The Four Archangels of Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel as
Personifications of Neutral or Undifferentiated Psychic Energy
In Chapter 5 I will analyze and interpret the symbolism of the four Archangels: Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel, as personifications of neutral psychic energy that leads back to a state of undifferentiation (see Figure 30). This would describe a return to Paradise theme or a return to the Self. As psychic energy that flows out of the Self in the beginning of life, however, I see the Archangels as comparable with the archetypes of God (Michael), the Serpent (Uriel), Eve (Raphael) and Adam (Gabriel), while one with God in the Garden of Eden. God and Michael represent the psychological function of undifferentiated intuition; the Serpent and Uriel represent the function of undifferentiated sensation; Eve and Raphael represent the function of undifferentiated feeling; and Adam and Gabriel represent the function of undifferentiated thinking.
That they have been created as archetypes of a supreme archetype (out of the center, void, or Self) introduces the theme of the twin archetype (same but different) and the theme of the Angel archetype (most like God). It also introduces the theme of the Divine Child because each archetype, whether a divine or human personification or a psychic function, is still one with the creator or innocent and perfect. Creation necessitates separation, however, implying that this can be seen as a description of the earliest psychological differentiation of the Self. The four functions, as an archetypal structure of the human soul and body have begun, on earth and in Heaven, in the womb of the human mother, symbolized by Paradise.
I suggest that the theme of neutral and undifferentiated energy is important because it is a description of the union of opposites as a representation of the process of individuation as a continuous spiral cycle in the beginning of life, and ever present thereafter. I also suggest that the German mystic, Meister Eckhart, and the California philosopher, Franklin Merrell-Wolff, are often describing the same energy in different words, which I will analyze before a discussion of the symbolism present in each Archangel.
Figure 32: Eight Energy Patterns
Meister Eckhart (Blakney, 1941), long before Jung introduced the same idea into psychology, said the following:
The California philosopher Franklin Merrell-Wolff (1976) describes the possibility of what he calls "realization" from two functions, thought and feeling, when he says:
Merrell-Wolff (1976, p. 172) names the four psychological functions in his philosophy. He calls what I have referred to as ego consciousness the subject-object consciousness that has three modes: sensation, affection, and cognition. If one reads Merrell-Wolff's descriptions of his terms, it is not difficult to recognize these modes as the psychological functions of sensation, feeling, and thinking, as described by Jung, and even though Merrell-Wolff was familiar with Jung's work (he thought Jung was the "greatest Western psychologist" (1973, p. 78), it is not difficult to imagine that his concepts came about from his own reflection on the possibilities.
What is of particular interest in his definitions of the three modes of ordinary consciousness and his definition of superconsciousness, which he equates with cosmic consciousness, Christ consciousness, and so forth, is that his idea of superconsciousness appears to be identical with the function of intuition. He names it "the symbol of the fourth dimension" (1976, p. 172). Thus, Merrell-Wolff appears to be describing two primary forms of consciousness that appear to be identical with what I have been referring to as the psychological function of intuition or the soul complex and the ego complex, which is composed of the three functions of sensation, feeling, and thinking, or what Merrell-Wolff calls the "subject-object consciousness."
Part of the problem in describing any experience has to do with language--which is often inadequate for the task. The word "indifference" seems to imply negative connotations that do not apply. In describing the reconciliation of opposites, Merrell-Wolff (1976, p. 313; 1973, p. 88) refers to indifference as the state of high indifference, attempting to rescue it from our usual understanding of ordinary indifference. Meister Eckhart (Blakney, 1941), calls it disinterest, explaining that, "pure disinterest is neither this nor that, it is empty nothingness" (p. 88). Meister Eckhart puts disinterest above love: "Experience must always be an experience of something, but disinterest comes so close to zero that nothing but God is rarefied enough to get into it, to enter the disinterested heart" (p. 83). Eckhart was correct for the simple reason that love, coming from two sides of the feeling function, cancels itself when united; when two become one, even love does not exist or is all that does exist. Nothing and everything become two opposites with the same meaning.
Merrell-Wolff's high indifference seems to me to be a pure objectivity where we simply observe the is-ness of things. I have used the word "neutral" (neither this nor that) in the same way that I understand Merrell-Wolff to use the phrase "high indifference" or Meister Eckhart to use "disinterest." The personification of psychic energy that is neutral finds one of its best representations in the Angel archetype, simply because angels are described as being the closest to God. They are also usually represented as being neutral in their sexuality (only the corrupted ones lust after the daughters of man), which probably symbolizes the merging of psychic energy contained within each psychological function or the energy of separate and seemingly opposing functions that have been reconciled.
When Eckhart speaks of a disinterested heart, however, he is not speaking of the thinking function, but the feeling function, which has suspended all value judgments and is in a neutral place. This implies a reconciliation between the two halves of the feeling function and a heart that is not divided, that is as pure, one might say, as the heart of an angel. It is even possible that thinking or reason, the exalted type that Merrell-Wolff and Eckhart describe, might require the suspension of value judgment or feeling to operate at optimal levels. Feeling would, therefore, not be absent, but raised to its highest level in undivided love. There is no thought that does not have feeling, in one of its forms, as the basis for the later expressed thought. If this is so, the importance of the feeling function has not been given due credit in the field of psychology as the possible ground for all cognitive thinking.
Merrell-Wolff (1973) describes the relationship between the feeling and thinking functions in the following way:
Returning to the functions, angels can be seen to represent aspects of all the diverse and complex psychological functions, but the mightiest angels are those who represent psychic energy that is neutral. Neutrality is the synthesis of the negative and the positive positions or the opposites. It is the third position that leads to the fourth or the state of undifferentiation. Since the state of undifferentiation represents Paradise, any archetype that presumes to be God-like, but not identical with God, might represent neutral or undifferentiated energy.
One of the best representations of neutral, undifferentiated energy, outside of the Divine Child archetype, can be found in the symbolism of the four Archangels, Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel. Michael represents the function of intuition; Uriel represents the function of sensation, although his position varies considerably, according to the myth; Raphael represents the function of feeling; and Gabriel represents the function of thinking (see Figure 30).
Michael is the first Archangel and a member of the first choir, the Seraphim, and appears to be the most important angel in all the Hebrew/Christian mythological literature, excluding the Fallen Angel, Lucifer. "The archetype of all Jewish angels, the Archangel Michael, is guardian and lifesaver through all of the Rabbinic literature" (Margolies, 1994, p. 260). Moolenburgh (1992) says: "The first is Michael, the one whom Daniel called 'the great prince,' who 'standeth for the children of thy people' (Daniel 12, verse 1)" (p. 88). Michael's name means "Looks like God" or "Who is as God," indicating his significance as the first Archangel.
"In mystic and occult writings, Michael has often been equated with the Holy Ghost, the Logos, God, Metatron" (Davidson, 1971, p. 194). He also holds the keys to the kingdom of Heaven, which I would interpret psychologically as a return to the function of intuition before experiencing the Self, that is, Heaven. Michael, as the benevolent angel of death, leads back to the "eternal Light" (Davidson, 1971, p. 194), which I understand as the light of superconsciousness or the light of intuition, not the light of ordinary ego consciousness. What dies is ego consciousness that is replaced by undifferentiated intuition or soul consciousness. Thinking, feeling, and sensation must die, that is, become unconscious, before intuition, symbolized as the key, can open the door to Heaven or psychologically speaking, the Self.
Michael appears to be one of the earliest archetypes to be a "copy" of what is later, in Genesis, called the Father God. Cooper (1984) says of Michael:
Michael is associated with the planet Mercury, the smallest planet in the solar system and the planet closest to the sun. The symbol of the morning star (Venus, Christ, David) appears related, as both the morning star and Mercury are described as the closest to the sun, which in mythology often represents God. And Michael, as described above, was considered in early pagan myth, to be the Sun God. He also seems to have many of the attributes of the Roman god Mercury or the Greek god Hermes, both of whom are the winged messengers (angels) for the gods.
In the realm of the four directions, Michael rules the East (Burnham, 1990). East represents the place of beginnings, as in the dawn of a new day, the dawn of humanity, or the dawn of individual human birth. In every mythology that produces symbols related to the four directions, the East is related to the function of intuition and intuitive knowledge. If the womb is Paradise and the center, East of Eden is the leaving of Eden, and the psychological function of intuition, a reflection of the center, as Michael is a reflection (Looks like God) of God. If we think of intuition as sensing, feeling, and thinking on an unconscious and undifferentiated level where we move toward or away from the object according to what is necessary (without the necessity of a conscious ego), this makes sense. It also seems reasonable to assume that this would be our first method of knowing and the source from which all knowing originally came and continues to come, like Michael, in the form of a serpent that sheds its skin and is continuously re-born.
As an archetype associated with the East and a symbol of the one of the four directions, Michael can also be compared with the East wind that Andersen (1974) describes in the Fairy tale, "The Garden of Eden." The East wind, personified as the fourth son and the mother's "favorite" carries the prince (that is, the ego), back to Paradise (p. 137). In this myth, mother nature puts her sons in a bag if they do not behave and they are reduced to silence (p. 133). This symbolizing by Andersen can be seen as another example of silencing the ego functions of sensation, feeling, and thinking, while intuition (the East wind) speaks. The direction of East, whether personified by the Archangel Michael or the East wind as described by Andersen, appears to represent the psychological function of intuition.
Of the Seraphim, Godwin (1990) says: "popularly known as the fiery, flying serpents of lightning, who roar like lions when aroused, the Seraphim are more identified with the serpent or dragon than any other angelic order" (p. 25). Michael is also identified with the lion. Jung (1958/1952) says that "Origen elicits from the diagram of Celsus that Michael, the first angel of the Creator, has 'the shape of a lion'" (p. 75). This may connote the importance of being first (King of the jungle) and the power of animal instincts, which to date cannot be explained rationally.
This sounds very much like the much older Sumerian archetype of the Serpent Lord, which contains lion-birds and serpents. Michael appears to be the first "Serpent Fire of Love." The lion head is also associated with the deity of Aion, or Time, an archetypal image that is winged (angel symbol) and enclosed in the coils of a serpent (see cover of Soul and Body, Meier, 1986.) The image of Aion (2nd-3rd century A.D.) is a variation of the Serpent Lord archetype, which preceded it by at least several thousand years. As an archetype associated with the serpent, the lion, the first Archangel and himself considered a former deity, Michael can be seen as a variation of the Aion archetype. Actually, it would be the other way around, because Michael obviously preceded the Aion archetype by several thousand years. Being first denotes the end of eternity and the beginning of time, linking Aion and Michael, to creation mythology. As the Serpent of Lightning, "always associated with intuition and inspiration" (Fontana, 1994, p. 116), Michael roars like a lion, indicating the power of unconscious body perceptions, provided by an unknown "god."
Michael, as Prince, is also a Divine Child archetype, like his Greek equivalent Hermes, and he can be seen as neutral energy in the function of intuition, with the positive aspect being the Father God and the negative aspect being the Mother God. In other words, Michael represents the same psychic energy that Christ represents, and both can be compared with Lucifer, who represents the same energy before his infamous Fall.
As Prince of the heavenly hosts and commander-in-chief of the celestial army, Michael appears to be the most suitable Archangel to represent the first (and last or fourth) psychological function of the human infant, intuition. The celestial army that he leads is the energy of all the other functions, including himself, that have not been split or differentiated. Michael, as passive thinking or intuition, can be readily seen as human instinct; Gabriel, the Archangel that vies with him in fame and importance in angelology, can readily be seen as active thinking, the end product of the instinct or the archetype. Michael can be compared with the Father God in Genesis (intuition), just as Gabriel can be compared with Adam (thinking). If we consider the importance from this viewpoint, Michael would, indeed, be the first and most important Archangel for the simple reason that instinct precedes archetype and is necessary for the creation of an archetype. All ideas that are derived from the archetype are passive before they become active. Michael is the angel closest to God because both archetypes are a description of the first differentiation of psychic energy that flows out of the Self, where all functions exist as one.
Uriel is Michael's twin serpent, just as intuition is twin to sensation and the Father God in Genesis is twin to the Serpent in the Garden of Eden. The lion-bird symbol describes the two functions that have been separated and reunited or in a certain sense, turned inside-out. Michael is the head of the eagle or bird; Uriel is the body or the torso of the lion. Michael is the champion of the soul (intuition), and Uriel is the ruler or champion (sensation) of the ego and beginning ego consciousness. The lion-bird represents the two opposed functions that are united and working as one animal, a combination of divine angel and human animal, a heaven and earth merged symbol. In this respect, the lion-bird is a personification of the energy of the god/man/child, later known as Christ, or simply put in the Hebrew religion, a man or child of god.
As the patron saint of the Hebrews, Michael (intuition) leads Israel (sensation) in the form of Jacob, who is renamed Israel after his wrestling match with the angel Uriel. Leading the children of God out of bondage (bondage being synonymous with the experience of the opposites) will take them through the experience of all the opposites until they return to the state of unity and become free. In other words, the experience of the opposites at birth throws one into Hell (earth) when the unity of Paradise has been lost. Michael, however, will restore the original experience, which is what happens in the psyche when the ego is lost and there is a return to soul or the function of intuition. The cry of Israel to "let my children go" is a plea for unity in each function, represented by the child archetype, who symbolizes the unity of opposites. The twelve tribes of Israel can be seen as the positive, neutral, and negative energy in each of the four functions, considering Israel as the birth of consciousness.
"Uriel," Godwin (1990) tells us, means "Fire of God" (or Light of God); "he presides over Tartarus (or Hell) being both a Seraphim and a Cherubim" (p. 52). This can be translated as conscious sensation (Uriel) that is identical with unconscious sensation or intuition (the fire of God). Unconscious sensation or intuition is the fire of God. Fire symbolizes transformation and Uriel can be seen as the fire or light of God, which is consciousness and unconsciousness merged. He is not, like Lucifer after the Fall, a symbol of introverted, conscious sensation; neither is he, like Christ, a symbol of extraverted unconscious sensation that has yet to be experienced. He represents the neutral energy in the function of sensation, when both sides of the function are united to make a whole.
On the compass points, Uriel "rules South" (Burnham, 1990, p. 164), which connects him to the sun (son of God, Christ or consciousness) in his positive aspect. As the angel presiding over Hell, which I would describe as his negative aspect, he appears also to be closely related to the Prince of Darkness. He "rules" over the unconscious side of the sensate function. In this manner, Uriel represents both sides of the sensation function that are united, neutral, and undifferentiated. Uriel, as the neutral energy contained in the function of sensation, can be defined as the uniting middle symbol within that function, with Lucifer on one side as negative energy and Christ on the other side as positive energy. When a conjunctio within the function takes place, the middle or third archetype, Uriel, flows into a state of undifferentiation (the celebrated fourth position) that is equivalent to the Father God or being one with the Father God. Each Archangel, described as the closest angel (image) to God, yet different from God, is describing each psychological function in its ideal form, that is, when the opposites of consciousness and unconsciousness have been united in superconsciousness or the Self.
As Archangels go, Uriel is usually considered the fourth and the least in importance of that quaternity; he is often tacked onto the end as an afterthought in many descriptions and occupies a position that appears to be interchangeable with many other angels. This is also a good description of the psychological function of sensation and its relationship to the body. The loss of superconsciousness renders the split of consciousness and unconscious negative, thus introverted sensation would necessarily be seen as negative, which is reflected in all cosmological mythology that describes a loss of Paradise. The myths, however, also appear to be describing how sensation is related to and connected with the function of intuition and the Father God. One function is no better or higher than the other if one sees that they determine and reflect each other, like the twin Serpents in earlier mythology.
Uriel is, Godwin (1990) also tells us, "the first recorded instance of an angel becoming a man" (p. 52). The man he became in the myth was Jacob (sensation), who tricked his father into giving him the blessing rather than his twin brother, Esau (intuition). Jacob and his older twin Esau can be seen as later archetypes that also represent the split in superconsciousness or human personifications of the two irrational functions. I see Jacob as sensation because he is the younger twin, who defeats his brother in the same way sensation, as the first function after birth defeats intuition, which is the first function in the womb. One can see all the experiences between the two brothers as the inner or psychic dialog between the opposing functions of sensation and intuition, and conscious and unconscious energy in the function of sensation, which is the same dichotomy that occurs in the Lucifer/Christ archetypes. Both myths describe the war between the psychic energy in the opposing functions or in the one function of sensation within one individual. This is recorded in Genesis, when the Lord replies to Rebekah, who inquires why the war in her womb:
The man (represented by Jacob) that the Archangel Uriel becomes is also the human child who first experiences negative sensation at birth when consciousness and unconsciousness become divided, like the twins of Rebekah's womb, Jacob and Esau. The younger twin winning out over the older twin is the function of introverted, conscious sensation (Jacob). Jacob tricks the blind, dying father, Isaac (the function of conscious thinking that no longer sees clearly) into giving the blessing before he dies, (becomes unconscious). This can be seen as the old, dying thought that inadvertently blesses the function of conscious sensation, which will bring the new thought. The function of intuition is Esau or Edom, the red-headed, hairy, first-born who earlier sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. His birthright represents the position of intuition as the first function of the human child, while in the womb, a function which is sold or exchanged for food (the function of conscious sensation at birth). If one follows the complete story, which is not possible here, one can view Jacob's experiences and years of work and toil for Leah and Rachel to be a description of what happens in his attempts to reconcile the divided feeling function, represented by Leah (introverted feeling) and Rachel (extraverted feeling), yet another set of twins.
Graves and Patai (1989) describe the reconciliation of Jacob and Esau: "the Genesis account consistently favours Esau at Jacob's expense; not only by modern ethical standards, but by those of ancient Palestine" (p. 233). Favoring Esau over Jacob is homogeneous with favoring the Divine Child over the human child (intuition over sensation), but Jacob, as Israel incarnate, represents ego consciousness and consciousness not only of the Hebrews as a social group, but of the human child. Thus Uriel is the first Archangel to become a man in the form of the Jacob archetype or the function of sensation.
The chosen race can be seen as the children or the children of God, or the neutral energy in each function that is reunited, extending that apparently elitist archetypal thought into its more universal meaning. In other words, the Chosen Ones of Israel can apply to the inner children in the psyche (the functions that have been reunited) or the outer children (the children of the world).
Sexton (1993) equates Jacob and Israel with the missing feminine and the soul archetype. I am more inclined to think that Esau represents the soul and Jacob the body and ego body consciousness, which negates the soul (the function of intuition) to the unconscious. If Esau represents the function of intuition, the soul is not absent, but identical with the spirit and the body as unconscious feeling. Intuition is soul, spirit and body united. In this particular myth, consciousness has acquired a higher status than it previously enjoyed in Genesis, when birth was the loss of God and Paradise. Jacob represents a positive interpretation of the function of sensation symbolized by his wrestling with an angel of God and God giving his blessing. The reunited twins represent body and soul which are reunited, after the fight and separation of the functions.
The twin brothers and twin sisters are other personifications of the twin serpents of psychic energy. The theme of twins or older and younger brothers or sisters is repeated over and over in many myths, starting with Cain and Abel, a more negative version of Esau and Jacob. In this myth, Cain is an archetype similar to Satan or the snake, (the first-born conscious sensation) that kills his younger brother (that is, conscious intuition), represented as Abel, the brother associated with animals or the more primitive (first in the womb) function, like the hairy or primitive Esau. Esau and Abel were both keepers of animals, symbolizing their primitive aspects of energy (conscious intuition) that precedes ego consciousness.
The warring brothers describe the battle of psychic energy between the two functions, first one wins, then the other, describing the cycles of psychic energy. Neither Cain nor Abel continues the genealogical myth, but Seth, the third child (youngest child is usually the hero in mythology) of Adam and Eve, propagates the race. Seth, as the youngest child, represents the unity between the functions of sensation and intuition or neutral energy, whereas the Esau/Jacob myth describes a reconciliation between the two functions, neither of which is seen in its pejorative extreme, although the preference appears to be for Esau, just as Michael is the preferred Archangel, and both represent the psychological function of intuition which is preferred over conscious sensation.
Uriel, who becomes Jacob, known to be the "sharpest eyed angel of all" (Godwin, 1990, p. 53) reconciles the opposites in the function of sensation and represents a union of opposites or a neutral state within that function. Sensation that sees sharply would be an apt description for a neutral place that sees equally well from both sides of that particular function. One can say that the angel Uriel becomes a man or one can say that the man Jacob becomes an angel or God/man. In either case, the function of sensation and consciousness has been elevated from its previous lower status symbolized by Jacob finally being blessed by God.
Uriel can be compared with Lucifer, who also presides over Hell and is renamed Satan. Like Lucifer, Uriel is the "Bringer of light of Knowledge of God to men." The names and symbols used to represent the same psychological experience vary from myth to myth, but the function of sensation appears to have more representations other than Uriel to represent the same energy. This might be due to the difficulty in expressing the negative and positive aspects of sensation, which is the instinct of beginning ego consciousness and its dark "twin," the unconscious.
Neutral energy can be defined as containing negative and positive energy, being neither, and it is always a child symbol in this respect (the third position), just as Lucifer is the first and favorite child/angel of God, and Christ is later the firstborn child of God. In this way, neutral energy can be seen as a type of energy contained within each function that leads to the (fourth) undifferentiated energy that exists when the functions are not separate; this is the energy that expresses the unity of the opposites. The energy exists first in the experience, or one could say the experience is the energy and the symbol is only an expression of the original experience. There is a trinity within each function that leads to the quaternary, and the experience of the opposites united within that particular function can produce a vision, an angel, or an idea of unity. Meister Eckhart (Blakney, 1941) says:
The Archangels Michael and Uriel can be seen as twin angels, both ideal reflections of God. They represent the first two irrational psychological functions of intuition and sensation that appear in the human child. Intuition is first in the womb; sensation is the first function to appear at birth as ego consciousness, negating intuition to unconsciousness. Michael looks like God because he represents the same neutral psychic energy. Uriel is the fire of God because he represents ego consciousness in the world. Intuition (Michael) and sensation (Uriel) can be seen as archetypes representing the first unfolding of the functions out of the Self and each reflect God in the other, one as soul and one as ego. The next ego function flowing out of intuition is the rational function of feeling or Raphael.
The third Archangel to be represented as a personification of neutral and undifferentiated psychic energy within one function is Raphael. Raphael is associated with the direction of West and is the angel of death, like Michael, and the angel of love, the two major themes of all great literature. Moolenburgh (1992) says the following of Raphael:
Connolly (1994) tells us that
Connolly (1994) goes on the say that "Raphael is the angel of prayer, love, joy, light, providence, and, especially, healing" (p. 95). So many of the attributes of the Archangels appear to cross over from one to the other, such as light, with which they all are associated, that it seems important to focus on the primary attributes specific to each angel. With Raphael, that specific attribute has to be healing. Raphael's name means "Divine healer" or "God heals." Raphael is also a Seraph and "Chief of Guardian Angels" (Burnham, 1990, p. 104).
As a Divine Child/Angel archetype or energy that is neutral and undifferentiated in the feeling function, Raphael signifies the unity of the two sides of the feeling function. The positive and the negative are united in the third, neutral position of Raphael, which leads to undifferentiation and the experience of the Self. I see, for instance, the equivalent archetypes of Eve and Mary, as representations for the two sides of love in the feeling function, ego love and soul love. Subjective, introverted feeling and the value judgment it makes is based on the ego and ego consciousness (Eve). Objective, extraverted feeling and the value judgment it makes are based on soul or soul consciousness, which puts the object first (Mary). (This is a description of extreme archetypes, which I consider Eve and Mary to be.) Both positions make value judgments. Raphael represents the middle position of neutrality (also a value judgment, but different from the other two opposites) that leads to undifferentiation and a suspension of all value judgments in the feeling function. I see this as an ability that is crucial to healing and essential as a tool of the therapist or as an experience for the patient. Raphael can be seen as love in its highest form, love as a principle, or an archetypal experience essential before a return to the Self. Whatever the problem or goal is, it will not be accomplished without an experience of unity in the function of feeling on a conscious or unconscious level. I believe that all feeling is thought in an unconscious form and this is why it is associated with the feminine principle so often, at least in many of our Western myths and religion. Feeling is without form, without image, without words in its purest form, and like the excluded Goddess, is silent. The ability to love oneself without value judgments (or at least have that experience) is why Raphael, as a messenger of God, "heals."
Raphael, as Regent of the Sun, is closely associated with the feminine principle. A regent is often the female sovereign who rules in the absence of her male counterpart or is a prince carrying out the same duties. Raphael is associated with the sun, but he is not the sun, a symbol that usually represents God in mythology, just as the Archangel Michael is associated with Mercury as the planet closest to the sun or archetypal angel closest to God. Thus, the Divine Child archetype and the Divine Mother archetype are both played out in the figure of Raphael.
Concerning the Seraphim, Godwin (1990) tells us that
If we see the twin lion-birds or serpent/angels as representing a further differentiation of consciousness, after the functions of intuition and sensation become split, Raphael represents the differentiation of the feeling function that is still joined with the function of unconscious thinking. One set of the Lion-Birds or Cherubim can be seen as the two functions of intuition and sensation that are separated yet joined by the symbol of one animal. This would be Michael and/or Uriel, who represent the unity of the irrational functions. On the other side of the image, the Lion-Bird or Cherubim would be the two functions of feeling and thinking that have become divided yet are still joined, symbolized by one powerful animal. This is represented by Raphael and Gabriel. The bird, angel, or top half of the animal represents the divine, or that aspect closest to God, heaven, spirit, and so forth, or either function of intuition or thinking. The lower half of the animal, the body of the lion, represents an animal who is king of the animals on earth, and symbolizes the psychological functions of sensation or feeling or the body functions. Uriel or sensation turns into Raphael or feeling.
Godwin (1990) says of the Cherubim:
Whether Lion-Birds or Cherubim, the archetypal energy appears to be the same, signifying an important and universal human experience. Godwin (1990) asks the following question: "How such magnificent and awesome beings shrunk to the size of tubby little winged babies, fluttering prettily in the corners of Baroque ceilings, remains one of the mysteries of existence" (p. 28). I do not think this is quite that mysterious if one sees that the Cherubim are representatives of a Divine Child archetype. As such, they have the strength and power of both parents united in themselves. That is why they can be portrayed as ferocious animals in adult or child form. As a Divine Child archetype they represent energy that is neutral and equal. The rational and irrational functions are working in harmony, which they (hopefully) did as they became differentiated out of the Self and which is essential for a return to the Self. The lion-birds also represent the power of the human child who, in most cases, begin the process of individuation in a similar manner.
Perhaps the most popular and famous myth centered on Raphael is the story of Tobias in the Catholic Bible. With the inclusion of the myth of Tobias, Raphael becomes the third angel mentioned by name in the Bible; if Lucifer is counted, he becomes the fourth angel. (Uriel is not mentioned by name in the Jacob/angel myth, but is a supposition from other religious sources. Some say that Jacob actually was fighting with God.)
Thus, there is a fourfold theme of Archangels throughout the Bible, with the primary focus eventually falling on the Fallen Angel, Lucifer, who is the adversary of Michael in the realm of angels. Michael, of course, is the archetypal angel closest to God and the one who battles and defeats Satan. As psychic energy, this is a description of the battle between the function of intuition or soul (Michael) and the function of sensation or ego (Satan).
Raphael's place here is the reuniting of the two sides of the feeling function in order to cure the split in that function and by doing so, also cure the split in the thinking function, where one thought without its opposite dominates. This is represented in the myth by the elder Tobias, who is blind, that is, cannot see both sides of the thought. (Consider how many of the Patriarchs in the old Testament became blind.) Raphael cures the blindness of Tobias by putting the gall of the fish (a symbol for Christ) on his eyes, which symbolizes forcing him to see the bitter and rejected, unconscious thought, which is equal to his negative feeling, personified by his wife Anna. By a coniunctio in the feeling function and the thinking function, Tobias is cured and the family (the psyche) is restored to health. Raphael, as the angel of death, insures the death of the conscious ego, which is always an act of love or a sacrifice.
If Raphael is the patron saint of medicine (symbolized by the twin serpents of the caduceus or intuition and sensation that both contain feeling that is still neutral), he is no less important for psychology, which attempts to heal the soul. The curing of the feeling function appears essential in maintaining the flow of psychic energy in spirit, soul and body so that they continue to act as one undivided Self. The feeling function appears to be the function that unites the other two ego functions, sensation and thinking, in order for a return to the function of intuition, which supplies the gift of wisdom. Undivided love in the feeling function is the double-edged sword of Raphael or the Cherubim. When this energy is neutral and undifferentiated, love and death have the same meaning; they are the twin wings of the Archangel Raphael.
The fourth Archangel personified as neutral psychic energy is Gabriel, who represents neutral energy in the thinking function. Gabriel is associated with the direction of North, which represents the thinking function in many mythologies (see Loomis, 1991, p. 40). Using the symbol of the four directions, East represents intuition, South represents the function of sensation, and West represents the feeling function.
Gabriel's importance is second only to that of Michael in the Hebrew/Christian mythology, although in the Islam religion Djibril, who is equivalent to Gabriel, holds first place. Djibril or Gabriel appeared to the prophet Mahammad to reveal the Koran, and like Mika'il (Michael) is said to have saffron hair, which is a red-orange color, reminiscent of the red hair of Edom (Esau) in the Jacob myth. Both might refer to the red clay that Adam was formed from out of the earth and the psychological fact that passive thinking (intuition), comes first in the human psyche. Thus, the primary color of red shows up in association with Adam and Gabriel (thinking) and Esau and Michael (intuition), all archetypes for the two functions of thinking and intuition.
As the Archangel who brought the Word of God by the revelation of the Koran, the Islam holy book, the power and glory of thought (the thinking function) cannot be underestimated, and in its primal and earthly (red) form, all conscious thought was first intuitive thought. This is also probably why Michael and Gabriel are the only Archangels mentioned by name in the Bible. (The myth including Raphael is later excluded from the English version, a parallel perhaps, to the collective consciousness of Western society denigrating the feeling function as the thinking function escalates in importance.)
Burnham (1990) describes Gabriel in the following way: "He is the Angel of Revelation. He is majestic, richly attired, and depicted in Christian iconography as kneeling before Mary, hands folded on his breast or carrying a scroll, scepter, or lily" (p. 104). The scroll connects Gabriel with the Word, language, and especially the written word and its importance in Western religion, whether Hebrew or Christian. The speaking and the writing of the thoughts of man, given by God or through God by an angel, become the consummate expression of archetypal experience. The scepter denotes the authority of Gabriel and the thinking function.
Gabriel (thinking) kneels before Mary because Mary represents the unconscious feeling function, or love without ego. If thinking is the mirror image of feeling, given content and form by the expression of an archetype, it will finally reflect the unity of the ego and soul in the feeling function, but only after the cherished thought, long considered the highest ability of man, has been sacrificed by the conscious ego. A new thought can be born to replace the one forfeited. Then we have Gabriel, or neutral, undifferentiated energy and a Divine Child archetype, who is the Hero of God. The Hero is always the conscious ego, and it knows itself to be divine after the sacrifice, when soul and ego are united in one archetype expressed as the Self. Gabriel represents neutral and undifferentiated energy that has experienced and united both sides of the thinking function.
The unity expressed by Uriel as neutral and undifferentiated energy in the function of sensation renders a state of innocence to the human child and to the function of conscious sensation as the function that introduces humanity into the world of ego consciousness. This is expressed in the myth of Jacob after his fight and blessing with the angel of God. Thus, Uriel as angel of the South, who would oppose Gabriel, as angel of the North or knowledge, can be seen as innocence, which may be a principle of the psychological function of sensation, as love is a principle in the feeling function, knowledge is a principle in the thinking function, and wisdom is the principle of the function of intuition (see Figure 48).
The lily symbol appears to connect Gabriel to the moon and the feminine, as Chetwynd (1982) describes:
Moolenburgh (1992) explains that "Gabriel is derived from the word 'gibor' and that means power or hero. From this word gibor is derived the word geber, a man. Gabriel thus means God's might" (p. 109). As the hero of God, Gabriel can be seen as an angel archetype representing the function of conscious and unconscious thinking that are united, also represented by Adam before the Fall. This is before the thinking function has become split into the two sides of introverted and extraverted thinking. Gabriel represents the same neutral and undifferentiated energy, the Divine Child/angel of the united thinking function.
As the "Hero of God," he is said to be the chief ambassador to humanity, a title that appears close to that given to Michael. Gabriel is associated with the moon and appears to be comparable with the feminine in a way the other Archangels are not. As Godwin (1990) describes, "Gabri-el is unique amongst an otherwise male or androgynous host, for it is almost certain that this great Archangel is the only female in the higher echelons" (p. 43). To call Gabriel exclusively female might be an exaggeration on Godwin's part, because the Archangel is represented as male in much of the literature, even though his image in art is often depicted as female. It appears more likely that Gabriel, as compared with the other Archangels, is the one most often depicted as androgynous.
This ambiguity concerning Gabriel's symbolic gender is especially interesting, as it connotes several important issues related to neutral and undifferentiated psychic energy. One of Gabriel's special attributes appears to be the gift of revelation and knowledge, especially as it is connected to the written word, and the other appears to be his connection with the feminine or mother archetype and the process of birth. It is always Gabriel who revels the knowledge of pregnancy to the women of the Old Testament and to the Virgin Mary in the New Testament. This knowledge is therefore connected to language and the word or logos and knowledge of the Divine Child. Perhaps this is why Mary is often portrayed in paintings as reading a book or having a book on her lap before the Archangel Gabriel appears to her. Moolenburgh (1992) tells us that "there is an old story which tells us of how Gabriel fetches the soul out of Paradise and instructs it for nine months while the body in which the soul is to live is growing in the mother's body" (p. 110).
Other versions of this myth say that Gabriel instructs the soul and right before birth, another angel comes and pats the mouth of the child, causing everything learned in the womb to be forgotten at birth. This delightful story represents Gabriel as neutral and undifferentiated energy in the thinking function, which is identical with the unconscious thinking function contained within the function of conscious intuition. The thinking function, which produces an isolated thought (the end of the process resulting in the archetype), is sacrificed for knowledge of the opposing unconscious thought, which brings forth a unity of the opposites or Gabriel in the form of neutral energy. This describes a loss of ego in the thinking function. In the beginning, however, in the womb, this cycle has not begun. The child is learning by one function only, which appears to be intuition. The neutral and undifferentiated aspect of that function, that is, Gabriel, is forgotten when opposites are introduced at birth.
The child in the womb is thinking all along, by the process or the instinct of intuition. Goldman (1993) says: "Intuition is not just a mysterious sixth sense. It is sense. Our intuition is our nature communication with our greater soul" (recorded lecture). This communication begins in the womb where the soul is instructed by the function of intuition and the invariably protesting soul that is removed from Paradise is the newborn child, as he or she experiences the opposites.
Gabriel is the hero of God because he represents psychic energy in the thinking function that is neutral and undifferentiated. He gives up his divinity, becomes a hero, for the sake of the divine birth, a new image, archetype or idea.
In summarizing the myth of the four Archangels as a description of neutral, undifferentiated psychic energy, I would suggest the following: The meaning of the myth of Archangels describes ideal human experience that is close to an idea of God. The image of the four Archangels surrounding the throne of God represents the four psychological functions of intuition, sensation, feeling, and thinking in their neutral and undifferentiated form, which is close to the experience of Paradise or the image of being one with God. One can call them four major and different images of God. Michael, as first instinct (intuition or soul) looks just like God. (Spirit, Soul and Body are One.) Uriel, as the second instinct (sensation), is the fire of God and beginning ego consciousness. Raphael (feeling), as an image of the divine healing God, is love. Gabriel (thinking), as the hero of God, is the archetype that is continuously born, dies and is reborn as the Divine Child.
The same energy will later be modified (the opposites bring sin and a split consciousness into the world) and expressed in the human, earthly form of the four great Evangelists: Matthew (Michael), Mark (Uriel), Luke (the great physician or Raphael), and John (Gabriel) who wrote the book of Revelation, all messengers of the Divine Child, Christ. (See Figures 30 and 31 for a comparison.)
Figure 34: Michealangelo's "Creation of Adam"
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