I started today off perusing the internet for a topic to discuss. It’s a slow day at work. I had originally wanted to discuss dreams as I had a reoccurring dream last night. Somehow I ended up reading about the origin of lullabies. Let me take you on that journey.
Several nights ago I was dreaming. In that dream I was driving down a road, I think it was to the beach. I came to a fork in the road and of course I took “the road less traveled”. I got several miles down the road and realized I had taken the wrong road. I reversed course and finding myself back at the fork I took the correct road. I ended up at the right spot on the beach and set up a camp. Why I was going to the beach is not known, but I am content to be there. While I am there I start thinking that I have been here before. It looks familiar and I realize that I have dreamed this before. This is all while I am dreaming. The very next night I am having the same dream. Again, I come to the same fork in the road, and take the less traveled one. I don’t get as far this time before I return to the right road. This time while I am resting at the beach I remember that I was dreaming this before and that I had made the exact same error again. While I was contemplating this in my dream, I made a mental note to blog about this the next day.
So here I am this morning on internet researching dreams and their origins when I run across “Dream Content” and find; Emotions, Sexual Themes, Recurring Dreams, Common Themes, and Color vs. Black and White. Now my focus should have been “recurring dreams” but I somehow couldn’t stay focused. (Must be because my wife has been away at work for a few days) While I found out that “negative emotions are more common than positive ones, “65% of males have recurring dreams”, and common themes are; falling, being chased, losing something, and embarrassing moments like finding yourself naked, going to the toilet, or losing your car. Did you know that recent research indicates that more people are dreaming in color since the advent of color TV and media, as opposed to black and white?
Anyway, so I can’t find anything that explains why I keep having the same dream. I am looking in the references section and found “Lilith” a 6000 year old Sumerian dream demon (succubus). That peeked my interest so I looked that up. There are many legends of Lilith, one turns out to be, that Adam, of Adam and Eve fame, may have had a first wife by the name of Lilith. It seems that Lilith was “formed of clay” like Adam but refused to be subservient to him, so she “flew away”. The angels found her and told her that if she didn’t return to Adam that “one hundred of her babies a day will die” and she still refused. There is actually some debate over whether Lilith was an actual wife or just a legend. (500 BC. urban legend) Another variation has Adam and Eve squabbling about Eve’s behavior in the Garden of Eden. While they are “on a break”, a demon called a Lilith, seduces Adam and becomes pregnant.
It seems as though the legend may could come from an Assyrian folklore. The Assyrians had three categories of female demons, Lilit, Lilu,and Ardat Lilit. Hundreds of years later there are writings that reference Lilith by name instead of a category. These writings describe her as irresistibly seductive she-demon who seduces unwary men, then savagely kills the babies that she bears for them. In ancient times superstitious Jews would hang amulets on the walls of rooms with newborn babies with the inscription “Lilith – abi” (Lilith begone!) to protect them from Lilith. Many believe this is where we get the lullaby
So there we have it, from a dream about driving to the beach, you get a meandering internet version of “Six degrees of Separation from Lilith”.
