Symbols gather around Lilith faster than evidence does. For each symbol below we give two readings and keep them apart: what the sources actually say, and how the House uses the image in practice. If a symbol is modern, we say so.
Creatures
The owl
In the sources Older English Bibles translate the lilit of Isaiah 34:14 as "screech owl," and the verse sets her among birds of the ruins. The owls on the Old Babylonian relief added to the link, though that figure is probably not Lilith.
In the House The one who sees in the dark and is not seen. The owl stands for attention without commentary: watching your own night-life closely before deciding what any of it means.
The serpent
In the sources The Ben Sira story has no serpent. Medieval and Renaissance artists often painted the serpent of Eden with a woman's head and torso, and later readers named that woman Lilith. Rossetti's sonnet ties her to the snake as well.
In the House Knowledge that changes the knower. The serpent sheds its skin without ceasing to be itself, which is a fair description of what shadow-work is meant to do.
Wings
In the sources The Talmud mentions Lilith's wings in passing, and in the Ben Sira story she flies from the garden after speaking the Name.
In the House The means of leaving. Wings mean that an exit exists and that you are permitted to use it.
Sky and land
The dark moon
In the sources There is no ancient lunar Lilith. The connection is modern, made by twentieth-century astrologers who gave her name to the lunar apogee, the Black Moon, and by poets who heard "night" in her name.
In the House The one night in the month when nothing is reflected back at you. We keep it as our single fixed observance.
The wind
In the sources This is her oldest attribute. The name descends from the Sumerian lil, meaning wind or breath, and the lilu spirits were winds that entered by the window.
In the House What cannot be held. The wind is the reason our Charter refuses to fix a doctrine about what Lilith is.
The wilderness
In the sources Isaiah places her in a land emptied of people. In the Ben Sira story she settles by the sea, beyond the garden.
In the House Life outside approval. The wilderness is not punishment in our reading. It is simply where a person stands after an honest refusal, until something new is built.
The tree
In the sources In the Sumerian Gilgamesh poem a spirit lives in the trunk of Inanna's tree until the hero drives her out. Whether she is Lilith is disputed.
In the House We use the image cautiously, as a picture of something wild living inside a structure meant for other purposes.
Person and household
The mirror
In the sources Later Jewish folklore tells of Lilith or her daughters dwelling in mirrors and looking out at those who gaze too long. Rossetti painted her absorbed in a hand mirror.
In the House The central tool of shadow-work: a surface that returns what you bring to it, including what you would prefer not to have brought.
The hair
In the sources The Talmud notes her long hair. Goethe and Rossetti turned it into a snare for men.
In the House The part of the image we handle most critically, since it was shaped by people looking at her instead of by her. We read it as a reminder that an archetype can be captured by its admirers.
The spoken Name
In the sources In the Ben Sira story Lilith pronounces the Ineffable Name and rises into the air. It is the hinge of the whole tale.
In the House Speech that changes one's situation. Every rite we publish turns on something said aloud in one's own voice. See the Rite of Refusal.
The threshold
In the sources Incantation bowls were buried at thresholds and in the corners of rooms, the points where the household met the outside.
In the House Our own emblem: an arch with a waning crescent inside it. The doorway has no door. The symbol is ours and has no ancient authority.
What we leave out
A reader may wonder why this page omits certain popular items. We do not use the seals and sigils that circulate online under Lilith's name, since they are recent designs by individual artists and we prefer that people make their own marks. We do not list correspondences of stones, herbs, or colors, because none are traditional and published lists disagree with each other. And we do not treat images of other goddesses as images of Lilith. On that last point see Against the Flattened Goddess.