Inanna and Lilith: the tree in the grip of power (2)

By Anne on 9 August 2022

Inanna and Lilith - the snake in the tree

When the young goddess Inanna walks in her garden in Eden, one day she discovers that her tree is occupied by strange beings of power, by the serpent, by Lilith and by a huge bird. She cries. But perhaps the beings are not so strange? Maybe Inanna and Lilith are even sisters?

Back to:

Episode 1: Inanna's tree in the Garden of Eden

The Sumerian creation story - In the first days (Prolog I)
Inanna, Sumerian goddess of love (summary)
Inanna, Sumerian goddess of love and strong woman (introduction)

What has happened so far

The young goddess of love saw a small tree floating in the Euphrates, took it out of the river and planted it in her garden. She planned to have her throne and bed made from its wood as soon as it was big enough. But the years passed and a certain impatience spread ...

[Back to: Inanna's Tree in the Garden of Eden (Episode 1).

Inanna and Lilith in the original text

The years passed; five years, ten years.
The tree grew and became thick,
but its bark did not crack.

And then one day the young goddess Inanna discovered that her tree was occupied by fearsome creatures:

Then a snake, which could not be tamed,
opened its nest in the roots of the tree,
and the AnZu bird placed its brood in the branches of the tree,
and the dark maiden Lilith built her house in its trunk.

The young woman who loved to laugh cried.
And how Inannacried!
[For they would not leave the tree.]

Context: The world tree as a symbol for the whole existence

The tree describes the whole existence, of which all areas are occupied by power:

The CROWN, symbol of the SPIRIT and consciousness (FATHER). Here the lion eagle has built its nest.
The ROOT, symbol for the life in the MATERIAL and in the body (MOTHER). Here now lives the Snake, which cannot be tamed.
The STEM, symbol of LIFE on earth between heaven and underworld, spirit and matter as a unity of soul and body (DAUGHTER and SON). In it Lilith, the dark virgin, has taken up her abode.

[S. The World Tree or Tree of Life.]

Inanna and Lilith - power occupies the tree

So who are these three fearsome figures that occupy the tree of the goddess? They are archetypes symbolizing egoism, power and domination. Briefly formulated:

In the unconscious (in matter and in the body): the serpent for cold, calculating, "cunning" instinctuality and delusion (paralysis).
In the soul: Lilith, the dark virgin, for female power through seduction and eroticism
In spirit: the lion eagle for power through robbery and violence

Now a closer look at the individual beings that occupy these three areas: While Lilith and the snake in the tree occupy the lower area, the lion eagle nests in its crown.

1. the snake in the roots: power as ego drive

The human reptilian brain and the ego

Down in the roots, the snake has nested in the tree. It cannot be tamed, as the Sumerian mythology emphasizes!
The roots symbolize the unconscious, and the snake stands for the ego, which exercises power by means of the drives (see. The snake in the head - the reptile brain).

The brain stem and the animal nature of humans

In the limbic system

Anatomically, the drives and automatic body functions are located in the deeper brain structures localized in the older parts of the human brain, the limbic system.

The ancient serpent and overcoming the dragon

The goal is that man learns to control unconscious behavior patterns and reactions that harm himself and others with his loving consciousness. Thus, the traditions are always about overcoming the "old snake" that has become the dragon.

[p. to this: The dragon, the old serpent and its overcoming; The dragon and the pursuit of the woman; George the dragon slayer and the virgin (introduction); Martha and the taming of the dragon.]

2. the lion eagle in the crown: spiritual power

Power and dominion in the spirit

The crown symbolizes the realm of spirit and consciousness. Sumerian AnZu is the designation for the Great Above, the spirit (in contrast to AbZu, the Great Below, the unconscious, see father and mother, spirit and matter).

The Anzu Bird: Spiritual Power Through Predation

A large bird has occupied the crown of the tree, built its nest in it and already hatched young! The AnZu bird is an enormous "animal", a special bird.
Thus in the Sumerian and later representations one finds illustrations of the lion eagle, which was also the heraldic animal of many rulers. He connects the two most dangerous predators of the earth (lion) and the air (eagle) and stands with it for spiritual power by force rule.

Between heaven and the underworld, spirit and matter, life on earth takes place. This realm is occupied by Lilith, the dark virgin.

3. Lilith in the tribe: power through seduction

Lilith by John Collier (Source. Wikipedia)

Lil-Itu, daughter of En-Lil

The name Lilith is composed of Sumerian LIL=air and ITU=dark. So literally the name means "dark air" and is also translated as "night wind". The syllable LIL is also a reference to the youthful and power-oriented god of air, En-Lil. According to the Sumerian creation story he is responsible for the fact that the life got into the underworld, thus into unconsciousness (s. I - In the first days and II: The father and the god of air).

Inanna and Lilith: Love or Power and Femininity in Minus

Lilith represents as the dark "daughter" of the air the shadow of the love, thus negative femininity. This one exercises power through seduction in order to be able to take instead of giving oneself out of love.

[S. I am Lilith, the dark virgin.]

Thus, Inanna and Lilith are "sisters" or two sides of the same energy, love.

Why did Lilith turn to the dark side? Lil-Itu and En-Lil

Lilith, the abused daughter of EnLil

It can be assumed that Lilith, as an archetype for the feminine, came into contact with the masculine side of power at an early age. Through small or bigger assaults of immature macho masculinity she has lost her security in pure love and her anchorage in her body.
This has led to the fact that she is no longer in the plus, or in other words in "innocence", but in "guilt", that is in the minus. This is connected with a feeling of lack, with negativity ("non-life"), and leads in a next step to the desire for power.
If love has "died", it "tilts" instead into the realm of the spirit, where it lives power through seduction (thereby further abusing its body itself; see. Abuse - the stolen life).

En-Lil, the god of wind (air): encroaching masculinity

Causer is the god EnLil. As the god of air, he symbolizes stormy, encroaching macho masculinity. He is the one who had uprooted the little tree so that it had fallen into the river (s. The Father and the God of Air, Prologue II).

The god of air also plays an important role in the Babylonian Gilgamesh epic an important role. The young Gilgamesh worships him and makes a door in the temple of EnLil out of the tall cedar he has cut down (which in itself is exceedingly symbolic). In addition, the god of air is also responsible for the great flood.

[S. Lilith: destroyed and disturbing femininity and the power of women.]

Abuse as a collective destructive reality, a curse or "original sin".

Curse and "original sin

Thus, even the earliest traditions describe abuse as a reality that was there from the beginning, inherited "from the gods," so to speak. Since then, this has burdened and shaped the fate of mankind as an original sin or curse.

[S. Curse and redemption: abuse and power in lore. and Original Sin: Power and abuse as a collective problem.]

A collective painful reality

This reality is charged with negative energy and can influence women even if they themselves have not had any bad experiences. In addition, the original abuse may also have happened to the mother or grandmother or may date back even further.

[S. The devil as a pain body; The pain body of the woman and Dark secrets as a curse).

Moreover, women can also be abused by women by poisoning their innocent love with mistrust or pain.

[S. The poisoned apple: abuse as a collective reality.]

Inanna and Lilith as positive anima and negative side of the anima

The light and the dark sister: Inanna and Lilith

Inanna and Lilith represent two sides of the virgin or young woman. As goddesses, they are also anima figures. While Inanna stands for the positive side and thus for pure love, Lilith symbolizes the shadow side, namely the female side of power through seduction (WHORE) or delusion (SNAKE).

[S. The negative anima as a whore or snake; The Anima - Inspiration and Motivation (Soul) and The virgin - miracle working love and potential.]

Inanna and Lilith and the Integration of the Shadow

Both men and women must overcome the shadow side (the ego as a snake) on the way back to wholeness and find their way back to pure, eternal love. The path leads through the underworld, the realm of shadows. The feminine, which also stands for life as a whole, must reconcile itself with injuries and with its own weakness.

[S. The Integration of the Anima.]

This is what the lore is about Inanna.

The dark desire for power is born from the feeling of lack and awakens the instincts instead of the love that corresponds to the light.

"Inanna Cried: Depression instead of integration

Inanna and Lilith: Fear of the Dark Side

In one fell swoop, the childlike lightheartedness is gone and Inanna cries when she perceives the beings occupying her tree. Understandably, she rejects them and is thus far from integrating them. Thus she is in danger of falling on the "dark" side, that is, into the grip of power.

But at first she is simply overwhelmed with the reality she perceives (in the adult world?) and falls into a teenage depression: she cries.

Inanna and Lilith - the tree and power as a modern narrative:

Anna:

Yesterday I had watched the movie "Maleficent, the Dark Fairy". And tonight I had a dream that scared me:

The snake in the tree

I saw a young woman walking through a garden. She came to a tree with strange, scary creatures: A huge snake dwelled in the roots. My heart almost stopped when I saw its cold, hypnotic look. Then there was a rustling in the lower hanging branches and behind it a woman peered out - from a hole in the trunk! She was beautiful, but pale as death. Her red hair fell down over the trunk and her poison-green eyes shone.

Inanna and Lilith: a first encounter

She spoke with a purring voice:
- Hello little princess, how are you doing?
- W ... who are you???, I heard the young woman ask, startled.

In reply came a rasping voice:
- Call me what you will! - I am the 13th fairy! I am Lilith! I am you ...!

The lion eagle

She laughed shrilly and looked up. Her laughter turned into a screech that sounded from the tree top. It was the cry of a huge bird, it had wings like an eagle spreading above the branches! But instead of a beak, it had the head of a lion with a huge maw! He had built a nest in the crown and there were already squawking young sitting in it, I don't know how many!!!!

Fear of growing up

Drenched in sweat, I awoke from the dream, totally agitated, while the shrill laughter and screeching still sounded in my ears. Impossible to fall asleep again!

I don't understand what this means...
Oh!

Sometimes I want to crawl away...
Sometimes I'm afraid.

Abuse as a collective reality - the body of pain

I am afraid of growing up - and afraid of sexuality.

How should I deal with it?

It does not escape me that men begin to look at me ... with admiring glances ... Sometimes they also compliment me ...

Power and powerlessness of women

It seems that a beautiful woman can have everything from men.
No wonder, women do everything to be and stay beautiful and desired. But often they are also hard - and frustrated, I think.
In any case, my mother is always very hard on me, I think.

Abuse

If you are too strong as a woman, it scares men off, or so it seems to me. They take more pleasure in young women like me ... I feel their attention when they notice me. Some try to flirt with me, some make insinuating remarks ... I have also been touched by one - in a way ... I don't know - just disgusting!

Power as a collective reality and curse

Ultimately, adults are always about sex, money and power. They want power and more and more power...
I don't want that, I don't want to be like them....

In the intoxication of power

On the one hand, I'm not entirely comfortable with all this, but on the other hand, deep down it's also an exhilarating feeling. Because it's a bit exciting to grow up and suddenly be part of the game.
I keep thinking about Gilbert ...

- The other day at the party, when we danced together, he hugged me tightly ...
At the same time I felt unfamiliar, strong feelings ... Yes, still when I think about it ...

Then I get all mixed up.

Am I in love?

From the Bible's Song of Songs (chapter 2:7):

I beseech you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field:
Do not awaken, do not disturb love until it pleases yourselves!