28/04/2026
My friend put me on to these incredible ancient things called 'incantation bowls' that were used as a form of protective magic. These were rough clay bowls inscribed on the inside in a jewish
babylonian aramaic written from the inner rim of the bowl and spiralling in to the centre. At the
centre was a naïvely drawn image of a demon. The thought process was that the demon would read
the inscription on the bows from the outside in and get caught in the centre by the words.
The bowl would then be turned upside down trapping the demon like a bug, and buried face down under each corner of the house.
A very common demon appearing at the centre of these bowls was the demon Lilith.
Lilith at that stage was seen as a baby snatcher- tearing unborn babies from their mothers wombs.
Later Lilith crops up in Jewish folklore as being Adam's first wife who left the garden of Eden due
to her refusal to submit to him.
These days Lilith is a powerful symbol of female force, deep connection to Self and necessary rage against unnatural and superficial ways of living.
She is totally and utterly my home girl 🔻 🔺
In this piece I wanted to invoke Lilith, rather than trap her in a bowl. I wanted to bring her out and
praise her in every symbol stitch and sign.
Ive called this '108 names of Lilith' as it recalls the Yogic chanting of 108 names of any given Goddess or God where the different names chanted relate to the different qualities of the Goddess and the chanting of these names invokes the protection and the presence of that deity.
I want these visual symbols of Lilith to awaken her fierce qualities of independence,connection to
Self, and the courage to follow ones own inherent truth within all of us. I believe we need that now
more than anything.
Cotton calico with applique and hand embroidery
📷
