Podcast episode 5 - The archangels of tarot (includes transcript)

The Lovers Tarot Card from the Rider Waite Deck.

Judgement Tarot card from the Rider Waite deck.

Temperance Tarot Card from the Rider Waite deck.

The Devil Tarot card from the Rider Waite deck.

The angels of tarot are the four Archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael.  In Bible's Old Testament angels are referred to as “malachim”, which is a Hebrew word for “messenger”.   There were no particular descriptions of them.  They were viewed as generic emissaries God and not endowed with personality or individual purpose. 

Listen to the podcast The Angels of Tarot or look for TarotCraft on Spotify or wherever you pod.

Read more for full transcript.​

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Transcription begins
 
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Welcome to the TarotCraft podcast. I’m Allison Jean, a Tarot enthusiast from Australia. Please join me on this journey into the mystic depths of Tarot and divination.
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Do you believe in the existence of angels?  Maybe you do, maybe you don’t but there are two good reasons to learn more about the angels of Tarot. 

1. Even if you don’t believe in them, some of the people you read for will believe in them and have a spiritual and personal framework of beliefs structured around them, so it’s good to understand more about them. 
2. Angels are a symbol found in religions across the world, as well as being shown through-out world history, art and literature. 
   
   

Learning about these perspectives will enrich your knowledge of the cards and inform the way you interpret them across different questions and with diverse individuals and their situations.

There are three general points that cover my personal views on angels.  Yours may of course differ.  I am not saying that this is “real” or “true”, it’s just my personal views.

1. There is a physical world with a spiritual world woven through it (or maybe the other way round).
2. There are all manner of spiritual and energetic beings that exist in the spiritual world.
3. Those beings can and do interact with the physical world in various ways.  
   
   

For example, you can invite divine help through prayer and requests for God’s assistance, or you can ignorantly (or deliberately) mess with things that draw negative energies into the physical world.  I have no problem with Ouija boards or so forth.  The problem is not the item itself.  A piece of cardboard made in a factory in China is not a portal to hell (unless you’re the underpaid and exploited Chinese factory worker making them but that’s a different blog post). The problem comes from people without proper spiritual training using them for entertainment or to engage in something “dark and edgy” for purposes that are essentially the gratification of ego.  Even using them with the best intentions can be dangerous if you are not adequately trained.

So, yes, I believe in angels.  If you work with me, I’m going to be coming from a place that holds that spiritual beings of all types exist and they can help or harm us.  I do not believe it is all love and light out there.  I believe there are heavy energies that try to draw us down and light energies that try to draw us up and we get to choose where we put our attention and focus in relation to those polarities.

The angels of tarot are the four Archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael.  In Bible's Old Testament angels are referred to as “malachim”, which is a Hebrew word for “messenger”.   There were no particular descriptions of them.  They were viewed as generic emissaries God and not endowed with personality or individual purpose. 
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Eventually the Jewish Talmud, Zohar and other Kabbalistic writings begin to describe and provide further details as to the individual purpose of each Archangel.  They also describe an angelic hierarchy and structure under God.  The Book of Enoch, an apocryphal book of the bible written around 2,000 years ago, further describes the appearances and purposes of angels along with the ascent of Enoch to heaven and his meeting with God.  Enoch was transformed by God into Metatron, who is the highest of all angels.  The Book of Enoch describes 9 “choirs” of angels, which are arranged in concentric circles with God in the centre.

1. Seraphim
2. Cherubim
3. Thrones
4. Dominions
5. Virtues
6. Powers
7. Principalities
8. Archangels
9. Angels
   
   

As you can see Archangels make the list at number 8.  They are possibly the most powerful of all spiritual beings that can contact the physical plane, but there are still 7 classes of even more powerful angels ABOVE them. 

Each choir of angels has their own responsibilities and work to do.  Archangels, which are the ones who appear in tarot cards are the leaders of God’s divine armies.  They bring messages to the specific individual for whom they are intended, from ancient prophets to the person sitting opposite you having a reading.  So if one of the archangels turns up on a card in your reading, PAY ATTENTION.  This is a high level message.  Archangels also work through your specific guardian angel and they are the entities responsible for helping souls to become spiritually evolved and to find a path back to God.

Archangel Michael is the angel on the Temperance card.  He is the warrior who defeated and imprisoned Satan in the Book of Revelations.  When you are willing, he will guide you on your correct spiritual path.  Not every spiritual path is meant for everyone.  No matter what your path is, he can guide you there.  His name in Hebrew means “He who is as God.”  He is God’s right hand. 

Archangel Gabriel is the angel on the Judgement card.  She is connected to prophecy, revelations and resurrection.  She is the guide of spirits being born into physical form or leaving physical form.  She dictated the Koran to Mohammed and told Mary about her son, Jesus.  In Hebrew, her name translates as “Mighty One of God”.

We see Archangel Raphael on the Lovers card.  He is the healer and reconciler of all things sick, broken and damaged.  In Hebrew, his name translates as “Healer of God”.

Finally, Uriel is shown in the Devil card.  A secret of this card is that Uriel is NOT the Devil.  Uriel is above the Devil, but invisible to us.  The Devil is a symbol of the forces that seek to pull us down, to cause us to despair and fear.  Uriel brings messages of both suffering and salvation.  If we don’t suffer, we don’t grow.  We cause ourselves suffering in many ways, as well as having it inflicted on us from external circumstances.  We think there is only the Devil because we are experiencing suffering, but Uriel is there to bring salvation even if we can’t see him.  In Hebrew his name is “Light of God.”

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The World tarot card from the Rider Waite deck.

The Wheel of Fortune from the Rider Waite deck.

There are two other cards that have symbols of the archangels in them:  The World and The Wheel of Fortune.

• Raphael is connected with the element of Air and is shown as the male figure in the upper left corner.
• Gabriel is connected with the element of Water and is shown as the eagle in the upper right corner.
• Michael is connected with the element of Fire and is shown as the lion in the lower right corner.
• Uriel is connected with the element of Earth and is shown as the bull in the lower left corner.

​So now that you know about the archangels of the Tarot, keep an eye out for them and their special messages in your tarot spreads.

*background music*

Thank you for joining me on the TarotCraft podcast. This is Allison Jean and you can find me at Tarotcraft.com, on the TarotCraft facebook page, and you can also join the private group, TarotCraft Group.
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