Feminism: The Image of Lilith Term Paper

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She also has the power to kill these children during the first days of their lives as they sleep (probably to explain SIDS), so these offspring are called "Oppressed Souls."

In the Kabbala, Lilith is called the Tortuous Serpent because she seduces men to go in tortuous ways. Her husband, Samael, is called the Slant Serpent. Samael's whole name means "poison of God" (sam-el). There is also a dragon (snake) without eyes in this story who mates with Lilith, who is associated with the government of evil and who is destined to swallow poison at the hands of the angels Gabriel and Michael.

Needless to say, Lilith has been feared and blamed for a whole host of evils and, as the independent woman, has been personified as a seductress or a demon, as well as the wife of God (would she also be called Mary?) Her independent adventures in various myths portray her as Adam's first wife, a witch, an unfettered animal and the "primal egregore" in magical spells, whose powers need to be carefully guarded against by a female "Main Operator." She is both the playmate and the nemesis of children, as she is the image of freedom for girls, but can also take away the life of an infant in a moment. She is depicted as hairless and bound in chains on an amulet that evidently was made to protect a newborn male child, from the 18th or 19th century in Persia, which may be seen today in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Bringing Lilith up-to-date, she still occupies a place in the psyche of mankind: the independent woman who refuses to be dominated by a man, no matter what her position.

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In George MacDonald's book Lilith, Mr. Raven talks about his late wife:

He brought me an angelic splendour to be my wife: there she lies! For her first thought was power; she counted it slavery to be one with me, and bear children for Him who gave her being. One child, indeed, she bore; then, puffed with the fancy that she had created her, would have me fall down and worship her! Finding, however, that I would but love and honour, never obey and worship her, she poured out her blood to escape me (MacDonald 24).

Mythology still rules in the minds and psyche of the modern person. Lilith is often the epitome of the evil woman in witch-oriented religions, she hearkens back to the fear that man has of a woman who is equal to him in power. The story of Lilith is not found today in the canonical Bible, but her daughters, who have been named the lilim, have been in the minds of men for over a thousand years. Jews still manufactured amulets to keep away the lilim in the Middle Age to keep her from copulated with them in their dreams, creating nocturnal emissions. Certain incantations were said when this happened and it was bellieved that each time a religious Christian man had a wet dream, Lilith laughed (Keenan 13). Monks slept with a hand over their genitals and a crucifix in the other to fend her off in medieval Europe, as she was supposed to be "the wife, concubine or grandmother of Satan" (Keenan 15).

Barbara Black Koltuv's book the Book of Lilith is about the goddess of the unconscious. Another book, by Dagmar Nick, named Lilith, tells.....

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