 Hello, Asin of Mason here. In this presentation I would like to talk about Lilith, but from a different angle. If you're watching this, you probably know who she is. If you don't, please watch the other videos, where I introduce her as an pathological character. Here I would like to take a look at the less known aspects of Lilith, which are also the subject of my book, Rights of Lilith, Grimoire of the Queen of the Night. What most people know about Lilith is that she was the first wife of Adam, that she is demonic and evil, and that dealing with her is dangerous. There's also the image of a lastful succubus promoted by horror movies and popular culture. But after I spend most of my life working with her and exploring her powers, and we're talking here about over 25 years, I know that this image couldn't be further from the truth. That's why what I always wanted to do in my writings was to present a picture of Lilith that will hopefully clear out the misconceptions and show her as she really is, the dark initiatrix and the Queen of the Night. In popular culture, Lilith is depicted as a monster, because the view of a woman over the last two millennia has been vilified, and the natural power of the female was seen as a threat to the masculine patriarchal status quo. Religion, science, occult philosophies, and the general outlook of the Middle Ages through the modern age left little place for a woman's desire of independence, sexual urges, and the free and unrestrained ability to create, not just procreate. All this has pushed the woman's creative fire into the area of darkness, evil, the cliff of. The medieval image of a woman openly expressing her passions and needs is the image of the witch, malevolent hag whose place is in a dungeon, locked up and separated from the world, or at the stake where she has to atone for her sins. This image was continued throughout the whole renaissance and baroque times, and even in the age of enlightenment, it didn't change much. A woman was still seen as mentally inferior to men and incapable of deciding for herself. In the last few centuries, we have seen the rise of psychology and attempts to understand the human nature from a scientific point of view. But the vision of a woman in it is still the same. She has no desires or ambitions. She is unable to feel sexual pleasure. Her only role is to please her male partner and birth children, and her mental capacities are hardly better than an animal's. No wonder that in such a reality, a mythological character who speaks for herself doesn't need a man to be fulfilled and scorns the bones of marriage and sexual slavery in favor of being the queen of her own empire has become a symbol of all evil and transgression. Let's face the truth. Most of what we know about Lilith today is wrong. Her myth is the result of mistranslated sources, misinterpreted writings and depictions, religious dogmas, and the prevailing fear and prejudice against the picture of a liberated woman. Her origins are still unknown, and most of the theories presented in the source literature are nothing but speculations that have no confirmation in any archaeological findings or historical facts. I've included most of them in my book to show how many different ideas arose over the ages, how many different versions of the same story may be found in various parts of the world, and how mixed up and contradictory they may seem when we look at the entire picture. I've also examined most of the names and epithets that have been used in reference to Lilith both in ancient times and in the centuries to follow. These are the masks of the goddess, by which she has been known to humanity ever since we started to recognize the power of the divine feminine. Where do we find Lilith in modern times? She is present in every woman, either in an active or dull. She speaks through dreams, passions, desires, ambitions and aspirations. She reveals herself each time we are reminded that life and death are inseparably connected to experience the primordial presence of the divine feminine. Throughout the ages, she has been depicted as the seductress, night hag, nightmare woman, vicious bitch, whore, devouring maver, terrible witch, and the end of all flesh. And all of these qualities are found in every woman. While working with other practitioners, I've been asked many times how to handle a Lilith woman in a relationship, because she's unpredictable, uncontainable and tamed, and doesn't conform to the picture of an ideal partner in any way. But the only advice I can give in this case is to let her be herself. She will be a supportive partner at one time, and a vicious bitch on another occasion. But such is the nature of the dark feminine. Lilith scorns the cultural and mental programming, which is Christ's predefined roles for men and women. She laughs at divisions and definitions, mercilessly exposing their weaknesses, and guides us into an experience of our primordial power, which is undefined, unrestrained and limitless. This is what you will find in my book. It is an attempt to get to the very core of womanhood by invoking Lilith as she really is. Goddess, demoness, woman, and look through her eyes to understand the nature of the divine feminine before she was vilified by patriarchal dogmas. This is done by examining her masks and manifestations, which are both benevolent and malicious, dark and bright, and by showing how to work with her, and how to understand her presence in the modern world. Who is Lilith then? You will read about her myths and origins in my book, but what is important to mention for the start is that she has never been one entity. The earliest legends and myths speak of multiple Liliths, not referring to any specifically. It is through the development of Christian and Hebrew dogmas, followed by her depictions in the Kabbalah, that she came to be recognized simply as Lilith. Nothing is simple about her, though. Her separate aspects don't always constitute a harmonious whole, but are often described as fighting each other and being in eternal conflict. Some of them are so different from one another that we can almost find them contradictory. Finally, some don't resemble any known myths and stories of Lilith at all, but are still part of her. Her masks and faces presented in my book are at the same time separate goddesses, with different powers, and a part of one greater archetype, which constitutes Lilith. Why work with the masks of Lilith separately? By invoking the goddess in her primary aspect, you may or may not achieve what you want, because it is she who will choose which face she will show you at a particular moment. While such approach is good for establishing contact with the goddess in general, in order to truly get to know her and embrace her noses, you should go deeper into this work. This is possible only by exploring the diversity of her nature, powers, and complexity of her mythology. This is an archetype that has been developing for over two millennia and is still expanding and assuming new forms and new manifestations, this time shaped by the modern world. There is no single quality that could be attributed to Lilith and considered to be primary, prevailing or dominant. Some of them are emphasized in her mythology more than others, but when you explore them in practice, you will see that this is not necessarily true, and that some of her less known faces are much more prominent, and by invoking her specific name, we summon her one desired aspect, narrowing down the experience to what we really want. Before I decided to write this book, I found it extremely hard to choose what should be included in it. On the one hand, I wanted it to be as extensive as possible, embracing the entirety of the Lilith myth, but it is such a task even possible. Probably not, as the divine feminine still remains shrouded in mystery, and it is through us, women, the living vessels for a timeless essence, that she successively reveals herself to the world. She is ever changing, mutable, evolving, and expanding all the time. So even though this book may seem complete at this moment, I am sure that Lilith has not said her final word yet, and it's still the question of time before she reveals her other face. In other words, Rites of Lilith is the most complete picture of the goddess I can think of right now, and I hope that it will help with understanding and clearing the common misconceptions about her that distorted her true image over the last 2,000 years. I also hope that when it happens, there will be others who will take the results of my work and develop them further. For more information about this book and my other books, check out my website, which is asnaphmason.com