Hecate

 

"In us is also a dark angel (Hekate was also called angelos), a consciousness (she was also called phosphoros) that shines in the dark and witnesses such events because it is already aware of them a priori.........Part of us is not dragged down but always lives there, as Hekate is partly an underworld Goddess."

The Dream and the Underworld,  James Hillman

It's that time of year again, that LIMINAL TIME  when the world prepares to go into the darkness of winter, the last Harvest Festival is almost here.  Hecate's Time, and I felt like it was appropriate to pull out this previous post about that Great Goddess of the Underworld. Because even under the veneer of the commercial Halloween frenzy going on, as the Veils thin, there she is still.......standing at the Crossroads of Time, illuminating the darkness  with Her two Torches.  


I have  made a number of paintings throughout my life that portrayed myself as Hecate (strangely, now that I reallly am a "crone" I haven't had that impulse).  It wasn't until later that I began to realize, as Hillman above comments, that I was invoking and calling forth this quality within myself by so doing, asking for the inner guidance I needed as I moved through a divorce, through menopause, and later being a caretaker for members of my family as their lives ended.  

Hecate is the Underworld  aspect of the Triple Goddess  Persephone/Demeter/Hecate.  This archetype of the "power of three", the sacred Triad, is very ancient indeed, with roots that go back and back and back into prehistory.   The Triad represents the eternal cycle of nature, the Earth  which from the most ancient of human beings seem to have universally revered  as  "Mother Earth".  Early peoples observed that the Earth, like women, gave birth, nurtured, and finally "took back" life into some mysterious underground realm (Womb/Tomb)  to return again in the springtime.  

"Mandorla of the Spinning Goddess"
 by Judith Anderson**

 
Hecate  lives at the crossroads between conscious and unconscious, dream and waking, life and death.  She stands at the apex of the  liminal zones.  It was  Hecate who   heard the cries of the naive maiden Kore as she was carried by Hades into the underworld, and it was Hecate who bore a torch for Kore as she evolved into the mature Persephone, Queen of the dead and also Queen of life's rebirth. 

Hecate is the guide of souls through deep, unfathomable places of the psyche. When the time is ripe, Hecate stands quietly at the threshold with her two torches, unseen until She hears the soul-cry of those who ask Her to light the way.   

I copy below a short interview I did with Damira Norris, in 2002 a woman who performed Hecate in a 2001 performance produced by Diane Darling.  I found Damira's reflections on working with Hecate through the passage of menopause very moving.    I reflect, re-reading some of the ancient lore of the Triple Goddess, how far contemporary theologies have removed us from reverence for the Earth and all of  Her cycles, and especially, the renewal and mystery that comes from the darkness.    Which is now a very critical concern.  

Hecate
by Damira Norris

Hecate was my guide as I traveled through the tunnel of menopause, my appointed time to do my "shadow work". At menopause I entered a profound depression. I was forced to plunge into recesses of my life history I hadn't begun to negotiate. What I felt, in essence, was deep emotional shame. All of my internalized stories of being a victim arose for examination. And I was also forced to examine the side that is a tyrant, that always insists on having it's own immature way.

I remember lighting a candle each day to symbolize my daily commitment to my journey through the despair I felt. I carried that candle with me, and when I felt lost, I relit it. That's Hecate to me. She will not help you to avoid a thing, but She will bear a light for you on the path, the path to mature empowerment. "It's time", She says, "to know the inside of yourself, to know all that is there". I believe that at certain passages in our lives, our souls cry "I want to get rid of this, I want to move on". And it's not easy.

"Go down into it" my counselor would tell me, "bring it up and let's look at it". That's Hecate country. I remember a visualization I did while in therapy. She had me look behind a curtain, and what I saw was an emaciated, unloved creature. I was given the opportunity to "meet" a part of myself that symbolized the inner voice that daily recited a litany that went something like this: "I can't do this right, I can't do that".......I had to meet this sad, frightened creature and open my heart to her. Now, I recognize that persona when I'm driven by unconscious fear. I can determine to bring her into the whole circle of who I am.

We see Hecate as scary. But that comes from a culture that denies aging, the so-called shadow side of life. 

We are preoccupied with youthfulness, which translates as a childish self-absorption that insists "I will do what I want to do, when I want to do it".....regardless of the consequences to ourselves, our communities, to our world. Shadow work is about soul retrieval. I had to become a mature, empowered woman at menopause, and so, whether I understood it or not, I had begun to bring home parts of myself that were lost. Unexamined childhood wounds, so many "underworld" storylines. That meant going inside to meet the ugly, the uncomfortable. Hecate was the force guiding me through the hard times. When I performed Hecate, I was doing it to thank Her.

The Dark Goddess is about learning genuine compassion, full circle compassion. It's so much easier now for me to recognize what is going on with others, because I can see into the once opaque depths of myself. We speak of women who've gone through menopause as being "more in their power". This is because the other side of disintegration is the retrieval of enormous reservoirs of energy. We're asked to clean out the book of our lives, so we can become guides for those who will follow us. To become our Hecate selves."

I also take the liberty of copying a wonderfully insightful and well researched  article by  Danielle Nickel 

Hekate:  Moving Through Darkness
by Danielle Nickel
Hekate is primarily a goddess of the Underworld, holding dominion over death and rebirth. This is meant both in the literal sense and in the metaphorical as well. For life is filled with many deaths and rebirths aside from that of the flesh. Because of this the Dark of the Moon especially is her time of the month, since it is a time of endings and beginnings, when what was is no more, and what will be has yet to become.

Hekate guards the limenoskopos (the doorstep), for she is a goddess of liminality and transition. Of being on and crossing boundaries. This includes not only the boundary between life and death, but any boundaries, such as those between nature and civilization, waking and sleep, sanity and madness, the conscious and the subconscious minds. Indeed, any transition can be said to be her domain. As such she is also goddess of the crossroads, where the paths of one's life fork and a person must choose which future to embark upon. In ancient times these were believed to be special places where the veil between the worlds was thin and spirits gathered.

Hekate is also the goddess of psychological transformation. Her Underworld is the dark recesses of the human subconscious as well at that of the Cosmos. Many have accused her of sending demons to haunt the thoughts of individuals. What they fail to understand is that the demons are not hers, but their own. By the light of her twin torches Hekate only reveals what is already there. These are things which the person needs to see in order to heal and renew. However, if they are not prepared for the experience of confronting their Shadow then it can truly feel like they are being tormented. Hekate is not motivated by cruelty, nor is she seeking to harm. But her love can be tough love. She will prompt a person to face the things that they must, whether they like it or not..........Hekate goes with them. While she may not be the deity many people would like, she is the one whom they need. Because of this I believe that she comes to those who require her, whether or not they were looking for her.

"Dream Weaver" (2009)                               

In modern Neo-Pagan practice Hekate is typically identified as an aspect of the Crone, and as such is most often portrayed as an old woman. This is in contrast to ancient vase murals which depict her as being an adult woman in her prime. As with many things about this goddess, this is a perception that has changed over time. However, the Crone aspect of the modern Triple Goddess is not truly defined by her age, but rather by the powers her age represents (that of wisdom, magical potency, annihilation, and the transformative journey through the Underworld), and those indeed fall under Hekate's domain. So while perhaps not historically accurate, this is not a demotion or devaluing of her, but rather the way in which modern Neo-Paganism fits her into its philosophy (this difficulty with integrating her into their cosmology is something that we will see Neo-Pagans share with the Ancient Greeks as well).

Hekate is more often than not portrayed as carrying two torches and is known as "The Torch-Bearer". She carries these because of her role as a guide through the transition of the Underworld. One torch shows a person where it is they currently stand, the other where they might go. In this manner she reveals the mysteries of transformation to those who enter her realm of darkness.

.......Hekate is also associated with a curious wheel shaped design, known as Hekate's Wheel, or the "Strophalos of Hekate". It is a circle which encloses a serpentine maze with three main flanges, that in turn are situated around a central, fiery spiral. The symbolism refers to the serpent's power of rebirth, to the labyrinth of knowledge through which Hekate could lead humankind, and to the flame of life itself: "The life-producing bosom of Hekate, that Living Flame which clothes itself in Matter to manifest Existence" (according to Isaac Preston Cory's 1836 translation of the Chaldean Oracles). The three main arms of the maze correspond with her being a triple goddess, as well as goddess of the three ways, and that she has dominion over the earth, sea, and sky.

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A Goddess of Crossroads and Transitions 

As earlier stated, Hekate is a guide for people who are in transition. While she is most famous in her role as a psychopomp, guiding the spirits of the dead in their journey through the Underworld, she also aids those who cross boundaries or otherwise travel from one condition to another, particularly when that crossing involves danger.........For more than anything else she is a deity of liminality.

She is a goddess of the crossroads for this reason. In the ancient world a crossroad was a point where three roads met to form a "Y"-shaped intersection. It was believed to be a place where spirits gathered, including those of the Underworld and those of Fate. It is also a metaphor for the divergence of possibilities in an individual's future. Their life will bring them to the crossroad along one of the roads, and they will be met with a branching, where they must choose one path or the other to continue onward. As goddess of transitions, Hekate rules this place where the roads separate and differing futures are possible.

However, it is important to remember that Hekate is a guide. She points out where a person is currently heading and where else they might go if they change their path instead. She does not choose a person's fate herself. That is always left to the person to decide. She is a torch-bearer because of this illumination she sheds upon one's life. That is also one reason she is a lunar-deity, for while a torch brings light to the darkness of night, so too does the moon on the grandest possible scale. This reflects both her link to the night-realms and to her role as an illuminator of ways..

Hekate is often portrayed as  three torch-bearing female figures standing in a circle looking outward, with their backs joined so that they are in fact one being. This exhibits her dominion over the triple-crossroads and her ability to see in all directions simultaneously. The road a person had come from, and the directions they might take in the future. These hektarion (or hekataion) were placed at crossroads. Their earliest forms consisted of a pole upon which three masks were hung, with one facing each road. In more recent times these became statuary, sometimes of three figures standing with their backs to a central pillar, other times a similar portrayal without the column in the center.

The Romans knew Hekate as Triva, which means "where the three roads meet".

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Hekate Triformis - The Triple Goddess

Hekate is a triple-goddess, serving as the Crone aspect in more than one triumvirate of deities. Perhaps most commonly we see her partnered with Kore-Persephone and Demeter. Where Kore takes the role of the Maiden (indeed, the word kore means "maiden" in Ancient Greek), Demeter the Mother, and Hekate the Crone. This triumvirate plays a central role in the myth of Kore's descent into the Underworld and her re-emergence as Persephone.

This myth appears to have been the basis for the Eleusinian Mysteries, in which initiates relived the experience of Kore and like her returned forever changed, reborn with a new understanding of the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

 In the earliest tales, Kore willingly descends into the Underworld, while in the later and more well-known versions she is kidnapped by Hades. The latter being indicative of the rising patriarchy of Ancient Greece. In either version, her mother Demeter - who is the goddess of agriculture -  withholds her blessings from the Earth and causes the first winter to come about. It is Hekate who spies Kore within the Underworld and guides her back to the surface to be reunited with her mother. She emerges not as the maiden Kore, but as Persephone, a powerful woman in her own right, and with her comes the warmth and promise of spring. Persephone however, has become inextricably tied to the Underworld and returns there for four months every year, one for each pomegranate seed she ate while there. Her leaving is accompanied by the onset of winter, and while she holds her court in the Underworld she is joined by Hekate. In this myth we not only see a metaphor for rebirth, but also of coming of age and into one's own power and place in the world.

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The Invincible Queen Of The Dead

While Hekate is a versatile deity, she is best known as a goddess of death and the Underworld. However, it is important to remember that her Underworld is not the place of terrible suffering popularized by patriarchal Greece and later Christianity.*** Rather it was a place of divine transformation, like the cocoon where the caterpillar becomes the butterfly. This was the primordial Underworld, the place from which all life ultimately derives. Death and Birth stand back to back in the great spiral of existence, while Hekate and her Underworld lie between the two.

Our ancient ancestors saw that many things sprang from the earth, not just plants, but animals such as snakes, bears, rodents, and others as well. Even the sun and moon appeared to rise from the earth and later sink back down within it every day and night. To their eyes, it seemed that something magical was taking place in the darkness below the ground. This idea was further reinforced when they learned that plant life originates from seeds buried within the earth. They saw that if a person kept a seed in - for example - their pocket, it would never grow into a plant. It had to be buried in the soil. Our ancestors reasoned that something magical must take place down there. Some transformation hidden away from the eyes of people and the rays of the sun.

This was their Underworld. A place of renewal and rebirth where buried seeds sprouted into life. Because they saw the generative power of the Underworld, they buried their dead deep within the earth so that they too could transform into new life, just as a seed does into a plant. Being thorough people, they also dyed the bodies with red henna to symbolize menstrual blood (and in some cases did use menstrual blood), in order to capitalize upon the regenerative power believed to exist in that as well. 

This is why how so many Pagan deities such as Kali, Hekate, Freja, et al. are associated with both death and life. Our ancestors saw that death and birth were interconnected, standing back to back in an ever-turning spiral. In this manner Hekate is both child-nurse of all life as well as harbinger of death, and thusly it was to her that the ancients prayed to ensure both long life and eventual rebirth. Interestingly enough it is also in this manner that Hekate might be considered the goddess of compost. For it is the decomposition of plant and animals that insures the fertility of the earth, which in turn ensures the creation and nurturing of new life.

These views of the Underworld would change as religion became politicized, a tool for power. The Underworld became a place of terror in order to frighten people into obedience. So too were its denizens altered in public perception to become the monsters such a place needs to be populated with. This is one of the dynamics by which Hekate was increasingly negatively portrayed............

Keeper of the Unconscious

As Goddess of the Underworld, Hekate is not only the guide to the spirits of the dead, but also the keeper of each individual's own personal Underworld, the benighted territory of their unconscious mind. She lives within each of our inner worlds, and is there to guide us as we transition from inner to outer realms of consciousness. When accepted, her blessings enrich our lives with vision, healing, inspiration, and magic. She brings light to the darkness and empowers us with creativity, confidence, and strength. However, when we deny her it manifests in our Shadow-Self. She holds the key to both the treasures and terrors of the unconscious mind.......

Hekate is the light that reveals the Shadow, like the light of the moon at midnight. Her goal is not to destroy, but rather to illuminate. However, it is no accident that we have buried these things so deeply within our psyches. We are often not ready to face them when revealed. In such cases it may indeed appear that Hekate is bringing demons to terrorize us. We must remember that the demons are ours and reclaim them as our own. For with that revelation we also take back our power over them. That is the only way in which the Shadow can be truly defeated. By accepting it as our own. Learning that is the key which turns the lock of the person's emotional healing and rebirth. Hekate is there as a guide to help us, her twin torches shining our way through the darkened recesses of our unconscious.........

.............We must come to understand that Hekate and the darkness she exemplifys are not terrible, but rather natural forces within us and the world around us which are necessary components in the process of healing and regeneration. We must trust to her as our guide and give ourselves over to our journey through the Underworld, rather than resist the sacrifices we must make in order to grow. For one can only heal by moving through darkness. This requires courage and insight on our parts, but thankfully she is there to show us where to find both these qualities within ourselves as well.

**Judith Anderson has passed away, and her powerful work is not well known.  She was an extraordinary artist whose prints emerged from the depths of the sacred Earth and the realms of the Soul.  For an excellent article about Judith Anderson:  http://www.crosscurrents.org/Madsen2.htm


***This is true as well of the Nordic Goddess Hella (also part of a triad), Underworld Goddess whose name became the source of the Christian "Hell".

Hecate

So many familiar faces

I have known you all, as you have known me

Time and again, 

We meet when the Moon is hidden

And darkness is strong.

To you, so new, it seems I come from days long gone

From deep pits of forbidden spaces, almost forgotten

Yet I am always here, stirring your deep dreams

Your dreaming self knows me well, very well.

I am Hecate, Grandmother of all

Queen of the Night 

(strikes staff on floor 3x)

Queen of the dark and unborn Moon:

You will find me standing

With my lovely, fearsome, baying hounds

Where three roads meet

Speak well or not at all

And take the road I show you.

Mine is the realm of deep uncertainty

The changing before becoming

The choice of oblivion (strikes staff on floor 3x)

When the wheel of birth and death is turning

You’ll find me haunting the crank

Do not ask, just listen, and know.

It is I who hear Persephone’s underworld cries

It is I who see dim shapes of futures forming

I who bring the nightmare

And soothe the sleepless, disheveled souls.

I am your torchbearer and guide to the nether world

Where the visible meets the invisible

Where all things quicken and begin to grow

Always first in darkness.

Listen! I am speaking to you

(strikes staff on floor 3x)

From the dark side of the moon

From the hidden side of your life

From the ancient end of time

Your challenge is to know me

For only ignorance is truly dark.

by Diane Darling (2001)

The above performance excerpt is from "The Masque of the Goddess", Directed by Diane Darling and performed by members of her community in Sebastopol, California, in 2001.  Having recently finished a sculpture of Hecate,  I remembered this powerful performance and felt like posting the text.  

Endarkenment: The Dark Goddess in Art and Myth

It's moving toward the dark time of the year, and I pulled out this article from 2015 to look at again.  I've been considering what  kind of opportunities for self and cultural growth "going into the Dark" might mean.  One rather poetic thought was considering the "dark matter" that is believed to be the backdrop of the universe, the "Dark Mother/Matter".  So it could be said that "endarkenment" is  a form of going home.  This was a talk I gave at the Claremont School of Theology for the Pagan Studies Conference, and I still like it......

Endarkenment:

The Dark Goddess in Art and Myth

Presented at the Pagan Studies Conference,

 Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, California 2015 

Because of the limited time for this presentation, I would like to concentrate primarily on two "Dark Goddesses" that occupy a profound place in the developmental mythos of Western culture, both in the past and as an underlying template within the present as well.  They are Hecate, the Greek Goddess of the  underground and of the Crossroads, and Lilith, the Biblical first wife of Adam.

  

“Hecate” by William Blake

Here is Hecate, the Crone or Old Age aspect of the ancient Triple Goddess in her underworld, with the other aspects of the Triple Goddess behind her, holding, perhaps, the book of fate, painted by the English visionary William Blake.  To me, this painting also suggests the prehistoric painted caves of the Paleolithic “underworld”, which archeologist Marija Gimbutas and her colleagues believed represented the underworld womb of the primal Great Mother. Although I am sure it was not his intention, still, the animals Blake includes in his underworld could be imagined as including those vibrant prehistoric creatures those ancient artists and hunters painted, deep within the earth.  It is very possible that they did so to symbolically and ritualistically incubate, within the “womb/tomb” of the cave, new re-birth in the spring. 

This idea may be related to the fact that, although there are many magnificent paintings of animals and birds in the caves of Lascaux and Chauvet in France, the earliest known painted (as opposed to sculpted) representation of a human being is the truncated vulva form found deep within the caves at Chauvet-Pont d'Arc in France. It has been determined that this is among the earliest of the paintings in the site, and the bull form was apparently painted above the original painting at a later date. The paintings at Chauvet are from 28 to 32 thousand years old, and these magnificent recently discovered caves were the subject of an award winning documentary in 2011, "Cave of Forgotten Dreams", by Werner Herzog. 

Perhaps the first, and last, Dark Goddess is thus Gaia, Anima Mundi, the Great Mother Earth.  Eco-feminist and art historian Gloria Orenstein, in speaking of a theology of Endarkenment, commented that it is:

“bonding with the Earth and the invisible to reestablish our experience of interconnectedness with all things, phenomenal and spiritual, that make up the totality of our life in our cosmos. Eco-feminist arts do not maintain that analytical, rational knowledge is superior to other forms of knowing. They honor Gaia’s Earth intelligence and the stored memories of her plants, rocks, soil, and creatures."

The dark is the place of creative becoming and unbecoming, the "dark matter" (Dark Mater) from which beginnings form and to which endings go, the serpentine, cyclical, circular intelligence of nature.  Could the “dark matter” physicists theorize is the ultimate backdrop to the creative potential of the universe, be thus symbolized as the “cosmic womb” of the Great Mother, incubating and birthing galaxies, particles, stars and planets?

 

 The dark, which is symbolized by caves, a hidden underground realm, and night, is the realm of the primordial Dark Goddesses that occur throughout human mythologies.  Before the advent of patriarchal monotheism in Western culture there were many dark goddesses, often also associated with the Moon, weaving, fate, oracular powers, and of course death and rebirth.  And snakes - everywhere one encounters the sacred, spiraling symbol of the serpent, which represents a seasonal cosmology that dies and is reborn - because the snake continually sheds its skin.  Among such Goddesses are found Hella, Nordic underworld Goddess, the Norns or fates, Persephone, Nyx, Spider Woman when she leads each age through the birth Kiva, Dewi Sri, Rangda, and the Inuit Sedna, to name just a few.

In earthly terms, they are the composters of souls. "Compost" is another, organic word for the "Transmutation" that goes on within the depths of the soil of our planet, wherein the "gold" of renewed  fertile life is distilled from rotting garbage. 

Composting is the alchemy of life.  

Who is the Dark Goddess as a psychological entity?  In Fire of the Goddess by Katalin Koda, she writes that: 

"The feminine qualities of darkness, moistness, birth, and blood symbolize the dark mother and our inner Initiate……When we face our shadow, we are initiated into our deepest powers. We may be afraid of these parts; these howling, undernourished, repressed, and rage-filled aspects of ourselves that demand to be heard, but which we cannot bear to face." 

Working with the shadow means we are mining that internal psychic darkness for the evolutionary jewels that reside in the caves, and there are mythological stories that symbolize that quest and passage to wholeness. Among the “shadow Goddesses” that have been re-discovered, Ereshkigal, the Dark Twin sister of the Sumerian Great Goddess Inanna is one of the most ancient recorded myths about the eternal transmutation of life. It is also a potent tale of the journey into the unconscious to seek healing and wholeness. 

 

The beautiful and powerful Queen Inanna must descend into the dark underworld realm of Ereshkigal, to encounter and heal the rift with the sorrowing and angry Queen of the Underworld.  In order to do so she must give up at each of 7 gates as she descends one of her powers, arriving at last naked and utterly divested of all her symbols of rank and authority - her tokens of life. Like the story of Persephone, the Descent of Inanna may also be seen as about the integration of dark and light aspects of self that are necessary to achieve mature wholeness and empowerment, just as in the life of the earth all things die and them return.  As playwright Elizabeth Fuller commented in a 2002 interview about her 2001 play “The Descent of Inanna”: 

"Persephone's myth is about moving into a new state of being.  All the soul riches, the knowledge, the art, everything was running down the drain into Hades and it stayed there.  It stopped circulating.  This was the myth of Inanna as well; everything went down to Ereshkigal, the keeper of the Underworld, and got stuck there in the universal unconscious.  Ereshkigal, the mind of the underworld, was on strike - she refused to process, which could be said of our collective predicament today.  We can look at the stories of Persephone and Inanna and see that they are pathfinders.  Pathfinders to the unconscious.  That's a very important myth for our time."

Hecate is often shown with two torches that guide the maiden Kore out of Hades, to become the creative force of spring, the mature Persephone. 

One torch is the past, the other the future.  In that liminal place at the crossroads of time stands Hecate, the Goddess of the Crossroads, guide through the underworld.  She is often identified with the moon as well, particularly the dark moon. 

One of my favorite contemporary images of Hecate is by Lydia Ruhle, whose Goddess Banners travelled to conferences throughout the world.   Notice the ever ubiquitous snake, found throughout the artwork in this presentation.   While the snake is usually shown in the hand of Demeter, here Lydia has placed the snakes at the foot of Hecate, which to me represent the serpentine energies of nature, the Earth, the cycles of life/death/life.  Hecate's Wheel also represents this continual cycling and reforming of life, the three aspects of the Goddess represented by the spokes of the wheel.   

Contemporary artist Hrana Janto's Hecate stands at the crossroads with Cerebus, the three headed dog, holding the snake entwined staff and with a halo that represents the dark of the moon. Below is also shown a symbol called “Hecate’s Wheel”, which is associated with the Goddess, and the three aspects  or Trinity represented by Hecate/Demeter/Persephone. 

In 2002 an actress and ritualist named Damira Norris chose to invoke Hecate as a performance in a ritual theatre event that utilized the Masks of the Goddess collection.  For her, working with the archetype of Hecate served as a guide through a very difficult transitional passage in her life.

As she described it,

"I remember lighting a candle each day to symbolize my commitment to my journey through the despair I felt at menopause.  That's Hecate to me.  She will not help you to avoid a thing, but She will bear a light for you on the path, which is really the path to mature empowerment and integration.  I believe at certain passages in our lives our souls cry out "I want to get rid of this, I want to move on".  And it's not easy."

 

Lilith is a Dark Goddess who has fascinated many artists.  Her journey from the night time aspect of the Sumerian Inanna, from the owl-footed midwife who helps women to birth at night, into the feared succubus and demon of Jewish and Christian lore is a mythological journey that reflects the degradation of the sacred feminine, as well as the de-sacralization of sexuality  in patriarchal monotheism.  In medieval art she is often shown as a woman with the body of a snake, as she is also interpreted by the Renaissance artist Michelangelo.  It is interesting to also note that by this time the life-affirming, healing symbol of the snake, so deeply associated with the ancient Goddesses, has become a symbol of evil.

According to various Biblical texts, Lilith was the first wife of Adam, made from the same clay.  Because she would not submit to Adam she was banished from Eden, and God created another, presumably more compliant wife for the first man.   But apparently Lilith occasionally managed to sneak back, and is often shown as the snake that offers the fatal fruit to naïve Eve.

But if so, what did Lilith really offer?  Knowledge, the means to achieve self-hood within an understanding of the eternal, serpentine, cycles of life - the serpent of the ancient Great Mother.  Alas for both Lilith and Eve, who in attempting self-hood became the penultimate Biblical scapegoats.

"Patriarchy is a system of male dominance, rooted in the ethos of war which legitimates violence, sanctified by religious symbols, in which men dominate women through the control of female sexuality, with the intent of passing property to male heirs, and in which men who are heroes of war are told to kill men, and are permitted to rape women, to seize land and treasures, to exploit resources, and to own or otherwise dominate conquered people." ........ Carol P. Christ 

 

Of her similar derived painting "Lilith and Eve", artist Linda Garland said:

"In the desert Lilith became the consort of Samael and other fallen

 angels. Fury with Adam and grief for her slaughtered children led Lilith to plot revenge."   

Well yes.  Banished to the wilderness of the seething unconscious, children destroyed, scapegoated for the downfall of man, the very symbol of violent  sexual repression epitomized by such collective hysteria as the Inquisition …….no wonder  Lilith is also portrayed as a screech owl.

She is individually and collectively mighty pissed off.

Lilith is often portrayed as a succubus who comes in the night as a "wet dream", and many talismans were created to protect men from her seductions.  Her offspring also continued to plague Adam's descendants as succubi or vampires.  Some speculate that Lilith is the origin of the Vampire myth.  In symbolic terms, Lilith may represent the female sexual energy that is subverted, repressed, and diabolized in "sky god" patriarchy.  Within the constraints of Judeo/Christian/Islamic ethics, too often sexual expression itself has become sublimated or perverse instead of being regarded as sustaining or generative. Viewed in this light, Lilith is also the collective shadow rage of both women and the denied “feminine” aspects of men as well.

It was my privilege to interview a Bay Area artist and musician, David Jeffers, who worked with Lilith as a healer and artistic inspiration. I was very moved by his observations. "The pain of Lilith" he said, 

"is so much about the divinity of human pain.  People often only identify with Lilith's rage, the woman who was cast out because She would not accept inequality. For me She is not that simple. If you can't go beyond Lilith's first door, which is rage, you're going to be stuck; you aren't going to penetrate the emotional mysteries beyond. Lilith is the most intelligent archetypal power to aid in understanding the mechanism that underlies our unconscious motivations, she is about the ability to connect the subconscious to the conscious mind, so that information can become usable in your life and on your path. Lilith is the bridge.   People who are linear in their thinking suddenly find their world shattered when Eros shoots arrows at them. Or when they have an experience that is inexplicable or traumatic, something that cannot fit into the model they've organized their lives around. There are references in the Cabala to what is called "breaking the shell". The mind set of "what you believe" is the shell, and Lilith is about breaking the shell. You have to fall apart  to be put back together; because that's the only way you can be reconstructed. You cannot veneer the teachings of Lilith on top of "who you think you are". (2002) 

 

In Lilith imagery we see the snake again, and again, and again, the ancient remnants of the once powerful Great Goddess.  Here is a famous Lilith by the English artist John Collier.  And here another by Franz Von Stuck, which he titled "Evil" that clearly derives from Lilith mythos.  But was the snake always, like the seductive sexual potency of Lilith, evil?  In the old kingdom of Egypt the word for snake or cobra was the same symbol as that for Goddess - the snake that represents the endless natural and psychic cycle of life/death/rebirth.  It moves, like the sinuous energies of nature, in a spiral.  The snake is also used in Eastern traditions to represent the  generative force of the Kundalini moving through the chakra system.

But the enlightenment of Apollonian logic and tribal warrior sky gods (such as Yahweh is not serpentine.  It is vertical, illuminated, bright and orderly, and the only way of the Sky god is up. 

 

Here we have Faust and Lilith by the 17th century artist Richard Westall.  The ubiquitous snake is barely visible in the foreground, and Faust cavorts with an innocent enough looking Lilith while a riotous party is seen going on in the background, one that could surely bring nothing but sheer damnation.  

 

Here we have several contemporary Liliths interpreted by Roberto Ferri and Alexander Vilichinsky.  They are there with a whole lot of snakes, which could also be viewed as a whole lot of Kundalini rising. The symbol remains potent, even if its original meaning is long lost.

  

Contemporary British artist Paul Fryer has created a winged wax Lilith, bound like Gulliver to the ground by 24 carat gold wires, bound but perhaps not entirely broken if one looks carefully at her eyes, which seem to hold a deep and vital life force. Lilith is bound, bound by golden threads that perhaps demonstrate her great value to the forces that have bound her wings.  

But she waits to rise again.

 

In Opie Snow's Lilith series, Lilith is a primal, almost purely elemental force, which perhaps, viewed from the perspective of a woman artist, is neither desirable or wicked, but hurt, or possessed of enormous vitality, or both. 

 

Here is Kiki Smith's Lilith - almost spider like, she observes from the wall, her eyes regarding the viewer with the clarity of a creature banished to the shadows, the hidden places, a creature of pain, pathos, fear and loneliness. 

 

In Mark Rothko's "Rites of Lilith", I have always felt he spoke of the the desolation of that harsh and hidden landscape within the collective unconscious Lilith has been banned to.

But there is hope today for Lilith, who is increasingly refusing to be hidden, punished, and scapegoated in many sectors of society.  She is rising again, full-bodied and well-lit within the spirits of women and the collective evolving psyche of humanity.  Here, for example, is a painting by Mariam Zakarian called "The Lilith Effect".  The artist has an entirely positive view of Lilith…..the rising Earth Serpent and the Goddess seem to be generative indeed, a virtual cornucopia.

And of course, the Lilith Faire.

REFERENCES:

Blake, William,  The Night of Enitharmon's Joy, 1795

Gimbutas, Marija, The Language of the Goddess:  Unearthing the Hidden Symbols of Western Civilization, 1989, Thames & Hudson, NY

Vulva cave painting,  Chauvet-Pont d'Arc, France:  

The painting occurs in the deepest of the Chauvet Cave chambers, and is identified  as “the Venus and the Sorcerer”.  It seems that archeologists simply cannot view this female image, or the ubiquitous “Venus” statues of the same period, as being other than a kind of “caveman erotic art”.  As a “Venus” image, the painting is presumed to be in sexual association with a bison head that was painted above the vulva form at a later date, and “must” therefore represent a male “sorceror”.  But viewed from another perspective, this image may have nothing to do with representing a “venus” or love goddess in service to a magical male with the head of a bison.  Rather, it may represent the source of rebirth, the body of the prime Deity.  And the bison, like the other animals, may represent the children of the “Great Mother’s Source” awaiting re-birth.

Herzog, Werner:  “Cave of Forgotten Dreams”, Documentary, 2010

Orenstein, Gloria, Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism ,

Sierra Club Books, 1990

Koda. Katalin, Fire of the Goddess: Nine Paths to Ignite the Sacred Feminine,

Llewellyn Press, 2011

Fuller, Elizabeth, Interview with Elizabeth Fuller with Lauren Raine, the Independent Eye Theatre,  2002   

Ruhle, Lydia, “Hecate Banner”, 2015

Janto, Hrana, “Hecate” 1996 (http://www.hranajanto.com)

Norris, Damira, “Interview with Damira Norris by Lauren Raine”, 2002

Raine, Lauren, “The Masks of the Goddess” collection, 1999 to 2019 (www.masksofthegoddess.com)

Giachino, Augusto, “The Third Sister”, Film, 2014, http://www.augustogiachino.com/the-third-sister

“A contemporary interpretation of the mythical Hecate, the three-bodied goddess that governs human fate, using modern dance choreographed expressly for film. This short is centered on the evocative power of ancient archetypes, their continued relevance in examining our modern lives, and the role they play in addressing human desires and fears.”

  

Michelangelo, di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, “The Temptation of Adam and Eve”,

Sistene Chapel, 1508 - 1512

Christ, Carol P.,

Garland, Linda, "Lilith and Eve", http://www.lindagarland.co.uk/

Jeffers, David, “Interview with David Jeffers by Lauren Raine”, 2002

Collier, John, “Lilith”, 1892

Von Stuck, Franz, "Evil",  1905

Westall, Richard, “Faust and Lilith”, 1831

Ferri, Roberto, “Lilith”, 2009, https://silindro.tumblr.com/tagged/Roberto-Ferri

Vilchinsky, Alexander, “Lilith”, 2010

Fryer , Paul, “Lilith”, 2008,https://www.wadewaxworks.com/Lilith-Paul-Fryer-2008 ,  https://paulfryer.net

Snow, Opie, “Lilith”, https://opiesnow.com/portfolio/

Smith, Kiki, “Lilith”, 1994, https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/teen-blog/2014/lilith

Rothko, Mark, "Rites of Lilith", 1945, https://www.mark-rothko.org/rites-of-lilith.jsp

Zakarian, Mariam, "The Lilith Effect", 2010, https://www.mariamzakarian.com/

Lilith Fair:  “Lilith Fair was a concert tour and travelling music festival, founded by Canadian musician Sarah McLachlan, Nettwerk Music Group's Dan Fraser and Terry McBride, and New York talent agent Marty Diamond. It took place during the summers of 1997 to 1999, and was revived in the summer of 2010. It consisted solely of female solo artists and female-led bands. In its initial three years, Lilith Fair raised over $10M for charity.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith_Fair