Book Reviews Perceptions Magazine, January 2021
The Lost Pillars of Enoch:
When Science and Religion Were One
By Tobias Churton
Inner Traditions
Bear & Company
One Park Street
Rochester, Vermont 05767
2021, 336 pages, 6 x 9 Paperback, US $24.99
77 b&w illustrations
ISBN: 978-1-64411-043-0
Reviewed by Brent Raynes
Tobias Churton has been described as Britain’s leading scholar on Western esotericism. He’s recognized as a leading authority on Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Freemasonry, and Rosicrucianism. He has a master’s degree in theology from Brasenose College of Oxford and was appointed Honorary Fellow of Exeter University back in 2005. He is the author of many other books, including “Gnostic Philosophy” and “Aleister Crowley in America.” And thus, it should go without saying, that the reader of this latest book here, “The Lost Pillars of Enoch,” will be in capable hands.
About 50 years after the crucifixion of Christ, a Jewish historian named Flavius Josephus wrote a book entitled “The Antiquities of the Jews.” It was his fervent desire to share the great truths of Jewish history back to the very beginning. At that time, he was hoping to open the minds and hearts of the Romans, with whom his people were at great odds with, for at that time, for two decades prior, thousands of Jewish warriors had been slaughtered by imperial troops of Rome while they were trying to overthrow Roman jurisdiction. Josephus wanted to make the point that not all Jews were rebels fueled by crazy and destructive beliefs, but that his Jewish ancestors had been very rational humans who had significant traditions that were substantiated by respectable and insightful ancient texts, and that the Jews’ ancestors were ultimately Romans’ ancestors as well.
However, he pointed out, the record showed that we humans had gotten off to a very bad start. He described the Adam and Eve story, the sad circumstances that happened between Cain and Abel, but how Adam and Eve’s third son, Seth, represented a positive game changing event. Seth displayed a deep respect for God and an honorable conduct to all of God’s creatures. As a result, Seth was bestowed with favor, with higher knowledge, great awareness of God, and possessed of inventiveness and astronomical knowledge.
Josephus described how Adam had predicted that the world would be destroyed twice. Once by fire and another time by a flood of water. It was written that two pillars, one of brick and another of stone, were to be constructed, with this important knowledge that Seth had been given to be inscribed on these pillars, so that hopefully it wouldn’t be lost to humanity.
In Josephus’ account of the Sethite pillars he wrote that one could still be found. Of course, today there are uncertainties as to where such remains might be found. Churton certainly scours through the literature and examines illustrations and photographs of pillar sites, like a picture in chapter two, “Sethites” in Egypt? There the reader can find a photo of two ancient Egyptian pillars called the Hathor columns.
Is there a connection?
Churton leads us on a challenging and thought-provoking journey. He points out how esoteric tradition going way back has claimed how at the dawn of human civilization science and religion were united and how the Biblical Enoch, also identified in other cultural settings as Hermes Trismegistus, Thoth, or Idris, were perceived as the guardian of this sacred knowledge.
Churton details traces of what he describes as fragments of this knowledge to be found in such initiated circles as Hermetic, Gnostic, Kabbalistic, Masonic, Hindu and Islamic backgrounds. Furthermore, Churton also strives to show how the esoteric strands of all religions can unite us in a gnosis that could ultimately provide us an opportunity to reunite religion and science as it is meant to be.
Sacred Geometry:
Language of the Angels
By Richard Heath
Inner Traditions
One Park Street
Rochester, Vermont 05767
www.InnerTraditions.com
2021, 288 pages, 8 x 10 Hardcover, US $40.00
Full-color throughout
ISBN: 978-1-64411-118-5
Reviewed by Brent Raynes
This book’s author, Richard Heath, M.Sc., who resides near Cardigan in Wales, is a system designer who has delved into the technical achievements of the ancient world. He is the author of such noteworthy books as “Sacred Number and the Origins of Civilization” and “The Harmonic Origins of the World.”
In this current volume Heath explains how the development of human consciousness was aided by angels who transmitted to humanity a deep understanding of numerical astronomy and patterns to be found within planetary and lunar time periods and how this angelic science evolved and became incorporated into such ancient cosmological monuments and observatories as the Giza Pyramids and Stonehenge.
Loaded with detailed illustrations, diagrams, graphs, and photographs, Heath transports the reader around the world demonstrating his knowledge and insights into how all of this ancient knowledge fits together and can be understood by the modern intellectual and spiritual mind.
