A theophany is said to be a visible manifestation of God to humans. Pantheistic-types would probably argue that any and everything that exists is imbued with the substance of God, and is therefore a manifestation of God. The ancient Hebrews, however, seem to have seen things a little differently.

Most of us have heard the story of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments, and this one of the more famous examples of theophany in the Hebrew Bible - the Torah or Pentateuch. However, there is a parallel tradition (ie, outside the actual Bible itself) which claims that it was not actually god who gave Moses the stone tablets, but rather an intercessory angel acting on his behalf. This angel is variously referred to as The Angel of the Presence, or the Angel of the Face. His name is generally given as Metatron, although he has countless other names as well (Check out this list of some 75 of Metatron’s other names).

In Jewish mystical traditions, Metatron is basically the next highest being after God. Depending on who you ask, Metatron acts as the presence of God in the world, either because God is transcendent, or because if God himself appeared to humans their minds would simply stagger and implode in on itself. Metatron is sometimes portrayed as the prince of all the angels, and even sometimes as another manifestation of the Logos principle. Metatron is responsible for the sustenance of mankind, and is their link to the divine.

In the Old Testament, it’s argued that Metatron is the dark angel against whom Jacob wrestles. He is also sometimes thought to be the angel who lead the Israelites through the wilderness of Exodus. Some say he also is the force which kept Abraham from sacrificing his son Isaac. He also may have been the angel which made the warning announcement that God was about to unleash the destruction of the Flood. William Blake also has an painting of the Angel of the Presence bringing Eve to Adam. Some also believe that Metatron was the transfigured form that the patriarch Enoch took when God raised him up to Heaven.

Metatron is also referred to as the Liberating Angel or in his female aspect the Shekinah. The Shekinah is thought to have been the feminine presence of God which dwells upon the earth with man. She’s also identified in Christian traditions as the Holy Spirit. Philip K. Dick’s novel The Divine Invasion talks about the Shekinah manifesting on earth as the Torah, the Sacred Law - rather similar to the Word or the Logos. God and the Shekinah seek to reunite with one another. Hindu mythology offers the parallel of Shakti - the female manifestation of the divine. It’s only through the union of the gods and their shakti consorts that creation occurs.

Metatron also has a twin brother according to certain traditions named Sandalphon. Gustav Davidson’s A Dictionary of Angels (where I’ve mined a good bit of this info so far), offers the possible connection to Zoroastrianism: where Metatron and Sandalphon are modified equivalents of Ormuzd (Ahura Mazda) and Ahriman (Angra Mainyu).

Ahura Mazda (Persian هرمز (Hormoz) also transcripted as Ormazad, Ormuzd, Hormuz, Ormus, Ohrmizd) - The Wise Lord - is the god of the Zoroastrian religion in Persia. He is revered and worshipped by Zoroastrians as the good god. He is opposed by Angra Mainyu (Ahriman), who according to some traditions is his twin brother. According to Zoroastrianism, the Earth was created by Ahura Mazda as a battlefield to fight Angra Mainyu.

This idea that Metatron/Ormuzd created the world also seems to correlate to gnostic thought, where Metatron is sometimes said to be the Demiurge - or the false sub-god below the True Transcendent God. As far as I can tell though, in Jewish mysticism, this is not portrayed in a negative light, which is interesting. Rather than being ignorant or working against the True God, Metatron as the Angel of the Presence works on his behalf. Davidson also says that there is possibly a connection between the Persian savior god Mithra and Metatron. I think I’d like to learn more about the influence of ancient Hebrew thought (as well as Zoroastrianism & Mithraism) on the later Christian gnosticism with which I’m more familiar. Seems like there’s a ton of other connections to be mined here.

Two other interesting tidbits I found on Metatron. It seems that musician Carlos Santana credits the angel Metatron with his triumphal return to music. He claims to have become “pregnant” with joy by Metatron, and describes their encounter in a VH1 interview:

It was a meditation in which three women, two men and myself sat down. I just met them that day in this spiritual bookstore in San Rafael. I walked in asking, “Do you have any books on the archangel Metatron, because I feel like he’s calling me? Every time I see him, it’s from the side, but I want a full-on look.” They said they we’re having a meditation on him the next night [and they invited me]. Within 20 minutes, he was right there, speaking through this lady. Metatron said “they’re going to put you back into the airwaves, but they need something from you.” I said, “Okay, what is it?” They said, “You need to be patient, gracious and grateful at all times.” It’s like a contract. It was like constructing a golden gate between the light and the molecules through sound resonance, vibration and colors. I said, “Okay, I’ll try it.”

A Salon article on the same topic mentions a few more words Santana heard during his theophany:

“You will be inside the radio frequency for the purpose of connecting the molecules with the light.”

Santana also has this to say about his pal Metatron:

“Metatron is the architect of physical life,” Santana explains. “Because of him, we can French-kiss, we can hug, we can get a hot dog, wiggle our toe.”

One other weird thing I noticed was on that page with names of Metatron. Number 37 on that list is “Estes.” I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, except that this is a line of freight trucks that I’ve often seen travelling, and I chuckle to myself over the similarity to the word “testes.” But then I was like, “Wait, line of freight trucks, that reminds me…” There’s also that trucking company called GOD, which stands for Guaranteed Overnight Delivery. I don’t know whether there’s any connection between the two companies, but it struck me as odd that there would be one company named after Yahweh, and then one named after his second in command, Metatron, the Angel of the Presence. But maybe this is just how the divine manifests itself in the world today, through the symbols in the trash stratum - as Philip K. Dick proclaimed. This is our own weird theophany.