Taught online via Zoom
Saturdays, August 3 - September 14, 2024
2:30 - 4:30 pm ET (*Last class might run long to accommodate final projects)
$150 Patreon Members / $175 General Admission

*If you are interested in taking this course, but unable to afford the full price at this time, please don't hesitate to email Brennan at sarahbkettelle@gmail.com, to discuss sliding-scale payment options

Please note: All classes will be recorded for those unable to attend

All readings provided via PDF

The demoness Lilith is an enduring source of cultural fear and fascination. This antique wind spirit turned Adam’s first wife holds the fascination of both contemporary academia and popular culture. Existing under numerous monikers and forms, and accompanying humanity from Mesopotamia to present day, more recent centuries have witnessed several reclamations and weaponizations of Lilith. Perhaps most well-known, feminist scholarship and interpretations of the Lilith myth present her as a rebellious, patriarchy-smashing femme.

However, cultural receptions of Lilith – especially from the 19th-century up to our current decade – position the Jewish myth of Lilith as Adam’s first wife as her origin story, as the iteration/essence of Lilith. Furthermore, scholarship on Lilith thus far has primarily positioned her within a heteronormative framework. As a result, more complex and nuanced inquiries into Lilith’s mythic history have been overshadowed.

This eight week course aims to rectify these misconceptions and gaps in study, by first providing a comprehensive history of Lilith (prior to her iteration as Adam’s first wife), and secondly addressing her numerous cultural receptions within recent centuries. Additionally, this course aims to discuss and address the overlooked queer currents and connections within artistic, literary, political, and sociocultural discourses regarding the demoness.

This class will provide a brief overview of Lilith’s presence within folklore, art, and literature from antiquity to the Renaissance. Lilith’s diverse role in Jewish demonology and folklore will be a main focus. It will also examine Lilith’s interactions with culture, from the 19th-century to present, covering Lilith’s role in pre-Raphaelite paintings and Satanic plays and poems, to the ways in which both psychoanalytic and feminist discourses have shaped and impacted present understandings of Lilith.

One final lecture will focus on the instructor’s own research on Lilith, in which I investigate historical and discursive associations between Lilith and queerness. Specifically, I will discuss four significant historical associations between Lilith and queerness that occur within twentieth-century discourses – within the lesbian poetry of Renée Vivien (1877-1909), the Neo-Gnostic works of Columbian sex magician Samael Aun Weor (1917-1977), the antisemitic writings of American Satanic conspiracy theorist Eustace Mullins (1923-2010), and finally within lesbian-feminist art and poetry in the late 1900s.

Students will be invited to integrate what they have learned with a final presentation, which responds to and incorporates the material covered.

By providing a complete historical picture of Lilith, as well as by examining historic associations between Lilith and queerness, a more comprehensive understanding of the figure of Lilith is presented.

Each class will be structured as follows:

• A 30-minute discussion of the reading material

• A presentation/lecture by the instructor

• Q&A / open discussion of presentation/reading materials

Participation and Assignments

• Each week, suggested reading is provided (by PDF, via email). The suggested reading will never exceed a two-hour time commitment, and students are not required to read the materials provided

Final Project

Students are invited to prepare a 10-15 minute presentation, which can take the following suggested prompts:

• expanding upon, challenging, and/or addressing an aspect of Lilith’s myth or reception history that was addressed in the course

• presenting upon an aspect of Lilith that was not discussed/addressed, whether it be a piece of popular culture, a visual representation, piece of media, mythic narrative, etc.

• presenting a piece of art/visual aid/poem/creative piece the student created, inspired by or representing Lilith

• discussing the ways in which one’s own perception of Lilith transformed from the beginning of the course to the end of the course

Student presentations aren’t graded, but rather provide an opportunity to close the seminar with a primarily student-led class discussion.

WEEKLY SCHEDULE

Week 1 – Introduction to Lilith

• Student introductions

• Explanation of the syllabus

• Preliminary discussion of representations, histories, and curiosities about Lilith

• Students share their prepared Lilith material/conceptions/questions

No suggested reading in preparation for this class; Rather, students are asked to please bring a representation/piece of media (painting, online article or blog post, tiktok, television/movie/song/pop cultural appearance, poem, book, etc) of Lilith to virtually share with the class, and/or prepare a few sentences on one’s own understandings/conceptions of Lilith.

Additionally, students are asked to prepare any questions of points of interest about the demoness, to be addressed in the following weeks

PART I: Origin and Historical Conceptions of Lilith

first part of our course will discuss the varied and enduring history of Lilith – and her many monikers and forms – from Mesopotamia through Jewish demonology and discourse. Having a foundational knowledge of her historical foundations and machinations is crucial to understanding later cultural receptions and utilizations of Lilith

Week 2 – Origin Story: Lilith from Antiquity to Renaissance

Suggested Reading

• Beth McDonald, “In Possession of the Night: Lilith as Goddess, Demon, Vampire” in Sacred Tropes: Tanakh, New Testament, and Qur’an as Literature and Culture

• Howard Schwartz, “Lilith” in Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender

• “Lamashtu” in Historical Dictionary of Witchcraft,

• Rebecca M Lesses, “Lilith” in Encyclopedia of Religion

Week 3 – Adam’s First Wife?: Lilith within Jewish Demonology and Discourse

Suggested Reading

• Anne Barring and Jules Cashford, The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image, pgs. 510-513

• Gershom Scholem, “Lilith” in Encyclopedia Judaica

• Raphael Patai, “Lilith” in The Journal of American Folklore

Part II: Reception History

Building upon Lilith’s history in myth, religious discourse, and demonology, the second part of the seminar will discuss the cultural receptions of Lilith from the 19th-century to present. As we will discuss, the myth of Lilith as Adam’s first wife became culturally viewed as the representation/origin story of Lilith, with occult/esoteric discourses, art, poetry, psychoanalysis, and feminist activism and reclamations revolving around this iteration of Lilith.

Week 4 – Lilith within the 19th-century

Suggested Reading

• Per Faxneld, Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the Liberator of Women in the 19th-Century, pgs. 275-282, 363-384

Week 5 – Lilith in the 20th-century: Feminist and Psychoanalytic Discourses

Suggested Reading

• Barbara Creed, The Monstrous Feminine, Intro & Chapter 1

• Sigmund Hurwitz, Lilith, The First Eve: Historical and Psychological Aspects of the Dark Feminine, Part I, Chapter 1, & Part II, Chapter 3

Week 6 – Lilith in the 20th-century: Esoteric and Occult Connections

Suggested Reading

• Kennet Granholm, Dark Enlightenment: The Historical, Sociological, and Discursive Contexts of Contemporary Esoteric Magic, pgs. 111-115, 122-125, 155-156

Week 7 – Special Topic: Lilith and Queerness

Suggested Reading

• Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, The Monster Theory Reader

• Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Chapter 1: Monster Culture (Seven Theses)

• Harry M. Benshoff, Chapter 11: The Monster and the Homosexual:

Week 8 – Reflections + Final Projects

In the first part of our final class, we will reflect on the previous seminars. 15 minutes will then be allotted to each student to present their Lilith projects.

Brennan Kettelle holds a Research Master’s degree in Religious Studies, with a focus on Western esotericism (University of Amsterdam, 2021), as well as a Master’s degree in Gender and Cultural Studies (Simmons University, 2018). She is currently a PhD researcher at the HHP (Centre for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents) at the University of Amsterdam, investigating 19th-century associations between Lilith and queerness. Brennan aims to utilize queer and feminist theories and methodologies in examining esotericism, investigating both queer currents within esoteric literature, orders, and figures, as well as esoteric themes within queer subcultures, politics, and histories. Her research interests include Lilith, nineteenth and twentieth-century occultism, sex magic, initiatory orders, esotericism and politics, and conspirituality.

Images: Albert Joseph Pénot, La Femme Chauve-Souris, c.1890; Lilith, Althea Gyles, 1898