What is the Peacock Angel?

Tawsi Melek, the Peacock Angel and Peacock King, is the most import deity of the
Yezidis. But he is not just the possession of the Yezidis, he belongs to the entire world. The
Yezidis believe that they possess the oldest religion on Earth, the primeval faith that
features Tawsi Melek, and that all other traditions are related to them through the Peacock
Angel. They contend that Tawsi Melek is the true creator and ruler of the universe, and
therefore a part of all religious traditions. He does not, however, always manifest within
these diverse traditions as a peacock. Tawsi Melek has taken on many other forms
throughout time.
The Yezidis do not believe that the Peacock Angel is the Supreme God. The Supreme God
created him as an emanation at the beginning of time. He was brought into manifestation in
order to give the invisible, transcendental Supreme God a vehicle with which to create and
administer the universe. Tawsi Melek is thus a tangible, denser form of the infinite Supreme
God. In order to assist Tawsi Melek in this important role, the Supreme Creator also created
six other Great Angels, who were, like the Peacock Angel, emanations of the Supreme God
and not separate from him. When recounting the creation of all Seven Great Angels, the
Yezidis often summarize the emanation process as follows:
Tawsi Melek was the first to emerge from the Light of God in the form of a seven-rayed
rainbow, which is a form he still today continues to manifest within to them (usually as a
rainbow around the Sun). But the Yezidis also claim that Tawsi Melek and the six Great
Angels are collectively the seven colors of the rainbow. Therefore, the six Great Angels
were originally part of Tawsi Melek, the primal rainbow emanation, who bifurcated to
become the rainbows seven colors, which are collectively the Seven Great Angels. Of the
seven colors produced from the primal rainbow, Tawsi Melek became associated with the
color blue, because this is the color of the sky and the heavens, which is the source of all
colors.
Tawsi Melek was, therefore, both the first form of the Supreme God and one of the Seven
Great Angels, which is a cosmic heptad mentioned within many religious traditions. The
Jews, Christians, Persian, Egyptians all have their seven angels and creators. In the
Meshef Re, the Yezidis Black Book, there is one passage that describes the Seven
Great Angels and associates their creation with the seven days of Creation. The text first
states that the Supreme God first created a pearl containing the substance or substratum of
the soon-to-be physical universe, ostensibly referring to the molten mass preceding the
Big Bang championed by modern physics. The Yezidi text then maintains that for forty
thousand years this pearl sat upon a primal bird, which is quite possibly an incipient form of
Tawsi Melek before he divided into the Seven Great Angels. This pearl then exploded (or

became dismantled) to become the physical universe. Then, states the Meshef Re, came
the seven days of creation:
The first day which He (the Supreme God) created was Sunday. On that day He created
an angel whose name was Azrail. This is Melek Taus, who is the greatest of all.
On

Monday

On

Tuesday

He

created

He

On

Wednesday

On

Thursday

On

Friday

On

Saturday

created

He
He

He
He

the

Angel

the

created

the

created

the

created
created

the
the

Dardail,

Angel
Angel

Israfil,
Mikail,

Angel
Angel

Angel

who

is

who
who

is
is

Gibrail,

who

Shimnail,

who

Nurail,

who

is

Shaikh

Hasan.

Shaikh
Shaikh

is

Shams.

Abu

Bakr.

Sagad

ad-Din.

is

Nasir

ad-Din.

Yadin

[Fakhr

ad-Din].

And God made Melek Taus the greatest of them.

Ever since their primal creation the Seven Great Angels have been associated with the day
of the week they were created. Tawsi Meleks day is Sunday, etc.
Once the Seven Great Angels were created the Earth was produced by them out of the
substratum of the original pearl. It remained barren and then suddenly entered a phase of
intense continual shaking, perhaps coinciding with the violent earthquake and volcanic
activity that was ubiquitous around the young Earth. In order to calm the planetary quaking,
the Supreme God sent the Peacock Angel to Earth with orders to both sedate the Earth and
endow it with multi-colored flora and fauna. As Tawsi Melek descended into the physical
dimension his seven-colored rainbow self became manifest as a magnificent bird of seven
colors, the peacock. He then flew around the globe in order to bless every part of it, finally
landing in the area of what is now Lalish, the Yezidis most sacred part of Earth located in
northern Iraq. Here Tawsi Melek was able to calm the Earth while simultaneously covering
it with his peacock colors.
With the Earth in a more placid phase of its evolution the Great Angels proceeded to their
next creation, Adam. The first human was created by all the Seven Great Angels, each of
whom endowed him with a physical sense to experience life. One gave him an ear, one a
nose, one a mouth, etc. But the first human was a lifeless heap without a soul, so Tawsi
Melek transmitted the breath of life into him. When Adam then rose to his feet, Tawsi Melek
quickly swung him around so that he was facing the Sun while informing him that there was
something much greater than he and that praying daily to the Sun as a form of the
Supreme God would help him to remember this truth. Tawsi Melek then verbalized the
prayers that Adam and his descendants around the globe were to repeat during their
worship, and he spoke them in 72 languages since Adam and Eve were destined to have
72 sons and 72 daughters who would populate the 72 regions or countries of the Earth.
The Peacock Angel then informed Adam that if he and his descendants remained steadfast
in righteousness they would eventually see and know the Supreme God personally. In the
meantime, Tawsi Melek would be their protector and teacher even while residing in another
dimension.