The Nature of Angelic Beings
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[edit] Beings of Light and Darkness
We can not begin our quest into the nature and being of the angelic creatures with the assumptions of human life. Whatever angels may be, they are certainly not human, nor have they ever been human, even when in human form. Many writers of angelic nature have made this mistake, and we will try very hard not to succumb to this pitfall. It is very difficult however not to, since the only perspective we have, is one of human understanding and experience
For example, popular tradition tells us that the angels are creatures of light, however, the angel which destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and the angel who killed all the first born of Egypt, and even the angel who breaks the leg of the Apostle, don't appear from a human standpoint, to be very nice creatures. They appear to be creatures capable of extraordinarily dark deeds with no conscious or second thought. One could even back up the claim that these creatures have a Terminator mindset. That they are simply henchmen, brandishing hideous weapons and laying waste to entire lands at the will and command of God.
When this last qualification is put into play "the will and command of God" our faith and belief in the righteousness of the Lord lets us continue to see these beings as "beings of Light" yet the acts themselves remain dark. Our human perspective never allows for the massacre of thousands of children to be wholly seen as an act of love, or light. We also know that while angels are powerful and mighty creatures, they are not mindless automatons, and they do possess the quality of freewill (at least in human form). They do have the ability of clear thought, and even the ability to put forth arguments against God (as the office of satan (pronounced Sa'Tan) in the book of Job clearly shows). So it is difficult at best to reconcile the genocide of thousands with a creature of love and light.
One perspective which humans do not have, (which the angels clearly do ), is the perspective of the Immoral Being. Immortality changes many things. We see the act of genocide as an act of Evil, or cruelty, because we are mortal. The lives of these people, these nations, has ended. But from the perspective of the immortal, life has not ended, there has simply been a transition from body to spirit; one could even argue that this transition in the eyes of the immortal angel is a natural and necessary transition. The angel could, from his point of view, even be more concerned with the destruction of the earth, sky and water of the land, of the 'sowing the ground with salt', and the far reaching destruction of agriculture for decades to come, than the natural transition of a few thousand humans before their time.
So when we talk about angels as beings of light, or their darker side, the demons (which are in fact the same creatures), we need to be certain of our perspective, or fall prey to the dreadful mistake of humanizing creatures which are clearly not human. If we are to understand angelic creatures then we must attempt to understand the immortal point of view, to place our perspective on the edge of the world and look out on a creation where no death truly exists. To fully grasp that, what we as humans fear as Death -- the lifeless body which returns to the dust it was created from -- is, from the angelic point of view, the illusion of permanence all humans hold desperately onto, leading them further away from the presence of God through the power of mortal fear. "Death, where is thy sting..." when nothing truly dies, and all returns to the place of its origin; the body to the earth, the breath, the soul, to God?
We also need to watch that we do not fall into the temptation of worship of these creatures. While angels are extremely powerful beings, they are creatures, like ourselves, created by God, and their purpose is very similar to ours. They are not gods themselves. Again our human nature, our need to feel secure and to glorify the presence of heavenly spirits, has to be held in check if we are to succeed at the goal of understanding angelic nature.
Changes to our perspective can be uncomfortable, and even alarming. This is understandable as our perspective has been established and developed to insure that we are comfortable and feel safe. We have learned throughout our life's experiences many lessons, and have solved hundreds of problems; material, social, parental, scholastic, political, financial and the solutions discovered during these challenges (those which worked and those which were failures), have created our current perspectives about the world, and God, and everything else this writing will touch on.
There is no easy way to learn real spiritual lessons. Every spiritual leader and in western and eastern history and tradition achieved their greater understanding of the spiritual life through total disruption of their personal beliefs and understanding of how the world works and what existence means.
I will also not pretend that the perspectives I will present in these writings have any more validity than the perspectives they challenge. My own personal beliefs (few of which will be in these writings), understand that such distinctions and claims of "real truth" are as illusionary as the permanence of the world compared to the everlasting world the angels call home.
[edit] Those who stand in between
Why seek to understand angels at all? Some believe that to understand a creator we seek to understand his creations. Anyone who has a successful relationship with an artist, or writer, can tell you this is a false assumption, and since we are made in the image and likeness of God, this method of understanding him maybe equally naive. Be that as it may, angles are between us and God, and being his messengers, understanding the messenger may help to comprehend the message.
Some believe that all angles; choirs, grigori, and demons, are adversarial to humans. They seek knowledge of the adversary, in the hopes of protection.
Some seek a better understanding of what it means to be human. The angels are the first companion creations of God. Beautiful, wondrous, self-willed, intelligent, and engaging. There seems to be, through the many references we have of their abilities and appearances, no lack of variety in their personalities. And yet, despite all of these qualities of existence, God creates man; a mortal; an even more flawed creature, than the angels. The timing of this act of creation brings up many questions about the traditional assumptions we have about God, and what it means to be human. In contrast to those who believe understanding the angels, helps us to better understand God, some believe that to better understand God, we seek to better understand ourselves.
There are essays and thesis which propose that Man was intended to be greater than the host until the Fall in the Garden of Eden, however, I have strong doubts about this theory, which I will bring out in this book at a later section.
No matter the reason the reader has for seeking a greater understanding of the nature of the angelic beings (even if for purely the entertainment value), history has shown that interest in their lives and world stretches back in history before Babylonia, and angelic beings are referenced and recorded in nearly every society of the world.
[edit] And they were afraid
The presence of an angel, even one simply bringing a message of hope, is described most of the time in biblical references as Fearful, even terrifying. The first time we come across this term in the Bible is Adam's fear of God, because Adam is naked.
Genesis 3:10: And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Until this point, there is no fear about the presence of God. Adam has talked with God for quite some time, apparently in his physical presence, and indeed it feels as though Adam may never have experienced God in any other form except his physical presence.
Although there are pitfalls to making modern assumptions in regards to ancient texts like the Torah, since most translations appear to suggest Adam is clearly explaining his fear to God "and I was afraid, because I was naked..." Adam seems to feel he needs to explain his fear; the fear it is not a natural reaction to God's presence. Both of them know God's voice, Genesis 3:8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden .., and it is not strange that he is in the garden, walking in the cool of the day. The language of Genesis gives the impression that the cool of the day was pleasant to God, and he often walked through at that time (when he didn't have other pressing matters to attend to), we can easily visualize the Ancient Of Days walking through the garden, enjoying the setting sun, the conversations of the animals, and looking to spend some time with his children now that the work day is done.
Fear then, is not the natural, or perhaps the original, reaction to the presence of God. Later, as we progress through the Torah, it begins to feel as though fear is a natural reaction; nearly every direct encounter with the Almighty is a fearful and terrifying experience; but this experience is now God's way of getting our attention. A deliberate act on the part of God, not a natural reaction to God's presence because we are human. There is credence to the idea that fear is a natural reaction to God's presence now that man has lost his innocence, which several theologists have expressed over the centuries, and also from the purification rituals and requirements of the priests, described by the Hebrews, in order to be in the presence of God
Later in Genesis, the man Jacob encounters the presence of God between the city of Beer-sheba, and Haran. He tarries at a place when the sun is close to setting, with his wife, makes camp, and during the night is given a vision of God, and a host of angels, which shows that the ground he is laying on is a holy passage way between earth and heaven. When he wakes up from his audience with the Lord...
Genesis 28:17: And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
Prior to this statement of fright however, Jacob says,..
Genesis 28:16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.
If Jacob was correct in his observation, and the Lord was indeed "in this place"... and the ground he slept on was indeed "the Gate of Heaven", Jacob, clearly a human, settled down, camped, ate, laid his head on a stone for a pillow, and dreamed, feeling no trepidation the night before, whether from God, or any earthly concerns. So again, there is ample suggestion that the casual presence of God, and even the presence of the Gate of Heaven during shift change, is not naturally fearful to human beings, despite our fallen or imperfect, condition after The Fall of the Garden.
All this being said, it is very clear that the presence of God can be extremely terrifying, and the presence of Cherubs and other angels can be equally fearful. When I say "equally" I mean to say that we as humans have a limited capacity for fear, and once we have reached that point, we either die, pass out, or blank out, but we can not feel more fear. Once saturated, it overflows or shatters the vessel. So, equally, in this case, means both God and the angels have the ability to fill us with fear in the literal sense. Discussions of power levels after that moment, are pointless from our advantage.
Encounters with the physical presence of angels, from the Torah and the New Testament, also have plenty of examples where the man or woman is fearful the instance the angel appears, or completely unaware of the angel's divine nature. Examples of fear or trepidation, and ease or unawareness, also can be found for humans in the physical presence of demons and the grigori.
So it appears, at least on the surface, that Fear is not a natural human reaction to angels, or God, but rather an ability of both through their nature, and our mortality.
[edit] The Voice of Command
Luke 1:19-20 ... I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings. 20 And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.
As mentioned in previous sections, angels have free will, and are able to exceed their orders, get creative, and even react to offense when the situation arises. Often angels are described as carrying hideous weapons; long blades of heat and flame, but most often we witness them using the Voice of Command. Gabriel for example doesn't cut Zacharias's throat, or rip out his tongue, to be restored later, he simply commands that this shall happen and it does.
In the last section we discussed the nature of what could be called "The Fearful Presence", but also the angels demonstrate many times throughout biblical text the ability to command an emotional response (be afraid, be calm, rejoice, tremble), as well as commanding physical changes, such as muteness in Zacharias's case.
Both of these abilities (Voice of Command, and Fearful Presence) are similar to the demonstrated abilities of God. God creates with words, he sets things to order by command (let there be light, and ... there was... after all, what else could it do?). We do not witness the angels "creating" with this ability. The ability is only demonstrated as being able to alter our emotions, or our physical state. They also do not demonstrate the ability to alter our will, which God does.
[edit] I saw gods ascending out of the earth
I Samuel 28:13: And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth.
The human spirit is demonstrated as being just as powerful as the presence of angels when manifesting to mortal humans, so often in fact, it has been suggested many times that the human spirit becomes an angel after the transition from earthly life. There is no biblical basis for this popular assumption, as we see here from the summoning of Samuel's spirit by a sorceress at the bidding of king Saul.
Samuel's spiritual form is still that of a man, and he is not described as having wings, yet is described as wearing a mantel, and his presence, to the sorceress, is that of a god. He does not appear alone (I saw gods), and ascends from the earth, not down from heaven.
There is no Hell, as modern Christians think of Hell, in the Torah, or the Hebrew belief system, so Samuel's ascent from "the earth" is not synonymous with an ascent from Hell or anything like a place of damnation. He is also rather upset with the fact that he has been summoned from what he describes as a quiet state, or place of rest. I Samuel 28:15 And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? Samuel also appears to be unwilling to stay for very long to comfort Saul; quickly rebuking him for his foolish misdeeds against the Lord, and departing at his own will.
The Sorcery, which the woman has the knowledge of, and has used to summon Samuel's spirit is one of the teachings given to man from the grigori, one of the lessons the Fallen teach man, which angers the Lord, and is part of their rebuking from Heaven. Astrology, is also one of the lessons imparted to man from the grigori, as well as many more which will be discussed in a later section.
The sorceress is also described as having a "familiar" spirit.
I Samuel 28:7 Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor.
This is where making sure of what we are reading in ancient texts such as the Torah can keep us from making grave mistakes in our assumptions. The phrase "A man or woman having a familiar spirit" is the translation in the Old Testament of the Hebrew 'Ob or Aub, which means a sorcerer or necromancer, not (despite the fun we have had in Canterbury Tales, and other literature with the image), that she had an imp or some small elemental or demon with her, or that she was possessed by a demon from hell, or in league with Satan (this being the Satan modern Christians are thinking of, not the the office of satan given to us in the Book of Job). The idea of sorcerer using a "familiar spirit" doesn't exist until the middle ages, and doesn't exist in Hebrew mythology at all. So whatever it is she is doing to summon up the spirit of Samuel, its all on her. This of course opens many questions about how exactly a wizard or sorceress would be discovered, but that is not our interest in this book.
With the Witch of Endor's perspective still being that of a human (seeing through human eyes into the spiritual realm) we also don't need to spend much time on her description of "god's rising out of the earth" as being a toe-hold into the slippery idea that the Hebrews are opening back up the door to the possibility of "many gods" existing in the world. Many "spirits" yes, of course, but not gods.
