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In the TV show, the sandman, there is a ritual that is supposed to summon and trap the Death.

During the ritual, a feather pulled from an angel is offered among other objects.

What is a feather pulled from an angel? We cannot take it literally, I assume.

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    Why can't be it's angel's feather?
    – Ankit Sharma ♦
    Aug 23, 2022 at 11:44
  • @AnkitSharma I think it can be an angel feather. See idotkelly answer.
    – user96544
    Aug 23, 2022 at 12:22
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    @user133469 .... Ankit is challenging the OPs assumption that it cannot be taken literally.
    – iandotkelly ♦
    Aug 23, 2022 at 12:34
  • But it's a bit weird to ask "why can't [something] be true?" when you actually think that the [something] can be true. Like what's the answer to "why can't the Earth have mass?" There is no answer, because the Earth has mass. Why can't it be an angel's feather has no answer, because it is an angel's feather. Is that right?
    – user96544
    Aug 23, 2022 at 20:26
  • Are you asking in-universe or what is the prop used to represent the angel's feather? Maybe you should clarify, since you tagged props.
    – Luciano
    Aug 25, 2022 at 12:34

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Yes, it means a literal Angel

It's an episode about a man attempting to trap Death so that he can force the return of his dead son, by casting a magic spell.

The show is set in a universe with literal Angels and Demons, as well as anthropomorphic representations of Death, Desire, Despair, Dreams etc.

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  • It does rather prompt a certain recursion… in order to trap death you first need to have at least got close enough to an angel to manage to steal a feather. ;)
    – Tetsujin
    Aug 23, 2022 at 13:23
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    @Tetsujin it's a world with people like Constantine running around who can sell you one feather for something in exchange.
    – Ankit Sharma ♦
    Aug 23, 2022 at 13:36
  • I suppose so - I was just thinking 'turtles all the way down' ;)
    – Tetsujin
    Aug 23, 2022 at 13:41
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    If all you need to trap Death is some words from a book, markings on a floor and a bit of blood - then everyone will be doing it.
    – iandotkelly ♦
    Aug 23, 2022 at 15:45
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    It's a bit like the Rite of AshkEnte - though you can do it with three small sticks and 4 cc of mouse blood, it just doesn't feel right ;)
    – Tetsujin
    Aug 23, 2022 at 16:12
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Was it a literal feather from angel's wing? We don't know. But could it be so? Certainly!

The Sandman universe is connected to DC, where angels, demons, gods, zombies and aliens are very real and characters such as Constantine ("Hellblazer") or Phantom Stranger deal with them quite regularly (the latter might have been an angel himself).

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  • It is hard for me to understand as the DC universe has icons such as Batman and Superman, suddenly super natural beings from the Bible introduce themselves. :-D
    – Yu Zhang
    Aug 24, 2022 at 22:28
  • @YuZhang to be fair, they are usually kept separately, with the regular DC sticking to "vanilla" heroes and villains, while the adult-oriented Vertigo (which is still DC - with a few exceptions like Fables) has sometimes "occult undertone introducing characters from various religions, including Bible. John Constantine met Abrahamic God at least twice - in the first instance he blackmailed him, in the second he told him to... hmm... go away.
    – Yasskier
    Aug 25, 2022 at 0:07

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