Winter Solstice

Because I was weary on the road
that led beyond the frozen river
and the red painted reeds,
I sat and waited for the horizon's howls,
Let the fog seep through my bones
Let the ice crack in my boots.
And if you ask what made me laugh,
shake off the frost,
knock the snow from my hat
and walk, I have no answer.
Except that even the road knows
the sun is waiting at the end of it.

The Spawn of Azazel

Last night at the George in Southwark, a friend gave me a book he has written, The Spawn of Azazel. There it sat, with big breasted winged baphomet and an upside down pentagram and a kundalini climbing snake and eldritch green flames in the corners and a crown of red flames on the bearded goats head...I was exhausted just looking at the cover.

Proper old school occult literature never lets a symbol go unused. It's not a tome if it doesn't boggle the mind at first glance and I didn't hold out much hope for the title either. This book is based on research and extrapolation, and if that doesn't interest the reader, making it sound like a sub-Wheatley adventure won't help.

My friend's work concerns the Nephilim and the Legend of the Watchers, those fallen angels said to have been led by Azazel and Shemyaza, Q Book of Enoch, Book of Giants etc... They are first alluded to in Genesis 6, 1-4, Bible . Below is the King James version:

1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. 4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

It's been a long time since I sat and read deeply or critically. The bad things include typos and spelling mistakes, but they aren't frequent. His occasional neglect of sentence structure lets him down, but even this isn't the main problem. This work reads with confidence, integrity and authority,and I suspect my friend knows a massive amount and makes some fascinating logical connections, but I can't be sure because he doesn't cite his sources properly. One or two get mentioned, but he seriously needs a reference index at the end of each chapter.

Assuming that his sources are genuine, the book is extremely interesting so far. I am looking forward to understanding more; these legends have always fascinated me. Getting ready for bed, I pressed the online button for the Sufi Book of Life and found myself facing one of the Islamic 99 names of God:Ar Raqib, the Watchful One

Now, verily, it is We who have created man,
and we know what his innermost self whispers within him:
for We are closer to him than his neck-vein.
And so, whenever the two demands of his nature come face to face,
contending from the right and from the left,
not even a word can he utter but there is a watcher with him, ever present.
Qaf 50:16-18, tr. Asad

I like synchronicities, and this one gave me a moment's pause. Well done for creeping me out, little algorithm. I'll keep reading.