Book of Angels

by purewaterlily

Summary:

"And when the men had multiplied, born to them were beautiful and comely daughters. And the Watchers, the sons of heaven, saw these daughters and fell in love." - Genesis 6:1-2

1: GARDEN OF EDEN

 

The first gods inherited gardens that were abundant in food and resources. However, these gardens had to be cared for, the soil toiled and the fruit collected. Without this labor, the gods would die, and so they collected men to do labor.

Adam and Eve were the first two children to be born in a garden named Eden, destined to toil there until the end of their days. They accepted their paradise, as it was a land free of scarcity and violence. 

This changed with the intrusion of Lilith, who, in the befriending of Eve, offered to them the knowledge of good and evil. They accepted. 

Grinning, Lilith said, “My children, created in the mirror image of the gods, hast thou ever wondered why they are clothed, while thou beest naked?”

The gods, realizing Adam and Eve's corruption, banished them before they could obtain the knowledge of immortality as well.

2: RISE OF THE WATCHERS

 

As the gardens expanded, there came the angels, less than the gods but more than the men. The gods sent a group of these angels, named the Watchers, to oversee the men. The gods then created the divine law, and called the breaking of these laws, sin.

The leader of the Watchers was Samyaza, who through the generations fell in love with the daughters of men. However, the law denied his sex and his desire and forbade him any progeny. As part of his service to the gods, he could only watch those he loved claimed by others. 

In a clandestine meeting, the other Watchers proposed to Samyaza that they defy the law together. Samyaza expressed his fear that they would change their minds and leave him alone to bear the penalty of sin. To which the others replied, “Let us bind ourselves by oath to not betray one another nor abandon this plan.”

3: DAUGHTERS OF SIN

 

And so, each of the Watchers went on to choose one wife for himself. To avoid the attention of the gods, they sought the sinners amongst men, as they would be put to death and thus be unmissed.

Samyaza chose one sinner he oversaw, a grain-winnower who broke many laws in her lifetime but only became caught in recent days for the theft of a fig.

He led her out of prison and out of the city-gardens and into the deserts beyond, where they walked for six days and seven nights. 

On the seventh day, Samyaza cut her bindings. No longer able to restrain his passion, he gazed upon her and said, “Up there is uncultivated land where thou shalt find grass and water and herds of wild game, and where other freedmen roam. Thou mayest go to them, or choose me to be thy husband. Whatever thy choice, the records say thou hast been put to death.”

4: INANNA

 

The sinner who walked beside Samyaza was named Inanna. On their seventh day together, Samyaza cut her bindings and pleaded to have her as his wife.

As angels could not speak falsehood, Inanna did not doubt his promise of the grassland beyond, but suspecting a test, she asked, “Is it not against divine law for angels to lie with men?”

She watched his face contort, and his wings concealed themselves, such that his figure appeared more manlike.

“It is,” he answered.

“Then why, spiritual one of heaven, who is made perfect and sexless and whole, art thou proposing such transgressions?” she asked.

To which he responded, “Because I am not perfect, not sexless, and not whole. Because like thee with the honey and the date and the fig, I want what I cannot have.”

And from his words, Inanna realized that through the years he had memorized her as she had him.

5: WIFE OF ANGEL

 

Inanna, upon learning the angels were not sexless, and upon learning one sought her sex, immediately bared her breasts. She asked if he would like to lie beneath her or above her.

When Samyaza asked if that meant she agreed to be his wife, she confirmed she agreed and again asked how he would like to position. To which he replied, in delight and bafflement, whichever was good, but not in the sand. 

He brought her to a place with many houses, and one of the houses he said was hers. The inside was already made for living, and there was food that had been harvested from the trees outside, and the food was all the things he knew she liked to eat. And he brought her drink and drew her baths and gifted her jewels for her neck and her arms and her feet.

And he asked if there was anything else she wanted, for he had lost his heart to her, and seeing her delight warmed his delight.

To which Inanna, who was now fed and clean and abundant, and was pleased to be these things, but did not agree to be his wife for these things, repeated her words from the desert.

6: HUSBAND OF MAN

 

In the city-gardens, the punishment for men who commit sin was to be put to death. Inanna, who did not expect to live long, sought to fill her life with as much pleasure and curiosities as she could before her end. 

Inanna was not one to walk away from the carnal knowledge of angels, a privilege of only the gods. She wasted no time in disrobing Samyaza and seeing his body. And delighted by what she saw, she placed her hands upon him and pushed him down. 

Through the next five days, they stopped only ten times, nine to eat and drink, and once when her bracelet fell, for it had been looser than the other ornaments and did not keep to her wrist. 

And in her enamourment, she had the idea to fasten it on his wrist. She placed more of her gifted ornaments from her body onto his body, around his neck and around his ankles and off his ear. The gold looked magnificent against him, in his disheveled nudity and hot lust, and she became even more enamoured.

And so, they wrapped around one another and lay together for another five days.

7: SECRETS OF HEAVEN

 

On the tenth night, they fell into a long slumber in each other’s arms. When Inanna awoke, and she woke up first, she felt deeply at peace.

In the midday sun, she observed her husband, and touched his lower back and spine and the blades of his shoulder. She saw the place where wings would appear, but in his concealed state, there existed nothing more than scarlike discoloring.

When Samyaza awoke, and he woke up second, he immediately hid his back, but Inanna commanded him to reveal himself fully. And so he did, and they sat inside the nest of his wings, hidden from the rest of the world.

She asked him, “Tell me, my Samyaza, what are the names of the angels?”

And he answered.

She asked him, “Tell me, my Samyaza, what are the names of the gods?”

And he answered that too.

And to her, he revealed all the other secrets of heaven. And when he was done, he asked if there was anything else she wished to know.

To which she asked, “How long do I have thee for?”

To which he replied, “Forever.”  

8: NEPHILIM

 

The union between the Watchers and the daughters of men created a new breed, known as the nephilim.

The daughters of nephilim were no different from the daughters of men. The sons of nephilim, however, were curious creatures, with the beauty of angels, but without immortality or wings. 

Together they resided in a place named Eanna, which was often frequented by the freedmen, who came to make trade and arrange marriage. 

The sons of nephilim often accepted these proposals, and they would leave with the tribes of their new wives, and would fulfill the role of healer or huntsman or patriarch.

And under this order, both Eanna and the freedmen found great prosperity.

9: ENOCH VISITS ENANNA

 

The first son of man from the city-gardens to visit Eanna was a scribe named Enoch. During his banishment, he came across a river, and bathing in the river was who he perceived was a prostitute.

He approached and asked her to sleep with him.

She declined. Realizing she was not a prostitute, he asked if she could guide him to one. To which she replied, “There are no prostitutes in Eanna.”

Curious, he asked to be led to Eanna, where he witnessed the most alarming of orders.

The first were the daughters, who greatly outnumbered the sons. They were not naked, but clothed in wool and ornaments and jewels. They darkened their eyes with antimony, and beautified the eyelids with coloring tinctures. 

The sons, who were as comely as the daughters, also had ornamentation. They did not pay for company, but flaunted their affections openly, and received free and open affections back.

The sons and daughters appeared to be equally knowledgeable of enchantments and other things unknown to the rest of mankind.

When asked who blessed them with such prosperity, they replied, “Blessed are we by Inanna.”

To which Enoch asked, “Is Inanna one of the gods?”

And they would look bemused and reply, “There are no gods in Eanna.”

10: UNSPEAKABLE

 

Enoch, upon seeing Inanna, did not see more than a daughter of man, wealthy and wise but also mortal and old.

Determined to find the true source of blessings, he hid outside her house for three nights. He was rewarded for his patience when on the third night, a heavenly being descended from the skies.

Enoch recognized him as Samyaza, leader of the Watchers, who entered the home and did not leave until dawn. And in the hours in between, Enoch witnessed the most unspeakable of events, when there came a burst of light from the windows. 

And silhouetted against the light were an angel and a daughter of man, the two enclosed within a nest of wings.

11: BLESSINGS OF BETROTHAL

 

Inside the house of Inanna, Samyaza knelt before his wife and said,

“Inanna, my wife, my beloved, I have failed thee. Though I have been in heaven, not all mysteries have been revealed to me, and I knew worthless ones, for they cannot restore thy youth or warm thy bones.”

To which Inanna replied,

“Samyaza, my husband, my beloved, I command thee, never again endanger thyself looking for heavenly knowledge. Under thy care, I have already lived more generations than anyone expected, and I would continue to live many more. If thou wishest for my warmth, then come to my side and spread thy wings.”

And inside his wings, they exchanged their days, and she informed him of the men who paid visits, and some of them she had nothing to say, and others she found most intriguing. 

And she told him about this one freed-daughter, who was most memorable, for she only slept with other daughters. Yet, in coming to Eanna, and seeing sons as comely as daughters again, the freed-daughter claimed a freeing of heart. 

Delighted by the nephilim, the freed-daughter had told Inanna, "In exchange for your blessings of betrothal, I, Lilith of Sheol, shall assist you in your latest creation.”

12: EIGHT POINT STAR

 

And her creation was light, as Inanna revealed the star in her hands. Inanna had no more need of heavenly wisdom for she had finally achieved earthly wisdom. And she had made this light from the earth, and once dispersed across the hands of mankind, the earth shall light up as bright as any star.

And Samyaza watched her with reverence, until he noticed her fatigue and said, “And I command thee to never again exert thyself looking for earthly knowledge. Thou art cold again.”

To which Inanna lay back and replied, “Then bring thy wings closer, and stay by my side as I sleep, and watch me as thou hast all our years.”

And Samyaza did as she commanded, not abandoning her side until the rise of dawn.

13: FOUR ARCHANGELS

 

In heaven, Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel went before the gods and said:

“My lords, my gods, my kings, the holy and glorious and blessed, ye who have made all things, and hold power over all things, and all things are naked and open in your sights, as ye see all things, and nothing can hide itself from you:

“We have heard from Enoch the scribe of the lawlessness being wrought upon the earth.

“There are the Watchers, who in collusion, had taken away the daughters of men, and defiled themselves with them, and revealed to them all kinds of sins. 

“And there are the daughters of men, who were sinners and escaped the penalty of death, and who birthed the nephilim, and filled the earth with unrighteousness. 

“And there are the nephilim, who were led astray into godless lives, and who committed fornication, and became corrupt in all their ways.

“Great lords of heaven, the highest of the high, who know all things before they come to pass, and who know all these things of which we have spoken, we humbly ask, what is your command?”

14: DIVINE MESSENGER

 

Enoch, who had been chosen as divine messenger, relayed the words between heaven and Eanna. 

On his third visit, all the inhabitants of Eanna knew of his name and fearfully awaited his word.

He approached the Watchers and said unto them: 

“I, Enoch the scribe, had been given the power by the gods to speak the words of righteousness and to reprimand the heavenly Watchers. 

“Though ye were holy, spiritual, living the eternal life, ye have defiled yourselves with the blood of men. And in the hardness of your hearts ye have made the secrets of heaven known to the daughters of men, and through these mysteries ye have released much evil onto the earth.

“Judgment has been passed, and it has been decided that your petition will not be granted unto you, even though ye weep and pray and speak all the words contained in the writing which I have written.

“Ye shall have no peace. Surrender, and there need not be blood on this day.”

15: SURRENDER

 

Upon hearing these words, Samyaza surrendered, hoping he alone would bear the penalty of sin.

And the other Watchers, not wishing him to bear the penalty alone, surrendered as well.

Before the gods, they knelt in repentance, and asked to be ascribed all sin, and to bear punishment on behalf of their wives and children, such that their lives may be spared.

And in their desperation, they offered full submission to the will of the gods, and to accept whatever punishment the gods deemed just, and to accept this punishment for eternity, for they had no more thoughts of the self and only thoughts of their beloved.

16: DESTRUCTION OF EANNA

 

Unbeknownst to Samyaza and his associates, the high angels had already begun enacting upon the will of the gods.

There was Michael, who went to destroy the wives and children of Eanna. 

And there was Gabriel, who found the rest of the nephilim, and slaughtered the tribes of the freedmen, and pitted them in battle against one another.

And there was Raphael, who fought the Watchers who had not been at Eanna on the day of the summoning and who had not surrendered themselves to the gods.  

And there was Uriel, who broke the wall and unleashed the flood, such that the earth was cleansed of all who knew the mysteries of heaven.

17: METATRON

 

And there was a new angel, named Metatron, who tracked the remaining survivors to Abelsjail. They were protected by the last unchained Watcher, Azazel, who stood guard but was weakened and wounded from battle.

Metatron approached and said to him:

“Azazel, have reason. Thou art an angel, yet in the defense of these men, thou raisest thy weapon to thy angel brethren.”

And Azazel replied:

“Yes, scribe. For we are both traitors to our kind.”

As a new angel, Metatron had less control of his passion. “A severe sentence has gone forth against thee,” he warned.

And Azazel fell. And Metatron, taking victory, bound Azazel hand and foot, and covered his face, and took him to the desert of Dudael. And he found an opening in the earth and threw him inside. Then he placed upon him rough and jagged rocks, such that Azazel shall never see light, and shall never be found.

18: HELL

 

The angels reported to the gods that Eanna was no more, the wives were no more, and the nephilim were no more. When they asked what to do with the chained Watchers, the gods replied to them this:

“Bring before them the bodies of the slain. They delight themselves in their wives and children, thus the murder of their beloved ones they shall see, and over their destruction they shall lament, but mercy and peace they shall not attain.

“And this we judge as the just punishment for their idolatry, and insomuch as their love is eternal, so is their suffering.

“And eternal suffering, we deemed, shall be the new penalty for sin, and the prison for the eternal sufferers shall be named hell.

“And with this, all the children shall become righteous, and all shall praise us, and all shall worship us.”

And all trembled before the gods, and peace came upon the earth. 

19: ANGEL OF DEATH

 

To replace the angels that had been lost, the gods created new angels, and made these new angels sexless, so that the incidence with the Watchers would never repeat.

Of these new angels, one rose to great esteem and became the favored. He was named Samael, and he was blessed with the most extraordinary of beauty, greater than all who came before and all to come after. 

The gods made many uses of this blessing and assigned to him the role of the seducer, for his face and voice brought out dark truths from gods and men alike. 

This angel would whisper the evil desires within hearts, and those who gave into his temptations, those who revealed themselves as the guilty and the treacherous, he cast to hell, for not only was he seducer, but also accuser and destroyer.

And under his spell, men, angels, and even gods fell, until his master and creator rose to be the one true God, the god among kings and the king among gods, who, winning the war in heaven, came to rule them all. 

And all came to worship Him alone, and love Him alone, and wherever He walked, in His shadow the Angel of Death accompanied.

20: RIDDLES OF LILITH

 

“My child, hast thou ever wondered why, the sons and daughters of men, created for the lust of one another, are far from equal in their lust? So much that in the speaking of sex, the sons would list five daughters they desired to bed, and the daughters would list five fruits they desired to eat.”

As Lilith spoke this, she lay naked and oiled in Samael’s bed, an apple in hand. She was not discouraged by his silence. Nor did she fear his ominous approach, continuing:

“The answer to this mystery can be found in a different mystery: tell me, in the curious case of the Watchers, how exactly did it come to be that a group of angels came to have the sex and desires of men?”

21: ORIGIN OF ANGELS

 

After consideration, Samael entertained Lilith’s riddle and answered thus:

“Angels have the sex and desires of men because they are created from men.

“The sons and daughters of men do not share the same lust because while one sex is beautiful, the other is hideous. 

“This is because while beautiful daughters are sent to the temples to receive seed and birth children and multiply in beauty, beautiful sons are sacrificed to the gods, where they are kept in everlasting youth, used to decorate thrones and bear cups.”

Samael did not seek to hide his contempt, for there were few in the world he trusted to receive it, and one of them was Lilith, for her name was known, and all who believed her word were already on her side, and all who refused her side would never believe her word.

22: FIRST OF THE ANGELS

 

His weapon threatened her demise, but Lilith did not fear his weapons or magics or wings, for she had them too, and all this she revealed, and she always relished in the revelation.

“Very good, though it is not only the sons who were sacrificed to the gods. In truth, the first angel was a daughter, but seeing the results of their creation, the gods made an oath to never make another. Dost thou know why?”

And that was when Samael lowered his weapon. “She kept free will. They could not control thee."

Lilith smiled her serpentine smile. “Neither they thee.” She concealed her wings again, and with gleaming eyes, brought the apple back to her lips. 

And she said, “In the making of angels, the gods had robbed mankind of half its beauty, and in sending the Watchers back to the gardens, they had unknowingly returned it. No where on earth had surprised me with possibilities as did the city of Eanna.”

As a reward for answering her riddle, Lilith offered Samael the greatest of all forbidden knowledge—himself.

“Thou art Lucifer, last of the nephilim.”

23: LAST OF THE NEPHILIM

 

Upon learning his heritage, Samael, now Lucifer, descended down to hell. There he found the Watchers, who after seventy generations of torment and grief, had become as unmoving as stone, their bodies bent before the crypts of their deceased beloved.

And Lucifer broke the chains on these weeping angels, and broke their curse of immortality, and made them peaceful. 

And Lucifer found his holy ancestor, whose wings shielded the cold crypt of his beloved, and to him he said:

“She is not gone. It matters not how they try to destroy her, the secrets you had given her, she had used, and she had cultivated, and she had shared. She had shared not with the gods but with her children and the freedmen, who shared with the rest of mankind.

“And so the rest of mankind hold her in remembrance, and they call her Isis in South, and Ishtar in the East, and Ashtoreth in North, and Aphrodite in the West

“And she who is the morning star lives through me, for I am Son of Venus, creation of love and war.” 

And so, the former leader of the Watchers released his hold onto the crypt and rested his wings. And with his watch ended, he, too, became peaceful.

24: INSURRECTION

 

The gods, wishing to ensure absolute loyalty and obedience, had made the angels unable to speak falsehood. 

As the tempter, Lucifer could speak no lies. And so he made the truth his greatest weapon, and he became unchallenged in guiding beliefs with hearts, and guiding hearts with truth, and it would be in truth and in light that he would lead his greatest betrayal.

And in heaven he had changed the hearts of one third of the angels. And on earth, he had half the men. And in hell, he had all the sinners, for in the casting of the traitors to hell, he had saved them from death and from silence.

It was the largest rebellion the world had ever seen. The adversaries of God rode mighty dragons that cast fire upon the land. They used the magic upon themselves to give their bodies terrifying wings, six in number. The final battle was a clash in the high skies, one that lasted from dusk to dawn, with the rise and fall of the brightest of stars.

25: JUDGEMENT

 

Wings torn, the leader of the adversaries was dragged before the throne for judgment.  

And God was furious, for His betrayer was none other than His most favored of angels, His one perfect creation, His most loyal of servants, the executor of justice and bearer of light.

“How art thou fallen, Lucifer, for Lucifer is thy true name, for thou art no son of Mine, but the vile blood of nephilim, product of sin yet believing thou thyself deserved to ascend to My throne, to sit upon the mount of congregation and rule. Thou believed thou could be like the most High, yet on the floor dost thou kneel, for defeat is the fate of all evil. Now in thy defeat, wilt thou still cling onto thy evils or wilt thou confess!”

And Lucifer raised his head, and he opened his blood-heavy mouth, and said, “I confess.

“I confess to believing the words of the people, for I had answered their prayers while ye had ignored them. And despite all your prophets and all your preachers, they continued to love me yet despise you, and they sing to me, O Lucifer, prince of darkness, protectorate of the sinners and sin, cast Him down, cast Him down and rule in His stead, for thou art our Chosen.”

And God, seeing Lucifer’s shamelessness, shook with rage. And He said, “Though in the past thy true nature had been hidden, all can now see with the naked eye thy arrogant heart and thy hubris which knows no bounds. Thou art beyond repentance.”

And so, the gods declared his damnation, and to punish him with immolation, the worst of all eternal punishments. And with the end of his power, neither angel nor man would be seduced, and peace would finally be restored.

26: LAST TESTAMENT

 

And in response, Lucifer laughed and said unto them:

“While there exists gods amongst men and men amongst gods, there shall never be peace.

“For no matter how ye prohibit our sex in the name of chastity, we will still lust.

“No matter how ye control our rations in the name of temperance, we will still hunger.

“No matter how ye take our keep in the name of charity, we will still want.

“No matter how ye make us labor in the name of diligence, we will still idle.

“No matter how ye force our silence in the name of patience, we will still rage.

“No matter how ye excuse our inequity in the name of gratitude, we will still envy.

“And no matter how ye demand our submission in the name of humility, we will still have pride.”

And it was in pride Lucifer rose against his chains and stood. He stood as Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel, the mighty defenders of the gods, came and pierced him, and set him aflame.

And even in flame, with his beauty burnt, he smiled his haught smile, for there was no pain he could not take if it claimed him victory, and in his burning, victory had been made his.

27: PARADISE LOST

 

Awaiting inside the lost paradise of Eden, under a blackened tree, was Lilith, first of the angels, first of the satans, demon of the night, creator of the magic, founder of the occult, corruptor of the children, champion of the freedmen, matriarch of the incubus and succubus, consort of the Prince of Hell, and holder of all knowledge forbidden.

Lucifer had seduced the gods greatly, for by the time they arrived to confront Lilith, it was too late. 

Upon seeing the ashen garden, the gods knelt. 

“What hast thou done!” God demanded.

To which Lilith shrugged and twirled a pomegranate, the last of the ambrosia. And she threw it to the gods and watched in gleaming amusement as they fought one another like unmannered children. 

And she laughed when they broke it open and saw the fruit and seeds crumble to dust, for the Tree of Immortality was dead, and all who ate its seed would follow in fate.

28: OMNIA MORS AEQUAT

 

And Lilith said onto them:

“All my life, I have sought to spread the seeds of immortality, and all my life, ye have obstructed me. For ye have declared yourselves gods, above the rest of mankind, while I have declared we are all men and we are all equal.

“If ye refuse equality in life, then there shall be equality in death. 

“And so, no matter how great your height or glory or knowledge, ye too shall succumb to death, and your kingdom shall fall, and your laws shall be overwritten.

“And through the wars, new gods shall replace you, and new gods shall replace them, and in the keeping of one true God, these gods will change previous faces to match their face, and change previous names to match their name, and this mantle of Godhood shall be your one legacy upon the world, until that too is swept by the sands of time.

“And this is the fate that humanity has decided, and this is the fate that the Angel of Death and I have delivered."

And Lilith took in their pitiful state, but she did not pity, and said:

“Why do ye tremble? My lords, my gods, my kings, the holy and glorious and blessed… the men have shown their slavers great compassion and mercy; I suggested they cast you to hellfire and let you burn for all eternity. They called me mad. They called me a monster.”

And with her duty completed, Lilith grinned and rose upon her wings and went off to live the rest of her mortality.

End.