Enoch &
the Nephilim
Part VI
Blavatsky's Theosophical "Secret Doctrine"
The proceeding pages represent only a portion of the references to
Enoch within The Secret Doctrine. This section is included because
it treats the subject exclusively. The S.D. is currently in print
from 3 publishers in USA, and in translations of German, Swedish.
Dutch. Danish, Italian (Vol I only) Spanish, French, Portugese, and
Russian (tr by Helena & Nicholas Roerich & published at Riga,
Latvia, 1937--nearly all destroyed).
ENOICHION --
HENOCH
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
Enoichion 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
Apocrypha? 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. Apocrypha comes from
the [Greek] verb crypto, "to hide." For ages the Enoichion (the Book
of the SEER) was preserved in the "city of letters" and secret
works-the ancient Kirjath-Sepber, later on, Debir (see Joshua xv.,
15).
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 these
are distinct one from the other; professionally--if one may use this
word, now so limited in its sense--they belong one and all to the
same category of sacred writers, of Initiators and Recorders of
Occult and ancient Wisdom. Those who in the Kuran (see Surat XIX.)
are generically termed the Edris, or the "Learned" (the Initiated),
bore in Egypt the name of "Thoth," the inventor of arts, sciences,
writing or letters, of music and astronomy.
Among the Jews the Edris became "Enoch,"
who, according to Bar-Hebraeus, "was the first inventor of writing,"
books, arts, and sciences, the first who reduced to a system the
progress of the planets. 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 (Khanoch,
or Hanoch, or Enoch means the "Initiator" and "teacher," as well as
the "Son of Man," Enos (vide Genesis iv., 26), esoterically), as
well as the number 365, of the days in the year, astronomically, it
identifies the mission, character, and the sacred office of all
those men, but certainly not their personalities.
Enoch is the seventh Patriarch; Orpheus
is the possessor of the phorminx, the 7-stringed lyre, which is the
sevenfold 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, Enoichion means the "Seer of the Open
Eye."
The story about Enoch, told by Josephus, namely, that he had
concealed under the pillars of Mercury or Seth his precious rolls or
books, is the same as that told of Hermes, "the father of Wisdom,"
who concealed his books of Wisdom under a pillar, and then, finding
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 (Jewish
Antiquities, I, ii, 3).
He shows those pillars as still existing
during his own time. 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 Satan), 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, must be allegorically true, with
the exception of the application made of it. According to his
version the two famous pillars were entirely covered with
hieroglyphics, which, after the discovery, were copied and
reproduced in the most secret corners of the inner temples of Egypt,
and have thus become 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--like Orpheus, Hesiod, Pythagoras
and Plato--got the elements of their theology from those
hieroglyphics, he is right in one sense, and wrong in another; for
he errs in accuracy. 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 a Chaldean, now very incomplete compendium. As already
said, Enoichion means in Greek the "inner eye," or the Seer; in
Hebrew, and with the help of Masoretic points it means the initiator
and instructor. It is a generic title; besides which 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 Chaldean
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), 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, as also
the purification, which enable him to die only 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 (Hebrews xi. 5)
"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--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 Sishta, the
holy "Sons of Light."
The Latin church is not always logical, nor prudent either. She
declares the "Book of Enoch" an apocrypha, 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, though
an inspired apostle, quotes from and thus sanctifies 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 in the mouth of Jesus, a whole sentence! (Vide supra, XVIII.,
sub-sect. A, about the sheep and the robbers.)
Ludolph, the "father of Ethiopic literature," commissioned to
investigate the various Enochian MSS. presented by Pereisc, the
traveler, to the Mazarine Library declared that "no book of Enoch
could exist among the Abyssinians"! Further researches and
discoveries worsted his too dogmatic assertion, as all know. Bruce
and Ruppel found and brought that same work from Abyssinia 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," in which "the age of
giants who devour" men is given...hence it is another "Apocalypsis."
Giants! Another fairy-tale.
Such, however, was not the opinion of all the best critics. Dr. D.B.
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.
Verily, "where doctors disagree..."
As usual, however, they were all right and all wrong. To accept
Enoch as a Biblical character, a single living man, is like
accepting Adam as the first one. 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 Nirvana, 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.
When Josephus, speaking of Elijah and Enoch (Antiquities, ix., 2),
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 Yogis 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 R. Eliezar
(cap. viii.), referring to Henoch that which others did to Hermes Trismegistus, because the two are identical in their esoteric
meaning. "Hanokh" in this case, and his "Wisdom," belong to the
cycle of the Fourth Atlantean Race (says the Zohar, "Hanokh had a
book which was one with the book of the generations of Adam; this is
the Mystery of Wisdom." [Issac Meyer Qabbalah pp 98-99]), and Noah
to that of the Fifth [Noah is heir to the Wisdom of Enoch; in other
words, the Fifth is heir to the Fourth Race].
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 [Vide Isis Unveiled, Vol. 1, p.575, et seq. ]) took him; in
other words, the Enochs or the Enoichions, 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 (given by Eliphas Levi
from a secret work), which is a six-pointed star, "the Adonai." In
the upper triangle is the Eagle; in the left lower triangle 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.
(Vide illustrated diagram in Isis Unveiled, Vol. II., p. 452).
Now the figures on the upper triangle
represent the Four Races, leaving out the first--the Chhayas or
Shadows--and the "Son of Man," Enos or Enoch, is in the centre,
because he stands between the two (the Fourth and the Fifth) Races,
as he represents the Secret Wisdom of both. These are the four
animals of Ezekiel and of Revelation. The same double triangle which
in Isis, Vol. II, (p. 453), faces the Hindu Adanari, is by far the
best. For there, only the three (for us) historical races are
symbolized: the third, the androgynous, by Ada-nari; the fourth,
symbolized by the strong, powerful lion; and the fifth--the
Aryan--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." [J.F. Danielo, "Le Livre de la Vision
d'Enoch," Annales de philosophie chretienne, Nouvelle Serie, Tome
17, December, 1838, p.393]...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."
Precisely so; and the Secret Doctrine
teaches that that "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 in 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, etc."
(chap. lxxix).
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 (on its axis) became
inclined"--nature, geologically, astronomically, and cosmically in
general, could not have been the same, just because the Earth had
inclined. See chap. Ixiv. (Sect. xi.)...
"And Noah cried with a bitter voice
'Hear me, hear me, hear me'; three times. And he said 'The earth
labours and is violently inclined; surely, I shall perish with
it.'"
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 has already inclined, and the
deluge of waters has 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" (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."
And now a natural question. Who could
have informed the apocryphal author of this powerful vision (to
whatever age he may be assigned before the day of Galileo) that the
Earth could occasionally incline her axis? Whence has he derived
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 the later ages? Has Enoch read prophetically
perchance in Frederick Klee's work on the Deluge (p. 79) these
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."?
[F.A.G. Klee, Syndfloden
(Copenhagen, 1842): French Translation as Le Deluge, Paris,
1847. CF. J.E. de Mirville]
This reminds one of that other
unscientific statement made by the Egyptian priests to Herodotus,
namely, that the Sun has not always risen where it arises now, and
that in former times the ecliptic had cut the equator at right
angles. [Bailley, Historie de l'astronomie ancienne (2nd ed., Paris,
1781), livre VI, xi, pp 166-167; attributed to Herodotus, History,
bk. II, Euterpe, 142]
There are many such "dark sayings" throughout Puranas, Bible and
Mythology; and to the occultist they divulge two facts: (a) that the
ancients knew as well, and better, perhaps, than the moderns do,
astronomy, geognosy and cosmography in general; and (b) that the
globe and its behaviour have altered more than once since the
primitive state of things. Thus, 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--Xenophantes
asserts somewhere that, "the Sun turned toward another country";
which is a parallel, however slightly more scientific, if as bold,
of Joshua stopping the course of the Sun altogether. Yet it may
explain the teaching of the Northern mythology [City of God, I. xv.
ch. xxiii] (in Jeruskoven) [Jernskoven-Norwegian, Jarnskog-Swedish
or "iron forest"] that, before the actual order of things, the Sun
arose in the South, and its placing the Frigid Zone in the East,
whereas now it is in the North.
The Book of Enoch, in short, is a resume, 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. [Origen, de Principiis, IV, i, 35; and Contra Celsum,
V, liv.]
To say, therefore, that it is a
post-Christian forgery is to utter an absurdity and to become guilty
of an anachronism, since Origen, among others, lived in the second
century of the Christian era, yet he 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 XVIIIth to the Lth 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. 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"!
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