User blog comment:A.J AL/Season six plot hole./@comment-1509826-20121215181853

Now hold on a minute, as its impossible that that many souls went to hell since Crowley took over, the sign must refer to the total number of souls ever to go to hell, in which case most of those souls would have long turned into demons and would be beyond absorbing by Castiel.

Plus even if Crowley didn't have Enchoian magic to protect it from angels (which sounds very out of charater), he did have something else, the millions of demons who live in hell, do you honestly think they would let Castiel take all the souls? And sure Cass is powerful, but even a Seraph can't overpower millions of demons (they probably couldn't kill him, but they could expeal him). And considering with out Crowley's fifty thousand souls he couldn't rasie his army and fight back, he's on his own.

So if the figures are true, theres 100 billion in heaven, seven billion in hell, and the remaing three billion are presumably the ghosts. Now Raphael could have taken the souls from heaven, but its been stated angels guard the souls in heaven (presumably one of gods last orders) and I don't think even Raphael would disobey his own father, plus as he was significantly more powerful, its doubtful he would think he would need to absorb the souls, as he was unaware of Castiels plot, till Crowley told him.