BARAQIJAL

the

ASTROLOGER

WATCHER

BARAQIJAL (lightning of God ~ bah'RAH'key'ahl)

As noted in The Book of Jubilees, one of the Watchers (grigori) who united with the daughters of men, an incident touched on in Genesis 6 and the Books of Enoch. Baraqijal, now a demon and inhabiting the nether realms, is a teacher of astrology. In Enoch I, he is described as a leader (one of the "chiefs of ten") of a troop of fallen angels. [Cf. Barakiel, of which Baraqijal may be merely a variant.]

Baraqijal is of the order of seraphim. He is mentioned in the Book of Giants (as Barakel) as the father of the Nephilim Mahway, who "mounted up in the air like strong winds, an flew with his hands like eagles fly. He left behind the inhabited world and passed over Desolation, the great desert ...and Enoch saw him and hailed him and Mahway said to him...hither and thither a second time to Mahway.... The giants await your words, and all the monsters of the earth. If...has been carried...from the days of...their...and they will be added...we would know from you their meaning...two hundred trees that from heaven came down." [The text is badly fragmented, but you get the general idea.]

It is possible that Baraqijal is mythically related to the Sumerian god Baragulla (also called Bara and Barakulla), who was a son of Ea and an oracle god who revealed the future.

 

THE DAWN OF ASTROLOGY

"In the ancient Mesopotamian world, as far back as 8000 BC, man lived precariously beneath the open sky. His spirit was almost totally dominated by an upper world of apparently infinite resources: thunder, lightning, burning heat, eclipses - the heavens maintained an unpredictable barrage, spectacular and devastating beyond anything man could contrive for himself. The idea of celestial superiority - of looking upward for guidance - soon became part of everyday life.

"In his primitive state man did not make allowances for the possibility of accidents; everything that happened was set in motion by some purposeful force. For everything that seemed to defy explanation within his narrow span of experience, a physical source urgently had to be located and named, and a range of behaviour attributed to it. This made him feel less vulnerable.

"From the movement and appearance of the moon, stars and planets, the Babyonians believed that it was possible to predict future events in the world, especially in the political and military spheres, 'The signs in the sky, just as those on earth, give us signals': the Babylonian view was that portents gave indications - clues - about the gods' intentions. By contrast, Hellenistic (and modern) astrology views the planets themselves as exerting influences over human destinies. It was only from the fifth century BC that Babylonian astrologers began to cast horoscopes to foretell the fortunes of ordinary individuals. However, although many ancient astronomical texts are expressed in a form which allows for their astrological application (for example, they include associations of deities with the constellations where appropriate), the basic facts and procedures are of astronomical or chronological interest, and there is some evidence that the main reason for the development of astronomy was the wish to be able to control the calendar, rather than to interpret celestial events astrologically. Although some deities have connections with stars or planets, many do not, and the idea that Mesopoltamian religion was astral in origin is untenable.

"Babylonian observation of the night skies can be documented from at least 750 BC in daily records (only a small part of which survive), and by about 400 BC had reached a remarkably accurate level given the pre-Galilean cosmology with which they worked. Lunar eclipses could be predicted with considerable accuracy. Halley's comet was observed and recorded in 164 BC and again in 87 BC. The ziggurats (temple towers) may have been used in the later periods as suitable observation platforms, although that was not their original function. Babylon and Uruk were important centres of astronomy during the fourth to first centruies BC."

[Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia ~ An Illustrated Dictionary by Jeremy Black and Anthony Green; Illustrations by Tessa Richards © 1992]

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