The Charter is the only text that binds the House. It was written by the seven members of the original reading circle and adopted at the dark moon in the autumn of 2014. It has not been amended. Each article is given here in full, followed by a short gloss agreed by the present keepers.
The nine articles
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The House has no door.
No one is admitted and no one is expelled. Whoever reads here is already inside, and whoever leaves has kept the first teaching.
Gloss. There is no membership, and therefore no power to grant or withdraw it. The article is modeled on the garden that Lilith left without being sent.
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No one stands between a person and their own night.
The House appoints no priest, teacher, or confessor, and its keepers may not act as one.
Gloss. Keepers maintain pages. They do not guide individuals. See Spiritual Independence.
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We read before we invoke.
What the sources say comes first, in the order in which they were written. Meaning is built on that ground and nowhere else.
Gloss. This was the rule of the reading circle before there was a House. See Origins and Sources.
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We name our debts.
The materials of our study were made and kept by others, and they remain theirs. We say whose they are, and we do not claim their traditions as our own.
Gloss. The debt is chiefly to Jewish scripture, law, folklore, and mysticism, and behind those to the scribes of Mesopotamia. The House does not practice, teach, or sell any part of another people's religion.
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We call the modern modern.
The Lilith we work with was shaped in the last two centuries. We do not give her an invented antiquity, and we do not think less of her for being young.
Gloss. Every page of the library is expected to distinguish what is attested, what is interpreted, and what is personal.
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Sovereignty ends where another's begins.
Each person holds first authority over their own body, name, hours, and conscience, and over no one else's. Nothing in our study licenses harm, coercion, or contempt.
Gloss. This is the article on which the others turn. A reading of Lilith that places anyone beneath has left the House. See Self-Sovereignty.
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The shadow is met, not obeyed.
We look at what we have disowned so that it will not rule us unseen. To see a thing is not to do its bidding.
Gloss. See Shadow-Work, and its cautions.
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We keep the empty night.
Once in each lunation, when no moon is seen, we stop and take account. The House asks no other observance.
Gloss. The night before or the night after will also serve. See the Dark Moon Observance.
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Anyone may leave, and leaving is honored.
A keeper who lays down the work is thanked and owes no explanation. A reader who closes the book has done nothing wrong.
Gloss. Two of the first seven have left under this article. Their names remain on the original Charter.
How to read the Charter
The articles fall into three groups, and it helps to see them that way.
| Articles | Concern | In one phrase |
|---|---|---|
| I, II, and IX | The shape of the House | No door, no intermediary, no penalty for leaving |
| III, IV, and V | Honesty about the sources | Read first, credit the owners, date things correctly |
| VI, VII, and VIII | The conduct of practice | Respect other sovereigns, meet the shadow, keep the night |
What the Charter leaves out
Readers often notice what is missing. The Charter says nothing about what Lilith is: spirit, goddess, symbol, or psychological pattern. It prescribes no belief about gods, an afterlife, or magic. It contains no rule about diet, dress, sexuality, or politics. These omissions are intentional. The seven who wrote it disagreed on all of those matters, and concluded that a house devoted to independence had no business settling them.
Using the Charter yourself
The text is offered freely. A solitary reader may adopt it, in whole or part, as a private rule. A group may take it as a starting point for its own. Change the wording, add articles, strike the ones that do not fit. We ask one thing: if you alter it, do not call the result the Charter of House Lilitu.
Continue to the Keepers.