A female DEMON of the night and SUCCUBUS who
fl ies about searching for newborn children to kidnap or
strangle and sleeping men to seduce in order to produce
demon children. Lilith is a major fi gure in Jewish demonology,
appearing as early as 700 B.C.E. in the book of Isaiah;
she or beings similar to her also are found in myths
from other cultures around the world. She is the dark
aspect of the Mother Goddess. She is the original “scarlet
woman” and sometimes described as a screech owl, blind
by day, who sucks the breasts or navels of young children
or the dugs of goats.
In addition to Jewish folklore, Lilith appears in various
forms in Iranian, Babylonian, Sumerian, Canaanite, Persian,
Arabic, Teutonic, Mexican, Greek, English, Asian,
and Native American legends. She is sometimes associated
with other characters in legend and myth, including
the queen of Sheba and Helen of Troy. In medieval
Europe, she was often portrayed as the wife, concubine,
or grandmother of SATAN.
Lilith appears in different guises in various texts. She
is best known as the fi rst wife of Adam, created by God
as twins joined in the back. Lilith demanded equality
with Adam and, failing to get it, left him in anger. Adam
complained to God that his wife had deserted him. God
sent three angels, Sanvi, Sansanvi, and Semangelaf, to
take Lilith back to Eden. The angels found her in the
Red Sea and threatened her with the loss of 100 of her
demon children every day unless she returned to Adam.
She refused and was punished. Lilith took revenge by
launching a reign of terror against women in childbirth,
newborn infants—particularly males—and men who
slept alone. She was forced, however, to swear to the
three angels that whenever she saw their names or images
on an amulet, she would leave infants and mothers
alone.
After the Fall, Adam spent 130 years separated from
Eve, during which Lilith went to him and satisfi ed him
during sleep. They had a son, who became a frog.
The earliest account of Lilith appears in a midrash, Alpha
Bet Ben Sira, which attempts to resolve the discrepancies
in the Torah about the creation of Lilith in Genesis,
followed by the creation of Eve just a few passages later.
In the midrash, God created Lilith in the same way as he
did Adam, but he used fi lth and impure sediment instead
of dust from the earth. Adam and Lilith were at odds with
each other from the beginning, and she refused to lie beneath
him during intercourse. When she saw that Adam
would gain power over her, she uttered the ineffable name
of God and fl ew off to a cave in the desert near the Red Sea.
There, as queen of Zemargad or queen of the desert, she
engaged in promiscuity, including with demons, and gave
birth to 100 demonic offspring called lilim every day. The
daughters all practice SORCERY, seduction, and strangling.
She became the bride of SAMAEL, the DEVIL (in some
accounts called Ashmodai, or ASMODEUS), in a union arranged
by the Blind Dragon, an entity who has been castrated
so that his offspring will not overcome the world.
The lilim are hairy beings, having hair everywhere on
their faces and bodies except their heads.
In a text preceding the Zohar, Lilith and Samael are
born joined as androgynous twins from an emanation beneath
the throne of glory. They are the lower aspects of
another androgynous twin, Adam and Eve.
In the Zohar, Lilith arises from an evil shell or husk,
a KELIPPAH, that is created in the waning of the Moon. In
the beginning, the Sun and Moon were equal, and this
created a rivalry. To end it, God diminished the Moon
and made it rule the night. Lilith’s powers are at their
peak when the Moon is dark. She is the seducer of men
and the strangler of children; the latter role is sometimes
attributed to NAAMAH.
Lilith, who has the upper body of a beautiful woman
and a lower body of fi re, carries the fi ery resentment of
the Moon. Lilith lurks under doorways, in wells, and in
latrines, waiting to seduce men. She is adorned with the
“ornaments for seduction”:
Her hair is long and red like the rose, her cheeks are
white and red, from her ears hang six ornaments, Egyptian
cords and all the ornaments of the Land of the
East hang from her nape. Her mouth is set like a narrow
door comely in its decor, her tongue is sharp like
a sword, her words are smooth like oil, her lips are red
like a rose and sweetened by all the sweetness in the
world. She is dressed in scarlet and adorned with forty
ornaments less one.
Men who sleep alone are especially vulnerable to Lilith.
The Zohar also describes Lilith as a female aspect of
LEVIATHAN, who has a SERPENT body. She is Leviathan,
the Tortuous Serpent, the counterpart to the male aspect,
Leviathon, the Slant Serpent. Lilith is the serpent
who tempts Eve with the apple of forbidden knowledge
in paradise and thus instigates the Fall. She also persuades
Eve to seduce Adam while she is menstruating
and impure.
The numerical value of Lilith’s name equals the Hebrew
word for “screech.” Thus, Lilith is the “demon of screeching”
and “the princess of screeching” and is personifi ed as
a screech owl. In legend, on the Day of Atonement, Lilith
spends the day in a screeching battle with MAHALATH, a
concubine to Samael. They taunt each other so much that
the very earth trembles. Also on the Day of Atonement,
Lilith goes forth into the desert with 420 LEGIONs of her
demons, and they march about while she screeches.
Lilith is also known as Lady of the Beasts, who rules
the wilderness and all beasts, the animal side of human
nature.
In her guise as the queen of Sheba, she attempted to
seduce King SOLOMON. He discovered her true nature by
having the DJINN build a throne room with a fl oor of glass.
Lilith mistook it for water and raised her garments in order
to cross it to his throne. Her hairy, bestial legs were
revealed in the refl ection of the glass.
AMULETs and INCANTATION BOWLs traditionally protected
new mothers and infants against Lilith. Common
amulets were knives and hands inscribed with CHARMs;
some had bells attached. Frogs also protect against her.
Male infants were vulnerable for the fi rst week of life, girls
for the fi rst 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. Sometimes amulets with such inscriptions were
placed in all corners of and throughout the bedchamber.
If a child laughed in its sleep, it was a sign that Lilith was
present. Tapping the child on the nose made the demon
go away.
According to lore, men who had nocturnal emissions
believed they had been seduced by Lilith during the night
and had to say incantations to prevent the offspring from
becoming demons. Any seed spilled during sex, even
marital sex, is at risk for becoming lilim.
FURTHER READING:
Koltuv, Barbara Black. The Book of Lilith. Berwick, Me.: Nicolas-
Hays, 1986.
Scholem, Gershom. Kabbalah. New York: New American
Library, 1974.
Lilith
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