Sophy Burnham - A Book of Angels: Reflections on Angels Past and Present,and True Stories of How They Touch Our Lives

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Table of Contents

Also by Sophy Burnham

The Art of Intuition
The Art Crowd
The Landed Gentry
The Presidents Angel
Revelations
For Writers Only
The Ecstatic Journey: Walking the Mystical Path in Everyday Life
The Treasure of Montsgur
The Path of Prayer

PLAYS

Penelope: The Odyssey Retold
Snowstorms
Prometheus: A New Conclusion

WORKS FOR CHILDREN

Buccaneer
The Dogwalker
The Witchs Tale
Beauty & the Beast
The Emperors Nightingale

AUDIOTAPES

Piercing the Veil

When Youre Hurting and in Need

IN MEMORY OF
Jane Vonnegut Yarmolinsky

Preface

to the 2011 Edition

Twenty years ago, when A Book of Angels was first published in the United States, no one had any idea what a sensation it would create. Even today I marvel at its effect, as people bought ten and twelve copies and gave them to friends, who in turn bought ten and twelve copies to give to theirs. A friend of mine saw copies in a Hong Kong bookstore, and the book has sold in something like twenty-four languages, including Croatian, Finnish, Polish, Latvian, Japanese, Russian, Korean, and most recently Chinese. Chinese? It leaves me humbled.

Now I have the privilege of speaking and giving workshops all over the United States and in many countries abroad. And all because of this one book. I have seen the book influence people and reshape their image of the world; and to participate in that with my workshops and talks, offering hope and strength, is no small thing when the media bombard us daily with hysterical reports of disasters everywhere.

Many compliments have been given to A Book of Angels. I remember two in particular. The first came from a priest, who told his congregation in a sermon that everyone should have two books beside their bed: the Bible and A Book of Angels. The second came from a stranger who informed me that her mother while dying held this book in her hands.

It is therefore with deep appreciation and gratitude that I mark this new edition of A Book of Angels. May it act as a blessing to its readers. May it serve as a catalyst for your own stories of inexplicable coincidences and intervention, those moments when a dream or voice, a serendipitous confluence of actions, or perhaps the simple nudge of intuition, shows that Something Out There is watching over us.

How do we know the angels are real and not the product of an overwrought imagination? This is the huge question. I can only tell you that all the events described in the book you hold in your hand are true. They happened either to me or to someone so close that I know they werent lying. I have no explanation for them. Often Im left baffleddisbelieving in the face of evidence. But when you hear of some inexplicable eventinvisible hands, an external voice; when you see the face of a man light up as he recounts the improbable series of coincidences that saved his life, or that of his child; when you feel yourself uplifted and inspired by the Divine, mantled in light, warmth, safety, joy, your heart bows down before a reality that cannot be explained.

Many years have passed since I wrote this book, and I have written others sincenovels, plays, nonfictionon a range of subjects. None has had the effect of A Book of Angels. Im amused (and a little disconcerted) at being called the Angel Lady, not certain if its a designation I quite know how to handle. But this I tell you. We humans are also expressions of the Divine. We are formed of the spark of Divinity. We have within us the Kingdom of God. Divinity. Angel-dust. Whatever you wish to call it. And when our spiritual eyes open, and we see from the center of our being, with the innocence of our inner hearts, we reach that spacious arena in which for rare and dramatic moments an angel may appear in all its own glory, radiant, supernal illumined momentarily to our mortal eyes.

And what of all the horrible moments when no angel comes to save a life? Or help in crisis, or ease you loneliness? Oh, darling! Thats the sorrow, isnt it? Unspeakable things happen in this life. But we are not promised that nothing bad will happen in our lives. Were promised that when it does, were not alone. I hope this book moves you. I hope it reminds you of those times when you have felt the brush of an angels wing, your heart lifting even in difficult times, your soul surprised by joy. And (purely selfishly) if you have a story you would like to share, I welcome it. Id love to hear it. Please contact me at www.sophyburnham.com.

I dedicate these pages to you
and to the angels that surround you
always with love,
Sophy Burnham

Preface

to the 1990 Edition

This book began as a kind of personal history, written for myself and for my friends, because it occurred to me around the age of forty-three that many curious and mysterious things had happened that could not be passed off anymore or explained away as logical. I just wanted to set them down, all in one place, where I could look at them, turn them like stones in my hands, and see what truth they made.

Because the fact is this: I did not grow up believing in the paranormal, and by the time I reached midlife, I felt confused. How could I ignore the fact that my own life had been saved in a miraculous fashion? Or that strange coincidences and meetings seemed constantly to occur?

This book began, then, as a series of stories strung like pearls on a necklacestories of things that had either happened to me personally or to friends so close that I could attest to their sanity. Each encounter is true.

The book has grown now, and changed, as I have, and includes encounters with angels from all over the world. Some of these encounters involve famous people, prophets, and seers, but most happen to ordinary people. Right now. Today. As I heard these stories and became more immersed in my research, I wanted to know more. Are angels real? What do they look like? Why is it that every culture seems to have myths of angels, believes in guardian spirits that take care of us, sometimes even by interfering with the physical laws of the universe? Do angels have feet? Have sex? Are those of one culture the same as those in another? To whom do the angels appear, and why do children seem to see them more than anyone else?

Therefore, woven into the text is what you might call grounding information about angels, which places belief in angels in a historical context, and recounts the angel visitations of various cultures. Implicit throughout are the more fundamental questions that this whole book raises: Who am I? Why am I here? Is there life after death? And are there really forces that dive, invisible, into our petty affairs?

Each question leads to another, for if I answer yes to any one, then I must also ask: What is my responsibility to myself, to you, to God?

I cannot answer any of them. I can only record what I have seen. I offer this book in joy, in hope, in gratitude for what Ive been shown and what I want to share. I offer it as a hymn of praiseto living life alive. And I offer it as a prayer of thanks, that we need not be afraid to die: that we do not die! This I have learned. This much I have seen with my own eyes. I know it, and if even one persons anguish and fear of dying can be relieved by reading these true tales, then this book will have done what its supposed to do.

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