A Neopagan who wishes to worship Lilith as a goddess faces many challenges that your average Neopagan never has to face. If a Neopagan wishes to worship the typical deity from pre-Christian times, s/he has the challenge of researching the ancient traditions associated with that deity and creating from these traditions a living theology and set of rites. Usually the information we have about the ancient traditions is sketchy, to say the least, and most scholars do not agree on the exact nature of either the theology or the rites associated with a specific deity.

For Lilith, though, it is even more difficult, since She was originally a demoness, not a goddess, and therefore there were no ancient practices associated with Her, except for rituals and amulets to protect oneself from Her and Her offspring. The worshiper of Lilith must not only create a thealogy of Her that views Her in a positive light, something that the ancients never had, but s/he must also come up with a set of rites for Her worship, something which never existed before this century.

For me, the thealogy must come first, since I have no specific tradition on which to base the form of said rites. Perhaps for, say, a Wiccan, the ritual aspect is much simpler, since s/he could just plug in Lilith as an aspect of the Triple Goddess and use traditional Wiccan rites to worship Her. I, on the other hand, have no such set of rites to use, plus I would like to have a means to honor Lilith that is specifically about Her, and not the cut-and-paste method of developing ritual of some Neopaganism.

Because of the lack of ritual work that is specifically related to Lilith, I am choosing to concentrate more on Her history and Her thealogy at the moment, although this web site is an attempt at a modern "rite" in honor of Her. (See my article "Virtually Lilith" in the August/September 1997 issue of Green Egg for a discussion of both my ideas behind the creation of the Lilith Shrine, as well as the concept of virtual shrines in general.) My interpretation of Lilith is a modern one and is influenced by other contemporary interpretations of Her. Unlike some modern interpretations, though, mine takes into account what is known of Her history, as opposed to projecting my modern beliefs onto the beliefs of the ancient. I fully admit that my interpretations of Her differ significantly from the ancients' and make no apologies for it—I do not live in ancient times, and I do not view the world the same way an ancient would; therefore, my interpretation of deities is significantly different than an ancient's.

To me, Lilith is the goddess of female independence and autonomy, both sexually and in other aspects of life. Lilith bows down to no man or god, not even Yahweh Himself. She is also the goddess of female sexuality for pleasure itself and not merely for reproductive purposes. Unlike the average fertility goddesses, for Lilith, the sexual act is not so strongly connected with reproduction.

The main source for associating Lilith with female independence is the First Eve story, which originates in the medieval Jewish work called The Alphabet of Ben Sira. Although this story is not nearly as ancient as the other myths of Lilith, it has been the most influential addition to Her mythos since She first appeared in Jewish mythology and folklore. This myth has influenced most feminist and Neopagan interpretations, although few are aware of how recent, relatively speaking, the myth developed.

Although the myth is not the most ancient of Her myths, this does not invalidate using it to interpret Her nature. (It merely invalidates using it as "evidence" for the claim that She was originally a goddess and not a demoness.) After all, it is highly unlikely that the story would have been written if it had not fit in with the earlier conception of Lilith—a blood-sucking succubus and a child-killing witch. (In this article, "witch" is not used in the Neopagan sense, unless explicitely stated as such, but in the more popular sense of an evil, magick-using woman, since that was the use that would have been meant when Lilith was described as such.)

The usual interpretation for the origin of the First Eve story is that the rabbis of the time used the Lilith story to explain the contradictions between the creation stories in Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2-3. In the creation story in Genesis 1:1, humans are created, both male and female at the same time, whereas in the story in Genesis 1:2-3, man, Adam, is created first, with woman, Eve, being created later. Since the rabbis of that time interpreted the Torah as being literally true, they had to come up with an explanation for the apparent contradiction between the two stories. Fleshing out the myth of Lilith with the First Eve story was their response to this challenge.

Although this could be one of the reasons for the creation of the First Eve story, I have doubts that it is the only reason or even a very significant reasons. For starters, the story does not resolve all of the contradictions between the two creation stories—the order of creation is still different in each creation story. If it were merely an attempt to resolve these contradictions, one would think that the author would deal with these other contradictions, as well as just the one that was resolved.

More importantly, though, the nature of The Alphabet of Ben Sira makes such an interpretation somewhat unlikely. The Alphabet of Ben Sira is not the typical rabbinical Midrash that some modern writers make it out to be. Instead, it is a controversial work, considered by most scholars to be a satirical work on Judaism and Jewish culture, although some Orthodox Jews consider it to be an antisemitic work that was written to defame Judaism. Whatever the exact nature of Ben Sira is, it most certainly was not a serious attempt to explain apparent Biblical contradictions.

Although the original intention for the First Eve story was perhaps not for it to resolve a Biblical contradiction, that still could have been one of the reasons that the story subsequently became so popular among both Jews and Christians. Another reason for the popularity of this myth was that it fit in well with the previous interpretation of the character of Lilith. The two main aspects of Lilith's character before the First Eve story were that of a vampiric succubus and a child-killing witch. Both of these aspects were considered evil, as was the idea of an independent woman.

Also, the First Eve story is quite a dramatic story, illustrating the second-class status of women in a compelling manner, one which is powerful whether one supports such inequality, as did the Jews and Christians of the middle ages up until the twentieth century and most probably also the author(s) of Ben Sira, or whether one opposes it, such as the modern feminists and Neopagans. Furthermore, the First Eve story is the first myth of Lilith that gives Her a more fully-rounded character. Before the First Eve story, She was merely a night demoness, one of many such demons. Although She had more specific aspects than some, She was not a fully-rounded figure with any sort of personality or characteristics beyond Her seducing men in their sleep and Her killing newborn children in the crib. It is no wonder, then, that the most influential part of Her mythos from the middle ages and on has been the First Eve story.

Lilith as the goddess of female sexuality for pleasure's sake is a much more modern interpretation of Her, although it is also based on Her ancient characteristics. As I mentioned previously, the two main aspects of the ancient interpretation of Her were the succubus and the witch aspects. The succubus aspect, obviously, is the one that influences my interpretation of Her as the goddess of female sexuality the most, although the witch aspect has some influence on this interpretation as well. Lilith takes any man She wants at any time She wants (as long as he is asleep). She claims him whether he wants Her or not. The child-killing witch aspect of Lilith can be considered part of this interpretation as well, considering that the result of sexuality is often children, and Lilith is destroying that result (even though the children destroyed are not Her own—though one must remember that according to one version of the legend, she produced thousands of children each day, and part of her curse for leaving the Garden of Eden was the destruction of half of these children daily). She wants sex for sex's sake and not for the sake of perpetuating the species.

The admiration of this aspect of Lilith is in no way condoning the act of women raping or sexually abusing men. Instead, it is similar to admiring Pan for his unrelenting sexuality, although technically many of his "seductions" would be considered rape by today's standards. It is the unrelenting, uncompromising sexuality of Lilith which is being worshipped, not the results on the recipients of said sexuality. A female follower of Lilith should not go around forcing herself on men, just as a male follower of Pan should not go around forcing himself on others, except perhaps in the context of a ritual, in which case it would not truly be force, since the participants will have chosen to participate. One does not emulate the gods blindly, but only to the extent that their behavior is appropriate to human life.

Lilith as goddess of female independence and female sexuality for pleasure's sake can be a powerful goddess for women of today, as well as for men, although most men would relate to Her in a different manner (with the possible exception of some transvestites, drag queens, or other "gender benders," an area which is beyond the scope of this article). For women, She provides a powerful role model for women to follow. Women should not, though, forget Her negative characteristics, such as Her killing of children. These negative aspects can serve as a warning that independence and rage can go too far, becoming destructive and no longer helpful. On the other hand, if women keep these negative aspects in mind, Lilith can be a powerful influence on their liberation.

For men, Lilith is also an image of a powerful woman that they can worship. By respecting and worshipping Lilith, they can learn to admire an independent woman, instead of just a goddess that serves men in the long run. There is always the risk for men, though, that they will worship Lilith but will not accord real life women the same respect.

This tendency for men to put goddesses and idealized women on a pedestal but to treat real women as not quite as human as men is something that both women and men must watch out for. Otherwise the worship of Lilith could be used to keep women in their place, especially if only the sexual aspects of Lilith are considered. There is a tendency for men to want only to liberate women sexually and not in other aspects of their life, merely so that the men can get laid more. Women especially must keep this in mind and rely upon their own Lilith nature in order to demand their equality in all aspects of life and not merely the sexual. Yes, sexual liberation for women is important, but it must not come at the price of complete liberation of women.

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