Lilith: Lover of Everything, Mother of the Moment

The widespread depiction of Lilith as demonic has served to exile one of the most essential feminine archetypes from our sacred imagination. Yet through a metaphysical lens, Lilith becomes deeply inspiring- an embodied transmission of a layer of reality too often missing from the Universal story. Perhaps she is the underpinning to the undergarments, the intimate mystery beneath every mystical map. She lies beyond the reach of the realm of mind.

Lilith is an archetype of woman altogether different from Eve. Where Eve is fashioned from Adam’s side, Lilith emerges on her own terms. She is pure feminine, unformed by man, unmediated by the system. She makes love to G-d directly- not to produce anything, not as a means to an end, but for the sake of union itself. The act is not generative in the linear sense- it lives entirely in the now, and is thus purely and radically alive. This wild aliveness, spontaneous creative lifeforce, is Lilith.

In the Alphabet of Ben Sira, a medieval midrashic text, G-d sends angels to retrieve Lilith after she flees Eden, refusing to lie beneath Adam. But He instructs them: she must come only if she wishes. Why?

When the angels arrive, Lilith tells them, “I have already made love to the Great Demon.” My interpretation (meaning, what I find to be self-evident in the text) is that it is because G-d has just made love to her. Her lover- called “the Great Demon” in that text- is none other than G-d cloaked in shadow.

G-d, basking in the afterglow of that union, sends the angels with tenderness, not coercion. He doesn’t want her to go to Adam. He wants her for himself. Yet, needing to continue the story, He creates Eve- formed from Adam, more subservient, more conditioned. Where Eve is subservient, Lilith is submissive, receptive- and entirely fluid in her ability to command. Where love with Lilith is pure transmission, Eve’s is transactional.

The "great demon" is not evil. It is simply G-d (Kind of fun that, playfully, G-D stands for Great Demon) cloaked in a frequency low enough to make love to Lilith. Darkness, in the mystical tradition, is not the opposite of light but its necessary complement- the hidden or less revealed face of G-d. The Achoraim.

Lilith is the lover of G-d.

G-d adores her because she is wild about Him. She submits, not from duty but from divine desire. She welcomes Him wholly, and He, in turn, cherishes her utterly. She is the pulse of radical lifeforce.

And what, then, of the stories that say Lilith kills babies?

Yes, some declare her a demon for this. In the Talmud (Shabbat 151b), she is referenced as a night demon who endangers infants. Amulets bearing the names of angels- Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof- were used to protect newborns from her. These fears were encoded in ritual magic, in folklore, in incantation bowls unearthed in ancient Babylonia.

But there is another truth.

Psychologically, one might say this behavior is born of her rejection- an outcast acting from distortion. But from the metaphysical plane, something else is revealed.

Lilith is the divine feminine in its purest form: present consciousness, infinite fertility, the eternal now. Fertility, in this sense, is not defined by what it produces. It is the state of perpetual creative readiness- moment-to-moment presence, unbound by outcome.

In the linear world, when sperm meets egg, we cross into conception. But Lilith is not linear. She is the fertile void. In her, each moment is creation, and then- immediately- it is gone. The seed is not carried forward, it is consumed by the next moment’s birth. To remain fully in the now, one must allow the last creation to die.

Each moment is so total, it lives a whole life unto itself, and passes away, replaced by the next 100% Now- Totality.

That is what it means that Lilith “kills the babies.” It is not destruction. It is the radical renewal of presence.

It is akin to the Zen teaching: “If you see the Buddha on the road, kill him.” If you cling to the image, you lose the truth. If you cling to the child of creation, you are no longer in the creative pulse.

Lilith gives birth, and then returns to zero. She is entirely vertical.

The divine feminine is a vertical axis.
Not linear, not accumulated. It is the axis mundi- the infinite channel through which the void becomes form, and form returns to void. The Ein Sof, the womb of the world.

It is said she even eats the babies. This sounds the most demonic of all. And yet, seen rightly, it may be the most divine. She does not rely on creation to fulfill her. She is self-sufficient, self-nourishing. As she births, so she devours. This is not grotesque- it is the image of a presence so full that it asks for nothing. It is the ouroboros, the eternal feminine cycle of fullness and dissolution.

Lilith is not here to validate herself through what she produces. She needs no feedback. No approval. No success. She is for her own sake.

The realm of constant creation and the realm of pure presence are one and the same. This is the palpable feminine. This is Lilith.

It is Lilith’s continual activity- her endless birthing and dissolving- that gives consistency to Shechinah, the feminine face of G-d. Without Lilith, Shechinah would have no movement, no pulse. Lilith is the thrum beneath the radiance. She is presence in motion. And this motion is a deathless cycle.

Because in this realm, there is no death. Only reabsorption.

Imagine an apple, blossoming out of the void- one at a time- and being eaten, incessantly. Over and over. This is the nature of the feminine plane. Creation is constant. Birthing is endless. And nothing dies, because everything is consumed. And so, there is always fullness.

That fullness is Presence itself.
That fullness is Abundance.

In this realm, the apple is not planted with the hope that it will grow into a tree. It is eaten at inception.

This is the rhythm of pure presence. This is the law of the vertical. That which is born is also consumed, and that which is consumed is made new again- unceasingly.

In Lilith’s realm, this is how it goes.

She is the radical unbound feminine.
She is what transforms. What creates change- not by forcing, but by being.
She is what sees.
She is what hears.
She is what births anew from the void.

From this view, Lilith is not evil. She is not even good. She is alive- unapologetic, uncompromising, uncomplaining.

She is Life Alive.

How do I know this?

Because I have been her.

At the foundation of our being, we are all her.

I have lived her. And I recognize her when she is spoken of with truth.

Hearing of Lilith is like hearing a description of my essential self. I know her like I know the inner terrain of my own body- its pulse, its truth, its aliveness.

And I feel her now.
In this breath.
This moment.

Shemama

I propose, it is a huge game of call and response that we’ve been botching for quite some Time now. We have not quite caught on to the game. 

It’s like we’re all splashing around in the pool, the universe shouts out “Marco!” and we’re all, “Marcoooooo!”

Alchemistry.

Gratitude is love entering the body in whatever form and, if not clung to, exiting the body- as gratitude. Pain comes through the body and if not clung to, held onto, identified with, it passes through the body and comes out as forgiveness. 
Success held becomes fear. Allowed, it becomes humility.

Humility is love. 

God Naked.

G-d's will is the unraveling. we are not the thread, the story, the unfolding little thruline of consequence. i am the naked body. i am the hand. i am undone by all that is i. i am what happens. i am the lover. i am open to everything. 

Pregnant With Conciousness.

Lemme just say that considering what has been glimpsed by many, lived within by a few, a consciousness that is as different from mundane consciousness as a hair's width from an avenue block. As different as reading a map is from arriving there. Considering that to be what this planet is pregnant with, it being usually an unwitting mother, no idea of what her womb contains- just like Mary, though she probably had some hunch- just like, well, the unfortunately uneducated teen who doesn’t know she’s pregnant at all, or even what that might mean. That’s the planet for now-

A Candle and a Feather.

-Tonight, there is the practice of the Candle. The Feather. We open our inner-most cupboards and take  i n - v e n t o r y  -

Beneath consciousness we hold on before acting, speaking, expressing our Beings- analyzing how it might be taken in, what might people think, what has happened in the past? Has someone said something bad or against what you may do, before? Have you messed up doing it the past? Yikes. All of these factors- most of them having very little to do with this very moment and what is wanted in this particular situation, room, company, nowness. We hold on, not trusting the contents of our own inner-cupboards, pantries, rooms. Our own inventory in the dark places. Who knows what might be in there? How am I to let in guests? How am I to feed of the contents of this being freely, lovingly, with abandon, without self-consciousness, reticence, apology- false humility?

And so we take inventory. Without fear (or including it) we boldly face what is in the corner cupboards. We see it and the space it is taking up. We  i l l u m i n a t e  it with the flame that the soul is. (“The human soul is G-d’s candle").

And how do we treat it? With the feather. The gentlest touches. No Brillo here, no bleach. Illumination and a softness beyond kindness. A  g e n t l e n e s s  that bends to anything. A melting. A give. A complete letting go. The extent to which we can surrender this being and let through all the action, love, words, silence that wants through us to express the presence of Truth, of Shechinah, G-d… is beyond fathomability.

It is what we are called upon here to do. See everything so we can release, let go, and let the work of the Feather, through.

 

"I release and I let go, let the spirit run my life. And my heart is open open wide,

'cause I’m only here for G-d.

 

No more struggles, no more strife, through my faith I see the light, and I’m free with the spirit,

'cause I’m only here for Love."

 

Passover Haggadah, 2015: http://bit.ly/1hzyXpe

The Floppy Tzaddik

There was once a great great embodiment of the Tzaddik We All Are*, known for towns and towns around, far and wide. He was one known to be very wise and free; one whose presence within which others access their own Wise Freedom. He was considered a great teacher.

He had a very particular walk, completely surrendered to G-d, his walk was more of a flop, head back much of the time. He looked as if he was being walked, and his heart was always leading. One day he was being walked down a path, open wide and dancing his dance, when he spotted someone just in front of him and to the right walking in an almost identical way. 

The Bind that Frees.

The 'i' offers itself up in a defined wave of specificity and uniqueness, to then reimmerse into a wordless sea in which all that was said is silently known. Where all simply is. The silent knowing of which all of language and life is in service; creation’s sole purpose being its revelation- to both reveal and revel in it.

If you would now, wherever the wave of your existence might be expressing its distinction at this moment, consider slightly turning upwards the corners of your lips, allowing the eyes to soften, the heart to sssssh, and the mind to melt for this moment so you might resemble the sea and find yourself reflected.

Here, there is nothing for you to believe.

Nothing here to ponder.

Take it in with your heart. Let it softly consider itself then let it go along with everything else you can think of. If just for this moment. 

For truth, truly cannot be thought. Only directly experienced.

It is beckoning now that we waves surrender our distinction of mind and thought and immerse ourselves back into our own waters. 

 

 

Bring Them Cookies.


If we would be miraculously given a transcript of our sub-conscious thoughts, we would be shocked by the amount of shadow-boxing happening, trying to figure out what other people think of us, and then defending our position against what we think they think of us - shadow boxing. We can take off the gloves. We needn’t know. We can’t know. And engagement of the mind in this activity is brutal.

It gets in the way of being who you’d have them think you are, anyway!

All we can do is begin to become aware of our sub-conscious thoughts.

Notice them, like children wrestling.

When an adult enters the room, they stop.

So be of witness. A compassionate and loving parent.

Ssssssssssh, you say. Get up, I’ve made cookies.