the prototype of the succubus. She comes to men as they dream and drains their blood. This aspect features as prominantly in the legends as her taking of children. It is her revenge on Adam that she drains his sons as they sleep, always taking the top. <P> <CENTER> <H3><B>Current Nonconformist Views of Lilith </B></CENTER></H3> <P>From _The Chatto Book of Dissent_, edited by Michael Rosen and David Widgery.<BR>It's published by Chatto & Windus Ltd, London, 1991. <P><I>Lilith</I> <BR>God formed Lilith the first woman just as He had formed Adam except that He used filth and impure sediment instead of dust or earth. Adam and Lilith never found peace together. She disagreed with him in many matters, and refused to lie beneath him in sexual intercourse, basing her claim for equality on the fact that each had been created from earth. When Lilith saw that Adam would overpower her, she uttered the ineffable name of God and flew up into the air of the world. Eventually she dwelt in a cave in the desert on the shores of the Red Sea. There she engaged in unbridled promiscuity, consorted with lascivious demons, and gave birth to hundreds of *Lilim* or demonic babies, daily... <P>It is said that soon after Lilith left Adam he stood in prayer before his creator and said: "God of the World, the woman that you gave me has run away from me." Immediately God, the Holy One, dispatched the three angels, Sanvai, Sansanvai, and Semangelof to bring her back. They caught up with her in the desert near the Red Sea. "Return to Adam without delay," the angels said, "or we will drown you!" Lilith asked: "How can I return to Adam and be his woman, after my stay beside the Red Sea?" "It would 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? Nevertheless," she said, "I swear to you in the name of God, El, who is living and exists, that if ever I see your three names on likenesses displayed in an amulet above a newborn child, I promise to spare it." To this day they agreed; however, God punished Lilith by making one hundred of her demon children perish daily, and if Lilith could not destroy a human infant, because of the angelic amulet, she would spitefully turn against her own. <P> <CENTER> <H3><B>From The <I>Alpha Bet Sira</I>, 9th Century</B></CENTER></H3> <P>This passage is excerpted from the essay "The Coming of Lilith: Toward a Feminist Theology" by Judith Plaskow. I found it in _Womanspirit_Rising_-_A_ _Feminist_Reader_in Religion_ ed. by Carol Christ and Judith Plaskow <P>In the beginning, the Lord God formed Adam and Lilith from the dust of the ground and breathed into their nostrils the breath of life. Created from the same source, both having been formed from the ground, they were equal in all ways. Adam, being a man, didn't like this situation, and he looked for ways to change it. He said, "I'll have my figs now, Lilith," ordering her to wait on him, and he tried to leave to her the daily tasks of life in the garden. But Lilith wasn't one to take any nonsense; she picked herself up, uttered God's holy name, and flew away. "Well now, Lord," complained Adam, "that uppity woman you sent me has gone and deserted me." The Lord, inclined to be sympathetic, sent his messengers after Lilith, telling her to shape up and return to Adam or face dire punishment. She, however, preferring anything to living with Adam, decided to stay where she was. And so God, after more careful consideration this time, caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and out of one of his ribs created for him a second companion, Eve. For a time, Eve and Adam had a good thing going. Adam was happy now, and Eve, though she occasionally sensed capacities within herself that remained undeveloped, was basically satisfied with the role of Adam's wife and helper. The only thing that really disturbed her was the excluding closeness of the relationship between Adam and God. Adam and God just seemed to have more in common, both being men, and Adam came to identify with God more and more. After a while, that made God a bit uncomfortable too, and he started going over in his mind whether he may not have made a mistake letting Adam talk him into banishing Lilith and creating Eve, seeing the power that gave Adam. Meanwhile Lilith, all alone, attempted from time to time to rejoin the human community in the garden. After her first fruitless attempt to breach its walls, Adam worked hard to build them stronger, even getting Eve to help him. He told her fearsome stories of the demon Lilith who threatens women in childbirth and steals children from their cradles in the middle of the night. The second time Lilith came, she stormed the garden's main gate and a great battle ensued between her and Adam in which she was finally defeated. This time, however, before Lilith got away, Eve got a glimpse of her and saw she was a woman like herself. After this encounter, seeds of curiosity and doubt began to grow in Eve's mind. Was Lilith indeed just another woman? Adam had said she was a demon. Another woman! The very idea attracted Eve. She had never seen another creature like herself before. And how beautiful and strong Lilith looked! How bravely she had fought! Slowly, slowly, Eve began to think about the limits of her own life within the garden. One day, after many months of strange and disturbing thoughts, Eve, wandering around the edge of the garden, noticed a young apple tree she and Adam had planted, and saw that one of its branches stretched over the top of the garden wall. Spontaneously, she tried to climb it, and struggling to the top, swung herself over the wall. She did not wander long on the other side before she met the one she had come to find, for Lilith was waiting. At first sight of her, Eve remembered the tales of Adam and was frightened, but Lilith understood and greeted her kindly. "Who are you?" they asked each other, "What is your story?" And they sat and spoke together, of the past and then of the future. They talked for many hours, not once, but many times. They taught each other many things, and told each other stories, and laughed together, and cried, over and over, till the bond of sisterhood grew between them. Meanwhile, back in the garden, Adam was puzzled by Eve's comings and goings, and disturbed by what he sensed to be her new attitude toward him. He talked to God about it, and God, having his own problems with Adam and a somewhat broader perspective, was able to help out a little - but He was confused, too. Something had failed to go according to plan. As in the days of Abraham, He needed counsel from His children. "I am who I am," thought God, "but I must become who I will become." And God and Adam were expectant and afraid the day Eve and Lilith returned to the garden bursting with possibilies, ready to build it together.</P></B>