April Anomalies A-Z: Kokabiel

The stars, I think, have moved into their proper positions, but it is so hard to tell anymore. Once I could read the skies unclouded. I could follow the movements of the stars with ease, plot their courses through the houses of the zodiac and anticipate their alignments with wandering planets.  I could read the signs. Once I could interpret and I could understand.

I remember watching the Magician as he made his way through the Water Carrier, his meandering past Sadal Melek and Al Bali - the “Lucky Star of the King” and “The Swallower.” I described these rare celestial maneuvers to my brothers and they watched with me until the Ancient One, Saturn, chased the Magician out of Aquarius. I taught the host of heaven what these motions meant, taught them to read the signs as I did.

I was a scholar then, and not a charlatan.  Astrological wisdom requires a knowledge of languages – for the study of ancient texts – as well as considerable mathematical skill. I could, without the aid of telescope or other delicate instruments,  observe the motion of the stars and calculate the vectors of the planets. But I’m regarded as a joke now, and my art, my science, is trivialized in commercial publications for the uneducated looking for their horoscopes and their fortunes.

Once I could do these things, but it is difficult for me now. I cannot see the stars clearly from this side of heaven, from beneath the clouds. I have fallen low. I see them, but not clearly. I can plot their motions, but my calculations are not as accurate any more. I believe that the stars have come into the necessary alignment but I cannot be sure. I will wait until morning.  Perhaps with the rising of the Morning Star there may yet be some hope.

This is part of April Anomalies A-Z, a creative writing exercise and not intended to be an altogether accurate picture of the creature described above. Kokabiel is described in the apocryphal book of Enoch as one of the leaders of the fallen angles, and as the one who taught astrology to the other angels.