Pre-Biblical Origins of Fallen Angels: Are They What You Expect?

Tracing the Lineage of Fallen Angels and Gods...

10 min read

Not All Halos and Wings

Sometimes, I read so much esoteric stuff I send myself paranoid. The idea of immaterial spiritual beings watching us has roots in quite a few ancient cultures! Even while pulling incredibly stupid faces at myself in the mirror, that sudden thought of an invisible observer stops me in my tracks. I mean, can our dead family members see us goofing around like neanderthals?

These Characterisations Shape Us

Imagine Prometheus, Odin, or fallen angels like Lucifer—these characters have all played a part in shaping the Western and European psyche. We all have some of it in us, most likely stemming from pagan hand-me-down traditions and folklore, but yes, to be fair they could just as much be our own thought-forms, but that'll be a blog post for a different day. 

Overlap, Connections and Influence

This blog post will centre around the overlaps. Just ask yourself, how have people from different times and cultures described the same type of non-physical entity? Let's have a butcher's at the Akkadian Igigi and the Grigori (or Watchers) from the Book of Enoch.

The Igigi and the Watchers: Exploring Ancient Mesopotamia:

These ancient beings first appear before any questionable history or theology down the park! Found in the Atra-Hasis epic, dating back around 3,800 years. Atra-Hasis had a very believable and pretty ordinary coracle type boat, unlike the later embellished developments with Noah (which is a nickname) who built a sodding-cruise-ship-sized-zoo! We are talking about pre-flood times which is roughly around 3000 years ago.

Jobs or Divine Duty? 

Originally, Igigi were overseers of nature. Not like foremen or stockroom assistants down the local warehouse, but subordinates to the higher divinities. Basically, these winged watchmen were given tasks of ‘doing the weather’ and mundane earth palaver. It was an Akkadian explanation for what we call natural forces today. Anyway, as the story goes, they wanted to get rid of their labour, and so, seeking the same freedom their masters enjoyed, they decided to do some protesting.

This Was Early Workplace Competition

The creation of us humans came as a result of a particular god's life energy: the word for the energy coincidentally translates into the ancient word for word 'rib' cool isn't it? Yes, Adamu was given life blood from the first female. So, anyway, we relieved the Igigi of their burdens, which ultimately diminished their status; ambition reduced them to lesser spirits like sprites or something. 

Another Perspective 

At some point, we must have been sacked and lost our divine role in the world. None of us can command the weather now can we? Unless what ancients meant by our domination of the world, our knowledge to build kingdoms, cultivate and farm, grow institutions of learning?

Related Gods and Crossovers

Crossover between the pagan plural and the monotheist singular are quite striking. It's as if the children of El and the Gods are almost related? Strange. Look, I'm not calling for talk show DNA paternity! I mean, have you noticed how most angel names end with E and L? Raphael, Gabriel or Michael for example, even Angel! Why? El was the chief God, that’s why. Angels are believed to be based on pre-monotheistic gods. 

Priest classes of Israel merged EL with their God Yahweh leading to some theological cross pollination. Angels, like the older Igigi were seen as invisible presences, coincidence? Fair enough, Akkadian culture integrated across to the Jewish-Babylonians! It's a whopper how El is derived from Enlil, the Akkadian prime god: Angels and Igigi share historical roots!

Spooky Supernatural Ties to Culture and Belief:

We’ve all seen the horror films where a demonic force might molest a woman, like that old 70s movie ‘the Entity’—based on a true story! This kind of thing happened in William Friedkin’s Exorcist which was also inspired by true events and coincidentally, incorporated an Akkadian demon called Pazuzu!

Some of us might know those sinister unwelcoming and creepy atmospheres that resonate around buildings and stuff. Well. . . in antiquity, they would've been seen as some kind of evil spirit. All depicted as nefarious winged people, giants, and so on, to be precise, ‘invisible presences’ fits the religio-cultural standard more accurately. Since when have police arrested horned, hooved, black winged demons? Imagine the ‘unfair mythologically profiling’ accusations coming from the do-gooders!

The Watchers of the Book of Enoch:

In the story of the watchers, Azazel and Samyaza convinced two hundred watchers into a pact to corrupt humanity through sleeping with women, and teaching their following generations all kinds of forbidden knowledge—a bit of a Promethean gift. The meaning is lost on some people. This wasn't literally angels fornicating, it's the same spiritual thing as discussed earlier. You can't expect to corrupt an already corrupt humanity by introducing vigorous sex practices, if that was the case, the mass media would be elite special forces in this spiritual war!



Carnal activity in this context represents a profound unity of the fallen spirit and the human. It's reflecting the Catholic idea of possession where the body can serve as a vessel. The fall of the angels is purely ignorance and self focus. Its like the ego within, but a creepy forbidden unions with a pleroma soul, messenger, lesser angel. You shouldn't be loving angels!

'So, Mum, Dad, this is Azrael, Angel of Death!’

The watchers tried to dominate us all by sabotaging the natural order and becoming lords of humanity. A bit like sabotaging your teachers class by introducing weed and truancy to the kids. These effects are still observable with our world leaders, especially Ant and Dec, or Celebrity Big Brother!

The Limit of Human Knowledge:

The philosophy of mind is golden! It often collaborates with quantum physics and neuroscience and Intelligent Integration Theory, but it's hit a huge wall: none of them can tell us what a unit of consciousness even looks like, nevermind prove it as an actual thing! We are all conscious, it's quite silly. Modern academics have suggested consciousness might be part of the quantum field. Ancient hellenic and semitic minds often held beliefs of it emanating from a higher source or a spiritual domain. Even though we are still looking for a way to correctly define what consciousness is, new and old perspectives both hold valid philosophy on the subject. 

Words and Meanings Across Text:

𒀭𒄑𒉡

The above word is Igigi in Akkadian cuneiform. It also means watchers as well as referring to divine overseers.

ἐγρήγοροι

This word means egrigori in Old Greek, also meaning watchers.

עִירִין (Irīn)

This word for watchers is Aramaic because the original Book of Enoch, was written in this language. It can also mean 'those who are awake'.

In Genesis, the Hebrew term for the serpent is nachash. Dr. Michael Heiser’s research argues the serpent of the garden of eden was not a literal snake, but rather a fallen rebellious six winged fiery angel called a Seraph.

Giants of an Evil Seed? 

The Nephilim were the descendants of those toxic, parasitic family relationships. The fathers are incorporeal low lives with axes to grind. Nephilim means giants or fallen ones, common enthusiasts tend to indirectly hint at giants or Nephilim being present in mesopotamian tablets and art. That's more aligned with ancient alien stuff. This is a pre-flood era legend. Nephilim for me are men of renown and called giants because of their reputation! 

Let's face it Canaan was full of such men at that time, but was that because they suckled on the nipples of demon milk as babies? Could the ruinous essence of a fallen angel seep into the mammary based nutrition of offspring? We could ask science or philosophy. I wouldn't because, these people were more than likely demonised by other human beings. 

But Are You Sure They Weren't Really Giants? 

If they're not literally ridiculously tall, then what? Not one legitimate giant skeleton has ever surfaced without a mysterious disappearence story! However, some ancient humans in particular enjoyed the unfair advantage of so-called 'celestial knowledge,' including metal works and weaponry. The bible says the Nephilim became men of renown. Look at Goliath, he was a giant bloke, but a more conservative scriptural measurement of 6’5” has been found. Relatively six-five was huge back then given the average man has been more like 5'6" for centuries! 

It begs the question: do tall populations of people exist? Yes, we can see many noticably tall individual in the Netherlands and especially with the African Dinka people. They don't hold fallen angel, or Nephilim connotations because no one ascribed such things to these groups. The ancients had biased in their narratives geared up against other ancient groups which housed numerous tall or renowned people. This might put the matter to bed for some of you.

Giant Correlations of Renown

The early bronze age began in the Middle East in 3300 to 2000 BCE, which is exactly the time Azazel taught the local warrior people near Mt Herman, (Canaanites) how to make metal weapons! If we add this to the fact that Scientists have estimated 2900 to 2500 BCE as an accurate date for a legitimate flood event of the area it shows the theme that inspired the creation of these religio-political narratives! 

We can safely say these Canaanite people were most likely always depicted as the Nephilim! I mean, a lot of these writings are just bad mouthing the neighbours!

My Conclusion...

There’s a ton of these 'fall from grace' stories from ancient themes; many hold little resemblance to how we modern folk think or see the world. That is not a claim that there's nothing supernatural surrounding us in the aether, the war offices, in those high places. There is still a spiritual malignance in this world. 

Maybe it's that dark unwelcoming threshold you don't want to walk through in that creepy house? I guess it us quite like that old meme of having a good and bad angel persuading your head from each shoulder: it comes down to how we align ourselves. 

Real or not, we do borrow from these sources to create modern stereotypes and tropes emulated in the form of Darth Vader, Count Dracula, and so on, because the darkness shapes defines our protagonist in our literature and movies. It brings us the compelling characters who champion the darkness for our entertainment and reflection.