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Melanie Dufty is an astrologer, writer and seeker of truth through energy medicine and meditation. Her first novel, I Am Lilith, was released late last year and has left readers mesmerised and intrigued. In this podcast, Melanie shares her journey to bringing forth her destiny with the writing of her book and its theme of past and present struggles between the sexes and realisation of a truth in unity. We’ve tried not to spoil your discovery if you’re yet to read the book and hope you enjoy the podcast. Thank you for listening.
Can’t get enough of Melanie? View melaniedufty.com for more information about her book I Am Lilith book and astrology services.
Good morning Melanie and welcome to the With Intent podcast. Thank you for being here.
Morning Melissa. It’s really good to be here. Thanks for having me.
Pleasure. I’m super excited. Congratulations.
Thank you.
Melanie, this podcast, I don’t want it to be a spoiler for people who haven’t read the book yet and obviously there’ll be a lot of people listening who are just interested in your story and about people who do live with intent and find their purpose. So can you give us a little bit of a background on yourself and your journey thus far and your inspiration for pursuing a path in your astrology and writing and now publishing I Am Lilith.
Sure. Well, I made a very big turnaround in my life when I was 34 and I had my first son. So up until that point, I was on I went to union, I lived in London and I was very focused on my career in PR and working with the media and I was super intent on climbing the corporate ladder and it made me feel special and I just thought that was my path. And I was married to the man I’m still married to and we moved back to Australia and we had a house and I had a good career. And when I had my first son, I just took time off work.
I realised that, well, I think I was actually probably depressed and I just felt incredibly empty and realised that I’d achieved enough things to know that they weren’t fulfilling me and I just felt a huge calling for something but I had no idea what, and I was very mainstream. At the time I didn’t believe in energy or even in there being a consciousness beyond what I experienced in the normal day-to-day life. So I think it was just through sheer desperation around that time after my first son Luke was one that I started to investigate, learning some different things like kinesiology and things I got interested in. And then I discovered Pranic healing and meditation and went from there.
That’s so interesting. So were you diagnosed with depression?
No.
Did you seek any assistance for it?
No. I was already quite into natural health at that time and I wanted to have a home birth for Luke and I wasn’t into the mainstream in that area. My mother has always had so many mental health problems and always was with medication and she didn’t do any healing and I just knew that I didn’t want to do that. So just gradually I guess I moved out from homeopathy and more alternative health into actually spiritual connection.
My first birth, pregnancy propelled me on this journey of inward reflection and I guess I led a similar life to you so we’ve got that in common and I didn’t know that.
Yeah, that is interesting. I think that having a baby, the first baby especially is just a ginormous turning point in any woman’s life. Absolutely massive. And I think it just pushed away so much that was at the surface level and left me with something really opening the core. And from that it was just such a bereftness I guess, but that I was realising that I wasn’t connected to my true self, that I was fooled about what would satisfy me.
So after Luke was one and you started on this journey of kinesiology and small tentative therapies, what happened next?
Well I feel that I was directed away or from kinesiology and into Pranic healing and studying with GrandMaster Choa Kok Sui and studying which was all about reconnecting with the soul and energy medicine. And through that I met Melanie Ryan who’s now my mentor and teacher with my heart meditation and ITA energy medicine. So I was into it 110%. Basically I went to one event in meditation and from there I was just obsessed, passionate, constantly always meditating and practicing energy medicine for the next probably 10 years.
Melanie conducting an astrology reading
And when did the astrology come in to your realm?
Someone told me there was a great astrologer in South Africa and I had a reading with her on the phone. And I think that was in 2010 and I was blown away by how accurate it was. I already believed at that point fully. I understood that we’re a soul, we have a purpose, we’re here for a certain reason but I still found it just incredible what she said to me. And after that because I love studying, I started to research more about my own chart and then friends started asking me about their charts. And from there, I got an amazing teacher and went through years of study and became qualified and started to do readings because it blew me away with how helpful it was to clarify what my life purpose was and it just absolutely resonated with me.
So you were studying and became a professional astrologer at the same time as the meditation journey?
Yes.
Manuscripts of I Am Lilith
And then collectively when did the book, when did the inspiration, and your realisation of your purpose come to the fore?
Not for some time. So I knew that my purpose was a very spiritual one and one that also involved communicating in grounded, while accessible ways as well. But the clarity of it taking the form of a book did not emerge for some time. I had to do a lot of a self-alignment and exploration before I came to that. But I did always know even since I was a kid that I wanted to be writing and I had visions of writing on a typewriter. So I did always want to do it, and I could feel a real pull that I wanted to do something really significant but I didn’t really believe that it could be this.
So Melanie, who is Lilith?
Well, Lilith is in Jewish mythology, a woman who was married to Adam before Eve and Adam insisted that she had to lie beneath him and that she was inferior to him and she refused that and left him and then he married Eve. Because she was disobedient and it was the beginning of the era of patriarchy in my belief, she was exiled and demonised for all of the things that they didn’t like about women. So for her sexuality and for her empowerment with her fertility. So she was called an evil seductress, a demon, a vampire, a succubus, which means sucking the energy out of people and she was just demonised.
So she’s got quite a bad rap.
Very bad rap and really just all the projections of what was feared about a feminine were put on to Lilith. I believe that sent an archetypal energy within every woman, the parts of our feminine that have been exiled and shamed and sullied. But that’s not the truth of who Lilith is. She is the empowered part of us that is very sexual, very powerful, very loving, more of a fierce love. So she is due back and we can’t have balance of integration within ourselves without that fear as part of the feminine that she stands for being welcomed back.
Melanie in meditation manifesting ‘I Am Lilith’
There’s so much Lilith in all of us that’s been shamed but we’ll get to that later. Can you please continue with the inspiration for Lilith and I guess how the story came to you in I think you said 2017.
So in 2012, I first found out about this big astrological cycle that sees humanity evolve and really that’s the basis behind Lilith but it took another five years before I had the inspiration and the clarity of the story that I wanted to share that through. Yeah, it did take quite a lot of work of my intending, meditating, looking, searching, filling up notebooks, looking for what I wanted to say. And even in this yoga class, I used to go to the teacher during one of the poses where you really open up your heart and your arms, I would always say, “What have you got to say?” And that used to inspire me so much and I didn’t know what I had to say, but I just kept praying and meditating and intending, what have I got to say? What have I got to say? And eventually, that fulfilled itself because I felt clear that what I want to say is in that book.
So you pretty much asked?
I asked many times.
Fantastic. So without spoiling listeners yet to read your book, can you outline the story of I Am Lilith?
Sure. So I am Lilith is set in ancient Sumer which was in ancient Mesopotamia about 6,000 years ago and it’s a female ruled world where women and fertility, women sexuality, everything to do with women was absolutely revered and worshipped and unquestionably the path that ran creation. And it doesn’t mean it was all nice because that’s one of the interesting things is, if you do read, there are lots of books and fiction and nonfiction that when there was a matriarchal society, which many people believe there was, that it was all sweet and lovely and that there was no problems and then the patriarchy came along and ruined it.
But my book really flips out on its head and I believe it to be true, which is that the feminine and masculine, we are one, the feminine and masculine are just as powerful, and one isn’t less or more tyrannical or in shadow expression isn’t worse than the other, they’re equal. So in I Am Lilith, the female real world is tyrannical and oppressive to the masculine and so it really explores that which is very interesting because for the last 6,000 years we’ve been living in a patriarchal society where the tables were turned on that. So the book is set in a world where Lilith is the head of the female ruled society and males are stripped of purpose and of rights and they see that they don’t have any purpose except as workers and they don’t even acknowledge that males have a role in procreation. They just believe women fruit pregnancies unto themselves and this semen isn’t even potent and it’s just a replication of mother’s milk.
It’s not a joke so it can be quite fun to explore that world as well. But it’s for the higher purpose of showing the bigger message of the book which is a unity and equality and yet it’s interesting to explore a female ruled world. So what happens is the men start to get more and more angry and rebellion starts to rise and Lilith mates this man that she falls in love with called Adam and she really wants to forge a better society and she becomes more and more so heartbroken about the suppression that she’s heading up really, even though it’s historic and she wants to make it a better place and to bring men into a more equal position.
And yet they fear this secret prophecy that men are going to take over and are going to repress women terribly so they want to try and stop that as well. So she has this inner turmoil and this pull on her conscious to do the right thing, at the same time she wants to protect her society from this future that they’ve seen in their magical priestess work of the future.
And it’s such a page turner, and it was quite confronting those parts which you briefly described about the women actually doing some pretty destructive things and demeaning things to the male. It was very confronting. I found it stirred a lot of good and bad within me. But I wanted to ask, how much is fact versus fiction because there is a significant amount of astrology throughout which I assumed is fact.
Yes, if you believe in astrology, it’s fact because there’s an astronomical cycle which is absolutely fact as NASA would agree of this 25,000 year cycle that the book is based on, which shows us how humans experience one era where the feminine energy takes precedence and then one era where the masculine energy takes precedence and then we reunite into unity which is happening right now. So the book really bridges from the turning point from the feminine on top to the masculine on top, and then it bridges to right now in human evolution which is where we unify. We’ve taken all we’ve learnt from believing ourselves separate, we’ve explored every sort of nuance of shadow and what that means and now we’re ready to reunite.
‘I Am Lilith’ on-shelf at a prominent Perth bookstore.
It’s really significant because there is so much dialogue and energy around the female rising. And in my last podcast with Constance Hall, we discussed equality and the current vibe around it. Do you want to explore or explain what your belief is around that?
Yeah. My whole life up until really an epiphany in 2017, just before I got the idea for the book and it all started flooding through was that I’ve been a raging feminist up until that point and I was just devastated and enraged about all issues to do with feminism and masculine, feminine imbalance and I was so angry and also so hurt and I couldn’t stop thinking about all the witch burnings and I was just really wrapped up in all of that. It’s quite devastating. And I felt, yeah, a grief as well as an anger and I felt that the feminine was all good and had been hurt by the masculine. And then I had this gigantic absolutely body rushing epiphany really in a moment that we were just the same and this whole, you can’t have in the unity or in the perfect yin yang of creation, you can’t have one that’s good and the other one that’s a victim. It was just completely false.
So I recognise that the feminine in the shadow has plenty of powers and is just as dangerous in its own way. Of course, we all carry the feminine masculine within us. So the feminine in shadow manifests more manipulation, neglect secrets and it can also be absolutely very cruel and the masculine energy manifests more in I guess yang over actual violence or physicality and structure and power and control structures that are blatant and open whereas the feminine is more secret. So you’ll see it in everybody and in all the world. So yeah, I wanted the book to explore through a story in quite a literal world where the feminine was ruling and it wasn’t only light but there was plenty of light in there as well like the beautiful, sacred rituals, beautiful and authentic honoring of the feminine sexuality and fertility.
There is extensive symbolism throughout the book which I loved and being a fellow Mahat Meditator, I loved a lot of the references – the mind’s eye and all the gifts that Lilith and her priestesses would use, their intuition etc…but I’m going to focus on scent.
Yes
Because of our purpose. Scent features heavily, Patchouli, Jasmine, Cyprus, Juniper. Even the dog fancy was scented with geranium. Why did you choose to focus so heavily on scent and how did you match scent to the characters and the scenes, et cetera?
Scent is an incredibly important part of the Venusian energy. So Venusian meaning Venus so the beautiful central goddess Venus energies so sensuality, touch. So scent just was inherently always going to be key in creating this beautiful, exotic world in the light aspects that the feminine is ruling and yeah, they’re always making perfumes and creating perfumes is, as you’ve seen the book is greatly revered as a key artistic expression. So yeah, scent absolutely had to be there in this Venusian world. And how did I match it? Well Lilith especially wears Patchouli and Patchouli for me, it’s such a mature, super, super sexy, powerful, deep, rich rolling smell. And it seems, I don’t know, I just associate it with women, not girls but women. It felt to me like the energy of Lilith.
So interesting because Patchouli is a base note so it’s a very grounding note and gives durability and although Lilith’s very spiritual and in touch with her intuition, she’s very grounded in her approach. So it makes sense that she wears Patchouli actually.
Yeah. It’s really solid, isn’t it and it’s super sexy.
Did you research your scent?
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I researched what they were using in anxious Sumer at the time. The book isn’t all correct to whatever information is available, because there’s not all that much information about what they were using in 18, what they were using in scents and what kind of crystals they were using, but where I could, I’ve tried to draw out what they were using and put in the book. But for instance, with Jasmine, well, I just love Jasmine and it’s so light and pure and beautiful and that’s used quite a lot in the most beautiful gardens, scenes in the temple where everything’s just so invocative and Jasmine it’s a beautiful pure Venusian world that they live up there whilst down on the streets, that the men are living in squalor and it was almost like, I don’t know, it just helped set another world with Jasmine and smells of wisteria even.
And do you know Cleopatra used Jasmine?
No, I didn’t know that.
To allure her lovers.
Wow.
And Rose. Jasmine and Rose.
Love them. I like how it smells. And Rose of course it’s used as by the retired high priestess Menna.
That’s right.
As to me the ultimate heart energy and the really evolved energy that she carries. So much wisdom.
And on the subject of symbolism, which some of it’s explained in the afterward of the book but snakes also feature heavily. I’m fascinated by the snake references as I frequently experience snakes in my realm and I’d like to know what they signify. So you’ve got the snake entwined around the triangle and the heaven and earth symbols on the front of the cover, there’s the vipers that killed the Heredic, the snake symbol on Lilith’s staff, her cuffs. There’s plenty more. Can you share?
Sure. Well, the snake is a symbol of spiritual connection like the Kundalini serpent rising up and it’s very significant that the snake has his whole body in contact with the earth so it’s a symbol of being very much on the earth. And as it rises through spiritual unification, the Kundalini serpent up to the crown chakra, it’s like going from the earth to the heaven. So it’s a symbol of heaven on earth and in Lilith she’s got her beloved beautiful green Python called Yasmine that she adores as you know and she’s called sky snake because she’s a representation of heaven and earth. So she’s from the ground but she lives up high in the temple. So it’s like a symbol of being able to master the earthly realms up to the heavenly.
Snake symbolism in ‘I Am Lilith’
And the second really major reason for the snake focus is that there is a 13th star sign called Ophiuchus which I believe your star sign is, if you apply the 13th science system because Sagittarians born specially a little bit later degree, Sagittarians like itself, when you apply the 13th science system, they become an Ophiuchus which is the snake. And it’s the snake that means the master of duality so the master shadow and light, the monster of heaven and earth. So the snake, and in the book and in, I believe this to be true as do many astrologists, especially more spiritual astrologers believe that it was stripped from the system as the patriarchal era took hold and it’s all connected with the 13 energy and of course Lilith is one of 13 priestesses. There are 13 lunar months in a year. The whole thing of the 13 and in connection with not just feminine wisdom, because Ophiuchus is about unifying the two polarities masculine, feminine, light, dark, any opposite. So the snake is incredibly significant as a symbol of unification and mastery, mastery being a key word of the opposites of duality.
So interesting because that’s really what I’m trying to master within myself. The balance between masculine, feminine, and also the lower emotions. Literally, we have pythons on our doorstep all the time. We’re in Margaret River so there are a lot more snakes around, but I have them literally climb the upstairs deck and the kids will be like, “Mum, there’s a python in the flower pot.”
Love it.
A couple of times, three times a year at least. And at major times in my life, I’ve seen them. Being out on a run and bang, a snake. Anyway, I find it really interesting so thank you for explaining. I need to keep trying to master duality.
Yeah. And I recommend you investigate that 13th star Ophiuchus. Because I really believe in the coming decades, centuries, that humans will welcome back the 13 sign star system in astrology.
Okay. Right. Well, I’m going to actually personally have an astrological reading with you so I look forward to our session and more in depth understanding of Ophiuchus.
Now, the book is quite saucy and at times ….quite shocking which we alluded to earlier. Lilith and the priestesses strength, intuition, sensuality, and womanhood is greatly revered and celebrated. And as I said, it did stir a lot of energy in me. What feedback are you receiving from your readers? What are people saying to you once they have read this book?
The sexuality and the world where there’s just no such thing possible as sexual shame, menstrual shame. It’s just completely not in the energy of the book or in the energy of that world and the feedback I’m getting is that it’s similar to what you’re giving which is that it stirred some incredible awakenings of how some women have come to me personally and shared some incredible stories about what they felt in their own womanhood, their own sexuality, realisations. Women are especially enjoying one of the earliest scenes in the book, which is a sacred full moon, beautiful, celebrated, pure, wholesome, super, super sensual and sexual and just beautiful.
That is the truth and it’s the demonisation and how Lilith, I don’t know if listeners will realise that Lilith has been called the darkest demon and the mother of all vampires and the baby killer and the evil seductress. A lot of it about her sexuality. It’s been demonised because it carries our power and our divine connection. So in the book that world as you know is only about that beautiful purity. So it’s really stirring women’s sexuality and a lot of women are telling me very personal things that I just love hearing.
Well, I’ve got something personal to share with you after this recording as well.
Okay. Bring it on.
That’s wonderful. Definitely, I have been recommending your book. And I think whether people are on an inward spiritual journey or not, they will connect to this book.
I do too. I think there’s enough story, entertaining story through to whatever elements you want to draw out. That’s the other feedback I’m getting from people. There’s usually something in it in particular that’s speaking to them. But yeah, you can rate it as a very deep spiritual or even just to explore a different world.
We’ve talked about connecting with Lilith’s energy. I felt disappointed when she lost herself and went into the shadow because she does go into the shadow in a very big way. Why did you choose for her to go down that path?
She had to. So I feel that I didn’t choose it, I feel that that’s what happens. As part of this big evolutionary cycle where the feminine was on top and then the masculine was on top, she took the fall really I think as a sacrifice where she would be denied, exiled, hated, feared for eons. So it happened. So that part within the feminine energy that’s unpalatable, unwelcome through the patriarchy, she signifies that. So it has been very painful but now the time is here, the energy is here that she’s back and that’s why I use #lilithisback. So back within every woman, back within every men too. So she had to take the fall. She did take the fall as an energy expression, but that’s done. The rise is here back into equality.
I’m going to read a part of your afterward because I just want to touch on the message about unity between men and women and there not being one more dominant of the other. In your afterward, you’ve written under the section about what Lilith symbolises….
“The illusional era of masculine or feminine being on top or made at this womb or that penis is over. They can never be separated. The true nature of the masculine is to cherish the feminine and her boundary-less, dynamic, creative nature. And her true nature is to adore his structure, his focus, and how he forms the banks that shape her wild river. They are creation itself and within every form, every creation, every moment.”.
I highlighted that in my book because it was very relevant to me because that’s what I’m trying to achieve within my own personal marriage. And I think people who are listening will really relationships can be quite challenging if there is this struggle, power struggle going on. And I think the reminder that we need to revere our partners for some of those qualities is really important, just like they need to, and I had that discussion with my husband, and thank you for this book because it really triggered it to remind me to say, you do need to appreciate my creativity which can be frustrating at the same time.
Absolutely. Yeah, I feel the same of course. And even that instinctive feminine intuition that is so not based on a grounded experience but it’s a knowing and it’s so deep and sensitive and raw. It’s just last night saying to my husband saying, and he is amazing at that, but saying you must listen to this intuitive, raw, sensitive knowing that I have about something that’s currently going on in our life. And it’s a real grief if it’s not honoured. And especially when we feel it ourselves and turn away from it, those noise.
And I do think that we have to realise that within ourselves first and foremost. And then I have had the privilege of observing you and Wayne and I know Wayne’s been on my heart retreats and he’s very much sharing the meditation journey with you which seems very, very special.
Melanie’s husband, Wayne reading ‘I Am Lilith’ manuscript
Yeah. He’s completely sharing the feminine masculine journey that we are on and the spiritual journey and he’s been a major part of supporting the book. Some of the amazing ideas that are in the book come from Wayne so right alongside he’s been standing with me and he’s also very changing to the feminine energy and I needed that in order to bring this book about, I needed to be held because of my initial rage and what he’s been able to hold for me because
the masculine can hold that space and let that storm. And it’s not always a storm, the feminine is everything, but yeah, there was healing to be done. it was right. It was great and he’s been able to hold that and helped me yet to find the space that I needed. Of course, we also carry the structure, the drive, the push, the masculine energy within ourselves as well as the feminine and ultimately it’s going to be within ourselves that we unify.
And this book from that description sounds like it was birthed out of unity between you and Wayne.
It is. The book is still delivering that full unity because I don’t claim that we’re in full perfect unity but we know what it is and we’re actively working on it and the book is its massive grounding of that. We know what it is but yeah, is it perfect? No.
Well, we can only strive for it.
Yes.
Now what advice… You’ve described this book as your life’s purpose or the start of your life’s purpose, along with the creation of your babies I’m sure and a lot more, but what advice would you give to listeners out there how to find and know their purpose?
Well, to look and to actively seek, if people whether it’s using intention or whatever methods, whether it’s meditation, prayer intent and just walking around, what I did, say, what have I got to say? What have I got to say? Sometimes listening to music and getting that passion when you feel so alive and just really calling out to the universe and I guess when one with the universe, what do I got to say? Or if it’s not saying, your purpose may not be saying, something it might be doing, or carrying an energy or having an amazing relationship through to a business. Who knows? I believe that astrology can help you to get the gist of your life purpose. Will it tell you exactly what you’ll do? No, but it will give you the direction and the gist and it can really give you a bit of structure within which to explore more of what your soul is here to do.
And what about being present?
Being present. Yeah. Well in order to receive and to connect with your soul and its purpose, you definitely need to be present. And that presence for me can range from, like I say, the joy of dancing and feeling incredible joy through to stillness and meditation through to just walking around in nature. It’s certainly putting my phone down and yeah, being present is absolutely crucial. You can’t hear your soul without that.
Beautiful. Now, I know you’ve experienced Melis scents.
Yes.
Getting back to Melis, and you came to the launch actually which I was really grateful for. Do you have a personal favourite?
My personal favourite, I love Melis perfumes and the energy in them and the smells and everything about them. My favourite at the moment, because I’ve changed is the new NATIVUS range…. I just loved them and I love the whole experience of them, the smell, the way I feel, the complexity in the smell and I adore the beautiful art with the packaging. The whole experience of the perfume I just love.
And isn’t it interesting because I changed for me too with time and a lot of people who connect with them they say they start out with one favourite and then they… That’s when I believe scent chooses you, your subconscious knows what it needs and the ingredients and the plant matter chooses you for where you’re at at that point in time.
I totally agree with that. Even from moods through to different phases, we have our scents that we’re drawn to or that choose us.
Yeah. We need to close but I just wanted to provide an opportunity for you to add to our conversation anything that you feel is important for our with intent listeners to know about you personally, your journey and or I Am Lilith.
Main thing for right now is that the time is really truly here, astrologically, spiritually, energetically, we’re in this window where we can really make this quantum leap into that new era but you need intent because there is a pull back into [inaudible 00:40:25] or all the stuff going on in the world and we need a bit of extra intent at the moment to have some faith to believe in this truth that we are entering as a time of unity and to have the intent to do what you need to do to bring yourself to that space as much as you can.
And so what would your recommendation be for an intentional practice?
Yeah. Like you say, presence with yourself. So it’s like going within and for me that involves meditation, but also I just love lying around in nature and feeling it. So I really think we need to go back within ourselves to find it and to find a community and to be around people who support and are on the same path.
Fantastic.
Basically the same path.
Well Melanie, I’m so grateful. Thank you so much. The book is epic.
Thank you so much.
And I have no doubt that it is going to be a best seller in time as more and more people connect with it. And so thank you. Thank for bringing your truth to this world and to our ‘With Intent’ podcast.
Thank you so much Melis.
Melanie Dufty and her cat Adam
