Who Is the Angel of March, and Why Do the Old Tables Start With It?

Malchidiel, Machidiel or Malahidael: which spelling belongs to which source?

Malchidiel is the March name in both historical witnesses. Page 52 of Joseph Peterson’s edition of Lansdowne MS 1203, The Veritable Clavicles of Solomon, gives its first row to Aries, the month of March, the angel Malchidaël and the capacity of eyesight.

Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy sets out a scale of the number twelve in Book II, chapter 14. Malchidiel comes first in its row of “Twelve Angels ruling over the signs,” standing above Aries in the row of signs and March in the row of months.

That pairing comes from position in a grid; no sentence in the chapter joins the three words.

The manuscript keeps one form for this angel. The table on page 52 and a later list of the characters of the sign angels on pages 59-60 both write Malchidaël, while Peterson’s English version of that later list prints Malchidiel, the form Agrippa uses.

The modern Angels of the Months guide at Archangels and Angels heads its March entry “Machidiel (AKA: Malahidael)” and ties the month to stamina, courage and starting new projects. Its editor adds that no references were supplied with the text, so the guide gives no witness for either spelling.

Sorted this way, Malchidaël and Malchidiel belong to the historical witnesses, and Machidiel and Malahidael appear only in the modern guide. None of these sources says when the shorter forms entered circulation, so calling them a different angel, or a proven misreading, goes further than the evidence.

Where do the “angel of truth” title and the head come from?

The head comes from Agrippa. His scale of twelve has a row of “Twelve principall members,” and the head stands in the Aries and March column, so it pairs a body part with a sign rather than describing anything Malchidiel does.

Lansdowne MS 1203 gives the same row a different attribute. Its column for the capacity of each angel, “and the things over which they have power,” sets eyesight beside Malchidaël.

The supplement to chapter 5 of the Sefer Yetzirah pairs Aries with speech instead. Lansdowne’s column draws on a closely matching set of twelve faculties in another order, so the faculty given to Aries depends on which list you follow, and no source examined here says the manuscript took its column from the Hebrew text.

Neither the three older texts nor the modern monthly guide calls Malchidiel or Machidiel an angel of truth. The title appears on modern profile pages without a cited text, so it reports what those pages say about the name and has no counterpart in the tables.