INTRO:
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world.
These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.
I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.
Oh, this is an exciting episode this week - I’m really excited to cover this one as it’s just so bizarre but is in pretty much most mainline religions. I really love covering religious folklore too, it’s always super interesting.
DESCRIPTION:
Yes, this week we are covering the Seraphim or Seraph for singular! They are from Biblical, Judean and Islamic religious folklore, although with religion, it’s always quite funny to say folklore I suppose. Which is why I don’t say religious mythology, as in theory, there is no such thing - or it’s all mythology - so I’d rather take the folklore stance.
Anyway, these monsters are pretty strange in comparison to other monsters we’ve covered in the past - and can we really consider them monsters? That’s the real question - but Seraphim are known as the top tier of angels with the highest connection to the God of the religion.
They are described as pretty horrific looking beings, definitely not the angels you’re thinking of stereotypically unfortunately. These are six winged, four faced angels - mostly consisting of feathers and eyes to be completely honest. They’re actually quite hard to describe looks wise as they are totally unique, but just imagine six pairs of wings and lots of faces poking out of the inbetween parts. They can appear in a human form if they so please whilst on Earth, but mostly, they will stick to this nightmarish form.
They are also usually on fire with God’s love, and covering their many faces with their wings. So for example, most of them would have two of their six wings covering their feet, two covering their faces and using another two wings to fly - so it does get a little complicated. It’s also said that they have the most powerful voices of all creatures, and can kill a human with a song, and shatter glass like a top opera singer - however, there are no mentions specifically relating to this within the texts, it’s just said that they have that power.
They are said to fly around the throne of God, singing his praises, and calling the world to praise his majesty and power. They would be sent to Earth to fulfil any orders of purification, and would purify people by placing a hot coal from the altar of the heavens upon the lip of the person - which would purify their soul and heal them. They are completely obedient to God, and are his most loyal and powerful subjects.
Now in order to truly understand Angels within any religious context, we have to think of the structure of Angelic beings and the hierarchy around them. There are technically nine types of angel in three different triads. In the first triad, to contemplate and adore God directly, Seraphims being the most powerful, followed by the Cherubim, who look similar to Seraphim, but are usually described as being like Cherubs, so the babies with wings - they protect sacred spaces like Eden. Then it's the Thrones, who are monstrous looking eye-covered intertwined rings with wings, who dispense God’s justice and maintain harmony in all the cosmos.
I will say from this triad, all the angels look like stereotypical ones, with the humanoid forms and wings with togas. The weird ones are just within the top three.
In the second triad, generally for defence are the Dominions who govern nations, the Virtues who rule over miracles and blessings, and the Powers who guard heaven from demons.
The last three are ones you’ve most likely heard of, with Principalities who rule over the angels and keep them in line, Archangels who are the guardians of nations and countries, which is why they’re so involved with us. Some famous ones are Raphael, Gabriel and Azreal for example, and they all have different types that we’ll cover in another episode.
Lastly, Guardian Angels who look over specific people and support and help people directly and in person, basically the most likely one that you would see.
I will say that I will make sure to cover all the types in separate episodes bar the 4 in the middle and Guardian angels, just as they’re pretty easy to cover within one episode - whilst the others have a lot more meat to them - so don’t worry if you feel like I’m not giving a lot of information on this, I will get to it eventually!
I will also say that this hierarchy is the Christian version, but the one that is most broadly believed. However, for the Jewish faith, the hierarchy is slightly different with each text - so it's actually really complicated to cover - but the original philosophy was the following;
Chayot Ha Kodesh were the top dogs, who hold up the Throne of God and look similar to the Seraphim, the Ophanim who look like the Thrones with their intertwining eye-covered rings, who reflect God’s will, then the Erelim, who were normal looking angels who are known as angels of Earthly justice.
Following this, we have the Hashmallim who are elemental angels, THEN the Seraphim who again, are emblazoned winged creatures who praise God around his throne, then we have the Malakim, who are the usual messengers to Earth.
Lastly, the Elohim who are warriors who strive for victory over evil, the Bene Elohim who are also warriors and lastly the Cherubim, oh how the mighty have fallen from Christianity - but they just hang around God’s feet and chill, however, they were the first beings in existence so that’s cool.
I just want to cover Islam quickly too, they have Archangels, who reign over the plights of men, Guardian Angels who guard people, then Angels of Judgement, Angels of Heaven, Angels of the Netherworld and Angels of Weather, which are pretty self-explanatory. Although there is not an immense hierarchy here, more important are the individual angels within these categories - so as to not go too crazy some examples are Jibri, the angel who communicates Allah’s word to the Prophets, Israfil who blows the trumpet to mark the day of Judgement, Mika’il who delivers rainfall and food, and Malak Al-mawt who takes souls to the underworld.
I would go over all of them, but there are so many - so these are just the Archangels - but you can see most of these categories are similar to the Jewish and Christian versions. Seraphim are within the Angels of Heaven category within Islam, and have Hamalat Al’-Arsh, who is the closest to a Throne running the holding up of the Throne.
ORIGIN:
Now onto etymology, the word "seraphim" comes from the Hebrew word saraph, which means to burn - this is because they are depicted as fiery ones, emblazoned by the light of God’s love. Both the Bible and Torah describe love as "a blazing fire, like a mighty flame" so this kind of links it back to the Seraphim.
However, it should be mentioned that the etymology for the English word “angel” comes from the Greek “angelos” and the Latin “angelus”, both meaning messenger - so that’s fun too.
You can imagine that the origins of the Seraphim go back to the writings of the holy books of Christianity with the Bible, Judaism with the Torah and Islam with the Quran. However, I cannot tell you when these scriptures were written, it’s a mystery to everyone - so don’t expect the answers of that from me, it’s too much pressure!
For the Bible, they were mentioned in the book of Isiah, where Isiah had a vision of God upon his throne up in the temple he was visiting. Around the top of the throne, Seraphim float - burning bright with God’s love, Isiah said;
Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly."
Then one of the Seraphim takes a piece of coal and presses it to Isiah’s lips - signifying that Isiah was now purified and can now go on to be a prophet of God. There’s a great quote from this passage here;
“And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.”
They are mentioned again in the Book of Revelation, they are described as being forever in God's presence saying: "And they rest not day and night, saying, 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come."
In Judaism, Isiah’s vision is within the Old Testament; this is also in the Jewish faith.
In Islam, Seraphim are linked to the Bearers of the Throne - although they are not explicitly in the Quran. However, Bearers of the Throne are described as also having 6 wings and 4 faces within the Book of the Wonders of Creation and the peculiarities of Existing Things as the highest level of angels and constantly praising God within this religious text. Seraphim are however, mentioned in the Hadith, which is a record approved by the Prophet Mohammed, and were confined to Heaven, rather than ever being alongside man.
In terms of sightings, there are very few people who have said to have seen one in their heavenly forms on Earth. The most famous account of aSeraph in heavenly form was from 1224 when Saint Francis of Assisi found a seraph who gave him stigmata wounds on his hands as he was praying about Jesus Christ’s crucifixion. Other than that, human contact is limited.
It’s said that Gabriel, the angel to visit Joseph and Mary upon Jesus’ miraculous conception, showed in his angelic form to begin with - before changing to the imagined Archangel form we think of, but even this is just hearsay. It is said that before his fall from grace, Lucifer was once a Seraphim himself and a prince of the choir.
CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
Now onto modern media, for art, we have a few classic pieces like St. Francis' vision of a seraph by Giotto from between 1267 and 1337, Seraphim surround the divine throne by Jean Le Noir from 1375 or you can look at some amazing independent stuff - I used Seraphim II by Dan Hillier from 2010 in my advertising this week - which I think is so haunting and horrifying.
In movies, we have some like; The Prince of Egypt, Time Masters, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, Noah, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Krampus & The Matrix Trilogy.
For TV, we have a few; The Legend of Korra, Hazbin Hotel, Doctor Who, Supernatural, Dominion, The Bastard Executioner, & Midnight Mass.
In video games, we have loads such as; Astral Chain, Binding of Isaac, Bendy and the Ink Machine, Bayonetta, Dark Souls 2 and 3, Elder Scrolls, Doom Eternal, Final Fantasy 7, 9, 13 & 14, Digimon, Kingdom Hearts: End of the World, Dungeon Crawl, Kirby 64 & Kirby the Forgotten Land, Monster Train, Supreme Commander, Dwarf Fortress, Megaman Zero, Fate/Grand Order: Charlotte Corday, Heroes of the Storm, Tales of Zestiria, Okami, Monolith, The Secret World, Persona 5, Shin Megami Tensei, World of Warcraft, Water Womb World, Silent Hill 3, Armoured Core, Vintage Story, Street Fighter & Super Smash Bros: Ultimate.
My book recommendation this week is From Gabriel to Lucifer: A Cultural History of Angels by Valery Rees which is all about every angel species, including Seraphim - and actually if you’re into that, then give it a read - it’s a really good book!
DO I THINK THEY EXISTED?
Now it’s time for, do I think they existed? 16:37
Now, this is just my opinion here and I’m not poo-pooing anyone who believes in Angels, am I one of those people - no. No, I am not. I’m not religious either, and Angels and religion usually go hand in hand, so it’s a bit of a struggle to believe in one, in contrast to both.
However, I get it - if you are religious, I can see why these are totally believable, however, not based on their looks. If I take a religious standpoint here, I can’t see how these, realistic monstrosities are roaming about in Heaven - they sound horrifying. Maybe God is into that, I don’t know, but it’s definitely a ropey one for me. I think they’re terrifying, I certainly wouldn’t want one holding up my chair - but each to their own I suppose.
I can’t wait to cover Thrones though, because they’re definitely the freakiest of the Angels - and I really don’t like the look of them and would want them hitting me up if I did something wrong. I’d rather go to prison than face one of those telling me off.
But what do you think? Did Seraphim roam the heavens? Let me know on Twitter!
OUTRO:
I really like covering Religious folklore, I find it so interesting to cover as it’s quite tricky to walk the line as people do actually believe in these monsters. However, they’re still really cool to look at, especially with the way these ones look too!
Next week, we’re heading over to Innuit mythology for the first time in a little while and looking at the terrifying Qalupalik! Keep your little ones close and away from the ice next Thursday!
For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok, Youtube and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast too.
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But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.