CHAPTER FOUR

RAPHAEL & HIS COMPANY OF HEALING ANGELS

As dedicated angel healers, we must make the acquaintance of the great angel Raphael and his circle of healing angels. A loving and creative relationship with this great company is essential to our work. The Archangel Raphael wields the caduceus, a mighty staff composed of two opposite serpents coiling and twisting round one another until their heads meet under the top of the staff, which comprises the extended wings of a swan, associated with the right and the left ventricles of the brain. These denote the two different aspects of consciousness, the sacred feminine and the sacred masculine, which dwell within us and which we, as human beings (together with all things) embody. The harmonizing of these opposites into a single stream of perfected consciousness is the whole task of our life on earth. All healing flows from this concept, and the angel Raphael is the shepherd and the facilitator of the healing process. This great angel has worked with all who walked the earth on healing missions, and especially with the divine Christ couple, Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

Our Angelic Name

Before we begin to draw close to Raphael in thought and meditation, it is important to establish our own angelic name. This is distinct from the name of our guardian angel and the name of the group of angels who have us under their care, which we can discover via various methods (see my book, Your Guardian Angel, for the appropriate exercises). What we are searching for here differs in that we need to discover the particular sound or name within us that resonates with our own angel essence, and with which the angels can immediately link when we call on them in our healing work or in our daily lives.

We might think that the human entity stands far below the angels in the ranks of spiritual evolution. In our present state this may be so, but the angels themselves reassure us that ‘the spiritual immortal ego [of humanity] shines forth with a splendour and a power equalled only amongst the highest of the angel ranks.’ This is wonderful news, humbling knowledge indeed, because the glory of ‘the highest of the angel ranks’ is beyond our earthly conception.

The name we seek will, with its resonances, remind us at the profoundest level of our being of our true heritage, and will call on the angelic quality that dwells in the deeps of that many-splendoured ‘spiritual immortal ego’ to rise and blaze forth, and shine its light into our imprisoned earthly self so that our angel work takes place ‘out of the box’ or the prison which normally confines us, until we at last learn to overstep its barriers.

Finding our Angelic Name

It is wise to ground yourself for this exercise. This can be done by sitting with both feet on the floor and imagining strong, vigorous roots growing from the centre of both feet (the feet chakras) deep down into the heart of the earth, where she receives them with love and allows their prehensile grip to fix into her.

Light a white candle (in imagination if this is more convenient) and dedicate it to the great angel Gethel (Geth-elle) who has charge over hidden things.

Create the form of the star in your heart and withdraw to the centre of this peaceful radiance.

Begin to softly chant the name Gethel.

Harmonize the sound with your breathing until a feeling of spiritual calm gently releases you from everyday consciousness.

Say aloud: ‘Angel Gethel, beloved one of the Supreme Light, reveal to me my hidden name, the one that vibrates with my angel essence and resonates with the angelic realms.’

In your serene and purified state, listen closely (but take care not to try too hard or to tensely strain after what is given to you) until you perceive a name.

As soon as you are confident that you have heard clearly, withdraw from meditation, seal your centres, and as you blow out your candle, thank Gethel, the Angel who has charge over hidden things.

Don’t worry if your newly discovered name sounds rather extraordinary! The angelic language encompasses many more dimensions than our babel of earth languages, and you may receive a peculiar sound rather than what you might think of as a name in conventional terms! Sometimes, a person is given the name of an actual angel. If this is the case, it is always worth consulting an angel dictionary to look up your angelic name, as the qualities of the specified angel may give you an insight into the latent virtues which wait to be developed within you, and that call you to unfold their shining potential with the sweet unearthly voice of the angels.

Archangel Michael’s Purifying Fire

Before we begin our mission of angel healing, there is a short and simple ceremony we need to undergo. The ceremony takes the form of an initiation, and although it sounds alarming, it is actually quite safe! It involves calling forth the holy fire of Michael, from our feet upwards, until we are cleansed of all our accumulated dross. This dross consists of impure psychic matter which has gathered in our aura and chakras over many lifetimes, and which, to some degree, repeatedly appears in these locations each time we reincarnate until we consciously oust it. This psychic matter is created by pandering to what is unwise and gross in our nature. We can free ourselves of the impurity created by our past self-indulgences by working through the following ceremony.

The Dance of the Two Dragons (1)

To perform this ceremony we need to call on our spiritual will. We should not be afraid of the power of our will. We shall be calling on that will to manifest itself which is attuned to the highest of the high, to Divine Spirit, not our own self-will, which, as it has no vision and is not sourced in love, inevitably trips us up! We can also address the same ceremony to Brigid so that the male and female principles informing our willpower remain in balance.

Create the star in the heart with your imagination. Let it grow until it contains you in its heart. Stand within the protection of the star throughout this ceremony.

Say: ‘Archangel Michael, Angelic Lord of Fire, be with me and protect me during this ritual. Please bless and oversee my endeavour.’

Hold forth your right hand, and see an unlit torch there in your grasp.

Say: ‘Archangel Michael, light my torch with heavenly fire!’

See the torch blazing with spiritual fire. Its glory outshines the sun.

Say: ‘This ignited torch is my higher will. With it I invoke the spiritual fire to take light at my feet, and engulf each of my subtle bodies in purifying, renewing flame.’

Lower the torch to your feet, letting it rest there. See a glowing fire spring to life beneath your feet. See its tongues of flame rise in a great column around you.

Stand in its brilliant centre, letting them sweep through you, hearing the roaring song of the flames as they take into themselves all the contaminated energy which has burdened you for so long. Rejoice in this cleansing, knowing that your heart embraces it, and it is what your spirit longs for.

As the flames dance around you, know that you are truly a dragon, a creature of spiritual fire. Like King Arthur, you are the Pendragon, the Head Dragon. Feel the flames revolving around your head, like a coronet of most holy light. That is your higher dragon essence, rising from your heart and dancing in a ring of ecstasy through and around your higher chakras.

Now see a writhing dragon in the flames under your feet, where you placed your torch. This is your lower dragon, the dragon of your dark, limited, unlit self, and it will writhe in pain until you deliver it from suffering by striking it through with your golden lance, your heavenly self which is contained in the dancing dragon of the supernal heights that gyrates around you.

Reach into your deepest heart, your highest dragon essence, and bring forth the golden lance, the ramrod of light that glances and flashes with divine fire, the inconceivable fire of Goddess-God that only your most exalted vision can delineate.

Plunge this lance into the dragon at your feet.

The lower dragon ceases its anguished writhing, and, charged with the dynamic energy of the higher dragon, begins to spiral upward in coils of light. It meets the Pendragon, and both enter a balletic sequence of supreme joy. The higher and the lower dragon merge in the Pendragon’s pure golden light.

This is your heart-light. It is pulsating love, the love which creates, informs and sustains the universe.

You and your higher dragon are one; the higher dragon has absorbed the lower dragon.

After a minute or so, let the dragons disappear into the furnace, and the furnace disappear into the light of the star. Let the star recede until it becomes again the radiant jewel in your heart-centre.

Thank Archangel Michael for his protection and blessing, and end the ceremony by sealing your chakras.

When you are ready to do so (this may not be on the same day as you performed the first ceremony), implement the second ceremony. It is the same as the first, except that, instead of Archangel Michael, you call on the bright angel Brigid to oversee the inner working that you will undertake. Brigid (‘brightness’ or ‘incandescence’) is the feminine aspect of the great Christ being. She has an identity beyond that of the angels; but it is her angelic essence we call on for this ceremony, simply because, as angel healers, we are concerned with the focus of angelic cooperation.

You will need to essay both ceremonies many times over before the release of all the dross you have accumulated throughout many lives has been consumed. It is well worth the effort, however. Your subtle bodies will thrill with sensitive response to the spiritual currents of life, and their colours and forces will spring into fountains of pure and clear life and consciousness. ‘Thus,’ say the angels, ‘men and women may answer to their angel selves, which are ever calling them to lives of purity, of high endeavour, and of joy.’

Concerning this ceremony, the angels tell us: ‘The energies and presences which constitute the inner fire of the universe stand ready to release the forces of their element at humanity’s bidding [for instance, whenever you wish to undergo the fire-cleansing ceremony], so that they may return to those days of pristine purity when angels walked with men.’

The angels also say that when we have become practised in the art of summoning the heavenly fire, we ‘may learn to release the fiery energy and its guardians into the dark and noisome places of the earth, to drive away the evil atmosphere which humanity itself has created’. This skill will serve us well, therefore, in the necessary work of space clearing, which, as angel healers, we must include in our essential repertoire.

Angel Raphael

Raphael, one of the great archangels, is associated with our throat chakra. In one sense, he has two aspects, because the top and the bottom of our spine – the essence of our ‘tree of life’, and the magical sword and lance within us – are linked with his influences. In one guise he appears as Saturn, ruler of the base of the spine and its chakra, whose colour is red. Saturn (who has been called ‘Satan’ – most unjustly, I feel!) is ancient, white locked Father Time, the grim reaper who sets us our karmic lessons and trials, and holds us in imprisonment (in school!) until we have attained our ‘degree’. Only then may we leave our academy of learning (earthly life) and escape into the freedom of the spirit.

But behind Father Saturn’s stern exterior beats a golden heart, and in his austere eyes, if we observe carefully, a distinct twinkle is alight! He is truly Father Christmas, the red-robed guardian of the Festival of the Light, who comes out of the land of ethical ice and snow where Saturn lives (the barren, frozen, Arctic wilderness, steeped in night, which is a symbol of life lived without the genial and fecundating potency of the spirit), bringing us good cheer and the bountiful gifts which our successful schooling has attracted to us. We should never fear Father Saturn. There is no doubt whatsoever that this great being is filled with a tender, paternal love for us, even though his narrow gorges and straitened ways seem so daunting, harsh and dreary as by his dictates we pass along and through them. This is his domain, the hard and bitter aspect of life which no-one enjoys. (It has always intrigued me, as a herbalist, to note that it is often the very bitterest of herbs that dispense the greatest healing power!)

Saturn’s labour is dirty work, but, after all, someone among the celestial company has to do it. And Saturn would always remind us that for every seemingly cruel experience which life can deal us, there is angelic healing and comfort, a gentle, sustaining touch from Nature, and spiritual succour from the wise ascended ones, if only we could always be persuaded to call on it and accept it.

There is a reflection of the great healer, Raphael, in this dispenser of bitter herbs whom we call Saturn. He is Raphael’s essence as we perceive him at the start of our journey – ancient and burdened with years. Strangely, the angels tell us that it is at the beginning of our journey that we manifest ‘old age’ (truly an illusion). As we tread the evolutionary highway of the spirit, we ‘advance ever into the springtime of our youth’, growing younger and younger.

Mercury rules the throat chakra, the young, mirthful golden boy who is the epitome of youth and the antithesis of Saturn. He is Saturn’s true reflection, and, again, we find that he is associated with the angel Raphael. He is the laughing ‘outlaw’, who is free from the constraints and restrictions of Saturn’s severe and numerous laws. He sits at the top of the ‘tree of life’ (our spine) and joyfully leads us up into its crown, our own crown or head-centre, so that we become the Pendragon, the Head Dragon, the true personification of our own higher nature. Then he releases us into the stars, the spiritual heavens, where we receive the spiritual starlight and give it again from our heart-centre in a boundless pulsation of divine consciousness, which is love. This wonder we express in life by means of our head, our own globe or sphere or planet through which we articulate the quintessence of our higher nature – the mysterious, fiery dragon of the spirit, with its serpentine or wave motion that is supernal life, indeed all life, itself.

In his Saturnine guise, Raphael is Merlin, man of sorrows, he of bitter prophecy whose enchantments and potions bring resolution and healing through tears and ‘madness’ (genuine sanity juxtaposed against the ‘norm’ of insanity, and so falsely appearing to be madness). As Mercury, he is Robin Hood, spirit of the greenwood, who laughingly teaches us to live a simple, pure, exalted life, free from the laws that hamper, blind and corrupt; and instructs us in stealing from the rich to give to the poor.

A deep mystery is enshrined here. The whole motion of life is geared to this sacred and mighty principle – that the stronger force gives unstintingly to the weaker, that the rich give to the poor. The ignorance and foolishness of worldly values blocks this law, so that congestive heart failure (of our civilization) is the result. We need our hero, Robin Hood, and of course Maid Marian, without whom his mission would not be possible, to save us! Robin Hood reflects Jesus, another ‘outlaw’ of his own time, who taught us a new system of values and who had his other half, his own feminine ‘double M’ by his side. Are we beginning to get a glimpse of who Raphael truly is?

Raphael is she-he who, through his guardianship as alpha and omega of the spine – which is both our sword and our lance that connects the two, serving as a lightning-rod for heaven – unites heaven and earth within the dimensions of his vision, purpose and power, so revealing him as the glorious angel of the Holy Grail. It was his great healing mission to work with Jesus and Mary Magdalene, the two aspects, masculine and feminine, of the great Christ Being in the heavens who sought to descend to earth through them. And how could this be otherwise, when Jesus and Mary themselves brought forth the Holy Grail, the divine connection between heaven and earth that will be restored to this generation, our own, who currently walks the earth? As the Angel of the Grail who bears its healing energies, Raphael’s key word is ‘Consolamentum’. He speaks this word of measureless dimension through the mighty Angel of Music, the angel Israfel. It sounds from the higher atmosphere like a peal of clear bells from heaven, supernaturally sweet, yet borne forth in an undertone of cosmic grandeur. This word in itself can heal and soothe, and summon the magic of wholeness to the ailing, fragmented soul. It is the title of a secret ceremony administered by the Cathars of medieval France, whereby one of the perfecti (the Cathar priests) would bestow the Consolamentum on a member of their congregation once they had declared themselves ready to receive this special initiation and blessing. It is connected with the mysteries of the Holy Grail, and it is reported that many wonders were experienced, among them a clear and direct cognition of the spiritual worlds, whilst the ceremony was underway.

When we wish to become angel healers, we enter the school of Raphael and his company of healing angels, and we have to learn how to so connect earth and heaven within ourselves that we cannot help but usher the healing forces to those who stand in need of them. The next stage of our journey into knowledge of the great angel Raphael and his circle of angels is to enter into meditation, using the techniques we have learned concerning withdrawing into the heart, wherein lies the star and the rose (our heart of hearts), so that our ‘mind in the heart’ springs into unalloyed consciousness, and our imagination becomes a powerful tool of vision, a creator of worlds.

We might even see our imagination actually becoming the shining angel Samandiriel herself, she of the Divine Fruits of Celestial Vision, who, ‘clad in the beauty of a thousand stars’, leaves a bright trail of manifestation in her wake as she leads us into the sublime light of our deepest dreams.

Raphael and his Company of Healing Angels

Sit with the star of spiritual light shining above you, and focus gently on your breathing. Breathe in the light of the spiritual star, and breathe it out as a gift to the world.

Contemplate the greatness and the mystery of the archangel Raphael, She-He who is the Angel of the Holy Grail and the guardian of the secret of the spine, which is our stairway to heaven. All healing flows forth from Raphael. He shepherds this healing force as it radiates from the Golden One, the heavenly being whom some call Christ-Brigid.

It is time go deeper into meditation. Listen with your inner ears to the sound that is coming to you from the higher spheres…

The archangel Raphael is calling you into his presence. Let your inner eyes open to the glory of his manifestation in the spiritual worlds.

His form is mighty, as tall as a cathedral. His eyes shine with loving compassion, emitting a great light, and yet they are as mellow and gentle and deep as the glow of ancient and mysterious gold. His melodious mouth utters rhythmic healing chants, beautiful in their vibration, becoming from time to time a great burst of exquisite song which pierces the listening soul with an irresistible tide of love as renewal, as reawakening, as revivification.

Hear his soft chanting and his burst of song through which the cadence of the word ‘Consolamentum’ beats like a spirit drum, and feel all your energies in all your bodies – mind, emotion, soul and physical – rise as if newborn from an ocean of sparkling drops of the utmost purity, rise in white garments to the blazing disc of the morning sun.

Rest in that perfect light, fresh and revitalized, created anew.

There is the fragrance of cleansing joy in the robes of Raphael, and golden healing in his wings. Those golden wings of light enfold you in their great arcs of sweeping spiritual force, and you know yourself as perfect in light, perfect, perfect within the sunlight of his healing embrace.

Now see his vast host of healing angels as they come in countless choirs to the golden-winged feet of their master, ready to receive his blessing and the touch of his radiant hands, which bestow the gift of spiritual life-forces from the ineffable and cosmic reservoir that is his very being.

Some come on his own golden and yellow ray, bright and deep in hue, some gently glowing as with the marigold light of a summer evening sun, some with the celandine light of the early morning rays.

Some come in on a single colour ray, all blending in an assembled mystery of soft rose, or glowing emerald-green, or sweet heavenly blue.

Some sweep in like a tide, arrayed in iridescent rainbow colours, subtle, shimmering and beautiful, as though their hues shone through the purest crystal.

Some bear a most holy pearlescent light which is wonderful to see: the pearly light of unicorns from the high places of the soul, and of precious stones from a sublime sea that beats on the shores of paradise.

A great host of the healing angels is dressed in simple garments of the purest white, an unearthly whiteness which is so vast and deep that it is the heart of peace itself, making earthly whiteness seem almost dark in comparison, and yet you note how soft and gentle to the eye is the whiteness of these sacred garments, a whiteness that does not dazzle, as if pushing away, but rather tenderly enfolds you in its magical light.

The song from Raphael’s lips becomes speech. ‘Come to me, all who are sick, who are weary, who are burdened of heart and full of sorrow and pain, and you shall be made whole.’

The hosts of healing angels carry you into the heart of Archangel Raphael.

Here all is still. His healing chants, joyous song and comforting words have become a golden silence. Listen to the healing wisdom of that silence. Feel and absorb its tremendous power. Rest in its hushed, encompassing stillness.

Take some moments to enjoy this utter stillness and its healing balm of peace.

Before you, in your heart’s vision, descends a simple white staff. Around it, to the left, twines a golden serpent. On the right, its twin curls around the staff in a similar ascending spiral. The handle of the staff is winged. It is the caduceus.

‘Take my staff, and wield it,’ says the voice of Archangel Raphael.

The scene changes. You find yourself upon a road, winding into the distance. At your side stands Merlin. He wears hermit’s robes and a pilgrim’s hat. He bears the caduceus, and now he places it in your right hand, and a vial of healing ointment in your left. You understand that the caduceus is a gift from the king of heaven and earth, given to you through Archangel Raphael, and that the healing ointment is a gift from the queen of earth and heaven, given to you by her devoted servant, Merlin.

Merlin speaks. There is a kindly light in his eye. ‘Become the Divine Physician. Let the angelic healing forces flow through your heart and your hands,’ Merlin says to you.

He raises his hand in blessing. ‘I give you the most holy benediction of She who is Hidden,’ he says, and places his hand on the crown of your head. You feel the benediction coursing through you like the fire of the sun and the fire of the moon. He turns you around to face the sun, and sets your feet upon the Path.

Gently emerge from your meditation, and seal your centres (crown, mid-brow, throat, heart, solar plexus) with the brilliant silver cross contained in a ring of light.

Meeting Merlin

To enter more deeply into the mysteries of Archangel Raphael, we need to explore those aspects of him which are the living dynamic of Merlin and of Robin Hood. Both of these figures, who are legendary but who manifested in human form in Britain, Merlin in the 6th century and Robin at the time of the Crusades, are the human guise of great godly beings. Merlin was, of course, King Arthur’s mentor and guardian, a prophet and Druid enchanter of high degree. He led King Arthur to the secret queen who presented him with the sacred sword Excalibur, the Sword of Safekeeping for the nation which would preserve the Holy Grail and give its essence to the world in the next age (today).

Robin of the Greenwood was the outlaw who, on returning from the Crusades, found that Britain, the holy isle, fell short of upholding faithful Templar values, the values and principles of what Robin had been taught comprised the true Way that the Christ Being had demonstrated and revealed to humanity. Robin, a member of the Knights Templar, gathered his followers around him and lived in profound intimacy with nature, following a life of moral nobility deep in the spiritually nurturing greenwood that was true to the spiritual code he had learned from his esoteric order of knights.

As healers, we need to attune to and understand something of Merlin and Robin’s magic and wildness, for Merlin was a forest dweller too, forsaking all earthly comforts to dwell in the great Caledonian forest. This harmony with nature, with the spirits that ensoul her and the healing magic that she secretes in her heart, is precisely what, to its great detriment, orthodox medicine has lost sight of, treating us as if we belonged to a universe alienated from nature and the spirit. We cannot despise the source of wisdom, which lies in nature and in the spirit, and expect to prosper. One day, Archangel Raphael and our medical establishments will work together consciously, and the result will flood the world with a stupendous healing power.

Meeting Merlin

Create the six-pointed star in your heart, and breathe in its light. Focus on your breath’s rise and fall, and how the in-breath draws the light into the farthest fathoms of your being, and the out-breath sends it forth across the world.

You are sleeping in your bed. It is deepest night. Touch that level of profound rest and quietness that peaceful sleep brings to you.

Suddenly, a gentle whisper rouses you. You awake fully. Your fairy ally, a beautiful, evolved being who moves in swirls of amethyst and rose mist, is standing at your bedside, smiling down at you.

You feel her angelic essence, but you know that she is one of the noble fairy folk: a nature spirit. She is your mirror, your twin in Faery Land, who protects you.

You wonder if in fact you have been transported into Faery Land, and look around the room. It is your own familiar room, just as it always is during the night hours. The fairy being at your side makes a motion with her slim white arm, and you see an arched, oaken door appear in the very centre of the room. It is exquisitely carved with mystic symbols and wise ancient faces of ageless beauty.

The door begins to swing open. Magically, there beyond the door is an enchanted woodland, lit by stars and a great, round, full moon, bright as a miracle.

‘Come to the fairy revels,’ says your companion.

She takes you by the hand and you rise from your bed and walk out into the mysterious woodland. Soft musk scent rises from the shadowed ground like a secret, thrilling benediction, and the trees, in full leaf, surround you like mighty guardians, steadfast and benevolent.

You see a muted, glimmering light ahead, and suddenly you step into a wide moonlit glade. The flickering light you saw shines from a golden lantern which hangs at the entrance to a cave, overhung with ferns and twining plants.

At the entrance to the cave, a majestic old man, robed in hermit’s garb and with flowing, snow-white hair, stands with one hand upon a great staff.

You see that the staff is the caduceus, a rod formed from two intertwining serpents. Over the old man’s dark robes a light of pure gold moves and shimmers like fairy dust, starry and magical as the muted fire of the stars. As you watch, you realize that the moving light is a great golden dragon that coils and spirals around him in serpentine motion. This is Merlin, Chief Druid; Merlin, the Magician; Merlin, Prince of Enchanters.

‘I am the Keeper of the Sacred Law. I am the Keeper of the Eternal Secret,’ he says to you.

He lifts his staff, and suddenly the moonlit glade bursts into colour and life. Troupes of fairies pour into it from between the trees, some descending from the treetops. Some mysteriously appear, as if from the depths of the ground. Fairy lights shine from the tree branches, bright and vivid yet tender too, soft and warm. Their colours are a pure delight, a supernatural festival of rose and crimson, yellow and marigold and peach, orange and blue, gold and lilac, violet, green, indigo, silver, ruby, sky blue and dusk blue, turquoise, amethyst, amber and glistening pearl, all showering their enchanting rays about you so that you are bathing in a thousand converging rivers of colour.

‘Dance with the fairies. Fill your heart with fairy delight,’ says Merlin.

In an instant the fairies form a great ring about you and whirl you off into a joyful, exhilarating dance, wild as the spirit of nature. Dance, dance with the fairies, and know that you dance with the stars and the planets, that your dance is the dance of worlds within worlds, eternally, ecstatically turning. Dance with the immortals, the ever-young, and bring forth your angelic and your fairy self.

How beautiful, how intriguing, how mysterious the forms of the fairies are as they flash in the light of the moon and the stars and the happy lantern colours. You become aware of Merlin, nodding and smiling beyond the circle, and yet he seems to lead the dance from the centre.

You look keenly into the middle of the circle. You are aware of a dimensionless point, a hallowed void – the sacred no-thing around which the components of each atom dance…

You find, in the joy of the dance, that you are growing quite philosophical. You know that it is because your heart is connected to Merlin and his radialling fairy forces.

You see that this Fairy Dance is the dance of the structure of the atom, and that atoms are mandalas. ‘The mandala is the innermost pattern of creation,’ Merlin tells you in silent thought-communion. ‘They are pictures of the sacred dance of life, the whirling dervishes. The energy dance around the centre of the atom is a dance around a void – a mystic centre which is non-manifest in the material world. If we enlarged the size of an atom to that of a planet, its nucleus, the centre, would still be smaller than a pinhead. Yet everything revolves around this sanctified heart, this holy no-thing.’

Merlin smiles, and shows you the great trick of the fairies: how they can be minuscule or instantly grow to a size much bigger than ourselves. ‘Theirs is the gift of the centre, which knows that force is real and form is not,’ he explains.

You continue to revel in the Fairy Dance as Merlin speaks again. ‘Have not your scientists only recently discovered that there are twelve subatomic particles?’ he asks. ‘Of course there are! Twelve planets to our solar system, dancing around the sacred centre of inconceivable fire, twelve revolving constellations that make up the zodiac, twelve Knights of the Round Table that surround King Arthur, twelve great labours of Hercules, the soul of humanity; and twelve disciples that form the blessed circle around the Christ Being. Has not organized religion, and later the orthodoxy of science and the pall of materialism, deprived and robbed you of your love of the fairies and the fairy worlds? Take it back, my friend. Take this power back into your heart through the Fairy Dance. It is the dance of your soul around your spirit. Reclaim this blessed power, dear healer. You cannot advance without it; and with it you will bring your world into a harmony that is the star of your deepest dreams and which burns beyond even your highest hopes.’

With a far-flung joy that encompasses the heavens and the earth, and your being that circles between the two, you take back into your heart the love of the spirit of nature and her magical laughing people that the human world has tried to hide from you. You know that now you are whole again, and that Merlin’s lesson is complete.

As Merlin’s lesson ends, the fairies release you from the whirling crescendo of the dance. You find yourself standing before the great sage of spiritual law, his student and his friend. You are known to Merlin now, and he smiles on and blesses your healing aspirations. You sense Archangel Raphael in the depths of his eyes, and your heart-mind knows that his company of healing angels dances around Merlin with a reverence that is almost worship. On impulse, you kneel to this stern and kindly ancient.

He raises you by the hand, and by the hand he leads you into the depths of his cave, before which, in the moon-enchanted glade, the fairy revels took place.

You gaze around in rapture. Deep within, the cave is composed of myriads of crystals, scintillating with every gorgeous tint and hue, some of which are not colours that are seen on earth. Through this living wonder you go, and find yourself at another doorway of the cave, overlooking a deep, still, clear forest pool.

Merlin stands behind you, and draws you into his heart. He has become a great tree, a mighty, steadfast oak, whose branches shelter and enfold you.

How utterly supported, how safe and deeply rooted into the good firm earth you feel, as you rest peacefully in the protective heart of Merlin.

‘Child of Earth,’ Merlin says to you, in a voice as hushed and deep as the ocean. ‘Come to me, rest in my heart as you do now, whenever you need wisdom, whenever you need vision, whenever you need fairy contact, whenever you need succour, whenever you need to renew your healing forces, whenever you need peace.’

As Merlin speaks, the sun rises and makes an angelic glory on the surface of the clear, still forest pool. Merlin, the oak tree, also lights up from within, and casts a glory and a mystery of radiant colour into the waters of the pool, until they are aflame in a cascading flood of morning’s purest light.

‘This is the glory of the New Day for humanity that is already dawning,’ Merlin says to you. ‘You have an important part to play. Never forget it. I am always here to help you. This is my divine mission for the unfolding age. May your soul be as clear, as radiant, as many-coloured, as restful and as deep as this sacred pool.’

You rest easily within Merlin, looking out in wonder at the great expanse of water, filled with the magnificence, the flame, the beatitude, of the noble dawn.

When you are ready, call your fairy ally to you, and let her tenderly escort you to the door that leads into your bedroom. This is done in a moment. Get into bed, and feel yourself sinking down into present everyday reality as your fairy ally creates symbols of blessing over your recumbent form.

Firmly touch down, seal your centres, and, because you have been to Faery Land, gently stamp both feet.

The Fairy Lover

Now we progress from grave ancient to golden youth! It is important to contain both Merlin and Robin in our hearts, because it is at the centrepoint, the heart (which is also the apex, or the highest point of our consciousness), that they meet and are one. When within us the wisdom of the earth (Merlin-Saturn) meets the consciousness of the spirit (Robin-Mercury), the antahkarana, the rainbow bridge, springs into being.

It is most interesting that in fairy lore, the leprechaun, a little old man who is a way-shower for the human soul, as he indicates by cobbling magical shoes, is deeply associated with Merlin (you might say they are his little clones!), and that wherever the leprechaun was seen by country people, such a place either originally was, or became, the site of rainbows and natural springs. Mercury or Robin, the messenger of the sun, represents the rays that create the rainbow and cause the springing forth of all creation. The great rainbow bridge that Merlin and Robin create together is that bridge between spirit and soul which connects our earthly self with the glorious light, seven-rayed, of the Divine. When we walk over the rainbow bridge into the golden world of the spirit, not in death but in full consciousness as we actually live out our earthly lives, we walk into freedom and limitlessness. This is the realm that the angels share with us, the source from which we give healing.

The idea of the following guided visualization is to recognize within ourselves the sacred marriage of the spirit and the soul that creates the rainbow bridge. It is given here as Maid Marian journeying to meet Robin, but please mix and match according to your perspective!

The Sacred Marriage

Sit upright, your spine supported if necessary, and ensure that you are comfortable and relaxed. Focus on your heart-centre and breathe gently, easily and slowly. In your mind’s eye, let your heart be as a jewel or a crystal into which you are gazing.

You are standing beneath the boughs of a tree in a forest at the breaking of a summer dawn.

Murmurs of birdsong sound in the still, cool air, a sweet liquid piping and fluting as if from far, far above, as though it echoed in the grand, solemn space of a cathedral. The silver-grey light of the early morning has a rapt, enthralled quality, like a beating heart in a lover’s expectant breast.

The rays of the rising sun smile suddenly over the waiting forest, and all is transformed. The birdsong becomes a mighty chorus of joy; you listen and watch in rapture as small woodland animals appear in the forest glade before you, intent upon the business of the morning. They are unafraid, showing only curiosity and friendliness as you turn your gaze on them.

With you, they are aware of the presence of the Great Spirit and, with you, they offer thanksgiving for the birth of this perfect day.

You are wearing a leaf-green gown, as if composed from the newborn sunlight and the viridian green of springtime leaves. You notice that there are translucent jewels sewn into your clothing which catch the light in dancing flashes and simultaneously give it forth again in shades of their own mystic brilliance.

On your feet are soft shoes made from cloth of gold. The threads in them shine in the sunbeams, and as you begin to walk deeper into the singing forest it is as if every step you take can heal and bless the earth with sacred gold from the heart of the sun.

You realize that you have been given these shoes to tread softly upon the Earth, to revere and worship her with an offering of your human love, for verily she is a loving, living Goddess.

You press on deeper and deeper into the forest because your true love awaits you, the pure-hearted warrior who is the mirror of your eternal self. Every step you take is one of jubilance and wonder, your heart alight with the promise, the anticipation, of his waiting presence. You listen to the birdsong, you taste and smell the clean, fresh, vigorous scents of the woodland, you see the sunlight dancing on the leaves and the forest floor, and the sapphire vault of the skies rolling like a blue carpet of peace over all the world.

It occurs to you that all creation is dancing with Goddess and that it would be good for you to dance too. You dance there in a shining glade among the trees, lightly, airily, like a spirit of nature, and it seems to you in your joy as if you danced with the scintillating stars and all the turning firmament. As your dance ends, you are aware that its sacred configurations has brought someone – the pulse of your life – into your company.

You approach an ancient and majestic tree whose great arching branches create a quiet green sanctuary, flourishing with mistletoe and sunlit leaves. Here Robin, the Hooded Man, awaits.

Robin is smiling, rapt at your approach. He is tall, keen-eyed, supple with youth and beauty, yet old as the stars. He enfolds you in an embrace of warmth and love and the protection he brings as warrior of the soul.

As for a moment your body and your being fuse with his and you become as one, you sense in the love between you the strength and the essence of the mighty prehensile roots of the oak-temple, coiling away from the huge bole of the tree with serpentine dignity, outstretching in the darkness to the sacred core of Mother Earth. Breathing and seeing with you, Robin accompanies you as you walk side by side along the path that the western roots follow underground.

You come to a secret cave, overhung with ivy and scrolls of fern. Hand in hand, you and Robin, united spirit of the greenwood, enter in.

The cave is dim and vast, whispering with echoing murmurs from far away. It is lit by a single soft golden flame, burning candlelike in a fissure of the rock which stands as a pillar at the centre of the cave. Around this immense pillar lie 12 sleeping knights, their armour shining like the white spume of the sea. They form a ring of light around the great king, Arthur, who sleeps on a dais in the midst of them; magically, you and Robin are drawn into his dream, the sacred dream of King Arthur in which he is steeped until the time shall come for him and his white knights to awake.

The dream of King Arthur is the form and essence of a mystic rose, mellifluently pink as a warm summer sunrise. This gentle emanation of colour is a magical power flowing forth from the heart of the king, and the heart of the king is the rose, a temple of exquisite form and fragrance that you and Robin can enter together, to kneel at the golden altar there.

Awake in his dream, the king smiles on you and Robin, and pronounces a blessing over you as you kneel together in the beautiful temple of the rose. You and your soul-warrior are made one, for when you rise you are wed.

In the brilliance shed from the glory of this moment, you see clearly that the mystic rose is blooming in your heart and in Robin’s heart.

In joy, you breathe deeply of the fragrance of the rose, and the knowledge comes to you that King Arthur is present in the soul of the Earth, that he is the guardian of Britain, and that all divine guardians of other lands are also present in Britain’s soul, in those refined spheres behind the physical life which some call the Dreamtime; and you know that as King Arthur sleeps he guards the sacred rose, the rose which is the heart of all things and also your own heart, the fountain of renewal for all the world.

You and Robin drink deeply of this magical and blessed fountain, for you find that you can indeed drink in this divine essence.

When you are refreshed and made new, you find that you are kneeling together beneath the boughs of the oak-temple, alone again with Robin in the peace and beauty of the forest.

You and Robin are one, and you are forever bonded with his laughing, dancing, eternally young spirit which enshrines all the spiritual secrets of nature.

As you reach out to touch the wise and ancient oak tree, you receive a blessing from Merlin, the great seer, and beyond him from some omnipotent entity that you can only conceive of as the Queen of the Stars. Accept the blessing; absorb it.

You know that King Arthur, Merlin, Robin, and you yourself, are all this mighty queen’s spiritual children; and that Merlin will keep her mysteries hidden until the time is right for their disclosure.

The forest, its wonder, its secrets, its enchanted people, recedes within you, enfolded by the petals of the rose in your heart. Come back gently, touch down in the mundane world, and carry these treasures within you.

Seal your centres with the bright silver cross in a ring of light and affirm:

I bring my mind, my emotions, every thought arising within me, together into the presence of divine healing.

I receive the blessing of peace into my deepest heart.

I breathe forth this peace into the heart of the world as living light which is the radiance of peace and spiritual healing.

I find ways to express peaceful living and the blessing of angel healing in my community.

The final lap of our journey into the mysteries of Raphael now awaits us. It concerns the great enigma of the Holy Grail, and a message for all those who read these words and aspire to become healers who work with angels.

The Holy Grail is coming to us, and will soon be with us. Its wonders will be given to those who walk the earth today. The angels are asking us to make every effort to prepare for this inconceivable illumination and initiation, because those of us who have consciously drawn close to the angels and who seek to cooperate with them in their work for humanity will be the first to accept the initiation of the Holy Grail. It will therefore be our privileged responsibility to help others to realize the importance of also accepting its gifts in initiation, and to encourage them to feel sufficiently confident and motivated to do so.

Djwhal Khul, the Tibetan master who inspired Alice Bailey to write 25 books on esotericism, predicted that hundreds of thousands will take this initiation. Let us be daring, and entertain the hope that millions will take it! The angels assure us that such a hope is by no means in vain.

Margaret Bailey and I can hint at a few of the secrets of the Grail, even before it is retrieved. (Its location, history, and how we will receive its virtues are the subject of our forthcoming book.) The cup that it represents is a vast spiritual cup, a cosmic cup of recipience in which we are all united as one – every kingdom, from nature and her spirits through humanity to the angels – every member of every kingdom is united and as one in the divine receptacle of the Grail cup. We have received indications that although an actual cup will be found, the Grail is by no means a physical cup. Something stupendous will also be unearthed, and it will reveal to us the secret of ascension whilst we are still here on earth.

Meditation, art, prayer – all these things provide a method for us to enter heaven whilst we are still attached to our physical bodies. But the Grail will give to every soul who receives it into their heart a method of ascension which so far in the history of the earth has only been available to the highest of the adepts; and it will ‘rend in two’ the veil of the temple, that which hangs between us and divine vision so that when we touch down after meditation, the pall of earthliness which drains the magic out of life soon reasserts itself and makes things seem dreary and difficult again! That obscuring veil will go, and we shall know heaven whilst we walk the earth. Once this new consciousness has been established, it will be the start of everything. The great emancipation of the human soul, with all its magnificent horizons and its transformation of life on earth, will be underway.

How can we prepare for the coming of the Grail? Follow the star in your heart, the star of the spirit! Lessen the claims of earthliness and materialism, and devote some time each day to meditation, angel communion, invocation, prayer and purification. These simple, gentle methods will throw off the chains that presently bind us, and allow an impersonal love for all to flow freely. Become familiar with the star and the rose, with the sanctity of silence, with magical breathing and giving forth the light. Purify yourself and your environment, using the methods given, and diligently train yourself in the art of angel healing, if that is your chosen path. The angels tell us that we cannot yet encompass with our everyday minds what is meant by ‘angel healing’. We tend to think in terms of disease and pain manifesting through physical maladies, and of course these problems comprise a part of its compass; but they are not the whole. We will give forth healing in cooperation with the angels in ways we have never dreamed in the days to come. The ethers and the thought-spheres of our world are desperately in need of decontamination and of healing. The Grail is the spearhead of this planetary transfiguration, and it is this for which we now prepare.

Several thousand years ago, we managed to lose the Grail and drive its perfection from our consciousness and our world. The Christed couple, Jesus and Mary Magdalene, retrieved it for us by dint of unconscionable sacrifice inspired by a wondrous love for humanity – for humanity as a whole and for each individual member. It was the point of their entire mission, because the divine alchemy of the Grail is the teaching of ‘the Way’, which they revealed to us in greater radiance and dimension than it had ever been revealed before. If we do not follow the Way, we cannot receive the inestimable gifts of the Grail. More and more people today are becoming disenchanted with the lure of selfishness and materialism and the denial of love, harmony and kindness which following it entails. These people, turning from the call of the darkness, tread the path which is the Way, be they agnostics, atheists, new agers, pagans, naturists or members of the world’s orthodox religions. The Way is not a religion – it is the Way! Sufficient numbers are now on this divine path for the Grail to be given to humanity; and it will be given.

What we need to understand is that the Grail has been preserved for us by the angelic and fairy streams of life. If we say it baldly – that the angels and the fairies have kept safe the Holy Grail for us – we may imagine the derisive laughter that our statement would invoke from many people. This in itself is remarkable evidence of the conditioning and programming that we have received through the ages from those adversary forces who sought to create a mindset in us that would deny the very existence of what would set us free – for the adversary forces receive the benefits of our enslavement. Nature mysticism, a love of the angels and the fairies, are precisely what nourish the sacred Grail forces. These forces are what set us free as spiritual beings and release the powers of the spirit through the shining rainbow of the soul, so connecting us with the seven-rayed potency of the Divine. Perhaps we can see now why the authority of earthly establishments, who love to control us, have always taught us to mock the idea of fairies and angels and the Holy Grail, and to alienate ourselves from nature.

The following guided visualization gives an idea of how the angels and the fairies work together to sustain the Grail energies. The human Grail – our divine inheritance of the powers of the soul and the unspeakable privilege of living in heaven whilst we walk the earth – has been lost to us, stolen from us in ages past by our own wanton foolishness. It is this paradise that we shall regain. If the Angel Grail had not been maintained for us and our world, earth would have ceased to exist by now as a life-bearing planet. (The quotes in the following text are the words of Geoffrey Hodson. This great angel seer refers to the Sun Spirit as ‘He’, but there can be no doubt that this Being is a perfect expression of both the Sacred Feminine and the Sacred Masculine principles – Christ-Brigid, or, as John the Beloved Disciple explains, ‘the Spirit and the Bride’.)

The Angel Grail

Begin to breathe quietly through the heart-centre, creating the form of the shining star there as a six-pointed radiance and seeing its rays envelop you from that sacred central point within your being.

It is midsummer eve, night of magic and revelation. All through the fairy worlds, the angels are gathering together those nature spirits who are ready to enter into the angelic line of evolution. Everywhere there is festivity and a sense of the grandeur of the occasion. At this time, a great ritual of communion with and worship of the sun is enacted by the angelic hosts.

The fairies share this joyful communion, and their revels on midsummer eve are touched by a dusting of the deepest spiritual magic, embraced and nurtured by a secret quality in the moonlight and the radiance of the stars through which they weave their merry dances.

The angels assemble at the higher altitudes above all this merrymaking. Their delight is as keen as that of the fairies, but it also sounds a note of deeper, sublime joy, as though a sonorous cathedral organ intermingles with the silvery sweetness of pealing bells. The angels form circles according to their hierarchical degrees which rise, tier upon tier, as a magnificent living structure that reaches into worlds beyond worlds. ‘The radiant bodies of the shining ones thus united form a chalice of living light.’

This great sacramental cup reaches from the lowest level of the earth, where the fairies sport and play, to the jewel of the spirit that is the sun. Every atom of aspiration which comprises the angelic hosts strives upward to the sun. ‘Every heart is full of love and adoration; every eye turned upwards to the Lord of Life. The auric forces are all blended to make a perfect whole… thus the cup is formed.’

As the chalice appears, the adoration of the angels creates a river of many colours which streams upwards, heaven bound, through the channel of the cup created by their thoughts and their ethereal bodies, so that it springs as a fountain of exaltation until it reaches the higher angels, who unite their limitless love and aspiration to the rising current, which becomes a great torrent and rises to the mighty archangels, who receive it and usher it into the heart of the sun. There it enters the being of the ‘great and nameless One who is the Spirit of the Sun and the Lord of Power and Life in every world’.

A burst of music fills the aerial heights. The reverence and prayer of the angels has attained such a height that it must now be expressed in the dynamic of music, because it has become a part of the creative force itself. Its glory is a swell of sound and shining light. ‘Adoration flows forth as from a single heart. A living ecstasy pervades the soul of every angel devotee. Wave upon wave of joy, of exaltation and of living light and sound, sweep through the angelic ranks.

‘The light within the chalice grows more and more intense. Bright colours flash and play across its wide expanse. The upward-flowing force [from the chalice] lifts every angel into realms of being far above those in which it usually dwells. Each one is exalted into the presence of our Lord the Sun; every aura expands with solar light and power.

‘All sense of time and space is lost. Still the flood of angel love and adoration flows towards the sun. Still, with wills united and hearts overflowing, they pour forth the very essence of their souls in uttermost surrender to their Lord. The music grows grander and more majestic. A mighty and harmonious volume of sound accompanies the worship of the angel hosts. In that music, every aspiration is fulfilled.

‘At last the highest point is reached, the peak of ecstasy attained. The chalice is full formed in all its perfect beauty of colour, light and sound.

‘At that moment, when at once the highest and the deepest note is struck, the answer comes. The Spirit of the Sun pours forth His power in a flood of golden light. Formed of white fire at its core, and glowing with golden sunlight shot through with all the sevenfold colours of His rays, the power descends and enters every angel soul, filling it with life and light, until the lowest ring is reached. There it is held, whilst all drink deeply of the consecrated wine of solar life.

‘The music ceases. Silence marks the consummation of the solemn Eucharist. A stillness most profound surrounds and pervades the solar rites. All angels meditate upon the glory now revealed within their inmost beings. All fall into a state of deepest contemplation. Then, at last, music bursts forth once more in a glad paean of thanksgiving and of joy. Angel choirs take up the song, singing in vast multitudes around the throne of light…

‘In the midst, our Lord the Sun Himself shines forth, golden and glowing in all His sevenfold beauty. His solar angels bow low in reverence before the majesty which He thus reveals. Of that Presence no tongue can tell, nor any words disclose Its splendour; even the highest angels bow down in utter veneration and silence before that awful Self-revealing.

‘On every side the fields of space are filled with glory and with countless throngs of shining ones. And in the midst of them in all His splendour shines our Lord the Sun.

‘Each angel sees the vision splendid in varying degree, according to the power of its perception and the stature to which it has attained. However great or small its soul may be, it is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the sun.

‘Thousands who had not yet attained to individual existence pass into angelhood, leaving the days of their faeriedom behind. These are received with exceeding joy into the angels’ ranks.

‘The whole angelic evolution, down to the smallest nature spirit, has been illumined and blessed by the celebration of the mystery of the sun.’

Allow yourself to bathe in the glorious emanations of this sun ceremony. Hail your brethren, your fellows, your companions of your earthly and your heavenly life – the angels and the fairies.

Touch down gently, emerge from your meditation in your own time, and seal your centres.

Finally, after you have worked through the meditations and contemplations given in this chapter, dedicate yourself to the service of Archangel Raphael and his company of healing angels. Choose a time when you feel particularly attuned and receptive to angelic influences, and, in your own words, which will carry your special vibration and convey your soul to Archangel Raphael, conduct a little dedication ceremony.

Light a white candle, remembering to light it with the flame in your heart as well as with physical ignition. Tell Archangel Raphael all your hopes and aspirations relating to your development as an angel healer. Receive the dynamism of his potent blessing.