The Burney Relief

(Note on Lylyth and Lilith.  The Temple uses the term “Lylyth” as a thealogical term, denoting a deity-concept.  We use “Lilith” as a mythological term when dealing with the “first female” within the context of the Eden mythology).

 

No other icon in the world is as closely associated with Lylyth as the Burney Relief.  Yet, no one is exactly sure if this icon does represent Lylyth, or some other goddess or mythological figure.  Next to Lylyth, the most likely culprits are Inanna, Astarte or Anath. 

 

Despite the ambiguity of the historical dimensions of this symbol, the Temple of Lylyth’s interpretation of the symbolism is clear-cut.

 

The Burney ReliefThe symbol contains many obvious elements.  A naked woman, with the wings and feet of a bird, stands on two resting lions.  Flanking her are two owls.  The more ambiguous symbols are what Lylyth is holding in her hands, and what is on her head.

 

Going from the top down, let’s first address her head.  There are many opinions on this.  Either, we’re looking at a turban, a crown, or her hair.  If it is her hair, then either it is some sort of braiding, or she is a Medusa and this is how their hair looks when it’s not moving around and looking all freaky.  Personally, I like the latter assumption, as it adds an element of fantasy and mystique.  Whatever it is, please note the resemblance of it to a ziggurat, (an ancient Mesopotamian form of Temple, designed as an artificial mountain).   Keeping in mind that I am retrofitting the symbol to fit the religion, and not the other way around, my ruling is that this is her hair.  Partly, this is from no other depiction of Lylyth as having any sort of headpiece.  Partly, it is due to Kabalistic symbolism.  The first of the Sepheroth, from which all others flow, is Kether.  The literal translation is “Crown.”  If Lylyth were to have the headpiece as something other than her own body, then symbolically Kether would be removed from Lylyth.  The hair of Lylyth is usually shown as a striking feature.  For example, in the John Collier piece it is long, blond, wild and flowing.  There is a legend of a Malaysian female avian vampire with long flowing hair.  The key to conquering her is cutting off her hair and shoving it down a hole in the back of her neck.  Hair is power.  Long hair is a sign of feminine power.  Those men who also have long hair are also powerful.  I am not talking about the Sampson legend, but about American culture.  To have long hair and be male, one must either be quite successful within the system, or be outside of the system.  Most men are forced by their work environment to keep their hair above the shoulder line.  Involuntary baldness, while not unique to males, is seen as a male phenomenon.  This further links the hair of the head to the feminine.  Voluntary baldness, although it does carry certain connotations of strength (e.g. Montel Williams or Yul Brynner), carries the religious connotation of making a sacrifice: hence the monk’s tonsure.  It is intriguing that Jesus Christ is portrayed as having very long hair (symbolic of feminine power) and a beard (symbolic of masculine power), in a culture that condones neither.

 

Move all Zigarat!  For Great Justice!No one is exactly sure what Lylyth has in her hands.  Some people see this as a trumpet, which in our culture would incorporate the symbolism of Gabriel’s horn.  Others think that this actually the combination of two items – a coronet and a scepter.  These instruments of rule have fairly obvious sexual connotations, by their shape.  This is a valid interpretation.  I would say that what she holds is not the literal representation of a coronet and scepter, but rather a very high-order symbol, what we call the Shen.  In Egyptian culture, this symbolized infinity.  This concept is also demonstrated by the letter most sacred to Lylyth: Omicron.  Jesus said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega.”  By this he was implying, “I am the beginning and the end.”  This fits in with the Western linear concept of time and God’s relationship to it.  Lylyth, on the other hand, says, “I am the Omicron.  I am She who has no beginning, and whose end can never be.”  This fits in more with a non-Western view of time being cyclical.  Nietzsche explained this the best he could to the Western audience in his concept of “Eternal Recurrence.”  This symbol, as the Temple uses it, is a symbol of the union of the coronet and scepter (or rather what they symbolize), and it’s result: the fertile womb.

 

The clothing, or rather the lack there of, should be noted.  Most cultures depict their gods as having clothes.  Naked gods are rare.  Nudity should be seen in the context of the Wiccan and Christian religions, and where they correspond.  One of the lines I haven’t printed from the Charge of the Goddess is what nudity represents in the Aradian tradition: perfect freedom.  In the Eden legend of Christianity, Adam and Eve are created naked, and go about blissfully unaware of the fact that they ought to be wearing clothes.  Then, the serpent (usually believed to be Satan, but in some renditions shown as a manifestation of Lylyth) gets the pair to eat the Fruit of Knowledge of Good, Evil and Nudity.  Even before God curses them, they become aware that it is somehow wrong to be naked.  Lilith is, in the Christian tradition, immaculate.   Having never committed the Original Sin, she is also not aware of the taboo against nudity.  The Temple leaves it up to the individual if they wish to perform their rituals naked.

 

Her features are beautiful, as would be expected of any representation of Lylyth.  This is going to be quite mystical, but honest.  A beautiful woman has an almost magical power over a man – a power that no man has over a woman.  A woman has the power to elicit a response in a man.  It is a neurochemical response, quite involuntary.  The response is at the meta-mental level: desire.  Of course, the man has the option to act on the desire, or to refrain from acting on the desire.  Patriarchy, on an internal level, comes from the fear of this power, and the need to rise above it.  Women who are enslaved to the patriarchal system are “of Eve,” as that through brainwashing generation after generation, and the gradual erosion of status and power, they become just “ribs” to men: accessory humans.  While the presence is required for the full effect, feminine beauty communicates this concept.

 

The wings are feet are what identify her as a Goddess.  The Bible does not mention angels as winged creatures.  Rather, the iconography of angels seems to be a latter interpretation.  It does have a Judaic root, as discussed in “The Hebrew Goddess,” (see Chapter III).  The feet are natural to a perching, flying, arboreal creature.

 

The animals have the traditional symbolism.  Lions symbolize courage and strength.  Owls symbolize stealth and wisdom.  A note should be mentioned on scale.  Owls run from a small six inches for the North American “Pigmy Owl,” to over two feet with the Artic owls.    Assuming the owls are about 20 inches tall, Lylyth would be very short, even by Sumerian standards.  Lions, on the other hand, are quite large.  Assuming the lions are to scale, everything else in this picture is gigantic, making the owls essentially rocs.  I don’t think the artist was too concerned about scale, however.  I like the idea of the central human figure being to scale, and I would place her as about 4’5”, given the height scale of people of that time.  The lions can be seen as chimerical animals, representing both the true lion and the house cat.  The cat is, obviously, a sacred symbol to Lylyth.  We see this fact primarily by the reaction of Christians to the cat during the Witchcraze.   The human death toll is around nine million.  The feline death toll is at least twice that amount.  Cats were seen as agents of the devil, especially black cats.  Pure black cats are very rare.   Most “black” cats have a tuft of white fur somewhere, usually on their bellies.  This tuft of white was seen as an “angel’s touch,” and kept the cat’s ancestor from being burnt alive for the unforgivable sin of being a black cat.  The cat motif is also repeated in the Aradia text.

 

Detail of Burney Relief showing Oroborus symbolism.Now, this is debatable, but I think that on the bottom of this relief is an Oroborus.  This symbol, the snake eating it’s own tail, is one of the most common religious symbols of the ancient Mediterranean world.  To the right is a detail from a horizontal view of the Burney Relief.  I think the scaled object that the lions and owls rest upon is a snake, and that the circled object is the head of a snake biting it’s own tail.  To the best of my knowledge, no author has commented on this in the Burney relief, although there is an artistic tradition of snakes being heavily associated with modern pictures of Lilith.

 

The Oroborus is a paradox, in that is a symbol both of infinity (the Oroborus Serpent doesn’t just bite his own tail, he eats it and regenerates it), and of limits.  The molting of the skin has been a metaphor for immortality since at least the Epic of Gilgamesh, where after a long quest for the fruit of immortality, the snake is the one who eats it.  The serpent is also a symbol of limits, especially in the incarnation of Midgard, the snake that rings the edge of the world.  The Temple sees the Oroborus as a symbol of the infinite existing within the finite. 

 

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