Egyptian-Hebrew stream·The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch)·Book I — Book of the Watchers·Chapter XXI — The Prison of the Fallen Stars
A waste and horrible place beyond the firmament
Enoch beholds the prison of the stars and the prison of the fallen Watchers — a fearful place at the end of heaven, without firmament above or earth beneath, where the disobedient angels are confined forever.
Source context
- Theme
- Tour of the void and chaotic pre-cosmic spaces where fallen Watchers await judgment
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Babylonian cosmologyThe imagery of primordial void regions beyond cosmic order, inhabited by bound transgressive beings, has cross-tradition congruence with Babylonian descriptions of the Apsû and the chained monster Kingu awaiting post-battle disposal.
- Greek Tartaros traditionThe depiction of a dark, structureless pit housing punished celestial rebels shows cross-tradition congruence with Hesiod's Tartaros as the sub-cosmic prison for the Titans (Theogony 717–735).
- Zoroastrian cosmologyThe bounded chaotic space reserved for demonic powers prior to final renovation has cross-tradition congruence with Zoroastrian descriptions of the realm of Angra Mainyu confined at the edges of creation until the Frashegird.
Chapter XXI
XXI. Preliminary and final place of punishment of the fallen angels (stars).
CHAPTER XXI.
1And I proceeded to where things were chaotic. 2. And I saw there something horrible: I saw neither a heaven above nor a firmly founded earth, but a place chaotic and horrible. 3. And there I saw seven stars of the heaven bound together in it, like great mountains and burning with fire. 4. Then I said: 'For what sin are they bound, and on what account have they been cast in hither?' 5. Then said Uriel, one of the holy angels, who was with me, and was chief over them, and said: 'Enoch, why dost thou ask, and why art thou eager for the truth? 6. These are of the number of the stars ⌈of heaven⌉, which have transgressed the commandment of the
[paragraph continues] Lord, and are bound here till ten thousand years, the time entailed by their sins, are consummated.' 7. And from thence I went to another place, which was still more horrible than the former, and I saw a horrible thing: a great fire there which burnt and blazed, and the place was cleft as far as the abyss, being full of great descending columns of fire: neither its extent or magnitude could I see, nor could I conjecture. 8. Then I said: 'How fearful is the place and how terrible to look upon!' 9. Then Uriel answered me, one of the holy angels who was with me, and said unto me: 'Enoch, why hast thou such fear and affright?' And I answered: 'Because of this fearful place, and because of the spectacle of the pain.' 10. And he said ⌈⌈unto me⌉⌉: 'This place is the prison of the angels, and here they will be imprisoned for ever.'
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