Geoffrey Hodson - The brotherhood of Angels and of Men

by Geoffrey Hodson

C opyright 1927. No Copyright Renewal.

ISBN 0-89804-213-5

I have been asked to introduce this book to a sceptical world, and yet a world in which every religion, each scripture, asserts the fact of the existence of Angels and of their occasional appearances among men. They may be called by any nameangels, nature-spirits, devas (shining ones), elementals. Angels or devas is the term often applied to the higher grades, nature spirits, elementaries, fairies, to the lower.

At this period of evolution, we are under the influence of a natural force, which will slowly become predominant in every department of nature; it is the force which works for cooperation between angelhood and humanity and seeks to build bridges by which the two great races, human and angelic, may combine for their mutual good. These bridges are ceremonies, chiefly in religions and in Freemasonry, for these deal with The Highest spiritual worlds through all worlds, the superhuman, the human, down to the lowest, the sub-human.

I have not studied the subject closely, as Mr. Geoffrey Hodson has done, but his observations are congruous with the many details in Hindu books and with my general knowledge on the subject, gained in travelling in different countries as well as by reading. In Hungary, for instance, the nature spirits of the earth seemed specially active, quaint little creatures, veritable gnomes, entirely different from the gorgeous hosts of Kubera in India, though both are concerned with the mineral kingdom.

This book is specially interesting in the suggestions made by the angels of ways of reaching them, and as to mutual cooperation, and many may be inclined to work for The Brotherhood of Angels and of Men.

ANNIE BESANT, D.L.

1927

As I consider a Preface to this reprint of The Brotherhood of Angels and of Men, I find myself in thought and memory back again deep in the woods of the small village of Sheepscombe in Gloucestershire. There, in 1924, as I was endeavouring to observe and record descriptions of the nature-spirit life, I almost suddenly found my consciousness translated (if I may use such a term) to the level at which I beheld the great Member of the Angelic Hosts who named himself to me, Bethelda. While I was fully conscious and able to dictate, he transmitted to me ideas which have gradually become published in five successive books.*

*The Brotherhood of Angels and of Men, The Angelic Hosts, Be Ye Perfect, Man the Triune God, The Supreme Splendour.

Whenever I return to England I always revisit the much-loved village, the cottage and the garden and the woods where my mind became opened to some knowledge of the Kingdom of the Gods. Indeed, a book of that title, illustrated by a South African artist, Miss Ethelwynne Quail, is just now reappearing in its seventh edition.

Thus, I understand, the idea of collaboration between Angels and men in the service of God and humanity has reached large numbers in many parts of the world, and the guidance given in this book has been practised beneficially by many people.

I am grateful to the Publishers of these books and especially to Dr. Annie Besant who so generously encouraged me from the beginning and wrote a Foreword to this work.

GEOFFREY HODSON ADYAR, 1973

The ideal of this brotherhood is to draw angels and men, two branches of the infinite family of God, into close cooperation. The chief purpose of such cooperation is to uplift the human race.

To this end the angels, on their side, are ready to participate as closely as possible in every department of human life and in every human activity that holds cooperation in view.

Those members of the human race who will throw open heart and mind to their brethren of the other sphere, will find an immediate response, and a gradually increasing conviction of its reality.

While the angels make no conditions, and impose no restrictions or limits to the activities and developments resulting from cooperation, they assume that no human brother would invoke them for personal and material gain. They ask for the acceptance of the motto of the Brotherhood [1] and its practical application to human life in every aspect.

They ask those who would invoke their presence, to concentrate the whole of their faculties on the development of the qualities of Purity, Simplicity, Directness and Impersonality, as well as on the acquirement of knowledge of the great Plan whereby the spiritual, intellectual and material constituents, composing alike man and the universe, maintain the ordered march of evolutionary progress. In this way the fundamental basis of every human activity will be the teachings and doctrines of that Divine and Ancient Wisdom which has always reigned supreme as the directing influence in the councils of the angels.

The special divisions of the angel host with whom cooperation would be immediately practicable and beneficial are:

The Angels of Power.

The Angels of Healing.

The Guardian Angels of the Home.

The Angels who build Form, ever embodying archetypal ideas.

The Angels of Nature.

The Angels of Music.

The Angels of Beauty and Art.

The Angels of Power will teach men to release the deeper levels of spiritual energy latent within them, and will fill, inform, inspire and charge every human activity with that fiery and resistless energy which is their most prominent characteristic. At present, they find in ceremonial a natural medium for their gifts and for their desire to aid their human brethren. Ceremonial always attracts their attention, and, properly performed, provides a channel through which they can pour their forces. They are present at every religious ceremony, participating according to the measure of their capacity, and to the degree which the ceremony itself permits; they can work more powerfully if the mental attitude of the officiants and participants is receptive.

The Healing Angelsunder their mighty Head, the Archangel Raphaelbeing filled with love for their human brethren, pursue their work continuously. Their presence by the sick beds of men is a reality, though the minds and hearts of the majority of those responsible for healing of sickness are closed against them. Many who suffer and have suffered, know them well. They stand in their thousands on the spiritual and mental thresholds of every sick-room, in hospital or home, eager to enter in. Hitherto, but few have succeeded, the barriers upraised by human minds are often insuperable; should they break through these in spite of opposition, the precious healing which they bear in outstretched arms would be lost, dissipated in the effort to overcome resistance.

The Guardian Angels love the homely ways of men, they desire to share the hours of labour and of ease; they love children and their play, and all the happy atmosphere of the home. They would guard mens homes, keeping away all influences of danger and of strife, of darkness and disease. They hear the childrens prayers at night and bear them to the Lord, and they vivify every human thought of love by adding something of their love and life; often they bear the thought on its mission and pour it, illumined and increased, into the receivers heart. They tend the aged and the sick. They are ever ready to shield from harm. To all whose hearts and homes are open to them, they would gladly come, bringing many blessings from on highblessings of harmony and love.