Angels

"Like we're actually a family? When what we really are are a bunch of glowing lights filled with self-loathing or delusions of grandeur. Or both."

- Metatron to Castiel

Angels are powerful, celestial beings created by God to serve as his attendants and messengers, but also as soldiers in His war against Lucifer and his demons. They are native to Heaven and are imbued with both holy white light as well as considerable power. Their true form is nothing less than that of holy righteous beings which are beautiful as well as hazardous, overwhelming, and terrifying all at the same time; ranging from two to six (maybe more) large feathered wings on their backs, four animalistic heads with halos of light around them, and heights as tall as skyscrapers.

Angels are one of the most powerful entities in the series, generally outclassing all demons, monsters, and other supernatural creatures with the exception of the Leviathans, Eve, The Horsemen, The Darkness and God Himself.

Angels are capable of reproducing with humans while in a vessel, creating a Nephilim. Unless they have their Grace, the resulting offspring will be human. They cannot reproduce in their natural form, and it is unknown what is born when two angels within vessels reproduce. Angels are also among the most recurring supernatural beings in the series.

Early History
"You, celestial being, have been created to be an angel of the Lord."

- The inner "programming" of an angel

Sometime after God came into being, he created the first beasts known as the Leviathans. Later, he created the four archangels who helped Him defeat The Darkness in a terrible war. Once The Darkness was locked away, God was concerned that the Leviathans were too dark and dangerous for the rest of His creations, so for the sake of the "petri dish", so he created Purgatory, and locked them away in it.

Soon afterward, God makes the Seraphim, angels, Cherubim, Reapers, Grigori and Rit Zien. After a while, God creates the Earth (what Lucifer calls His last great "handiwork").

Soon after, the first amphibians come out of the ocean onto beaches. Long after that, God created humans. God assigned Gadreel to protect His cherished creations in the "garden". He then asked all the angels to bow down to humans as His greatest creations and present more compassion towards them than to Him. Lucifer became envious, as he was God's favorite creation before humans, and saw that humans were broken, flawed, and murderous. Lucifer attempted to convince God of the flawed human nature, but God didn't listen. Faced with this situation, he became increasingly more prideful. Lucifer went to Michael and asked him to stand with him, but Michael refused. Gabriel, being unable to deal with the constant arguments also fled to Earth, posing as The Trickster, Loki. Michael and Lucifer fought in a cataclysmic battle until eventually, Michael cast Lucifer out of heaven. Out of anger against God, Lucifer corrupted a human soul, who would later be known as Lilith, into the first demon. Lucifer then slipped past Gadreel into the garden and poisoned the Earth with his own evil, forcing God to lock Gadreel away as he failed to keep Lucifer out of the garden. God then had Michael personally cast Lucifer into hell, specifically Lucifer's Cage. Lucifer was locked away with 600 powerful seals, 66 of which needs to break for his release. A prophecy states that one day Lucifer will break free, initiating the Apocalypse, and that Michael will kill him and bring paradise to Earth.

Following the failure of Gadreel, and the fall of mankind, God left Heaven. Before he left, God picked the angel Metatron to be His personal scribe, and take down His word. He told the scribe all His secrets, and Metatron wrote them down a various tablets.Out of fear that the archangels would steal the information of God from him, Metatron fled to Earth choosing to live among a Native American Tribe.

Castiel and his Garrison tentatively watch the first humans hold dominion over the Earth, as God originally intended. Castiel watched events like the Tower of Babel and Sodom and Gommorah. Castiel's immediate Garrison - Anna, Uriel, Hester, Balthazar and Inias - are stationed to protect and watch the Earth. They watch and wait in silence for thousands of years, hearing nothing from God or their superiors in Heaven.

In 1970's, the angels secretly arrange for John Winchester and Mary Campbell to fall in love and conceive two children: Dean and Sam Winchester.

Angels speak using Enochian in Heaven, on Earth they use their vessel's language.

Season 1
Reapers are first credited in John Winchester's journal. Dean and Sam Winchester first encounter a Reaper in the episode Faith, seen assisting Roy Legrange "heal" the sick. However, only someone who is dead or near-death (or is the target of it) can see a reaper. The reaper can be controlled by Black Magic and was released by smashing the Rosario controlling it, and then the Reaper killed Sue Ann leGrange, the woman controlling him.

Season 2
When Dean was dying in the hospital after the Impala was hit by a demon possessed truck driver, Tessa was dispatched to guide him to the other-side. She almost succeeded but as per a deal John made with Azazel, the yellow-eyed demon possessed Tessa and used her power to revive Dean to life. Masquerading as the Trickster Loki, Gabriel killed three people at a college while positioning himself as the school janitor. Once Sam and Dean showed up to investigate the deaths, he began to manipulate them into fighting amongst themselves. Eventually catching on, Sam Dean and Bobby attack Gabriel and Dean stabs him, believing him to be dead. However Gabriel was revealed to have survived, with Dean only stabbing an elaborate illusion.

Season 3
Bent on both revenge and teaching Sam a lesson, Gabriel set up a mystery spot which the boys investigated. Once there, the boys were trapped in a time loop causing the day (which happened to be a Tuesday) to repeat infinitely. Every day, Dean would die and Sam was powerless to stop it from happening. Eventually Sam discovered that Gabriel was to blame for the time loop and confronted him, threatening him and convincing Gabriel to end the cycle. Supposedly he did so, resuming the flow of time and releasing the boys. However, on the first Wednesday after the time loop Dean was killed again, seemingly permanently. Sam spent the next 6 months hunting Gabriel, intent on either bringing Dean back or killing him. Sam eventually found Gabriel who revealed to him that Dean's numerous deaths were to teach him a "lesson", and that the brothers are each other's ultimate weakness. Gabriel was apparently trying to show Sam that nothing is gained from sacrificing themselves for one another, and that the "bad guys" would always use one brother against the other. Sam continued to beg for Gabriel to bring Dean back to life and reset time, and he reluctantly did so.

Season 4
In 2008, Castiel was sent to rescue Dean from Hell. He led a siege against Hell's defenses, along with Uriel and several other angels. Castiel successfully saved Dean, but not in time to stop him from breaking the very first Seal. On Earth, the angels tried to stop Lilith from bringing about the Rising of the Witnesses, but they failed, and another seal was broken. When two witches prepare to summon the demon Samhain - which will break yet another seal - Castiel and Uriel are sent to destroy the town to prevent Samhain's rise. The Winchesters, however, refuse to let them kill everyone in the town, and set out to stop Samhain's summoning themselves. Unfortunately, they fail to prevent the summoning, and though they defeat Samhain, the seal is already broken.

Fallen angel Anna Milton is on Earth, as she "cut" out her Grace (angelic energy/core which supports their power) and Fell, and is in psychiatric ward. She has no memory of being an angel but can hear angels speaking in her head on "angel radio". She escapes the psych ward after demons start coming after her. After much searching, Alastair, a Demon who is accompanied by two demon brutes, finds her. Castiel and Uriel arrive, and the opposing sides face off. Uriel easily dispatches both of Alastair's guards, and Castiel is overpowered and apprehended by Alastair. Anna regains her Grace, and becomes a full-blown angel again. In consequence of her consuming her Grace, intense light leaks out of her eyes, and envelopes the room, destroying Alastair's vessel.



The angels manage to save a Seal - in this case the attempted killings of two Reapers - by tricking Sam and Dean into investigating a town where people have stopped dying. In addition, they capture Alastair. Around this time, seven angels from Castiel's Garrison are murdered, and Lilith is immediately suspected.

Castiel and Uriel have Dean, Alastair's former apprentice during his time in Hell, torture Alastair to learn how Lilith is killing the angels. Alastair, however, breaks free, beats up Dean, and almost exorcises Castiel when Sam appears and - after learning from Alastair that Lilith is not behind the deaths of the angels - kills Alastair with his blood-fueled powers. Castiel later discovers that his friend Uriel is the true culprit as well as an agent of Lucifer. Uriel tries to convince Castiel to help him free Lucifer, but Castiel refuses and fights his old friend. Though Uriel gets the upper hand, Anna appears and stabs him with an Angel Blade, killing the traitor.



Some time after this, Castiel learns something important and tries to warn Dean, but is captured by the other angels and taken back to Heaven, where he is tortured and brainwashed into obedience. It's later revealed by Zachariah, a Seraph and Castiel's direct superior, that Senior Management intends on allowing the 66 Seals to break, in order to bring about the Apocalypse. Sam and Dean are Lucifer and Michael's true Vessels, and would be used by the archangels during the fight. The angels believe that the Apocalypse is God's plan, and will cause everlasting paradise on Earth. It's also revealed that God has left Heaven, leaving the archangels in charge to do whatever they wish.

Season 5


As planned, Lilith is killed (the Last Seal) by Sam, and Lucifer is freed. But Dean says no to Michael, which impairs "the final charge", making Lucifer unstoppable for the remainder of Season 5. Throughout the season, Zachariah tries repeatedly to get Dean to say yes, but Dean continues to refuse and eventually kills Zachariah himself. Anna Milton attempts to stop the Apocalypse on her own by going back in time and killing John and Mary Winchester to prevent Sam's birth. She fails, however, and is killed by Michael. Gabriel resurfaces and tries to help the Winchesters kill Lucifer, but is killed himself. Throughout the season, Castiel, now a fallen angel with limited power works with the Winchesters to stop the Apocalypse.

Finally in Swan Song, Michael - in the vessel of Adam Milligan - confronts Lucifer, archangel to archangel. Dean interrupts the fight, along with Bobby and Castiel, and manages to distract the archangels long enough to reach Sam, who is serving as Lucifer's vessel. Sam briefly regains control of his body during the fight and uses his moment of clarity to throw himself/Lucifer and Adam/Michael into Lucifer's Cage, ending the Apocalypse. Castiel, though killed by Lucifer during the final confrontation, is resurrected by God again as a Seraph and he resurrects Bobby Singer, heals Dean and heads back to Heaven to restore order as the new leader.

Season 6


In the aftermath of Michael's imprisonment and God's abandonment of Heaven, the angels fall into disarray. They don't know what to do or who to take orders from. Castiel, who had rebelled against Heaven in order to help the Winchesters, returns to Heaven and starts preaching the idea of Free Will to his fellow angels. However, many of the angels can't even grasp the concept. The remaining archangel Raphael confronts Castiel and demands that he kneel and repent for his rebellion. Raphael also plans to release Michael and Lucifer from the Cage, thus restarting the Apocalypse. When Castiel refuses to go along with this, Raphael threatens to destroy him and his followers unless they submit.

Castiel reluctantly makes a pact with the new King of Hell Crowley. Crowley and Castiel go to Hell, which Crowley personally re-designed, and there they plot to open Purgatory and absorb the souls of all the deceased monsters inside. Crowley gives Castiel 50,000 souls, which he uses to initiate a war against Raphael. Castiel also pulls Sam's body out of Lucifer's Cage, but is unaware that he was unable to rescue his soul as well. Despite gaining control of Heaven's Weapons, which the angel Balthazar had stolen from the heavenly vault, Castiel's war goes badly, and he becomes more and more desperate to find Purgatory. When the Winchesters discover what he's been doing, they confront him, and he tries to convince them that he has no other choice but to follow through with his plan. When the brothers refuse to back down, Castiel breaks Sam's 'wall', a barrier put in place by Death between his consciousness and his tormented soul, allowing his horrific memories of Hell to flood his mind and incapacitate him.

Later, Castiel goes back on his deal with Crowley, and after opening Purgatory successfully, takes in all of Purgatory's souls. Unknown to him, he also absorbs the Leviathans. Castiel, utilizing/channeling the souls power (known among fans as "Godstiel"), obliterates Raphael.

Season 7
Castiel then goes to Heaven, and smites every surviving angel who ever helped Raphael. He informs the remaining angels that he is their father now, and that they must be obedient children or suffer the consequences. He then returns to Earth to begin destroying everything he perceives to be evil. Eventually, realizing the error of his ways, he goes to the Winchesters and Bobby for help. He says that if he were strong enough, he'd "fix" Sam. With their aid, he manages to send the souls back to Purgatory, but the Leviathan remain.

The Leviathan take over his vessel and him, and beat up Dean and Bobby. Then, they leave, and disperse into the water supply, leaving Castiel and his vessel seemingly destroyed. However, he is resurrected yet again, and Castiel awakens without any memory of who or what he is. He goes by the name "Emanuel" and marries the human woman who found him. Dean and Meg are able to remind him of who and what he is, and he, upon re-gaining his memory, tries to save Sam - who's been driven to near insanity by hallucinations of Lucifer - but realizes that the 'wall' has completely crumbled. He then shifts Sam's "pain" (condition) unto himself. While this cures Sam, Castiel is forced to stay at the mental hospital under the protection of Meg.



Meanwhile back in Heaven, the angels Hester and Inias have taken command of the few angels remaining. When Dean and Sam break the "shell" of The Word of God, a ting is emitted, one that only angels can hear. When Castiel hears it, he awakens, only differently; more timid, calm, and refused to fight. At the same time, Hester and Inias go to Earth to retrieve both the Word and the Prophet Kevin Tran - who has been chosen to be the Keeper of the Word. However, the Winchesters need Kevin to the stop the Leviathan and a conflict ensues between the Winchesters and the angels. The dispute ends when Meg steps in and kills Hester, after which Inias takes charge and agrees to stand down.

Castiel provides Dean and Sam with his blood for the weapon then goes off on his own. When looking for flowers and fruit (flowers come first obviously) he can't hear anything from his garrison. After a long silence, he goes to the home of the Prophet Kevin Tran and finds the entire Garrison dead or in hiding - victims of the Leviathan.

Upon Dean's request, Castiel teleports himself and Dean to the Impala, and he ultimately decides to take part in the fight. Together, the two of them sneak into SucroCorp's lab, where they find Dick Roman and another Leviathan Royce testing a batch of poisoned creamers. Cas douses Royce with Borax as Dean beheads him. He then restrains Dick Roman long enough for Dean to stab him with the Bone Of Righteous Mortal Washed In the Three Bloods of Fallen, killing the Leviathan leader, though he and Dean are transported to Purgatory in the process.

Season 8
A repercussion of stabbing Dick with the Anti-Leviathan weapon, both Dean and Castiel are pulled into Purgatory. Heaven's angels are terribly reduced, leaving an unknown amount of angels. An observer and admirer of Castiel, Samandriel, takes a vessel, and contributes in the auctioning of one of the Words of God.



A new group of angels, led by Naomi, revealed they rescued Castiel from Purgatory. They are keen on keeping track of developments involving the tablets containing the Words of God.

When the angel Samandriel is captured and tortured, he reveals there is an angel tablet to the demon Crowley. Naomi then orders Castiel to kill Samandriel. Castiel, without a choice and without remembering her orders, stabs him with an angel blade, killing him, after Sam, Dean, and himself rescued him from Crowley's demons. While rescuing him and hearing Samandriel being broken, Castiel remembers Naomi torturing him in a similar manner. Naomi later sends Castiel to find the Angel Tablet which is located in one of Lucifer's Crypts. With the help of Meg and the Winchesters, Castiel locates the tablet, but on Naomi's orders, tries to kill Dean. The tablet sets Castiel free and he flees with it to protect it from everyone. The angels are shown to have no luck locating him. Crowley offers a deal between himself and Naomi who he knows, but she disappears before he can even finish.



Naomi later captures Castiel and reveals that he has taken part in many atrocities throughout human history but has had them erased from his mind as he never truly follows his orders. Naomi is forced to flee when Crowley arrives with a gun capable of killing angels as the bullets are made from a melted-down Angel Blade. Crowley is working with the angel Ion who is disillusioned with Heaven and the angels due to what they are being forced to do. Crowley gets the angel tablet from Castiel, but after he leaves, Castiel manages to kill Ion and escape. At the same time, the Winchesters find Metatron who explains that when God left, the archangels decided to take over everything, a plan that Naomi is apparently still following. Metatron is convinced to help and rescues Kevin Tran from Crowley. Castiel later comes to the Winchesters for help, severely wounded and badly weakened by Crowley.

Metatron eventually comes to Castiel for help after learning the state of Heaven and about him from Kevin Tran. Heaven is in a state of civil war with many factions warring for control. While Naomi had been believed to be the new ruler of Heaven, she is merely one of the many faction leaders. Metatron has decided to seal up Heaven to prevent the war from spilling onto Earth and to force the angels to sit down and hash out their problems. Castiel and Metatron start the trials to seal up Heaven by killing a Nephilim, the child of an angel and a human.

Metatron later revealed to Castiel that the second trial is to retrieve the bow of a cupid. Before they could complete the trial, however, Naomi's agents located the pair. Metatron was captured by Naomi and a host of angels. Castiel pursued the second trial and managed to convince a cupid to give up her bow, thus completing the second trial. Meanwhile, Naomi attempted to uncover Metatron's knowledge of the tablets, but discovered that Metatron was actually planning revenge to all the angels in heaven. The trials Metatron revealed to Castiel were not in fact the trials on the angel tablet to close heaven but a spell to expel all angels from heaven. Naomi rushes to warn Castiel and Dean. The revelation causes Naomi to regret her actions and those of all angels, telling Castiel and Dean that angels are supposed to protect humanity and lost sight of that somewhere along the way.

Trying to discover the truth for himself, Castiel traveled to Heaven, only to find Naomi dead in her office. Metatron confirmed Naomi's revelations and took Castiel's grace, completing the third part of the spell. This turned Castiel human, and caused all angels to fall down to Earth.

Season 9
All of the angels have fallen from Heaven in what most humans believe to be a "global meteor shower." Some have taken vessels, but most were still encircling the world looking for vessels. Most blame Castiel for what happened and began looking for him for revenge. Desperate to save Sam, Dean prayed to all angels for help, but only Ezekiel came to help while three come looking for Castiel's location. Dean killed one with an Angel Blade and banished the other two while Ezekiel took Sam as his vessel to heal both Sam and himself from their injuries. At the same time, an angel named Hael approached and ultimately kidnapped Castiel, planning to possess Castiel in order to become stronger and to fit in on Earth easier. Castiel managed to defeat Hael by crashing her car, but was forced to kill her when she threatened to broadcast to all angels where to look for him.

When Ezekiel was forced to reveal himself to save Sam from Abaddon's demons. His astral projection was similar to that of previous angels, although his wings were noticeably broken. Ezekiel later revealed a faction of angels led by Bartholomew, who is a protegee of Naomi, are hunting down Castiel for revenge and gaining power. Bartholomew is shown to be using an internet preacher with a worldwide following to spread the word to say "Yes" to angels if they come looking for a vessel, allowing him and his faction to gain bodies at a fast rate. He sends angels out to look for Castiel, but after one attacks him, Castiel uses tattoos to hide himself from the angels. Bartholomew then sends out rogue Reapers to look. Dean finds out Castiel thanks to Ezekiel and rescues him, killing two Reapers along the way, but Castiel is killed. Ezekiel resurrects Castiel and later tells Dean that Castiel must leave or he will have to, as if the angels find him, they will attack the Bunker and Sam, Dean, Castiel and Ezekiel will not be able to survive a full incursion. Even though Ezekiel is slowly healing Sam, if he leaves Sam, Sam will die. So Dean is forced to tell Castiel to leave.

Castiel later calls Dean on a case. They discover the angel Ephraim, who'd taken possession of a man who had become deeply religious, so much so that he drove his wife away. Blinded by religious fervor and a desire to serve God, the man let Ephraim into his body. Ephraim began a killing spree, using his abilities of pain-detection to track down the gravely injured or emotionally despondent and using his healing abilities to heal them or his special smiting abilities to give them a quick and virtually painless death, ending their misery. Castiel was forced to kill him.

Metatron returned to Earth to speak to the angel in Sam's body, revealing that he knows the angel possessing Sam is not Ezekiel, but Gadreel. Metatron tells Gadreel he plans to rebuild Heaven and restore it to its former glory. He invites Gadreel to be his second in command, and restore his besmirched name. Gadreel agrees, but Metatron demands a demonstration of his loyalty. He wants those who could oppose him killed, and gives Gadreel a piece of paper with the first target; Kevin Tran. While Castiel is being tortured by Malachi, he learns that Ezekiel was one of the angels who was killed during the angel's expulsion from Heaven. After he escapes, Cas passes this information onto Dean. Dean decides Ezekiel must be expelled and asks Kevin for a spell that will help him speak to a Sam, while repressing the angel. However Gadreel was aware of Dean's plan and knocks him out. Gadreel then finds Kevin in the main bunker room and despite Dean's intervention, he kills Kevin and leaves with the angel and demon tablets. At the same time, the factions led by Malachi and Bartholomew go to war for rule of Heaven, something that is bad as either ruling wouldn't be a good thing.

Gadreel discovers the pop idol Corey is actually possessed by the angel Thaddeus, who tortured him and another angel called Abner during their imprisonment in Heaven. Gadreel later kills him with an angel sword on the orders of Metatron. Metatron demanding test of loyalty, gives Gadreel's another target which turns out to be his friend Abner. The angel Abner possessed an abusive man and was now living a happy family life. Dean, Cas and Crowley later track down the Impala - and Gadreel who has killed Abner. Gadreel is quickly taken hostage and Crowley begins the painful process of accessing the angel's mind. He is able to access Gadreel's "programming" and makes the angel reveal his identity. Castiel is enraged, as he views Gadreel as responsible for everything from the absence of God to the Apocalypse. Crowley offers to possess Sam, and alert Sam to Gadreel's presence, so he can expel the angel. Dean agrees, and gets Castiel to remove Sam's anti-possession tattoo. Crowley then enters Sam's mind and convinces Sam that an angel is possessing him, but Gadreel finds them. A fight ensues but Sam is strong enough and expels Gadreel from his body. Crowley leaves voluntarily. Gadreel returns to the bar where Metatron is, and repossesses his original vessel.

Castiel later learns that a third faction has developed led by an angel named Rebecca. This faction, the Penitents coexist with humanity harmlessly, but are slaughtered by Bartholomew and his followers. Castiel is captured by members of Bartholomew's faction who take him to Bartholomew who wants to ally himself with Castiel now, believing that with Castiel on his side, he can unite all of the angels under his rule. Bartholomew's faction is tracking Metatron who has appeared on Earth at least three times since the Fall, but they are also ruthless, killing any angel that doesn't join them, even harmless factions like the Penitents. Castiel doesn't agree with Bartholomew's methods and after Castiel is forced to kill Bartholomew in self-defense, many of Bartholomew's followers decide to follow Castiel in a less violent way where angels don't kill other angels anymore.

Metatron has Gadreel start killing angels that won't follow him and after an unsuccessful attempt by Sam and Dean to trap Metatron who has attained God-like powers from the angel tablet, Castiel amasses an army against Metatron. Both sides work on uniting all the angels against each other, with Gadreel killing Malachi and anyone else who they approach who refuses to join. As Castiel's army is larger than his, Metatron begins using suicide bombers brainwashed to believe they are acting in the name of Castiel to unite all of the angels under himself, succeeding in getting Castiel's faction to abandon him. However, this turns Gadreel against him. While Dean and Sam confront Metatron on Earth, Gadreel and Castiel sneak into Heaven to shatter the angel tablet and Metatron's connection to it to return him to a regular angel. After being captured, Gadreel sacrifices himself to make Hannah see reason and Castiel manages to find and shatter the tablet, but not before Metatron mortally wounds Dean. Metatron confronts Castiel, not knowing he is secretly broadcasting the entire conversation over "angel radio" and reveals his low opinion of humanity and the angels, causing everyone to turn against him. Metatron is captured and locked in Heaven's dungeon. While the other angels once more turn to Castiel for leadership, all he wants to be is a normal angel again and faces the prospect of dying when his grace burns out unless he replenishes it.

Season 10
Following Metatron's defeat and imprisonment, a weakening Castiel returns to Earth while the angels form their own government. According to Metatron, under Hannah's leadership, Heaven is being run better than it has been since God left. Six weeks after Metatron's defeat, Hannah approaches Castiel for help in finding rogue angels and bringing them home. Two of these angels are Daniel and Adina who wish to stay on Earth and live out human lives. Castiel is forced to kill Daniel to save Hannah, but abandons the mission to aid Sam in his efforts to cure Dean who is now a demon. Their trip is interrupted by Adina who attacks the severely-weakened Castiel and attempts to kill him and Hannah. Crowley saves them, taking Adina's grace and killing her. Crowley restores Castiel's health and power with Adina's grace in exchange for him helping to stop Dean for good. After helping to cure Dean, Castiel and Hannah continue on their mission of finding angels to return to Heaven, but an encounter with her vessel's husband causes Hannah to return to Heaven permanently so that Caroline can return to her normal life.

After Dean slaughters a group of humans under the influence of the Mark of Cain, Castiel enlists Ingrid's help to bring Metatron to Earth so he can be questioned in hopes of a cure. Metatron claims knowledge of the cure, but demands that he gets many things in exchange, leading to Dean torturing and nearly killing him for information. Castiel and Sam break in in time to stop him and Castiel returns Metatron to Heaven rather than continue to risk his life. Following this, Castiel takes up an effort to find a cure for Dean, mainly by locating Cain, the previous wielder of the Mark. Castiel's search for Cain leads him to find out that Cain is slaughtering his descendants and Castiel teams up with the Winchesters and Crowley to bring an end to the Father of Murder. Though Cain is so powerful that not even Castiel's holy abilities can harm him, he succeeds in helping draw Cain into a trap, allowing Dean to finally kill him.

Following Dean's condition worsening, Sam and Castiel decide to force Metatron to help, but Hannah refuses to let Castiel into Heaven to get him, knowing Metatron will want his freedom in exchange which can't happen. Teaming up with Bobby Singer, they raid Heaven and break Metatron out. Castiel removes Metatron's grace, rendering him human and he admits that he actually doesn't know of a cure which Castiel can tell is the truth. To stop Sam shooting him, Metatron confesses that there is some of Castiel's grace left and offers to lead him to it. Metatron leads Castiel to his grace in a library, fighting an angry Cupid along the way. However, while they search the books for the grace, Metatron reveals his true plan is to retrieve the grace and the demon tablet and escape. He stuns Castiel and retrieves the tablet, but flees when he sees that Castiel has found his grace. Castiel takes in his grace, regaining his full power and status as a Seraphim, though his wings remain broken. However, he and Sam keep Metatron's escape with the demon tablet from Dean despite worrying about what Metatron can do with the tablet and his freedom.

After getting a call that his vessel's daughter is in the hospital, Castiel discovers that some of the Grigori, long thought wiped-out, have survived and are now feeding off of human souls. Castiel and the Winchesters come into conflict with the Grigori Tamiel who had kidnapped Jimmy Novak's wife, Amelia and had been feeding on her soul for two years. Castiel is able to rescue Amelia, but she is beyond his ability to heal and she sacrifices herself to save her daughter Claire. In the fight that follows, Claire kills Tamiel with his own angel sword, but there are other Grigori out there.

Following the encounter with Tamiel, Castiel continues his efforts to save Dean from the Mark of Cain. He acts as a guard for Charlie Bradbury and Rowena as they attempt to translate the Book of the Damned to use it to save Dean. Charlie eventually escapes to get away from Rowena, but is killed by Eldon Frankenstein. Following her death, Dean goes on a revenge rampage and Castiel attempts and fails to stop him. After decoding the Book of the Damned, Castiel calls on Crowley to help gather the necessary ingredients and watches as Rowena successfully removes the Mark of Cain from Dean's arm. However, unknown to them, the Mark's removal unleashes the Darkness, a primordial evil that took God and his Archangels to beat. After the Mark is removed, Rowena escapes and puts Castiel under a spell that makes him attack Crowley.

Season 11
Under the influence of Rowena's spell, Castiel attacks Crowley who escapes by smoking out. Still under the effects of the spell, Castiel travels to the portal to Heaven for help only to find it gone. Learning of the Darkness' release, Castiel prays to his siblings for help and Efram and Jonah respond and lead him to a warehouse, explaining that the angels moved the portal after Metatron's escape. However, they have no intention of taking Castiel to Heaven and instead chain him up. They torture him repeatedly for information on Metatron, refusing to believe Castiel when he correctly informs them that Metatron tricked him and escaped. Finally, Hannah arrives and puts a stop to the torture, but is unable to heal Castiel or break Rowena's spell. Hannah informs Castiel that the alarms in Heaven have gone off for an unknown reason and Castiel informs her of the escape of the Darkness. Hannah asks him about the Winchesters location and Castiel realizes the whole thing is a trick in hopes of getting information out of him. Hannah explains that since he helped Metatron escape, most of the angels hate Castiel now and she is working under orders from the new democracy in charge of Heaven to find out what he knows. When Castiel refuses to cooperate, Efram and Jonah attempt to use a device similar to the one Crowley used to hack Samandriel and Gadreel to hack Castiel's brain. As Hannah distracts the other angels with her objections, Castiel falls back under the influence of Rowena's spell and breaks free, killing Jonah in self-defense. An angry Efram murders Hannah for her interference before Castiel kills him too. Castiel later travels to the Bunker to enlist Sam and Dean's help.

The angels later meet on Earth, aware that Amara plans to take over Heaven. They figure that their leaders won't do anything, so they have to spread the word that they unite and move against the Darkness. When three angels call on Amara to surrender they warn that each and every angel in the sky is ready to smite her with one blow. After Amara kills the angels a blast of heavenly light smashes down.

Characteristics
"Perfect... Like a marble statue. Cold... no choice... only obedience."

- Anna, about being an Angel

As warriors of God and agents of Fate, angels are extremely powerful beings in the supernatural world. They are superhuman beings superior to mortals in both power and intelligence. Their true spiritual forms or visages prove overwhelming to most mortals; however, some 'special' people can view their true visages without suffering lasting effects; demons also can't look at them in their true form without damaging their hosts. A key example of this: Pamela Barnes used her psychic powers to see the true form of Castiel and her eyes burned out as a result of her actions. Although not physically seen as they have no physical presence or being of their own, an angel's presence has been seen or manifested on earth as a brilliant white light (or a bluish luminous smoke if they have no wings). Respectively, angels in their true form do have large swan-like wings on their backs which can range in number anywhere from two to six. In "Lazarus Rising", Castiel displays his wings through his shadow.

When angels die after being stabbed by an angel blade, shadows of their wings are burned into the surface on which they are lying, as seen in the opening of "On the Head of a Pin". Also, in "Dark Side of the Moon", Zachariah tells Dean and Sam that in his true form he has six wings and four faces, one of them being that of a lion. He also explains that the reason that humans can't see an angel's wings while in a vessel is because their senses are limited or too dull to perceive them. In "Sacrifice", an angel's fiery wings were physically seen for the first time.

After Metatron expelled the angels from Heaven, most of them lost their wings as a result. When Gadreel displays his wings to three demons, they are shown to be damaged. Since the spell is irreversible, most angels known have broken wings.

An angel's true form also appear to be very large in height, as evidenced when Castiel states that his true form is "approximately the size of your Chrysler building". However, according to Castiel and Metatron, angels may actually just be waves and lights of pure energy, and how this fits in with their true form, is unknown. Lucifer's true form was so intense it obliterated an entire convent, and as Lucifer rose from the cage, Sam and Dean were able to see an immense white light flash from the perspective of an airplane overhead.

Anna Milton describes angels as being emotionless, not permitted to have feelings or free will. She even goes on to compare angels to marble statues, in the sense that they're both cold, loyal and have no choice. Despite being an angel herself, this description that Anna gave to Dean has been proven wrong on many occasions. Castiel has shown loyalty to the Winchester brothers and regret when he was ordered to kill Anna. Gabriel has shown anger and love towards his brothers, Michael and Lucifer, in "Changing Channels". In "Dark Side of the Moon", Zachariah shows clear signs of anger, pettiness and arrogance. In "Hammer of the Gods", Lucifer is saddened and sheds tears over having 'killed' Gabriel. In "My Bloody Valentine", Cupids are shown to be very cheerful, emotional, and love giving hugs as opposed to handshakes. To be more accurate, angels are very much capable of both human emotions and flaws of character, rather the majority of them choose not to show or admit to having emotions as emotions are considered doorways to doubt as well as a weakness, and they are not permitted to display emotions for the same reasons.

Angels consider themselves family to one another, referring to each other as brothers and sisters. The angels also refer to God as their father. Even though God is their 'father', all angels except the archangels and Metatron and Gadreel have never actually seen God or his true face. According to Anna Milton, only four angels have actually met God and seen his true face. This number later proves to be false, and six angels are said to have met Him.

Due to their age and power, many angels look down upon humans and see them as inferior. Lucifer rebelled because God loved humans, a flawed and arrogant species, more than angels. Some angels continued to hold resentment to this many thousands of years later, as evidenced by Uriel and his followers. Despite this, angels guard the souls in heaven, and as shown in "What's Up, Tiger Mommy?" refuse to pawn them, even for the Word of God. Feelings of resentment aren't universal, as some angels such as Samandriel, Joshua and Inias are much more civil with humans, while others such as Anna and Gabriel consider them better than angels because, despite their inherent flaws, a lot of them strive to do good.



While outside of a vessel, angels either appear to humans as a brilliant white light, or a bluish luminous smoke (depending if they have their wings or not). While within a vessel, angels only have their powers thanks to their grace. Without it, they are just like humans and become subject to the process of life and death, as stated by Metatron when he removed Castiel's grace. Anna stated that removing it voluntarily is very painful, comparable to a human removing a kidney.

Unlike humans, because they lack physical bodies, angels do not reproduce while in their true forms, as reproduction is a purely physical process. Anna tells Dean that one of the things that humans have that angels don't is sex. Dean even describes angels as "Ken dolls" meaning that the only way for them to have sex is to possess a human. Only while within a human vessel can angels mate with humans, resulting in Nephilim. It has not been seen if they can mate with other angels in human vessels or what the resulting offspring would be.



The episode "Torn and Frayed" has shown that after a sufficient amount of torture, angels can be broken and their "operating system" be accessed. Angels have secret knowledge pre-programmed into their being that they aren't even aware of. The screams an angels makes when tortured sends out ripples that cause strange occurrences, such a glass bottle shattering or a bush lighting on fire.

When angels fall from Heaven, they appear like meteors to the human eye. Anna explained that when she told her story to the Winchesters, and it was demonstrated when all the angels fell from Heaven, due to Metatron's spell. However, being expelled from Heaven due to this spell, doesn't deny angels their Heavenly powers, although it burns off their wings, which denies them teleportation, and forces them to manifest as bluish luminous smoke.

Archangels
The four eldest and most powerful of God's angels, they were the only ones to have seen his face, with the possible exception of Metatron and Gadreel. They are far more powerful than any other angelic rank, being imbued with near unimaginable and immeasurable power and authority. Furthermore, they are some of the strongest beings in all of Creation. The first four archangels that were revealed were born in this specific order: Michael, Lucifer, Raphael, Gabriel. They are apparently the only known angels to have met God personally (if one doesn't count Metatron's statements about God), and therefore believed to have been the angels Anna described. There are at only two archangels alive now; Michael and Lucifer who are both currently sealed in Lucifer's Cage, Gabriel was seemingly killed, but being a trickster character this could have been a ruse, and Castiel killed Raphael when the former was imbued with power from Purgatory's souls.

Before creation, together with God, the archangels took part in a terrible war with The Darkness. This war resulted in The Darkness being locked away by a powerful curse, the Mark of Cain

Grigori
The Grigori were a squad of elite angels who were sent to watch over and protect humanity, but turned bad. They were believed to have been wiped out, but few of them survived. Some of these Angels survived and began preying on humanity, kidnapping humans, trapping them in dream states of their perfect Heaven and feeding off of their souls. These angels had angel swords instead of angel blades, with each of their names written on them. The Grigori Tamiel was shown to be stronger than the Seraph Castiel though he was weakened due to fall, and was able to beat him with relative ease.

Seraphim
The Seraphim (Zachariah was for a long time the only known Seraph) are a whole other type of angelic being, who rank higher than angels and Cupids. Zachariah, for example, was Castiel's direct superior, before his demise. They are immensely powerful celestials who can likely overpower high tier demons but it is unknown if they can smite any, as the knights of hell can only be killed with the First Blade. They are however strong enough to smite most kinds of monsters and have been shown to possess incredible powers, such as Holy White Light and advanced biokinesis. Seraphim function as liaisons between archangels and regular angels and, like the archangels, their powers are imbued within them, and if they fall from or become cut off from Heaven, they don't lose any of their powers.

Some notable Seraphim include Castiel and Zachariah, currently the only two shown in the series. However, it is presumed there are just as many Seraphim as regular angels. Zachariah was never named on the show, but was confirmed by the show's staff that he was also a Seraph. Castiel is technically the only Seraph named in the series. The high-ranking angel Naomi was also possibly a Seraph, as she was more powerful than Castiel and supposedly possessed more authority. Another possible but unconfirmed Seraph is Gadreel.

It is also possible that Anna (real name: Anael) was a seraph, since it was stated in season 4 that she was the superior of Castiel and Uriel. However this isn't very likely because she seemed much weaker than a Seraph. It is fair to presume there is just one class in each angel type, so to be a superior to an angel would mean being a different type of angel.

Angels


These are normal, common angels. In comparison to most other supernatural entities, angels are among the most powerful and feared beings in the series. Though not nearly as powerful as seraphim, archangels, or other higher supernatural beings, angels easily outclass black-eyed demons, lesser monsters, and other supernatural creatures, with the exception of the highest ranking demons. Angels possess a great number of formidable abilities that make them a dominant presence in the supernatural world, such as telekinesis, smiting, above-demon strength, and teleportation. They are grouped into garrisons and are commanded by the seraphim. They often carry Angel Blades, lethal weapons that can kill any lower demon, monster, as well as angels like themselves. It is said that none of them have actually ever met God, and thus must rely on faith and obedience.

Reapers


Reapers are angels that serve Death. They assist in maintaining the Natural Order and used to be thought as completely neutral, aligned with neither Heaven nor Hell nor Purgatory, although now that it is shown that they are angels, it is assumed they work for Heaven. According to Castiel, Reapers will sometimes appear in mass gatherings in prelude to a great disaster such as the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Pompeii. Within the veil, Reapers can manifest and take human form. It is unknown whether they need a vessel while in the physical realm of Earth or not.

Cherubim


Cherubim, also called Cupids in, are ordered as third class angels, and thus placed at the very bottom of the Celestial chain of command, Heaven's hierarchy. They follow Heaven's orders, particularly serving Michael. In their occupation, they are responsible for manipulating affection in certain, special bloodlines. John and Mary Winchester, for example, were "matched" by a Cupid (however, not the one who appeared in "My Bloody Valentine") on Heaven's orders so that Dean and Sam could be born.

Fallen Angels


A fallen angel is an angel who was either expelled from Heaven or who voluntarily left. They are not a class of angel and therefore they look no different than normal angels. An angel who has fallen may or may not retain all of his or her abilities, depending on the rank of the angel. For example, a fallen Seraph, like Castiel, retains all of his powers, whereas a standard angel would lose a few of his or her powers, such as smiting and healing. A fallen angel's blood can potentially be used in the Anti-Leviathan killing weapon. Known banished angels include Lucifer and Castiel. Angels who fell on their own accord--voluntarily left--include Anna Milton and Gabriel. Castiel has fallen twice: once when rebelling against the Apocalypse and the second (and current time) when he left of his own accord. Since he is a Seraph, he retained all of his powers and abilities. As of Sacrifice, Metatron's betrayal has caused all angels in Heaven to fall to Earth, and burned off all their wings.

Rit Zien


Rit Zien are the medics of Heaven. Their name means "Hands of Mercy" in Enochian. On the battlefields of heaven, their job was to heal Angels who had been injured. If the injury was too severe for them to heal, then they would give them a quick, painless death, by smiting them. Rit Zien have a unique way of smiting other, which consists of them placing their hand near the victims face, shining a pink light from their palm, and causing them to quickly, and painlessly implode into a pink liquid made of their own essence.

Intelligence Angels


Intelligence Angels are the intelligence division of Heaven. Their work is to gather information, fix the Angels who cause problems, and occasionally, take control of the their minds if needed. These angels were under the leadership of Naomi before the fall.

Powers & Abilities
As warriors of God and agents of Fate, Angels are powerful beings in the supernatural world, possessing a wide range of abilities that vary from Angel to Angel depending on the class of the Angel. Though they are just as beholden to God as humans, Angels are supernatural beings that were created superior to human mortals in both power and intelligence. As such, they are immensely powerful and wise, making them among the most powerful supernatural beings in the entire supernatural universe.

Low-tier powers
Common powers granted to all angels with varying levels of effectiveness.


 * Angelic Possession - Similar to demons, angels require a vessel while on Earth. However, they must have the vessel's permission before they can take control. Gadreel states that even once they are possessed, the vessel can expel the angel at any time but this presumably does not apply for all angels. Angels can only continue to possess humans of a specific bloodline otherwise their vessels will be unable to contain the angel and explode. This goes even more so for archangels as any vessel they possess that is not their true vessel will begin to deteriorate. If the angel is strong enough, it could probably be able to possess monsters and gods' forms, with their consent of course.
 * Astral Projection - Angels can project shadowy forms of their wings onto surfaces at will. If one is killed by an Angel Blade, its wings are burned onto the surface on which they died.
 * Chronokinesis - Angels can travel through time, in either direction. They can also take others with them, and just send others without going themselves. However, this is a very difficult ability to master with or without Heaven's assistance. More powerful angels such as Seraphim or Archangels are able to manipulate time with less effort, even when cut off from Heaven.
 * Dream Walking - Angels can appear in people's dreams, they usually use this to communicate, when they can't find the person they're looking for, or want to talk privately. Lucifer was able to talk to his future vessels in their dreams.
 * Electronic Manipulation - Angels can manipulate electrical appliances. Castiel caused a dozen car alarms to stop by raising his hand.
 * Holy White Light - A particularly lethal power, angels can unleash a highly concentrated blast of pure energy from their palms to incinerate or destroy targets. The level of destruction can be controlled, ranging from obliterating an entire building to killing a room full of monsters, as exhibited by Castiel, to even wiping out a whole town. Metatron, a regular angel, was seen being able to utilize this power as was Castiel when he was just a regular angel due to using Adina's grace. Therefore, this is a power available to all angels.
 * Immortality - Angels do not age and cannot be killed by diseases or Earthly weapons. Some angels have existed since the beginning of time.
 * Invulnerability - To date, the only things capable of killing angels are Angel Blades, Holy Fire, a stronger angel, Death, God, The Darkness, and Leviathans. Archangels have even fewer weaknesses, as Michael wasn't killed by the Holy Fire, and they can only be killed conventionally by Archangel Blades, though it is unknown if they can be killed by Angel Blades. It has been stated that Death's Scythe can kill angels.
 * Localization - Angels can localize any human not protected by enochian sigils.
 * Regeneration - If an angel's vessel is damaged, it will repair itself nearly instantly unless the wound was caused by angelic weaponry.
 * Reality Warping - Angels are powerful enough to bend reality to their will. The more powerful the angel, the greater their capability. Even angels cut off from Heaven possess this power to some extent, as Castiel was able to carve the Enochian Sigil into Sam and Dean's ribs simply by touching their chests. As a regular angel, Castiel was able to remove the existence of a door to prevent Dean from escaping the "beautiful room". Other examples include breaking and repairing objects by pointing at them, removing a persons lungs with no incisions or assembling a board game by shaking the box. Archangels possess this power to the greatest extent, being able to conjure items and beings out of nothing. The most notable example is Gabriel, who lived on Earth by masquerading as a trickster named Loki.
 * Sedation - Angels are able to render humans unconscious with a touch.
 * Smiting - Perhaps an angel's most versatile and terrifying weapon, smiting (sometimes known as the Killing Touch) allows the angel to kill almost any demon, monster and even humans with a touch. Smiting is often exhibited when angels place their hands or palms on their adversaries' face, forehead, or mouth.
 * Super Stamina - Angels never tire, and they do not require food, water, oxygen, or sleep to sustain themselves.
 * Super Strength - Once possessing a vessel, angels use their power to dramatically increase the physical strength threshold of their hosts. Their strength varies from angel to angel, depending on their position within the celestial hierarchy; lesser angels (cherubs, rit zien and common angels) are still considerably powerful and are able to destroy most monsters and regular to mid-level demons, while seraphs, mid-level angels, can destroy all monsters and middle to high-level demons and virtually all lesser angels. Archangels are the most powerful class of angel of all, and one of the most powerful beings in Creation overall. As such, they easily outclass most other supernatural beings with God, Death, and Amara being their only confirmed superiors.
 * Heightened Senses - All angels enhance their vessels senses to superhuman level. Angels possess an acute sense of smell. Their sense of smell is heightened to the point where they can identify people by smelling their body, bone or by their blood. Angels can also identify people by sniffing their genes and hormones as well.  Because angels operate on a different plane of existence, they can see atoms and ions which are impossible for humans to see. Angels can hear a humans conversations miles away from them, and they are somehow able to locate any human on the planet and find them, but they can't locate people if they are protected by an Enochian charm or symbol. They also have an amazing sense of taste and are able to taste every molecule in a piece of food.
 * Supernatural Perception - Angels are able to see almost all supernatural activity around them. Castiel could even see Reapers, which remain invisible except to those they are seeking. They can also see Demons and Hellhounds. They can also sense any location, being, or object not protected by Enochian Symbols. This perception also extends to electromagnetic waves, and can decipher radio modulation signals, as angels are "multidimensional waves" in their true form and can thus perceive such energies.
 * Telekinesis - Angels are able to telekinetically move beings and objects with their mind. They are able to use this power in a more aggressive manner like demons, but are often not depicted as doing so.
 * Telepathy - Angels can read the minds of other angels with ease, higher angels such as Seraphs and archangels can also read humans minds.
 * Teleportation/Flight - Angels are able to travel from one place to another, instantly, without occupying the space in between. However, they require their wings to do this as any angel with clipped wings like Raphael or damaged wings like all of the angels affected by the fall lost the ability to teleport. They can also summon or send other beings.
 * Temporal Awareness - Angels are capable of becoming aware whenever any alteration occur within the time-stream, allowing them to discern alternate timelines and the like. With this, angels like Castiel and a younger Uriel have identified other time-travelers in this manner.
 * Voice Mimicry - Angels can perfectly mimic the voice of mortals.
 * Protective Charm - An angel can protect an individual (commonly their future vessels) from most forms of physical damage. This degree of protection is linked to an angel's power. Castiel was able to prevent his vessel Jimmy Novak from burning his hand on a pot of boiling water as a sign of faith. Raphael was capable of making Crowley immune to Castiel's angelic killing touch.
 * Pyrokinesis - Castiel displays the ability to burn through ropes holding him, even before he becomes a Seraph.
 * Soul Feeding - Angels are able to drain human souls, or even absorb them completely, which increase their power level.
 * Terrakinesis - Hael  was able to carve the Grand Canyon with her powers.
 * Energy blast - Angels can join their powers together to unleash a massive energy blast straight from Heaven and hit a single point, destroying everything in a big radius. This abillity has been showed only once, and seemed to be powerfull enough to even disable Amara for a short time. Even after her raising, she displayed signals of pain, bending over and taking a hand down to the stomach, seeming uncomfortably, at least.

Powers accessed through connection to Heaven
To lower-level angels, certain powers are granted and maintained as long as they stay connected and loyal to Heaven and its rulers. Should they rebel and fall, those powers will wane and eventually vanish in time, and after that all of their powers will eventually vanish, rendering them mortal. However, higher-level angels such as Seraphim and archangels do not suffer from this condition.


 * Enhanced Chronokinesis - Angels have the ability to bend time is easier if the angel is connected to Heaven.
 * Healing - Angels can cause the wounds, diseases, and toxins of another being to heal instantaneously.
 * Smiting - Angels are able to destroy low to mid-level demons with a simple touch, however the demon has to be in a host body, as this doesn't work on their smoke form. However, they can grip a demon's smoke form and force it back into a host body to smite the demon. They can also use it to kill monsters and humans.
 * Resurrection - Angels can bring the dead back to life. However, they must know where all the pieces of the original body are, and they must have the soul of the subject. (The only known exception was when Castiel went to Lucifer's cage and only was able to raise Sam's body. His soul remained in the cage for over a year after). Castiel mentions that angels had to lay siege to Hell in order to retrieve Dean. However, if the soul is in Heaven, they apparently don't need to physically retrieve it as Castiel was able to resurrect Bobby Singer without retrieving his soul and Gadreel was able to do the same with Charlie Bradbury. Similar to the Human Body Restoration Ritual, angels can restore human bodies that have been destroyed. This has been shown in Point of No Return, when two unnamed angels resurrect Adam Milligan after Sam and Dean burned his remains.

Mid-tier powers
Abilities more commonly used by higher classes of angels such as the Seraphim, the Grigori and the archangels, although it is possible that these powers can also be used by low level angels.


 * Biokinesis - Higher level angels, such as Seraphim, like Zachariah, are able to manipulate the biology of other beings. Zachariah, for example, was able to make Dean hemorrhage while torturing him into saying yes to Michael. The Grigori Tamiel was able to render a man blind with just a touch.
 * Advanced Vessel Locking - Powerful angels can hold a demon in smoke form as if it was tangible and force the demon to return to its vessel. This was demonstrated by Castiel on Ellsworth.
 * Memory Manipulation - Powerful angels are able to erase, restore, alter, and fabricate memories in the minds of humans.
 * Advanced Pyrokinesis - Powerful angels can generate and manipulate fire. Michael was proficient enough to kill another angel, Anna, by setting her ablaze from within. Interestingly, this didn't simply destroy the vessel, it also killed the angel, suggesting the fire had a supernatural element to it.
 * Soul Reading - Angels are able to read the souls of humans, however it is a painful experience for the human. They can also use the soul as a source of energy, but the pain is even greater for the human, and there is the risk of an explosion if the angel is not careful.
 * Power Removal - Powerful angels such as Seraphs are capable of removing psychic powers from human beings. However, the process is very painful and can leave the person mentally-damaged.
 * Invisibility - All angels can become invisible to humans.
 * Advanced Healing - While normal angels possess the ability to heal through their connection to Heaven, Seraphim up possess the power of their own- not needing aforementioned connection.

High-tier powers
Extremely powerful abilities, used only by Heaven's most powerful denizens, the archangels, but Metatron also shares a few of these powers.


 * Cosmic Awareness - All archangels and Metatron have a superhuman knowledge of the universe.
 * Thermokinesis - Lucifer demonstrated the ability to freeze a pane of glass with his breath. His presence can cause an entire town to drop in temperature. Michael could do the opposite and caused a door handle to heat up intensely.
 * Electrokinesis - Raphael could produce powerful arcs of electricity that appeared from his back.
 * Implosive Smiting - A more powerful version than a lower angel's smiting. This could obliterate powerful beings such as archangels themselves. Lucifer caused Castiel to explode by snapping his fingers, and Castiel, while powered with the souls from Purgatory, also demonstrated the same ability to Raphael.
 * Shapeshifting - Lucifer was able to take multiple forms while not in a vessel, and while in vessel, Gabriel could also do this; When the angels fell in Season 9, they took the form of their grace.
 * Weather Manipulation - Raphael was able to generate storms that caused blackouts over the entire Eastern Seaboard. Lucifer unleashed incredibly fierce winds with his release.
 * Terrakinesis - Archangels are able to create severe quakes.
 * Mental Manipulation - Metatron was able to implant Castiels mind of every book, movie and TV show he had encountered with a touch.
 * Immunity - Michael has displayed a limited immunity to holy fire as it only hurts him rather than being fatal. Lucifer has displayed immunity to the Colt, however it did cause him temporary pain.

Combined Host
When angels act together, they are capable of feats not normally achievable by individuals.
 * Capture - angels disabled and abducted Alastair, who was powerful enough to disable regular angels in an individual fight, after the demon's failed attempt to kill reapers to break a seal
 * Combined Smiting - The angels of Heaven are able to combine their powers into one single focused smite.

Other

 * Matchmaking - Certain types of angels in the Cherub class, e.g. Cupids, use a special sigil called a Cupid's Bow to bring couples together. Couples touched by a cupid have their hearts marked with an enochian sigil.
 * Empathy - Angels in the Rit Zien class can sense another beings emotions and experiences related to pain.
 * Unique Smiting - The Rit Zien have a unique method of smiting their victims by vaporizing them completely.

Weaknesses
Angels are difficult to kill. The methods that are used to hurt or kill demons and humans will not affect them at all. In On the Head of a Pin, Uriel states that the only thing that can kill an angel is another angel, though this has been shown not to be the case as both Dean and Meg have killed angels before. Although there are not many ways known, there are methods to stop or kill an angel. Even archangels, who are extremely powerful and superior to all other angels, possess a few weaknesses, though little which can kill them.

Harming, Misleading and Trapping

 * Holy Fire - Encased in a circle of flames created from Holy Oil, the angel is trapped. The trapped angel still can use their powers, possibly aiding them to escape. Touching the flame will kill the vessel and the angel. However, it cannot kill Michael, being only able to banish him. Should the circle be disrupted by some sort of bridge, the angel can cross it and escape unharmed.
 * Lucifer's Cage - This cell can hold any angel, therefore including cupids, reapers, angels, rit zien, seraphs and archangels, without any internal means of escape. However, Castiel was able to at least reach inside of the Cage to pull Sam out though he called the task "nearly impossible" and was only able to get Sam's body.
 * Enochian sigil - When Enochian sigils are placed on human rib cages, they prevent any angel/archangel from detecting and finding them. They can also be used to prevent angels from entering a building by painting them on the building's walls. In Torn and Frayed, the sigils on the walls dramatically weakened Castiel's powers. They can also prevent an angel from hearing a conversation of those in a warded room.
 * Hexbag - Hex bags can used to prevent angels from detecting and finding someone (these cannot hide someone from archangels in vessels).
 * Brain Penetration - One of Crowley's demons was able to block at least some of Samandriel's powers by placing large metal spikes into his brain. They can also break into the angel's factory settings through this method.
 * Higher Demons / Large numbers of Demons - The highest Demons are able to fight, overpower, harm, banish, and even possess lower level angels, they can't kill them though. Alastair was completely unfazed when punched twice by a lower angel and was able to easily overpower him. A significantly large number of demons (in their smoke form) are able to overpower a group of regular angels as Crowley's army of demons was able to defeat Castiel's guards ("The Man Who Knew Too Much").
 * Horn of Gabriel Sigil - This symbol is able to attract any angel who is around to the caster.
 * Angel trap - It's another way to trap angels besides Holy Fire.
 * Angel Imprisoning Sigil - It could temporarily imprison them. When imprisoned, they can lose their powers temporarily. The sigil also block any sound from inside of the warded room to be heard by any angels in outside of the room.
 * Alcohol - A whole liquor store's supply of alcohol is sufficient enough to cause a normal angel, cut off from heaven's power, to become intoxicated.
 * Grace Removal - An angel's grace can be removed by slitting their throat and drawing it into another being or a vial which renders them human and mortal.
 * Angel Depowering Spell - Capable to depower nearby angels if certain trail along with the sigils.
 * Weak Vessels - Having a weak vessel seems to reduce an angel's power significantly: while in Nick, Lucifer was stated to not be at full power as he wasn't his true vessel and Hael lacked most of her power while possessing a vessel that was rapidly deteriorating.

Banishing or Destroying

 * Blood Seal - If a person places his or her hand upon this blood seal that is placed upon something then all angels in the immediate area will be banished away. An angel can activate this seal as well. If an angel activates the seal then the angel who activates the seal will not be banished along with the other angels in the area. The blood seal can also be place upon a person's body. If an angel activates the seal this way (carved into its vessel's chest), he or she will be banished along with the other angels.
 * Exorcism Chant - There is an exorcism chant to expel angels from their human vessels and send them back to heaven. It seems that the chant is not well known as the only entity to use it was Alastair. The Whore of Babylon also knew an enochian chant which causes angels severe pain.
 * Spell to Expel all Angels from Heaven - Metatron used a spell to banish all angels from Heaven. The steps to complete the spell were to kill a nephilium take its heart, to take a cupid's bow, and take an angel's grace (Metatron took Castiel's).
 * Vessel Expulsion - A vessel possesses the ability to expel the angel possessing them if they so choose depending on their strength of will and willingness to be possessed. However, while the angel is rendered body-less, they do not seem to be harmed in any other way.
 * Angel Blade - An angel can be killed by stabbing him or her with an angelic blade. It seems that the angel must be stabbed in a vital area of the human body, such as the head, heart, neck, or stomach. When an angel is stabbed by an angelic blade, a burst of bright, white or blue light (depending on how weak the angel is) is released and a shadow of the angel's wings are burned on the surface underneath the body of the angel's human vessel.
 * Archangel Blade - Archangels seem to have their own angelic blades that are probably more powerful than normal angelic blades. It seems that an archangel blade is capable of killing both normal angels and archangels as shown when Lucifer killed Gabriel with his own blade.
 * Angel Blade Bullets - Bullets forged from melted-down angel blades were shown to be effective against angels. However, like an angel blade, the bullet must enter a fatal area, such as the brain.
 * Angel Sword - A sword version of the angel blade used by the Grigori. Like an angel blade it kills angels.
 * Weapons of Heaven - Lot's Salt can irreparably dissolve an archangel's vessel, as it did to Raphael's. All of Heaven's weapons acting together can seriously wound, and likely kill, Raphael or Gabriel, but possibly not Michael or Lucifer.
 * The Colt (possibly) - Castiel believed that the Colt was the only thing that could possibly kill Lucifer. Although, a shot to the head failed to kill Lucifer, it's unknown if the Colt is capable of killing regular angels.
 * Death's Scythe - This weapon can kill demons, reapers, angels, and presumably any other living thing.
 * Leviathans - Leviathans can easily slaughter any type of angel, but whether they could defeat an archangel remains a mystery. According to Castiel, one of the reasons why God locked the Leviathans up in Purgatory was because they could kill angels. Leviathan also managed to slaughter an entire garrison. They overpowered and almost killed Castiel, although not without effort. Castiel fought off (and even overpowered on one occasion) several Leviathan in Purgatory, taking on two at once on at least one occasion (though this was with Dean's assistance and he was almost killed by them).
 * Higher Angels - Higher Angels such as Archangels and Rit Zien can smite lower level Angels.
 * Hellhounds (possibly) - Hellhounds might be able to harm or kill angels as upon their approach Castiel ran along with Dean, Sam, Meg and two other Demons.
 * Death - Being the concept of death literally personified, Death can effortlessly destroy any amount of angels instantly.
 * God - Being able to do anything, God can effortlessly destroy any amount of angels instantly.
 * Cambion/Anti-Christ -  An anti-christ, the offspring of a human and demon, is said to be able to char the entire Host of Heaven, but it's unknown if one could affect archangels seeing as their powers are fueled by Lucifer.
 * Eve - a being older than the angels themselves, can suppress their powers through her mere presence alone.
 * Naomi's torture implement - Naomi possesses an implement capable of causing harm to angels through torture and possibly bending them to her will. It has also been shown to be capable of killing of an angel.
 * The First Blade - The First Blade can kill angels.
 * Energy Focusing Sigil - This spell killed any angels directly in the path of the exploding angel, atomizing any angels nearby and killing anything else while blowing the whole area up. This sigil also exposes angels to earthly objects and weapons.
 * Falling - Many angels died when they fell from Heaven after Metatron's spell.
 * Magic - Castiel once stated that if the right spells were cast upon a book, reading it could potentially kill him.
 * Witches - Rowena was able to simultaneously restrain both Castiel and Crowley and then force Castiel to attack Crowley with her guard-dog spell.
 * The Darkness- A primordial entity predating even God and Death, the Darkness can easily kill Angels.

Archangels

 * Michael  (imprisoned)
 * Lucifer
 * Raphael (deceased)
 * Gabriel 

Seraphim

 * Zachariah (deceased)
 * Castiel (promoted)

Angels

 * Castiel (formerly)
 * Uriel (deceased)
 * Anna Milton (deceased)
 * Joshua
 * Balthazar (deceased)
 * Virgil
 * Rachel (deceased)
 * Hester (deceased)
 * Inias
 * Samandriel (deceased)
 * Naomi (deceased)
 * Metatron (formerly, now human)
 * Ion (deceased)
 * Esper (deceased)
 * Nathaniel
 * Ezekiel (deceased)
 * Hael (deceased)
 * Bartholomew (deceased)
 * Bartholomew's Assistant (deceased)
 * Malachi (deceased)
 * Gadreel (deceased)
 * Muriel (deceased)
 * Theo (formerly, deceased)
 * Azrael (deceased)
 * Sophia (deceased)
 * Abner (deceased)
 * Thaddeus (deceased)
 * Rebecca (deceased)
 * Elijah (deceased)
 * Hannah (deceased)
 * Ezra  (deceased)
 * Esther (deceased)
 * Josiah (deceased)
 * Oren (deceased)
 * Tyrus (deceased)
 * Constantine (deceased)
 * Flagstaff
 * Neil
 * Asariel
 * Purah
 * Ingrid
 * Daniel (deceased)
 * Adina (formerly, deceased)
 * Isaac (mentioned only)
 * Efram (deceased)
 * Jonah (deceased)
 * Ambriel (consumed by the Darkness)

Reapers

 * Tessa (deceased)
 * Ajay (deceased)
 * April Kelly (deceased)
 * Maurice (deceased)
 * Billie

Nephilim

 * Jane (deceased)

Cherubim

 * Cupid
 * Gail
 * Trucker Cupid (deceased)

Rit Zien

 * Ephraim (deceased)

Grigori

 * Tamiel (deceased)

Non Canon

 * Jophiel (tie-in Novels only)
 * Uzziel (tie-in Novels only)
 * Ramiel (tie-in Novels only) (deceased)
 * Selaphiel (tie-in Novels only)
 * Don (tie-in Novels only)

Lucifer's Guards

 * Abbadon (deceased)

Death
Upon death, a pair of wings, reflecting the angel's own, are brazed into the wall and floor around them. It is unknown where they go afterwards, just as it is unknown what happens when a demon is killed, or a monster when killed in Purgatory.

Though they can revive humans from death, angels do not seem to have the power to resurrect other angels, although Raphael thought that the fallen archangel Lucifer might have brought Castiel back in an effort to bring the rebellious angel to his side. God, however, was able to revive angels, as He resurrected Castiel three seperate times.

Appearances
Even though they didn't officially and properly appear until Season 4, Angels, along with Demons, are arguably the most recurring supernatural creatures in the series, so far appearing in a total of over 90 episodes.


 * Season 1
 * Faith - first appearance of a Reaper
 * Something Wicked (mentioned in prayer)


 * Season 2
 * In My Time Of Dying
 * Tall Tales (Gabriel, disguised as The Trickster / "Loki") - first appearance of an archangel


 * Season 3
 * Mystery Spot (Gabriel, disguised as The Trickster /  "Loki")


 * Season 4
 * Lazarus Rising - first named proper appearance of an angel
 * Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean Winchester
 * In The Beginning
 * It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester
 * I Know What You Did Last Summer - first appearance of a fallen angel
 * Heaven and Hell
 * Death Takes A Holiday
 * On The Head Of A Pin
 * It's A Terrible Life (Zachariah) - first appearance of a Seraph
 * The Monster at the End of This Book - first named semi appearance of an archangel
 * The Rapture
 * When The Levee Breaks
 * Lucifer Rising


 * Season 5
 * Sympathy for the Devil - first named proper appearance of an archangel
 * Good God, Y'all
 * Free To Be You and Me
 * The End
 * I Believe The Children Are Our Future
 * Changing Channels
 * Abandon All Hope...
 * The Song Remains the Same
 * My Bloody Valentine - first appearance of a Cherub
 * Dark Side of the Moon
 * 99 Problems
 * Point of No Return
 * Hammer of the Gods
 * Two Minutes to Midnight
 * Swan Song


 * Season 6
 * The Third Man
 * You Can't Handle The Truth
 * Family Matters
 * Caged Heat
 * Appointment In Samarra
 * Like A Virgin
 * The French Mistake
 * My Heart Will Go On
 * Frontierland
 * Mommy Dearest
 * The Man Who Would Be King
 * Let It Bleed
 * The Man Who Knew Too Much


 * Season 7
 * Meet The New Boss
 * Hello, Cruel World
 * The Born-Again Identity
 * Reading Is Fundamental
 * Survival of the Fittest


 * Season 8
 * What's Up, Tiger Mommy?
 * Blood Brother
 * A Little Slice of Kevin
 * Hunteri Heroici
 * Torn and Frayed
 * Goodbye Stranger
 * Taxi Driver
 * The Great Escapist
 * Clip Show
 * Sacrifice


 * Season 9
 * I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here
 * Devil May Care
 * I'm No Angel
 * Slumber Party
 * Dog Dean Afternoon
 * Heaven Can't Wait - first appearance of a Rit Zien
 * Rock and a Hard Place
 * Holy Terror
 * Road Trip
 * First Born
 * Captives
 * Meta Fiction
 * King of the Damned
 * Stairway To Heaven
 * Do You Believe In Miracles?


 * Season 10
 * Black
 * Reichenbach
 * Soul Survivor
 * Girls, Girls, Girls
 * The Things We Left Behind
 * The Hunter Games
 * There's No Place Like Home (Castiel, mentioned only)
 * The Executioner's Song
 * Inside Man
 * Angel Heart - first appearance of a Grigori
 * Dark Dynasty
 * The Prisoner
 * Brother's Keeper


 * Season 11
 * Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire
 * Form and Void
 * The Bad Seed
 * Thin Lizzie (mentioned)
 * Our Little World
 * O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Trivia

 * Eric Kripke never originally intended for angels (excluding Lucifer) to appear on the series. In the first three seasons, he had a staunch “no angel policy."
 * It is unknown if Metatron's spell took the wings of Michael and Lucifer, who were in Lucifer's Cage at the time.
 * In the Christian religion, there are 9 ranks in the Christian angelic hierarchy: the Seraphim, the Cherubims, the Thrones, the Dominions, the Virtues, the Powers, the Principalities, the Archangels and the Angels:
 * The Seraphim are the highest angelic class and they serve as the caretakers of God's throne.
 * The Cherubim guard the way to the tree of life in the Garden of Eden and the throne of God.
 * The Thrones are living symbols of God's justice and authority.
 * The Dominions regulate the duties of lower angels.
 * The Virtues supervise the movements of the heavenly bodies in order to ensure that the cosmos remains in order.
 * The Powers are the bearers of conscience and the keepers of history. They are also the warrior angels created to be completely loyal to God.
 * The Principalities preside over the bands of angels and charge them with fulfilling the divine ministry.
 * The Archangels are the administrators of duties for the angels and they are also their commanders.
 * The Angels are the lowest order of the angels. They are sent as messengers to mankind.