The ancient Romans gave Truth a name and a face. They called her Veritas, the daughter of Saturn, and an old saying claimed that she hid at the bottom of a holy well, waiting for those patient enough to seek her. Painters and poets have returned to her for centuries, from the Renaissance to the Swiss symbolist Arnold Böcklin. In the Kabbalistic tradition of the seventy-two angels, the one who leads the seeker down to that well is Asaliah, the angel of truth and of the hidden plan behind events. Asaliah is the angel of contemplation and just judgment. He is invoked by those who want to know the truth of a matter, to understand why things happen as they do, and to see the order that lies behind the confusion of daily life. The Forty-Seventh Name The Shem HaMephorash, the "explicit name" of God, is a Kabbalistic teaching that draws seventy-two names of three letters from three verses of the Book of Exodus (14:19–21). Each name came to be associated with an angel who expres...

In the Book of Genesis, the patriarch Jacob falls asleep on a stone and dreams of a ladder that rises from the earth to heaven, with angels climbing up and down its steps. Few images express so well the idea that the soul can rise, step by step, from inertia toward its highest purpose. In the Kabbalistic tradition of the seventy-two angels, this upward movement belongs to Sealiah, the angel of motivation, success and hidden talents. Sealiah is the force that lifts what has fallen and awakens what has gone to sleep. He is called upon by those who feel stuck, discouraged or unable to begin, and by those who sense that they carry gifts they have never fully used. The Forty-Fifth Name The Shem HaMephorash, the "explicit name" of God, is a Kabbalistic teaching that draws seventy-two names of three letters from three verses of the Book of Exodus (14:19–21). Each of these names came to be associated with an angel who expresses one aspect of the divine power. Sealiah is the fo...

In Raphael's small painting Saint George and the Dragon , the knight rides straight at the beast with his lance lowered and his white horse rearing, while the rescued princess kneels in prayer at a distance. The scene is calm in its fury. The warrior is not reckless; he is certain. In the Kabbalistic tradition of the seventy-two angels, this steady, righteous courage belongs to Ielahiah, the angel of valor, victory and the protection of those who defend a just cause. Ielahiah does not give strength for its own sake. His gift is courage placed at the service of truth, the kind that stands firm because it knows why it stands. The Forty-Fourth Name The Shem HaMephorash, the "explicit name" of God, is a Kabbalistic teaching that draws seventy-two names of three letters from three verses of the Book of Exodus (14:19–21). Each name came to be associated with an angel who expresses one aspect of the divine power. Ielahiah is the forty-fourth of these names. It is formed f...

In the Vatican, in the room known as the Stanza of Heliodorus, Raphael painted the night when Saint Peter walked out of prison. The apostle sleeps in chains between two guards, and a figure of light stands over him; on the other side of the window, the same figure leads him past the sleeping sentries toward the open air. The scene comes from the Acts of the Apostles, where an angel strikes the prisoner's side, the chains fall from his hands and the iron gate opens by itself. In the Kabbalistic tradition of the seventy-two angels, this kind of liberation belongs to Veualiah, the angel of prosperity and deliverance. Veualiah is invoked by those who feel trapped, whether by debt, by a hostile employer, by an old addiction or by a situation that seems to have no door. He is also called upon to bless honest enterprises, so that work done with a clean conscience can bear fruit. The Forty-Third Name The Shem HaMephorash, the "explicit name" of God, is a Kabbalistic teachin...

Some people seem to know from an early age what they are here to do. Others spend half a life looking for the answer, and a few find it only when everything else has fallen away. Across history, the figure of the missionary, the pilgrim or the devoted servant has stood for the soul that gives itself entirely to a purpose larger than its own comfort. In the Kabbalistic tradition of the seventy-two angels, this devotion has a name: Hahahel, the angel of mission and sacred zeal. Hahahel is not the angel of fame or of recognition. He is the angel of the work done faithfully, even when no one is watching and nothing is promised in return. Those who call on him ask for one thing above all: to know what they are meant to do, and the strength to do it. The Forty-First Name The Shem HaMephorash, the "explicit name" of God, is a Kabbalistic teaching that draws seventy-two names of three letters from three verses of the Book of Exodus (14:19–21). Each name came to be associated wi...

Guido Reni's masterpiece depicting Archangel Michael defeating Satan—a powerful representation of the celestial warrior's role in maintaining the cosmic equilibrium between light and shadow.

Leonardo da Vinci, "The Annunciation" (c. 1472–1475, Uffizi Gallery, Florence) — the moment when divine power entered the natural world through angelic mediation. The Virtues are the order associated with the great miracles that rupture the ordinary boundary between the celestial and the terrestrial.