The history of the evolution of the Satanic Myth would not be complete if
we omitted to notice the character of the mysterious and cosmopolitan
Enoch, variously called Enos, Hanoch, and finally Enoïchion by the Greeks.
It is from his book that the first notions of the Fallen Angels were taken
by the early Christian writers.
The _Book of Enoch_ is declared apocryphal. But what is an _apocryphon_?
The very etymology of the term shows that it is simply a _secret_ book,
_i.e._, one that belonged to the catalogue of temple‐libraries under the
guardianship of the Hierophants and Initiated Priests, and was never meant
for the profane. _Apocryphon_ comes from the verb _crypto_ (κρύπτω), “to
hide.” For ages the _Enoïchion_, the Book of the Seer, was preserved in
the “city of letters” and secret works—the ancient Kirjath‐sepher, later
on, Debir.(1234)
Some of the writers interested in the subject—especially Masons—have tried
to identify Enoch with Thoth of Memphis, the Greek Hermes, and even with
the Latin Mercury. As individuals, all of these are distinct one from the
other; professionally—if one may use this word, now so limited in its
sense—one and all belong to the same category of sacred writers, of
Initiators and Recorders of Occult and ancient Wisdom. Those who in the
_Korân_(1235) are generically termed the Edris, or the “Learned,” the
Initiated, bore in Egypt the name of “Thoth,” the inventor of Arts,
Sciences, of writing or letters, of Music and Astronomy. Among the Jews
Edris became “Enoch,” who, according to Bar‐Hebræus, “was the first
inventor of writing,” books, Arts, and Sciences, the first who reduced to
a system the progress of the planets.(1236) In Greece he was called
Orpheus, and thus changed his name with every nation. The number seven
being attached to, and connected with, each of those primitive
Initiators,(1237) as well as the number 365, of the days in the year,
astronomically, it identifies the mission, character, and the sacred
office of all these men, but certainly not their personalities. Enoch is
the _seventh_ Patriarch; Orpheus is the possessor of the Phorminx, the
seven‐stringed lyre, which is the seven‐fold mystery of Initiation. Thoth,
with the seven‐rayed Solar Discus on his head, travels in the Solar Boat
(the 365 degrees), jumping out every fourth (leap) year for one day.
Finally, Thoth‐Lunus is the septenary God of the seven days, or the week.
Esoterically and spiritually, Enoïchion means the “Seer of the Open Eye.”
The story about Enoch, told by Josephus, namely, that he had concealed his
precious Rolls or Books under the pillars of Mercury or Seth, is the same
as that told of Hermes, the “Father of Wisdom,” who concealed his Books of
Wisdom under a pillar, and then, discovering the two pillars of stone,
found the Science written thereon. Yet Josephus, notwithstanding his
constant efforts in the direction of Israel’s unmerited glorification, and
though he does attribute that Science (of Wisdom) to the _Jewish_
Enoch—writes _history_. He shows these pillars as still existing during
his own time.(1238) He tells us that they were built by Seth; and so they
may have been, only neither by the Patriarch of that name, the fabled son
of Adam, nor by the Egyptian God of Wisdom—Teth, Set, Thoth, Tat, Sat (the
later Sat‐an), or Hermes, who are all one—but by the “Sons of the Serpent‐
God,” or “Sons of the Dragon,” the name under which the Hierophants of
Egypt and Babylon were known before the Deluge, as were their forefathers,
the Atlanteans.
What Josephus tells us, therefore, with the exception of the application
made of it, must be true _allegorically_. According to his version the two
famous pillars were entirely covered with hieroglyphics, which, after
their discovery, were copied and reproduced in the most secret corners of
the inner temples of Egypt, and thus became the source of its Wisdom and
exceptional learning. These two “pillars,” however, are the prototypes of
the two “tables of stones” hewn by Moses at the command of the “Lord.”
Hence, in saying that all the great Adepts and Mystics of antiquity—such
as Orpheus, Hesiod, Pythagoras and Plato—got the elements of their
Theology from those hieroglyphics, he is right in one sense, and wrong in
another. The Secret Doctrine teaches us that the Arts, Sciences, Theology,
and especially the Philosophy of every nation which preceded the last
_universally known_, but not universal, Deluge, had been recorded
ideographically from the primitive oral records of the Fourth Race, and
that these were the inheritance of the latter from the early Third Root‐
Race before the allegorical Fall. Hence, also, the Egyptian pillars, the
tablets, and even the “white oriental porphyry stone” of the Masonic
legend—which Enoch, fearing that the real and precious secrets would be
lost, concealed before the Deluge in the bowels of the Earth—were simply
the more or less symbolical and allegorical copies from the primitive
Records. The _Book of Enoch_ is one of such copies, and is, moreover, a
Chaldæan, and now very incomplete, compendium. As already said, Enoïchion
means in Greek the “Inner Eye,” or the Seer; in Hebrew, _with the help of
Masoretic points_, it means the “Initiator” and “Instructor” (חֲנוֹךּ).
Enoch is a generic title; and, moreover, his legend is that of several
other prophets, Jewish and Heathen, with changes of made‐up details, the
root‐form being the same. Elijah is also taken up into Heaven “alive”; and
the Astrologer, at the court of Isdubar, the Chaldæan Hea‐bani, is
likewise raised to Heaven by the God Hea, who was _his_ patron, as Jehovah
was of Elijah, whose name means in Hebrew “God‐Jah,” Jehovah
(אֶלְיָה),(1239) and again of Elihu, which has the same meaning. This kind
of easy death, or _euthanasia_, has an Esoteric meaning. It symbolizes the
“death” of any Adept who has reached the power and degree, and also the
purification, which enable him to “die” in the Physical Body, and _still
live and lead a conscious life_ in his Astral Body. The variations on this
theme are endless, but the secret meaning is ever the same. The Pauline
expression,(1240) “that he should not see death” (_ut non videret
mortem_), has thus an Esoteric meaning, but nothing _supernatural_ in it.
The mangled interpretation given of some biblical hints to the effect that
Enoch, “whose years will equal those of the world” (of the _solar_ year,
365 days), will share with Christ and the prophet Elijah the honours and
bliss of the last Advent and of the destruction of
Antichrist(1241)—signify Esoterically, that some of the Great Adepts will
return in the Seventh Race, when all Error will be made away with, and the
advent of Truth will be heralded by those Shishta, the holy “Sons of
Light.”
The Latin Church is not always logical, nor prudent. She declares the
_Book of Enoch_ an _apocryphon_, and has gone so far as to claim, through
Cardinal Cajetan and other luminaries of the Church, the rejection from
the Canon of even the Book of Jude, who, otherwise, as an _inspired_
apostle, would quote from and thus sanctify the _Book of Enoch_, which is
alleged to be an apocryphal work. Fortunately, some of the dogmatics
perceived the peril in time. Had they accepted Cajetan’s resolution, they
would have been forced to reject likewise the Fourth Gospel; as St. John
borrows literally from Enoch, and places _a whole sentence_ from him, in
the mouth of Jesus!(1242)
Ludolph, the “father of Ethiopic literature,” commissioned to investigate
the various Enochian MSS. presented by Pereisc, the traveller, to the
Mazarine Library, declared that “no _Book of Enoch_ could exist among the
Abyssinians”! Further researches and discoveries worsted this too dogmatic
assertion, as all know. Bruce and Ruppel did find the _Book of Enoch_ in
Abyssinia, and what is more, brought it to Europe some years later, and
Bishop Laurence translated it. But Bruce despised it, and scoffed at its
contents; as did all the rest of the Scientists. He declared it a
_Gnostic_ work, concerning the Age of Giants who devour men—and bearing a
strong resemblance to the _Apocalypse_.(1243) Giants! another _fairy‐
tale_!
Such, however, has not been the opinion of all the best critics. Dr.
Hanneberg places the _Book of Enoch_ along with the _Third Book of the
Maccabees—at the head of the list of those whose authority stands the
nearest to that of the canonical works_.(1244)
Verily, “where doctors disagree...”!
As usual, however, they are all right and all wrong. To accept Enoch as a
biblical character, a single living person, is like accepting Adam as the
first man. Enoch was a generic title, applied to, and borne by, scores of
individuals, at all times and ages, and in every race and nation. This may
be easily inferred from the fact that the ancient Talmudists and the
teachers of Midrashim are not agreed generally in their views about
Hanokh, the Son of Yered. Some say Enoch was a great Saint, beloved by
God, and “taken alive to heaven,” _i.e._, one who reached Mukti or
Nirvâna, on Earth, as Buddha did and others still do; and others maintain
that he was a sorcerer, a wicked magician. This shows only that “Enoch,”
or its equivalent, was a term, even during the days of the later
Talmudists, which meant “Seer,” “Adept in the Secret Wisdom,” etc.,
without any specification as to the character of the title‐bearer.
Josephus, speaking of Elijah and Enoch,(1245) remarks that:
It is written in the sacred books they [Elijah and Enoch]
disappeared, but so that nobody knew that they died.
It means simply that _they had died in their personalities_, as Yogîs die
to this day in India, or even some Christian monks—to the world. They
disappear from the sight of men and die—on the terrestrial plane—even for
themselves. A seemingly figurative way of speaking, yet _literally true_.
“Hanokh transmitted the science of (astronomical) calculation and of
computing the seasons to Noah,” says the Midrash _Pirkah_;(1246) R.
Eliezar referring to Enoch that which others did to Hermes Trismegistus,
for the two are identical in their Esoteric meaning. “Hanokh” in this
case, and his “Wisdom,” belong to the cycle of the Fourth Atlantean
Race,(1247) and Noah to that of the Fifth.(1248) In this case both
represent the Root‐Races, the present one and the one that preceded it. In
another sense, Enoch disappeared, “he walked with God, and he was not, for
God took him”; the allegory referring to the disappearance of the Sacred
and Secret Knowledge from among men; for “God” (or Java Aleim—the high
Hierophants, the Heads of the Colleges of Initiated Priests(1249)) took
him; in other words, the Enochs or the Enoïchions, the Seers and their
Knowledge and Wisdom, became strictly confined to the Secret Colleges of
the Prophets with the Jews, and to the Temples with the Gentiles.
Interpreted with the help of merely the symbolical key, Enoch is the type
of the dual nature of man—spiritual and physical. Hence he occupies the
centre of the Astronomical Cross, as given by Éliphas Lévi from a secret
work, which is a Six‐pointed Star, the “Adonai.” In the upper angle of the
upper Triangle is the Eagle; in the left lower angle stands the Lion; in
the right, the Bull; while between the Bull and the Lion, over them and
under the Eagle, is the face of Enoch or Man.(1250) Now the figures on the
upper Triangle represent the Four Races, omitting the First, the Chhâyâs
or Shadows, and the “Son of Man,” Enos or Enoch, is in the centre, where
he stands between the Fourth and the Fifth Races, for he represents the
Secret Wisdom of both. These are the four Animals of _Ezekiel_ and of the
_Revelation_. This Double Triangle which, in _Isis Unveiled_, is faced by
the Hindû Ardhanârî, is by far the best. For in the latter, only the three
(for us) historical Races are symbolized; the Third, the Androgynous, by
Ardha‐nârî; the Fourth, symbolized by the strong, powerful Lion; and the
Fifth, the Âryan, by that which is its most sacred symbol to this day, the
Bull (and the Cow).
A man of great erudition, a French _savant_, M. de Sacy, finds several
most singular statements in the _Book of Enoch_, “worthy of the most
serious examination,” he says. For instance:
The author [Enoch] makes the solar year consist of 364 days, and
seems to know periods of three, of five, and of eight years,
followed by _four_ supplementary days, which, in his system,
appear to be those of the equinoxes and solstices.(1251)
To which he adds, later on:
I see but one means to palliate them [these “absurdities”]; it is
to suppose that the author expounds some fanciful system which may
have existed _before the order of Nature had been altered at the
period of the Universal Deluge_.(1252)
Precisely so; and the Secret Doctrine teaches that this “order of nature”
has been thus altered, and the series of the Earth’s humanities too. For,
as the angel Uriel tells Enoch:
Behold, I have showed thee all things, O Enoch; and all things
have I revealed to thee. Thou seest the sun, the moon, and _those
which conduct the stars_ of heaven, which cause all their
operations, seasons, and arrivals to return. In the days of
sinners _the years shall be shortened_.... The moon shall change
its laws....(1253)
In those days also, years before the Great Deluge that carried away the
Atlanteans and changed the face of the whole Earth (because “the _Earth_
[or its axis] _became inclined_”), Nature, geologically, astronomically,
and cosmically in general, could not have been the same, just because the
Earth _had inclined_. To quote from Enoch:
And Noah cried with a bitter voice, Hear me; hear me; hear me;
three times. And he said,... The earth labours and is violently
shaken. Surely, I shall perish with it.(1254)
This, by the way, looks like one of those many “inconsistencies,” if the
_Bible_ is read literally. For, to say the least, this is a very strange
fear in one who had “found grace in the eyes of the Lord” and been told to
build an Ark! But here we find the venerable Patriarch expressing as much
fear as if, instead of a “friend” of God, he had been one of the Giants
doomed by the wrathful Deity. The Earth had already _inclined_, and the
deluge of waters had become simply a question of time, and yet Noah seems
to know nothing of his intended salvation.
A decree had come indeed; the decree of Nature and the Law of Evolution,
that the Earth should change its Race, and that the Fourth Race should be
destroyed to make room for a better one. The Manvantara had reached its
turning point of _three and a half_ Rounds, and gigantic physical Humanity
had reached the acme of gross materiality. Hence the apocalyptic verse
that speaks of a commandment gone forth that they may be destroyed, “that
_their end may be_”—the end of the Race:
For they _knew_ [truly] every secret of the angels, every
oppressive and secret power of the _Satans_, and every power of
those who commit sorcery, as well as of those who make molten
images in the whole earth.(1255)
And now a natural question. Who could have informed the apocryphal author
of this powerful vision—no matter to what age he may be assigned before
the day of Galileo—that the Earth could occasionally incline her axis?
Whence did he derive such astronomical and geological knowledge if the
Secret Wisdom, of which the ancient Rishis and Pythagoras had drunk, is
but a fancy, an invention of later ages? Has Enoch read prophetically
perchance in Fréderic Klée’s work on the Deluge the lines:
The position of the terrestrial globe with reference to the sun
has evidently been, in primitive times, different from what it is
now; and this difference must have been caused by a displacement
of the axis of rotation of the earth.
This reminds one of that _unscientific_ statement made by the Egyptian
priests to Herodotus, namely, that the Sun has not always risen where it
rises _now_, and that in former times the ecliptic had cut the equator at
right angles.(1256)
There are many such “dark sayings” scattered throughout the _Purânas_,
_Bible_ and other Mythologies, and to the Occultist they divulge two
facts; (_a_) that the Ancients knew as well as, and perhaps better than,
the moderns do, Astronomy, Geognosy and Cosmography in general; and (_b_)
that the behaviour of the Globe has altered more than once since the
primitive state of things. Thus, Xenophantes—on the _blind_ faith of _his_
“ignorant” religion, which taught that Phaeton, in his desire to learn the
_hidden_ truth, made the Sun deviate from its usual course—asserts
somewhere that, “the Sun turned toward another country”; which is a
parallel—slightly more scientific, however, if not as bold—of Joshua
stopping the course of the Sun altogether. Yet it may explain the teaching
of the Northern Mythology that before the _actual order_ of things the Sun
arose in the South, and its placing the Frigid Zone (Jeruskoven) in the
East, whereas now it is in the North.(1257)
The _Book of Enoch_, in short, is a _résumé_, a compound of the main
features of the history of the Third, Fourth and Fifth Races; a very few
prophecies from the present age of the world; a long retrospective,
introspective and prophetic summary of universal and quite _historical_
events—geological, ethnological, astronomical, and psychic—with a touch of
Theogony out of the antediluvian records. The Book of this mysterious
personage is referred to and quoted copiously in the _Pistis Sophia_, and
also in the _Zohar_ and its most ancient Midrashim. Origen and Clement of
Alexandria held it in the highest esteem. To say, therefore, that it is a
Post‐Christian forgery is to utter an absurdity and to become guilty of an
anachronism, for Origen, among others, who lived in the second century of
the Christian era, mentions it as an ancient and venerable work. The
secret and sacred Name and its potency are well and clearly though
allegorically described in the old volume. From the eighteenth to the
fiftieth chapter, the Visions of Enoch are all descriptive of the
Mysteries of Initiation, one of which is the Burning Valley of the “Fallen
Angels.”
Perhaps St. Augustine was quite right in saying that the Church rejected
the _Book of Enoch_ out of her canon owing to its too great antiquity (_ob
nimiam antiquitatem_).(1258) There was no room for the events noticed in
it within the limit of the 4004 years B.C. assigned to the world from its
“creation”!