Poetry Friday ~ Character & Wild

I’m sure some of you know by now that there’s a hurricane in the Atlantic headed for Florida. Well, Hurricane Dorian is headed northwest right now toward Florida’s northern east coast but there’s a pressure system that is predicted to push the hurricane southwest to make landfall anywhere from central Florida to the Keys and I’m somewhere in the middle.

We stocked up on water, batteries, and all the other stuff – better to be safe than sorry. I’m hoping the pressure system turns out to be weaker than the meteorologists are predicting and won’t have the strength to push Dorian over land but instead, it continues north on the Atlantic Ocean, missing the east coast of Florida.

Changing the subject, I’m excited about Colleen Chesebro’s prompt words this week, Character and Wild because I was reminded of Lilith, the main character in the first book of my Fantasy Angels Series, The Fall of Lilith.

**I would like to give a little more insight into her and answer a few readers questions.

 

I’ve been asked, why did I decide to make Lilith both main character and villain in The Fall of Lilith?

My original thought was to make Michael the protagonist and Lucifer the antagonist but then I thought of all the books in existence with the same exact concept and the more I thought about it the more the idea bored me. So I thought, why not make the villain the main character and why not make that character female? I was thrilled to write this story because it was original.

A few readers complained that Lilith never changed but remained evil throughout, never learning her lesson.

Firstly, Lilith did change throughout the story, because she began as a mischievous but not evil young girl. Her goal early on was to please God. As she grew into a teenager, she began to understand that her lofty goal of being first in God’s eyes was not going to be met and began to feel resentful of others who God favored instead.

She became more and more dissatisfied with her position in Floraison (Heaven’s lowest realm) and also began to feel stifled by the laws the angels had to live by in Floraison. Soon, she realized she had natural psychology and was able to influence the other angels. When she managed to influence the most powerful angel and God’s right hand, Lucifer into rebelling against God and starting a war, she became drunk with her own power.

Even after losing the war in heaven and being exiled to Earth she made excuses as to why her plans failed – it was Beelzebub’s fault – Lucifer failed to do his part . . . She became more rebellious, angrier and vengeance, after going through many bad experiences on Earth, became her ultimate goal.

The bottom line is that Lilith never repented and never learned her lesson because like Narcissists she could never admit that she was wrong or that anything was her fault. Everything she did, no matter how bad, was done for good reasons. Also, she was on her way to becoming a demon and demons don’t feel remorse or regret, they just become worse – more evil and perverse. 

In Son of the Serpent Lilith is the villain and a full-blown demon-witch. Does she get her comeuppance? You’ll have to read to find out. 😉

I’ve had one or two readers be angry with me because I made Lilith a woman and an evil character.

First of all, why not? Women can be just as evil as men. In my Psychology studies, I learned about serial killers and although most were men, there were several female serial killers responsible for doing things that would make you sick. Most importantly, Lilith is not a woman. She was an angel turned fallen angel, turned demon – a supernatural creature.

A couple of readers claimed that I didn’t tell the story like it was written in the Bible.

First of all, and I’ve said this before, several times already, The Fall of Lilith is not based on the Bible. There are elements of the Bible in the story as well as certain characters but this is a supernatural fantasy. There are also elements of the Jewish scriptures and stories and characters based on Mythology and Folklore. Very little is said about angels in the Bible and Lilith is not a biblical character. She’s a character from the Jewish scriptures. 

Who was Lilith?

There are so many stories told about Lilith, from being Adam’s first wife, in Jewish scriptures to being a figure of cosmic evil in Medieval Kabbalah.

The traditional depiction of Lilith from ancient Mesopotamia through medieval Kabbalah presents an antitype of desired human sexuality and family life. Lilith not only embodies people’s fears of how attraction to others can ruin their marriages, or of how risky childbearing and raising children are, but also represents a woman whom society cannot control—a woman who determines her own sexual partners, who is wild and unkempt, and who does not have the natural consequences of sexual activity, children. Continue reading . . . Lilith | Jewish Women’s Archive

 

I hope I’ve been able to satisfy some readers’ curiosity about my character Lilith from The Fall of Lilith. If you have any questions you may ask in the comment section below.

 

I wrote an Etheree about Lilith this week.

 

She

was proud

She was vain

She’s never wrong

Feral was her way

Never feeling regret

Her soul needed no guidance

one moment revered and the next

hated and feared. A breeze or cyclone.

Feelings changed about her as the winds shift.

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Character and Wild are this week’s prompt words chosen by Colleen Chesebro ~ The Fairy Whisperer.

*The catch is that we can only use the synonyms to these words in our poems.

Colleen hosts a challenge that anyone could participate in called, Colleen’s Weekly Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge every Tuesday, and you have until Sunday to create a post featuring your Haiku, Tanka, Haibun, Etheree or Cinquain poem. She is an author and poet, and also does book reviews and so much more on her blog. Be sure to check it out.

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To my fellow Floridians let’s pray for the best but prepare for the worst. For those who celebrate Labor Day have fun and be safe. Happy Friday, everyone!