Free course

Lilith for Beginners

A Novice's Path

13 lessons · Free

Start lesson 1

Incantation bowl with Aramaic inscription, Unknown maker, ca. 5th–6th century CE
Unknown maker, ca. 5th–6th century CE · CC0 (Met Open Access, public domain)

This course is free and always will be. No account, no email needed. Your progress stays in your own browser. If you have met Lilith on a quote card, in a tarot deck or in a birth chart and want to know where she really comes from, this course is for you.

Lilith for Beginners: A Novice’s Path follows one of the most retold figures in Western culture through about four thousand years of sources. She begins as a group of Mesopotamian night spirits, appears once in the Bible, haunts the clay bowls of Sasanian Iraq, becomes Adam’s first wife in a medieval tale, a queen of the other side in Kabbalah and, in the twentieth century, a feminist heroine. Each lesson teaches one layer, ends with a small exercise and has a quick quiz. Lessons 8 to 13 are the practical half: discernment, protection and offerings, the dark moon, shadow work, Black Moon Lilith and a four-week start.

What you will learn

  • What the Mesopotamian lilû spirits were, and why the Burney Relief’s identity is still debated.
  • What Isaiah 34:14 and the Dead Sea Scrolls actually say.
  • How incantation bowls and birth amulets tried to keep liliths away.
  • Where the first-wife story comes from, and why it is medieval.
  • How Kabbalah made Lilith the partner of Samael.
  • How painters, poets, feminists and astrologers transformed her.
  • How to begin a respectful, reflective practice if you want one.

How it works

Open a lesson, read it, try the exercise and press “Mark as done”. Your progress is saved privately in your browser, so nothing is sent to me. When every lesson is done, you can open your certificate of completion.

I label what I teach in three layers, as everywhere on this site: Historical for ancient evidence, Later tradition for medieval and early modern material, and Modern for the last two centuries. Modern does not mean fake. It means honest about its age.

The lessons

  1. Meeting Lilith
  2. Mesopotamian roots
  3. Isaiah and the Dead Sea Scrolls
  4. Bowls, amulets and Ben Sira
  5. Kabbalah and the Zohar
  6. Lilith transformed
  7. A respectful beginner’s practice
  8. Ground rules and discernment
  9. Protection, offerings and altar care
  10. The dark moon and letters to Lilith
  11. Shadow work and saying no
  12. Black Moon Lilith in your chart
  13. A four-week start and living with Lilith

How each lesson works

Every lesson opens with why the topic matters. Then comes the teaching itself in plain prose, a worked example that shows the idea in action, one small exercise for your notebook and a short recap, with the sources I used listed at the end. A three-question quiz checks the main idea, and nobody sees your answers. The last line links to the next lesson. If a lesson needs a second evening, give it one.

Who this course is for

Complete beginners, witches who want to check what they have read online and anyone who loves myth. It does not ask you to believe anything. It does ask you to keep apart what ancient texts say, what medieval writers added and what we choose today. If you came here because of Black Moon Lilith in your birth chart, lesson 6 explains where that astrological point comes from and how new it is.

What you need

A notebook and a quiet corner. For the practice lessons, a candle or an LED light, a cup of water and, if you like, a small mirror.

Start now

Begin with Meeting Lilith. It takes about ten minutes.

Go deeper

My Lilith guide has the full story on one page, and the history of Lilith in sources goes text by text with a timeline. The deities hub links everything else.

Sources

  • Isaiah 34:14, King James Version (1611).
  • James A. Montgomery, Aramaic Incantation Texts from Nippur (Philadelphia, 1913).
  • David Stern and Mark Jay Mirsky (eds.), Rabbinic Fantasies (1990), with Norman Bronznick’s translation of the Alphabet of Ben Sira.
  • Raphael Patai, The Hebrew Goddess, 3rd enlarged edition (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1990).

0% done · 13 of 13 lessons ready

Module 1

Meeting Lilith

2 lessons Who Lilith is and the Mesopotamian roots of her story.
  1. Meeting Lilith
  2. Mesopotamian roots
Module 2

Lilith in the old texts

3 lessons Isaiah, the Dead Sea Scrolls, incantation bowls, Ben Sira and the Zohar.
  1. Isaiah and the Dead Sea Scrolls
  2. Bowls, amulets and Ben Sira
  3. Kabbalah and the Zohar
Module 3

Lilith today

3 lessons How art and feminism changed her, and how to begin with respect and clear ground rules.
  1. Lilith transformed: art, poetry, feminism and the stars
  2. A respectful beginner's practice
  3. Ground rules and discernment
Module 4

A gentle practice

5 lessons Protection, the dark moon, shadow work, Black Moon Lilith and a four-week start.
  1. Protection, offerings and altar care
  2. The dark moon and letters to Lilith
  3. Shadow work and saying no
  4. Black Moon Lilith in your chart
  5. A four-week start and living with Lilith

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