216 



MRS. WALTER MAUNDER, ON ASTRONOMICAL 



Since Pseudo-Enoch was a Jew, and assuredly had the 

 Hebrew Scriptures before him, and assuredly did not derive 

 from them his conception that the stars, of themselves or 

 influenced by spirits, could stray from their appointed paths, 

 whence did he derive the origin of this, his main, conception ? 

 In other words, who were his associates, the people with whom 

 he came into immediate contact ? Does he give any hint as to 

 these ? 



Under various symbols, Pseudo-Enoch refers to many "kings 

 and mighty " men who oppressed his people, but he cites only 

 two nations by name, and these for destruction : 



" And in those days the angels shall return 

 And hurl themselves to the east upon the Parthians 

 and Medes."— (Eth. En. LVI, 5.) 



And evidence of Pseudo-Enoch's close acquaintance with 

 Parthians and Medes can be found in his book. 



A fundamental Grseco-Magian tenet, as set forth in the 

 Bundahis, is this : — 



" The evil spirit with the confederate demons went towards the 

 luminaries, and he saw the sky ; and he led them up, fraught with 

 malicious intentions. He stood upon one-third of the inside of the 

 sky, and he sprang like a snake out of the sky down to the earth. 

 The month Fravardin and the day Auharmazd he rushed in at noon, 

 and thereby the sky was shattered and frightened by him, as 

 a sheep by a wolf ... he made the world quite injured and 

 dark at midday as though it were dark night . . . the sphere 

 was in revolution, and the sun and moon remained in motion ; the 

 world's struggle, owing to the clamour of the Mazinikan demons, 

 was with the constellations . . . The planets, with many 

 demons, dashed against the sphere, and they mixed the constella- 

 tions : and ninety days and nights the heavenly angels were con- 

 tending . . and the rampart of the sky was formed so that 

 the adversary should not be able to mingle with it. Hell is in the 

 middle of the earth ; there where the evil spirit pierced the earth 

 and rushed upon it. ; ' — (Bd. Ill, 10-27.) 



As we have seen from the " Opinions of the Spirit of Wisdom," 

 it is the seven stars of the Plough (Haptok-ring) which, with 

 the guardian spirits of the righteous, circle round and guard the 

 mouth of hell on the very northern border of the earth, and 

 keep back the evil spirits that are in opposition to the sphere 

 and constellations. These are the same ideas as inspired 

 Pseudo-Enoch. 



