Ariel (angel)
Ariel (Hebrew: אריאל, Ari'el, Arael or Ariael) is an archangel found primarily in Jewish and Christian mysticism and Apocrypha. The name Ariel, "Lion of God" or "Hearth of God," occurs in the Hebrew Bible (Isaiah 29:1-7) as a personification of Jerusalem, but as the name of an angel the earliest source is unclear.
For the sprite, Ariel, see Shakespeare's The Tempest
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[edit] Book of Enoch and John Milton
Harris Fletcher (1930) found the name Ariel in a copy of the Syncellus fragments of the Book of Enoch, and suggested that the text was known to John Milton and may be the source for Milton's use of the name for a minor angel in Paradise Lost.[1] however the presence of the name in the Syncellus fragments has not been verified (1938),[2] and in any case since the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls earlier versions of the Book of Enoch are now known, not containing the name Ariel. In Paradise Lost, Ariel is a rebel angel, overcome by the seraph Abdiel in the first day of the War of Heaven.
[edit] Pistis Sophia
In the Coptic Pistis Sophia, Ariel is in charge of punishment in the lower world, corresponding with Ur of the Mandeans.
[edit] In occult and mysticism
According to the German occultist Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535): "Ariel is the name of an angel, sometimes also of a demon, and of a city, whence called Ariopolis, where the idol is worshipped."
"Ariel" has been called an ancient name for the leontomorphic Gnostic Demiurge (Creator God). Historically, the entity Ariel was often pictured in mysticism as a lion-headed deity or demon with power over the Earth, giving a strong foundation for Ariel's association with the Demiurge. It is possible that the name itself was even adopted from the Demiurge's Zoroastrian counterpart Ahriman (who is likely the predecessor of the Mithraic "Arimanius").[citation needed]
"Ariel" is sometimes associated with the better known Judeo-Christian Archangel Uriel, as for example some sources claim that the Elizabethan court astrologer John Dee called "Ariel" a "conglomerate of Anael and Uriel." Though this is not mentioned where the name Anael appears in the only conversation of Dee with Barnabas Saul.[3]
In Thomas Heywood, Hierarchy of the Blessed Angels (1635) Ariel is called both a prince who rules the waters and "Earth's great Lord." In several occult writings,[who?] Ariel is mentioned with other elemental titles such as the "3rd archon of the winds," "spirit of air," "angel of the waters of the Earth" and "wielder of fire." In mysticism, especially modern, Ariel is usually conjured as a governing angel with dominion over the Earth, creative forces, the North, elemental spirits, and beasts. Other entries in angelologies to Ariel are found in De Plancy, Dictionaire Infernal (1863) and Moïse Schwab Vocabulaire de l'Angélologie (1897).
[edit] Literature fiction
In one of the earliest poems based on Shakespeare's The Tempest, Percy Bysshe Shelley identified Shakespeare's sprite Ariel with the poet, and the sprite's songs with poetry.[4]
Modern authors have released several books which claim to channel the entity Ariel such as Julie Y. Tortora's, The way of Angels, & Interview With an Angel by Linda Sue Nathanson and Steven J. Thayer.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Harris Francis Fletcher Milton's rabbinical readings -1930 reprint 1967 "Perhaps Milton knew of an even fuller account of the Angel Ariel than any I have listed in some rabbinical work that has not yet been connected with him.3 •D. Saurat, op. cit., pp. 354-258. But the connection of the Enoch literature ..."
- ^ Grant McColley The Book of Enoch and Paradise Lost The Harvard Theological Review, 1938 "Professor Fletcher, whose reference I have been unable to verify, finds in the Syncellus fragments the equally unusual Ariel, who, with ..."
- ^ Deborah E. Harkness -John Dee's conversations with angels Page 50 1999 "Dee believed that the etymology of "Uriel" was the "light of God," and Uriel obligingly clarified the derivation of his name in ... The angel Anael appeared in the only conversation to survive from Dee's relationship with Barnabas Saul"
- ^ The tempest Page 87 William Shakespeare, Virginia Mason Vaughan, Alden T. Vaughan - 1999 "And in one of the earliest poems based on The Tempest, Percy Bysshe Shelley identified Ariel with the poet, the sprite's songs with poetry. 'With a Guitar, To Jane' begins with Ariel speaking: Ariel to Miranda: — Take This slave of ..."
[edit] Bibliography
- Gustav Davidson 1967. A Dictionary of Angels: Including the Fallen Angels. The Free Press. ISBN 0-02-907052-X.
- David Godwin 1994. Godwin's Cabalistic Encyclopedia. Llewellyn Publications. ISBN 1-56718-324-7
- Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, 1888. THE KEY OF SOLOMON THE KING: (CLAVICULA SALOMONIS).
- Elizabeth Marian Butler 1949.Ritual Magic. ISBN 0750918594.
- Constance Briggs, , 1997. The Encyclopedia of Angels : An A-to-Z Guide with Nearly 4,000 Entries. Plume. ISBN 0-452-27921-6.
