Common Ground: The Kinship of Metaphysicians

A syncretic approach to esoteric teachings - the golden threads that connect Pagans, Yogis, Rosicrucians and Masons.

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Angels or Extraterrestrials

I used to think that certain Christians shunned dialogue with people of opposing beliefs simply because they feared we were tools of the Devil. But their reasons may be worse than that; they may actually be afraid that we are inhuman demons ourselves! This idea is derived from the Book of Enoch, which was deleted from our western Bibles but has reportedly always been in the canon of the Ethiopian Christian Church. 

We read in Genesis, “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 then later, “there were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men of old, men of renown.” But as no historical or biological record of these beings has been unearthed, our churches take no official  position on what these references allude to.  

However, the Book of Enoch explains it very clearly. The “Watchers” (today we call them extraterrestrials) were angels who spied on mortal women the way many of us do now, on the Internet. Finally they assumed physical bodies, came down to earth and impregnated those women. (We can imagine them saying, "Great work, God!" and "They were asking for it, anyway; did you see the way they were dressed?") 

 But God had not intended the angels to do this, so He punished them for opposing His will. He cast them into Tartarus. (The earliest Biblical writings do not contain the term Hell.) They became the fallen angels—i.e., devils.  

Their offspring, known as the Nephillim, have been speculated about on TV, in the recent spate of UFO programs. Many were giants such as Goliath. Similar legends abound all over the world. Greek mythology chronicles the battles of Zeus against the Titans, and the old heroes of Irish legend were giants, too—though they supposedly wound up in Hell with the coming of Saint Patrick and Christianity. 

  Another name for Nephillim—those mixed-race hybrids of humans and devils—would be demons. Hindu writings clearly state that the demon race co-habited the earth with us humans. They were similar in shape to us, but possessed essential differences. It would be as if Neanderthals still existed along with us today—we would be two distinct humanoid races occupying the same planet. And each would have strengths that the other lacked. 

Hinduism goes on to say that demons weren’t all bad; some were sterling individuals with the highest spiritual and moral principles. King Mahabali was a demon who ruled his subjects with wisdom and generosity. His reign is considered a Golden Age in the history of Kerala. In the Hindu epic Ramayana, several demons are remembered with respect and gratitude for their piety and dedication to God Vishnu's avatar Rama, in direct opposition to their relatives who fought against him.   

But getting back to the Bible, these hybrid offspring provide a fascinating theory for why the God of Israel ordered His Chosen People to slay the population of every new land they came into. Perhaps He knew that those residents were demon seed—the unsuspecting descendants of hybrids spawned by rebellious angels in opposition to His plan!  

Male lions do the same thing—kill the cubs of their predecessors in order to produce their own genetic offspring without competition.  

                Several observations come to my mind. First is my skepticism that "the sons of God" could have been actual angels. Even though we sons of men know that the daughters of Eve are beautiful, and their abundance of estrogen has driven more than one of us bat-shit crazy, sex is supposed to be a non-issue to the heavenly hosts. It is far more likely that the Watchers—if they really existed—were humanoid extraterrestrials.         

Let's face it: Any “God” who would create such irresistible women without understanding the effect they were going to have on his teenage angels, could not have been very bright.   

And the concept that God has blamed and punished women, from Eve on, for simply being the way He created them, smacks more of human male neuroses than of divinity. Women are still oppressed and kept covered-up in many societies all over the world (I won't even get into the repulsive crime of "female circumcision"), simply because we men don’t trust ourselves—or each other—to keep it in our pants. Women are punished for our lack of self-control.  

I also object to the implication that God and the original angels were exclusively male, and that women were fleshly inventions that were never meant to have equal status with men, because males were the only ones created in the image of God. This is an affront not only to women, but also to the feminine aspect of God Herself, whom we know by so many names as the Goddess—Maiden, Mother and Crone. 

Whether or not the legends of giants and fallen angels have any basis in fact, what a fertile ground they create for paranoid personalities and genetic purists! We hear too often that a psychotic person murdered total strangers because a voice inside his head told him those strangers weren’t human. That fear is too easily believed.  

In the 1700’s pioneers began calling Native Americans “red devils”—creatures without souls. The Indians returned the favor, believing the same of the whites. That made it so much easier for each group to kill the other. 

My father was born in 1897, in a rather superstitious part of the world. Despite the vast education he gained later in life, he consistently referred to criminals as “dirty devils.” I suspect that this may have been a folk belief that was deeply ingrained in his psyche. If they do things that we never would, they must be inhuman.  

From this ingrained fear of humanoid but non-human beings, comes the present day opposition to cloning. Many opponents fear that a clone would have no soul; it would be a golem or a zombie. Not that any such thing has ever been proven to exist outside of TV shows, movies and video games.  

I don't think I have ever met a person who was anything more than human. But if I should encounter beings who have powers greater than my own, why should my reaction be fear, rather than interest? Why should I want to murder them, rather than learn from them? I find that response very hard to understand. 

After all, I have had rewarding relationships with many non-humans—dogs and cats, for example. In addition to the delight I take in big noses, paws and tails, our deeper communication is mental and emotional. We connect as beings that are mutually aware and have similar reactions to living in the same world. The difference is that I feel biologically superior to dogs and cats, whereas an all-powerful alien would be superior to me. That might be an ego problem, but not a scientific or spiritual one. 

I hope that I would offer to a clone or a demon or an extraterrestrial the same respect and open-mindedness that I want for myself. And I certainly hope that if anyone ever suspected me of having demonic genes, that person would at least give me the benefit of the doubt and the chance to prove myself benign. 

               Remember—not all demons were bad! And we know, as an historical fact, that not all human beings have been good.

 

 

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A student of esoteric traditions since the age of 16, Ted Czukor (Theo the Green) taught Yoga for 37 years until retiring in 2013. For 26 years he was adjunct faculty for the Maricopa, AZ Community Colleges, teaching Gentle Yoga and Meditation & Wellness. Raised in the Methodist Church but drawn to Rosicrucianism, Hinduism and Buddhist philosophy, he is a devotee of the Goddess in all Her forms. Ted has been a Shakespearean actor, a Masonic ritualist and an Interfaith wedding officiant. He is the author of several books, none of which made any money and two of which are available as .pdf files. He lives with his wife Ravyn-Morgayne in Sun City, Arizona. Their shared dream is to someday relocate to Glastonbury, England. theoczukor@cox.net.

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