#Hierarchy Of Angels

[ultrainfinitepit]

Hierarchy of Angels won the poll, so now it's time for me to nail down a style and start working on sketches. Let me know which style you'd prefer in the poll below, but do consider that these would be for enamel pins.

A would be normal-sized pins in a cute, simplified style.

B would be a little bigger with some more detail.

C would be large-sized pins with lots of detail, but also cost a lot more than the others!

[kinginthemask]

𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝖈𝖊𝖑𝖊𝖇𝖗𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓

[no-nightingales-iwanttodie]

I've done some angelology and demonology research and, although I don't know what Neil uses, all the hierachies I could find have principalities above archangels. Which means that aziraphale has more power than Gabriel and Michael and Uriel...

And as we know "only dominions, thrones or above (cherubim and seraphim) have access to the Gabriel files" didn't stop Crowley. The top 3 of these serve God directly, and the dominions are leaders of the lower triad (anges, archangels and principalities) and the middle triad (virtues, powers and dominions) which also means that Crowley most likely served Her directly...

A describtion of thrones have a line that stuck with me: they contemplate God's power and judgment.

We know from Neil that whenever Crowley gets stressed, his eyes turn more snake-like, and some fanart of azi sprouting extra pairs of eyes or more wings, although a principality only have 2 wings and 2 eyes. However.

The thrones are the "many-eyed ones". They're the ones with wheels of eyes, cherubim has 6 wings and a few too many heads, and seraphim have a lot of wings and (in some mythologies) one big eye in the middle of the wings.

My point with all of this is the following:

PLEASE i want to see fanart and stories where Crowley momentarily forgets he's a demon, or for whatever reason, can turn back into his original form, and aziraphale hears the chime of bell of the bookshop door, and hear Crowley greeting him, but when he walks in to chat, there's just a blinding light with a distant outline of JUST FEATHERS AND EYES AND OMG WHATS HAPPENING HAD SHE FINALLY DECIDED TO PUNISH M- oh hello Crowley, my dear😚🥰

(I have no clue if my sources are biased or just wrong, if there's any important info or any corrections, feel free to absolutely destroy me in the comments)

[trygrievousbutgirl-blog]

Christianity has its faults, obviously. But I will go fucking FERAL any time a piece of media makes a reference to the hierarchy of angels. I Eat That Shit Up Every Time

[violet-yimlat]

Hello

Friendly reminder about the hierarchy of angels. Specifically where it applies to Aziraphale.

He is a principality. According to the Divine Comedy, they rank lower than virtues but higher than archangels ( archangels seem to be in charge in Good Omens).

In the Paradiso, the third book in the Divine Comedy, Dante explores heaven. Principalities are found on Venus, the third celestial sphere (the Paradiso follows a geocentric structure with each planet as a tier of heaven, starting with the moon, then mercury, then Venus). Venus is for divine love marred by lust. Maybe Aziraphale’s forbidden love of Crowley is to be expected.

It could be a coincidence.

But it usually isn’t.

Also principalities are one of the more human looking angels. Seraphim, cherubim and thrones are the main weird ones.

No offence. Every Aziraphale is a good Aziraphale, regardless of how many eyes there are.

[agreenroad]

Hierarchy Of Angels In Heaven Listed; Archangels Named - Gabriel, Selaphiel, Michael, Uriel, Raphael, Ishim, Ophanim, Hashmallim, Erelim, Barachiel

How many angels might be living in Heaven? How many archangels might be in Heaven, serving God? What might the hierarchy of angels in Heaven look like? Depending On Christian or Jewish Denomination, There Are 3 To 8 Archangels Serving God Wikipedia; “Synaxis of the Archangel Michael (Собор Архистратига Михаила). An Eastern Orthodox Church icon of the “Seven Archangels.” From left to…

[devildomwriter]

“Luke's blessing is very powerful, you see. It even rivals what angels higher in the hierarchy of the Celestial Realm are capable of. Though it would seem that Luke himself doesn't realize just how special his power is…”

— Simeon to Asmodeus and MC on Luke’s power (Chapter 58-5)

[q-ueen-potato]

Since I am into Hazbin Hotel now the only reasonable thing I can do is obviously get obsessed so I want be more into the lore of Lucifer's angelic family because guess what? I can.

First of all I will take Lucifer's name before fell as Samael because it has a lot of relations on real theology.

Michael

Gabriel

Raphael

Azrael

Uriel

Jophiel

Chamuel

Zadkiel

Samael/Lucifer

@alexoreality their lore will be something

[ultrainfinitepit]

Looks like style B is going to win the poll, but I enjoy drawing the style A chibis so here's a few more. Might make these into stickers or charms if there's enough interest :))

[halemerry]

Alright, I've had a few people ask for this now so time to take a break from the big draft I’m writing to dig a little deeper on angel rankings in relation to Crowley.

Before we get into it I want to preface this by saying I am not a religious scholar. Like many of us I have a complicated relationship with religion and as a result this stuff was a long time special interest of mine but, as always, take it with a grain of salt.

To be frank, even if I was an expert, I think it’s also important to keep in mind that the Good Omens angel hierarchy has already taken some liberties on its own. It hasn’t been shy about reinterpreting things to suit its needs or about pulling from various sources to establish its own lore. It's definitely its own beast and there's no guarantee the universe operates the same rules that have become the most popular ones.

That all being said, let's get cracking.

So in canon we actually don't know that much about angelic rank. Before season two we knew there were Principalities and Archangels and that's about it. This season decides to give us a little more information. Muriel is a Scrivener (likely they'd fall under the general Angel category) and then we get a nod to Thrones and Dominions being a thing. We also learn there are orders/classes of various ranks.

With the exception of Scrivener which isn't a traditional rank at all as far as I can tell, these ideas all fit under the traditional Christian angel hierarchy.

The most influential version of this hierarchy comes mostly from Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite's De Coelesti Hierarchia (On Celestial Hierarchy). He divides angels into three Spheres, with three Orders within each Sphere. The Lowest Sphere contains the orders Angels, archangels (different from Good Omen's Archangels who are at the top of the food chain so to speak), and Principalities. The Middle Sphere contains the orders Powers, Virtues, and Dominions. And then the Highest Sphere contains Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim.

Now onto the angel that would become Crowley.

Thanks to us witnessing Crowley opening a document only accessible to Dominions and above, we can eliminate the lower half of these rankings.

This leaves us with Dominions, Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim and the Good Omen’s version of Archangel.

Dominions are tied to things like regulation. Their job is to keep passions in check and deliver justice and judgment (to be frank these last two are in some capacity apply to most rankings of angel), They’re built to keep ranks beneath them organized and optimize their performances. They’re organizers. They’re functionally middle management and are sometimes known as Lordships. They’re also occasionally tied to the set of angels that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. 

The really only thing that even kind of suits him here in my opinion is the interacting with lower ranks bit but the vibe doesn't seem quite right with that. Crowley as we know him is not even really a leader even in his own schemes and has a tendency to rely on his considerable talent at improvisation and quite frequently on the cues Aziraphale tends to send him. (We get a stellar example of this dynamic actively in play in Episode 2 this Season). We also know now that the angel in question tended to work alone. He seemed baffled by the concept of Earth, as if it had been a long time since he’d had a check in with Head Office. 

So Thrones are what people tend to think of when you say the phrase Biblically Accurate Angel. They're the wheels with a bunch of eyeballs. They contemplate the power of God and have, you guessed it, ties to justice and judgment but in a more contemplative sort of way. They are associated with peace and submission, except for when they are sometimes also associated with the erelim - a ranking in the Jewish Hierarchy that tends to be more of a warrior class. They're maybe most famously associated with being a part of the chariot that moves God's throne around. They live where material form begins to take shape and are tasked with maintaining cosmic harmony.

Honestly I don't mind this for Crowley. That last bit especially sounds close to what we see him doing. And there's something very fun to me about a former Throne going off and getting himself a big gaudy throne. I’ll admit I have a hard time associating him with something so passive and again I feel like it doesn't quite fit how out of the loop he was about Earth, but this is probably the second favorite option of mine here.

If Thrones are the wheels of God’s Throne then the Cherubim are the ones making those wheels turn. They’re often represented as pushing Thrones about and attending God directly. Their job is to magnify God’s glory and serve as representatives of God’s power. They also, notably, were thought to be the superhumanly strong guards tasked with the protection of Eden.

Because of this we get a very old piece of theory: that Aziraphale was a Cherub who had been demoted. I’ve gone through phases with this theory but I definitely think it’s at a minimum fun to consider. And though I'm hesitant to take any Amazon promotional materials too seriously during the strike, there's a post here they've made recently that refers to Aziraphale as such.

Partially because this theory is so old and so rooted in the lexicon of my headspace for this media, I don't like this for the angel who would become Crowley particularly well. Superhuman strength feels weird in regards to him, as does situating him as a guard of Eden. And even if that line from season 2 where Crowley talks to Beelzebub about scaring that cherubs was talking about young angels and not literal cherubs, it seems like a weird phrasing for someone who was once the other kind of cherub to use. I like this better than Dominions but not nearly as much as Thrones.

Now Seraphim are a little unique. Their primary job tends to get framed as singing praise to God. They seat themselves around God's throne and sing holy, holy, holy at God. Several interpretations of them argue that they are different from angels entirely and only got grouped in with them in later texts like De Coelesti Hierarchia. They purify Isaiah in a vision he has and have strong associations with smoke and heat. They're tied to clarity and purifying via fire and occasionally are thought to help keep the world in order. Interestingly enough the word Seraph comes from saraph which means to burn and Seraphim can be translated as the fiery ones or those who kindle. Saraph is also used in certain contexts to describe a fiery flying serpent.

Now I’ll admit the Seraphim theory was always one of my favorites. If the show hadn’t recently been adding more ticks to the Archangel column I think I’d still probably be in this camp. There's the obvious bits that tie in here like the fire and snake imagery associated with both. But I can't help but to think of how often we get Crowley implying that just maybe God intended what they'd done to be the right thing. Or that scene where Crowley prays on the throne in season 1. He hangs off of it instead of sitting and begs God to not destroy them. It's an echo of a twist on what a Seraph would do in Heaven.

Now that just leaves us the Archangels. I won’t reiterate my other meta other than to link it here, but I do think the show at the very least wants us to consider this as a possibility.

In my opinion? Seraph and Archangel sit near the top of the metaphorical likelihood scale. I'd then follow this up with the Throne, then the Cherub, then the Dominion in order. But who knows! Half the fun of Good Omens is it doesn't always play by the traditional rules. And honestly there's something fun in never having an answer here. After all, no matter where he started, Crowley is Crowley now and that's the way it should be.

[crow-caller]

BUT DOES HE (☀️) LOVE HER (🦀)

[ohcrowleynothinglastsforever]

Just wanted to share my theory also here on un Tumblr

[automatonknight]

Returning to an Empty Apartment with a Grocery Store Guardian Angel

id: a digital painting showing an angel and a human standing in a doorway. the angel is presented as a light blue, glowing bunch of clouds and wings, while the human is only a dark blue silhouette. from one of the angel’s clouds there is a hand protruding, with which it’s holding the human’s hand. the walls of the doorway are painted dark blue, while the open door illuminated by the angel is painted using light blue and green. end id

[alice-the-demon]

Is Angel!Peppino able to evolve into a higher angel ? If yes what would he do to achieve that ?

Ps: if you still have energy and inspiration can you give us a description or a rough pitch on how he would look like as a Power angel, a Throne angel and a Seraphim angel ?

Any Archangel, if they want to, can level up and be able to achieve higher Heavenly powers.

But in order to do so they have to detach completely from everything that keeps them grounded to earthly desires.

... And Peppino isn't ready for that yet.

Here becoming a Power/Seraphim isn't really obligatory, the people in heaven can stay in the standard Angel or Archangel phase with no rush to achieve enlightenment.

Here's what Peppino would look like as a Power and a Seraphim though.

(Also I forgot to say it here, but I changed the Angel Hierarchy rules a little)

[angelus-anima]

[nicosraf]

The Hierarchie of the Blessed Angells: Their Names, Orders and Offices by Thomas Heywood

Some angel illustrations:

Previous owner's notes:

Some of the "arguments" dedicated to the spheres of angels and their chiefs:

Some lines dedicated to Lucifer:

Some of it Transcribed: Of the Rebellious, Lucifer is prime Captain and King ; who in the first of Time, From out the feuerall Classes had selected Legions of Angels, with the pride infected, Against Jehovah; and with expedition Hurled them with himself headlong to perdition. And as in his Creation he was fram'd More glorious far than others before-nam'd; More goodly featur'd, beautiful, and bright, And therefore, his name deriv'd from Light

......... I said before that I got to work with an original copy of this book a while ago, and apart from being a lot of fun to read, it's really beautiful! It was dedicated to the Queen Henrietta, and it doesn't seem like Heywood had any interest in angels outside of this massive book, so I guess he was commissioned to write this. Either way, it's really great! There are some full scans of it online, if anyone would like to flip through it too :)