The Book of Enoch 17

How to read these pages: the text itself comes first, verse by verse, in the volume's own translation. Beneath each verse stands its Meaning — a rendering of what the passage's terms name in the inner life, drawn from the correspondences the text itself uses. The text is never altered; the meaning is offered, not imposed.

Charles translation (1917)

1And they took ⌈and⌉ brought me to a place in which those who were there were like flaming fire, and, when they wished, they appeared as men.

And they took me and brought me to a place in which those who were there were like flaming fire — burning faculties of the Presence — and, when they wished, they appeared as men, in the form of the Complete Man.

2And they brought me to the place of darkness, and to a mountain the point of whose summit reached to heaven.

And they brought me to the place of darkness — unilluminated consciousness — and to a mountain, an exalted state, the point of whose summit reached to heaven, to the inner realm.

3And I saw the places of the luminaries ⌈and the treasuries of the stars⌉ and of the thunder ⌈and⌉ in the uttermost depths, where were a fiery bow and arrows and their quiver, and ⌈⌈a fiery sword⌉⌉ and all the lightnings.

And I saw the places of the luminaries — the ordered lights — and the treasuries of the stars, the fixed knowledges of truth, and of the thunder in the uttermost depths of the subconscious; where were a fiery bow and arrows and their quiver, and a fiery sword — the cutting word of truth — and all the lightnings.

4And they took me to the living waters, and to the fire of the west, which receives every setting of the sun.

And they took me to the living waters — the living, unformed thoughts — and to the fire of the west, the place of setting and fading, which receives every setting of the sun, the greater light.

5And I came to a river of fire in which the fire flows like water and discharges itself into the great sea towards the west.

And I came to a river of fire — a current of life and thought wholly of fire — in which the fire flows like water and pours itself into the great sea, the great subconscious reservoir, towards the west.

6I saw the great rivers and came to the great ⌈river and to the great⌉ darkness, and went to the place where no flesh walks.

I saw the great rivers, the great currents of life, and came to the great darkness, and went to the place where no flesh — no sense-bound life — walks.

7I saw the mountains of the darkness of winter and the place whence all the waters of the deep flow.

I saw the mountains of the darkness of winter — the exalted states of the hidden, resting season — and the place whence all the waters of the deep, all the thoughts of the subconscious depths, flow.

8I saw the mouths of all the rivers of the earth and the mouth of the deep.

I saw the mouths of all the rivers of the earth, of the outer life, and the mouth of the deep.

Companion volume to The Why Bible — 1 Enoch in R. H. Charles's translation (1917), rendered in its spiritual meanings. First final edition, October 2026.