The Wisdom of Angels
Almost every culture acknowledges angels as existing in one form or another and fulfilling some vital role in creation. We see this in myth, personal accounts, sacred texts, and of course in religions. According to a gallop pole over seventy percent of Americans believe in angels – even more than attend church (I couldn’t find figures for the UK).
In what way can we justify this ‘belief’? Is there any evidence of the existence of these beings or is it purely a matter of faith? Some people (presumably the other thirty percent of Americans) would say that there is a deep psychological need in humans to have heroes and super beings as a reassurance against some innate fear of evil or the unknown. But for an increasing number of people this is not just a matter of belief but a conviction born out of personal experience.
Theosophy informs us that our earth, solar system, and far distant galaxies are all linked in bonds of sympathy and helpfulness. All are expressions of the divine purpose and plan. And in a wonderful mystery, all are not simply containers for diverse beings but are the very life of visible and invisible intelligences. Instinctive, semiconscious, and fully enlightened beings commingle, learn, and grow together. Beneath the apparent solidarity of things, within the beauty and complexity of forms, one discovers life – one may correctly say angel consciousness – everywhere.
When we are exclusively centred in our apparent mortality, locked into the separateness of things, and when our life is limited to confinement in the five senses, personal desire, and linear thinking we are scarcely alive. At such times and in such people angels have very little meaning because the human-angel bond requires spiritual perception. Such perception is not, however, a matter of developing clairvoyance but rather spiritual insight, which comes only with full participation in the life within and around us, guided by love.
The physicality so vivid, central, and so absolutely vital to human life and evolution is only one field of consciousness among many ‘fields’ within which we move and have our being. The planetary realms of thought, feeling, and intuitive and archetypal forces underlie physical form as a radiant soul life. These largely invisible planes of inner space are inextricably interwoven with the consciousness of the various intelligences that are focused there. Various angelic beings make our planetary realms of soul and spirit their home. They centre themselves in states of consciousness within which we humans can grow to our full spiritual potential. As we gradually awaken to our divine destiny in the fullness of being truly human, we not only discover angel companions walking the path with us but enter into that deva life itself.
We are given many images in myth and religious texts of angels. We are told that angels are ‘covered in glory’, a glory that shines forth illuminating everything around them. We are told that angels deliver messages, such as the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary and Mohammad. And we are given images of angels struggling and overcoming evil, as with pictures of the archangel Michael in his shining armour, often seen engaged in battle with hideous winged beasts. And Michael usually has his angel legions surrounding him in the fight to slay the beasts. But these images should not be taken too literally. Instead, we should look beneath the physical symbols for the coded truths hidden within. Only then can we open ourselves to the higher levels of awareness from where these images are ‘inspired’ and originate. With such insight we can meet the angelic forces on their own terms and not simply as stylised images.
Thinking deeply or meditating upon these images and symbols – the best of which are archetypal and resound deep within our unconscious – can lead us to experience at first hand the truths buried within them. This may come easily to some of us or it may prove virtually impossible to many. The angels are the embodiment of the Wisdom of the Ages and the secret wisdom revealed by the breaking of the ancient symbolic code is still known to this day. It is known from the time when this coded language was first used by those advanced men and women who were entrusted with its safe keeping by the angels whose work it is to bear the light of wisdom to infant humanity.
The prevailing notions of angels blend religious and cultural beliefs with media images, hopeful fantasy, and direct experience. But all too often we hear stories of how people have encountered angels when they were in dire need. The general view is that we should call upon angels when we are in trouble or when we are in need of any form of assistance. Today, sadly, we now hear many stories of how angels can supply us with anything that we want or solve any problem for us, from a puncture to a massive credit card debt. This new view even sinks into to the realms of personal greed, with the insistence that we can call upon angels to bring us money, fame, and influence. It seems to me that the only people who are gaining personal wealth from such ideas are those who blatantly sell them to others.
In 1997 the television show “Touched by an Angel” was watched by an average of 20 million Americans each week. They watched in their millions as angels delivered people from all kinds of trouble and put right all kinds of wrongs and injustice. Not so surprising then that our general perception of angels is that of personal helpers in times of need.
This is in stark contrast to the perception of the ‘Adepts’, who work constantly for the uplifting of humanity in partnership with angels. These members of advanced humanity have themselves become part of the angelic orders, and this they have achieved by a process that any one of us can engage in. Central to this process is a complete turn around from the self concerned approach taken by so many seekers of communion with angels. This process or work requires that we stop asking what angels can do for us and instead, start asking what we can do for them! And what a very different world it would be if seventy percent of us did that!
In the study course, ‘All About Angels’, we look at the role of the angelic hosts in the building, maintaining, and evolving of our earth and of the universe. we look at angel encounters and at the angelic nature of man. We uncover the god within, and reveal the involvement of powerful beings in the evolution of man as an immortal and creative power.