Angels

In English, the word “angel” comes from the Greek word angelos meaning messenger. In Christian, Islam, and Jewish beliefs, angels are said to be supernatural [Page 8]beings above ordinary mankind, or citizens of inner space. As messengers from God, their function is to praise and to serve God and mankind, helping in many different ways those in harmony with them. Also known as Prets, Devas, Bhuts, and Devtas, angels are believed to be everywhere, although they have never been known to incarnate in human form. They remain mostly invisible, and are sexless by nature. Without apparent feelings, through their service they express love and compassion for humans in distress. In watching over virtually every aspect of human activity, there are also records of them being on hand in order to help the creative progress of activities that are serving a spiritual purpose. This especially applies to those on earth ready to become more conscious and responsible for their own spiritual development.

“Angel” is a generic name for a vast host of invisible beings said to populate the seven heavens. Some people express angels as thoughts of God. There is no one correct way of perceiving angels or beings of light. In so far as they reflect and amplify our own condition, they can appear in as many ways and in many colors. Most are said to be so dazzling that their forms look as if weaved out of fluid light beams. Although some of the Higher Beings have been seen to be as tall as the sky, angels are said to be in the same line of evolution as earth's nature spirits of the fairy kingdom. To define elusive angel forms could be said to be as difficult as defining electrons is for the quantum physicist. Better to experience them directly.

In the first centuries of the Christian era, many known as heretics called on angels for help, just as pre-Christian “pagans” had been blamed for calling on the many gods of the old religion, paganism. In Latin religio paganorum means “peasants' religion.” Thus, for centuries the Church forbade the “ignorant” faithful to give the angels names. From its religious rites it also banned anything that could evoke them, preserving only the names of the four main archangels familiar to Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Although their names Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel are male, most commentators see all angels as having no specific human gender. And virtually all the world's systems of religious belief include celestial beings in their cosmologies, their scriptures containing references of angelic interventions.

Moving down from the Supreme Creator or God, angels are organized in a celestial hierarchy, by means of classifications generally accepted by commentators of many faiths including the Cabbalists and angel historians. Not all traditional institutions or academics have agreed on the order and content of these hierarchies and, indeed, the spelling in English of many angels often varies. However, Dionysius the Areopagite, a disciple of Saint Paul in the sixth century, described three categories or spheres of angels, with three orders in each. Using this model of nine orders of service, angels who serve as heavenly counselors are in the first sphere and contain the seraphim, cherubim and thrones, all of which contemplate God's goodness and reflect his glory. A brief description of the nine orders of angelic beings follows.

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