Saturday Goddess Blogging

Last year, my circle of amazing women worked with the Goddess Hygeia. Although once worshiped in temples with a set of rituals that were written down and well-known, today, there is little known about Hygeia and her worship. For my circle, she was the Goddess of Healthy Growth, causing some of us to focus on our physical health (~raises hand~) and helping our circle itself to grow. Some of us (~raises hand~) will continue to work with her at our individual altars and in our daily practice. Yet we were stymied by the lack of information about Hygeia.

This year, my circle is going to be working with Lilith and there's simply an embarassment of riches concerning information about this Goddess. Lilith may have first been associated with the wind in ancient Mesopotamia. It's a serious thing for American witches to invoke an Iraqi Goddess in these times. But we did lots of divination, both before and during our annual retreat and Lilith and her owls kept coming up. She's new to me, and I may focus on her for several sessions of Saturday Goddess Blogging.

According to Wiki: It is said that every mirror is a passage into the Otherworld and leads to Lilith's cave. The cave that Lilith went to after she had abandoned Adam and Eden for all time and the same cave that Lilith took up demon lovers in. From these unholy unions, Lilith birthed multitudes of demons, who flocked from that cave and infested the world. When these demons want to return they simply enter the nearest mirror, that is why Lilith makes her home in every mirror.

I'm going to try this week to remember to acknowledge Lilith every time that I look into a mirror, to honor her feminine energy, her spirit that would not be submissive to Adam. This old folk-practice of the Jews holds within itself, of course, a large message: anytime that a woman looks into a mirror, it's another opportunity for her to see that she is Lilith, that a large part of her being has been forced to flee underground and that there is safety for her from the patriarchy in hiding, especially in hiding her loves and her productions.

Here's a Hymn to Lilith:

I call unto the Lady of the Night
The Succubus, the Queen of Hell's Delight
Night-Mare of Eden, Lamia, First Eve
Lilith, in whom I trust and believe.
Oh, Wise Woman of the Wilderness

Oh, Maiden who disobeys to redress,
Witch-Queen of Midnight in sensual dress,
Who rules over man and his carnal flesh.
She who deserted the Garden of Light,

Who ran into Darkness and found her own Sight
Her power to become more than she was made,
To become a Nightspirited Nymph of the Shade.
Great Lover of men in the full moon light,

Who conceals herself gently within the night
Who inspires the daughters of Eve to rebel
To overcome obstacles, and to excel.
She who found love in the Fallen Angel,

Azazel the Prince, the Commander of Hell
She who revolts against all convention
And whose wisdom is beyond mortal mention.
Oh Lilith, to Thee I give solemn praise

Great Goddess who kills and destroys my malaise
My life and my blood for the Demoness
Whose soul is a night-cloaked, loving caress!

Copyright © 2006 Geifodd.

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