A companion volume to Anderson's award-winning first book of poetry, Thorns of the Blood Rose, these poems were selected by the author before his death to be contained in the present collection. Picking up where the first book left off, the poems explore themes of love, death, the beauty of the natural world, and devotions to the Goddess and God in their many guises. Some of the poems which were deemed too scandalous for inclusion in the previous work are published here for the first time.
This first collection of Judith Plaskow's essays and short writings traces her scholarly and personal journey from her early days as a graduate student through her pioneering contributions to both feminist theology and Jewish feminism to her recent work in sexual ethics. Accessibly organized into four sections, the collection begins with several of Plaskow's foundational essays on feminist theology, including one previously unavailable in English. Section II addresses her nuanced understanding of oppression and includes her important work on anti-Judaism in Christian feminism. Section III contains a variety of short and highly readable pieces that make clear Plaskow's central role in the creation of Jewish feminism, including the essential "Beyond Egalitarianism." Finally, section IV presents her writings on the significance of sexual ethics to the larger project of transforming Judaism. Intelligently edited with the help of Rabbi Donna Berman, and including pieces never before published, The Coming of Lilith is indispensable for religious studies students, fans of Plaskow's work, and those pursuing a Jewish education.
This book is a conversation about ritual. About the twisting of tongues and the depths of a common lie. This book tells the story of lilith, mother of demons and sister to mankind. Her offspring and their children. A conversation about life and death in this endless void of hope. Poems for the many and words for the misunderstood. The breaking of laws for the needs of the few. Chaos over control with a foundation made of self pity. This is the word love across the lipps of a liar, and I am one of one, I am legion.
Tales of terror and the supernatural hold an honored position in the Jewish folkloric tradition. Howard Schwartz has superbly translated and retold fifty of the best of these folktales. Gathered from countless sources ranging from the ancient Middle East to twelfth-century Germany and later Eastern European oral tradition, these captivating stories include Jewish variants of the Pandora and Persephone myths.
In Lilith's Fire, Grenn-Scott examines why and how modern women are still demonized-identified as "bad" for actions perceived as reasonable for men, through techniques used for thousands of years-and how women have started to reverse this tendency by redefining right and wrong. Demonization, she notes, has been effective: controlling, manipulating and dividing women to keep them powerless, pitting Lilith against Eve, "good girl" against "bad girl"; and as a means of keeping one group, religion or idea dominant over another. In dismantling this technique, the author shows that portrayals of women as innately evil undermine the self-confidence of all women, and in turn their ability to take risks, assume leadership or claim power, from bedroom to boardroom. She provides strong models for women of a more proud, sensual, confident way of being; along the way, she poses difficult questions, such as: How can women become more aware that they have choice? Do we give our religious and spiritual leaders too much power? How do we make change, in our own lives and in the world? What forms of social action are most effective? Lilith's Fire opens a dialogue that the author hopes may lead to some answers, as it offers women a transformational tool to help them recognize, appreciate and draw on the strength and creativity of their own lifeforce, the first step in creating positive change.
Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- PART I Demons in Christianity -- 1 Augustine and Aquinas on the Demonic -- 2 The Demonic Body: Demonic Ontology and the Domicile of the Demons in Apuleius and Augustine -- 3 Christian Demonology: A New Philosophical Perspective -- 4 Women as "the Devil's Gateway": A Feminist Critique of Christian Demonology -- PART II Non-Christian Conceptions of Demons -- 5 Socrates's Demonic Sign (Daimonion Sēmeion) -- 6 The Ecological Demon: Silent Running and Interstellar -- 7 Demons of Seduction in Early Jewish Literature -- 8 The Jinn and the Shayātīn -- 9 Māra: Devā and Demon -- PART III Demons and Epistemological Issues -- 10 Justified Belief in the Existence of Demons Is Impossible -- 11 Esoteric Spirituality, Devils, and Demons: Introducing the Gnostic Vision of Modernity -- 12 Re-Enchantment and Contemporary Demonology -- PART IV Demons in Moral and Social Philosophy -- 13 Whedon's Demons: The Immorality of Moral Clarity and the Ethics of Moral Complexity -- 14 Modern Representations of Evil: Kant, Arendt, and the Devil in Goethe's Faust and Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita -- 15 The Politics of Possession: Reading King James's Daemonologie through the Lens of Mimetic Realism -- Notes on Contributors -- Bibliography -- Index
This reference offers reliable knowledge about women's diverse faith practices throughout history and prehistory, and across cultures. Across the span of human history, women have participated in world-building and life-sustaining cultural creativity, making enormous contributions to religion and spirituality. In the contemporary period, women have achieved greater equality, with more educational opportunities, female role models in public life, and opportunities for religious expression than ever before. Contemporaneously with this increased visibility, women are actively and energetically engaging with religion for themselves and for their communities. Drawing on the expertise of a range of scholars, this reference chronicles the religious experiences of women across time and cultures. The book includes sections on major religions as well as on spirituality, African religions, prehistoric religions, and other broad topics. Each section begins with an introduction, followed by reference entries on specialized subjects along with excerpts from primary source documents. The entries provide numerous suggestions for further reading, and the book closes with a detailed bibliography.
An anthology of essays that deal with Witchcraft and the figure of the Witch, as they have been presented in motion pictures, television, and popular culture, in order to understand how, why, and when the common anti-Witchcraft/ anti-Witch attitude evolved. Mainstream tales of Witchcraft, including modern movies, novels, TV series, and other examples of our popular culture, more often than not express the traditional notion of a Witch as a wild, dangerous, untamable, “nasty” woman, obsessed with a desire for power to control all around her, in most narratives such a hunger presented as a negative. In truth, The Witch is a symbol of 'threatening evil' only to those men and women who accept a conservative sensibility. For members of either gender who do not, The Witch is perceived as hero and role model. This collection begins with the Biblical figure of Lilith, followed by Morgan le Fey from Arthurian legend/ myth in literature as well as in popular culture, followed by the more contemporary depictions of the Witch that start to appear in the 1960s; for example, in the Bewitched sitcom, the Star Wars franchise, Harry Potter, and even the television show Scooby-Doo. International depictions of the Witch are discussed, including Italy's Dario Argento's films, Suspiria and Inferno. The final section of this collection focuses on the most iconic depictions of the Witch produced during the 21st century, including A Discovery of Witches, Penny Dreadful, Game of Thrones and the history of the Witch in films by the Walt Disney studio, from its origins more than a century ago to the latest releases, arguing that here, if perhaps surprisingly, we discover the most fair and balanced portraits of Witches in the history of film and TV.
An ancient vampire, beautiful beyond words, a vulnerable young man drawn to her by a power beyond his understanding, two desperate parents searching across the world for the son they love -- these are the riveting, unexpected elements of Whitley Strieber's extraordinary new novel. Lilith, the ages-old mother of the dying race of vampires, has been forced to come out of her cave deep in the Egyptian desert in search of food -- human blood. But she knows nothing about the modern world. She can't drive a car, rent a room, turn on a TV. She struggles to New York, penniless, vulnerable, and starving, protected only by her beauty and her power to capture men with desire...especially certain very special men. The instant she sees young Ian Ward, she knows that he is part vampire himself. She knows that Ian, if he ever tastes human blood, will belong to her forever. And she needs him desperately, to help her survive and live in this harsh new world of jets and credit cards and guns. She sets out on a campaign of seduction -- as sensuous as it is terrifying -- to touch human blood to Ian's lips, which will then become for him a drug a thousand times more addictive than heroin. Ian's father, Paul Ward, part vampire turned expert and obsessive hunter of vampires, knows that if the blood transforms Ian, Paul will have to kill his own son. The titanic conflict between father and son and seductress, hunter and hunted and huntress, comes to its surprise conclusion in the secret chambers beneath the great pyramids, where the hidden truths of all human history are stored. From its beginning in the dark back alleys of Cairo to its totally unexpected ending, Lilith's Dream draws the reader down seductive new paths of discovery, into places where no novel has ever before. With Lilith's Dream Whitley Strieber has created a vampire so original and a story so new that he has virtually invented a new genre.
The legend of Lilith is undoubtedly the most fantastic of all ancient rabbinic myths. According to lore, God created her from dust alongside Adam. However, Lilith was a failed mate. She was not animated by the breath of God like Adam. Rather she was preemptively animated by a Satanic mist which erupted from the ground. Lilith rebelled against Adam and became the infamous Serpent who deceived Eve and caused Adam to fall. Therefore, God established eternal enmity between the Serpent Lilith and Eve and between their seed. Lilith's seed would bruise the heel of Eve's promised seed, Messiah, but Eve's seed would revive to crush Lilith’s head. This book reveals 23 Biblical evidences that prompted ancient rabbis to conclude the various elements of Lilith's legend. It also explains how her legend is completely consistent with traditional Judaic / Christian teachings on the Bible's redemptive message. Her legend solves many ancient Biblical mysteries, such as why the Serpent bears seed like Eve.
