| The angel is a mystery, one that we have attempted to explain for more than two thousand years. The study of angels is vast and complex. Thousands of angels (and demons) are cited in lore and literature. However, contradictions abound concerning name spellings, functions, duties and identities. In fact, one can become submerged in minutiae about angels that does little to shed light on their true essence. |
| For Encyclopedia of Angels I have chosen to cover angels by topic. Many significant angels and demons are listed by name and by group. Otherwise the characteristics, functions and nature of angels, and our beliefs about them and experiences with them, are covered under general subject headings and under biographical profiles of mystics, theologians, philosophers and others. I also compare angels to similar beings in non-Western religions. The collection of these entries provides what I hope will be for the reader a fascinating journey into the evolution of the angel in Western thought. This evolution has been shaped largely by visionary experience. What we know about angels comes through our otherworldly contact with them. |
| My own interest in angels was sparked in the mid-1980s (before angels became the darling of the media), when I began having archetypal dreams that included a mysterious figure I identified as an angel. This figure served as a psychopomp into the reaches of inner space, leading me through a psychic transformation from one life-stage of consciousness to another, which unfolded over time. Earlier in life I had received no particular religious indoctrination about angels, and felt rather neutral about the question of their existence as portrayed in text and art. However, it was obvious to me that I was nonetheless tapping into an archetypal form that exists in the collective unconscious regardless of my own personal views. This is an ancient archetype, shaped by countless experiences, which in turn shaped beliefs, which revolved to shape experience. And now this archetype was breaking through the unus mundus, the undifferentiated whole of the universe, in response to my own psychic need. I found that the more I accepted this angel, the more the archetype became energized in my life, expressing itself not only through dreams but through inspiration, creativity, intuition and even visionary experience. In the ensuing years I have found myself in the company of numerous angelic presences. |
| Do I believe in angels? The answer must of course be yes, although even after years of study on the subject, I remain open as to their exact nature. I do not believe there are easy answers. Under the ANGEL entry, I have given the definition traditional to our mythology: "a supernatural being who mediates between God and mortals." Do they exist in their own right, in celestial realms? Perhaps so. Or perhaps there is an energy, a vibration of love and light from the Godhead, which becomes an "angel" when it interacts with human consciousness, taking on a form that we can comprehend and integrate into our spiritual and cosmological outlooks. Perhaps it is our need for semidivine messengers, for spiritual companions, protectors and guides, and for divine beauty in our own likeness, that draws to us what we call the angel. Our monotheistic God is imageless, abstract and remote. The angel, upon whom we project a form that is an exalted image of ourselves, helps us to feel closer to the Source of All Being. |
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