Shem Angels

The seventy-two Shem angels take their names from the Shem HaMephorash, a seventy-two-letter name of God derived in Kabbalistic tradition from three verses of Exodus 14, read together in a particular pattern to yield seventy-two three-letter groups. To each is added the suffix -el or -yah to form an angelic name, giving the seventy-two angels of the Shem.

Each angel governs a range of degrees of the zodiac and a sphere of influence, and is invoked for particular purposes; the scheme was elaborated in Christian Kabbalah and in the Western magical tradition, notably by writers such as Athanasius Kircher and later the occultists of the nineteenth century.

The seventy-two Shem angels are often set as the benign counterpart to the seventy-two demons of the Goetia, the two lists mirroring one another across the divide of good and evil, and some magical traditions pair each Shem angel with a goetic spirit it governs or balances. Each angel has its psalm verse, its degrees of the zodiac, and its attributed virtues.

The atlas gives each Shem angel its name, its zodiacal degrees, and its associations. The divine name they derive from, and the goetic spirits they are paired against, are treated in their own categories under Angels, Spirits & the Shadow.