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Ithuriel


Ithuriel ("discovery of God") is the name of a being mentioned in the writings of the Kabbala and in 16th century conjuring books. He is one of the three deputy sarim (princes) of the holy sefiroth serving under the ethnarchy of the angel Sephuriron.

The name Ithuriel occurs in the 16th-century tracts of Isaac ha-Cohen of Soria, where the term is interpreted as denoting "a great golden crown"; and in Moses ben Jacob Cordovero's Pardes Rimmonim (Orchard of Pomegranates). Earlier sources may yet come to light. The name appears also in the grimoires, as in the 1st pentacle of the planet Mars, figured in Mathers', The Greater Key of Solomon, p. 63.

In Paradise Lost IV, 778, 788, John Milton refers to Ithuriel as a cherub ("mistakenly," says Gershom Scholem) who, along with the Zephon, is dispatched by Gabriel to locate Satan. The "grieslie King" is discovered in the Garden of Eden "squat like a Toad close at the ear of Eve." By touching Satan with his spear, Ithuriel causes the Tempter to resume his proper likeness. This incident is illustrated in William Hayley's edition of Milton's works (London, 1794). In John Dryden's, The State of Innocence, Ithuriel figures in the cast of characters of one of 4 angels.

It is clear from the sources cited that Milton did not coin the name of Ithuriel (or the names of Abdiel or Zophiel, as certain Milton scholars have claimed) but found him ready at hand.


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