Jewish Lilith ~ Hindu Lalitha? / Celtic Brigid ~ Hindu Kali?

[Guest guest]

Concerning the qualities of Women in the Western tradition, here are some of my

own thoughts:

 

LILITH

 

The real derivation of the name of "Lilith" may stem from the Eastern figure of

Tripura-Sundari, who is also known as "Lalita", "The Playful", or "She who

Ever Desires to Sport with Her Lord"

 

What is the connection between Lilith and Brigid? Sex and Fire, to name

two...Lilith is the incarnation of the sexual power of the Feminine, and Brigid

was definitely connected with sex, it is where we get the word "Breed", as in

"breeding" animals, and Her rites were celebrated orgiastically. The Cross of

Brigid is a fiery Wheel, and Lilith is connected with "the Flame of the

Revolving Sword" that guards the Garden of Eden, and is said to be flaming fire

from the waist down. Brigid has a warrior aspect too, and Lilith is "the Woman

on the Side of Din", or Mars, who is entitled to punish Mankind for its sins

against God, much like the original Jewish "Accuser" who later became twisted

into "Satan" as the one who actively LED man to sin, rather than who kept a

record of Mankind's sins.

 

A very great deal of what is written about Lilith is obviously fabricated to

turn Her into a bogey to scare people away...it is claimed on one hand that She

was "thrown out" of the Garden of Eden, and on the other, that She left because

She couldn't take being treated as less than Adam, well, if She was "thrown out"

then why would God send angels to fetch Her back? And why

was it that they were not able to do so? Possibly because She was too powerful

for them, perhaps?

 

Lilith is connected with Da'ath on the Tree of Life, and is the one who lends

the necessary help to those who wish to cross the Abyss over to Binah. This is

why She is sometimes referred to as "the Handmaiden" of the Shekinah (Binah).

Those who fail to do so are trapped in the shadowy realm of Da'ath, hence Her

title as "Queen of Demons", as Da'ath also leads to the Qliphoth as well. Those

who misuse magickal sexuality find their nemesis here. Most women will

never make it this far, they are too embroiled in their biology, which is the

maya of women. As the Book of the Law points out, surrendering to the Lower

tendencies disqualifies women immediately from the Higher. All connections to

the physical must be relinquished, and this is no less true of women as men, but

the maya of women is more insidious, because it is couched in layers of

sentiment, both public and personal, and biological promptings of a very

powerful kind. A woman has to "kill her heart" in order to make REAL progress.

 

A very good example of this process is the terrifyingfigure of the Tibetan Deity

Palden Lha-Mo, who wears the skins of Her two children to demonstrate Her

relentless dedication to Her role as Supreme Guardian of the Dharma. The reason

Tibet is undergoing such dreadful suffering is because they are paying for

centuries of the lamas' abuse of magickal power...Lha-Mo is not going to

overlook THEIR sins just because She is their Guardian Deity.

 

It is apparent that the Jews hated and feared the sexual power of Woman,

embodied in the figure of Lilith, and demonized it. The reason orthodox Jewish

women are forced to shave their heads and make themselves as "unsexy" as

possible is to suppress their "Lilith" natures... also they are expected to

bear as many children as possible so they will be thoroughly entangled in maya

and be too busy to give any thought to anything outside motherhood. But the

punishing spectre of Lilith returns to them through the all-devouring,

castrating stereotype of the "jewish mother", which is very far from being an

anti-semitic joke, but an all-too-real person.

 

BRIGID

 

http://druidry.org/obod/deities/brigid.html

 

In Britain She is shown as the warrior-maiden, Brigantia, and venerated not only

as justice and authority in that country, but also as the personification of

Britain as is seen on the coin of the realm. There is a story, coming from the

12th century, in which Merlin is inspired by a feminine figure who represents

the sovereignty of the Land of Britain. She causes his visions to reach through

British history, on, so it is said, to the end of the solar system. Taliesin

also describes a traditional cosmology, inspired by Brigantia. She is central to

many heroic myths, especially those concerned with

underworld quests and sacred kingship. This seems to relate to Her concern for

the development of human potential.

 

Her important association with the cow, coupled with its critical necessity in

Celtic culture and history, relates to the festival of Imbolc. This celebration,

which is so completely Hers, involves itself with the

lighting of fires, purification with well water and the ushering in of the new

year (Spring) by a maiden known as the Queen of the Heavens. The significance of

Imbolc is so deep that it deserves an entire section within any work relating to

Brigid.

 

She possesses an unusual status as a Sun Goddess Who hangs Her Cloak upon the

rays of the Sun and Whose dwelling-place radiates light as if on fire.

 

Her stories retain remnants of other Goddesses from the ancient worlds and the

worship at Her later convent at Kildare was said to resemble that of Minerva.

Some of Her symbols are identical to the Egyptian Goddess, Isis. Her embroidery

tools, which are also Minerva's symbols, were preserved at the

chapel at Glastonbury, along with Her bag and Her bell, symbolic of healing. Her

colors - white, black and red - are those of Kali and show an ancient

connection there.

 

In one incident, clearly defining the position of women in this new warrior

class, a woman petitioned Brigid for justice. Her lands and holdings were about

to be taken from her after the death of her parents. Brigid, however, ruled that

it was the woman's decision to either take the land as a warrior, being

prepared to use arms to protect her holdings and her people. If she decided not

to take on this privilege, half her land should go to her tribe. But, if she

chose to hold the land and support it militarily, she was permitted to hold the

land in its entirety.

 

Part of the ancient Mysteries of Brighid have to do with tending the fire of

love. The art of Smithcraft, of which Brighid is Patroness - Goddess, is the

outer and secular form of the ancient alchemical art. The Fire in the Mountain,

see the Tarot card of the Princess of Wands.

 

Thus the 'sword', a life-blade in its literal sense, was 'forged' in the

'hearth' of the Goddess Herself. When considering an ancient Celtic custom, that

the woman armed the young male with his weapons (an example being the tale of

Arianrhod and the arming of Lleu in the fourth Branch of the Mabinogion); one

begins to detect perhaps, an ancient lore concealed

beneath: of an initiation into manhood of a far more inner kind, whereby the

lore of life of the eternal flame of the Goddess passed from an older

Druid-Priestess to a younger Initiate. It is not coincidental that those

responsible for giving birth to each generation were also in charge of

instructing the sons in how to defend that generation. Those who

give life are more reluctant to take it. Perhaps this is also one reason why the

nineteen female Druids dedicated to Brighid lived in seclusion; to maintain

the sanctity of their 'flames' and thereby potentise them. That Brighid's fire

is ashless is worthy of meditation in this regard. It is notable that amongst

the 'fires' revered in contemporary Druidry is the 'fire of creativity' and

anciently Brighid was also considered to be the Patroness of creative activities

such as the Bardic Arts of poetry, music and song.

This brings consideration of the role Brighid plays with regard to all the arts

associated with language in general, including speech, the magick of

invocations and words of evocation, spell-crafting and oath-taking. This is

particularly important, for the satire of the ancient poets contained a baleful

magick, much as their beneficent songs gave forth Magickal blessings. The

interlocking of the two areas of inner fire and outward expression are thus seen

to be harmoniously balanced within the lore of Bride.

 

Brigit was often identified with the new moon, which was viewed as the beginning

of growth. She was the flame itself which ignited the creative thought within

mankind. In earlier times, people would carry an

effigy of the goddess in chariots and then throw it into the sea or a lake to

celebrate her festival, Feile Bhride or Oimlec. To many of her followers, she

was the goddess of fire who was born at sunrise and whose breath could revive

the dead to live again.

 

Brigit is indeed one, like Hekate, represented as triple goddess - Maiden,

Mother and Crone, as well as in the correspondant three aspects, white, red and

black, the synthesis/ASD.

 

The region from the Iberian Peninsula, Gallaecia, is a territory inhabited by

the Celts and its patroness is Brigantia (as the capital of the

region, Braganza (BrUH-gun-TZAH), this name stems from her). Remnants

of fire rituals are still held, like house-size bonfires on new year's

eve all night, or initiatory rituals that remained as traditional feasts, now

reserved only to men/boys (thus going back, and inverted in the patriarchal

process, these rituals were women only).

 

Brigid's connection with the Solar path is inevitable, as the Magna Mater

also brings forth the Sun, and most rites from the region that are

now being taken by the "pagan" minority (basically national-socialists and

social darwinists that like to rip off the ancient traditions) are

solar-oriented; we can find elements such as natural stone formations with

carved footpaths, sacrificial holes carved in the stones with evident vulvar

forms, triskeles and swastikas carved in the stones of romanic churches, certain

regional traditions related to the sacrifice/slaying of the first pig in

winter, etc etc.

 

Various stone sows can be found in the region, also remnants of the fertility

rituals, the Sow being connected with Cerridwen that has been defined as "Old

White One" and "Black Crone" - the animal standing between the two sides of the

abyss. The "White One" is also the one who milks the ewes (another name for

Imbolc is "Oimelc" - ewe's milk, literally) but, behold, a weaver/spinner,

who weaves the (white and black...) wool from the ewes - there are records also

of Saint Brigid being the foster mother of baby Jesus, and in the Thomas

Apocrypha somewhere can be read that a web was woven to protect the infant...

 

Imbolc's celebration, where the Magna Mater watches over Her beloved Son as he

is brought forth with the succession of the seasons, is also a celebration of

union, even if just by the elements of Her fire and the ice that starts to break

and give way to nature's rebirth at this time in the year. This mirrors well her

triple aspect, as Maiden/bride waiting in the bedchamber, the Mother/Lover

revealed in the ritual fire and blood, and the Crone who sheds her

skin behind leaving it with the melting ice. As of shedding the skin, Brigit is

also the Triple Mother graced by the snake, it being a predictor of

the lenght of the remaining winter as it comes from the mound where it

hibernates. Her ally the serpent (symbol of Lilith) that rises from the hidden

earth, and Brigit as the guardian of the wells gives her the whole Cthonian

link to the Magna Mater Cthonia who dissolves ultimately the link between the

solar and cthonian currents, the black earth begetting the (black) sun.

 

Mirroring this with Lilith, where Lilith comes to Adam in a snake form, and

later the serpent that rapes Eve to give birth to the antagonist Cain, we are

facing a cosmogony far more ancient and deep than Celtic and Judeo-

Christian myths.

 

Preparing already for the next take, Lilith is the embodiment of Despair, the

despair of the Mother/lover that wishes to face the Consort in the eye but has

him subjecting her to a lower position, thus her own revolt, and her turning

into a Succubus, more than being an evil vampire sucking the life force of

innocent men, a despaired thing whose love has been disgracefully turned away

and the only thing she can cling to is to feed from dreams and the seed spilt in

dreams. May our own knowledge of Lilith's ordeal help her and us

in the process to free this/these spirits and enable them to look in

the eyes and give them the warm blood in exchange for eternities of

longing. The New Moon, when the carriers of the XY chromosome cannot defend

themselves from Lilith and are ground down, is but the time of overthrow and

cyclical counteract of a conflict.

 

Again, and this is pretty much like the Tower of Babel, to attain the

universality depicted and couldn't-be-more-perfectly shown by the Black

Mother/Son or the bringing forth of RHK, it is urgent and necessary that "they

speak by the same tongue", that the Son bows in worship before the Mother for

She is the ultimate, and absolute power; and he cannot take to full term his

missions without Her grace.

> As the Book of the Law points out, a woman has to "kill her heart" in

> order to make REAL progress.

 

And to obtain her grace, he must restore Her heart...

 

This killing is like the unspeakable mourning of the Mother for the loss of Her

son, a pain that is beyond any human understanding that only those graced by it

are able to know in depth. The very few blessed with the depth and the

absolute of the Hieros Gamos may be able to feel that unspeakable pain

when torn from their consort/lifemate. No real progress can be made from that

point unless the real progress is the labour of Isis, to gather patiently the

pieces of Osiris to bring him again to life, with as much pain as one can bear

gathering the pieces of her own torn heart and avoiding them/him to be eaten by

some nasty thing along the way.

 

Why is Mary depicted with her Sacred Heart bleeding, her guts on display, often

encircled in fire or with a crown of thorns? Nothing but to represent the heart

killed or almost killed, but Mary unlike Isis does nothing to gather body parts

- whereas, there is NO Black Virgin known holding a dead son, for the record:

the Black Mother and the Black Son are ALWAYS depicted in Majesty and Union: She

holds the divine Child in her arms or lap, and Her hand guides his to hold the

Orb of the Universe, but he holds it by the order of HER hand, thus confirming

Her sovereignty. This is ultimately the point to achieve,

not only to kill the heart but to be able to gather the pieces and transfix the

infinite through the tears of the structure and achieve the Union

*after* that process, which is nothing but the Universal succession of

disruptive elements, essential to make ANY revolution possible. Otherwise there

is just stagnation. There is this parallel of the Mourning one in Brigit also:

(quote)

 

The marriage of Brigid to Bres was essentially an alliance to bring peace

between two warring factions. She was of the Danu and he of the Fomorians. With

the intermarriage, war was hopefully averted. Ruadan, Brigid's eldest son, used

the knowledge of smithing given to him by his maternal kin, the Danu, against

them by killing their smith, a sacred position within the tribe. This smith

killed Ruadan before dying himself. Brigid's grief and lamentations were said to

be the first heard in Ireland and were not only an expression

of mourning for the loss of Her son but also for the enmity between maternal and

paternal factions of family. This was seen as the beginning of the end for the

Old Ways. And so, the Irish story of Original Sin was the act against maternal

kinship rather than that of sexuality since sexuality, which brings the sacred

position of motherhood, was seen as positive by the Celts.

 

Sophia

[Guest guest]

Well, I dunno about your OWN thoughts...the piece on

"Lilith" was written by ME some time ago. Glad you

found it worthy to quote! If I recall correctly, it

was part of a letter I sent to a friend who writes for

an occult publication in Europe.

Lilith M.

 

--- sophia witch <sophia_craft wrote:

> Concerning the qualities of Women in the Western

> tradition, here are some of my own thoughts: