On this holy day of Michaelmas,
We call upon Archangel Michael
Regent of the Sun
Divine Protector
Guardian of those in high places
Weigher of Souls
Bringer of Justice
Keeper of the Spear
Keeper of the Sword
Keeper of the Scales as the Sun is in Libra.
On this feast day held holy in many traditions, including the Temple of Witchcraft, I wanted to share with you all a meditation on Michael from my empowerment series in 2020.
I also wanted to share a short excerpt from the forthcoming The Way of the Blade fundraising book on the Temple of Witchcraft’s pilgrimage to Scotland and our adventures there, starting on Michaelmas, for greater context.
From The Way of the Blade (forthcoming):
Michaelmas is a folk holiday in many Christian calendars, particularly the British, and the modern Witch might associate it with the Autumn Equinox or Mabon, as Sept 29th falls close to September 21st. Michaelmas was the end of the harvest in Medieval England and is also known as the end of the Husbandman’s Year. Financial accounts would be settled before this date, and new hires for manor houses made, allowing the household to go into the “new” year fresh. It also marks the start of the autumn semesters in the United Kingdom’s university terms. Michaelmas also marks the first of the four quarters of the legal year in Ireland, England, and Wales. A Red Mass was celebrated to bless lawyers and judges to administer fair justice in the land. In other places there would be a Blue Mass to bless law enforcement officers. The legal system in the United States has some holdovers from these traditions, with the Supreme Court of the United States of America starting their term with the first Monday after Michaelmas, or the first Monday in October. In these two themes, law and protection, we start to see the esoteric associations with Michael take shape.
The Archangel Michael transcends many different religious traditions. Most often thought of as originating in the Abrahamic faiths, as much of his lore comes from their official and unofficial texts and folklore, Michael is beloved by occultists and even modern Witches. Many of us first learn our magick circles calling upon the four archangels of the elements. Drawing from the Golden Dawn system of magick, Uriel is the archangel of the north and the element of earth, Raphael is the archangel of the east and the element of air, Gabriel is the archangel of the west and the element of water, and Michael is the archangel of the element of the south and the element of fire, though these were not always their directions and associations. Michaelmas is also known as the Feast of the Archangels and honors Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel, the three angels of “the Book.” Uriel is left out, and is often considered a heretical angel, sometimes listed among the fallen angels and related to the various light bearer mythologies as his name translates to “Light of God” or “Fire of God.” Michael’s name is translated as “Who is like God” which in esoteric circles is sometimes phrased as a statement, and other times, a question.
Archangel Michael is part of the collective egregore of the Temple of Witchcraft. The egregore—or group consciousness, mind and soul, of the tradition—was consciously constructed, and our allies amid many realms were specifically invited to participate and agreed to do so. While we work with all of the elemental and planetary archangels and angels, we specifically invited the presence of Tzadkiel as archangel of the planet Jupiter; Uriel as the archangel of elemental earth, light, and the planet Uranus; and Michael as the archangel of the Sun and elemental fire to be angelic patrons in our Temple. Each guides the forces of one of the three rays of Witchcraft, with Michael for the Red Ray of Power, Tzadkiel for the Blue Ray of Love, and Uriel for the Yellow Ray of Wisdom.
While today we tend to think of Michael as the warrior angel, leading the armies of Heaven against the forces of Satan, some of the oldest images of Michael are of healing and guidance. A traditional but less commonly seen symbol is the scales of justice; he was considered a psychopomp figure, weighing the soul or the sin, not unlike our Egyptian mythos of the Scales of Ma’at in the underworld of the Duat, and guiding the newly dead to their next realm. It is important to note that Michaelmas occurs when the Sun is in the tropical zodiac sign of Libra, the sign of the scales. While the Feast of the Archangels celebrates three archangels, the other two, Raphael and Gabriel, also have their own feast days. September 29th is really predominately Michael’s day.
While we might translate the Egyptian term Ma’at as justice—and it could be—it is not quite the justice conjured when we use that word in English. The deeper meaning is reciprocal harmony, more in alignment with the philosophical notion of the Tao, the “way that cannot be named,” than our legal sense of justice. It is right order. Often our concepts of modern justice are in opposition to something, to rectify an injustice. The esoteric concept of justice was expressed in Aleister Crowley’s tarot with Lady Frieda Harris, the Thoth Deck, where the traditional Justice card is renamed Adjustment, to disengage it from our human concept of justice and emphasize the universal mechanism of dynamic equilibrium. The universe continues to make adjustments to keep the balance, for nothing remains static.
Michael’s scales as psychopomp or divine judge and psychopomp can lead us to his other associations. What is the mechanism of divine adjustment? There is often a force in opposition, or a force to oppose that which acts in opposition to divine order. In Christian mythology, this is popularly depicted as the Fall of the Angels or the War of Heaven.
A rebellious angel, second to the creator alone, decides to rebel against the divine order, starts a war, and is cast out of Heaven. Considered Lucifer or Satan, but having other names and other figures depending on the story, the divine being becomes an embodiment of evil. Michael, the next powerful angel, is elevated by the creator to lead the armies against this opposition. It’s a good story to explain in general why things are not perfect within the theology of an infallible god, showing us why there is evil, but leading us to the ultimate conclusion that even the rebellion, the opposition, must be part of divine order.
Occultists look at this differently. We know stories hide esoteric truths and that interpretations of these truths will vary depending on the philosophical teachings and theology of the school. Witches don’t often have the hard divide between creator and creation. Without that separation, all of the players in a dramatic story are aspects of the one. We might describe the “war” of our immune system against an infection, but realize infections are a needed part of nature, not inherently evil just because we don’t like their results.
The first job of the occultist is looking into the strange homunculus of the Christian Devil and drawing out all of its parts. While many in the overculture equate the Devil, Satan, Lucifer, the Antichrist, the Beast of the Apocalypse, and the snake in the Garden of Eden as one entity, they are not the same. That idea came about fairly late. Occultists look at spiritual entities by function and might make comparisons to other devilish figures in other mythologies, such as the Egyptian Set and Norse Loki. What are common themes?
Satan is the prosecutor of God, Sataniel, though that creates the misunderstanding that he is against the creator, where perhaps a better translation would be the prosecutor, like a lawyer, for God. In all of his Biblical stories, he is testing and challenging the faithful. None of the stories specify that he fell or became evil, but humans didn’t particularly like someone challenging them. In fact, the famous tales of fallen angels are not in any of the Biblical sources, but apocryphal books. Lucifer is a Roman name, given to a Roman light god or as an epitaph for other deities who bear light. In later Witchcraft lore—as in Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches—Lucifer is an Apollo-like figure, brother and lover to the Moon goddess Diana. In some Avalonian traditions, the emerald from Lucifer’s crown is the source of the Holy Grail while others say it’s the original Emerald Tablet of Hermes. The angels of Lucifer’s “fall” were really the faerie beings coming into the world to create nature.
In occult traditions there is a strange teaching making Lucifer—the light bearer who is distinct from Satan—the brother to Archangel Michael or to Jesus Christ. In one occult tale of the Tree of Life, the order of the planetary angels is mixed up in our lore because the order set forth at creation was disrupted. When it was time to set the Earth, or material universe, in motion, the creator degreed that Michael enter into matter, bringing the spark of light as a Lord of Flame. He did not wish to, despite being the archangel of the world, so he traded places with his brother, Lucifer, or Lumiel, archangel of the Sun. The shift shook the tree, mixing up the angels and making it difficult for humans to understand and agree upon the rulership of the angels. Lucifer took on the role of being light in matter, knowing he would be misunderstood, and the relationship with his brother continues to be misunderstood as a war, not an act of rescue in freeing the light from matter to shrine forth.
The confusion of the tree shaking continues to this day. The associations of Michael, even the seemingly simple ones, have not stayed consistent or agreed upon by all. Does Michael carry a sword or a spear? And is the sword (or spear) fire or air? While today most agree Michael is the elemental archangel of fire, on a planetary level, does Michael rule the sphere of the Sun or the sphere of Mercury? Why does he seem so concerned about the Earth and humanity while also leading these heavenly armies? Can archangels be relegated to just one correspondence? In the Temple we see him as representing the Red Ray of Will, corresponding a bit more with Mars than with the Sun or Mercury.
As occultists know, the symbols provide a method to communicate with intangible forces both inside and outside of ourselves. There is no inherent truth in the correspondences, which is why so many different systems can still all work magickally.
In the Temple of Witchcraft, we tend to favor that the spear, staff, or wand is of the element of fire, and the blade—with its two sides like two points of view entering into a point, a third more balanced perspective—is for air. I tend to think of Michael as the archangel of the Sun, and in the Tree of Life, the central sphere of the Sun, Tiphereth, is on the “air” pillar of the tree. In some systems of Hermetic Qabalah, there are differences between the archangels Michael and Raphael and the angels Michael and Raphael, and in this system, Archangel Raphael rules Tiphereth and is aided by the angel Michael, while Archangel Michael rules the sphere of Mercury, known as Hod, and is aided by the angel Raphael. Others simply say they are co-reagents of each sphere.
I do think this points out a great teaching on the illusive nature of esoteric truth, and how easy it is to get caught up in your own fervor over being correct and right and others being wrong. I’ve seen many a Witch battle it out about elemental tool correspondence, not realizing both can be right and nothing in this case is an absolute truth.
The common themes of harmony, healing, balance, and justice are the key threads for Michael’s patronage of our sacred retreat.
One of the tools of fighting injustice in our world is to speak the truth. The truth—and thus the sword of truth—invokes the virtue of justice by its nature. Our world today, with its multitude of crises, requires us to both speak and listen with truth in mind, as we live in a world where many seek to speak for the sake of speaking, but do not always have the knowledge to back it up or the wisdom to apply that knowledge in a meaningful and helpful way.
Many people can become trapped in the certainly of ignorance, not being willing to tap the streams of wisdom or contemplate that what they were taught or believe could be wrong, or that even if a teaching is right for them, it might not be right for all. Many of our most virulent opponents have the belief they are one hundred percent right and certain in their convictions. So we also have to question ourselves when we think we are completely correct. Could we be wrong? Are we mirroring the very things we strive against? Introspection of our own personal truth is key.
If looking at the opposition in the world, the War of Heaven, as akin to an infection and immune response, we are all suffering collectively as a society from inflammation and autoimmune response. Everything and everyone are very inflamed and reacting wildly without responding appropriately. So an important step with invoking life, truth, and justice is to learn to respond to opposition and illness rather than react unconsciously. Otherwise we are contributing to the detriment of the whole organism, in this case, our society and world.
Often the very act of opposing something unconsciously strengthens what we are opposing. Opposition can give foes strength and reinforce the separation rather than find common ground and heal. As long as we work in the heaven-versus-hell model of war, we will be in a continual conflict as each side pictures themselves in that scenario as the angels who must never compromise with the devils, with the fallen ones.
In Hindu mythology, the race of spirits known as the Devas are divine heroes and the Asuras are demonic figures, while in Iranian mythology, the Asuras are divine and the Devas are demonic. One can’t help but see the same story told by two different sides in the conflict. That happens often, but when we put divine qualities of good and evil in the story and project them onto other people, we create unresolvable conflict. We have to recognize that we can be the devils to others. I think Witches can understand that, even though we don’t agree with that interpretation. We have embraced an archetype that causes fear in others. We might feel like we don’t have a choice, that being a Witch is inherent to us just as any other identity, but we have enough experience with friends and family disturbed by our orientation that we are in an excellent position to contribute to this process in a helpful way.
The solution embodied by the sword of life, by the element of air, is to “out create.” In the battle between two forces, we must find a third way. We must take the vision found in our journey with the element of fire and use our creativity and cleverness to create new modes of operating. If you seek to dismantle what does not work, you also have to create what will replace it, to not do harm to those relying on that imperfect structure. By showing new possibilities, by creating new alternatives and pursuing them actively, we can make changes. By magick, invoke what you want, then by life, build it with others, and through that modeling, you create something that didn’t exist before, something that can potentially become a new alternative for many.
Sadly it can be easier to be stuck in blame and a desire to be vindicated than look for solutions. This attitude does make sense, particularly if you are harmed or victimized by another on the other side. But in terms of reciprocal harmony, of establishing Ma’at, this way of thinking leaves us all stuck and in a calcified position. Those involved in magick have to be willing to operate in non-ordinary ways and bring back unusual solutions from the world of spirit.
In English author Terry Pratchett’s novel A Hat Full of Sky, the young Witch Tiffany Aching learns a valuable lesson: “Even if it’s not your fault, it’s your responsibility.” Some misunderstand this quote and think it’s blame-oriented, but it basically teaches that if you have awareness of the problem and can do something to solve the problem, then it becomes your responsibility. Doubly so, I think, for Witches who seek to embody the reciprocal relationship with the world.
Seeking this new way of transmuting conflict is part of the work of the blade. The sword of Arthur, his first sword, was in the stone, air tempered by earth. His second sword, the true Excalibur often confused with the sword in the stone granting kingship, was forged underwater in Avalon and is a gift from the Lady of the Lake, air and water. The sword is truly a harmonizing force, a vessel to bring things into right order. Our invocation of Michael on this is that of the harmonizing angel. If he’s the archangel of the Sun, he stands with it in the center of the Tree of Life, in Tiphereth, the heart and harmony of the Tree of Life, bringing everything into divine order. Just as the Sun orders the rings of our solar system, Michael can bring order and harmony to the spiritual forces.
In the Anthroposophical Traditions of the teacher and seer Rudolph Steiner, the founder of the Waldorf or Steiner Schools found in Europe and North America, Michaelmas was the second highest holy day, after Easter, but before Christmas. Steiner saw Michael as the great defender of humanity and planet Earth from harmful forces of Ahriman, a materialistic devil figure separate from Lucifer in his cosmology. During the time of year around Michaelmas, we have a variety of meteor showers. Meteors are not inherently evil, but are material forces that could potentially do damage to the biosphere that humanity—and most life—relies upon to survive and thrive. Such forces have gotten through before and drastically reordered life on planet Earth. Michael’s holiday invokes his protective power over the Earth from these Ahrimanic foreign bodies.