AngelIn various theistic religious traditions, an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include protectors and guides for humans, such as guardian angels, and servants of God. Abrahamic religions describe angelic hierarchies, which vary by religion and sect. Some angels have specific names (such as Gabriel or Michael) or titles (such as seraph or archangel).
Santa MuerteNuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte (ˈnwestɾa seˈɲoɾa ðe la ˈsanta ˈmweɾte; Spanish for Our Lady of Holy Death), often shortened to Santa Muerte, is a , female deity, and folk saint in folk Catholicism and Mexican Neopaganism. A personification of death, she is associated with healing, protection, and safe delivery to the afterlife by her devotees. Despite condemnation by leaders of the Catholic Church, and more recently evangelical movements, her cult has become increasingly prominent since the turn of the 21st century.
PsychopompPsychopomps (from the Greek word ψυχοπομπός, psychopompós, literally meaning the 'guide of souls') are creatures, spirits, angels, demons or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afterlife. Their role is not to judge the deceased, but simply to guide them. Appearing frequently on funerary art, psychopomps have been depicted at different times and in different cultures as anthropomorphic entities, horses, deer, dogs, whip-poor-wills, ravens, crows, vultures, owls, sparrows, and cuckoos.
Danse MacabreThe Danse Macabre (dɑːns_məˈkɑːb(rə); dɑ̃s ma.kabʁ) (from the French language), also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory of the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death. The Danse Macabre consists of the dead, or a personification of death, summoning representatives from all walks of life to dance along to the grave, typically with a pope, emperor, king, child, and labourer. The effect is both frivolous and terrifying, beseeching its audience to react emotionally.
Christian mythologyChristian mythology is the body of myths associated with Christianity. The term encompasses a broad variety of legends and narratives, especially those considered sacred narratives. Mythological themes and elements occur throughout Christian literature, including recurring myths such as ascending a mountain, the axis mundi, myths of combat, descent into the Underworld, accounts of a dying-and-rising god, a flood myth, stories about the founding of a tribe or city, and myths about great heroes (or saints) of the past, paradises, and self-sacrifice.
PersonificationPersonification is the representation of a thing or abstraction as a person. In the arts, many things are commonly personified. These include numerous types of places, especially cities, countries, and continents, elements of the natural world such as the months or four seasons, four elements, four cardinal winds, five senses, and abstractions such as virtues, especially the four cardinal virtues and seven deadly sins, the nine Muses, or death.
AzraelAzrael (æzri'əl; עֲזַרְאֵל, 'God has helped'; عزرائيل) is the angel of death in some Abrahamic religions, namely Islam and Christian popular culture. Relative to similar concepts of such beings, Azrael holds a benevolent role as God's angel of death; he acts as a psychopomp, responsible for transporting the souls of the deceased after their death. In Islam, he is said to hold a scroll concerning the fate of mortals, recording and erasing their names at their birth and death, similar to the role of the Malakh ha-Maveth (Angel of Death) in Judaism.
Four Horsemen of the ApocalypseThe Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are figures in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Bible, a piece of apocalypse literature written by John of Patmos. They are not specifically identified there but subsequent commentary often identifies them as personifications of Death, Famine, War, and Conquest. Revelation 6 tells of a book or scroll in God's right hand that is sealed with seven seals. The Lamb of God/Lion of Judah opens the first four of the seven seals, which summons four beings that ride out on white, red, black, and green horses.
Charon's obolCharon's obol is an allusive term for the coin placed in or on the mouth of a dead person before burial. Greek and Latin literary sources specify the coin as an obol, and explain it as a payment or bribe for Charon, the ferryman who conveyed souls across the river that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. Archaeological examples of these coins, of various denominations in practice, have been called "the most famous grave goods from antiquity.
SamaelSamael (סַמָּאֵל, Sammāʾēl, "Venom/Poison of God"; سمسمائيل, Samsama'il or سمائل, Samail; alternatively Smal, Smil, Samil, or Samiel) is an archangel in Talmudic and post-Talmudic lore; a figure who is the accuser or adversary (Satan as mentioned in the Book of Job), seducer, and destroyer (Mashhit as mentioned in the Book of Exodus). Although many of his functions resemble the Christian notion of Satan, to the point of being sometimes identified as a fallen angel, he is not necessarily evil, since his functions are also regarded as resulting in good, such as destroying sinners.
