Uriel

What this is

Uriel is the archangel of Earth and of the north, the fourth of the quarter-guardians and the only one holding no planet. His name is read as “fire of God” or “light of God”; the sources differ, and he is not named in the canonical Hebrew scriptures at all. He is the angel of the solid ground, the floor underfoot.

What it governs

He governs the north quarter of a working and the element of Earth: body, ground, harvest, the floor a rite is built on. He holds no day and no planetary hour — the seven archangels beside him each keep a sphere, and Uriel keeps a direction. Where he sits on the Tree is unsettled: some schemes give him Malkuth, which the Golden Dawn gives to Sandalphon, and most leave him without one.

Its properties

His colours are the four earth-tones quartered — citrine, olive, russet and black — the scale the Tree also gives Malkuth. His number is four, not for a fourth sphere but for Agrippa’s four angels of the corners of the world, of which he is one. The suit of Pentacles answers to him. His upright virtue is stability, and the plain sight that goes with it: in Second Esdras he is the angel who teaches a visionary how to read what he has been shown. His shadow is that same weight gone inert — the ground that will not move, endurance mistaken for living.

Where else it appears

The same guardian stands at the north in many houses. He is the ox-faced cherub of Ezekiel’s chariot; Geb lying under the sky in Egypt, Prithvi holding the ground in the Vedas; the northern watchtower of the witches’ circle. Rome names three archangels and not him; the Orthodox name seven and do. The disagreement is only ever over the name — the north has a keeper in every one of these houses, one office seen from several doors.

Where you meet it on the Oracle

You will not find him in the Day’s planetary trinity, because he has no planet to be named by; that absence is the fact about him. He reaches the Oracle through the Teachings, in the ceremonial tile that sets the four archangels at the quarters, and through the Animal Kingdom, where the Bull is his creature. When his quarter is the one you need, face north, put both feet on the floor, and start with what is already solid.

Why it matters

He matters because a rite, or a day, needs somewhere to stand, and the three bright quarters are no use without the fourth that holds them up. He asks one plain thing of you: before you reach for anything, be sure of the ground you are reaching from.

Correspondences

element

Earth

number

4

colour

Citrine, olive, russet, black

tarot

Pentacles