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Babylon / Baghdad Occult
Science 3 |
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The Igiggi are Banished
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A God sends the prophet Enoch to scold them in their imprisonment, saying
that as spiritual beings they were never intended to have wives as mortal
men do (of course, their creator could presumably have seen to it that
they felt no longing for sex or love, but he apparently neglected to do
so) and even scorning the knowledge they shared with humanity.
"You were
in heaven, but its secret had not been revealed to you and a worthless
mystery you knew." - although the Four Archangels' concerned surely
contradicts this mocking remark.
Other Apocryphal books say that even now they are held and tortured in the
terrible Fifth Heaven, set aside for just this purpose. (I Enoch XIII
describes the "Anunnaki" Watchers/Grigori/Igiggi, as stricken mute with guilt and
terror after Enoch's reproof, and indeed in II Enoch the Grigori
imprisoned in the Fifth Heaven are voiceless giants.)
The world, meanwhile, is swept clean in a great earthquake and flood,
destroying the Nephilim's lands, to which many writers trace the worldwide
legends of a catastrophic inundation.
But the Watchers' teaching continued to influence humankind in the ages
after the Deluge, even though now condemned and studied in secret.
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Noah's Grandson
In Jubilees VIII:1-5, Kainam, Noah's grandson, "came upon a writing which
men of old had carved on a rock...it contained the teaching of the
Watchers, in accordance with which they used to observe the omens of the
sun and moon and all the signs of heaven.
And he wrote it down and said
nothing about it..." fearing punishment from Noah, who blamed the Watchers
for the Flood and constantly warned his clan against any dealings with
them or their descent. (Must have been one blessed huge rock, unless the
Watchers' skills included micro-engraving.)
This is especially notable because Kainam is the brother of Chesed, father
of Ur, who is said in the Apocrypha to have founded the famous Chaldean
city of that name. "And they grew up and lived in Ur of the Chaldees,"
says Jubilees (XI:7-8) of Serug and Nahor, Kainam's descendants, "and
worshipped idols...and Nahor's father instructed him in the learning of
the Chaldees, how to divine and foretell the future from the signs of
heaven."
It's most tempting to conclude that Kainam's grandchildren through
generations inherited and studied the written record he had made from the
stone; that the legendary wisdom of the Chaldeans, which amazes history,
had descended to them from the “Watchers” themselves. |
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The Nephilim - and, some say, their children, the Elioud/Eljo - were
physically exterminated by the avenging angel horde. But, though their
half-mortal bodies could be slain, their half-angel souls could not, nor
could they be held in chains.
They remain on the earth, wandering at will, and though chaotic and
destructive, will not be punished for their deeds until the Final
Judgment, "in which the great age will be brought to an end".
Occult tradition holds that now and then a Nephilim spirit will incarnate
in human form (the souls of those who quit the body violently, it's said,
are most pure...). The Apocrypha claim the disembodied Nephilim are
the origin of demons, and accuse them of many crimes.
Jubilees places the blame for the Flood squarely upon the fornication of
the Watchers and the iniquity and bloodshed of the Nephilim.
"And now the giants who were born from souls and flesh will be called evil
spirits upon the earth," charges I Enoch XV-XVI, "From the day of...the
slaughter and destruction of the giant Nephilim, the mighty ones of the
earth, the great famous ones, the spirits that have gone out from their
souls as from the flesh will destroy without judgment.
"Even the mortal women who are their mothers are cursed to become sirens
and
demonesses.
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The Giants....the Nephilim
In Jubilees X:1-6, Noah's sons beg him to protect their children from
"unclean demons" who are "leading astray, blinding and killing" them;
Noah, petitioning God to "let not wicked spirits rule over [my
grandchildren] and destroy them", adds, "Thou knowest what thy Watchers,
the fathers of these spirits, did in my day..." making it clear that the
demonic spirits and the Nephilim are considered one and the same.
(One wonders if Kainam was one of these grandchildren being "led astray"
by a "demonic" Nephilim familiar. Maybe it was helping him interpret the
stone).
It's interesting to note that, although God commands that all the Nephilim
be destroyed, giants continue to appear throughout the Old Testament,
always opposing the armies of God. (Godwin does cite, though briefly, a
tradition that beings called "Gibborim" - simply "giants" - were saved by
"dark angels" from the Flood.)
The Anakim or Sons of Anak, to whom Joshua's forces "were as grasshoppers
in their sight"; the Zamzummim; Goliath of Gath and his vengeful brother
Lahmi; and King Og of Bashan, he of the nine-foot-long iron bed; all
appear and deal direly with such heroes of God as Joshua, David and Moses.
All, too, are referred to not simply as giants themselves but as "those
born to the giant" or "those who come of the giants" - as descendants of a
giant clan or race. Surely these great beings are the remaining children
of the angelic bloodline of the "Anunnaki" Nephilim and Watchers, the last sad traces
of which will be found centuries later in the ogres of fairy tales.
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Paul Huson, in his Mastering Witchcraft, asserts that the Watchers really
are the beings the modern witch calls gods, "the parents of giant and
human alike", based on prehistoric racial memories of the millennia-past
age when they walked the Earth beside us.
Indeed, nearly every human race
speaks in its legends of tall, wonderful strangers of amazing skill, who
came to their land in ancient times and taught their great-ancestors
everything they needed to know; virtually every useful invention still
practiced by humanity has been attributed to these visitors.
It's a story we need and love in all its variations: even the Nazi
theorist Hoerbiger argued that the great mystery civilizations of Atlantis
were built by mutant human giants of vast cosmic awareness and knowledge,
the benign and rightful - and, of course, proto-Aryan - kings and teachers
of humanity.
More to the point, they are, Huson reminds us, the source of magic: the
original spark we cherish at the heart of all our Work is a trace of
starry wisdom from beyond Earth.
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The Nephilim are thus the youngest members of an old family, descended
from the riotous and voracious children of Sumerian Tiamat, the rebel
giants of Norse myth (who, it's worth noting, are described in the sagas
as skilled in magic, famed for their knowledge of chants, runes and
spells), the Greek Titans and Cyclops; and before them the monsters,
oldest of all.
Even the genies of Arab fable are members of the family: the Djinn, the
Firstborn of Fire, are close kin to the Watchers. Considered chaotic
entities who must be fettered for the good of the world, they are bottled
and cast into the sea even as the "Anunnaki" Watchers are locked into the mountains
of the Earth.
Elements of the tale vary, but always the central theme
is of awesome beings, often fathered or mothered by a Celestial and
possessed of great powers, which prove dangerous and untamable and wreak
havoc... until put down by the combined might of the gods.
Always they represent the primordial Chaos, the power born before the
gods, which civilized pantheons may subdue and submerge but never destroy.
Less than divine, they can be defeated; but, more than mortal, they cannot
be killed, and must be exiled or imprisoned for eternity.
If they are released it means at least terrible danger, at worst: Chaos,
Ragnarok, Apocalypse, Doomsday.
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Part II: H. P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos
Though scholars of the field, have acclaimed him, the greatest American
writer of the weird and fantastic... since Poe, Howard Phillips Lovecraft
(1890-1937) remains largely a cult hero, not widely read... outside fan
circles. A recluse, plagued by phobias and ill health and suspicious of
the encroaching modern world, he lived nearly his entire life... in his home
city of Providence, Rhode Island.
He tried his hand at everything... from poetic fantasies, to detective
mystery-thrillers, but Lovecraft's magnum opus... remains the body of work,
known to fans as the Cthulhu Mythos.
The Mythos is not large, comprising some dozen stories and a number of
short poems, but
its influence is immense, as is its theme.
In the most ancient deeps of time, say these tales, the Earth was invaded
from outside... from another dimension or level of reality, "not in the
spaces we know... but between them" by monstrous beings... of unimaginable
power... which HPL called the Great Old Ones.
The masters of the clan were Azathoth - the core of primal chaos,
"the Prime Mover in Darkness".
Yog-Sothoth, "the key and guardian of the gate", in whom past, present,
and future are combined; "the Crawling Chaos" Nyarlathotep, who can take
humanoid form and became their emissary... to cult worshippers; and their
High Priest, the sea-titan Cthulhu.
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Some strike the reader... as vast distortions or unformed prototypes, of
Terrestrial legends, such as Shub-Niggurath, "the Black Goat of the Woods
with a Thousand Young".
Others are beyond any connection. Most, being extra-dimensional and cosmic
beings, have contacted the Earth... only on occasion, when a psychic gate... was
opened to them; it seems clear... that Cthulhu and the legions... subordinate to
him, were the ones who actually came to our world to stay, bringing the
cult of the Great Old Ones.
These creatures - so unutterably alien... that they are un-definable... in terms
of comprehensible good and evil, whose very geometry is bizarre enough to
break human
minds - walked the Earth... eons before the coming of primitive
humanity, preying on all
life they found, building mighty cities of stone
whose ruins yet stand.
Ages passed... dinosaurs arose, reigned, and died... in the shadow
of the Old Ones'
basalt towers.
It's not clear exactly what happened. Two things
we know: one, the Great Old Ones
are peculiarly sensitive... to
astronomical influences. (Indeed, the only protective
amulet
against them... contains the form of a five-pointed star, that most
ancient
magical device) and after
eons of time, "the stars were wrong" constellation shift,
perhaps?
Projecting an influence... under which they could not live. Two, a great
cataclysm,
which they must have foreseen, was preparing to shake the world
and sink their massive
stone citadel of R'lyeh... to the floor of the primal sea.
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Dead But Dreaming...
Aware that their first era of dominion was ending, they secluded
themselves in their stone sanctuary - protected in some form of suspended
animation, "dead but dreaming", Lovecraft says, under a spell cast... by "the
great priest Cthulhu" - able only to think and dream, aware of all that
happens in the universe, but powerless to stir forth. And there they
rested, waiting for the catastrophe to strike and R'lyeh to pass... from the
sight of living Earth.
To provide for their future liberation and "glorious resurrection",
therefore, the Great Old Ones contacted the first human minds... in
telepathic dreams and planted the seed of their worship, founding a cult
that has never died. Patiently they dictated their rites and rituals, the
details of the sacrifices they demand, the Eldritch magicks and sciences...
of a race old, when our sun was young.
They came from the stars... and brought their images with them
and they distributed those as well, statuettes and devices... whose
alien hideousness... is invariably remarked upon... by the uninitiated.
When "the stars come right again" Cthulhu will call, and the
faithful must be ready.. to set him free, and he will in turn... break
the spell he cast upon his clan. |
Then the liberated Old Ones... would teach them new ways to shout and
kill and revel and enjoy themselves, a cultist explained... to a
horrified anthropologist, in The Call of Cthulhu, and all the
earth would flame with a holocaust... of ecstasy and freedom.
Meanwhile the cult, by appropriate rites, must keep alive the memory... of
those ancient ways and shadow forth... the prophecy of their return."
The
dream-sending ended... when R'lyeh was drowned as foretold; "the deep
waters," HPL says, are "full of the one primal mystery... through which not...
even thought can pass... but memory never died."
And the dreams do not end: many a Lovecraft character...
first encounters the Great Old Ones in strange dreams, and
recreates their sculptured figurines or ritual chants upon waking.
Verily Cthulhu calls. |
Magicians who happen upon one of the several collected volumes of the Old
Ones' magical wisdom - not only the fabled Necronomicon... but the Unaussprechlichen Kulten, the Pnakotic Manuscripts, the Livre d'Eibon
among others - time and again... seek to raise them... for the
unimaginable power... they presumably offer, but are invariably
driven mad and killed, stormed and consumed... by what they tried
to command.
"Do not raise up that which ye cannot put down," one Lovecraft protagonist
is warned, but it's advice few of them follow, and most meet grisly fates.
In all this, we can plainly see echoes... of the same story, recounted earlier: the arrival of the strangers ("and they were not like us..."), the
instruction of early humankind, the destructive titans of vast power, the
Earth in chaos under their rule, the cataclysm of earthquake and flood,
and the survival of the outsiders, hidden away in the wilderness or the
sea.
Students of horror, science fiction and the occult... have long argued, that Lovecraft's work was far less fictional... than he claimed, suggesting
everything... from a secret involvement with magical lodges... to
telepathic communication... with nonhuman intelligences. |
Certainly HPL was well-read enough... to be aware of his adventures'
commonality... with this major motif of world mythology, but what else he may
have known... is still a matter for speculation only.
Regardless of HPL's
intentions, this body of material - with its secondary theme... that the
Cthulhu Pantheon... is the source of magicks of unthinkable antiquity and
indeed, possibly of the Art... in its oldest Terran form - could hardly fail
to fascinate... a mind already attracted... to the Nephilim legend.
When the name of Cthulhu... appears in The Watchman and Last Exit For the
Lost, or when McCoy... summons up "sweet nectar for a thousand young" in Psychonaut and names a track of Elizium (Dead but Dreaming), one's
suspicions... are confirmed.
In an eye-opening interview... with the Christian magazine
Cornerstone, McCoy stated... that The Watchman... is "basically an
invocation to Cthulhu", adding that "Several old
cultures believed this god... is in the form of a sea
serpent... it's an ancient, evil god... that lived on
earth... before man existed.
The opposing forces... battled with it and won. But some
books say, the ancient gods are going to rule again."
The "opposing forces" he mentions are the Elder
Gods, or the Gods of Sumer.
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