From A Dictionary of Angels: Including the Fallen Angels, by Gustav Davidson
Ariel (Arael, Ariael, meaning "lion of God") -
the name of an angel in the apocryphal Ezra; also in Mathers, The Greater Key of Solomon, the Grand Grimoire, and other tracts of magic, where he is pictured as lion-headed. Cornelius Agrippa says: "Ariel is the name of an angel, sometimes also a demon, and of a city, whence called Ariopolis, where the idol is worshipped." In Heywood, The Hierarchy of the Blessed Angels, Ariel ranks as one of 7 princes who rule the waters and is "Earth's great Lord." Jewish mystics used Ariel as a poetic name for Jerusalem. In the Bible the name denotes, variously, a man, a city (Isaiah 29), and an altar. In occult writings Ariel is the "3rd archon of the winds." Mention is also made of Ariel as an angel who assists Raphael in the cure of disease. (Rf. M. Gaster, Wisdom of the Chaldeans.] In the Coptic Pistis Sophia, Ariel is in charge of punishment in the lower world, corresponding with Ur of the Mandaeans (q.v.). In The Testament of Solomon, he controls demons. In gnostic lore generally he is a ruler of winds and equated with Ialdabaoth as an older name for this god. In practial cabala he is regarded as originally of the order of virtues. According to John Dee, astrologer royal in Queen Elizabeth's day, Ariel is a conglomerate of Anael and Uriel. In The Tempest, Shakespeare casts Ariel as a sprite. To Milton he is a rebel angel, overcome by the seraph Abdiel in the first day of fighting in Heaven. The poet Shelley refered to himself as Ariel, and Andre Maurois is the author of a life of shell called Ariel. Sayce ("Athenaeum," October 1886) sees a connection between Ariel and the arelim (erelim), the valiant ones spoken of in Isaiah 33:7, an order of angels equated with the order of thrones. [Rf. Texts of the Saviour; Butler, Ritual Magic; Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets.]