Anu Azrael

Anu (Sanskrit):

as a noun - an atom of matter

as an adjective - atomic, fine, minute

A title of Brahma, conceived as both infinitesimal and universal, thus pointing to the pantheistic character of divinity

Hence, every anu is "a centre of potential vitality, with latent intelligence in it"

Anu also means Soul/Breath

Azrael:

Azrael was The Archangel of Death. Patient, meticulous, soft-spoken. Shortly after his creation, Azrael was assigned to study a phenomenon not well-understood by Heaven at that time: the disposition of human souls.

In his research, Azrael learned how to track human souls after death. The greatest revelation was the fate of those humans who were weighed down by their selfishness. They were banished to a nether-realm on the celestial plane. At one time, this had been a bleak and empty place where the dead shuffled forever in miserable isolation. But then the Fallen arrived, and the place became known as Hell. The demons were torturing and sometimes destroying the damned souls confined there.

Azrael was elevated to the status of Archangel, and given the duty of making sure no souls were misdirected away from Heaven. He and his Servitors would gently separate ghosts and dream-shades from their anchors, retrieve pagan souls from ethereal domains, and prevent the demons from claiming any souls that didn't belong to them.

Azrael was extremely effective at his job. Angels of Death became the bane of pagan gods, and exorcised hundreds of ghosts that had been clinging to the corporeal plane. Azrael instructed his Servitors to also teach humans to accept Death; that it was merely a transition to their next state, and that if they lived their lives well, they had no need to fear it. Azrael also began a secret project. He could not accept that those souls damned to Hell must suffer for all eternity for mistakes they'd made in their too-short mortal existences. So the Archangel of Death began ministering to the damned, sneaking into Hell to locate human souls who might be converted to selflessness, and made worthy of Heaven.

Azrael is not the foreboding apparition portrayed across the centuries.

In reality, the Archangel Azrael is the most gentle and sensitive angel within God's creation.

Further info about Azrael at www.amadan.org/Innomine/Azrael.htm