Do you ever get confused about how many archangels there are?
Someone recently asked me: ” I always thought that there were seven archangels. Now I have read that in the Kabbalah it says there are ten! How does that work?”
There seems to be so many opinions on the numbers of Archangels, and the more you delve into the history of angels in all the various literature , and especially the ancient scriptures of different religions, you find groups of seven, ten, eleven and even twelve major angelic beings! Although all angels are pure energy and ‘Light’ we consider the Archangels to be like the ‘managers’ or team leaders of the angelic realms, and so there probably are many more than seven really. Let me try to unpick some of the differences for you.
The great seven archangels you will have most commonly heard of are, Michael (power), Gabriel (annunciation), Raphael (healing), Uriel (peace), Chamuel (love), Zadkiel (transformation) and Jophiel (wisdom). These are the seven I have been working with for twenty years or more, and found that I resonated with the Theosophical teachings, which is where I found the angelic relationship to Ascended Masters and the seven energetic Light Rays. I’ve referred to these again in my new book Seven Steps into the Angel Light. The first four appear in the Jewish and Christian Bible and the Qu’ran.
So going back to the original question, the Kabbalah – or Tree of Life – originally comes from secret Jewish practices called ‘ the work of the chariot’ or Merkabah Mysticism, and goes back to the original recorded visions God (thousands of years ago) and the angels described by Ezekiel in the Bible. The word kabbalah means ‘receiving’ and refers to the spiritual knowledge gained from practicing the truths at each of the ten stages of the journey through the Kabbalah, based on the best of human (and Divine) qualities including Wisdom, Understanding Justice and the Law, Grace and Mercy, Truth and Peace.
Each of the stages of spiritual learning, or Ten Sephirah, of the Kabbalah and has an Archangel.
So, although each stage actually has a Hebrew name, I’m going to show you how they relate to ten Archangels instead. Starting at the top of the Kabbalah tree of life is Metatron, the highest ranking Archangel of all, and this represents the crown chakra. Raziel (wisdom) and Zaphkiel (understanding) are next on either side of the head at the level of the third eye, or brow chakra in your forehead. At the throat there is another sephirah known as the ‘gateway to the Divine’ which is ‘etheric’, meaning it is a spiritual gateway, not actually manifest – or real- and represents higher knowledge and the senses of sight, sound, smell and speech but does not have an angel. At the level of the heart are Samael (judgement) and Zadkiel (mercy), Michael (beauty) lies over the solar plexus (tummy) and the seat of the emotions. Raphael (glory) and Haniel (eternity) and Gabriel (foundation) form a triad around the area which corresponds to the sacral chakra (base of your spine) and Sandalphon (kingdom) represents the grounding energy of the feet and root chakra. The Archangels will help you to work through each of the 10 stages and eventually you may find the meaning of life.
(There are lots of good books and articles to help if you are interested in learning more about the Kabbalah I recommend: A Piatkus Guide ‘Kabbalah’ by Paul Roland, or if you like working with cards: The Angel Script, by Theolyn Cortens).
