Barbiel

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Seal of Barbiel from the Magical Calendar

Barbiel or Carbiel is the angel who rules over the zodiac sign of Scorpio.

His name means "Sincerity or Purity of God." The four letters of Yahweh are וההי VHHY.

Characteristics

Barbiel's primary office is to declare and to esteem obscure and doubtful things and everything that is united with health. According to occultist Franz Bardon, this angel allows a magician to "become the absolute ruler in the microcosmic and macrocosmic worldly order through controlling the primary radiation principle."

As an Archangel of the Zodiac, Barbiel also rules over the month of October and the genitals of human bodies. In the hierarchy of angels, he is in the Archangels choir. Its stone is amethyst.

The Archdemon of the Zodiac under his control is Ssarssaiel, the demon king of Scorpio.

Textual history

Barbiel is mentioned in many grimoires from the 1500s onward. His name first appears in print in Three Books of Occult Philosophy (1531), but must have come from an older, unidentified source. The Magical Calendar (1619) marks the earliest publication of his summoning seal. Arsenal Manuscript 2495 (1600s) contains the earliest known explanation of the angel's abilities, although this text likely utilized an older source.

According to Johann Georg Faust's book, Magia naturalis et innaturalis, Barbiel is ruled over by Archangel Zaphkiel.