Contemporary neo pagan ideas of Lilith tend to see in her a sort of spirit
of joyous ecstasy and female sexual potency. In the same vein there are also
attempts of merging Lilith with Belili and Baalat given the motive of both names referring to a ‘beautiful maiden’.
In fact these epitaphs refer back on Astarte-Ishtar
as the Queen of these restless and disturbing spirits.
Lilith
herself is a truly dangerous spirit, the Queen of lilins – she, herself the ecliptic daughter of Ishtar. Lilith is a volatile venusian potency
balanced in itself, but prone to sow disharmony and frustration. She is a witch-protector,
but is also a mother who feeds upon her own. Her mystery speaks of the
beginning before beginnings and her grace is fear and tears. Her kindness is
the black holes of exploding stars...
If we look at the Ugarit texts to our
disposal, like Maqlû and of course the story of Gilgamesh it will appear that Astarte-Ishtar is in truth the Queen of
the ‘beautiful maidens’ –the hostile as well as the benevolent ones – as they
complete her totality.
Lilith,
like Astarte-Ishtar possesses wings. The presence of wings suggests several matters; the
relation with the winds being one – the connection with the Netherworld being
another. The latter motive is found in the poem of Ishtar’s decent to the Netherworld
where we read that the inhabitants are ‘clothed like birds, with wings for
garments’. There is a agility to move between states and realms by spirits and divinities
possessing wings.
Demonesses in general possess wings and in this
case the winds take prime importance. In Mesopotamia the winds and their spirits
were of great importance. The winds brought omens, blessings, demons – and illness.
A cold northern wind in the night would be judged as inauspicious as the cool eastern
breeze during the day would be seen as a welcoming spirit host blowing over the
land. Maqlû speaks of Ardat-lili as an
‘ice woman’ and Lilith being an ice
cold wind from the north. We find here the lilin
spirits defined by ice, coldness and nocturnal winds. We all have witnessed
cold winds blowing in the night that bends the branches on trees and generate a
certain atmosphere of threat and danger. This is the winds from the wings of Lilith as she searches a window or door
welcoming her.
Some states that Lilith gave birth to the moon – but this is incorrect, the lilin’s are spirits that carry the winds
of nocturnal Venus. They thrive in the light of the moon – the divine eye that
watches over them – but the idea that Lilith
is a moon goddess is most likely incorrect even if the beautiful maidens drench
themselves in the silvery waters of the moon...
She is the beautiful maiden that dominates
lions, like Astarte-Ishtar - this
theme carry deep meaning – and one of them being a spirit that dominates the
powers of the royal crown. We might understand this to take place in Astarte-Ishtar being the powers in the
royal crown and the lilin being the
forces that supports – and in case of rebellion, attacks. This means that the
harmful effects of lilin in our life are always a consequence of welcoming
these spirits in by allowing ‘the lion to go wild’...
In the Ugarit texts to our disposal we find the
word KI-SIKIL-LIL-LA, being mentioned as a call for the ‘beautiful maiden'. Actually
this is a word of power replicating the magical nature in the screech of owls. We
see this charm or parts (Kilili) of
it being used in reference to the spirit Orina
lili who is said to be the ‘queen at the window’, used both to appease this
spirit and drive it away. A sick person
seeing an owl at its window can be sure that he is haunted by lilins and can use the window for
reciting counter conjurations to expel the spirits of disease. The illness
implied would further support the connection with the Netherworld and the realm
of Death.
It is not uncommon to see Lilith being referred to as a protective
goddess, a joyous ecstatic force. Concerning Lilith’s joyous nature let us have a look at the Ugarit text
speaking of the variety of demonesses and hostile influences and see how she is
perceived:
3. In all evil, your formula is life, 0h Marduk...
6. In the street, they (the demons) are produced by the Earth...
7. ... everything evil, every baneful thing,
8. every mortal thing,... to the Netherworld return
10. All evil, all sickness, which in your flesh or your muscles is
found,
11. that the Enchanter of the gods so that the Sage asalluhi, from
your body he could make them...
16. Many are his maladies: I do not know all their names. They are
conjured...
20. Ea has created them, the Earth has made them grow great...
22. the evil-redness, the evil-yellow, the ahhazu,
23. ... the fever, almu and allamu, the migraine and the headache
26. the evil alu...
27. the sassatu, the astu,
28. the labasu and the ahhazu, the hayattu, the
ardat-lili
29. and the lilitu, the catarrh and the influenza
As we see, Lilith
is mentioned together with a host of spirits that are hostile to human well
being, further down we also find spirits like Namtar, epidemics and Unna,
fever, being mentioned as demonic winds.
Spirits like Lilith,
Lamasthu, Agrat and Mahlat are
all seen as spirits that are ‘going around the house’ and try to enter a household
and cause premature death of males and infants – or a general wreaking of soul
and spirit – especially of males. We are speaking of the phenomena we know as
succubi.
Speaking of Lilith
and Ardat-lili they are in our texts
referred to by the same word, namely the Ishtar epitaph, Kilili – and seen as an owl sitting at the window. It is said that
these owls sitting at the window provokes maidens to leave the bedchamber so
they can feed upon the male. These spirits are aggressive virgins as recounted
in one text translated by Landsberger in 1968:
Maid who (un)like other women no man impregnated,
Maid, who (un)like other women no man deflorated,
Maid, who in the lap of a husband had not had her sexuality
touched,
Maid, who in the lap of the husband did not remove her
clothes,
Maid, whose pin was never loosened by a handsome man,
Maid in whose breasts was never (any) milk.
As we see, she is a sexual predator –
translated into the power of sexual frustration. It is interesting to note that
Astarte-Ishtar by sharing the word Kilili with the Lilù spirits and Lilith reveals
a connection met in the nocturnal birds. In Maqlû 3 we also find the Ištaritu (votary
of Ishtar) among the persons reputed
to master the arts of sorcery and witchcraft.
It is here, where Astarte-Ishtar ad Lilith
flows into One we find the sexual potency in full splendour. In this they are
the erotic spark that enters dreams and eclipse the Sun - the succubi that
seduces under a black moon and the divinity that make fertile land and flesh.
On her own Lilith is the frenzy of sexual frustration, the cold embers of dead
stars and the memory of blood on fire brought in cold windy nights where the
tree branches scrapes at the windowpane seducing you to open up...