Mother of Premonitions

In our discussion of magical beliefs regarding the nature of time, we noted that, according to these views, predicting the future is possible only with a certain probability.

Nevertheless, there have always been people in whom this ability is most developed, and using reason and intuition, almost anyone can look ahead.

More generally, the continuity of life itself is sustained by the ability to establish a connection between the past and the future.

And it would be strange if predators had not taken advantage of such a potent faculty for their own ends.

Of course, they were quick to implant a destructor into the faculty of foresight, reducing it to mere premonitions.

Instead of attempting to change a course of events in the desired direction when one foresees it, vague — often anxious, but always indeterminate — premonitions are born in the depths of the Psychocosmos, causing the being to suffer even when nothing dire has occurred, and thereby dissipating energy.

The demon that feeds on such energies is traditionally called Nahamah (Naama, Naamah — (Heb. נעמה, meaning ‘pleasure’); also Lilith Alimta (Olimta), which in Hebrew means “cruel Lilith”). This association of sensuality and cruelty points to sadomasochistic sexual practices, the emergence of suppressed, forbidden sexuality as the source of many blockages in the Psychocosmos, and, in a broader sense, to the distortion of creative energy that arises from the union of opposites. Blood and sex, life and feeling — these constitute the basis of Nahamah’s energy.

She, as one of the manifestations of the Dark Mother, plunges into the depths of the Principle of Feeling and perverts it for her own ends. According to the Zohar, Nahamah is the wife (in other sources the mother) of Asmodeus and the younger sister of Lilith. It is to her that the “seduction” of the seraphim is attributed, an act that led to their fall and the appearance of the Grigori, and later to the Great Flood. She is equated with many female demons and is regarded as the mother of many demons.

Kabbalistic literature often mentions four “mothers of demons”: Lilith, Nahamah, Agrat; occasionally a fourth is added — Mahallat or Negu (the demoness of plague), sometimes Iset Zenunim (the demoness of fornication), or Even Maskit. Initially, they were all, including Nahamah, regarded merely as aspects of Lilith. Later it became clear these aspects differ: Nahamah feeds on blood — vital force — while Lilith feeds on sexual energy, so their spheres of influence are not identical. Lilith is associated with the Moon; she is associated with Monday, while Nahamah belongs to the principle of earth and is associated with Friday.

The flowing blood, as a manifestation of the flow of feeling, is entirely under Nahamah’s dominion. Being an archdemon, Nahamah does not enslave souls; she consumes them. Ruling over the flowing blood, Nahamah is also the queen of vampires.

Because the Principle of Feeling is feminine by nature, Nahamah has traditionally been described as the “Mistress of Young Women.” It is precisely when feeling is already active but not yet ordered — from the onset of puberty to motherhood — that young women are most vulnerable to her power. It is no coincidence that followers of her cult in the Near East sacrificed girls aged thirteen to sixteen to her. Rav Shimon called Nahamah the mother of demons, and Rav Chiya said that she is a great seductress, desired not only by men but also by spirits and demons, and that together with Lilith, Nahamah torments children and mothers. Those under Nahamah’s sway become destroyers of happiness and balance like her. Against their will, such beings bring discord by their mere presence. They bring misfortune to those who come close.

On the whole, Nahamah represents distorted intuition or ‘seeing’ (prajna), and in this sense she functions as the “Dark Binah” or the “Demon Da’at,” and is often described as the “shadow Shekhinah.”

The manifestations of Nahamah are numerous and varied, but they are always accompanied by a loss of feeling — not in the sexual sense, as under Lilith’s influence, but in the vital sense. The mind, falling under Nahamah’s sway, loses its sense of life’s flow, loses the stirring of the blood, and the individual becomes constantly fearful and restless, tormented by dark premonitions that drain life.

To resist Nahamah, one must, first, clearly grasp the variability of time; second, keep one’s mind in motion even when the darkness thickens to the point of being nearly impassable; and most importantly — not lose the taste for life, not substitute “I will be” for “I am” — in other words, not to transfer one’s activity from the present into the future. A Magus never strives to acquire things in the future. All his activity takes place in the present, and the future for him is only a field of possibilities.