PART TWO: RECLAIMING LILITH

Session 5:

Do I have to choose between Lilith & Eve?

INTRODUCTORY READING:

Introduction—Birth Mother by Monette Chilson (p. 9)

INVOCATION (open your time together using a sound element—singing bowl, chant, drum, etc.)

OPENING CIRCLE (sit in silence for one minute, palms touching each other’s)

OPENING QUOTE

“Female resistance is dangerous. It is also necessary. For far too long the Western Judeo-Christian stigma of Eve as the downfall of humankind has served to oppress women, silence our voices, desecrate our power, annihilate our very existence. As an archetype of female strength and sovereignty, Lilith is the missing link in our spiritual mitochondria. Inviolable. Self-defining. Autonomous. She reminds us that we can, and must, resist any and all attempts to silence our voices, diminish our strength, erase our lived-experience. Original Resistance: Reclaiming Lilith, Reclaiming Ourselves is a veritable feast of artwork, poetry, and prose by visual artists and writers from a wide range of ethnicities, cultures, and countries around the world. It nourishes the soul and inspires us to embrace the wild beauty of our nature, and dance with abandon. Ultimately, it urges us to remember and reclaim our right—our duty—to resist all attempts to oppress and subvert our innate power. Like Lilith, it calls us to denounce the patriarchally-enforced feminine role of subservience, and restore our rightful place in the world.” 

—Mary Saracino

EXPLORATION: DO I HAVE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN LILITH & EVE?

In this fifth session, we continue venturing into Part Two of our study—Reclaiming Lilith—allowing ourselves to look critically at the two primary “first female” paradigms in Western society. After embracing Lilith as teacher in our last session, we look at Lilith and Eve—competing paradigms of femininity—and begin to interpret them for ourselves.

SUGGESTED READINGS (go around the circle, allowing all participants a chance to read)

Note: These pieces where chosen because they speak to the feminine archetypal connundrum, “Do we have to choose between Lilith and Eve?” Participants may read the piece in its entirety (if short) or an excerpt (if longer). The reader can select the passage(s) if excerpting. If time/resources exist, you may also project the selected image on a screen, making sure you credit the artist.

Lilith Eve, a Child and a Woman for our Tomorrows by Lizette Galima Tapia-Raquel (p. 88)

Eve by Lucy Pierce (p. 102)

Lilith & Eve by Luisah Teish (p. 133)

Daughter of Lilith by Tamara Albanna (p. 99)

Garden of Eden (image) by Asia Morgenthaler (p. 57)

WRITING PROMPT

Do I have to choose between Lilith and Eve?

JOURNALING TIME (15-20 minutes of silence to write on the prompt)

CIRCLE SHARING (optional, not mandatory; can set a time limit if desired)

CLOSING CIRCLE (sit in silence for one minute, palms touching each other’s)

BENEDICTION

Excerpt from Lilith & Eve by Luisah Teish (from suggested readings above):

“The Genesis myth is a myth in a world of myths. It is not the myth of the world. More likely, it is the story of a culture imposing itself upon another with dire consequences for Woman, her self-image and her place in the culture.”

Note: Merlin Stone’s When God Was a Woman offers a full history of patriarchal invasions. Our next session will open with a quote from this book.