Women’s History Month - Lilith

When celebrating women in history, Lilith is always the first woman I think about.  Before I get started, let me be clear, Lilith may be real, she may also be mythical (and by that I mean fictional).

Lilith is important to me, because she stands as part of a history and religious education that I never formally learnt.  Yes, I was told about Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel and the other well known stories from the Bible.  But in my Sunday School, no-one ever mentioned Lilith.  I feel cross about this.  I should have been told about Lilith and I should have known about her.

It was only a few years ago whilst reading ‘Goddess – 50 Goddeses, Spirits, Saints and Other Female Figures Who have Shaped Belief’ that I heard of her existence (or not, as the case may be).  Why had it taken over 50 years of my life to know about this Goddess? For in my heart, she is a Goddess.

Here is the kernel of Lilith’s story.  Lilith was the first woman and wife to Adam in the Garden of Eden.  At the point when Adam said that Lilith must always do exactly what he said, she replied “We are both equal because we are created from the earth”.  Adam was not happy about this response and Lilith, refusing to be less than Adam, called out God’s secret name and is said to have flown away from the garden.

Adam wanted his wife back and prayed to God for her and he sent three angels to find Lilith and tell her that “if she wants to come back, all well and good and if not, she must accept that a hundred of her children will die every day”. (Given that there were no children in the world at that time, you have to wonder what on earth God was thinking).

The angels could not capture Lilith and as a result she has become known as a demon, a woman that can take children, creating lots of rituals and superstitions for women to protect their children against Lilith.

As is the world today, that if women stand up to men to assert their equality, they can be demonised for this by some and praised by others, such is the legacy of Lilith.  Praised for standing up to Adam and reminding him they are equal, but demonised for being responsible for the death of children.

It is clear from the book I read that it is difficult to assert one version of Lillith’s story as it has been transmuted and changed over the centuries. But for me, she remains the original rebel.

 Goddess – 50 Goddeses, Spirits, Saints and Other Female Figures Who have Shaped Belief’ by Dr Janina Ramirez and illustrated by Sarah Walsh.