Lilith’s Compost Pile

Consequently the two are sometimes at odds. However, Ishtar knows that in order to keep a civilization running, you sometimes have to do the dirty work. To keep order, you have to make a place for the liminal, the outsider, and the wild, lest your order become sterile and cruel. In order to have a fruitful garden, you must have decay. Lilith for her part is not always on board with all this orderly gardeny stuff, but…she is sometimes willing to grant her gifts to those who appreciate them and are willing to work for them. Besides, a real Garden is never perfect and unchanging; it is a domain of constant change, transformation, and muck, all things she favors. Compost makes things grow.

According to Anya Kless, Lilith kind of likes dirt and decay and mess. My other deities and my ancestors don’t particularly (my altar room is usually the cleanest room in my house), so she requires a space of her own. Therefore I made her an altar outside in front of my compost pile, near where a little red toad has taken up residence. I have long been a notable slayer of plants; the compost and my current collection of herbs, tomatoes, and zucchini represent the umpteenth time I have attempted to turn my black thumb to green. I keep trying. The altar is made from a board I found under my house (where I also found more frogs), and includes a clay flower pot turned on its side, some broken bricks, some stones of appropriate colors, and a shell. It is decorated with a clay owl that my son made. I get the impression that she’d rather you make something pretty out of junk than buy something new and shiny. I poured some wine into the shell earlier, and later I will go out and light some candles for her and add some more to the compost pile.

So far, my garden is growing.