Archangels of Tarot.

UniversalSeeker

I was contemplating the Radiant Rider-Waite Tarot this morning and looking at which cards looked alike, which ones were the most different and I noticed something I have never noticed before.

There are 4 angel cards

VI - The Lovers
XV- The Devil
XIV-Temperance
XX - Judgement

Does anyone know which angels rule over these cards?

I am guessing, that Gabriel must be Judgement - "Gabriel blow your horn",
but I don't have a clue about the others. Any ideas?


UniversalSeeker
 

psychicbody

Dont know about the others, but Gabriel would deffinatly be Judgement.
 

MercyMe

Well, in The Winged Spirit Tarot (which is all about the myths of angels):

The Lovers is represented by Samiasa and Aholibamah. The angel is Samiasa who fell in love with Noah's daughter Aholibamah and had to choose between his love for her and his love for heaven.

The Devil is Lucifer or Morningstar, the most beautiful of the archangels. Not being satisfied with being second in heaven he rebelled and was cast out of heaven. His name changed from Morningstar to Lucifer which means "the adversary."

Temperance is depicted as Bethesda, the angel who came to earth, touched the ground and where she touched the earth a healing fountain sprang forth.

Judgment is, in this deck, Michael because he is most often featured in Christian legends of judgment day.

Gabriel is shown as the High Priestess because he/she is seen as a feminine spirit, it is she who came with the lilies of annunciation to Mary when she gave the message to her that she was pregnant with the divine.

You may or may not agree with this deck's author's choices, of course. :)

~Mercy
 

psychicbody

But, Gabriel is the one who alerts everyone that the Day had arrived and is also depicted as the angel of death; which is associated with his direction, the West.
 

MercyMe

Actually, it is Gabriel who is associated with blowing the trumpet to announce the Second Coming of Christ, which IS associated with the Judgment, but it's not FOR judgement that he trumpets, but for annunciation.

Michael is associated with the Judgement because of the mention of him in Revelation regarding his battle with Satan. Many believe it is he who blows the trumpet which calls forth the dead and the living to account for their lives. But...

Muslim lore speaks of another angel named Israfil who will blow the actual trumpet of Judgement.

The New Testament Bible speaks of the angel of the Judgement trumpet as "the seventh angel" in Revelation, and since there are numbered seven archangels (highest ranking angels), it may be neither Gabriel or Michael, but Israfil after all.

~Mercy
 

UniversalSeeker

Thank you guys so much. Just looking at the cards I got the following impressions:

The Lovers have to make a decision and many times they feel they then came head to head with the Devil. A divorce, a partnership gone wrong, parents that enslave children out of "love", an abusive relationship, children that rule you, or a boss or job that is pure hell, that sort of thing is what I think of when I encounter the Devil. You then gain knowledge from the pain that you went through, created from your mistakes, (but of course at this point we still blame it on any and everyone except ourselves "the devil").

Temperance brings us the point of good decision making, accepting that we need to expand and accept responsibility for our own lives, we study and know there is a higher path that we need to experience, but also for the first time knowing that we create our reality and that the higher and lower are being mixed by the magical flow of energy that Temperance is pouring. She can now live in the astral or emotional dimension as well as having her feet firmly planted in the material realm of earth.

Then Judgement comes along and holds us accountable.

So what it is the same angel that is taking us on the entire journey, but we perceive each stage being guided by different enities?
 

Sophie

MercyMe said:
The New Testament Bible speaks of the angel of the Judgement trumpet as "the seventh angel" in Revelation, and since there are numbered seven archangels (highest ranking angels), it may be neither Gabriel or Michael, but Israfil after all.
And in Jewish lore, it is Archangel Jophiel who blows the trumpet...

...but given the Christian origin of the deck & the long association of Michael with the Judgment Day in Christian myth, I rather think it is Michael represented on the tarot card.

Temperance is also a cardinal virtue, an abstract virtue represented by an angel.

MercyMe - re: The Devil - Lucifer does not mean "the adversary" - it means simply, "the light-bearer" (from the latin lux & ferus). He is the angel of light, though fallen. In the tarot, his iconography is thought to come from carvings of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, who was demonised by Christians (and Jews in Babylon, before them).
 

MercyMe

Helvetica said:
MercyMe - re: The Devil - Lucifer does not mean "the adversary" - it means simply, "the light-bearer" (from the latin lux & ferus). He is the angel of light, though fallen. In the tarot, his iconography is thought to come from carvings of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, who was demonised by Christians (and Jews in Babylon, before them).

That's what I thought I'd read before, that Lucifer meant "light bearer" but I was typing the info from the Winged Spirit LWB in reference to that card, and so I guess the author got that bit wrong. Thank you for the correction.

~Mercy
 

tarotbear

According to Eden Gray:

#20 - Judgement - Gabriel - water
#14 - Temperance - Michael - fire and Sun
#6 - Lovers - Raphel - air

So where is Uriel, pray tell?
 

Shade

Wasn't Michael the ange with the flaming sword? If so I would think that's him on the Lovers.

Lucifer as the Devil though certainly not lookin' much like Lucifer. Baphomet perhaps but s/he is not an angel strictly speaking.