Who Is the December Angel, and Is Hanael the Same as Archangel Haniel?
Hanael in Agrippa, Lamaël and Amaël in Lansdowne MS 1203, Anael in a modern list, and why one December birthday can return three different names
Agrippa's scale of the twelve signs gives Capricorn and December to Hanael. Lansdowne MS 1203, a French magical manuscript, writes Lamaël and then Amaël for the same row, and a modern month list gives "Anael (AKA: Hanael)".
Archangel Haniel, whose profile many December birthday pages borrow, appears in the same older books among the angels of the planets. That role and the December row answer different questions.
Quick Facts
- Agrippa's December angel
- Hanael, tenth of the twelve sign angels, with Capricorn and the knees
- Lansdowne MS 1203 spellings
- Lamaël on page 52, Amaël in the list of characters on pages 59-60
- Page 52 faculty
- Laughter (Le Ris)
- Modern month list
- Anael, "AKA: Hanael", with a winter theme of giving thanks
- Haniel in the same books
- An angel of the planets, in the place of Venus
- 1 to 21 December
- Sagittarius dates, whose sign angel is Adnachiel
Is the December angel Hanael, Lamaël or Anael?
The December row carries four spellings across three sources, and only Agrippa writes Hanael. His Book II, chapter 14 makes Hanael the tenth of the twelve angels ruling the signs, set beside Capricorn, December and the knees.
Lansdowne MS 1203 does not write Hanael at all. Its sign table on page 52 gives Capricorn and December to Lamaël, with laughter (Le Ris) as the angel's faculty, and its list of the angels' characters on pages 59-60 writes Amaël.
Joseph Peterson's English edition marks that second spelling with a star and prints Hanael in its place, the form Agrippa uses. He gives no reason for the change where he makes it, so his Hanael records the editor's reading rather than what the copyist wrote.
Spellings drift within this one copy elsewhere too. Peterson's introduction notes its "total absence of corrections in spite of the occasional errors and especially dislocations", so two spellings in one row are no evidence of two December angels.
The modern Angels of the Months guide at Archangels and Angels gives the December angel as "Anael (AKA: Hanael)".
Its theme is a northern winter in which "life is still all around us", a time to give thanks for what has been achieved and to share successes with others.
| Source | Name written | Correction or alias |
|---|---|---|
| Agrippa, Three Books, Book II, chapter 14 | Hanael | None; this is the form Peterson's correction adopts |
| Lansdowne MS 1203, page 52 | Lamaël | None; Peterson's English table keeps Lamaël |
| Lansdowne MS 1203, pages 59-60, list of characters | Amaël | Starred and printed as Hanael in Peterson's English |
| Angels of the Months (modern guide) | Anael | Gives Hanael as an alias ("AKA: Hanael") |
Is Hanael the same as Archangel Haniel?
In both older books, Haniel stands in a list of planet angels, while the December name sits in a separate list of sign angels. On page 50 of Lansdowne MS 1203, Haniel is fifth among "the angels of the planets that are before the face of God", the place the manuscript's own planet order gives to Venus.
The same page has a second planet list in which Anaël appears.
Neither Haniel nor Anaël appears in the manuscript's December row, which reads Lamaël and then Amaël.
Agrippa keeps the spellings apart as well. In his scale of the number nine (Book II, chapter 12), Haniel is the seventh of the nine angels ruling the heavens, matching the seventh sphere, Venus, while his scale of twelve two chapters later writes Hanael for Capricorn.
Two spellings in one author do not prove two different angels. They do show that, in these books, the December sign and the planet Venus are separate posts, each filled from its own list.
Reference books joined the names later. Gustav Davidson's A Dictionary of Angels (1967) makes Haniel the angel of December and, citing Benjamin Camfield's treatise of 1678, governor of Capricorn; it also lists Anael and Hanael among Haniel's variant forms.
Modern devotional profiles of Haniel take grace from the name's meaning, love and harmony from the Venus role, and joy from recent devotional writing. Neither older table puts those themes, or the name Haniel, in its December row.
Why do some December birthday pages name Nanael or Nithael instead?
Those names come from a separate system with no link to the twelve sign angels. Birthday tables built on the 72 angels of the Shem HaMephorash divide the year into 72 segments of about five days each, and pages using them give mid-December dates names such as Nanael or Nithael.
The 72-name tables also disagree with one another. One modern compiler, Angelorum, notes that the names "have not always been placed at the same points in the zodiac", so two charts can return different names for the same birthday.
The zodiac sign gives yet another answer. Capricorn begins about 22 December in the tropical zodiac, so dates from 1 to 21 December fall under Sagittarius, whose angel in both older tables is Adnachiel, the November name.
| System | What it looks up | Name returned |
|---|---|---|
| Month list | The month, December | Hanael in Agrippa, Lamaël in Lansdowne MS 1203, Anael in the modern guide |
| Sign lookup | The tropical sign on that date, Sagittarius | Adnachiel |
| 72-name birthday table | A five-day segment of the year | One of the 72 names, depending on which table is used |
The same date returns three names because each system asks a different question: one about the month, one about the sign and one about a five-day slice of the calendar.
None of those questions asks who guards a particular person.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Hanael watch over mothers?
None of the sources cited here gives Hanael that charge. Agrippa assigns Hanael to Capricorn, December and the knees, and the modern month guide speaks of giving thanks in winter; the role of guarding mothers comes from recent birthday profiles, not from these texts.
Sources
- (1651 English translation; digital edition 2000, updated 2019). Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book II, chapters 12 and 14. Esoteric Archives; scales of the numbers nine and twelve. Link
- (2001; updated 2021). The Veritable Clavicles of Solomon: Lansdowne MS 1203, pages 50, 52 and 59-60. Esoteric Archives; tables of planet angels, sign angels and their characters. Link
- (Undated). Angels of the Months. Modern practitioner interpretation; not a historical authority. Link
- (Accessed October 6, 2026). Astrological sign. Wikipedia; approximate start dates of the tropical signs. Link
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