Tzadkiel

“Righteousness of God” — the mercy that is a kind of justice, and the freedom hidden inside forgiveness.

The Archangel

Tzadkiel — spelled also Zadkiel — is the archangel of mercy, benevolence, and grace, the angel whose whole nature is the open hand. The name is read “Righteousness of God” or “Justice of God,” from the Hebrew tzedek, and it is a righteousness of a particular kind: not the severity that punishes but the mercy that pardons, the higher justice that knows the free gift is truer than the ledger. Where Khamael draws the sword, Tzadkiel stays the hand; the two are the balanced arms of heaven, rigour and clemency, and Tzadkiel is the arm that opens. He is the angel of forgiveness and of the freedom forgiveness brings — for to be forgiven is to be released from the weight of the past, and to forgive is to be released from the poison of the grievance. In iconography he is a benevolent figure robed in the royal blue and violet of Jupiter, often bearing a ceremonial dagger, sometimes a sceptre, his face grave with kindness.

His planet is Jupiter, the greater benefic, and everything Jovian belongs to him: expansion, abundance, magnanimity, the largeness of spirit that blesses rather than counts. He presides over Thursday, the day of Jupiter, over tin, the soft bright metal of the planet, and over the whole province of grace: mercy, generosity, the benevolence that gives without demanding return. To draw near to Tzadkiel is to be met with kindness one has not earned, which is the definition of grace. He is the counsellor and the intercessor, the angel who pleads for the sinner and stays the executing sword — for in the economy of heaven, mercy is not the opposite of justice but its fulfilment.

Scripture and Tradition

Tzadkiel belongs, like Haniel and Khamael, chiefly to the mystical and Kabbalistic traditions rather than the canonical scriptures, where he is not named. The rabbinic and apocryphal literatures give him his most famous office: it is Tzadkiel, in many tellings, who is the angel of mercy who stayed the hand of Abraham upon Mount Moriah, staying the knife raised over Isaac and providing the ram — the very image of divine clemency interrupting the demand of sacrifice. From this he became the angel of the ceremonial dagger, the blade that is drawn and then withheld. The medieval books of correspondence established him as the archangel of Jupiter and its Thursday, the benevolent complement to the severe Khamael, ruler of grace and the higher justice. Occult tradition made him the patron of forgiveness, of benevolence, and of all who ask for mercy, and named him a chief of the order of Dominions who govern by measure and magnanimity.

In the Kabbalistic scheme Tzadkiel presides over Chesed, the fourth sphere, the seat of mercy, loving-kindness, and boundless grace, ruled by Jupiter and radiant with the generous overflow that is the first structured emanation of the divine love. Chesed is the open arm of God, the boundless mercy that Geburah must temper lest it dissolve all form — and Tzadkiel is its steward. His planetary trump on the Tree is the Wheel of Fortune, the tenth key, the turning wheel of Jupiter whose ascents and descents are the largesse of fortune distributed across the world. His day is Thursday, his metal tin, his colours the royal blue and violet of Jupiter, and his emblems the sceptre, the dagger withheld, and the open hand. To invoke Tzadkiel is to call upon the faculty that forgives and blesses — the mercy that pardons, the generosity that gives freely, and the higher justice that knows the free gift of grace is truer than any reckoning.

Correspondences

Related

Archangels — Michael · Gabriel · Raphael · Uriel · Haniel · Khamael · Tzaphkiel · Sandalphon · Metatron Choirs — Seraphim · Cherubim · Thrones · Dominions · Virtues · Powers · Principalities · Archangels · Angels

• Chesed · Kabbalah · Tree of Life
• Jupiter · Wheel of Fortune
• Biblical Angels
• Angels & Demons