Archangel Uriel: Ruler Of Tartarus & Fire Of God: Angels of Jewish Lore (Part 10): Angelology

Uriel, the fire of God, the spirit of luck and of chance, the angel of the south and of the south wind. The angel of destiny, the bringer of salvation, the ruler of the element of earth. He is the angel whom the Muslims call Israfel, the angel of poetry, of music, and of the muses. He is one of the seventy amulet angels invoked during childbirth. The golden legend calls him the ruler of the planet Mars. He is one of the chiefs of the order of virtues and of the cherubim, the governor of the zodiac sign Libra or the scales, the ruling prince of the month of September and of the day of Saturday. The gender of Uriel is greatly disputed. He is often either depicted as a female or as an effeminate, a male with the qualities and attributes of a female. The fact that the name is genderless and can be used by both genders further amplifies the debate. Thus, we shall be using both he and she side by side. Berit's Magus says that it was Uriel who gave the Kabbalah to mankind, that alchemy is of divine origin, and it was Uriel who brought it down to earth. In the third book of Paradise Lost, Uriel is said to be the sharpest and farsighted of all the angels of heaven. She is one of the angels of destruction, vengeance, and judgment, and is charged with keeping the realm of Tartarus and Hades in order, working hand in hand with Raphael, another keeper of the netherworld. A number of apocryphal texts made us know that there are both holy and fallen angels of death and destruction, both holy and fallen angels of the netherworld and of hell, those in service of the Lord, and those in service of Lucifer or Satan. In chapter 20 of the first book of Enoch, and in the Apocalypse of Paul, Uriel is one of those holy angels presiding over hell. He is the prince of Tartarus and chief of the Tartaruchi, the keepers of Tartarus. They say there are only a few thousand to tens of thousand angels of death and destruction in the service of God, assisting and performing under the command of a few select chiefs. Uriel is one of those chiefs in the service of the Lord, alongside fellow chiefs Metatron, Gabriel, and Raphael. On the other hand, in hell alone, and in the service of Lucifer or Satan, there are over hundreds of thousands to millions of angels of death and destruction, working under the command and reign of seventy-two infernal kings, according to the lesser key of Solomon. When the holy angels of destruction execute punishment on the sinful souls of the world, they are given the sword of God as an instrument of punishment, so says the third book of Enoch. As souls cross over after death, they are judged by Metatron and Gabriel on the bridge of the afterlife, which leads to hell on one side, and to paradise on the other side. Metatron passes the souls found unclean to Gabriel, who has them cast into the netherworld, to where Raphael reigns as prince. There, in the netherworld, Raphael consults the will of the Lord upon these guilty souls. If found eligible for a second chance, they are allowed to be reborn and given a chance to attain salvation. If deemed lost and beyond salvation, they are sent to Tartarus, to where Uriel reigns as ruler, where they would suffer for the rest of their days, damned to eternal destruction. There, in Tartarus, Uriel makes one final appeal to the Lord for mercy on behalf of these damned souls, and if not granted, she hands the souls over to the angel demons of the fires of hell, who would then ravage and destroy them for eternity. To give a glimpse of what these damned souls are doomed to suffer for eternity, the legends of the Jews tell us that when Moses visited hell and the netherworld, which are situated in the third heaven, he beheld a region where these damned souls were bound, standing up in deep mud which was up to their navel, and flogged with fiery chains by the angel demons of destruction, and their teeths broken with fiery stones from morning till evening. This is similar to the tortures described in Dante's Inferno. The claim of Uriel being in charge of Tartarus is equally agreed by the second book of the Sibylline Oracles, which says that on the day of judgment, Uriel shall break open the monstrous unyielding brazen gates of Hades, and shall bring forth to judgment the souls of the damned, and of the ghosts of the ancient titans, and of the giants, and all those whom the flood overtook. She shall bring them to the judgment seat, and set them before the throne of the Lord. Uriel is sometimes said to be the angel of lightning, and in the testament of Solomon, the angel of lightning, alongside the angel, Iax, are the only powers able to defeat the headless demon, Envy. She is also the parent of the angel demon, Orneas, according to the testament of Solomon.