Michael’s Pure Desires

The figure of the Archangel Michael — leader of the heavenly hosts, the ministering intelligence of the sefirah Tiferet (in some systems — Hod), the organizer of solar and fiery energies — remains one of the best-known, most venerated, and discussed figures within the Judeo-Christian continuum.

We have already discussed that Archangels (“Sons of God”, בני אליהם), as principles, are serving involutive vortices that arise as manifestations of the creative will to harmonize the cosmos. Thus, although this “choir” is generated by the sefirah Hod, Michael, as the supreme ordering principle, occupies the center of the Tree, “ascending” above the other Archangels. Therefore, while by nature belonging to Bnei Elohim, Michael is also a “King” (מלכ), performing the function of the “choir” of Tiferet — the Powers (מלכים). Hence his twofold functions: Leadership and Purification (more precisely, Elevation, bringing one closer to the Creative Source’s purity).

As the Supreme Warden (since Hod is the Tree’s first outpost, and the Archangels its first guard), Michael “casts away” the infernal Serpent that seeks the heights of the Palaces. As the supreme harmonizer, he “cosmizes” the spheres of being, structuring and ordering their mutual relations.

From a practical standpoint, Michael’s relation to the principle of desire and its manifestations — both on the psychological and the macrocosmic level — is of great importance. Just as Gabriel expresses the pure principle of feeling, Raphael expresses intelligence, and Uriel expresses will, Michael is the pure vortex of desires, their fiery and creative ground.

As a being, Michael is the expression of God’s desire to create the world — a vortex born of the primordial fire coincident with the cosmos’ birth. As a matrix, Michael is the creative ground inherent in any manifestation: its anti-entropic striving, its desire to be and its desire to desire. One can say that, just as an individual Guardian Angel is the vortical expression of a being’s own will to prolong its existence, Michael is the “Guardian Angel” of the cosmos as a whole — a force opposing chaos and destruction.

It is evident that such a matrix manifests at the galactic level as a Great Attractor, in a planetary system as its central star (in our case — the Sun), at the elemental level as ascending activity (fire), on the “astral” vortical level as the force of Resistance to darkness, and on the level of mind as the “pure desirer.”

For religions, of course, the foremost aspect is Michael as the supreme protective force; in that role he is typically venerated and invoked. For practical Magic, his “exorcizing,” banishing, and purifying aspect is central; for Theurgy, Michael expresses unsullied desire. The opposition between Michael and Belphegor underlies the primary psychic conflict — between egocentrism and altruistic creation: Michael embodies the matrix of “enlightened,” solar desire, whereas Belphegor embodies “cavernous” self-enclosure.

Moreover, Michael’s purifying aspect associates his power not only with fire but also with water as the element of washing (in Hebrew “michal”, «‏מיכל‏» — a stream), and with the sefirah Hod. In the biblical context (“sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Ps. 50:9)) Michael is called “Prince of snow, waters, seas, and silver.”

A theurgic appeal to Michael is, on the one hand, an attempt to purify the sphere of desires — to “enlighten” and harmonize them — and, on the other hand, a blow against egoism and isolation. Thus contact with the vortex that has the nature of the Solar Archangel is highly traumatic.

The “death of the ego,” the “slaying of the dragon” initiated by the purification of desire, is of course a severe shock to the psyche; therefore Michael is often named the “Angel of Death” (especially in the Catholic tradition). He is seen both as a psychopomp and, more generally, as a Power of Transition. Indeed, Tiferet is the last “station” on the Middle Pillar of the Tree before the Abyss, and thus Michael may be regarded both as an “analogy” of Abaddon and as the adversary of Choronzon. Additionally, well-known depictions of Michael as Judge — or more precisely as the “measurer” who weighs the souls of the departed — invite comparison with Anubis.

Thus, Michael is the “ideal knight,” a warrior defending his values unconditionally and altruistically; he is the force of “desire for its own sake,” not to receive but to realize, living not to attain but to experience and fulfill. He is a planetary force of centering and harmonization, hierarchy and service. The awakening of Michael’s matrix within the mind is expressed in his striving for self-purification, self-identification, and pure creativity “for the benefit of all living beings.”