Sunday, July 22, 2012

The Specter of the Watchers




When Mark first moved out of his parents house in Washington County he still did not want to go far. So when he found the old apartment house in Union Township he was relieved, it was both close to work and to his family.
It was a small one bedroom flat in a house that was almost two centuries old. Even the doorways seemed small to the large framed wrestler. But it would do for the year that he worked hard to save for college. The rent was cheap and the location ideal.
But between work and traveling home he spent little time in the little flat. It was even a rarity that he would even sleep there, for he either crashed at a friends house after a party or slept in his old comfortable bed at home after spending the evening with his family.
But one night something happened that would make Mark never want to spend another night alone in that apartment again.
During a long winter night he was awoken around 2Am by some unnatural feeling.
It felt like he was being watched.
He had never felt that in this house before, and there had never been any supernatural happenings.
But that night as he woke from his slumber his eyes began to focus at the foot of his bed.
That was when he saw the black figure.
It was tall and ominous, this shadow from the depths of they abyss that hung there at the foot of his bed. Even though it was the middle of a moonless night the dark figure was clearly visible as it moved closer to the end of the bed.
And then there were the eyes. Bright glowing red spheres of fire. Mark had heard stories of creatures with glowing red eyes before and he always thought them as totally ridiculous. A trick of the light shining on the iris of some unknown animal he had always though. But there was no other light in his room that night to reflect off the eyes of the being looming over him menacingly. No the iridescence came from within as if the eyes spewed forth the fire from hell itself.
It stopped right at the footboard and with a unearthly rasping voice the creature rattled off one word.
Enoch
After the demonic voice issued forth from unseen lips the thing simply vanished as if it were but a cloud if dissipating smoke.
Mark did not know whether he should run or hide. He just lay there staring at the doorway to his bedroom where the ethereal being once stood.
He was alone. And he was perplexed. He had no idea what Enoch was.
Later that week he visited some friends in Erie who were students at a Catholic College there. He went to one of the priest on campus and told him of this frightening tale. And he asked about Enoch.
The priest told him that Enoch was a Biblical character from the book of Genesis but also it was the name of a heretical ancient book of forbidden knowledge that was considered as Scripture by some of the ancients but proved too heretical to be included into the Bible by Church Council.
That was the only thing Mark knew of the book of Enoch when he told me this story a few weeks ago. I filled him in on the rest, and to any of you who know of the book of Enoch it is quite interesting that a ‘dark shadow being’ would grumble the name before it disappeared into the inky darkness.
The book of Enoch is what Biblical scholars call a part of the Psuedepigrapha. Books written in the New Testament era that claim to be written by important people from what we call the Old Testament. Most of them date from the first two centuries of the Christian Era.
The book of Enoch is a complied work, the first part called The Book of the Watchers which is dated to about 300BC and the later part of the book the Book of Parables was written some 400 to 500 years later.
The Book of Watchers is an expansion the Old Testament Text of Genesis 6:1-5
“Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.
And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive[a] with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
Many people in the paranormal arena know this passage well. The word translated “giants” here is the Hebrew word Nephilim which has a root that could translate it not only as ‘giants’ but as ‘Fallen ones’.
Many modern Ufologists and followers of the “Chariots of the God’s” theory consider the Nephalim as an ancient hybrid race and quote this text as Biblical evidence of ancient alien visitation to earth and intermingling of races which produced a hybrid race. Some believe the race is still here and account for many UFO sightings.
But traditionally Biblical Scholars and Early Christian Theologians saw the Nephilim quite differently. They took the term “fallen one’s” quite literally. These were offspring of the sons of God (Angels) and human females. They were an unholy abomination that was the result of lustful actions of fallen angels. They died in the great flood and their spirits still haunt the earth. To the Early Church Fathers these damned souls of abomination were the beings behind many encounters with ghosts or spirits. This belief is still popular in many Christian churches today but it ceased to be a mainstream belief of the church at the dawning of the last century.
The Book of Watchers chronicles in detail the fallen angels lust and the results of their actions. While followers of the ‘Ancient Astronaut’ theory claim this book describes details an ancient encounter with an alien race that helped man advance culturally and scientifically, demonologist view this as an insight into the nature of certain entities. Some malevolent entities are not as powerful as others, and seem to follow some sort of hierarchy. Traditionally many of these lesser entities were considered to be Nephalim. Not as powerful as Demonic beings, but still a dark spirit of evil that could infest a location or possess an individual. Indeed many clergymen of the past saw these as the primary source of possession, for these evil disembodied beings desire intently to once again have a body of their won.
Mark knew none of this.
But once he found out the real connection to the entity that said the word and the topic of the book he was once again shaken.
And he told me of another story that happened to his friends in Erie. A demonic infestation of an off campus housing that required a call to the Vatican and an Exorcists intervention.
This story also had a dark shadowy figure with red glowing eyes. You can read that story on my blog  HERE
What haunted Mark that cold dark night? And why did it give him the name Enoch?
Was it a Nephilim mourning that it no longer had a physical body?
Or a warning of the future?

11 comments:

Diane said...

really interesting!

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed the story,Pastor,but as you are,I'm also curious as to why "Enoch" was the only clue given.

Out in the Santa Lucia mountains of California where Big Sur is located,there is also the legend of entities called the "Dark Watchers" Maybe the given name is all they have in common.

Howard said...

Some of the Church Fathers maintained the possibility of angels siring children, but by no means all of them. This idea also fell from favor much earlier than "the dawning of the last century".

Personally, I find this whole story, and especially its connection to the book of Enoch, to be too farfetched. If an unclean spirit spoke, it spoke with some purpose, and all this conjecture still does not give an inkling as to what that might have been.

It seems much more likely that the story was the result of a bad dream, a "old hag syndrome", or was made up from whole cloth.

Jose Prado said...

Hello Pastor Swope, I'm a new reader and so far enjoy your work. One corection I'd like to add, Watchers (Gregori) are not Nephilim, they are a Sect of Angels in Heaven who watch over the activities of humans for some Divine purpose. Fallen Gregori (demons from Genisis ch 6) were the ones who fathered the Nephilim and there are two possible translations of the word, 1) Those who came from the Sky (reffering to their semi Angelic parentage and 2) The Destroyers or those who make to fall because Nephal is a Hebrew word for destrucction. Nephilim are half human half Angel (or Fallen Angel it depends) therefore the bad ones are Demonic. They can use Demonic abilities as well as the Witch abilities of a human (we all possess those powers). They do roam the Earth that much is true but they also belong to Hell. Gregori are called upon by Mystics (like myself) for protection or other forms of magick work. Fallen Gregori which are the Demonic variety however are called upon by Black Magicians like Satanists to spy on people and report back to them. Sometimes even to curse people. It could've been a Fallen Gregori. Demons are arrogant they like to give clues and screw with people's heads. Nephilim however are usually large spirits (since they were giants). Lore abounds about gigantic spirits. Then again it could have misrepresented itself in order to confound him. We simply dont have all the facts. And there is nothing Heretical about the Book of Enoch, true the copies found were from the newer era but remember that so is much of the Bible. Everything is a copy from an original, older source. Enoch and many other Christian books were censored thanks to the Tyrannical Roman Emperor Constantine who re-wrote Christianity in the Council of Nicea so that he could use Christianity to control his subjects as the new State Religon. End of story.

Pastor Swope said...

Thanks Jose,

In the article I use the common root for Nephilim which would translate "Fallen One". In this sense the abomination that are the Nephilim are in the same state as their parents as fallen beings that are half angel and half human.

Although many see the the root for the word Nephilim from another Aramaic source and therefore it means giant with no spiritual sense which is implied in the book of Enoch.

Jose Prado said...

Pastor is there any chance I can add you on facebook sometime? I'm a Representative (one of the two Florida Reps) for the National Paranormal Society (NPS) I'd like to invite you to join us on Facebook or even (if you would like) to join our organization. We are just starting but are growing a momentum. Our goal is to unite Paranormal Investigators around the country in order to reach those who need the most help. If you're interested I can invite you to the group or send you our website. It was founded by Erik Hutson.

Pastor Swope said...

Sure Jose feel free to invite me!

Jose Prado said...

I havent had luck finding you Pastor, can you add me? That way I can add you to the group. Just click on my name, it will take you to my facebook page.

Anonymous said...

THe bible says to not speak to familiar spirits. You are all going to hell if you don't quit this demon worshipping nonsense.

If you make all these web sites about satan, he'll just keep sending spooks after you!@

Pastor Swope said...

Anonymous,

I don't usually say this, but you have no clue on so many levels! I hope you meant that as a joke,cause it made me laugh quite a bit. It is clueless judgmental attitudes like that that has decimated the church in the 21st century. That is the spirit of Antichrist. It goes against everything Jesus would have stood for. I hope that you never have a go at Evangelism.

Violet Black said...

Ouch, Mr./Ms. Anonymous II is not being very nice! I don't see anyone worshiping demons here. (Though I'll admit my first thought when Mr. Prado mentioned his Gregori magick was, "Is that safe?") I completely understand the mindset of "ignore it and it will go away," having heard it from my mother quite a bit, but it is really hard to put into practice when real Scary Things are happening to real people, especially including oneself. Besides, how are we to "test the spirits" or drive them off if we can't acknowledge them (even the ones hurting us)? I'm pretty convinced there are different categories of "speaking to" things. Christ and the Apostles were known to order around the enemy spirits from time to time, which didn't seem to have any ill effects, whereas the act of "consulting with" these spirits was always firmly against the Law. Heck, I think I remember Jesus even asking a cluster of them its name. (I've tried that myself. It didn't hurt OR help noticeably. Conclusion: I have no idea what I'm doing.)

Anyway, more on topic, I'm as confused as everyone else as to why the thing would say, "Enoch." Out of all the things extradimensional jerkwads have said to me, I don't think a single one has been worth hearing...and here I am puzzling over why it mentioned the titular protagonist of an old book that may or may not document the origin of certain classes of demon. Maybe it's just because I've been wondering about the authenticity of the book(s) for quite some time...

Sorry to ramble! ^_^;;;;;