Archangel Uriel

Uriel means “God is my flame.” His name could be spelled Auriel or Oriel. He’s one of the archangels who’s mentioned in Rabbinic tradition & in certain Christian traditions.

He’s well known in the Russian Orthodox tradition & in folk Catholicism (in both he’s considered to be 1 of the 7 major archangels). In Anglicanism, he’s also well known in European esoteric medieval literature.

Uriel is also known as a master of knowledge & archangel of wisdom. He’s associated with the truth.

In apocryphal, kabbalistic, & occult works, Uriel has been equated (or confused) with Urial, Nuriel, Uryan, Jeremiel, Vretil, Sariel, Puruel, Phanuel, Azrael, & Raphael.

In the Secret Book of John (an early Gnostic work), Uriel is placed in control of the demons who help Yaldabaoth create Adam.

Of the 7 Archangels in the angelology of Judaism, only 2 of them (Gabriel & Michael) are mentioned by name in the canonized Jewish scripture. Where a 4th archangel is added to the named 3 (to represent the 4 cardinal points), Uriel is generally the 4th. Uriel is listed as the 4th angel by Christian Gnostics, under the name of Phanuel.

Uriel appears in the 2nd Book of Esdras, which is found in the Biblical apocrypha (called Esdras IV in the Vulgate). In this, the prophet Ezra asks God a series of questions, & God sends Uriel to instruct him. According to the Revelation of Esdras, the angels who will rule at the end of the world are Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, Raphael, Gabuthelon, Beburos, Zebuleion, Aker, & Arphugitonos. The final 5 listed appear only in the book & nowhere else in apocryphal or apocalyptics works.

In Christian apocryphal Gospels, Uriel plays a role (differing between the sources) in the rescue of Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist, from the Massacre of the Innocents ordered by King Herod. He carries John & his mom, St. Elizabeth, to join the Holy Family after their flight into Egypt. Their reunion is pictured in da Vinci’s Virgin of the Rocks (a.k.a. Madonna of the Rocks).

Uriel is often identified as a cherub & the angel of repentance. He stood at the Garden of Eden with a fiery sword, or as the angel who’s over the world & over Tartarus. In the Apocalypse of Peter, he appears as the angel of repentance, who is graphically represented as being as pitiless as any demon.

In the Life of Adam & Eve, Uriel is regarded as the spirit (1 of the cherubs) of the 3rd chapter of Genesis. He’s also identified as 1 of the angels who helped bury Adam & Abel in Eden. He checked the doors of Egypt for lamb’s blood during the plague. He held the key to the pit during the end times, & led Abraham to the west.

In modern angelology, Uriel is identified variously as a seraph, cherub, regent of the sun, flame of God, angel of the divine presence, presider over Tartarus/Hell, archangel of salvation, & in later scriptures, identified with Phanuel (“God has turned”). He’s often pictured carrying a book or a papyrus scroll representing wisdom. Uriel is a patron of the arts.

In the Eastern Orthodox churches, Uriel is commemorated together with the other archangels & angels with a feast day of the “Synaxis of the Archangel Michael & the Other Bodiless Powers” on November 8 of the liturgical calendar. For those churches which follow the Julian calendar, November 8 & falls on November 21 on the modern Gregorian calendar.

He’s regarded as the patron saint of the arts & sciences. In addition, every Monday throughout the year is dedicated to the angels.

The Anglicans & Coptic Christians of Ethiopia & Eritrea venerate archangel Uriel. According to the latter, July 11 is his feast day. In the Ethiopian Homily on the Archangel Uriel, he’s pictured as 1 of the great archangels & as the angelus interpres who has interpreted prophecies to Enoch & Ezra, & the helper of both of them.

According to the Homily, at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus, Uriel dipped his wing in the blood & water flowing from Christ’s flank & Filled a cup with it. Carrying the cup, he & the archangel Michael rushed into the world & sprinkled it all over Ethiopia.

In every place where a drop of blood fell, a church was built. Thus, Uriel is often pictured carrying a chalice filled with the blood of Christ in Ethiopian Orthodox iconography. Uriel is honored in the Lutheran Churches as well, with churches including statuary of the archangels Gabriel, Uriel, Michael, & Raphael.

At the Council of Rome of 745, Pope Zachary (intending to clarify the church’s teaching on angels & curbs a tendency toward angel worship) condemned obsession with angelic intervention & angelology. But reaffirmed the approval of the practice of the reverence of angels.

This Synod struck many angels’ names from the list of those eligible for veneration in the church of Rome, including Uriel. Only the reverence of the archangels is mentioned in the recognized Catholic canon of scriptures, namely, Michael, Gabriel, & Raphael, remained acceptable.

In the 16th century, Archangel Uriel appeared before the Sicilian friar Antonio Lo Duca & told him to build a church in the Termini area. Lo Duca told Pope Pius IV about the apparition, and the pope then asked Michelangelo to design the church, which became the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels & of the Martyrs located at the Esedra Plaza.

In the 1st half of the 11th century, Bulgarian followers of the duelist heresy called Bogomilism, who lived in the dukedom of Ahtum in present-day Banat, invoked Uriel in rituals. This was witnessed by Gerard of Csanad, the Catholic bishop of the area after 1028. Uriel was also named in a small exorcism in the 15th century.

The Book of Enoch (which presents itself as written by Enoch) mentions Uriel in many of its component books. In chapter IX, part of “The Book of the Watchers” (2nd century BC), only 4 angels are named. Those angels are Michael, Uriel, Raphael, & Gabriel. Though some versions have a 5th angel: Suryal or Suriel.

However, chapter XX later lists 7 angels’ names & functions. Those angels are “Uriel, 1 of the holy angels, who’s over the world & over Tartarus,” Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Saraqael, Gabriel, & Remiel.

The Book of the Watchers tells us that Uriel, Raphael, & Gabriel were present before God to testify on behalf of humankind. They ask for divine intervention during the reign of the fallen Grigori (fallen watchers). These fallen ones took human wives & had half-“angel,” half-human offspring called the Nephilim.

Uriel was responsible for warning our boy Noah about the upcoming deluge. After judgment has been brought up on the Nephilim & the Fallen Ones, including the 2 main leaders, Samyaza & Azazel. Uriel then acts as a guide for Enoch for the rest of the Book of Watchers.

In the traditions & hagiography of the Episcopal & other Anglican churches, Uriel is mentioned as an archangel. He’s recognized as the patron saint of the sacrament of confirmation. In some Episcopal churches, Uriel is also regarded as the keeper of beauty & light, & regent of the sun & constellations.

In iconography, he’s shown holding in his right hand a Greek Ionic column, which symbolizes perfection in aesthetics & man-made beauty, and in his left hand is a staff topped with the sun. He is celebrated in the Anglican liturgical calendars of the Feast of the Archangels. The Church of St. Uriel the Archangel at Sea Girt, New Jersey, is a testimony to Anglicans’ devotion to Uriel.

In Hermetic Kabbalah, Uriel’s name is commonly spelled Auriel. He’s regarded as the archangel of the North, & of the element of Earth. According to the teaching of the modern Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Uriel is the archangel of North & East, & is associated with the vegetation of the Earth. In iconography, he’s depicted holding stems of ripened wheat & wearing robes of citrine (a medium deep shade of golden yellow), russet (dark brown with a reddish-orange tinge), olive (like green olives), & black.

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Archangel Sariel

The name means “God is my ruler.”

He’s an angel mainly from the Judaic tradition. In 1 Enoch (20:6), he’s said to be “1 of the 7 holy angels who watch, who is set over the spirits, who sin in the spirit.”

Origen identified Sariel as 1 of the 7 primordial angels, as the Ophites did. The Ophites/Ophians were a Christian Gnostic sect portrayed by Hippolytus of Rome in a lost work, the Syntagma (“arrangement”). In Gnosticism, Sariel is invoked for his protective powers. He’s commemorated by the Coptic Orthodox Church on 27 Tobi in the Coptic calendar.

He’s not to be confused with the fallen watcher Sahariel (“God is my moon”), who bears a similar name. In 1 Enoch (8:1), he’s said to have taught humans the course of the moon.

In traditional texts, the archangel Sariel is 1 of the holy angels, who is set over the spirits that sin in the spirit. He’s 1 of the angels who look upon the bloodshed on Earth, along with Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, & Uriel.

In the book of 2 Enoch, he’s listed (the name of Samuil or Sariel) as 1 of the angels that brought Enoch to heaven.

The book of War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness (from the Dead Sea Scrolls) lists the name of Sariel (“God is my ruler”) along with Michael, Raphael, & Gabriel as names to write up on the shields of soldiers – in a tower during maneuvers. It’s used on the shields of the 3rd Tower.

In the Ladder of Jacob, Sariel is dispatched by God to explain to him the meaning of the dream about the ladder.

The Liber Juratus of Honorius of Thebes contains several translations that list Sariel as one of the angels of the 8th month, which is called marquesnan heshvan. Marquesnan Heshvan (or Marcheshvan/Cheshvan) is the 2nd month of the civil & the 8th month of the ecclesiastical Hebrew Calendar. Sariel as 1 of “The names for the angels of the 10th month, which is called Tevet.”

The month of Hesvan marquesnan would make Sariel’s ruler Barfiell, or the month of Tevet would make the ruler Anael. The Lesser Key of Solomon lists the Duke’s Asteliel & Gedial as commanding Sariel by night.

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Elcesaites

Also known as Elkasaites, Elkesaites, or Elchasaites. The name comes from the alleged founder, Elkhasai, Elksai, or Elkesai.

They were an ancient Jewish Christian sect in Lower Mesopotamia. Then the province of Asoristan in the Sasanian Empire, which was active between the early 2nd century & the 5th century CE. The members of this sect, which began in the Transjordan, performed frequent baptisms for purification & had a Gnostic orientation.

The movement blended elements of Second Temple Judaism, early Jewish Christianity, Gnosticism, & apocalyptic mysticism. It’s mainly known through the writing of early Church Fathers such as Hippolytus of Rome, Origen, & Epiphanius of Salamis.

The sect is mentioned directly only in the commentaries on “heresies” by the Early Church Fathers. Hippolytus of Rome records that, in the time of Pope Callixtus I, a Jewish Christian named Alcibiades of Apamea came to Rome, bringing a book that he said had been received in Parthia by a just man named Elchasai.

According to Alcibiades, the book had been revealed by an angel 96 miles (154 km; 337,920 cubits) high, 16 miles (26 km; 56,230 cubits) broad, & 24 miles (39 km; 84,480 cubits) across the shoulders, whose footprints were 14 miles (23 km) long, 6 miles (9.7 km) wide & 2 miles (3.2 km) deep.

This giant angel was the “Son of God,” who was accompanied by his sister, the Holy Ghost/Spirit, of the same dimensions. Alcibiades announced that a new remission of sins had been proclaimed in the 3rd year of Trajan (100 AD). He described a baptism which should impart this forgiveness even to the grossest sinners.

Hippolytus says that Alcibiades teaches the natural birth, preexistence, & reincarnation of Jesus. Also, Alcibiades teaches circumcision & the Law of Moses. Hippolytus then goes on at length to describe the group’s teaching on baptism. For all sins of impurity, even against nature, a 2nd baptism is enjoined “in the name of the great & most high God & in the name of His Son the great King,” with a plea of the 7 witnesses written in the book (sky, water, the holy spirits, the angels of prayer, oil, salt, & earth).

One who has been bitten by a mad dog is to run to the nearest water & jump in with all his clothes on, using the foregoing formula, & promising the 7 witnesses that he’ll abstain from sin. The same treatment – 40 days consecutively of baptism in cold water – is recommended for consumption & for the possessed. Hippolytus discusses in more detail the teaching of the book, including Elchasai’s Sabbatarian teaching & the instruction not to baptize under certain astrological stars.

Eusebius records a summary of a sermon of Psalm 82 delivered in Caesarea by Origen circa 240-250 AD, which warns his audience against the doctrine of “the Elkesaites.” Eusebius’ record of this sermon forms the 2nd source on the group.

150 years later, Epiphanius of Salamis ground it into use among the Sampsaeans (descendants of the earlier Elceasites). Also among the Essenes & many other Ebionite communities. Epiphanius also mentions that the book condemned virginity & continence & made marriage obligatory.

It allowed the worship of cult images to escape persecution, provided the act was merely an external one, disavowed in the heart. Prayer was to be made to the East. But always towards Jerusalem. He also records that the saints of Elcesaites were 2 women: Martha (“mistress”) & Marthana (“our mistress”).

All animal sacrifice was condemned, with a denial that it had been offered by the Patriarchs or in the Torah. The Prophets & the Christian Apostles were rejected. As well as Paul the Apostle & all his writings.

The Cologne Mani-Codex (dated from the 4th century) describes the parents of Mani (founder of Manichaeism) as “followers of the prophet Alchasaias.” Scholars have identified with Elchasai. Alchasaios is stated to be a prophet also honored by Mani. His name appears in several other sources on Manichaeism. But in such an altered form that the identification with Elchasai was clear only with the publication of the Cologne Codex.

The Codex deals with the Elceasites extensively and confirms some of the Church Fathers’ statements about them. It pictures Mani as a “reformer” with the purpose to “restore” the true doctrine of the prophet Alchasaios, which his followers had “misunderstood.” In particular, Mani criticizes their repeated baptism rituals.

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