Israfel

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For the angel by this name in the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, see Angel (Neon Genesis Evangelion).

Israfel is the angel of the trumpet in Islam: "And the trumpet shall be blown, so all those that are in the heavens and all those that are in the earth shall swoon, except such as Allah please; then it shall be blown again, then lo! they shall stand up awaiting." —Qur'an (39.68).

Israfel appears in cabbalistic lore and increasingly in 19th-century Occultism. Israfel is the subject and title of a poem by Edgar Allan Poe, used for the exotic effect of the name:

In Heaven a spirit doth dwell

Whose heart-strings are a lute;

None sing so wildly well

As the angel Israfel,

And the giddy stars (so legends tell),

Ceasing their hymns, attend the spell

Of his voice, all mute.

Poe's "legends" were invented.

The angel Israfel was given more specific embodiment in Aleister Crowley's Liber Israfel, a ritual designed to invoke the Egyptian god, Thoth, the deity of wisdom, writing, and magic who figures large in the Hermetica attributed to Hermes Trismegistus which modern practitioners of magick draw upon.

Thus New Age adepts of magick will say that, created at the beginning of time, Israfel is said to possess four wings, and to be so tall as to be able to reach from the earth to the pillars of Heaven. A beautiful angel who is a master of music, Israfel sings praises to god in a thousand different languages, the breath of which is used to inject life into hosts of angels who add to the songs themselves.

Similarly, Israfel holds his holy trumpet to his lips century after century, awaiting the signal from God to sound it at the Last Judgement. At this time he will descend to Earth and stand upon the holy rock in Jerusalem. The first blow of his trumpet will shatter the world, and the second blow will awaken the dead and summon them to judgement.

[edit] External links

• Israfel — short description by Micha F. Lindemans
• Poe's poem