You’re browsing a used bookstore, maybe in one of those dusty corners where the air smells like vanilla and decay. You find a thick, raspberry-colored spine. It’s heavy. When you open it, you aren't met with Sunday school illustrations of chubby babies on clouds. Instead, you see woodcuts of multi-winged beasts, terrifying fallen entities, and a list of names that sound like they were pulled from a fever dream.
That’s the Gustav Davidson Dictionary of Angels.
Honestly, it’s one of the weirdest, most ambitious books ever published. It’s a 400-page directory of the celestial and the damned. Most people think they know angels—Gabriel, Michael, maybe Uriel if they’re fancy. But Davidson? He found thousands of them. And he didn't just find them in the Bible; he dug through the Talmud, Gnostic scrolls, Kabbalistic secrets, and grimoires that would make a medieval inquisitor faint.
Who Was Gustav Davidson Anyway?
You’d think the guy who wrote the definitive guide to the "Prince of the Chariot" or "The Angel of the Bottomless Pit" would be some hooded mystic living in a cave. Not even close.
Gustav Davidson was a poet. A New Yorker. He was actually the executive secretary of the Poetry Society of America for about 15 years. He was born in Warsaw in 1895, fled pogroms, and ended up at Columbia University. He was a man of letters, a bibliophile, and a researcher who spent sixteen years—sixteen!—hunting down the names of spirits.
He didn't start as a believer. He actually said that in the beginning, he didn't believe in angels at all. But after a decade and a half of reading about them, tracking their "biographies" through history, he admitted he started to feel their presence. Or at least, he felt the weight of how much humanity wanted them to be real.
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The Book That Maps the Invisible
What makes the Gustav Davidson Dictionary of Angels so different from a regular religious text is its scope. It’s called A Dictionary of Angels: Including the Fallen Angels, and that "including" does a lot of heavy lifting.
Most religious books want to keep things neat. Good guys here, bad guys there. Davidson says "forget that." He lists them all alphabetically. You get:
- Abaddon: The "Destroyer" who hangs out in the abyss.
- Hadraniel: An angel so tall it takes 500 years to walk from his feet to his head (according to Jewish legend).
- Zadkiel: The angel of benevolence who reportedly stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac.
- Crocell: A fallen duke who teaches geometry. Seriously.
The book is basically the ultimate "Who's Who" of the spirit world. It covers the Nine Choirs—the Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, all that—but it also delves into the weird stuff. We’re talking about angels of the hours of the day, angels of the zodiac, and even angels of "hidden treasures."
The 16-Year Rabbit Hole
Davidson didn't just skim the surface. He went into the deep end of the "Pseudepigrapha"—books like the Book of Enoch that didn't make it into the official Bible but were massive hits in ancient times. He looked at the Zohar, the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, and the Testament of Solomon.
If an angel appeared in a 13th-century magical charm or a 5th-century Syrian text, Davidson probably found them. He even included the sigils—the "signatures" or magical symbols used to summon these beings. It’s part academic reference, part occult manual.
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Why People Still Obsess Over It
There is a specific vibe to this book. It’s academic but also kinda eerie. It’s got 105 illustrations, and they aren't "precious." They’re dark, intricate, and sometimes frightening. You’ve got William Blake’s "Lucifer" and terrifying images of the "Scarlet Woman" on a seven-headed dragon.
In the 1990s, there was this massive "angel craze" in America. Everyone was buying "Touched by an Angel" merch and little porcelain figurines. But the serious seekers—the ones who liked The Sandman comics or Good Omens—they went for Davidson. They wanted the grit.
It’s Not Just for Religious People
You don't have to be religious to appreciate the Gustav Davidson Dictionary of Angels. Artists, writers, and gamers use it constantly. If you’ve ever played a game with complex "summon" creatures or read a fantasy novel where the angels have names like Azael or Samyaza, there is a high chance the creator had a copy of Davidson on their desk.
The book acknowledges the contradictions. One source might say an angel is a high-ranking prince of heaven, while another says he’s a demon in the third circle of hell. Davidson just presents the evidence. He’s the librarian of the supernatural.
The "Factual" Problem with Angels
Is the book "accurate"? That’s a trick question.
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It’s an accurate dictionary of what people have written about angels. Davidson isn't claiming he interviewed an archangel. He’s documenting human belief, mythology, and folklore. He’s very honest about the fact that "angelology" is a mess of conflicting traditions.
For example, he mentions Azrael, the Angel of Death. In some traditions, he’s a terrifying figure with four faces and four thousand wings, covered in eyes. In others, he’s a more merciful spirit who helps souls transition. Davidson gives you both. He doesn't try to "fix" the mythology; he just maps it out.
Actionable Insights for Using the Dictionary
If you actually get your hands on a copy (the Free Press paperback is the most common version you’ll find), here is how to actually get value out of it:
- Don't read it cover to cover. It’s a dictionary. It’s meant to be browsed. Look up your birth date, look up the "angels of the signs of the zodiac" in the appendix, or just flip to a random page.
- Check the Appendices. The back of the book is where the really wild stuff lives. There are lists of the "Governors of the Twelve Signs," "The Angelic Script" (yes, a literal alphabet), and even "A Spell to Guarantee the Possession of the Loved One." (Use that one at your own risk, obviously).
- Use it for Creative Inspiration. If you’re a writer or artist, this is a goldmine. Instead of using generic names, find an angel with a specific "function"—like the angel of trees or the angel of bird-calls. It adds a layer of authenticity to your work that you can't get from making names up.
- Cross-Reference. If you find a name you like, look it up in the bibliography. Davidson is great about pointing you toward his sources, like the Grub Street of medieval occultism.
The Gustav Davidson Dictionary of Angels remains a masterpiece because it treats the invisible world with the same meticulous detail a biologist would use to map a rainforest. It’s weird, it’s dense, and it’s a little bit dangerous. It reminds us that for thousands of years, humans haven't just looked at the stars—we’ve given them names, personalities, and wings.
Whether you think these beings are literal spirits or just metaphors for the human psyche, Davidson’s work ensures that their names won't be forgotten. It’s a bridge between the ancient world and the modern seeker, and it’s still the best place to start if you want to know who’s really watching from the shadows.
To get the most out of your research, try looking for the 1967 first edition if you're a collector, but for everyday use, the Free Press reprint from 1994 is much more affordable and contains all the original illustrations and appendices. Start by looking up the "Seven Archangels" in the appendix to see how different cultures couldn't even agree on who the top seven were. It's the quickest way to see just how deep the rabbit hole goes.