Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power (Witchcraft Bestseller)

by Pam Grossman

One of the most famous tales we have of a woman being a magical, evil sex monster is that of Lilith, Eve’s predecessor, and the supposed original apple of Adam’s eye. Lilith’s story as Adam’s first wife got popularized in the eighth century CE thanks to a text called The Alphabet of Ben Sira. It stated that God created both Lilith and Adam from the earth, but that she refused to lie beneath him during sex, believing that they were equals since they were made from the same material. Adam declared that he was superior to her and declined her request to be on top. Furious, she uttered God’s true name—an enormous sin in Jewish tradition—and then flew away from Eden. In some versions of the story, Lilith then copulates with Samael, the angel of death, and bears thousands of children, thus earning the moniker Mother of Demons. God sends three angels after Lilith, and they tell her that if she doesn’t return to Eden, they will kill a hundred of her children each day. She refuses and begins murdering human babies in retaliation for the death of her own offspring. Per Jewish folk tradition, it was believed that only a magical amulet with the names of the three angels could ward her off and protect human newborns from being killed by her.