Wednesday, August 24, 2011

The Stories of Lilith and Persephone

This article is not to offend those who believe in the Christian Bible but yet to educate those about the truth behind the stories of Lilith and Persephone.

We have all heard and know the story of the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, and how Eve was created with Adam’s rib. This is documented in the Christian Bible in Genesis 2:21-22:

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

This states that Eve was created after Adam; however, a full chapter earlier, it documents a previous woman was created at the same time as Adam in Genesis 1:27:

So God created man in his own image, in the image God created he him; male and female created he them.

Here, we see that both man and woman were created equally. Therefore, Eve was not the first woman to be created by the Christian God.

Who is this mystery woman? What happened to her? And why do Christians do not know of her existence and only accept Eve as the first woman? As you read in Genesis 1:27, this woman has no name. She is later known as Lilith, due to language translation from Hebrew to English. The story of Lilith is simple. An elite group of Israelis around 600 AD described that Adam asked Lilith to submit unto him, but she refused. She knew that they were both created equally and she would not bow down to Adam’s will, nor did she expect him to submit unto her. Adam disagreed and Lilith left the Garden of Eden in disappointment. Being the lone human in Eden, Adam prayed to the Christian God that another woman be created. As a result, as you read in Genesis 2:21-22, the Christian God took one of Adam’s ribs and created Eve. Because both Adam asked for Eve and Eve was made from Adam, Eve had to submit to Adam, and she did.

The next story we are familiar with is when the Serpent, on the side of Lucifer, tempted Eve into eating fruit from the tree and later tempted Adam into eating it in Genesis 3:4-6:

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Therefore, punishing them and the future of mankind: men being hunters and laborers while women being nurturers and child-bearers. This is also when the two realized they were nude and bore children to populate the Earth. Because Lilith left Eden prior to all this, there is debate as to whether Lilith was subject to the same punishment. Many think no due to the fact that she did not commit the same crime as Adam and Eve; however, others believe she was guilty of not submitting unto Adam in the first place and must suffer the same consequences as Eve. Some even believe that after the Christian God exiled mankind and the Serpent from Eden, the Serpent found Lilith, whom he tempted to eat the fruit just as he did with Eve, which gave her the same consequences as Eve. Others are skeptical of this due to the fruit did not come from the same tree and the Serpent simply cast a spell on Lilith in spite of his previous attempt. Since this incident, Lilith has sided with the Serpent and why many of the images seen today of her are with a snake and sometimes with fruit. Many confuse the woman with Eve, but this is due to the popularity of the story of Adam and Eve. The Serpent was later named Samael, daemon of the Underworld. His name along with Lilith’s can be seen in the background on the symbol for Satanism, which is a downward-pointing five-pointed star enveloped in a double circle with a goat’s head inside the star. Most believe Lilith became a succubus, a woman of seduction and persuasion, possibly for Samael or Lucifer himself. This could be why she is forgotten as the first woman. According to the story told in the previous paragraphs, Lilith was the first, perfect woman and man rejected her as they were created equally. So she fled to explore the world, only to find the Serpent who has already cursed the future of mankind. The rest is up to debate: whether she stayed a perfect woman and watched over mankind alongside Lucifer all these years or she became a child-bearer like Eve and combined her flesh with the sons of Adam and Eve. There’s also the great possibility that both of these stories could be joined: Lilith and Lucifer have been watching over the future of Lilith’s bloodline. This only proposes one question… who is in Lilith’s bloodline?

To some of you, this whole story may seem a bit familiar if you studied Greek mythology. For those of you who are not familiar with the story of Persephone, she was the daughter of Demeter who was taken to the Underworld by Hades and made Queen, alongside Hades. Obviously, Demeter became very upset drying the Earth and making it full of hunger. Upon trying to retrieve Persephone, Hades tricked her into eating fruit, which it was said that whoever shall eat fruit in the Underworld shall remain there. As a compromise, Hades saw that only six seeds were eaten, letting her be reacquainted with Demeter for six months out of the year. This story was created around 1400 BC, 2000 years prior to when the Israelis conceived the story of Lilith.

There are many similarities between these two stories. Demeter is none other than Mother Nature and creator of Persephone. There are many Pagans who believe that the Creator was a Goddess instead of a God, or possibly both. In either case, we know Demeter was the mother of Persephone and the Christian God was the father of Lilith. Hades represents Lucifer, and possibly even all of his closest, earliest followers, such as Samael. On that note, Hades tricked Persephone into eating fruit just as the Serpent did to mankind, who both fell into temptation. Also, after much geographic research, it is found that the mentioned fruit in the Garden of Eden was actually pomegranate, not apple. This is the exact same fruit mentioned in the story of Persephone. It also has been said that once Persephone became Queen, she became a succubus, just as Lilith did. Upon research, one will find many more minor similarities between Persephone and Lilith. This can only lead to one question… are Persephone and Lilith essentially the same person?