Enoch & the Heavenly Bodies

At ther risk of having just too much for next week, here's a little snippet of the Astrological portion of Enoch. Remember what I said about not getting bogged down!

The reason I include this here is because it is too easy to see all of the Watcher stuff and write this book off. Part of what was going on in the ancient world was comptition over the calendar. We'll talk more about that next Monday, but this will give you a taste of what we might call experimental metaphysical astronomy.

Each as it is; according to their classes, according to their period of rule and their times, according to their names and places of origin, and according to their months. That Uriel, the Holy Angel who was with me, and is their leader, showed to me. And he showed me all their regulations, exactly as they are, for each year of the world and for ever, until the new creation shall be made which will last forever.

And this is the First Law of the Lights. The light called the Sun; its rising is in the Gates of Heaven that are towards the east, and its setting is in the western Gates of Heaven. And I saw six Gates from which the Sun rises, and six Gates in which the Sun sets, and the Moon also rises and sets in those Gates, and the leaders of the stars together with those whom they lead. There are six in the east and six in the west, all exactly in place, one next to the other; and there are many windows to the south and the north of those Gates.

And first there rises the greater light, named the Sun, and its disc is like the disc of Heaven, and the whole of it is full of a fire which gives light and warmth. The wind blows the chariots on which it ascends, and the Sun goes down in the sky and returns through the north in order to reach the east, and is led so that it comes to the appropriate Gate and shines in the sky. In this way it rises in the first month, in the large Gate, namely; it rises through the fourth of those six Gates that are towards the east. And in that fourth Gate, through which the Sun rises in the first month, there are twelve window-openings from which, whenever they are opened, flames come out. When the Sun rises in Heaven it goes out through that fourth Gate for thirty days, and exactly in the fourth Gate, in the west of Heaven, it goes down.

And in those days the day grows daily longer, and the night grows nightly shorter, until the thirtieth morning. And on that day the day becomes longer than the night by a double part, and the day amounts to exactly ten parts, and the night amounts to eight parts.

And the Sun rises from that fourth Gate, and sets in the fourth Gate, and returns to the fifth Gate in the east for thirty mornings; and it rises from it and sets in the fifth Gate. And then the day becomes longer by two parts, and the day amounts to eleven parts, and the night becomes shorter and amounts to seven parts.

And the Sun returns to the east and comes to the sixth Gate, and rises and sets in the sixth Gate for thirty-one mornings, because of its sign. --Enoch, Book 72