The seventy-two angels of the divine name

The seventy-two Shem angels take their names from the Shem HaMephorash, a seventy-two-letter name of God derived in Kabbalistic tradition from three verses of Exodus 14, read together in a particular pattern to yield seventy-two three-letter groups. To each is added the suffix -el or -yah to form an angelic name, giving the seventy-two angels of the Shem.

Each angel governs a range of degrees of the zodiac and a sphere of influence, and is invoked for particular purposes; the scheme was elaborated in Christian Kabbalah and in the Western magical tradition, notably by writers such as Athanasius Kircher and later the occultists of the nineteenth century.