Rosemary Ellen Guiley - Ask the Angels: Bring Angelic Wisdom Into Your Life

Angels are real beings of awesome power and mystery. They are Gods messengers, whose role is to keep us attuned to the heart of God. Through this attunement divine love flows freely and we are protected, comforted, guided and redeemed.

Angels are part of a large community of intermediary beings who serve between humanity and the Divine. Such intermediaries have always been recognized in spiritual traditions around the world, and have been called by many different names. Angels have always participated in human affairs as part of the grand workings of creation. Each and every part of creation has its own supreme importance to serve the whole. Angels have been with us and are with us, even if we are unaware of their presence.

When we become aware of angels, an important shift takes place within us. Our very awareness makes us more receptive to divine guidance as it flows through angels to us. We begin to see things in different ways. We are more open to the presence of the Divine everywhere. We are lifted up to a higher spiritual plane of consciousness, and we begin to live life differently and more abundantly.

Humanitys thoughts about angels have changed dramatically over the centuries. Our ancestors looked upon angels as remote beings, as unknowable as God. Angels could be helpful or they could be punishing, if that was how God wished them to act. Angels appeared on the scene when they had specific business with us. They took care of it efficiently, then departed.

Over time, human beings developed a more personal relationship with angels. Our ancestors thought that only certain people could perceive angels: prophets, mystics, the religious and certain other individuals marked for a significant destiny. Today we know that the angelic realm makes itself known to all who seek it. All we need do is ask. Its that simple.

For many centuries, angels were in the far background of human concerns. This was appropriate, as humanity moved through different stages of thinking, growth and awareness. We are now in an era of renewed spiritual interest. We have urgent questions about who we are, what our relationship is to God, why we are here, and what meaning there is to creation and our part in it. These interests act like beacons of light within us, and angels are drawn to that light. The angelic realm is ever ready to assist us in our souls journey.

As our global community of relationships has expanded, so too has our spiritual community of relationships. We can establish partnerships with angels. We can know their presence, call on them for assistance, and receive information and guidance from God through them. Angels can provide valuable help in all areas of life, from daily affairs to our deepest spiritual searching.

My own relationship with angels deepened more than a decade ago in the unfoldment of my spiritual path. I have paid close attention to my dreams for most of my life, and so it was natural that the doorways to the angelic realm first opened in dream experiences, in which I was introduced to angelic presences around me. I found that the more I acknowledged their presence, the stronger became my awareness of them.

Angels are not a substitute for God, but rather are part of Gods presence in creation. Their presence has been consistent since they came into being at the beginning of creation, when God formed the firmament of heaven. Their presence is more noticeable to many today because the angels have responded to the inner calls of a great many people for spiritual help.

The exercises and meditations in this book are drawn from my own experiences with the angelic realm. Working with angels is inspiring and rewarding. I have had a variety of interactions with angels over the years which have had a profound impact upon me. While I have had some visual encounters with angels, most of my experiences have been on the inner planes, where one meets other presences in other realms. The inner planes are where we experience, in a spiritual sense, our own Truth. The inner experience leads to an unfolding of events in the outer world.

There are those who say that they believe only what they see, but the souls who tread the Way of Angels know that first you believe, and then you see the results of what you believe. If you believe in high ideals and in a spiritual partnership with angels, you will see the positive results of that in your own life.

Before we begin our work with angels, lets get better acquainted with them.

Our heritage of angels was born in the cradle of civilization, in the Middle East. The angel emerged in the spiritual tradition of the Jews, who were influenced by their surrounding cultures especially the mythologies of Babylonia and Persia, and also Assyria, Sumer, Chaldea and Egypt. The angel angelos in Greek and malakh in Hebrew, both terms for messenger existed in various levels of the heavens, performing the tasks set them by God to keep everything running smoothly. The angels characteristics were similar to other intercessory and protective beings. For example, karabu was a winged Assyrian deity of protection. The term karabu means bless or consecrate. The term cherubim the name of a higher order of angels may be derived from it. The male kari-bu was a blessed/consecrated one, and the female kuribi was a protector goddess. The kari-bu had the body of a sphinx or bull and the head of a human. It guarded entrances to temples, homes and buildings.

The spiritual world of the early Hebrews teemed with various benevolent and malevolent beings. Angels were called upon to counter the potential negative influences of their evil counterparts demons who caused illness and misfortune.

Angels were major figures in the mystical philosophies that developed. The Jewish Merkabah mystics practised techniques involving breath control, posture and the recitation of prayers and chants in order to help their consciousness ascend up through the layers of heavens to the throne of God. Angels guarded the portals at every level to keep out the unworthy, and the practitioner had to know the proper names, incantations and prayers to get past them.

Christianity inherited the angel, though Jesus took over the primary function of intercessor for humanity and the way to heaven. Angels still played important roles, especially in the fight against the demonic forces of Satan. The Gnostics, a popular cult that existed alongside early Christianity, had a complex cosmology of layers of heavens and angel-like beings called aeons. When Islam was born in the early seventh century CE (Common Era; the equivalent of AD), angels were a part of it, too.

The church fathers of Christianity the theologians, preachers, philosophers and monks who shaped the beliefs of the new religion gave great consideration to the duties, nature, numbers, abilities and functions of angels in an effort to place them in the scheme of the Christian world-view. Some of the questions they took up are presented in the chapter entitled Answers to the 12 Most Commonly Asked Questions About Angels.

The theological interest in angels peaked in the Middle Ages, then declined during the Renaissance. In addition, the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century diminished the emphasis on good angels and focused more attention on the fallen angels of Satan. The scientific revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries further diminished the importance of angels, though religious devotional cults within the Catholic church kept interest alive within Christianity. These devotional cults regard angels as conscious beings of high intelligence, not bound by the limitations of physical laws, who can be of help to humanity but who must not be worshipped or adored, or placed above Christ or God. Devotion to angels in this tradition centres on imitating them, for they in turn imitate God.