Egyptian-Hebrew stream·The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch)·Book I — Book of the Watchers·Chapter VIII — The Teaching of Forbidden Arts
Azâzêl teaches metallurgy and ornamentation
Azâzêl teaches the making of weapons and the arts of seduction; Semjâzâ teaches enchantments; others teach astrology, dividing the months and the courses of the moon. Men cry out from the earth to heaven.
Source context
- Theme
- Transmission of forbidden arts by the Watchers — Azazel's gift of weapons and adornment, Shemihaza and the associates' instruction in sorcery and astrology
- Soul-faculty
- Sentient Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Greek mythology — Promethean traditionCross-tradition congruence exists between Azazel's bestowal of metalwork and adornment upon humanity and the Promethean transmission of fire and techne: both narratives frame the gift of civilization-arts as a transgressive act bringing ambivalent consequences.
- Mesopotamian mythology — Apkallu traditionCross-tradition congruence appears in Babylonian accounts of the seven Apkallu sages who descend before the Flood and transmit craft-knowledge to humans, paralleling the Watchers' instruction in smithing, cosmetics, and enchantments.
- Vedic tradition — knowledge of MayaCross-tradition congruence is structurally present between the Watcher-taught arts of seduction and illusion and the Vedic concept of Maya as the power of deceptive appearance wielded by the Asuras, both framing ornament and enchantment as spiritually perilous transmissions.
Chapter VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
1And Azâzêl taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them **the metals** 〈of the earth〉 and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures. 2. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray, and became corrupt in all their ways. Semjâzâ taught enchantments, and root-cuttings, Armârôs the resolving of enchantments, Barâqîjâl,
[paragraph continues] (taught) astrology, Kôkabêl the constellations, **Ezêqêêl the knowledge of the clouds**, 〈Araqiêl the signs of the earth, Shamsiêl the signs of the sun〉, and Sariêl the course of the moon. And as men perished, they cried, and their cry went up to heaven . . .
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