Lilith

Lilith occupies a distinctive and charged position in the depth-psychology corpus, functioning simultaneously as mythological datum, archetypal figure, and psychological symbol. Jung engages her primarily through Rabbinic and Kabbalistic legend: she appears as Adam’s first wife, a creature of defiant equality who refuses submission, subsequently transformed into a lamia or nightmare who haunts pregnant women and destroys infants. For Jung, this trajectory illustrates the destructive-maternal pole of the unconscious feminine — the anima in its devouring, anti-generative aspect — and connects her structurally to the lamia tradition of antiquity. In Mysterium Coniunctionis, Lilith is positioned as the ‘mistress of spirits’ who attaches herself to the inanimate Adam before Eve’s arrival, a figure of undifferentiated demonic eros preceding the organized personal feminine. The index entry in Answer to Job identifies her explicitly as ‘daughter of Satan,’ embedding her in the theological drama of divine opposites. Neumann situates Lilith more squarely within the iconographic tradition of the Terrible Mother, captioning a Sumerian terra-cotta as ‘Lilith, Goddess of Death,’ aligning her with the death-dealing aspect of the Great Round. Hamaker-Zondag, working in the Jungian-astrological tradition, recuperates Lilith as a dynamizing force — a revolutionary energy that loosens rigid forms and demands individuation through confrontation — anticipating feminist depth-psychological rereadings. The tension between Lilith as dangerous regression and Lilith as transformative necessity remains the animating controversy of the term across the corpus.

In the library 12 passages

Adam, before he knew Eve, had a demon-wife called Lilith, with whom he strove for supremacy. But Lilith rose up into the air through the magic of God’s name and hid herself in the sea… whereupon Lilith changed into a nightmare or lamia who haunted pregnant women and kidnapped new-born infants.

Jung traces the Jewish legend of Lilith as Adam’s rebellious first wife who transforms into a child-destroying lamia, establishing the mythological basis for her function as a symbol of the destructive, regressive feminine.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Symbols of Transformation, 1952thesis

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God shooed them away till only one remained, Lilith, the ‘mistress of spirits,’ who succeeded in so attaching herself to Adam’s body that she became pregnant by him. Only when Eve appeared did she fly away again.

Jung presents Lilith as the primordial feminine spirit who precedes Eve and clings to the pre-conscious Adam, signifying the demonic anima that must be displaced before ordered relationship with the personal feminine becomes possible.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Mysterium Coniunctionis: An Inquiry into the Separation and Synthesis of Psychic Opposites in Alchemy, 1955thesis

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A legend of later origin maintains that the snake in the Garden of Eden was Lilith, Adam’s first wife, with whom he begot a horde of demons. This legend likewise supposes a trick that can hardly have been intended by the Creator.

Jung identifies the tradition linking Lilith with the Eden serpent and demonic progeny, reading it as evidence of a divine shadow — an unintended consequence built into the structure of creation itself.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Answer to Job, 1952thesis

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The Lilith in us drags us out of our security and gets us on the move… five loosens, and in a sense it also has something revolutionary in it.

Hamaker-Zondag reframes Lilith as a necessary destabilizing psychic force whose energy compels growth through confrontation, revaluing the traditionally threatening figure as an agent of individuation.

Hamaker-Zondag, Karen, Tarot as a Way of Life: A Jungian Approach to the Tarot, 1997thesis

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Sophia/Wisdom: 162, 236, 323… and Lilith, 393

Jung’s index entry in Psychology and Religion juxtaposes Sophia and Lilith as related entries, implying a structural polarity between the luminous feminine wisdom principle and its dark counterpart.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Psychology and Religion: West and East, 1958supporting

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Satan: Cain a copy of, 46/, 60; and Christ, 77, 81, 129; daughter of, see Lilith; fall of, 77/, 101, 113, 129, 140

This index entry from Answer to Job consistently positions Lilith as subordinate to and derivative of Satan, embedding her in the broader Jungian narrative of the dark son and the problem of evil within monotheism.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Answer to Job, 1952supporting

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Satan: Cain a copy of, 46/, 60; and Christ, 77, 81, 129; daughter of, see Lilith

A second index instance in Answer to Job reinforces Lilith’s structural position as Satan’s daughter, confirming her role as an element in the oppositional cosmological schema Jung develops in that work.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Answer to Job, 1952supporting

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Satan: Cain a copy of, 46/, 60; and Christ, 77, 81, 129; daughter of, see Lilith

Repeated indexing of Lilith as Satan’s daughter across multiple editions of Answer to Job signals the deliberate taxonomic placement of the figure within Jung’s theodicy.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Answer to Job, 1952supporting

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Lilith, 248

The index entry in Symbols of Transformation confirms Lilith’s presence as a catalogued mythological figure within Jung’s symbolic lexicon, cross-referenced against mother symbols and the linden-tree.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Symbols of Transformation, 1952aside

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