Lilith : A Dark Goddess

Lilith Goddess of Sitra Ahra by Various
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lilith Goddess of the Sitra Achra.....wait a minute back up the train. Lilith is not a goddess, never was and never will be. In fact she was a demon or demoness if you want to get technical. Widely spoken of in the Judeo Christian world as first a rebel chick and then later a demon who killed children in their sleep, her origins go much further back. This book touched a little bit on those origins but mostly it stayed with in the realm of Judeo-Christian theology and ceremonial laft hand path perspective.

lilt's origin are covered by going back to Mesopotamian times she was analyzed in the Akkadian text. She was part of a class of demons called the Lilin, Layil or lilit. This was translated as a wind demon, a storm demon or a scream. Lilith has been associated with the screech owl and this class of demons was known to seduce men in their sleep and the lil were the males who seduced the chicks. Lilitu was a main demoness who is mentioned as living in a hulaapu tree that belongs to Inanna. Gilgamesh drives her out.  But in reality her origins go back even further. She may have been the Sumerian  Lamasshtu a hybrid demon that haunted women during childbirth and killed new borns feeding at the mothers breast. No mention of that what so ever. No mention either of Pazuzu, king of the wind demons and Lamasshtu's most bitter rival. This book is scant on the history.

Islamic traditions regarding Lilith are absent as well. THis book would have done well to have one of it's several contributing authors go back further into the history and cover some of this stuff because theren is stuff in Islamic lore about Lilith and it is good reading. THe book and it's authors do a terrific job of focusing non the Kabbalistic aspects of Lilith and connecting it to growth on the left handed path. Several authors have done a nice job of plumbing the depth of the Zohar and other kabballistic sources. Bravisimo.

What this book has is plenty of Unverified Personal Gnosis, rituals for invoking the Lilith. Many of the rituals call for drawing blood and coating a sigil with it. II am not one who is up for blood and I wish the authors had found some substitute. If you are into the left hand path and are drawn to Lilith much like I am then you will want to read this book and maybe even make it part of your collection, but you will definitely have to read other books on the subject.  If history is your thing then I am sorry but you will have to go further afield.

This book was composed of essays and rituals compost by a variety of different authors. I will definnitley write these rituals bown andd add them to my Grimoire.

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