What Feminists Can Learn From The Strength Of Lilith
In Jewish folklore, the history of Lilith remains. To some, she is a demon-breeding vampire. To others, she is an example of female liberation. Whichever you believe to be accurate, one fact remains: She disobeyed the dominance of Adam when he refused to allow her request to lay on top of him during sex. This refusal of power and sexual liberation infuriated Lilith. She insisted that they were equal because God created them both from dust. She abandoned Adam in the garden for solitude and freedom. In theory, Lilith portrays an infant-murdering seductress. With insight, Lilith represents female empowerment and desire. To me, she embodies impeccable strength.
Everyone has a lunar realm called their Black Moon Lilith in their birth chart in astrology. This is the darkest point of the moon and is in isolation from the earth within its orbit. In resemblance to her character, it represents our rebellious side, as well as our kinks and repressed desires. The moon represents the feminine and the mother. There is depth, darkness, and illuminating light within her nature. The moon encompasses the phases of transformation, the consistent cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. She relives creation and destruction without fail. At the same time, she holds the earth’s waters in constant flow. She revisits the continual state of renewal and loss. All while remaining harmonious. Her strength is exquisite. In these phases, the representation of Lilith stays in the darkest point of our depths. It signifies our rawest form, repressed emotions, primitive impulses, and oppressed sexual desire. It’s a place where light can never reach, but liberation lives.
As the moon represents the feminine, the sun represents the masculine in astrology. Our Black Moon Lilith is a place so deep within our shadows the sun’s light will never get there. It’s the point of the feminine the masculine will never reach. This is Lilith, and she lives within us all. In hindsight, her story does represent the modern-day feminist—a story of a woman who proclaimed assertiveness over her own body. Her desire to control her womb is mistaken for the lust for power, when in reality, God gave her control over the womb and the power to decide the fate of creation. God gave her the ability to nurture creation in life, and she feels the accountability to do so. When Adam inflicted dominant control, Lilith had no control over the outcome. Yet, God gave her the power to decide if life should be born. Adam overtook God’s will, asserting sexual dominance over Lilith. Her god-given right was stripped away from her. In essence, Lilith is a mother, nurturer, and sensual. But while the reoccurring fate Adam inflicted against God’s will coarsened her, it allowed her to understand her actual future. She is the true nature of creation and destruction.
The strength of Lilith lives within modern-day feminism. Today, as women, we honor the feminine and her phases. We understand that, like the moon, she possesses lightness and darkness. She experiences life or death through the loss of creation. But within feminism, we embody the lunar realm of Black Moon Lilith. We have searched within our own shadow to understand liberation. We discovered it comes with the fate of destruction. The masculine has yet to understand this shadow or the importance of God’s will. The understanding of God wanting this realm to be a positive experience for his creation. So the masculine continues to plant his energy where it does not need to be through dominance.
The strength of Lilith shows through her ability to embrace her shadow. The rebellion within her. As radical females do today, we welcome our desires to produce change. At the same time, we refuse to let their judgment or control stop us. We will do what we have to do to take back control of our bodies. To create a positive experience for God’s creation and our children.