LadyArikelle's blog: "Miscellaneaous Stories"

The Sumerian Goddess Lilith, Eve's dark sister and first wife of Adam, representative of all that is dark, wild, intensely creative and free in human nature, existing beyond the reach of society's boundaries or control. According to the Talmud, Lilith was the first wife of Adam, before Eve. Lilith refused to lie down for Adam in sexual submission, and fled the Garden of Eden. She went to Yahweh (God) and tricked him into giving his secret name, his name of power. Because Lilith now had power over Yahweh, she demanded he give her wings and she flew to the desert. Adam begged Yahweh to send Lilith back to him and Yahweh sent the three angels Senoi, Sansenoi and Samangloph to find her and bring her back. They found her on the banks of the Red Sea, copulating with demons, and giving birth to hundreds of demon children. She refused to return and was told that she would lose a hundred of her children every day if she did not, but still she refused. Adam was given a new mate: Eve. You know the story, they fell from favour with Yahweh and Adam decided upon celibacy. Then Lilith had her revenge. Every night she came to him as succuba, capturing his semen and making demon babies. In some versions of the legend, Samael, the Demon King was one of these and she took him for her mate and companion. Various legends of Lilith saw her as a threat to children, possibly in revenge for the killing of her own demon babies. Patricia Monaghan says, "Lilith threatened children as well, for she has power over all infants in their first week... Mothers could protect their children however, by hanging an amulet marked 'Sen Sam San" for the protective angels Sensenoi, Samangalaph, and Sanoi" - around the child's neck. "Because she liked her victims smiling she tickled the infant's feet. It giggled, thereupon Lilith strangled it... Mothers were also wary of kites, pelicans, owls, jackals, wildcats and wolves, all disguises favoured by Lilith, who went as well by 40 other names and represented a terrifying power that the Sumerians called Lamasthu, the Greeks Lamia, and other people Gilou, Kishimogin, or Baba Yaga." 1 According to the Farrars, "Lilith was not her original name, which appears to have been lost. She acquired it by identification with the Sumerian 'night hag' Lilitu. As such, she is the 'screech-owl' or 'night monster' of Isaiah xxiv:14." 2 They go on to say, "So much for the blackening process. Lilith (whatever her own name was), is clearly a concept much older than Eve. Whether she was the First Woman, co-equal with the First Man - or farther back than that, the uncreated Primordial Mother who gave birth to the First Man (or the first Male God) and then mated with him - she was totally unacceptable to emerging Hebrew patriarchalism. So Eve was invented - created by a male God out of Adam's male body, as complete a reversal of the natural order as Zeus's giving birth to Athene by swallowing her pregnant mother, Metis." 3 A much deeper interpretation of Lilith appears in Raphael Patai's book, The Hebrew Goddess, where he considers "the Talmudic material about Lilith is complemented by much richer data contained in Aramaic incantation texts" 4, and gives a most wonderful history of Lilith from piecing together the various sources. I'll be adding more about Lilith as time goes on, but for now, if you're interested in her, get a copy of Patai's book! Notes: 1. Patricia Monaghan, The Book of Goddesses and Heroines, Llewellyn Publications, 1993, pp.208-9 2. Janet and Stewart Farrar, The Witches Goddess, Phoenix Publishing Co., 1987, p.131 3. Ibid. 4. Raphael Patai, The Hebrew Goddess, Wayne State University Press, Third Enlarged Edition, 1990, p.224

In the beginning, all was darkness in Nin, the primordial ocean of chaos. And then came a great fire in the heavens and his name was Ra. He created Shu (the air), and Tefnut (the moisture); they in turn created heaven and earth. Nut, Goddess of the sky, and Geb, God of the earth, were filled with desire for each other, knowing that with the union of the ethereal womb of the heavens and the material seed of the earth, all things might be possible. Ra, master of the cosmos, was envious of the potential they possessed, and forbade the union. But with courageous disobedience they soon came together and knew a brief but passionate embrace. When Ra learned of their defiance, a consuming rage came upon him, and he ordered Shu to eternally divide them. To this day, the lonely earth reaches up in arousal, seeking to hold his beloved sky once more. Ra was to slow, however, and their brief union was fruitful: Nut gave birth to four children - brothers Osirus and Seth, and sisters Isis and Nephthys - who became the four cardinal deities of the earth and lords over all therein. Of these four, Isis, Goddess of life, was supreme. Isis is the Mistress of the four elements (terrestrial earth and water, and celestial wind and fire - symbols of the both the divided functions of body and spirit and the rational and creative aspects of the mind). As the will of all the forces of nature, She is the Mother of all life. It is Her power that forges the transcendant, static, ethereal, (the sky) with the immanent, dynamic, material, (the earth) into the unitary miracle of living things. Isis, the great Mother Goddess, exists at the centre of all life. She draws the earth upward, that Her blood might flow down to nourish the four corners of the world. And the seeds of the earth are born upon Her breath, that they might find a home in the desert, and thereby bring the fiery spark of new life to that once desolate place. The oasis in the desert, like life in the cosmos, is a miraculous little jewel, improbable almost to the point of impossible. Only the fourfold energies of Isis that penetrate and intersect at this place, make it so. Isis holds next to Her breast the egyptian symbol known as ankh. It literally translates as life or vitality, but it is also a pictograph of man (head, arms and body). This is the image of mother and child. Like all mothers, she struggles to protect Her children - and cannot. As children grow and wander far from their mother's gentle protection, they must eventually suffer. And like all mothers, Isis suffers the pain of Her children, and suffers in Her helplessness to prevent it. But the passive nurturing power of the Goddess is a component of the life force the She provides to the world. To be sensitive to the energies of nature, is to be attuned to the Goddess and Her transcendant nourishment that informs the needs of both body and spirit. Between the passive and active extremes of the living experience, is the centre wherein one makes contact with the Goddess, and is replenished and sustained by Her life-giving benevolence. It is a central role of the feminine archetype - the Great Mother Goddess - to bring one into this centre, where the transformation occurs. The ancient egyptians tell a story of a spiritual coupling, between Isis and the dead body of Osirus (once leader of the terrestrial Gods, but killed by his brother Seth). From this union came Horus - the living God and supreme Lord of the cosmos. This story appears many, many times across the earth, and across history. Our stories about Gods, are stories about ourselves. And our desire for the miracle benediction of the Goddess, is pervasive indeed: from Cybele (the most ancient deity we know of - who later becomes Ishtar in Persia, Isis in Egypt, Artemis in Greece, and Diana in Rome), to Devaki (the human mother of Krishna - God incarnate on earth),to Queen Maya (virgin mother of Buddha - enlightenment incarnate), to the Virgin Mary (another human mother of a famous God incarnate on earth). Even the Sage-prophet Merlin (from the grand Arthurian tradition - Christianized from more ancient pre-Christian Celtic mythology), is conceived of a virgin mother and a "golden being of light". The promise for us within these stories is that we too can join with the Truth - and become the Sage-Prophet. And the Mother of the Prophet is a virgin because no physical union has occurred; when God penetrates into the soul, it is a purely spiritual act. As the physical feminine brings forth physical life, so, too, does the spiritual feminine bring forth spiritual life. It is through this aspect of the Goddess we hold in our hearts that we are reborn: not merely physical, but now spiritual beings. When one has learned to resonate with and unify those divine elemental vibrations of earth and sky (that is, unify the two halves of consciousness - the terrestrially informed rational and celestially informed creative, the masculine and feminine, and the conscious and the unconscious), then they are invited to fly upon the wings of enlightenment up to a great pyramid of light upon which awaits the Lord Creator of the cosmos.

Aphrodite Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love and beauty. So charming was she that both gods and men found her irresistable She is often shown riding in a chariot drawn by swans while being surrounded by the doves and sparrows that were sacred to her. There are conflicting stories surrounding the mysterious birth of this goddess, according to Homer she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione, but Hesipd gives ua a totally different version. His tale takes us back to the castration of Uranus by his son Cronus. It is said that upon removing the genitals Cronus threw them into the sea, and from the foam that flosted around them sprang forth Aphrodite. It was this beginning that gave the goddess her erotic nature. A third story tells us that Aphrodite sprang naked from the froth of the sea. She rode a scallop shell to the Island of Cythera, but finding the isle to be very small she left and proceeded to Cyprus where she took up residence in Paphos. There she was met by the four Seasons, who draped her in beautiful robes and adorned her hair with flowers. Aphrodite also had many different sides to her personality. She was the sweet laughter loving goddess whom the lonely sought out for help. To all that saw her she was beauty personified. There would be no joy or loveliness without her, for her every movement filled the air with song. But some saw her as treacherous and malicious, having a bewitching power over men that more times than not brought about their own destruction. Ironically, she was wed to Hephaestus, who was lame and considered to be the most unattractive of all the Olympians . This marriage was not of her own choice, but arranged by Zeus in order to keep Aphrodite out of trouble. The goddess of love did not take her wedding vows seriously and was accustomed to having many affairs with both gods and men. A constant companion of Aphrodite was Ares, the god of war. It was common knowledge on Olympus that Aphrodite was anything but faithful to her husband, and one night while visiting Ares in his Thracian palace made the mistake of staying too long in his bed. As the god Helios was rising across the sky he caught a glimpse of the two lovers and reported what he saw to Hephaestus. Feeling very hurt and angry, the god of fire stood before his forge and hammered out a bronze hunting net which he secretly fastened to the posts of his marriage bed. Aphrodite returned from her liaison with Ares, telling Hephaestus that she had been away in Corinth conducting business. Pretending to believe her, he excused himself explaining that he was leaving to tend to his own affairs on his favorite island of Lemnos. As soon as Hephaestus was out of sight, Aphrodite sent word to her lover Ares to come and join her for an evening of romance. The two went happily to bed, but at dawn they found themselves hopelessly trapped in the net of bronze. Hephaestus, returning from his trip found the scandalous pair naked and unable to escape. To add to their humiliation, the bitter husband summoned the other gods to come and be a witness his dishonor. All except for the goddesses attended for they found the whole thing to be in poor taste. As the Olympians stood and stared at the tangled couple, Apollo with a nudge said to Hermes "You would not mind being in Ares' position would you, net and all?" Hermes agreed with a smile and replied that he would not mind even if there were three times as many nets and all the goddesses watching with disapproval". Both gods laughed at the prospect, but Zeus saw no humor in the situation. Hephaestus insisted that he would not release Aphrodite from the trap unless Zeus restored to him the marriage gifts that he paid for his unfaithful wife, but Zeus refused to get involved in the quarrel of a husband wife. Instead, he scolded Hephaestus for being foolish enough to turn a private disagreement into a public scandal. Poseidon was totally captivated by Aphrodite's beauty and wanted very much to have her for himself. He pretended to take pity on Hephaestus and offered to intervene on his behalf. The sea god loudly proclaimed that Ares should be the one to repay the wedding gifts back to Hephaestus, since it was he not Zeus who was caught frolicking with Aphrodite. Hephaestus agreed, but under the condition that should Ares default Poseidon should have to take his place under the net. Not wanting to appear too eager, Poseidon proclaimed nobly that he trusted Ares to keep his word. If in the slim chance that he did not, the sea god swore he then would marry Aphrodite himself. This brought about more laughter from Hermes and Apollo who were having no problems seeing through Poseidon's scheme. Ares was set free and returned to his home in Thrace, while Aphrodite returned to Paphos where she performed a sea ritual to restore her virginity. Because of Hermes' flattering remarks, Aphrodite consented to spend the night with him which produced Hermaphroditus, a child having both male and female reproductive organs. She also favored Poseidon with a night of love as a reward for all of his help. She bore him two sons, Rhodus and Herophilus. The marriage gifts were never repaid to Hephaestus, for Ares decided if Zeus was not obligated to pay than neither was he. Hephaestus soon forgot the whole ordeal, as he was madly in love with Aphrodite and like so many others was blinded by her intriguing beauty. It is Aphrodite who is usually carries the blame for bringing about the start of the Trojan War. It seems that all the Olympians were invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis except Eris, the goddess of discord and her brother Ares. Taking this insult to heart, Eris set out to bring turmoil to the couple's happy day. During the wedding feast, she rolled into the banquet hall a golden apple with the inscription "To The Fairest". Naturally all the goddesses thought themselves worthy of the prize and before long a giant squabble broke out among the guests. Soon the choices were narrowed down to just three; Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. The goddesses paraded before Zeus, requesting that he should be the judge of their contest and award the apple to the one most deserving of the title. Zeus, being too wise to involve himself in such a thing, quickly suggested they journey to Troy where Paris, the son of King Priam could be found tending sheep on Mount Ida. Because of a prophecy warning the King that Paris would one day bring about the ruin of Troy, he sent the boy away to live as a shepherd. Paris took for his wife a nymph named Oenone and together they enjoyed a happy life. As Paris was busy tending to the flocks, before his eyes appeared the three goddesses accompanied by Hermes, the messenger of the gods. Paris was told by Zeus' herald he was to award the apple to the fairest of the Olympian trio. To try and better her chances at winning each goddess offered Paris a bribe. Hera promised if he picked her she would make him Lord of Europe. Athena promised if he picked her she would raise Troy up in victory against the Greeks, leaving all Greece in ruins. But Aphrodite, understanding the desires of young men, promised that if Paris picked her she would give to him the most beautiful woman in the world to have as his wife. Without hesitation Paris handed the apple to Aphrodite, totally unaware that his decision had just condemned Troy to death and ruin. For the most beautiful woman in the world was Helen of Greece and she was already bethrothed to Menelaus, the King of Sparta. Never giving Oenone another thought, Aphrodite whisked Paris off to Sparta to claim his new bride. At first the unsuspecting Menelaus welcomed Paris as his guest, and soon the two swore a bond of allegiance to each other. Trusting the situation, Menelaus left on a journey to Crete, leaving Paris alone in the palace with his wife. When the King returned, both Paris and Helen were gone. The betrayal pierced the heart of Menelaus like a sword, and he at once called upon his brother King Agamemnon of Mycenae to come to his aid. Word spread throughout Greece, and soon an envoy of vessels were assembled and ready to sail upon Troy. The battle raged for ten years and cost both sides many lives, but strangly the end finally came in the shape of a wooden horse. The Greeks fashioned out of wood a giant horse that stood on a wheeled platform. A group of Spartan soldiers climbed inside and hid in the hollow stomach while the horse was left outside the city gates in hopes that the Trojans, thinking it was a peace offering would wheel it inside the fortress. That is exactly what they did. During the night when the city was asleep, the Spartans climbed out of the belly and opened the gates of Troy allowing their comrades to enter. The unsuspecting Trojans were taken by surprise, and the once powerful city was burnt to the ground. Her men were slaughtered and her women taken as slaves. Only a pile of rubble remained of what was once the great empire of Troy. Paris was killed and Helen was returned to Menelaus, who forgave her and brought her back to Sparta as his wife. So ended the Greek's ten year siege on Troy, which began with the vanity of a goddess and ended with the pride of a King.