Friday, September 11, 2009

Magic Inscription of Lilith Found on Human Skull



I cannot reveal the details of our shocking expeditions, or catalogue even partly the worst of the trophies adorning the nameless museum we prepared in the great stone house where we jointly dwelt, alone and servantless. Our museum was a blasphemous, unthinkable place, where with the satanic taste of neurotic virtuosi we had assembled an universe of terror and decay to excite our jaded sensibilities. - The Hound, HPL


Dan Levene describes this magic incantation which is inscribed in Aramaic (a dialect of Hebrew) on a human skull. There have been 2000 bowls found with these magic incantations which date from the 3rd to the 7th century AD from Jewish communities in Babylonia and surprisingly they were made at the same time and from the same communities that also produced the most intricate, rational and complex legalistic accomplishment of Rabbinic Judaism, the Babylonian Talmud (compiled around 400 AD). This compendium of Jewish Oral Law by learned rabbinic scholars complimented, clarified and expanded the written Law of the Torah - the Pentateuch-the first five books of the Bible). As Levene pointed out though, “belief in demons was widespread at this time among the Jews of this area as well as among other peoples.”


Lilith is first mentioned in the Biblical Book of Isaiah written around 700 BC. In Isaiah 34:14 she is called the night demon. Five hundred years later she is mentioned in the Dead Sea Scroll, Songs of the Sages. The later Zohar, the Bible of Jewish Mysticism, compiled in 1200 AD also mentions her.


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