Angels Past and Present

The Soul at its highest is found like God, but an Angel gives a closer idea of Him. That is all an Angel is an idea of God. ( Meister  Eckhart , Sermons ).

Angels are as close to the Divine as we can get. Our knowledge of them comes from written descriptions  of people`s luminous and mystical experiences. They have appeared in the records of civilizations marking events where tremendous shifts in human consciousness have occured. For instance, we see Angels appearing to men and women  whose destinies were to lead others towards greater awarenes  and moral responsibility. We have vast quantities of literature about the Angel`s help and assistance to the jews of the Old Testament  in their struggle for freedom. Hebrew literature has a firm understanding about the nature of the love and grace the Angels confer upon  humanaity. Angels are called Malach in Hebrew.

The stories of the Angel visiting Abraham to intervene on Isaac`s behalf or of the Angel`s helping Daniel and protecting Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the burning fiery furnace are favourite Biblical tales. The Book of revelation and the Apocrypha describe Angel`s as the Lord`s messengers, used to reveal his love for mankind. St Luke tells of the Angel Gabriel´s annunciation  of Christ`s coming to Mary. The word Angel is derived from  the Greek  word angeloi, which means, in fact, messenger. Angels are prominent throughout the Koran  and have a significant place in the sacred Islamic texts. The Koran tells how Gabriel carried Muhammed up to Heaven one starlight night and dictated the entire Book to him. This is honoured as a holy event which marks the celestial inauguration of an ethical and sacred code to all who follow Islam.

Three of the main religions of modern civilization have thus ordained and blessed the presence of Angels. We need only to look at the ancient writings  which are the backbone and foundation of these religions to understand the extent to which Angels acted as revealory mesengers of God in the past.  How these teachings, with their many miracles, can be seen to relate to our everyday understanding now  and is a backdrop for our present-day experience with these wonderous creatures of light. We hope that conventional religious attitudes about Angels will not discourage you from opening yourself to a possibility of gaining insight and knowledge into the love and healing they can offer each of us.

Angels, infact belong to all mankind, not only to a particular religion. They can serve us as agents for personal growth and spiritual evolution. All you need to do is to allow the Angels space in your life to create the spiritual context in which to develop a capacity to love and be loved. Angels can have an active place in our lives because we need them to help us in our relationship to the Source. Angels also give us, protection and guidance and they can help us fulfil our creative potential by making our way easy and smooth. They help us by removing obstacles  to our well-being and happiness. In modern times two strongly influential thinkers , Emanuel Swedenborg and Rudolf Steiner, have helped to shift our awareness of Angels  from religious to a humanistic view.

Emanuel Swedenborg was a Swedish philosopher who lived in the eighteenth century. He had profound mystical experiences during which, he attests, he was taken into the realm of Heaven and was witness to the Heavenly heirarchies. He described in his writings the perfect love and harmony of the Angelic Kingdom. He told of Angels having homes and living in perfect harmony and peace. Angels of course had a blissful existence. Swedenborg described the acts of love and charity which the Angels performed. He said they weren ever more blissful than when they were teaching or offering guidance  and care: They are the image of the Lord, thus do they love their neighbour more than themselves, and for this reason Heaven is Heaven.

Around the turn of the present century Rudolf Steiner, a german scientist  and philosopher, studied all forms of esoteric sciences. He had a deep love and understanding of the Angels. Steiner understood the purpose of  Angels as being that of spiritual teachers helping mankind achieve a higher level of spirituality  and inner development. He said that the more we evolved  as spiritual beings the more we connected with the Angelical realms. He felt, for instance, that the Archangel Michael was the guiding Angel of our New Age and would help lead mankind out of the chatoic and dispirited state into which it had sunk, towards an age of great light and spiritual consciousness. Continue

Reference:Ambika Wauters: The Angel Oracle

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