NEPHILIM AND THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS
If we simply relied on what Genesis remarks about the Nephilim, there wouldn’t be much to talk about, other than to marvel at what Chapter Six reveals about the possible intermingling of angelic beings with the calmly mortal daughters of men. The Hebrew Tanakh is quite silent about this event, other than to note it in the stories of the early mythic history of the Jewish people. It happened long ago in the antediluvian period of mythic renown. However, such an explosive revelation was not quietly laid to rest by those who later commented on it, and we have a set of pseudepigraphic writings that expanded the myth considerably, not to mention sections of the Midrash and Talmud.
The most notable of those tomes was the Book of Enoch, parts of which were first written during the Maccabean kingship in the second century BCE.11 It would seem that religious scribes and scholars needed to explain in greater detail this Biblical passage, as well as what became of these fallen angels, their relationship with the patriarch Enoch, their wives, children, and those who followed their ways. It became an extensive moralization and condemnation of the event, almost as if there were people in the area who made these claims of being associated with the
11 Lumpkin, Joseph B., The Books of Enoch: The Angels, The Watchers, and The Nephilim (Fifth Estate Self-Publishing, 2011) p. 11.
Nephilim; the religious scholars of the time had to put this claim into the proper theological perspective. It became necessary to collect all of the mythic streams together in order to refute them. Therefore, the Book of Enoch was a vehicle to lionize and elevate the patriarch Enoch, as well as a kind of mystical and magical astrological perspective on the powers and mysteries inherent in the ruling deity, Yahweh.
Other books take this theme to even greater lengths. The Book of Jubilees gives lurid detail about the crimes and perfidies associated with the fallen Watchers and their progeny.12 The Book of Jasher also discusses the Watchers, as does the Book of Giants, which elucidates the prophetic dream of doom that haunts the children of the Nephilim, warning them of the dire consequences of their sinful lives—to be ultimately annihilated by the Great Flood. For a mere three verses in Genesis, an entire series of mythic speculation is developed during and after the Maccabean kingship in Judea. Perhaps the stories of the Nephilim were too popular with the literate mind of the lay-person, and various authorities had to rail against them. Even today, some modern orthodox Jews and Christians believe that the Nephilim had somehow tainted and corrupted the human genome, making individuals all too susceptible to the wiles of the Nephilim: their teachings, practices, and sinful ways. Yet, the question remains: what were the fallen Watchers responsible for in teaching their lore to humanity and thereby corrupting them? Ironically enough, it was the basic foundation of what we would consider to be modern civilization.
To quote from 1 Enoch:
Asael [Azazel] taught men to make swords of iron and weapons and shields and breastplates and every instrument of war. He showed them metals of the earth and how they should work gold to fashion it suitably, and concerning silver, to fashion it for bracelets and ornaments for women. And he showed them concerning antimony and eye paint and all manner of precious stones and dyes.13
12 Richardson, Christopher David, The Complete Apocrypha: All 50 Lost Books of the Bible (Self-published, 2023) p. 187.
13 Nickelsburg, George W. E. and James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: The Hermeneia Translation (Fortress Press, 2004) p. 25, 8:1.
And the other Watchers had their role to play as well:
Shemihazah taught spells and the cutting of roots, Hermani taught sorcery for the loosing of spells and magic and skill. Baraqel taught the signs of the lightning flashes. Kokabel taught the signs of stars. Ziquel taught the signs of shooting stars. Arteqoph taught the signs of the earth. Shamsiel taught the signs of the sun. Sariel taught the signs of the moon. And they began to reveal mysteries to their wives and their children. And as men were perishing, the cry went up to heaven.14
I must assume that they also taught writing, arithmetic, surveying, architecture, music composition, literature, constructure (in brick, mortar, and stone), food gathering and storing, water conservation and irrigation, and a host of terrible but very necessary arts and sciences that any civilized town would require—leastways to function at a level supposedly higher than a mere Bedouin eking out a meager subsistence in the desert wastes of the Negev. In ancient times, science, magic, and religion were intertwined, so learning sorcery was nothing short of learning to hack nature and getting an advantage from it. There is another mythic figure who sought to give the elements of civilization to a brutish people with none, and that is Prometheus. He dares Zeus himself to give fire to primitive humans, setting them on the evolutionary path of inventions and ideas. Like Yahweh, Zeus wants to keep humanity primitive and desperate, because it gives him more leverage to control them. Like the Nephilim, Prometheus is profoundly punished for his gift to humanity. The Nephilim, however, are not only exiled and imprisoned but also have to witness the persecution and death of their wives and children—though some legends suggest that a handful are able to escape.
According to Michael Howard in his book The Pillars of Tubal Cain, the Nephilim’s act of falling into material manifestation and consorting with mortal women is the height of personal sacrifice. Rather than corrupting the human race, it ennobles it and gives it the knowledge and powers to see to its own needs. The act is not a selfish one motivated by lust, as the Biblical myths might claim, but rather the ensouling of
14 Nickelsburg, George W. E. and James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: The Hermeneia Translation (Fortress Press, 2004) p. 25, 8:3.
humanity and the creation of a whole new spiritual and material order. 15 A compassionate deity might not only have approved of such an action but motivated it for the sake of evolving and enlightening the human race. Since Yahweh is outraged, much like Zeus is with Prometheus’s act, we can only see him as a petty tyrant, a god jealous of other gods and goddesses, and too insecure to feel higher conscious states such as compassion, empathy, wisdom, and, dare I say it, love. Civilization can often be a painful process of growth and experimentation—there are always winners and losers. It would seem that the pain of those who promoted the narrow, sectarian, and bigoted perspective of Yahweh are some of those who are on the losing side; so they seek revenge and restitution from their God, and he, of course, delivers it. Their Lord makes decrees and judgements, and others carry them out. Even if such harsh judgements were made against a mythic race, it is likely that there were real people who were persecuted as a result.
The Watchers who seek out the daughters of men approach it as a serious choice, one that requires all of them to swear oaths collectively so that the leaders will not be the sole recipients of the wrath and condemnation of Yahweh. Yet this decision—made more extreme by the saying of oaths and binding—represents a critical departure for these angels. They decide to merge with the physical world, giving up their immortality and invincibility for the trials of a mortal existence, sharing their knowledge and lives with human beings. This choice can be interpreted as a form of sacrifice and not as a sinful act of debasement. It is the Promethean equation: a love of humanity and a desire to help in the evolutionary process that drives it.
And Shemihazah, their chief, said to them, “I fear that you will not want to do this deed, and I alone shall be guilty of a great sin.” And they all answered him and said, “Let us all swear an oath, and let us all bind one another with a curse, that none of us turn back from this counsel until we fulfill it and do this deed.”16
The Nephilim then assemble on Mount Hermon to swear this oath and bind themselves to do this deed. The Book of Enoch reveals the names
15 Howard, Michael, The Pillars of Tubal Cain (Capall Bann Publishing, 2000) pp. 29–30.
16 Nickelsburg, George W. E. and James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: The Hermeneia Translation (Fortress Press, 2004) pp. 23–24.
of the twenty chiefs of the two hundred Watchers who bind themselves to seek and join the daughters of men. These twenty are as follows:17
1. Shemihazah
2. Arteqoth
3. Remashel
4. Kokabel
5. Armumahel
6. Ramel
7. Daniel
8. Ziqel
9. Baraqel
10. Asael
11. Hermani
12. Matarel
13. Ananel
14. Serawel
15. Samshiel
16. Sahriel
17. Tummiel
18. Turiel
19. Yamiel
20. Yehadiel
This list is from a recent translation of the Book of Enoch; it has minor differences from other lists as found in the Qumran Dead Sea Scroll fragments, but for the most part, they agree. We will examine these names in greater detail when we get to the definitive spirit lists, characterizations, capabilities, sigils, and seals. One item of note—the chief listed as the fifth in hierarchy was originally missing from the text, and it was filled in by the translators.
Another curious item is that the seventh in the hierarchy is the Watcher Daniel, who is likely conflated with another important angel of the same name. The good angel Daniel is to be found amongst the Principalities and is also one of the seventy-two Ha-Shem angels. We will encounter this kind of conflation when examining a few other angelic beings, but it does make developing unique qualities for these conflated spirit names difficult or tenuous. Additionally, you will notice that instead of Azazel, the Watcher Asael is named and given the tenth place in the hierarchy. This is also due to conflation; we examine this in Part One, Chapter Two. Suffice it to say that the two leaders of the Watchers who fell were Shemihazah and Azazel.
Of the two hundred Watchers who defected, only twenty are named. If we are going to access all two hundred angels, then we will need to determine a naming methodology for the other 180 angels that
17 Nickelsburg, George W. E. and James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: The Hermeneia Translation (Fortress Press, 2004) p. 24, 6:7.
are not named. Instead of attempting to retrieve this information for each unnamed angel, the chiefs instructed me to use a formula for identifying them, and I will share this information in Part Two, Chapter One. Using the formula to invoke one of these lesser angels will allow the operator to determine its actual name, characteristics, capabilities, sigil, and seal.
Essentially, the two hundred Watchers are divided into four groups, modeling the characteristics of the Four Elements. Within each of these four groups are five chiefs, with the top four representing the entire four groups of angels. When approaching the Nephilim (the Watchers in their fallen state) for the purpose of performing the ordeal to conjure them, I was advised to evoke the four leading chiefs, and doing so gave me access to all the rest of the fallen angels.
These fallen angels, after swearing an oath and binding themselves to it, then come to Earth and choose women to be their wives. They bond themselves to these women in a lawful and orderly manner and then start to produce families. One would have to assume that they make some manner of transition from spirits to physical beings to be able to impregnate their wives and produce children. In some telling of the myth, each angel takes only one woman as a wife, but even so, with two hundred angels cohabitating with mortal women, the appearance of many children is bound to occur within a few short years. Because these children are half angel, they are special and likely superior to the rest of mortal men. Some outsiders see this in a jealous or envious manner and do not find in it anything remarkable or good. The myth states that the children are giants, but such children would more likely have killed their mothers than not, so once again I feel that there is a conflation of greatness with largeness.
To get an idea of how this conflation worked to make things less clear, I will quote from the Book of Enoch: “And they conceived from them and bore to them great giants. And the giants begat Nephilim, and to the Nephilim were born Elioud. And they were growing in accordance with their greatness.”18
It would seem that the Nephilim are the secondary offspring of the children of the Watchers, according to this passage. That text does
18 Nickelsburg, George W. E. and James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: The Hermeneia Translation (Fortress Press, 2004) p. 24, 7:2.
more to confuse the issue than make it clear who begat who. I will stick with calling the fallen angels the Nephilim and refer to their children as their children. Still, there is also the confusion of greatness with gigantism, even though the chapter in Genesis has these children named as heroes, men of renown (Men of Names). That would clearly indicate that these children are marked for greatness and indeed not giants. Yet, the myth’s focus on their relative size seemingly makes the argument that humanity couldn’t have supported the massive appetites of so many large, brutish children as they grew to adulthood. Seeing as the Nephilim bring with them the knowledge to quickly evolve society, one would assume agricultural advances to be a part of those gifts.
It is this unsatisfied hunger that causes the giants to threaten all the rest of humanity. For some reason, they also sinned against animals; raped, murdered, slaughtered, and robbed their neighbors; and of course, even the earth itself brought accusations against them, having to absorb all that bloodshed. It seems peculiar that the parents would quietly and indulgently allow these events to occur, considering that they had brought civilization to humanity. However, it is necessary to justify what happened to the Nephilim, their wives, their children, their tribe, and their new technology. Their characterization in the apocrypha texts—as the architects of every conceivable horrifying crime—seemed to make their doom completely acceptable. The Jewish scribes wrote the books, so their accusations took on the tenor of the pronouncements of their God.
Of course, all this mayhem occurring on the earth finally came to the notice of Yahweh, and he sent out four great angels to oversee the evils that were being wrought. When they reported back to him, he decided to act on a colossal level. There were also many people who rejected the worship of Yahweh, engaged in the worship of other (fake) deities, and comported themselves in bad behavior overall, and to these human beings, he decided to make an end. So, having the power of creation and destruction firmly in his grip, he weaponized the weather, causing it to storm for forty days and nights. In order to save some of his creation, he also inspired Noah to build an ark and populate it with his children and all the paired animals of the world, intending to start anew with the building of the world after the Great Flood had receded.
However, before the Flood commenced, he had the four archangels go to Earth and capture the two hundred Nephilim, and then imprison them in a place where they could never again interfere in the progress
of humanity.19 This netherworld was not the infernal underworld where Satan and his rebellious angels had taken refuge; the fallen angels were kept separate and apart from the devil and his demons, who had recourse to tempt and torment humanity to distinguish the righteous from the sinful. The Nephilim, although exiled, bound, and imprisoned, had the ability to watch the fate that came upon their children when the Great Flood wiped the earth clean of their influences. It would be assumed that their wives, children, and children’s children, combining in several generations, would all be killed in the Flood, and that the Nephilim would be forced to witness it all. I can’t imagine the turmoil and heartbreak that haunted these imprisoned fallen angels, nor the hatred they held against those who persecuted and murdered them. However, the truth behind these myths tells a different story, as we shall soon enough see.
The Book of Giants—which was originally written in Hebrew, yet became an important canonical work in the Manichean religion and was translated into many languages in the Middle East and beyond—takes the impending doom that comes to the children of the Nephilim as dreams warning them of what was coming. The story centers on the giant Ogias, a son of Shemihazah and one of the lesser instigators of evil, who has dreams and sees portends of the coming flood. 20 He is disturbed by these revelations and seeks to convene his people and warn them of what he has experienced. This, of course, occurs after Enoch, as an intercessor to Yahweh, informs the Nephilim and their tribe that they will never receive redemption for their sins.
At the convocation, divination is performed, and it is revealed that of the many tribes and family trees that existed at that time, only one will survive the flood, and that is the family of Noah: his wife and three sons. Everyone else is doomed to perish, and there is nothing that can be done to either change or mitigate this threat. However, most of the tribe of the Nephilim do not believe in the omens of doom, and they
19 Nickelsburg, George W. E. and James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: The Hermeneia Translation (Fortress Press, 2004) p. 28–29.
20 Henning, W. B., The Book of Giants: The Fallen Angels and Their Giant Sons (Forgotten Books, 2007) p. vii. See also the Gnostic Society Library’s “Dead Sea Texts: The Book of Giants,” gnosis.org/library/dss/dss_book_of_ giants.htm.
suffer the consequences. Ogias and a few others do manage to somehow survive the Great Flood, so that would explain why there are giants to be found in the period after. The fallen Watchers are captured and taken away so that their families are left without their counsel. Of course, the Book of Giants repeats even more luridly all of the evils and sins that the Nephilim and their tribe have done to the people and even animals of the earth, so there is little sympathy for them when the event of their doom comes upon them. Except for a few more honorable giants, the rest perish in the Great Flood or engage in murdering each other.
It appears that the Great Flood ends the story once and for all, since all of the antagonists are, for the most part, gone. Yet, for some reason, this myth was amplified and made more lurid and sensational in its retellings within different apocryphal books of the Bible. I suspect that there are reasons for the amplification of this myth, but there is no hard evidence or proof that it was anything more than a literary device to teach morality and entertain Jewish scholars and lay-people.
However, if what I have learned from my studies and encounters with the Nephilim holds true, it would seem that the magical traditions that they implanted in humanity ages ago have continued to bear fruit, and that they are obliquely responsible for much of the occult and magical lore that was bequeathed to us over time. How they maintained an influence over humanity has more to do with their perceived powers and capabilities by those who are disadvantaged, giving them the ambition to overcome the economic and social obstacles to achieve equality with their entrenched ruling classes. Because this knowledge had to be shared underground and practiced in secret by those who—either by blood or imagination—found themselves irreversibly attracted to it, there is little evidence of it, except in the continual secret writings and practices that have emerged at various intervals in the history of humanity.
I believe, based on what I have learned, that the grimoire tradition from both antiquity and the Renaissance, the Enochian magical tradition, practical and academic sorcery, and even certain aspects of the Qabalah have emerged from the hidden influences and occasional surfacing of a lore that was first brought to the world through the agency of the Nephilim. I can’t prove any of this as an undisputed fact, but I do feel justified in promoting this insight. It might be based on unverified personal gnosis (UPG), but it does curiously explain how all of these disparate myths and beliefs can be pulled together to build a single
unified magical and occultic perspective. Additionally, there is the lore that I received from these spirits that advanced my own practices, and the amazing revelations that they gifted me when I began to conjure them back in the early 90s.
The fact that this knowledge, the myths and beliefs of the various monotheistic Western creeds, and their underlying influences continue to fascinate religious fanatics, occultists, and magicians is truly something to marvel at, considering how obscure all of this lore has been historically. This is the legacy of the Nephilim, those fallen angels who sacrificed themselves to evolve and advance humanity from their primitive and vulnerable state. They merged with us, and some of their progeny, along with their teachings, survived the catastrophes that formed a wall between those ancient, antediluvian, mythic times, and our own present era. Yet, merging with humanity was only part of the Promethean equation that the Nephilim took upon themselves. From that fallen state emerges the ultimate redemption and ascension of that mythic bloodline and its various offshoots.
The greater potential that has been established within us is that through the teachings of the Nephilim, we can be prepared for the next phase of our spiritual progress; that is where the merging of deity and humanity becomes the ultimate pathway and purpose for each and every person. Nature itself is not excluded, since this resident noumena is to be found in all sentient beings; it is also likely to be found in the topography of our planet itself and its biosphere. Although the road forward to that sublime state is far away, we can begin the process by fully engaging with the Nephilim today and bringing their teachings to the world through the artifice of printed books, rituals, practices, and a solidarity of like minds. The legacy of the Nephilim is within many of us, and the potential for conscious ascension is available to everyone and every living thing. What is needed now is the courage to examine this legacy; if magicians find it useful and inspiring after they have conjured the Nephilim, then they should continue the work that was started ages ago.