Will the real Lilith please stand up?

[Essence]

Ive really struggled with identifying Lilith, through time, religion, history and lore.

But its also true that by trying to connect with her - Ive had some very powerful experiences. My succubus experience happened after using her enn. But it was also driven by the desire to find 'the real Lilith'... although i have to be honest, I was 100% motivated by finding more evidence of the Cult of Inanna, Sacred Prostitution, and any magickal system/practice connected with the goddess.

And it worked! My prolonged and daily visitations went on daily for a couple of months (I think...my days all blurred into one back then).

But then, especially after the experience subsided (its been a few years now and it hasnt resumed :( ), and whilst reading through the Quareia magickal course material, doubts began to arise. I admire and respect the creator of the system, Josephine McCarthy, a great deal. She's from my neck of the woods (Britain), a northener, with a very direct, no-nonsense, no-bullshit attitude. A lifelong practitioner, she worked in service for a decade as an exorcist (a calling she states has a very definite shelf-life due to its draining nature and effects on physical health). The course itself is incredibly extensive: the three levels of apprentice, initiate and adept could easily take as long as a degree to work through, possibly even longer if you hit obstacles to integrate. The course is built to expose you progressively to just enough hazard to toughen you up a bit, but not enough to get you blown up or admitted to a psych-ward. And this isnt an advertisement: the course is free - it just requires your commitment.

So - at some point in the Apprentice course she discusses Lilith - and merely by way of an example of certain forces. She acknowledges the original, earliest root - in her opinion - of Lilith, and the functions she says it performed. But then she goes on to discuss what the 'consensus Lilith' has become. Long story cut short, she believes what people these days are connecting to is somewhat of an imposter, a [very large] parasitic egregore.

I can understand her doubts. The common LHP attitude for many lauds Lilith as anything from a feminist heroine to a vampiric queen of astral fuck-toys. In the middle-east, she was feared as a baby-eater. If you wanted to adhere solely to academia, there are many surviving examples of artefacts against her built to ward off such threats - but by this point in history, we are already far removed from her origin anyway.

As mentioned, I was much more concerned about homing in on any representation or practice that was was not afflicted by patriarchal paranoia and fear of female sexual power, as it seems to have manifested amid ancient Jewish culture. Make no mistake, Ive used many methods of magick that are firmly rooted in Jewish mysticism and sorcery and they have been very powerful and effective. But even Qabalistic practices feel unbalanced - the dark side of the Tree of Life used in the Qliphoth feel like an attempt to incorporate things deviled and not included in the Sephirot (I love the Qliphoth but good sources are few and far between).

We're dealing with things here unfortunately that are incredibly patchy. Not much has survived the test of time and too much has been lost to the sands of the deserts.

The only succubus experience I have had to date, was accomplished by trying to call out to the real Lilith. I realise now that I probably made some assumptions based on what I really wanted to discover. But it did get me a result.

My experience, of having my mind and body blown (no pun intended) for weeks on end, culminated with avery strong vision that exploded from light in my minds eye, where I saw an incredibly noble, regal woman, bedecked in golden attire and jewellry. She was so very beautiful, erotic and sensual, so alluring that I did something that I fear I might regret for the rest of my life: I could have let myself surrender to this vision, and see where it might have taken me, but I didnt. I was so surprised and amazed by this sudden vision, its clarity and voltage, that I backed off. And after that, my visitations began to fade away. Did I create this experience solely from my intense intention and its clarity of purpose? I have no idea. Josephine would have me believe it was a "cross-dressing parasite" (Ive spoken with her about it and - lol - those were her exact words).

Of course, I dont want to agree with that. Putting aside the annoying habit of some to heap attribute after attribute onto the modern conception of Lilith, Im still left with so many questions that I just cant seem to get past.

Ive just been reading a pdf copy of Sexual Alchemy, by Donald Tyson (really wish it was still in print). Right at the beginning - he sort of manages to sum up my original and intuitive understanding of what the passage of time has done so well to cover up and mutate...

Sexual A!chemy is the first book that examines in a detailed way the magic of sex
with spintual beings--this system does not exist anywhere else in its complete form.
It includes complete instructions on how to initiate and sustain satisfying erotic relationships with loving spirits who are the active agents of the Goddess, the creative
mother of the universe.

[tc119]

loving spirits who are the active agents of the Goddess, the creative
mother of the universe.

That might as well be it. Trying to get a precise fix on who they are is like trying to grab a hold of water with bare hands and say "This is water!" Even if you grabbed a container and filled it up with their essence there'd still be all sorts of different forms and states unaccounted for. Water can be an ocean, a stream, vapor, ice, a wave, etc.

As for Lilith, it's just a name. When we call out to succubi for the first time using that name, they know what we intend. As for her being an egrigore - I'm sure that exists somewhere, but I doubt that it has anything to do with what I've been interacting with this past decade. This is too real, too persistent.

Calling them a cross-dressing parasite is standard fare from the Abrahamic types. That includes Christians, would-be psychics, new agers, etc. Don't take their worldview on board unless your goal is to be accepted into those communities. They wont tolerate a man who has an invisible lover. Women in particular get jealous and try to corral a man back into the fold of chasing female validation. You are the one having this experience, not them. They don't have a clue as to what, or who, succubi are; far less than you do.

[Fightersword]

I rather agree with your chosen source of information here about Lilith (and that’s surprising as most people have what I’d consider to be poor sources and poorly thought out opinions), and in fact I’ve written my own blogpost talking a little bit about Lilith. I do differ on the idea of Lilith being an egregore. Yes the LHP and general modern-day interpretations of Lilith are rather juvenile and aren’t accurate to her original mythos (and by extension similar mythoses that may be a source for Lilith), but I think the wide applications and beliefs about Lilith betray a kernel of truth about what she actually is.

The short of it is that I’d describe Lilith as a powerful, feminine archetype, and because Feminine power manifests in so many different ways it’s only natural that very basic and trite interpretations of her will be created. This is how she’s always been, even if the content drastically changes. The trick is cutting through the surface level interpretations and assignations than individuals and groups give to her and seeing what’s actually behind that. Indeed I think that a reason that this archetype is so powerful for making contact with spirit lovers is because the idea of feminine power is so widely applicable and because it so strongly applies to love in particular. We are giving these spirits we call to great control over our lives, our feelings, and our selves and souls by engaging in these relationships. I can imagine little that would be more Lilithian. We inevitably wake up one day to find we cannot live without our spirit lover, however much we may see ourselves as the masculine presence in charge. Perhaps I lead my spirit lover nominally, but there is no aspect of my decision making that isn’t colored by her involvement in some way.

Surely we exhibit influence over them too, but it is perhaps potentially frightening to consider how much sway they actually have over our bodies, our minds, and ultimately our spiritual wellbeing.

Anyway, your understanding of the qliphoth is currently limited, at least from a philosophical perspective. Let me point out a few philosophical understandings I believe I have come to about the tree of life and its reflection/shadow. Note that there are other interpretations that relate more to demonology or alternative worlds and modes of existence, and that I’m not getting into those interpretations here (as I don’t think they’re useful to examine).

1. The qliphoth only exists because knowledge exists.
2. The qliphoth describes the same thing as the sefirot, from a different angle.
3. Every qlippa is a natural logical conclusion of every sefirah. This is obvious when considering thaumiel in particular, as thaumiel is the logical conclusion of considering Kether and is quite easy to arrive at. They are all expressions of duality, of how if one potential use of a concept exists, another use must be possible.
4. Due to the above, If you remove logic/knowledge/individual perspective, and therefore do away with duality, the qliphoth no longer exists. So from the perspective of God, it does not exist, but from the perspective of man, it exists.
5. To reach the divine, one is therefore reducing rather than adding. Higher mysteries are not shrouded by a critical piece of knowledge you lack, but by a critical piece of perspective and knowledge you already have that you have to remove. One does not arrive at the divine, he ceases to separate himself from it (temporarily).
6. No sane spiritual endpoint has one view some sort of divine existence as a goal to be reached and stayed at. You wouldn’t be an individual any more if you accomplished this.