Lilith, Gender and Demonology - Stephanie Spoto

This free online event will take place via Zoom at 17.30 (GMT). Please register by using the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_C9dFatEIQDmktaQN2XVEbA "Stephanie  Spoto’s study of Lilith examines the feminine demonic. She succinctly  demonstrates that the demonisation of the female is embedded in how we  perceive and apprehend demonic icons such as Lilith. This is a study  that goes back to the early modern period populated by such great ‘men’  as John Dee, Milton, and Shakespeare. For each applied and negotiated  their understanding of threat by projecting their current fears onto and  into aspects of such entities as Hecate and Lilith. While topics  surrounding the destabilisation of societal equilibrium have always been  present, Spoto shows that during the 16th and 17th century a projected  impression of presences concerned with engaging with the demonic were  being studied and practised. Fears over heresy, uncertainty, loss,  treason, even sexual appetite threatened the continued aggrandisement of  a patriarchal society, in accordance with this much was being done by  magicians to usurp the feminine. It should therefore come as no surprise  to learn that Stephanie Spoto successfully presents evidence which  shows that rather than shunning Lilith, authors of the time were openly  communicating and negotiating their sense of an existential reality and  crisis via the demoness."