44 Yelahiah — Angel of Courage: Secrets and Tarot Spread

Yelahiah, the 44th Shem HaMephorash angel, is known as the Angel of Courage. Traditionally associated with justice, protection and perseverance, Yelahiah invites us to consider what courage serves. How do we stand up for what is right while remaining willing to examine ourselves?

For example, sometimes courage means speaking plainly or protecting someone vulnerable. Sometimes it means admitting we were wrong. Alongside Yelahiah’s connection with the Five of Cups, these themes make room for grief, repentance and the difficult work of remaining open to love after disappointment. We also take a look at the corresponding Major Arcana triad for sweetening judgment.

Jump to the Angel of Courage Tarot Spread

Who Is Yelahiah?

Yelahiah is also written Ielahiah, and sometimes Yelahel. The angelic name is written ילהיה. Its traditional Divine attribute is God the Eternal or God Who Remains Forever. These titles describe God, whose servant the angel is understood to be.

The three-letter Divine Name associated with Yelahiah is ילה — Yod–Lamed–Heh. It is distinct from the expanded angelic name. The vocalisation of the name mantra is Yoh-Lah-Heh.

The 72 three-letter names arise from a Jewish mystical reading of Exodus 14:19–21. Christian Cabalists and later Hermetic writers developed further angelic, astrological and devotional correspondences around them. The resulting Shem system brings together several historical layers.

In the arrangement used on Angelorum, Yelahiah belongs to the Choir of Virtues, under Archangel Michael, and is associated with Tiphereth. Other esoteric tables differ.

The Shem birth-angel calendar is a particular esoteric tradition, distinct from Christian Guardian Angel devotion. For that wider context, see my Angels guide and The Role of Your Guardian Angel.

Yelahiah Keywords & Correspondences

Keywords: Courage, mercy, justice, perseverance, humility, repentance, protection, discernment and reconciliation.

• Shem Angel Number: 44
• Name: Yelahiah / Ielahiah
• Hebrew Angelic Name: ילהיה
• Three-Letter Divine Name: ילה — Yod–Lamed–Heh
• Source Vocalisation: Yoh-Lah-Heh
• Divine Attribute: God the Eternal / God Who Remains Forever
• Primary Guardian Angel Dates: 29 October–2 November
• Secondary Guardian Angel Dates: 20 February, 4 May, 18 July, 1 October and 12 December
• Intellectual Guardian Angel Time: 2:20–2:40 pm
• Zodiac Sign: Scorpio
• Decan: First decan of Scorpio; Yelahiah’s portion is 5°–10°
• Element: Water
• Tarot Card: Five of Cups
• Golden Dawn Card Attribution: Mars in Scorpio
• Golden Dawn Title: Lord of Loss in Pleasure
• Co-ruling Shem Angel: Veuliah
• Angelic Choir: Virtues
• Archangel: Michael
• Sephirah: Tiphereth
• Planetary Symbolism Used Here: Sun, associated with Tiphereth; Mars, ruling the Scorpio decan
• Tarot de Marseille Triad: X Wheel of Fortune — XII The Hanged Man — V The Pope
• Colours: Violet and green
• Gemstone: Hematite
• Psalm: “Accept, Lord, the willing praise of my mouth, and teach me your laws.” Psalm 119:108

The dates follow the modern birth-angel calendar used on Angelorum. Its guardian titles describe roles within that system. Colours and gemstones are optional symbolic associations; prayer is welcome at any hour, with or without them.

How Yelahiah Helps

Traditionally, older esoteric descriptions connect Yelahiah with bravery, protection, useful enterprises and justice. Lazare Lenain’s La Science Cabalistique (1823) includes military and legal associations. These document historical beliefs about the angel’s offices.

For devotional practice, I bring the underlying concerns before God:

• Finding courage to speak truthfully
• Persevering through grief, disappointment or uncertainty
• Recognising a harmful pattern in my own behaviour
• Admitting fault and making appropriate amends
• Seeking justice while relinquishing vengeance
• Protecting someone vulnerable, including myself
• Receiving help when my own strength is insufficient

Mercy Without Abandoning Justice

Jesus’ teaching about judgement begins with honest self-examination. In Matthew 7:1–5, the person eager to correct someone else must first attend to their own impaired vision. It is a searching invitation for those of us whose inner courtroom can become rather busy.

Nevertheless, discernment still matters. We can recognise cruelty, challenge dishonesty and establish a firm boundary. Condemning someone’s entire worth goes further: it claims a verdict we are not equipped to deliver.

In this way, mercy allows us to acknowledge wrongdoing while leaving room for repentance and repair. Forgiveness can accompany consequences, and reconciliation requires safety and willingness on both sides.

If you have experienced betrayal or harsh religious judgement, you can seek support and protect yourself while bringing the hurt into prayer. Someone else’s mistreatment is their responsibility.

Paul’s call to “overcome evil with good” offers a demanding direction for courage (Romans 12:21). We can oppose harm while asking God to keep vengeance from governing our response.

Yelahiah and the Five of Cups

In the Golden Dawn tradition, the Five of Cups corresponds with Mars in Scorpio in the Golden Dawn system and bears the title Lord of Loss in Pleasure. Its symbolism brings force and intensity into the life of feeling.

In the Rider–Waite–Smith image, a cloaked figure looks towards three fallen cups. Two remain upright behind them. A river, bridge and distant building form the surrounding landscape.

For contemplation, the standing cups can suggest continuing love or available support. The bridge offers an image of connection. Neither cancels the significance of what has been lost.

However, grief needs time and companionship. The Psalms give sorrow a voice within an ongoing relationship with God: we can lament, question and ask for help while remaining in His presence.

Yelahiah’s courage theme belongs here. It may take courage to let someone sit beside us, accept practical care or pray honestly when we have very little to say. Remaining open to love after disappointment can itself be an act of faith.

By contrast, regret requires another kind of attention. If we have caused harm, sorrow can lead towards confession, apology and repair. Bereavement and remorse deserve different responses, even when the same card helps us speak about them.

Yelahiah shares this decan with Veuliah, the Angel of Prosperity. Veuliah’s themes direct attention towards resources, support and stewardship. Yelahiah adds questions about courage, fairness and the response we choose amid pain.

This pairing follows Angelorum’s zodiacal sequence. The original Book T allocates the Shem angels differently; its Mars-in-Scorpio card attribution remains distinct from that allocation.

For the card’s wider symbolism and the differences between Tarot traditions, see my Five of Cups Angelic Tarot Card Meanings.

Yelahiah’s Tarot de Marseille Triad: Sweetening Judgement

In The 72 Names of God (pp. 211–214), Michel Perez Rizzi associates Yod–Lamed–Heh with Wheel of Fortune, The Hanged Man and The Pope. His theme concerns sweetening judgements and softening tikkun.

Tikkun carries meanings of repair, rectification and restoration in Jewish thought. Within Kabbalah, it has specific spiritual and cosmic dimensions, with meanings that vary by context. It deserves attention on its own terms; it cannot simply be substituted for Christian salvation or karmic repayment.

In particular, Rizzi develops his interpretation through karma and returning consequences. My Christian contemplation of his triad centres on moral responsibility, repentance and grace. That is a contemporary reading of his material, with Christ as its point of reference.

Yod — X Wheel of Fortune: Recognising the Pattern

The Wheel invites us to notice what keeps turning up. Perhaps criticism provokes defensiveness, which leads to an argument, which confirms our conviction that nobody understands us. Recognising our participation gives us somewhere to begin.

Paul’s image of sowing and reaping in Galatians 6:7–10 takes our choices seriously. His encouragement includes persevering in doing good and caring for others.

However, that principle does not explain every misfortune. In John 9:1–3, Jesus rejects the assumption that a man’s blindness must be attributable to his own or his parents’ sin. We should be equally careful about assigning spiritual blame to someone’s suffering.

The useful question is specific: Where do I have responsibility, and what could I do differently?

Lamed — XII The Hanged Man: Becoming Willing to Change

Rizzi reads The Hanged Man through humility, receptivity and spiritual transformation. The suspended figure offers an opportunity to reconsider the perspective from which we have been judging.

Romans 12:2 connects transformation with the renewal of the mind. Sometimes this begins with a pause: allowing another person to finish speaking, acknowledging uncertainty or asking God to show us what we have missed.

I also contemplate the card alongside Philippians 2:5–11, where Christ’s humility and self-giving reshape our understanding of strength. This is a devotional association with the card’s posture of surrender; it does not establish a historical identification with the Crucifixion.

Consequently, surrender can make us more available for truthful action. We release the need to be vindicated immediately and consider what love requires now.

Heh — V The Pope: Receiving Merciful Wisdom

Rizzi’s Pope offers a compassionate way through difficulty. Its teaching and blessing imagery can invite us to receive wisdom, seek counsel and reconsider a harsh verdict.

James 2:13 gives the Christian contemplation its centre: “Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

In Jesus’ encounter with Zacchaeus, welcome opens into a concrete commitment to generosity and restitution (Luke 19:1–10). Mercy takes wrongdoing seriously while making a changed life possible.

The Pope can therefore prompt a practical question: What understanding or guidance would help me respond with both truth and compassion? Grace comes from God; the card supplies an image through which we can ponder our response.

Bringing the Triad Back to the Five of Cups

Although the Marseille triad and the Five of Cups come from different correspondence systems, they can be considered together without conflating their origins. Placed alongside one another for contemplation, they deepen the questions we can bring to prayer.

The Wheel asks whether a recurring response needs attention. The Hanged Man gives us room to reconsider it. The Pope turns us towards merciful wisdom and help we may need to receive.

With the Five of Cups, this might mean recognising a habit of condemning ourselves for a loss we could not prevent. A changed perspective then allows us to receive companionship without first earning it by becoming cheerful.

Conversely, where remorse is appropriate, the same sequence may lead towards an apology or practical repair. Courage grows through acknowledging the truth and remaining receptive to grace.

Working With Yelahiah

Bring one concern before God: a grief, a conflict, a judgement you keep rehearsing or an action you know requires courage. Ask for understanding and the willingness to respond in the spirit of Christ.

If helpful, place the Five of Cups or Rizzi’s three Marseille cards nearby. Violet, green or a piece of hematite may serve as a visual reminder. The Hebrew letters can also be studied respectfully within their mystical context.

Ultimately, the heart of the practice is prayer and the response it makes possible.

Psalm 119:108: Willing Praise and a Teachable Heart

“Accept, Lord, the willing praise of my mouth, and teach me your laws.”

Within Psalm 119, verse 108 belongs to a prayer for faithfulness to God’s instruction amid affliction. The surrounding verses speak of trouble, danger and perseverance. Its request for teaching comes from someone who still needs help.

Rizzi’s interpretation connects the verse with sweetened judgement. The biblical verse itself addresses God, offering praise and asking to learn His ways. Reading it within its context keeps that relationship at the centre.

Pray it slowly. Consider how your speech could become more truthful or merciful. You might need to apologise, seek advice, protect a boundary or stop rehearsing an accusation. Choose one manageable response and close with thanksgiving.

Tarot, Interpretation and Illumination

I practise Christian Tarot as a form of seeing: seeking God’s wisdom through symbolic interpretation. I understand divination here as reverent inquiry into divine wisdom, with allegiance to the God revealed in Jesus Christ. Christian traditions differ in their judgement of this practice.

In Letter II of Meditations on the Tarot, Tomberg describes mystical experience becoming conscious knowledge through reflection, memory, thought and feeling (p. 41). In Letter XI, he warns against substituting mental or natural imagery for living divine intuition (pp. 296–297).

Therefore, I apply that distinction to my own reading practice. The cards are symbolic instruments; spiritual illumination is God’s gift. An image may bring something important into awareness, while my interpretation remains open to correction through Scripture, conscience, prayer, reason and its fruits.

I explore this more fully in Tarot, the Psyche and the Holy Spirit.

Prayer for Courage and Mercy

God of mercy, I bring you what hurts, what troubles me and what I struggle to understand. Give me courage to face the truth and humility to receive your teaching.

Where I have caused harm, help me repent and make amends. Where I have been harmed, strengthen me to seek care, protect what needs protecting and entrust vengeance to you.

Send your holy angels to assist me according to your will. As I contemplate Yelahiah’s qualities, deepen my courage, soften my harsh judgements and guide my next loving action.

I entrust the outcome to you, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Angel of Courage Tarot Spread

This seven-card spread offers a prayerful examination of courage, responsibility and mercy. Bring a situation you want to understand more honestly, then read Psalm 119:108 and ask God for wisdom through Christ.

Shuffle and draw seven cards. Let each image open a question for reflection. An association deserves consideration without automatically becoming a message from God; read it alongside the facts of your situation.

1. The Difficulty — What needs my honest attention in this situation?
2. The Pattern to Examine — What habit, assumption or recurring response of mine deserves closer attention?
3. The Shield of Faith — What strength, counsel or practical support could help me act courageously?
4. The Sword of Truth — What truth about my own response do I need to acknowledge?
5. Justice with Mercy — How can I seek what is right while practising compassion?
6. The Faithful Step — What truthful and loving action is within my reach now?
7. Receiving Grace — What possibility for healing, trust or peace could I become more receptive to?

Finally, read the final card as an invitation to consider, leaving the outcome in God’s hands. Then return to card 6 and choose one action you can carry into daily life. Close with a prayer of thanksgiving.