The Book of the Secrets of Enoch 16
The moon passes in and out through twelve great gates crowned from west to east by customary times.
1hose men showed me the other course, that of the moon, twelve great gates, crowned from west to east, by which the moon goes in and out of the customary times.
2 It goes in at the first gate to the western places of the sun, by the first gates with (thirty)-one (days) exactly, by the second gates with thirty-one days exactly, by the third with thirty days exactly, by the fourth with thirty days exactly, by the fifth with thirty-one days exactly, by the sixth with thirty-one days exactly, by the seventh with thirty days exactly, by the eighth with thirty-one days perfectly, by the ninth with thirty-one days exactly, by the tenth with thirty days perfectly, by the eleventh with thirty-one days exactly, by the twelfth with twenty-eight days exactly.
3 And it goes through the western gates in the order and number of the eastern, and accomplishes the three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter days of the solar year, while the lunar year has three hundred fifty-four, and there are wanting (to it) twelve days of the solar circle, which are the lunar epacts of the whole year.
4 Thus, too, the great circle contains five hundred and thirty-two years.
5 The quarter (of a day) is omitted for three years, the fourth fulfills it exactly.
6 Therefore they are taken outside of heaven for three years and are not added to the number of days, because they change the time of the years to two new months towards completion, to two others towards diminution.
7 And when the western gates are finished, it returns and goes to the eastern to the lights, and goes thus day and night about the heavenly circles, lower than all circles, swifter than the heavenly winds, and spirits and elements and angels flying; each angel has six wings.
8 It has a sevenfold course in nineteen years.
Did You Know?
The moon passes in and out through twelve great gates crowned from west to east by customary times.
At the twelfth gate the moon remains exactly twenty-eight days after periods of thirty and thirty-one days.
The lunar year totals three hundred fifty-four days twelve short of the solar year of three hundred sixty-five and a quarter.
The great circle of this calendrical system contains five hundred and thirty-two years.
Swifter than winds spirits and six-winged angels the moon courses lower than all the heavenly circles.
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Commentary
In brief
Men show Enoch the moon's course through twelve great gates, with periods of thirty-one to twenty-eight days. It yields a lunar year of three hundred fifty-four days, twelve short of the solar, in a five hundred thirty-two year circle, racing sevenfold over nineteen years lower than all circles.