Feminist Lillith Perspective

These days, one of the most powerful archetypes being revived in feminist religion is Lilith, archetype of the "dark" inner feminine. For ages she had been cast aside and denigrated by patriarchal religion as a demoness, but now she is being looked at with renewed interest. To anyone following Lilith's career, it would be interesting to learn how she already had been rehabilitated centuries ago in Islamic Sufi guise. She is known to Muslims as Layla — of Layla and Majnun fame.
Both names come from the same ancient Semitic root meaning 'night'. The old Akkadian form of her name was Lilitu, from the root L-Y-L, with the feminine ending in -t; it took the form Lilith in Hebrew. The Arabic name Laylá is from the same root with a feminine ending often used in Arabic girls' names.
Lilith was no doubt a survival from prehistoric Middle Eastern goddess religion, who was demonized and became only a memory under patriarchal religion. Her reputation has taken on the meaning of the "dark side" of the Feminine. The usual pattern when a new religion takes over is to turn the previous religion's deities into demons as that side of their psyche becomes repressed. Psychologically, Lilith's archetype of the Dark Feminine (known in Shaktism as Kali Ma) became a sewer where the patriarchal religion dumped all their repressed negativity against the Feminine.

Layla . . . listen to the Arab singers. In every other song they forsake the lyrics and just sing a chorus of "Ya Layl, ya Layl, ya Laaaayyyyl...." O Night!
Living in the modern civilization as we do, we are never out of the reach of electric lights bleaching out the night. Put yourself in Layla's Arabia, in the middle of the desert. On a moonless night, there is NOTHING. No dunes, no camels, nothing. Everything merges into the formless.
This represents the Unmanifest, the aspect of Allah that does not enter into creation. In relation to the world, God's attribute al-Khaliq, the Creator, is masculine. But God's reality is not exhausted by creating, and beyond creation there is the Unmanifest. The Divine Feminine that the Sufi poets address with women's names . . . like Layla.
The "dark side"? In Sufism, the "darkness" of Layla does not come across as something nefarious or threatening. It can even be luminous-the experience of the "Black Light" (see Henry Corbin, The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism). Or like the "black shawl" of the Prophet . . .whom the Sufis sometimes call the "kali kamaliya vala" (the one wrapped in the black blanket) in their qawwalis. The Sufis also link this to the kamal posh. . .the prehistoric Sufis (a mystical brotherhood that existed from prehistory and served in the roles of teachers and divines). The Prophet's prayer rug was also black, as was the first flag of Islam.
Layla, as used by the Sufis, means the power of love. It is the dark feminine that loves in equal measure, that returns love, that draws one out of oneself and into the hâl (ecstatic state) of love. She intoxicates, makes one indifferent to the world, singular of purpose, enfolds and yet retains her mystery, her hiddeness. . . her darkness. A single glimpse of her reality intoxicates (as when Majnun sank into the depths of love at a glance of her toes, revealed underneath the hem of her gown).

Considering the history of religions, notice how a new one that takes over recasts the old deities as demons. For example, in Wyoming there is a tall rock formation with vertical grooves that the American Indians regarded as a sacred place; the Lakota name is Mato Tipila (The Home of the Bear). But the white man could find no better name for it than "Devils Tower." The Vedic gods (deva) are Avestan demons (div), while the Avestan gods (ahura) are Vedic demons (asura). Tit for tat!
In my own lifetime, I have heard the uninformed opinion of certain Indian Muslims that Kali is the very Devil. (They never bothered to inquire and find out the significance of Kali in the Shakta faith, they just react to her appearance.) So we have heard the Israelite version of Lilith as a demon, but what about her original status in the prehistoric religion before the People of the Book came along? Kâli is Urdu for black. Maybe an analogy with Kali would help to see this integration. On one hand, as Uma/Parvati/Durga she represents the loving side of the Feminine, while as Kali she shows the fierce side. But to Shaktas they are all seen as integrated aspects of the whole concept of Devi.
In Christianity and Islam, something went wrong. Jesus and Muhammad were very kind to women and tried hard to remove patriarchal oppression of them. But after them, their followers reinstated patriarchal misogyny full force. However, feminist mystics like me can still retrieve the original feminist spirit from the source of the religion and bring it back to the forefront.
The good news is that Sufism has recovered and reintegrated the Dark Feminine side in the person of Layla, whose name comes from the same Semitic root as Lilith, meaning 'night'. Layla is the name for God as a beloved Woman in Sufi poetry, and Her name shows the embrace of the positive side of the night as the Dark Mother, the love that overwhelms and heals the fear of the darkness. Kali means 'black' and Lilith/Layla refers to the blackness of night, the power of the ultimate Divine Feminine to dissolve all forms.
We must adore the Divine Feminine in all women and must never give into the temptation to demonize women. We have to recognize clearly how stories of demonesses have been used to oppress the status of women instead of exalting their Shakti. We have to look very deeply within ourselves to make sure we are not repressing the Dark Feminine to where it turns into attacks on women. The resurgence of the Feminine is gaining strength these days, people! Patriarchy is rapidly crumbling. Religions will no longer be able to keep women down. There is no force on earth more powerful than awakened women. The repressed Dark Feminine represented by Lilith has already been restored and rehabilitated, reintegrated within the psyche by Sufism. This example may be of value to spiritual feminists who are reviving the positive meaning of Lilith for women today.
"By the One who created the male and the female" (Qur’an, Surat al-Layl [the Night], 92:3).