Chapter 77

 

 

1The names of the sun are these: one Aryares, the other Tomas. 2The moon has four names. The first is Asonya; the second, Ebla; the third, Benase; and the fourth, Erae. 3These are the two great luminaries, whose orbs are as the orbs of heaven; and the dimensions of both are equal. 4 In the orb of the sun there is a seventh portion of light, which is added to it from the moon.142 By measure it is put in, until the seventh portion of the light of the sun is departed. They set, enter into the western gate, circuit by the north, and through the eastern gate go forth over the face of heaven. 5When the moon rises, it appears in heaven; and the half of a seventh portion of light is all which is in it. 6 In fourteen days the whole of its light is completed. 7By three quintuples light is put into it, until in fifteen days its light is completed, according to the signs of the year; it has three quintuples. 8The moon has the half of a seventh portion. 9During its diminution on the first day its light decreases a fourteenth part; on the second day it decreases a thirteenth part; on the third day a twelfth part; on the fourth day an eleventh part; on the fifth day a tenth part; on the sixth day a ninth part; on the seventh day it decreases an eighth part; on the eighth day it decreases a seventh part; 

on the ninth day it decreases a sixth part; on the tenth day it decreases a fifth part; on the eleventh day it decreases a fourth part; on the twelfth day it decreases third part; on the thirteenth day it decreases a second part; on the fourteenth day it decreases a half of its seventh part; and on the fifteenth day the whole remainder of its light is consumed. 10On stated months the moon has twenty-nine days. 11It also has a period of twenty-eight days. 12Uriel likewise showed me another regulation, when light is poured into the moon, how it is poured into it from the sun. 13All the time that the moon is in progress with its light, it is poured into it in the presence of the sun, until its light is in fourteen days completed in heaven. 14And when it is wholly extinguished, its light is consumed in heaven; and on the first day it is called the new moon, for on that day light is received into it. 15It becomes precisely completed on the day that the sun descends into the west, while the moon ascends at night from the east. 16The moon then shines all the night, until the sun rises before it; when the moon disappears in turn before the sun. 17Where light comes to the moon, there again it decreases, until all its light is extinguished, and the days of the moon pass away. 18Then its orb remains solitary without light. 19During three months it effects in thirty days each month its period; and during three more months it effects it in twenty-nine days each. These are the times in which it effects its decrease in its first period, and in the first gate, namely, in one hundred and seventy-seven days.

20And at the time of its going forth during three months it appears thirty days each, and during three more months it appears twenty-nine days each. 21In the night it appears for each twenty days as the face of a man, and in the day as heaven; for it is nothing else except its light