Encyclopedia of Angels

360 Pages·1996·9.42 MB·English

by  Rosemary Ellen Guiley

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title: Encyclopedia of Angels
author: Guiley, Rosemary.
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Encyclopedia
of Angels
Rosemary Ellen Guiley
Facts On File, Inc.

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Encyclopedia of Angels
Copyright © 1996 by Rosemary Ellen Guiley
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the
publisher. For information contact:
Facts On File, Inc.
11 Penn Plaza
New York NY 10001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Guiley, Rosemary.
Encyclopedia of angels / Rosemary Ellen Guiley.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8160-2988-1
1. AngelsDictionaries. I. Title.
BL477.G87 1996
291.2'15'03DC20 96-12009
Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk
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Cover design by Dorothy Wachtenheim
Front cover art: Detail from Ascension of Mary (Perugino, 1500). Courtesy of the
Galleria dell' Academia, Florence / AKG, London
Printed in the United States of America
VB INNO 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
This book is printed on acid-free paper.

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Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii
FOREWORD ix
ENTRIES AZ 1
BIBLIOGRAPHY 205
INDEX 209

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For Lynne Hertsgaard

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Page vii
Acknowledgments
My deepest appreciation and gratitude go to Rosemary McMullen and Joanne P. Austin, who were instrumental in researching
and compiling portions of this book.

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For Lynne Hertsgaard

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Page ix
Foreword
The angel is a mystery, one that we have attempted to explain for more than two thousand years. The study of angels is vast and
complex. Thousands of angels (and demons) are cited in lore and literature. However, contradictions abound concerning name
spellings, functions, duties and identities. In fact, one can become submerged in minutiae about angels that does little to shed
light on their true essence.
For Encyclopedia of Angels I have chosen to cover angels by topic. Many significant angels and demons are listed by name and
by group. Otherwise the characteristics, functions and nature of angels, and our beliefs about them and experiences with them,
are covered under general subject headings and under biographical profiles of mystics, theologians, philosophers and others. I
also compare angels to similar beings in non-Western religions. The collection of these entries provides what I hope will be for
the reader a fascinating journey into the evolution of the angel in Western thought. This evolution has been shaped largely by
visionary experience. What we know about angels comes through our otherworldly contact with them.
My own interest in angels was sparked in the mid-1980s (before angels became the darling of the media), when I began having
archetypal dreams that included a mysterious figure I identified as an angel. This figure served as a psychopomp into the reaches
of inner space, leading me through a psychic transformation from one life-stage of consciousness to another, which unfolded
over time. Earlier in life I had received no particular religious indoctrination about angels, and felt rather neutral about the
question of their existence as portrayed in text and art. However, it was obvious to me that I was nonetheless tapping into an
archetypal form that exists in the collective unconscious regardless of my own personal views. This is an ancient archetype,
shaped by countless experiences, which in turn shaped beliefs, which revolved to shape experience. And now this archetype was
breaking through the unus mundus, the undifferentiated whole of the universe, in response to my own psychic need. I found that
the more I accepted this angel, the more the archetype became energized in my life, expressing itself not only through dreams
but through inspiration, creativity, intuition and even visionary experience. In the ensuing years I have found myself in the
company of numerous angelic presences.
Do I believe in angels? The answer must of course be yes, although even after years of study on the subject, I remain open as to
their exact nature. I do not believe there are easy answers. Under the ANGEL entry, I have given the definition traditional to our
mythology: "a supernatural being who mediates between God and mortals." Do they exist in their own right, in celestial realms?
Perhaps so. Or perhaps there is an energy, a vibration of love and light from the Godhead, which becomes an "angel" when it
interacts with human consciousness, taking on a form that we can comprehend and integrate into our spiritual and cosmological
outlooks. Perhaps it is our need for semidivine messengers, for spiritual companions, protectors and guides, and for divine
beauty in our own likeness, that draws to us what we call the angel. Our monotheistic God is imageless, abstract and remote.
The angel, upon whom we project a form that is an exalted image of ourselves, helps us to feel closer to the Source of All
Being.
The world's mystical traditions teach oneness, that everything is part of everything else. Quantum physics tells us that there is no
separation between object and observer, that we are inexorably bound up in what we think we merely observe. Consequently we
and the angels are part of each other; the good angel can be seen as an expression of our higher self (and the demon as an
expression of our lower nature). The dynamics between the two, high and low, are what psychic integration and spiritual growth
are all about.
The angel is a profound mystery, as deep as the mystery of the soul, as limitless as the mystery of infinity and eternity. This is a
puzzle we may never be able to solve, but our probing of the mystery yields endless permutations that deepen our insights into
ourselves. The experience of an angelan ANGELOPHANYis just as powerful today as it was for the visionary prophets of the
biblical era. The prophets were escorted to a state of consciousness called heaven and were given the word of God in the form of
laws and moral codes. Today the epiphanies are more personal, but just as life-changing. Via the angel we glimpse the
unknown, and we are encouraged to press on.
Rosemary Ellen Guiley
Annapolis, Maryland

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A
Abaddon (also Apollyon) An angel of death and destruction, whose name literally means "the destroyer." In REVELATION,
Abaddon (the Hebrew version of Apollyon) is king of the abyss, the bottomless pit of hell (Revelation 9:10), and also is the
angel who possesses the key to the bottomless pit and binds Satan and throws him into it for one thousand years (Revelation
20:13).
Sometimes Abaddon also is equated with SATAN and SAMAEL. His name is used in conjuring spells for malicious intent.
Abraham The patriarch of the Hebrews was a frequent recipient of instructions and interventions from Yahweh and the Angel of
Yahweh, otherwise known as the ANGEL OF THE LORD.
Although the text of Genesis often reads "Yahweh said," Genesis 15:1 reads "it happened. that the word of Yahweh was spoken
to Abram in a vision." (Abram was Abraham's original name before God made him founder of the Hebrew nation.) When
Abram's concubine Hagar gave birth to a son and was expelled from the household by Abram's childless wife Sarai, ''the angel
of yahweh met her" and spoke to her. The angel foretells Hagar's numerous descendants and tells her to name her son Ishmael.
She calls the angel "El Roi," the God of Vision, and the well where this meeting took place was renamed Lahai Roi (Genesis
16:714). Hagar's mistaking an angel for Yahweh was the first of many confusions about the identity of the Angel of the Lord.
Later, yahweh makes a covenant with Abram, promising him the birth of a son to the by-now-elderly Sarai, and also land. He
instructs Abram to circumcise himself and all in his household. Abram's name from now on will be Abraham and Sarai's will be
Sarah (Genesis 17).
One midrash (rabbinical text) says that Isaac's birth was announced three days after Abraham's circumcision of his entire
household, and that God commanded MICHAEL, GABRIEL and APHAEL to comfort Abraham, who suffered great pain, as
always happens on the third day of circumcision. The archangels protested: "Would you send us to an unclean place, full of
blood?" God answered: "By your lives, the odor of Abraham's sacrifice pleases me better than myrrh and frankincense! Must I
go Myself?" Then they accompanied Him disguised as Arab wayfarers. Michael was to announce Isaac's birth; Raphael to heal
Abraham; and Gabriel, to destroy the evil cities of SODOM AND GOMORRAH.
The midrash above ties in with the story that follows, the most often-discussed angel episode in the Abraham story,
Abaddon
(Copyright 1995 by Robert Michael Place, from
The Angels Tarot by Rosemary Ellen Guiley
and Robert Michael Place.
Reprinted courtesy of HarperSanFrancisco)
Genesis 18 and 19. In this story the confusion between God and angels becomes readily apparent. The text says, "Yahweh
appeared to him at the Oak of Mamre while he was sitting by the entrance of his tent during the hottest part

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of the day. He looked up and there he saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them he ran from the entrance of the
tent to meet them, and bowed to the ground." This was not a sign of adoration but a sign of respect. At first Abraham sees his
guests as mere human beings and welcomes them warmly. Their superhuman character is only gradually revealed. Abraham
hurries to get a meal prepared and stands by them while they eat under the tree. They ask where Sarah is and Abraham says she
is in the tent. Then one says he will come and visit in a year and Sarah will have a son. Sarah overhears and laughs. The guest
asks why Sarah laughed, when is anything too wonderful for Yahweh?
"From there the men set out and arrived within sight of Sodom, with Abraham accompanying them to show them the way. Now
Yahweh had wondered, 'Shall I conceal from Abraham what I am going to do?'" Yahweh is referring to his plans for Abraham's
line to live in his righteous way. He says, "How great an outcry there is against Sodom and Gomorrah," and says he will go and
investigate. ''The men left there and went to Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before Yahweh" (Genesis 18:22). They
convince Yahweh to spare the city if he finds ten righteous men there. Chapter 19, verse 1 reads "when the two angels reached
Sodom that evening. " Then follows the account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the escape of Lot and his
daughters, and the changing of Lot's wife into a pillar of salt. Chapter 19, verse 5 reads, "when dawn broke the angels urged
Lot. "
Maimonides used this passage to illustrate his conception that "whenever seeing, or being addressed by an angel is mentioned,
this refers to prophetic vision or to a dream. It makes no difference whether this fact is explicitly stated or not. In such a
prophetic vision or prophetic dream the prophet sometimes sees God speaking to him or he may see an angel who speaks to
him" (Guide of the Perplexed, XLII).
God advises Abraham to expel Hagar and Ishmael (Genesis 21: 1214), and again divine intervention occurs. "But God heard the
boy wailing, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven." Hagar is told to hold up the child to be blessed, for he will lead
a great nation. "Then God opened Hagar's eyes and she saw a well " (Genesis 21:1519).
M. J. Field's theory that angel messengers in the early Old Testament could well have been remnants of stories of visitations and
encounters with desert holy men who were using their dramatic and occult arts to intervene in the spiritual development of the
Hebrew nomads can be applied to this episode, including a postulate that one of them might have impregnated Sarah and applied
herbal or other aids to bring the pregnancy to term (see ANGEL OF THE LORD).
Again, with the story of the sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22, Abraham's first instruction to take Isaac to the land of Moriah and
offer him as a burnt offering comes from "God," yet who intervenes at the last minute to prevent Abraham's knife from killing
Isaac? "The angel of the Lord called to him from heaven." (See ISAAC.)
The rabbis writing the Seypher Hayashar add this to the story. As Abraham and Isaac ascend Mount Moriah, the fallen angel
SAMAEL steals up in the shape of a humble graybeard and says: "Can a command to kill the son of your old age proceed from
a God of mercy and justice? You have been deceived!" Abraham sees through the disguise and drives him away; but he
reappears in the shape of a handsome youth to Isaac, whispering, "Wretched son of a wretched mother! Was it for this she
awaited your birth so long and patiently? Why should your besotted father slaughter you without reason? Flee, while there is yet
time!" Isaac repeats these words to Abraham, who curses Samael and sends him away.
The Book of Jubilees, a pseudepigraphical work, presents a different version of events with Abraham, focusing on the promise
of progeny and land. It does not mention the theophany (manifestation of God), nor the angels' eating of food. The angels, who
are not specified by number, do tell Sarah that she will bear a son, and they give her son-to-be the name of Isaac.
Theologians and philosophers have examined and debated the story of Abraham for centuries. Was his original vision a
theophany or an ANGELOPHANY (manifestation of an angel)? Did the angels, whom Abraham initially assumed were mortal,
really eat food or only appear to eat food? It was established early that the vision was an angelophany, and that the angels, being
incorporeal, only gave the appearance of eating.
See also ANGEL OF DEATH; EATING; TREES.
Further reading:
Field, M.J. Angels and Ministers of Grace. New York: Hill and Wang, 1971.
Graves, Robert, and Patai, Raphael. Hebrew Myths. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1964.
Maimonides. Guide of the Perplexed. Abridged. Introduction by Julius Guttmann. London: East and West Library, 1952.
Abraxas An ancient name attributed to a god, a sun, an angel, and a devil. Abraxas was the name of a sun mounting an
ouroboros (a snake biting its tail) held by the highest Egyptian god, Isis, the creator of the sun and mistress of all the gods. Isis
mythology found its way deeply into GNOSTICISM, in which Abraxas is the name of the ruler of the 365th (highest and final)
AEON, or sphere, ascending to the unknowable God. Abraxas thus became the Gnostic demigod or Aeon or the High Heaven.
Abraxas also was associated with the Mithraic mystery religion of Persian origin, the chief rival of Christianity in Rome in its
first 400 years. Like Gnosticism, Mithraism featured a complex astrology and numerology. Numerical values of Mithra's and
Abraxas's names each total 365.
Abraxas was assimilated into the Gnostic "Lord of the World," the Old Testament God (really a creation/son of SOPHIA, a high
Aeon) who created the material world and had demonic qualities. Orthodox Christians came to view Abraxas as a demon. In
turn, Abraxas became a favorite deity of heretical sects of the Middle Ages.
Abraxas appears in the works of Carl G. JUNG. The father of depth psychology wrote a vast amount of material on his personal
visionary experiences, little of which has been released by his heirs. One such document, reported by June to have been
composed on three nights between December 15, 1916 and February 16, 1917, entitled Seven Sermons to the Dead, purports to
be written by the Gnostic teacher Basiledes in Alexandria; several of the sermons feature Abraxas.