the-book-of-azazel

E.A. KOETTING
According to the Book of Enoch and the legends
spawned from that text, Satan opposed God’s plan of sending
man to earth to struggle through life and to achieve a degree of
glory after death through his own efforts. Taking one third of
heaven’s angels, he waged a war against God, and as a result
was thrust down to the earth until the Final Resurrection, when
all would be judged.
When Enoch and his whole city were lifted into heaven,
and when Enoch himself was translated into angelic glory as
the angel Metatron, however, a second revolt began. Metatron
refused to look away from Azazel’s sin of teaching mankind
forbidden knowledge, petitioning Jehovah to cause Michael to
bind Azazel and his cohorts Ouza and Shemyaza, and to cast
them to the earth until the final judgment.
While this myth can only be taken seriously as an
allegory, the realistic root from which it derives does incite
some speculation.
Azazel seeks to teach men the secrets of the gods, to
assist them in their Ascent. The path of the Left Hand is that of
this very same forbidden knowledge. The greatest and most
accurate criticism of Black Magick is that it delivers to the
Worker of Darkness a degree of power for which he is ill
prepared, speeding his Ascent faster and more furious than he
can withstand, resulting in immense instability, and granting
him abilities that can run rampant with his ego.
Azazel is not, however, the typical demon, the impish
servant of Satan or some other Dark Lord, but was a grand
Angel, an ancient Watcher, and held that status even after he
copulated with human females, and taught men the secrets of
warfare, and of witchcraft.
All of this is in accordance with the myth.
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