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Meeting Our Angelic Twin

The soul comes from without into the human body, as into a temporary abode, and it goes out of it anew passing into other habitations, for the soul is immortal.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

T he concept of the Angelic Twin is found at the most esoteric levels of many world traditions, including the Jewish sect known as the Essenes, which Jesus belonged to; the early Christian Gnostics, who upheld the true teachings of Jesus; ancient Egyptian teachings; and the hidden teachings of Catholic theology. In essence, this concept holds that each of us has an angelic counterpart abiding in the celestial realms. The life that we are living now is but an extension of this higher, pure white-light being that has decided to extend a portion of itself into the worlds of form. It is this divine light-filled Angelic Twin that greets the Soul when it reaches the Otherside and asks us for an accounting of the progress we have made after each lifetime.

In the Egyptian Book of the Dead we find several references to this pure white-light being in the symbols of the gods Ra, Horus, and Osiris. The sun god Ra is said to represent the radiance of the Soul itself. Then there is Osiris, god of the Afterlife, resurrection, and regeneration, who is the risen lord of light who meets us in Heaven. Osiris was said to be the “Ba of the world,” the Soul of perfected humanity. He is the being that each Soul is brought before when the heart is weighed against the feather of Ma’at. Then there is Horus, the great restorer of truth who overturns the egoic aspects of Set. Set symbolizes the little self. Finally, there is the ever-renewing phoenix or bennu bird associated with all great world saviors. Legends of the phoenix tell us that he is a flaming being of light who descends from the higher worlds to sing his song of glory. He perishes in the flames of this world, only to be reborn, time and time again. This amazing symbol of the Soul’s constant renewal on the wheel of life, death, and rebirth applies to the Christ within each of us. Thus it is not surprising that the phoenix is associated with Jesus, Horus, and Osiris, because it represents the inner beauty of the true Self.

Here are a few excerpts from the Egyptian Book of the Dead found on a papyrus in the grave of Ani, the royal scribe of Thebes, overseer of the granaries of the Lords of Abydos and scribe of the offerings of the Lord of Thebes. In these passages Ani has already made his way to Heaven and hopes that his Angelic Twin will come to meet him. Then he can become one with Horus or Osiris and receive the kingship of his own Soul, symbolized by the ever-renewing bennu bird:

May the soul of Osiris Ani, the triumphant one, come forth with thee from heaven. . . . May he cleave his path among the never resting stars in the heavens. . . . May I, even I, arise . . . like a hawk of gold coming forth from his egg [the auric cocoon or Cosmic Egg]. May I fly and may I hover as a hawk. . . . May I rise, may I gather myself together as the beautiful golden hawk which hath the head of a bennu bird. . . . May I become a shining one therein. . . . I, even I, am Horus who dwells in splendors. I have gained power over his crown. I have gained power over his radiance, and I have travelled over the remotest parts of heaven. Horus is upon his throne. Horus is upon his seat. My face is like unto that of a divine hawk [Horus]. . . . I have risen up in the likeness of a divine hawk, and Horus hath set me apart in the likeness of his own soul. 1

In this passage, Ani has gained access to his Angelic Twin. He has achieved his end: to become one with the sky god known as the “son of truth” and the upholder of Ma’at. This Egyptian teaching tells us that it is our Angelic Twin who greets us upon our return to Heaven. This is the great being of light that we first encounter during our life review, as reported by near-death experiencers. In other words, this magnificent Angel of light is not Jesus or Buddha, but the Christed aspect of our own Oversoul.

Gnostic Christians also embrace the idea that each person has an Angelic Twin, an aspect of oneself that never leaves the higher dimensions. This wisdom was taught by Jesus, but it was suppressed by the Catholic Church. Gnostic cosmology states that the entire universe is an emanation of the original Oneness. This Oneness divided itself into a plurality, thus creating a vast hierarchy of worlds and beings that issued forth from that original point of light. These trillions of Angels inhabit the transcendent regions of glory and beauty and are benignly disposed toward human beings who aspire to union with God; thus they wish to help us on our path.

The “Fallen Angel”

Gnosticism also teaches that some of these cosmic spirits became estranged from the Source, such that in time they began to look upon themselves as self-existing rulers in their own right. These are the prideful beings that Jesus called archons, found in the third- or fourth-century CE Gnostic text known as the Pistis Sophia. One of these great Angels became so arrogant that he asserted that there were no other gods before him. This is the source of our legends about Lucifer, a great Angel who became darkened as a result of his arrogance. The Gnostics believe that this being is Jehovah, the deity of the Old Testament. Jehovah claimed to be the ruler of the gods, who “shall have no other gods before me.” While this might be blasphemous in some circles, the Gnostics may have been correct. After careful study it appears that the Jehovah of the Old Testament may well have been the Roman god Jove. Jove, or Jupiter, was in essence the Sumerian god Ninurta, the powerful thunderbolt-wielding son of the god Enlil, known throughout the Greek world as Zeus, king of the gods. *15

Regardless of who this “fallen Angel” really is, Gnostic Christians believe that it is this negative energy that has trapped us in the endless karmic cycles of oppression, blame, shame, guilt, and illusion. This same kind of masculine dominance was also expressed in the heavy-handed political control exercised for centuries by the Roman Catholic Church, just as today we find it in the actions of fundamentalists of all religious stripes.

The Gnostics, being true disciples of Jesus, believe that the world was created by a Mother-Father God, or as Jesus called it, the “Amma-Abba.” This Divine Mother/Father occasionally sends aspects of itself out into the world as the Divine Daughter and Divine Son. Some two thousand years ago these aspects became embodied in the figures of Jeshua (or Issa) and Mary the Magdala, or Mary the Great. Gnostics believe that we, as human beings, are caught between the light of the Creator and the tyranny of the artificial systems imposed upon us by the dark Angels who have tried to enslave us. Gnostics say that because we are trapped in the illusions of the lower worlds, the Mother God placed within us a homing device so that we could find our way out of this darkness. This “spark of holiness” is centered in the heart, and thus it is through the power of love that we can find our way out of this illusionary prison. It is love that will awaken us from the lie of separation and dualism, free us from the cycle of samsara, and lead us back into merger with our Angelic Twin. Stephan Hoeller, author and scholar of Gnoticism, explains: “Inspired and urged on by wise and helpful angels from above, and shackled and enslaved by tyrannical and unwise angels from below, we undergo troubled dreams as we strive to shake off our intoxication induced by the deceptions perpetrated by the tyrant angels. The knowledge that awakens us from the illusory dreams is not arrived at either by moral rectitude or by cognition of philosophical means, but through interior, revelatory experience.” 2 In Gnostic Christianity this awakening is called gnosis, a direct transmission of wisdom that reunites the human little self with its Angelic Twin, the higher Self. Later, the Church would alter this concept, changing the words of Jesus to tell us that each person has a “Guardian Angel” watching over him or her.

Our Divine Twin

Gnostic Christians believe that a meeting between a human being and his or her divine counterpart is a cosmic event, an encounter so powerful that it can repair the illusion of separateness and lead the person out of darkness. This is reflected in the Gospel of Thomas, when Jesus tells us: “When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner [Self] into the outer [self], and the outer [self] into the inner [Self], the above [being] as the below [human being] . . . then you shall enter the Kingdom [of Heaven]” (Thomas 22:9–21). This powerful statement lies at the heart of all Jeshua’s teachings, and Gnostics are focused on helping their students achieve this state of Oneness while still living in the physical world. Hoeller, an ordained priest in the American Catholic Church and a holder of the English Gnostic transmission in America, cites a story found in the Nag Hammadi Library about a visit received by Jesus at a very early age. The storyteller is Mother Mary, and the visitor looked exactly like Jesus would look when he became a man. This visitor inquired where he might find “Jesus, my brother.” Then, when the two finally met, the older Jeshua embraced the younger Jeshua and they became one.

Similarly Mani, the third-century CE Persian prophet and Gnostic, tells us that when he was twelve years old he too had a vision of his godlike twin, an Angel who came from the “Gardens of Light.” This Angelic Twin urged Mani to withdraw from the religious sect he had been raised in and prepare himself for a spiritual mission. At the age of twenty-four his Angelic Twin appeared again and instructed him to go forth and share his teachings. Finally, when Mani was about to undergo martyrdom later in life, his Angelic Twin appeared one more time. This time it united with him and bore him up to Heaven. Historically, we know that even while Mani was undergoing torture in prison, he insisted that he had no human teacher at all but had received all of his teachings directly from his Angelic Twin. 3

The Sacred Marriage

The merging with one’s Angelic Twin is the true meaning of sacred marriage, the reference to the marriage of a bride and a groom that Jesus speaks about so often in the New Testament. The Nag Hammadi Library texts, discovered in 1945, reveal this rite of sacred union as the culminating fulfillment of the Mysteries instituted by Jesus for the liberation of the Soul. In later centuries the Church suppressed the original teaching and derailed its true meaning. The Church even dared to claim that Jesus was the bridegroom and the Church was the “bride of Christ,” thus demanding that people join the Church. But the true bride is each one of us, and the true groom is in fact our Angelic Twin, our Christed Self that lives within each of us. In the Gospel of Philip we read:

It is the holy in the holy. . . . Everyone who will enter the bridal chamber will kindle the light. . . . But the mysteries of this marriage are perfected rather in the day and the light. Neither that day, nor its light ever sets. If anyone becomes a son of the bridal chamber, he will receive the light. If anyone does not receive it while he is in these places, he will not be able to receive it in the other place. He who will receive that light will not be seen, nor can he be detained. And none shall be able to torment a person like this, even while he dwells in the world. 4

In another biblical passage we read: “Bridegrooms and brides belong to the bridal chamber. No one shall be able to see the bridegroom with the bride unless one becomes one.” 5 And in yet a third passage we hear Jesus’s words on the day of the Eucharist: “You who have joined the perfect, the light with the Holy Spirit, unite the angels with us also, the images.” 6 In all of these references Jesus is saying that our human self is only an image that our Angelic Twin has projected onto the canvas of time and space. In other words, our true Self is really a perfected angelic being.

Valentinus, a second-century CE Gnostic prophet, adopted Jesus’s teachings on sacred union into one of his Mystery rites, hoping to help others make contact with their Angelic Twin. After Jesus’s teachings Valentinus called this rite “the Bridal Chamber,” for it represented the highest spiritual initiation a Soul can have while still living on Earth. So great was this event that it was actually celebrated as a wedding feast. Gnostic theologian Clement of Alexandria describes this powerful sacrament, saying the Gnostics “then lay aside their souls, and at the same time as the woman receives her bridegroom, each of them receives his bridegroom or angel.” 7

The Myth of the Guardian Angel

The Catholic Church altered the Gnostic teachings about the Angelic Twin, saying instead that each person has a personal Guardian Angel. In doing so they concealed the deeper truth that a part of us is eternally in Heaven and never leaves it. Ancient teachings tell us that only about a third of who we are ever incarnates on Earth. The rest remains in the higher worlds, or may send another portion of itself to take incarnation in other dimensions or other worlds. Thus it is possible to be having more than one lifetime in the third, fourth, or even fifth dimensions, while the greater part of who we are remains in Heaven. By concealing this inner teaching of Jesus, the Church maintained its power to excommunicate a Soul, holding the threat of purgatory or Hell over its head. Instead the Church taught that the Guardian Angel presents the person’s Soul to God at the gates of Heaven—an image reminiscent of Horus presenting the deceased to his father Osiris in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. While having an intermediary to argue a Soul’s worth in Heaven may sound reassuring to some, it completely misses the point, which is that each of us is in essence already an angelic being. The core of who we truly are is that pure white light, and the union we seek is with our own higher Self, which already resides in Heaven. If this deeper wisdom was taught by religious authorities, then it would place the responsibility for spiritual growth squarely on the shoulders of the individual and take power away from outer authorities. This is something that religions do not seem to be interested in doing. In truth, it is only our own ignorance, false beliefs, and negative thoughts, words, and actions that can keep us from this divine reunion.

This single realization has the power to liberate humanity from centuries of mistaken thinking—and the belief that we are not worthy. When we can truly embrace the idea that we ourselves have chosen to come into this world to learn, then we can really get down to the business of using the life we are living now to further our spiritual evolution. This, in turn, leads us to embrace the cherished aspects of the being within, reminding us, as Issa says, that the Kingdom of Heaven lies within. When we can consciously connect with the wisdom and light of our Angelic Twin, then we as human beings can create a sacred union between our little selves and our true, abiding Soul.