Gabriel, Archangel of the Moon

 Most people recognize Gabriel as the angel of the Annunciation — but few know he's the angel of the Moon, or what that means for magical practice.

The Archangel Gabriel may be best known in the Western world as the one who brought the news to the Virgin Mary that she was to bear the Christ Child. As an angel of messages associated with motherhood, childbirth, and the Virgin Mary, it is no surprise that most authors since Averroës place the Moon in Gabriel's charge.

In the Hermetic Qabala, Gabriel is the Archangel of the sephiroth Yesod — the Foundation. Yesod is the astral field through which all magical workings must travel on their way to becoming real. It is the dream-space, the imagination in its deepest sense, the generative field in which your experience of reality takes shape before it arrives in physical form. The Moon governs this field — cycling through its phases in a rhythm that the astral light follows. When the Moon waxes, the medium through which workings travel grows more responsive. When it wanes, that energy withdraws. Gabriel, as the Archangel of Yesod, presides over this endlessly cycling foundation of manifestation.

The Moon has been linked to motherhood and childbirth since the earliest days of human history. Gabriel's ties to childbirth run equally deep. A tale is told in Jewish folklore of a tree in the Garden of Eden upon which new souls grow like fruit. Once ripened, they fall into a treasury of souls. When it is time for a mother to conceive, it is Gabriel who reaches into the treasury and unites a soul with its mother.

The Moon also has a long history as a messenger. As the fastest moving light in the sky, it was the Moon that translated the light of the other celestial bodies down to Earth — the source of the astrological concept of the void-of-course Moon, those times when the Moon has delivered its messages and is waiting to pick up more. The Hellenistic name for the third house of an astrological chart, associated with communication and messages, was the House of the Moon Goddess. Gabriel, as one of the angels most often depicted carrying God's messages between worlds, fits this role precisely.

An angel of deep compassion, Gabriel presides over revelation, communication of all kinds, good tidings, new beginnings, motherhood and childbirth. Requests to Gabriel for aid are most appropriate on Mondays, the Moon's day, or in the Moon hour.

Looking for another Archangel? Return to Introducing the Planetary Archangels.