 The Archangel Raphael
רפאל, Raphael
"God has healed", "
God Heals", "God, Please Heal", and many other combinations
of the two words, Arabic: Israfil, اسرافيل)
is the name of an archangel of
Judaism and Christianity, who performs all
manner of healing.
Regarding the healing powers attributed to Raphael, we have little more than
his declaration to Tobit (Tobit, 12) that he was sent by the Lord to heal
him of his blindness and to deliver Sarah, his daughter-in-law, from the devil (Asmodeus)
that was the serial killer of her husbands.
Raphael in Occult Circles
According to the occultist Johannes Trithemius (1462–1516), Raphael is one of
the 7 angels of the Apocalypse (this opinion is derived from Enoch 20)
and numbered among the 10 holy sefiroth. Furthermore, Raphael is also
denoted as one of the 7 Archangels who stand in the presence of God, as well as
a ruler of the Cherubim and Archangel classes in the heavenly hierarchy.
Modern occultists sometimes associate Raphael with the color yellow or gold,
the direction East (or West), the element Air, and the Suit of Swords of the
Tarot in traditions loosely derived from reports of Kabbalism. According to
Francis Barrett (The Magus, vol. II, 1801), Raphael has also been denoted
as the angel of science and knowledge, as well as the preceptor angel of Isaac.
Other titles attributed to Raphael include the angel of prayer, love, joy,
light, as well as the guardian of both the Tree of Life and of humanity.
Raphael in the Book of Enoch
Raphael allegedly bound Azazel under a desert called Dudael according to Enoch
10:5-7:
And again the Lord said to Raphael:
'Bind Azazel hand and foot, and cast him into the darkness: and make an
opening in the desert, which is in Dudael, and cast him therein. And place upon
him rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness, and let him abide there
for ever, and cover his face that he may not see light. And on the day of the
great judgment he shall be cast into the fire.
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