The Angel of Night, also known as Leliel, is an angelic being that appears within Christian angelology and mythology. According to some noncanonical Christian biblical scriptural passages, Leliel is one of several angelic rulers over the night, and that he also possesses the ability to grant people peaceful dreams. Leliel is quite an obscure figure, and thus it is not uncommon to come across highly knowledgeable Christian scholars who are not familiar with the angel, as Leliel seems to sort of linger in the dust and shade within old scripture. According to my own personal research, I found mentions of Leliel within both Catholic and Eastern Orthodox scripture, which would lead me to believe that Leliel was conceived in the early days of Christianity, likely long before the East West Schism. I was unable to find a single early period artistic portrayal of Leliel, which leads me to believe that he has always been a somewhat obscure angel figure.
Legend has it that one of Leliel's sacred angelic duties or responsibilities, is the power over dreams. Scripture does not state that the angel grants people good dreams for good behavior or strong faith, but rather he simply distributes them within the spiritual world. It is said that while humans sleep, their spirit or soul drifts away from their physical body, where it then taps into a field of spiritual energy. It is said that this spiritual field of energy is the angel Leliel standing guard between the realm of the physical world, and the world beyond. The human soul then comes into contact with Leliel's spirit, and upon touching it a dream is sent through it, and received and processed by the sleeping person or individual. Supposedly Leliel stands between the physical realm, and all the other realms, which include the spiritual world, and an infinite number of alternate universes. The angel acts as a conductor of the energy from all of these different realms.
Some Christian denominations believe in Leliel, but they don't consider him to be an angel. These beliefs state that Leliel was an angel, however he was one of the many that rebelled against God with Lucifer. It is said that Leliel used to be the angel of night and of dreams, however once he was cast out of heaven, he became the evil demon of night. His duties switched once under the command of Lucifer, and he is now in control of nightmares, and sins of the twilight. It is said that he visits God's faithful flock while they are asleep, and temps them with nightmares and dreams in an attempt to lure them over to the forces of darkness. Supposedly he will often send demonic spirits and forces to seduce men and women with erotic dreams, in hopes that he can lure them into an evil adulterous or unclean life style. It is also stated that Leliel is the demon who terrifies small children with various ghoulish nightmares which contain brief glimpses into hell itself.
In the bizarro land of Judeo Christian inspired New Age occult beliefs, Leliel has quite a colorful role. These fringe faiths usually believe that Leliel is still an angel, and that he wasn't actually cast of heaven by the archangel Michael. Like some Christians they also believe that Leliel is the angel of night, however they have greatly embellished his powers and attributes. For example they believe that Leliel can grant people the power to dream walk, which is to separate the soul from the body during sleep, which then allows the soul to wander the real physical earth. Supposedly the only catch is that Leliel will not allow you to remember this dream walking experience once you awake, and that he wipes the memory away clean from your brain. Legend has it that he allows dream walking out of his own sense of boredom, and that if he did not wipe the memory of it from the people who do it, that God would take away his powers of the holy night angel.
