In ancient Sumerian belief, the primal gods, the ZU, originally emerged from the Great Chaos of the ABYSS. This Chaos was characterized as an endless Great Sea located in the heavens. The primal gods themselves, the Deep Ones, were called the Ab-Zu (Ap-Su), stellar powers who were connected directly with the Great Deep. Their servitors, who carried out their will, were called the An-Zu, lunar powers who were connected with the air of the night sky. Primary among these were the Abgal, seven wise demi-gods who also emerged from the Waters of the ABYSS, and each of the seven were created male-female.

Lilith was the female aspect of one of the night wind spirits, one of a group of benevolent spirit guides called Lili (Lilitu) or Lama (Lamastu). These spirits were originally associated with guarding the gateway between the spiritual and physical realms and were found on temple doorways. Lilith, being a guide to the wisdom of immortality, is represented holding the Rings of Shem; these are the oldest symbols used to show one who has gained immortality by passing through the Underworld to gain the sacred wisdom of the Tree of Knowledge.

As a guardian and dispenser of the Temple Mysteries, Lilith was the original Scarlet Woman, and her priestesses engaged in sex magick with the priesthood and nobles to bring about spiritual transformation that led to illumination, along with the regeneration of the physical body to prolong life. These Mysteries included a type of physical alchemy involving the menstrual blood of the priestesses. While the term Scarlet Woman originally referred to menstrual blood, it became interwoven with another ancient symbol of divine power, red hair. Many ancient cultures believed that red hair denoted one whose ancestors intermarried with demons or angels, thus giving a greater than average psychic/spiritual power.

One representation of a Lamastu shows her with a lioness head, holding a serpent in each hand and riding in the Boat of the Gods that traverses the Underworld.

This directly links her to the ancient Egyptian god of magick, Heka, and his later manifestations as Hekat, the frog-headed goddess of transformation, Egyptian and Cretan serpent goddesses, and the Phoenician goddesses Astarte and Tanith.

There are indications that the Greek culture is far older than most historians will admit, and was a direct inheritor of many Sumerian traditions. Stories of ancient Greek Goddesses called Nymphs appeared among the Greeks before those primal gods, the Titans, and some of the Titans married Nymphs. Nymphs, who later came to be known as female nature spirits, were originally goddesses of transformation and their priestesses. Their function was to lead men who were worthy to spiritual transformation and illumination. These goddesses and their priestesses offered man hidden knowledge (typically discovered in the Underworld) that would lead to physical regeneration and spiritual immortality. The word 'nymph' means bride or nubile young woman, and human nymphs served as priestesses in sexual ceremonies. In ancient times, these ceremonies were conducted in caves, the early temples of the Nymph goddesses. Later, they used stone temples called nympheae constructed near sacred springs, often within a sacred stand of trees. It was from this ancient sex magick that modern man derived the term 'nymphomania.' Most of theses ancient goddesses have vanished from our ken, but one who persisted into later times and was related by characteristics and function to Lilith was Hekate.

When the Sumerian priest Abraham fled the sacking of his town by the Jewish Tribe of Levi and settled among the other eleven Jewish tribes living peacefully in Canaan around 1960 BCE, he brought the Sumerian worship of Baal and Asherah into the Jewish fold. Seven hundred years later, the Tribe of Levi returned from Egypt with a belief in one god, Yahweh. They believed that Yahweh and his good angels ruled the universe, and that all other gods and goddesses or non-Jewish spirits were evil. They transformed the Sumerian Lilith, teaching that she was the wife and consort of the Angel Samael. Samael, a redhead, was the original ruling Archangel of the seventh heaven, one of the Seraphim (Fiery Serpents who guarded the Throne of God). The title 'seraphim' came from the Hebrew 'saraph nahash,' a fiery serpent, which derived from the Sumerian 'siru,' a serpent. Various Jewish traditions refer to him as a guardian angel (of Esau ), an angel of death (sent by God to fetch the soul of Moses when he died), the seducer of Eve (in form of the serpent), the creator of the demonic kingdom of Edom and the demons therein, and the chief of the Satans (angels sent by God to test man). Samael was said to be one of seven fallen angels, the others being Za'afi'el, Za'ami'el, Qasfi'el, Ragzi'el, 'Abri'el, and Meshulhi'el.

When Samael fell from grace, he was replaced by Michael as the chief Archangel. The Yahwist Jews identified Samael with Set-an (the Egyptian god Set), and they were both (as were all of the Fallen Angels) called Dragons or Leviathans (Serpents). They were cast out of the original Paradise and their company was likened to a ruined estate. Bemoaning his own fallen estate in the material world, Job said, "I am a brother to Dragons." (Job 30:29) Samael and Lilith gave the knowledge of the Angels to man and intermarried with humans, resulting in Lilith being punished by being turned into a spirit without form; her hair was "pulled back" so that her manifestation in Eternity was bound and restricted. The couple could only exchange energy with the help of the Blind Dragon Tanin'iver, called blind because it had no color. These Angels were called evil because they sought to aid man's spiritual evolution into a higher type of being.

Samael and Lilith were born as one, emanating from beneath the Throne of God with a great tumult. This refers to the Kabbalistic belief that certain angels were created in male-female pairs. Lilith was also known as Taninsam, based on the name of the intermediary between her and her husband. This intermediary will eat deadly poison at the hands of the Gabriel; it is an elixir of life for all whose inclination overcomes them. Then he participates with Michael in overcoming the rule of unbalanced forces in heaven and on earth. The covenant of salt refers to the Leviathan (Malkhut Leviat Hen) of the salt ocean, who shall feed the righteous in the future.

This story became intertwined with that of the Lesser or Younger Lilith, married to the Demon King Asmodeus. Asmodeus was the son of the mortal Naamah, the sister of Tubal-Cain, and the Angel-Demon Shamdan. The Lesser Lilith was the daughter of the Demon King Qafsefoni and Matred; her name was Mehetabel, from 'mabu tabal,' meaning 'something immersed.' She was a beautiful woman from head to waist, but burning fire down below. This Lilith was evil and constantly causing trouble between the Demons and the Angels. Asmodeus and the Lesser Lilith ruled in Edom, the sixth of the six imperfect Earths created before ours. They had twin sons, one good and one evil. The good son was named Meshihi'el and Kokhvi'el; his root is in heaven and he was called the "sword of the Messiah." The evil son was named Alefpene'ash and Gurigar; he is a war-demon ruling eighty thousand destructive demons, and he is called the "sword of King Asmodeus." Isaiah prophesized that the good son would wreak havok among the demons: "For my Sword shall be drunk in the heavens; Lo, it shall come down upon Edom." This is the Secret Knowledge of the Lesser Palaces.

The stories of the two Lilith's can be seen as an alchemical allegory of the creation and redemption of the human spirit. The two sons represent the spirit (good) and the soul/personality(evil), called evil not because it is evil but because it seeks to mingle its essence with those below (enamored of the physical world). The blind Dragon who eats poison eats the poison of the corrupted soul so as to purify it, overcoming the "evil" of the soul so that it may be transformed and "eat" of the pure food of spirit. This concept of the poison-eating Dragon is commonly found in Alchemy.

Unfortunately, outer traditions among the patriarchal Jews, including those recounted in Isaiah, Genesis and the Zohar, have greatly distorted the original stories, mixing together various traditions and giving Lilith many negative attributes that do not belong to her. The common Jewish concept of Lilith seems to have originated as an attempt to explain why there are two different stories of creation in Genesis. The older Elohist Genesis shows the simultaneous creation of the first man and woman from the same substance, in the image of the Elohim (god and goddess), while the later Yahwist version shows Adam was made first in the image of the one god. The Yahwist Jews returned from Egypt around 1260 BCE and began their campaign to "purify" the religion of the Jews; over the next 500 years, they gradually took control of the religious establishment and replaced the teachings given to the Jews by the Sumerian prince, Abraham, with their own. In some places, they kept some of the older scriptures, including the older story of creation in Genesis. However, over time the Jews had many tribulations and they forgot why there were two versions of creation in their holy scriptures. In an attempt to resolve the contradictions of the two versions, they appear to have adopted the Sumerian wind spirit Lilith as Adam's first wife. Mention of this is made in a Haggadah from the 2nd century BCE, quoted in Willis Barnstone's book, The Other Bible. Lilith refused to be under Adam during sex because they were equal, and when he objected, she left and seven angels were sent after her. She refused to return, and because God killed her children in revenge, she kills human children in their sleep. Afterward, God made Eve from Adam. The version of this story most often quoted about Lilith today comes from an anonymous 9th century manuscript called the Alphabet of Ben Sira. This was a rabbinical parody about a rabbi's responses to Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar's questions. The manuscript was popular entertainment among rabbis for hundreds of years, so the Lilith story in it became well-known. This story is essentially the same as the one in the Haggadah, except it has only three angels. A 12th century Kabbalistic work, the Book of Raziel, gives directions for making amulets to protect women and children from Lilith and refers to the three angels of the Alphabet of Ben Sira.

In the Kabbalistic Sefer Ha-Zohar of the 13th century, all of the older Jewish traditions of Lilith are mixed together. The "Treatise on the Left Emanation" says that Lilith came from heaven and sought to possess human children, but was prevented from doing so by other angels. "From the crevice of the great deep, above, there came a certain female, the spirit of all spirits, and we have already explained that her name was Lilith. And at the very beginning she existed with man." (Zohar III, 19a) She was said to be a Serpent who originated from the side of the flaming sword that guards the gates of the Garden of Eden. Lilith ruled Sitra Ahra, the other side of the mirror, the qliphotic realm of unbalanced energies behind the Tree of Life known to Kabbalists as the Realm of the Serpents or Dragons. Lilith was associated with the legend of Naamah, mother of demons, as her daughter-in law. Naamah was the succubus who stole the souls of sleeping children and then passed those souls to Lilith, and Lilith came to take on the role of Naamah. Thus Lilith became a scapegoat; an ancient wind spirit who comes in the night to bring inspiration became the disobedient first wife of Adam, an evil succubus who kills children and begets demons.

Lilith was said to come as a spirit to men who sleep alone and seduce them, causing them to have nocturnal emissions. The demons sired by Lilith according to the Jews referred to the life-forms that derive from the seed of man spilled during masturbation and nocturnal emissions. This essence contains the life-force, and deprived of its natural course, this essence takes on a form reminiscent of the imperfect creations that preceded man and resulted in the demons. These creations were considered imperfect because they could not manifest in a physical form or reproduce themselves. The results of man's seed in these conditions are similar to thoughtforms, and typically they live in the aura of the one who produces them, unless their creation is accompanied by a strong visualization that would send them to another. These creations can be experienced as a type of incubus or succubus, but more often they stay with their creator. The Jews consider these as illegitimate children, and actually have a prayer said by men that denies they are legitimate and tells them to depart when the man dies and not to impede his ascent to heaven. The assumption among the Jews that the name Lilith came from the Hebrew laylah (night), possibly because the Sumerian Lili were called night spirits, led some illustrators to represent Lilith with black hair.

Lilith, in archetypical form, represents an aspect of the Higher Self which brings spiritual knowledge to men on the Path by uniting with them in a kind of sexual union on the higher planes. It's no wonder the old uptight Rabbis feared her as a demonic succubus, afraid as they were of receiving an "unofficial" spiritual knowledge or power and of offending God by having sexual pleasure. The Jews still have a proscription against Jewish men having sex with their wives while they are menstruating. The term Scarlet Woman is today used as a reference to both the ancient physical alchemy derived from the sexual secretions of Holy Women, and to Holy Women, especially priestesses, who engage in sex magick with magicians . This knowledge is known today from the expositions of Tantric Yoga, but there are many indications that this knowledge was known to and used by the priests and nobles of ancient Sumeria and Egypt, among others. Lilith, the Scarlet Woman, represents today as she did millennia ago the potent combination of spiritual and sexual power by which humans are transformed into something greater. Lilith serves as a prototype of Crowley's Scarlet Woman, a companion who through her divine sexuality awakens the spiritual knowledge latent in man.

"Lo, I am with you, moved by your prayers, I who am the mother of the universe, the mistress of all elements, the first offspring of time, the highest of all deities, the queen of the souls, foremost of the heavenly beings, the single form that fuses all gods and goddesses; I who order by my will the starry heights of heaven, the healing-giving breezes of the sea, and the awful silences of those in the underworld: My single godhead is adored by the whole world in varied forms, in differing rites and with many diverse names."
 

Lilith also represents three usages by astrologers. Astrologically, the 'three Liliths' are being increasingly used. These liliths are: 1. a secondary focal point of the Moon's elliptical orbit around the Earth, 2. a second Moon of the Earth and 3. an asteroid. Lilith number one is called the 'Black Moon,' and has been used in astrological calculations by the French for over a hundred years. Traditionally, this was the mean apogee of the Moon's orbit, but modern astrologers reject the stable regularity this implies, and instead use the true or osculating apogee, which can vary up to 30 degrees. The Moon's apogee (east-west) is in contradistinction to the Moon's nodes (north-south, the head and tail of the Dragon), which represent the intersection of two planes, where a door opens and different realities meet. The apogee, instead, is the empty focus of the lunar orbit; ir represents "a womb, a receptacle, an accumulator, a point of emptiness... the place of dreams, the garden of desires -- it can devour you like a whirlpool!"
Lilith number two is called the 'Dark Moon,' recorded by astronomers since 1618 and visible only when it transits the face of the Sun. It orbits the Earth in about one hundred days. The Dark Moon Lilith confers incredible personal magnetism, but also brings problems associated with with being popular with the opposite sex.
Lilith number three (1181 Lilit) is a main belt asteroid discovered 11 February 1927. Astrologically, this is said to represent integration of the hidden dark aspects of the self with the waking consciousness.
Ephemerides for all three Liliths are available.