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lore.
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intro
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The following is an exploration of SPN's angelic lore, with outside sources used to supplement the canon and expand upon the ideas therein. Basically, this is a lot of brainstorming on my part. I have a great passion for angelology and religious mythology, and I enjoy using it to add seasoning to the ample but otherwise basic meal offered by Castiel's source material. There's an incredible amount of potential for ideas there, and I have a lot of fun running away with them.
None of these theories are "set in stone". I tend to use different ideas to flesh out different iterations of Castiel, as there are just too many for me to stick to any one. (The Castiel in my main PSL and the Castiel I played at![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
incensed had different designs for their true forms, for instance.) But this document will give you a fair idea of how I think about angels in general.
This page is a perpetual WIP. I'll probably never be finished exploring these ideas, so they exist here in an "incomplete" state.
The formatting is as follows: Several bullet points are listed, grouped together into related subjects, of pieces of information we're canonically shown or told about angels in SPN's lore. Beneath these bullet points is an extrapolation on the information given.
None of these theories are "set in stone". I tend to use different ideas to flesh out different iterations of Castiel, as there are just too many for me to stick to any one. (The Castiel in my main PSL and the Castiel I played at
incensed had different designs for their true forms, for instance.) But this document will give you a fair idea of how I think about angels in general.This page is a perpetual WIP. I'll probably never be finished exploring these ideas, so they exist here in an "incomplete" state.
The formatting is as follows: Several bullet points are listed, grouped together into related subjects, of pieces of information we're canonically shown or told about angels in SPN's lore. Beneath these bullet points is an extrapolation on the information given.
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primer
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An angel, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is a spiritual being serving as a divine messenger and intermediary and often as a special protector of an individual or nation.
Angels within the universe of Supernatural are supernatural beings with awesome power, created by God to serve as his Heavenly army. When they were first created is a mystery, but we do know that the archangels were conceptualized long before the Earth's creation was set into motion. The lesser angels, one would assume, followed suit.
Angels are by their nature inhuman and incomprehensible. They largely are incapable of communicating with humans without possessing a human vessel, otherwise the sight of their true form and sound of their true voice will physically damage and even kill the individual in question.
The appearance of angels' true forms is mostly a mystery. The angel Zachariah describes himself as having six wings, the head of a lion, and the head of an ox, and Castiel claims that his own is roughly the size of the Chrystler building, but these are the only descriptions we are given. However, this does agree with biblical and extra-biblical portrayals of angels (Zachariah's description of himself is roughly synonymous with how the Cherubim are depicted).
When inhabiting a human vessel, angels still maintain a single pair of wings, although they are normally are invisible to human beings.
Angels are "powered" by their God-given grace, which is depicted within the show as a liquid-like blue-white light when removed from an angel. Angels can be depowered and made "human" by removing this grace, however they are still fundamentally different creatures from human beings.
Angels are not normally given to emotion. Emotion is forbidden to them, and they can be punished for expressing it. It takes time for an angel to develop emotions, which often can happen through continued contact with human beings. If an angel loses their grace, they become much more susceptible to emotion.
Angels within the universe of Supernatural are supernatural beings with awesome power, created by God to serve as his Heavenly army. When they were first created is a mystery, but we do know that the archangels were conceptualized long before the Earth's creation was set into motion. The lesser angels, one would assume, followed suit.
Angels are by their nature inhuman and incomprehensible. They largely are incapable of communicating with humans without possessing a human vessel, otherwise the sight of their true form and sound of their true voice will physically damage and even kill the individual in question.
The appearance of angels' true forms is mostly a mystery. The angel Zachariah describes himself as having six wings, the head of a lion, and the head of an ox, and Castiel claims that his own is roughly the size of the Chrystler building, but these are the only descriptions we are given. However, this does agree with biblical and extra-biblical portrayals of angels (Zachariah's description of himself is roughly synonymous with how the Cherubim are depicted).
When inhabiting a human vessel, angels still maintain a single pair of wings, although they are normally are invisible to human beings.
Angels are "powered" by their God-given grace, which is depicted within the show as a liquid-like blue-white light when removed from an angel. Angels can be depowered and made "human" by removing this grace, however they are still fundamentally different creatures from human beings.
Angels are not normally given to emotion. Emotion is forbidden to them, and they can be punished for expressing it. It takes time for an angel to develop emotions, which often can happen through continued contact with human beings. If an angel loses their grace, they become much more susceptible to emotion.
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lore
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• celestial creatures
• waveform
• emit incredible amounts of light
conclusion: angels' true forms are waveforms, perhaps a sort of "hard" light, which is fueled by their grace. their power is such that they burn out the eyes of humans who witness them.
"The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches moving to and fro among the living creatures. The fire was bright, and out of the fire flashed lightning, 14and the living creatures moved back and forth, like flashes of lightning.” (Ezekiel 1:13-14)"
the grace of an angel and their true form are capable of being separated (source: angels in vessels can be depowered, so some essence of the angel must remain after the grace is removed).
q: what happens if an angel's grace is removed when they're in their true form? is this possible?
"The author of Hebrews suggests that all angels are “spirits” (Hebrews 1:13-14). When Jesus appears to the disciples, he asserts that “spirits” don’t have bodies like he does (Luke 24:39). In the Bible, angels can’t usually be seen by humans unless God reveals them (see Numbers 22:31, 2 Kings 6:17, Luke 2:13). However, from time to time angels took on a bodily form and appeared to various people in Scripture (Matthew 28:5; Hebrews 13:2)."
angels when visiting the earthly realm in their true form seem to voluntarily elect not to be seen, though it's possible that they are not normally visible by mortals in this state (source: we never see an an angel in their true form on earth under normal circumstances, however, angels are under certain circumstances able to see other angels' wings and essence, we see michael in a vessel this way from i think anael's pov?) but they can effect the physical world (source: castiel trying to speak to dean in lazarus rising). angels can also appear as 'white smoke' wisps when jumping between vessels, but i believe this is simply an intermediary form (source: castiel mentions his true form is as large as a sky scraper, and zachariah describes his as having the head of a lion, etc. so it seems incredibly unlikely that these 'wisps' are anything more than a visual shorthand. the visual shorthand for angels used in earlier seasons i a bright white light emanating down from the sky, which imo is a much more effective visual)
angels' wings, like their true form, are not visible to the human eye (source: the ghost facers episode where castiel appears) but they can cast shadows under certain circumstances.
could an angel's true form also cast a shadow?
• in order to interact with mortals, angels take vessels
• only certain humans can be vessels
• they posses and take control of the mortal body
• in doing so, they suppress the mortal mind
• they can still be affected by the mortal's mind
conclusion: only certain humans are compatible with an angel's specific wavelength. in order to possess a human, they combine with the human's nervous system. this causes them to pick up on some subconscious traits of the human, though the majority are filtered out. (source: famine affecting jimmy's consciousness and causing castiel to crave red meat — is possible that castiel's ability to taste during this time was caused by his heightened connection to jimmy's consciousness due to famine's effect.) certain physical desires that an angel wouldn't naturally have (sense of taste, etc.) are largely determined by the human vessel in angels who have become mortal (as angels in their natural form do not eat nor have a sense of taste). under normal circumstances, the angel's grace overwhelms certain sense receptors. grace also burns up and consumes most food that's eaten, though small amounts can pass through and be metabolized, especially in angels with weakening grace.
angels who become mortal are often referred to as human, but they aren't human, as they can consume another angel's grace and gain access to their power again temporarily, or consume their own grace to restore themselves. they also maintain use of angel radio. these are attributes that a mundane human being does not possess.
the average life expectation of a mortal angel is unknown, as most angels are killed or imprisoned as punishment. castiel's existence as a mortal is largely unprecedented.
• angels live in a hierarchical society
• it is military in nature, organized into garrisons
• angels are allowed no lives beyond their purpose
conclusion: angels have no culture in the human sense, though their military structure causes their society to resemble something similar.
"The angel hierarchy is supported by Jude 9, when the angel Michael is called an “archangel”—a title that indicates rule or authority over other angels. He’s also called “one of the chief princes” in Daniel 10:13, and appears to lead God’s angelic army in Revelation 12: “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated”"
angels are often refered to as the "host of heaven" or "armies of heaven"
why were they given military structure? clearly this is something god or the archangels imposed upon them, one would assume through their making. but why adopt such a human structure? of course, in biblical and extrabiblical texts angels are often described in military terms, so perhaps we can think of it as a situation where it's the language use that was adopted, and angels themselves only operated under a similar structue. angels were created to preform certain tasks, and the stucture of heaven is meant to utilize each angel at their full potential. call it a sort of convergent evolution.
they also naturally take inspiration from religious practice in their worship of god and veneration of the archangels. angels are expected to have faith in god and god's plan above all else. god is just and right, and his will cannot be questioned. and just so for the archangels, who are supposedly passing down orders from god on high. this is debunked during the events of s5, but until then, all lower ranked angels operate under the belief that god is present.
obedience is the highest virtue. rebellion is the greatest sin. sin requires penance. it can be concluded then that any sort of differentiation from the norm is frowned upon (with the exception of the archangels, who are exalted). every angel must strive be the best example of their order. they are not expected to have desires of their own. in this way, they also embody many science fiction tropes that touch on the theme of artificial people (robots, androids, AI) which are created to preform specific tasks and, when growing beyond this, are punished or destroyed.
• angels are not permitted to experience emotion
• angels are expressly forbidden to reproduce with humans
• many angels look down on humans as lesser beings
"Jesus taught that in the resurrection people “neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (Matthew 22:30, see also Luke 20:34–36)."
conclusion: while never, on screen, being specifically forbidden to have relationships with humans, they are in all effects barred from being allowed. it's easy to see how this could affect an angels' view of of these types of inter-species relationships. ishim looks down upon akobel for loving a human woman, and tells him that humans are nothing more than animals. broadly speaking, angels tend to speak of humans in this way far more often than as charges or, even more rarely, as equals. they also have a tendency to treat them as objects. dean is given the title of "Michael Sword" because he is michael's true vessel. for all intents and purposes, vessels are little more to an angel than a garment to wear, or a protective piece of armor.
this means that human/angel relations take on a certain flavor of taboo to other angels. although it's not expressly touched upon beyond the punishment for producing a nephilim (which is death, to both the angel and the nephilm), it's easy to see how the majority of angels would likely view this as something very crass and potentially even morally damaging.
• only five orders of angels are named in spn
• archangel, seraph, cherub, grigori, and rit'zien
• rit'zien are a fictional species (lit. rit [mercy] zien [hands])
• nephilim also exist, though they aren't a standard class of angel
conclusion: there is no confirmation that any other orders of angels exist within spn's angelic hierarchy, but i choose to believe they exist because wtf, spn.
gabriel, michael, and raphael are the archangels venerated by the roman catholic church.
zachariah describes himself as having the head of a lion in his true form, which is consistent with the lore for cherubim (which are described as having the head of a human, a lion, and an ox, alongside three pairs of wings, in ezekiel's vision).
spn's lore for cherubim overlap with the lore for cupids, or putto, which is a common mistake/misconception (so really unfortunate that spn canonized it...embarrassing). in order to correct this, i consider cherubs (cupids/putto, lower ranked angel) and cherubim (tetramorph described in ezekiel's vision, high ranked angel alongside seraphim) to be two different beings with the same name (or something like that...).
"Despite these indications that connote size and strength, there is a playful midrashic folk etymology — one that is certainly not correct in the historical sense — that connects the Hebrew word keruv (“cherub”) to the Aramaic expression ke revaya meaning “like a child” (according to a statement of Rabbi Abahu in Sukkah 5b). Rashi agrees that the cherubim have child-like faces. This tradition is the origin of the idea that cherubim look like winged babies.
But rabbinic literature is not single-mindedly committed to this image of the cherub as a child. In fact, in that same discussion on Sukkah 5b, Rabbi Abahu’s colleague, Abaye immediately challenges his suggestion that a cherub looks like a child by noting that Ezekiel describes a cherub as having the face of a man (Ezekiel 10:14)"
cherubim are associated with knowledge. seraphim with a burning love for god.
"They too, request God to pardon humans. In contrast to the messenger angels, the cherubim (and seraphim) always remain in the presence of God. If they stop praising God, they fall." (Die Welt des Orients)
castiel names himself a seraph in episode 08.05. it's unclear whether castiel has always been a seraph, or if he was 'upgraded' to the rank of seraphim in 05.22. it is often considered implied that he becomes a seraph here because seraphim are taken to be more powerful than standard angels, and this is a common belief purported in the fandom and fandom resources, but there is no canon or extracanon source for this claim that i can find. seraphim are only mentioned twice, once in the previously mentioned 08.05, and in 12.10, when akobel is named seraphim of the sixth choir. there is actually nothing to explicitly state that seraphim are more powerful than any standard angel, nor that castiel's "upgrade" includes a change in order.
with this in mind, there are two options:
castiel was upgraded from the order of angel to the order of seraphim in 5.22, and his species was essentially changed with little fanfare.
castiel has always been a seraphim, but he was given increased powers in 5.22.
the idea of castiel essentially changing species is an interesting one, but i think that the lack of attention paid to this thins the depth of the angels' lore— if castiel has become a seraph, it seems to be mean nothing beyond an increase in power. there is nothing particularly unique between the experience of being an angel and being a seraph, according to the canon.
perhaps these upgrades are normal, then? perhaps angels orders are considered malleable? how would this effect them as individuals?
personally, i'm beginning to prefer the idea that castiel has always been a seraph, because seraphim have very interesting mythology surrounding them that's unique from your standard angel (which also have their own unique lore, but it's far, far broader and less specific — their main trait being that they're messengers that take on human form to influence humanity). this mythology adds flavor to castiel's past that's otherwise absent because spn gives him no history.
for instance, seraphim (commonly depicted with six wings (two covering their eyes, two covering their feet, and the other two to fly with)), are conflated often with 'flying fiery serpents' of biblical mythology (seraph being the hebrew word for burning), and named alongside cherubim, phoenixes, and chalkydri, the latter two which are described as the flying elements of the sun. "There is emerging consensus that the motifs used to display seraphs in Hyksos-era Canaan had their original sources in Egyptian uraeus iconography" which again associates them with serpents. in non-biblical sources they are sometimes called Akyəst (serpents, dragons). they are also described as being 'full of eyes within' in isaiah's account in revelations.
due to this i often use the pheonix and chalkydri as sources of inspiration for castiel's true form, alongside each of the separate varied accounts of seraphim.
cherubim are also associated with griffins through their naming, which could position seraphim and cherubim as the origin of these mythical beasts.
in the book of enoch, seraphim are described as creatures always in god's presence (or always flying above the throne of god, irrespective of whether or not he's occupying it), praising him, which within spn's lore puts them in quite a sad position— because their god has left them. this increases the narrative weight of castiel's abandonment. and i find it quite compelling— castiel had purpose before his need as a soldier was solidified (because the war in heaven happened relatively recently, for the angels) but even that is something he could not fulfill!
"In Kabbalah, the seraphim are the higher angels of the World of Beriah ("Creation", first created realm, divine understanding), whose understanding of their distance from the absolute divinity of Atziluth causes their continual "burning up" in self-nullification."
a trait that's quite apropos for castiel, considering his self-effacing personality.
(perhaps they occupied the space nearest to the throne alongside the cherubim, but still couldn't look upon it and were distanced from it as described in the kabbalah, causing their self-nullification, and reasoning why the archangels and metatron alone where the ones who spoke to god in spn's mythology.)
i like to believe that the hierarchy of spn's angels is broadly similar to what we know of in biblical and apocryphal religious texts, with many small adjustments and caveats, the greatest being that when the war in heaven began, and god truly left, all angels were called to the ranks. meaning that the cherubim and seraphim were pulled from their place at god's throne to serve.
seraphim are also described as beings with a fiery passion for doing god's work.
my general timeline for castiel is that he occupied the space above god's throne, praising him, and singing at the dawn of each new day, until the earth was formed and animal life evolved, and then he began walking the earth (by taking animal vessels) under orders from the archangels.
angels walked the earth in pre-history
"don't step on that fish, castiel. big plans for that fish."
conclusion: in order to walk the earth, they had to have vessels. heaven can create vessels (we know that anna gets her vessel back after its destroyed) under certain circumstances, but what did these vessels look like then?
• humanoid with wings
wing-based social practices. wing grooming, communication, feather giving?
• eldritch, based on their true form
ditto, with the addition of more non-human social practices.
• vessels from the fauna of the time period
ditto, but with various borrowed social practices from different animals.
could be all of the above, based on what's easier for the time period (pre-animal, heaven-made vessel; after the dawn of animals, they take animal vessels, etc.)
i always assume that angels in their true (wave-based) forms can't physically interact and their bodies don't need the kind of maintenance that would inspire most social practices anyway, but perhaps they can adopt some social practices from living beings after inhabiting vessels a number of times?
perhaps some practices spread throughout the group like a social contagion over millennia after animal life becomes the dominant form of life on earth.
this would mean angels have more history with the longest extant species. (which species?)
the first vessels angels would have taken are sea creatures, or perhaps being so simlarly inhuman themselves they simply swam the seas alongside the porifera
angels as the living memory of the earth's no longer extant species
do angels perfer to inhabit winged creatures?
pure angel (pre-earth) interactions — have a dream-like quality. low cohesion of singular bodies, light-waves can intermingle. being that telepathy could be their main form of communication in heaven (why would they need to use speech?), while they aren't a hive-mind, they are something not far removed from it. explains why their loyalty falls apart so quickly as they become more individualized (they never built bonds with each other, there was no need to) while also giving gravity and meaning to their history.
• angels can communicate with animals
which means they can take animal vessels
• enochian is the angel's native language
all other langages are secondary. their difficulty with colliqualism stems from this.
• angels are not meant to feel human emotion
• angels do not normally experience physical sensations like pain or pleasure
• an angel's life is very different from the mortal experience
conclusion: even aside from emotion being forbidden, angels are also displayed as being emotionless beings in their natural state.
angels consider themselves 'brothers' and 'sisters', yes, but the basis for this is not human familial relationships, but military brother/sisterhoods. angels do not feel in their natural state (true form) beyond a broad sense of loyalty toward god and heaven, which is a basic tennant of their programming, and/or a result of their shared origins. as they are creatures of light, and not physical beings, they aren't even constructed to have the capacity to feel (they neither possess the human limbic system or a soul, which is associated with the ability to experience emotion in spn lore).
inhabiting a human body for any length of time is prone to cause gradual changes in personality, because beyond the buffering effect of their grace, angels have no natural resistance to the effects of the human limbic system. this also explains why there's such a broad breakdown in the ranks during the apocalypse, when so many angels are taking vessels. although grace acts as a buffer between the angel and the vessel's biology, they aren't completely protected when walking among humanity.
castiel himself is a special case. it's likely his creation was faulty (why?) which made him more vulnerable.
when an angel loses its grace while inhabiting a vessel, it becomes completely vulnerable and inherits the full range of emotion.
as a result, angels tend to show symptoms of emotional repression. they don't cope well with emotional expereinces, and they have low emotional self-awareness. it's not easy for an angel to identify the emotions they are feeling, and they have no point of reference regarding how to respond to them in a healthy way, which leads to very messy outcomes. (ex. castiel going off the rails in s6 after being let loose with his new found free will. it's his emotionally led decision making that leads him to making the mistakes he does, but he doesn't identify the flaws in his reasoning until long after it's over because he's not self-aware enough to identify this at the time that it's happening.)
because angels aren't physical creatures, physical needs and desires are also alien to them. it also means that when inhabitin a human body, they're particularly succeptable to hormones. these things can become frightening, overwhelming, or conversely greatly addictive. an angel's way of coping with their traumatic lifestyle is through control and obdedience, so when you take that away and force them to live a human (or nearly human) life, they have to turn to other outlets or suffer. castiel, as an angel, lets himself go hungry, figuratively speaking. he does not pursue the things he he wants, or try to bring himself pleasure in any way, while also expressing the idea that he isn't likely to ever be happy (source: when explaining to jack why he isn't worried about the empty taking him in s14). castiel, as a human, is also weak to vice, as we see in the episode "the end".
• angels are immortal
do angels fear death? because of their emotionlessness, they don't seem to have the capacity to fear death, which is in line with their role as ready-made soldiers. but what of angels who've come to feel something, like castiel?
castiel believes he deserves to die, and sometimes even seems to seek it, but amara claims that he fears death (source: s11), which is something he seems to take as an an insult. perhaps because it's a cowardly position, for an angel.
dying in battle, for a purpose, seems from an angel's point of view to be an enviable position. their cause is their life. this may explain some of castiel's seemingly contradictory decisions regarding his own life, and how he risks it.
• angels do not have a soul
conclusion: however, considering that they can continue to inhabit a vessel even after losing their grace, it seems they must have some essance that embodies their individuality. given this, it could be said that they have a sort of proto-soul.
humans are nominally made up of three aspects: a physical body, a soul, and a mind/essence.
• a human can live without a soul, but they lose the ability to sleep or feel emotion.
• a human can live without a mind, but only in a braindead state.
• a human can live without a body, and become a spirit. humans who become spirits lose themselves over time, which seems to imply that the body is necessary for cohesion in the physical world.
a human has no powers naturally, though some can rarely channel magic.
the human soul is noted to be incredibly powerful, but that power isn't utilized in the normal course of the human life.
a soul is unique to the human it inhabits.
souls can be "bought" and "traded" by demons, and used in spells and to give power to supernatural creatures.
souls, once consumed, cannot be regrown.
angels are nominally made up of three aspects: a non-corporeal body, grace, and a mind/essence.
• it's unknown if an angel without a vessel can survive the loss of its grace.
• an angel would likely cease to exist without its essence, as it has no corporeal body.
• it's unknown if an angel's grace or essence can survive the loss of its non-corporeal body.
angels are incredibly powerful, and their grace fuels this power.
grace cannot be bought and traded by demons, though it can be used in spells and to strengthen supernatural creatures.
the grace is unique to the angel it inhabits.
grace can be recharged as long as it's still inhabiting the angel it originated from.
angels disconnected from heaven will eventually lose their grace and become mortal if they have taken a vessel.
an envesseled angel can take another angel's grace to power themselves, but this foreign grace will quickly burn out and kill the angel when it runs dry.
it's easy to see how the grace of an angel functions both like and unlike a soul. it is unique to an angel, but an angel can still consume and be fueled by the grace of another angel. angels are also not fundimentally changed in personality by the loss of their grace. in fact, it seems to have the opposite effect of the loss of a soul in a human, by allowing them to develop emotions and feel them more fully.
souls also seem to be much more powerful. angels can consume souls to gain power, and the more souls they consume the more they gain. (they can also be affected by these souls.) an angel can also reach into a human physically to touch their soul to recharge their own power, although this is very dangerous, and can cause the soul to flare and destroy the body of the human.
ultimatately, it seems that angels cannot exist as angels without their grace, as to remove it would cause both the grace and angel to cease to be (unless they are inhabiting a vessel). whereas the human soul and body can exist seperately. in this way, angels, despite being some of the most powerful creatures, are too insubstantial to exist without their component parts.
• angels are often equivocated to artificial beings in the language used to describe them
angels are beings created without free will, which s one of the very basic tenants most artifical life forms in fiction. this, alongside the way they're treated by those in power over them, and the language used (many preferences to their programming, errors, hacking, etc.) draws a clear equivocal line.
basically, angels are artificial constructs programmed to behave in certain ways, with the purpose of fulfilling god's orders.
of course, 'artificial' is a loaded word when we're talking about creatures that god made, but it's the difference between being made fully formed from the ether and evolving over several hundred millennia like animal life has. the most important difference, of course, is that humans were given free will to do as they please with the lives they were given.
to what end does this matter? well, obviously, other AI tropes can be applied to the angels to expand and enrich the lore surrounding them. their unfamiliarity with emotion and death are two places where i've taken some inspiration in this way. it can also bring about interesting questions about their humanity (in the figurative sense of the word "humanity"). what are their needs? their desires? how do they differ from humans'?
• castiel is based on the angel cassiel?
• waveform
• emit incredible amounts of light
conclusion: angels' true forms are waveforms, perhaps a sort of "hard" light, which is fueled by their grace. their power is such that they burn out the eyes of humans who witness them.
"The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches moving to and fro among the living creatures. The fire was bright, and out of the fire flashed lightning, 14and the living creatures moved back and forth, like flashes of lightning.” (Ezekiel 1:13-14)"
the grace of an angel and their true form are capable of being separated (source: angels in vessels can be depowered, so some essence of the angel must remain after the grace is removed).
q: what happens if an angel's grace is removed when they're in their true form? is this possible?
"The author of Hebrews suggests that all angels are “spirits” (Hebrews 1:13-14). When Jesus appears to the disciples, he asserts that “spirits” don’t have bodies like he does (Luke 24:39). In the Bible, angels can’t usually be seen by humans unless God reveals them (see Numbers 22:31, 2 Kings 6:17, Luke 2:13). However, from time to time angels took on a bodily form and appeared to various people in Scripture (Matthew 28:5; Hebrews 13:2)."
angels when visiting the earthly realm in their true form seem to voluntarily elect not to be seen, though it's possible that they are not normally visible by mortals in this state (source: we never see an an angel in their true form on earth under normal circumstances, however, angels are under certain circumstances able to see other angels' wings and essence, we see michael in a vessel this way from i think anael's pov?) but they can effect the physical world (source: castiel trying to speak to dean in lazarus rising). angels can also appear as 'white smoke' wisps when jumping between vessels, but i believe this is simply an intermediary form (source: castiel mentions his true form is as large as a sky scraper, and zachariah describes his as having the head of a lion, etc. so it seems incredibly unlikely that these 'wisps' are anything more than a visual shorthand. the visual shorthand for angels used in earlier seasons i a bright white light emanating down from the sky, which imo is a much more effective visual)
angels' wings, like their true form, are not visible to the human eye (source: the ghost facers episode where castiel appears) but they can cast shadows under certain circumstances.
could an angel's true form also cast a shadow?
• in order to interact with mortals, angels take vessels
• only certain humans can be vessels
• they posses and take control of the mortal body
• in doing so, they suppress the mortal mind
• they can still be affected by the mortal's mind
conclusion: only certain humans are compatible with an angel's specific wavelength. in order to possess a human, they combine with the human's nervous system. this causes them to pick up on some subconscious traits of the human, though the majority are filtered out. (source: famine affecting jimmy's consciousness and causing castiel to crave red meat — is possible that castiel's ability to taste during this time was caused by his heightened connection to jimmy's consciousness due to famine's effect.) certain physical desires that an angel wouldn't naturally have (sense of taste, etc.) are largely determined by the human vessel in angels who have become mortal (as angels in their natural form do not eat nor have a sense of taste). under normal circumstances, the angel's grace overwhelms certain sense receptors. grace also burns up and consumes most food that's eaten, though small amounts can pass through and be metabolized, especially in angels with weakening grace.
angels who become mortal are often referred to as human, but they aren't human, as they can consume another angel's grace and gain access to their power again temporarily, or consume their own grace to restore themselves. they also maintain use of angel radio. these are attributes that a mundane human being does not possess.
the average life expectation of a mortal angel is unknown, as most angels are killed or imprisoned as punishment. castiel's existence as a mortal is largely unprecedented.
• angels live in a hierarchical society
• it is military in nature, organized into garrisons
• angels are allowed no lives beyond their purpose
conclusion: angels have no culture in the human sense, though their military structure causes their society to resemble something similar.
"The angel hierarchy is supported by Jude 9, when the angel Michael is called an “archangel”—a title that indicates rule or authority over other angels. He’s also called “one of the chief princes” in Daniel 10:13, and appears to lead God’s angelic army in Revelation 12: “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated”"
angels are often refered to as the "host of heaven" or "armies of heaven"
why were they given military structure? clearly this is something god or the archangels imposed upon them, one would assume through their making. but why adopt such a human structure? of course, in biblical and extrabiblical texts angels are often described in military terms, so perhaps we can think of it as a situation where it's the language use that was adopted, and angels themselves only operated under a similar structue. angels were created to preform certain tasks, and the stucture of heaven is meant to utilize each angel at their full potential. call it a sort of convergent evolution.
they also naturally take inspiration from religious practice in their worship of god and veneration of the archangels. angels are expected to have faith in god and god's plan above all else. god is just and right, and his will cannot be questioned. and just so for the archangels, who are supposedly passing down orders from god on high. this is debunked during the events of s5, but until then, all lower ranked angels operate under the belief that god is present.
obedience is the highest virtue. rebellion is the greatest sin. sin requires penance. it can be concluded then that any sort of differentiation from the norm is frowned upon (with the exception of the archangels, who are exalted). every angel must strive be the best example of their order. they are not expected to have desires of their own. in this way, they also embody many science fiction tropes that touch on the theme of artificial people (robots, androids, AI) which are created to preform specific tasks and, when growing beyond this, are punished or destroyed.
• angels are not permitted to experience emotion
• angels are expressly forbidden to reproduce with humans
• many angels look down on humans as lesser beings
"Jesus taught that in the resurrection people “neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (Matthew 22:30, see also Luke 20:34–36)."
conclusion: while never, on screen, being specifically forbidden to have relationships with humans, they are in all effects barred from being allowed. it's easy to see how this could affect an angels' view of of these types of inter-species relationships. ishim looks down upon akobel for loving a human woman, and tells him that humans are nothing more than animals. broadly speaking, angels tend to speak of humans in this way far more often than as charges or, even more rarely, as equals. they also have a tendency to treat them as objects. dean is given the title of "Michael Sword" because he is michael's true vessel. for all intents and purposes, vessels are little more to an angel than a garment to wear, or a protective piece of armor.
this means that human/angel relations take on a certain flavor of taboo to other angels. although it's not expressly touched upon beyond the punishment for producing a nephilim (which is death, to both the angel and the nephilm), it's easy to see how the majority of angels would likely view this as something very crass and potentially even morally damaging.
• only five orders of angels are named in spn
• archangel, seraph, cherub, grigori, and rit'zien
• rit'zien are a fictional species (lit. rit [mercy] zien [hands])
• nephilim also exist, though they aren't a standard class of angel
conclusion: there is no confirmation that any other orders of angels exist within spn's angelic hierarchy, but i choose to believe they exist because wtf, spn.
gabriel, michael, and raphael are the archangels venerated by the roman catholic church.
zachariah describes himself as having the head of a lion in his true form, which is consistent with the lore for cherubim (which are described as having the head of a human, a lion, and an ox, alongside three pairs of wings, in ezekiel's vision).
spn's lore for cherubim overlap with the lore for cupids, or putto, which is a common mistake/misconception (so really unfortunate that spn canonized it...embarrassing). in order to correct this, i consider cherubs (cupids/putto, lower ranked angel) and cherubim (tetramorph described in ezekiel's vision, high ranked angel alongside seraphim) to be two different beings with the same name (or something like that...).
"Despite these indications that connote size and strength, there is a playful midrashic folk etymology — one that is certainly not correct in the historical sense — that connects the Hebrew word keruv (“cherub”) to the Aramaic expression ke revaya meaning “like a child” (according to a statement of Rabbi Abahu in Sukkah 5b). Rashi agrees that the cherubim have child-like faces. This tradition is the origin of the idea that cherubim look like winged babies.
But rabbinic literature is not single-mindedly committed to this image of the cherub as a child. In fact, in that same discussion on Sukkah 5b, Rabbi Abahu’s colleague, Abaye immediately challenges his suggestion that a cherub looks like a child by noting that Ezekiel describes a cherub as having the face of a man (Ezekiel 10:14)"
cherubim are associated with knowledge. seraphim with a burning love for god.
"They too, request God to pardon humans. In contrast to the messenger angels, the cherubim (and seraphim) always remain in the presence of God. If they stop praising God, they fall." (Die Welt des Orients)
castiel names himself a seraph in episode 08.05. it's unclear whether castiel has always been a seraph, or if he was 'upgraded' to the rank of seraphim in 05.22. it is often considered implied that he becomes a seraph here because seraphim are taken to be more powerful than standard angels, and this is a common belief purported in the fandom and fandom resources, but there is no canon or extracanon source for this claim that i can find. seraphim are only mentioned twice, once in the previously mentioned 08.05, and in 12.10, when akobel is named seraphim of the sixth choir. there is actually nothing to explicitly state that seraphim are more powerful than any standard angel, nor that castiel's "upgrade" includes a change in order.
with this in mind, there are two options:
castiel was upgraded from the order of angel to the order of seraphim in 5.22, and his species was essentially changed with little fanfare.
castiel has always been a seraphim, but he was given increased powers in 5.22.
the idea of castiel essentially changing species is an interesting one, but i think that the lack of attention paid to this thins the depth of the angels' lore— if castiel has become a seraph, it seems to be mean nothing beyond an increase in power. there is nothing particularly unique between the experience of being an angel and being a seraph, according to the canon.
perhaps these upgrades are normal, then? perhaps angels orders are considered malleable? how would this effect them as individuals?
personally, i'm beginning to prefer the idea that castiel has always been a seraph, because seraphim have very interesting mythology surrounding them that's unique from your standard angel (which also have their own unique lore, but it's far, far broader and less specific — their main trait being that they're messengers that take on human form to influence humanity). this mythology adds flavor to castiel's past that's otherwise absent because spn gives him no history.
for instance, seraphim (commonly depicted with six wings (two covering their eyes, two covering their feet, and the other two to fly with)), are conflated often with 'flying fiery serpents' of biblical mythology (seraph being the hebrew word for burning), and named alongside cherubim, phoenixes, and chalkydri, the latter two which are described as the flying elements of the sun. "There is emerging consensus that the motifs used to display seraphs in Hyksos-era Canaan had their original sources in Egyptian uraeus iconography" which again associates them with serpents. in non-biblical sources they are sometimes called Akyəst (serpents, dragons). they are also described as being 'full of eyes within' in isaiah's account in revelations.
due to this i often use the pheonix and chalkydri as sources of inspiration for castiel's true form, alongside each of the separate varied accounts of seraphim.
cherubim are also associated with griffins through their naming, which could position seraphim and cherubim as the origin of these mythical beasts.
in the book of enoch, seraphim are described as creatures always in god's presence (or always flying above the throne of god, irrespective of whether or not he's occupying it), praising him, which within spn's lore puts them in quite a sad position— because their god has left them. this increases the narrative weight of castiel's abandonment. and i find it quite compelling— castiel had purpose before his need as a soldier was solidified (because the war in heaven happened relatively recently, for the angels) but even that is something he could not fulfill!
"In Kabbalah, the seraphim are the higher angels of the World of Beriah ("Creation", first created realm, divine understanding), whose understanding of their distance from the absolute divinity of Atziluth causes their continual "burning up" in self-nullification."
a trait that's quite apropos for castiel, considering his self-effacing personality.
(perhaps they occupied the space nearest to the throne alongside the cherubim, but still couldn't look upon it and were distanced from it as described in the kabbalah, causing their self-nullification, and reasoning why the archangels and metatron alone where the ones who spoke to god in spn's mythology.)
i like to believe that the hierarchy of spn's angels is broadly similar to what we know of in biblical and apocryphal religious texts, with many small adjustments and caveats, the greatest being that when the war in heaven began, and god truly left, all angels were called to the ranks. meaning that the cherubim and seraphim were pulled from their place at god's throne to serve.
seraphim are also described as beings with a fiery passion for doing god's work.
my general timeline for castiel is that he occupied the space above god's throne, praising him, and singing at the dawn of each new day, until the earth was formed and animal life evolved, and then he began walking the earth (by taking animal vessels) under orders from the archangels.
angels walked the earth in pre-history
"don't step on that fish, castiel. big plans for that fish."
conclusion: in order to walk the earth, they had to have vessels. heaven can create vessels (we know that anna gets her vessel back after its destroyed) under certain circumstances, but what did these vessels look like then?
• humanoid with wings
wing-based social practices. wing grooming, communication, feather giving?
• eldritch, based on their true form
ditto, with the addition of more non-human social practices.
• vessels from the fauna of the time period
ditto, but with various borrowed social practices from different animals.
could be all of the above, based on what's easier for the time period (pre-animal, heaven-made vessel; after the dawn of animals, they take animal vessels, etc.)
i always assume that angels in their true (wave-based) forms can't physically interact and their bodies don't need the kind of maintenance that would inspire most social practices anyway, but perhaps they can adopt some social practices from living beings after inhabiting vessels a number of times?
perhaps some practices spread throughout the group like a social contagion over millennia after animal life becomes the dominant form of life on earth.
this would mean angels have more history with the longest extant species. (which species?)
the first vessels angels would have taken are sea creatures, or perhaps being so simlarly inhuman themselves they simply swam the seas alongside the porifera
angels as the living memory of the earth's no longer extant species
do angels perfer to inhabit winged creatures?
pure angel (pre-earth) interactions — have a dream-like quality. low cohesion of singular bodies, light-waves can intermingle. being that telepathy could be their main form of communication in heaven (why would they need to use speech?), while they aren't a hive-mind, they are something not far removed from it. explains why their loyalty falls apart so quickly as they become more individualized (they never built bonds with each other, there was no need to) while also giving gravity and meaning to their history.
• angels can communicate with animals
which means they can take animal vessels
• enochian is the angel's native language
all other langages are secondary. their difficulty with colliqualism stems from this.
• angels are not meant to feel human emotion
• angels do not normally experience physical sensations like pain or pleasure
• an angel's life is very different from the mortal experience
conclusion: even aside from emotion being forbidden, angels are also displayed as being emotionless beings in their natural state.
angels consider themselves 'brothers' and 'sisters', yes, but the basis for this is not human familial relationships, but military brother/sisterhoods. angels do not feel in their natural state (true form) beyond a broad sense of loyalty toward god and heaven, which is a basic tennant of their programming, and/or a result of their shared origins. as they are creatures of light, and not physical beings, they aren't even constructed to have the capacity to feel (they neither possess the human limbic system or a soul, which is associated with the ability to experience emotion in spn lore).
inhabiting a human body for any length of time is prone to cause gradual changes in personality, because beyond the buffering effect of their grace, angels have no natural resistance to the effects of the human limbic system. this also explains why there's such a broad breakdown in the ranks during the apocalypse, when so many angels are taking vessels. although grace acts as a buffer between the angel and the vessel's biology, they aren't completely protected when walking among humanity.
castiel himself is a special case. it's likely his creation was faulty (why?) which made him more vulnerable.
when an angel loses its grace while inhabiting a vessel, it becomes completely vulnerable and inherits the full range of emotion.
as a result, angels tend to show symptoms of emotional repression. they don't cope well with emotional expereinces, and they have low emotional self-awareness. it's not easy for an angel to identify the emotions they are feeling, and they have no point of reference regarding how to respond to them in a healthy way, which leads to very messy outcomes. (ex. castiel going off the rails in s6 after being let loose with his new found free will. it's his emotionally led decision making that leads him to making the mistakes he does, but he doesn't identify the flaws in his reasoning until long after it's over because he's not self-aware enough to identify this at the time that it's happening.)
because angels aren't physical creatures, physical needs and desires are also alien to them. it also means that when inhabitin a human body, they're particularly succeptable to hormones. these things can become frightening, overwhelming, or conversely greatly addictive. an angel's way of coping with their traumatic lifestyle is through control and obdedience, so when you take that away and force them to live a human (or nearly human) life, they have to turn to other outlets or suffer. castiel, as an angel, lets himself go hungry, figuratively speaking. he does not pursue the things he he wants, or try to bring himself pleasure in any way, while also expressing the idea that he isn't likely to ever be happy (source: when explaining to jack why he isn't worried about the empty taking him in s14). castiel, as a human, is also weak to vice, as we see in the episode "the end".
• angels are immortal
do angels fear death? because of their emotionlessness, they don't seem to have the capacity to fear death, which is in line with their role as ready-made soldiers. but what of angels who've come to feel something, like castiel?
castiel believes he deserves to die, and sometimes even seems to seek it, but amara claims that he fears death (source: s11), which is something he seems to take as an an insult. perhaps because it's a cowardly position, for an angel.
dying in battle, for a purpose, seems from an angel's point of view to be an enviable position. their cause is their life. this may explain some of castiel's seemingly contradictory decisions regarding his own life, and how he risks it.
• angels do not have a soul
conclusion: however, considering that they can continue to inhabit a vessel even after losing their grace, it seems they must have some essance that embodies their individuality. given this, it could be said that they have a sort of proto-soul.
humans are nominally made up of three aspects: a physical body, a soul, and a mind/essence.
• a human can live without a soul, but they lose the ability to sleep or feel emotion.
• a human can live without a mind, but only in a braindead state.
• a human can live without a body, and become a spirit. humans who become spirits lose themselves over time, which seems to imply that the body is necessary for cohesion in the physical world.
a human has no powers naturally, though some can rarely channel magic.
the human soul is noted to be incredibly powerful, but that power isn't utilized in the normal course of the human life.
a soul is unique to the human it inhabits.
souls can be "bought" and "traded" by demons, and used in spells and to give power to supernatural creatures.
souls, once consumed, cannot be regrown.
angels are nominally made up of three aspects: a non-corporeal body, grace, and a mind/essence.
• it's unknown if an angel without a vessel can survive the loss of its grace.
• an angel would likely cease to exist without its essence, as it has no corporeal body.
• it's unknown if an angel's grace or essence can survive the loss of its non-corporeal body.
angels are incredibly powerful, and their grace fuels this power.
grace cannot be bought and traded by demons, though it can be used in spells and to strengthen supernatural creatures.
the grace is unique to the angel it inhabits.
grace can be recharged as long as it's still inhabiting the angel it originated from.
angels disconnected from heaven will eventually lose their grace and become mortal if they have taken a vessel.
an envesseled angel can take another angel's grace to power themselves, but this foreign grace will quickly burn out and kill the angel when it runs dry.
it's easy to see how the grace of an angel functions both like and unlike a soul. it is unique to an angel, but an angel can still consume and be fueled by the grace of another angel. angels are also not fundimentally changed in personality by the loss of their grace. in fact, it seems to have the opposite effect of the loss of a soul in a human, by allowing them to develop emotions and feel them more fully.
souls also seem to be much more powerful. angels can consume souls to gain power, and the more souls they consume the more they gain. (they can also be affected by these souls.) an angel can also reach into a human physically to touch their soul to recharge their own power, although this is very dangerous, and can cause the soul to flare and destroy the body of the human.
ultimatately, it seems that angels cannot exist as angels without their grace, as to remove it would cause both the grace and angel to cease to be (unless they are inhabiting a vessel). whereas the human soul and body can exist seperately. in this way, angels, despite being some of the most powerful creatures, are too insubstantial to exist without their component parts.
• angels are often equivocated to artificial beings in the language used to describe them
angels are beings created without free will, which s one of the very basic tenants most artifical life forms in fiction. this, alongside the way they're treated by those in power over them, and the language used (many preferences to their programming, errors, hacking, etc.) draws a clear equivocal line.
basically, angels are artificial constructs programmed to behave in certain ways, with the purpose of fulfilling god's orders.
of course, 'artificial' is a loaded word when we're talking about creatures that god made, but it's the difference between being made fully formed from the ether and evolving over several hundred millennia like animal life has. the most important difference, of course, is that humans were given free will to do as they please with the lives they were given.
to what end does this matter? well, obviously, other AI tropes can be applied to the angels to expand and enrich the lore surrounding them. their unfamiliarity with emotion and death are two places where i've taken some inspiration in this way. it can also bring about interesting questions about their humanity (in the figurative sense of the word "humanity"). what are their needs? their desires? how do they differ from humans'?
• castiel is based on the angel cassiel?
Cassiel (Hebrew: קַצְפִּיאֵל Qaṣpīʾēl,[1] "God is my wrath";[2][3] also known as קַפְצִיאֵל Qap̄ṣīʾēl,[4] "God is my leap";[5] Arabic: كسفيائيل, Kasfīyāʾīl),[6][7][8][9][10][11] is an angel appearing in extracanonical Jewish, Christian, and Islamic mystical and magical works, often as one of the Seven Archangels, the angel of Saturn,[6][7][8][9][10][11] and in other roles.
Qafsiel is invoked in an ancient Hebrew charm to tell if an enemy is running away.[12] Gustav Davidson writes that Qafsiel is described as the ruler of the seventh heaven in 3 Enoch, citing Odeberg's edition.[12] However, Odeberg's edition only states in a footnote that Qafsiel is "(one of) the guardian(s) of the door of the seventh Hall" in Hekhalot Rabbati.[13] In turn, Qaspiel is described in Hekhalot Rabbati as a guardian of the sixth palace, armed with a lightning-dripping sword (which shouts "Ruin!") as well as a bow, tempests, light, and powerful winds—weapons which he uses against anyone not fit to see God. Qaspiel is later described in the same work as one of three "guardians of the entrance of the seventh palace," alongside Dumiel and Gabriel. Qaspiel is also listed in Ma'aseh Merkavah as a guardian of the second palace. Sefer Raziel lists Qafsiel as the prince of Saturn. The Zohar describes Qafsiel as one of the two chief aides (alongside Hizqiel) to Gabriel.[14] Qaspiel is also described as one of the angels of death in Judaism; specifically the angel who presides over the deaths of young men.[15]