A HOST OF ANGELS
Why are angels arranged in hierarchies, a system of top-down organization, like the flowchart of corporate management? There are several reasons why various religions found this arrangement necessary. One was the sheer number of angels. The Jewish patriarchs produced angels swiftly and vigorously. The Catholic Church did its best to disband this trafficking in angels, but with little success, as it also named more and more angels. Even the great St. Augustine complained that angels “breed like flies.”
A HOST OF ANGELS
There were so many angels that it made logical sense to get them in some kind of sequential order to manage the confusion about what kinds of angels did what tasks and which ones were closest to the throne of God. Since the Bible already had described angels as armies (which is what the word host means, as in “a host of angels”), the military scheme was employed, and the angels became arranged in ranks (in the same way that an army has generals, majors, captains, and lieutenants of various grades, and lower ranks from sergeant to buck privates. Mere angels, in this system, are privates.
Cherubim means “fullness of God’s knowledge.” It is related to the Assyrian word karibu, which means “one who prays” or “one who communicates.” Cherubim continually praise god, never stopping or pausing.
In the Old Testament there were only two orders of angels, the seraphim and cherubim. Later, Dionysius the Areopagite, added seven more orders: Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, and Angels. St. Thomas Aquinas put his seal of approval on the matter in his many discourses on angels, and this was followed up in 1320 by Dante Alighieri, who in his Divine Comedy definitively ranked all creatures, the good and the bad.
The nine Celestial Orders and their ruling angels are as follows (angels may be part of multiple orders):
Scripture very rarely mentions angels, let alone hierarchical arrangements of them. Some modern religionists have taken issue with the very idea of angelic hierarchies. One, philosopher Mortimer Adler, finds such speculation “highly entertaining.” And Christian writer Timothy Jones, in Celebration of Angels, states flatly:
Dionysius simply had no way to determine if his nine-fold ordering was literally true. Nor do we. Even Paul the apostle, who claimed to have been caught up into the “third heaven” (2 Corinthians 12:2), hinted that such things are not to be told. . . . Indeed, in Scripture, we gain only glimpses and fragments of how the angels might be organized. . . . However tantalizing the recorded glimpses of angels in Scripture are, they are ultimately just that: glimpses. We can take great comfort, however, in knowing that populating the heavenly spheres are creatures so great they boggle and frustrate our every attempt to pin them down.
The war between God and the Fallen Angels, which can be interpreted as the conflict between good and evil, began when Lucifer—most beautiful and wise of all the beings created by the divine artificer and prince of the entire angelic order—decided to no longer bow to the authority of his sovereign Lord. In short, he rebelled against the highest authority.
It reads like the pilot plot for a new TV drama. Not only did the exquisitely beautiful and glamorously grand Lucifer decide to be entrepreneurial and go it on his own—like some rebellious VP who has been passed over for promotion—but rumor has it that he took at least a third of the angelic population along with him in the insurrection.
A FALLEN ANGEL
We don’t know the names of all of the fallen angels, for there were a multitude of them—one-third of all the heavenly host—and they came from all the angelic ranks of principalities, virtues, cherubim, seraphim, and thrones. The poet John Milton listed those few who where named:
In Milton’s version, all of these fallen angels lie together in Hell alongside the gods of the old pagan religions that predate the Bible—Egyptian Osiris and Isis and the entire Greek pantheon.
The name Lucifer became synonymous with Satan, also known as the Devil. In Hebrew, Satan means “adversary,” and as a name, it was applied to the principle of evil, which was conceived by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as a person-like being. The word devil is derived from the Greek word for “accuser.”
This fallen angel, by whatever name you choose, presides over Hell and is served by a coterie of minor angels, the ones who chose his side against God, and fell along with him to become devils (not with a capital D like “the Devil,” a term reserved for Satan himself, once Prince of Light, now Prince of Darkness). The Devil has many other names as well: Abaddon, Apollyon, Dragon, Serpent, Asmodeus, Beelzebub or Baalzebub, and Belial.
Nowhere in Scripture are we told just why Lucifer/Satan rebelled against God’s authority. Ezekiel suggests that it was sheer vanity—pride in his own splendiferous gorgeous self, not to mention his possession of great wisdom.
Guardian angels are among the angels in the lowest triad and they are the divine helpers closest to all living beings. Everyone has at least two guardian angels that will be with you from the time of birth to the time you pass from this earth plane. Your guardian angels are your personal angels and they are not assigned to anyone but you.
In whatever place you may be, in whatever secret recess you may hide, think of your Guardian Angel. . . . If we truly love our Guardian Angel, we cannot fail to have boundless confidence in his powerful intercession with God and firm faith in his willingness to help us. . . . Many of the saints made it a practice never to undertake anything without first seeking the advice of their Guardian Angel.
—ST. BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX
GUARDIAN ANGEL
Your guardian angel is here to assist you in every aspect of your life and make your life easier if you let them. Your guardian angels love you with the same unconditional love as God, and there is nothing you could ever do or say that would change this love. Take time out of your busy schedule to pray with your guardian angels. Ask them for the help you need. Then listen, feel, and pay attention to how they answer your prayers. They know you very well and they know exactly how to get your attention.
Ascended masters are not mentioned in the hierarchy of angels, but they are God’s divine helpers and they play their role in helping humanity evolve. During their lifetimes they were great teachers. These beings of light were once humans and they have now ascended into heaven. Their role is to help all those who need them.
The ascended masters’ place on the hierarchy is right below the archangels and above the angels. Just like the archangels, they have the ability to be with everyone simultaneously so they can serve all humans with great love and care.
Among these great beings and teachers are the Blessed Mother Mary, Jesus, Quan Yin, Buddha, Moses, Mohammed, Serapis Bey, Saint Theresa, and Saint Francis. The ascended masters have compassion and understanding of what you go through as a human being because they walked the journey themselves. They honor your free will and free choice, so you need to ask for their help. Trust that they will be by your side, instantaneously, ready to assist you in unconditional love. They are very powerful, enlightened beings and they have the ability to manifest healing and miracles into your life.
To people who live close to the earth, spirits live everywhere—in rocks and stones and trees and rivers and desert scrub. Divinity shines forth everywhere.
—SOPHY BURNHAM, A BOOK OF ANGELS
The fairies are sometimes called the angels of nature. Their vibration is very connected to the earth and their place in the hierarchy is in between the angels and humans. Fairies are very playful and creative and they love to hang around children. Because of this, children are more likely to see them, but they also like to assist adults, as well.
Fairies will nudge you to invite more play into your life, especially if your time is overloaded with work and family responsibilities. They love to play the role of matchmaker, and if you are looking for a soul mate they will help you find one. They love creativity and will provide inspiration to help you with any project: designing your gardens, your home, or any other creative endeavor. The fairies can play a powerful role in helping you manifest your dreams into reality.
Those who have died and transitioned into the spirit world resonate somewhere between the fairies and human beings. When you raise your vibration and connect your energy with the angelic realm, you will receive loving, supportive guidance that’s directed from God. When you communicate with loved ones who have passed you may still be communicating with certain aspects of their personalities. For example, let’s say that you want guidance from a particular relative in spirit about buying a new home. If he or she had been conservative in life and liked to save money, that personality trait would still be there. It might influence the guidance given.
There are special “birth angels” who helped you enter this life experience, and there are also “death angels” that help you journey back home when it’s time.
Many people believe that an infant is born with an “angel twin,” the guardian angel that accompanies it throughout life. Others believe that there are special birth angels who attend the birth to make sure that all is well and then depart for other births. Other angels and spirits replace these earliest guardians as infants grow into childhood. The question of whether the first angel assigned to a child is its lifetime guardian angel has never been definitively answered.
A DEATH ANGEL
Angels also attend death. Emanuel Swedenborg, who wrote prolifically about angels, gives an account of how he first encountered “some of the kindest and most profoundly loving of all angels,” in what we would today call a near-death experience. He explains that people “wake up” after dying, gradually becoming aware of angels at their heads. These “death angels” are apparently able to communicate with persons who have just died and make them feel peaceful, safe, and happily welcomed to their new state. The transition period, whether it is easy for the person that has passed or difficult (for some resist believing they are dead), is supervised by these special angels.
A host of angels flying,
Through cloudless skies impelled,
Upon the earth beheld
A pearl of beauty lying,
Worthy to glitter bright
In heaven’s vast hall of light.
They saw, with glances tender,
An infant newly born,
O’er whom life’s earliest morn
Just cast its opening splendor;
Virtue it could not know,
Nor vice, nor joy, nor woe.
The blest angelic legion,
Greeted its birth above,
And came, with looks of love,
From heaven’s enchanting region;
Bending their wingèd way
To where the infant lay.
They spread their pinions o’er it,—
That little pearl which shone
With lustre all its own,—
And then on high they bore it,
Where glory has its birth;—
But left the shell on earth.
—DIRK SMITS, ON THE DEATH OF AN INFANT
. . . Six wings he wore, to shade
His lineaments Divine; the pair that clad
Each shoulder broad, came mantling o’er his brest
With regal Ornament; the middle pair
Girt like a Starrie Zone his waste, and round
Skirted his loines and thighes with downie Gold
And colors dipt in Hev’n; the third his feet
Shaddowd from either heele with featherd maile
Skie-tinctured grain.
—JOHN MILTON, PARADISE LOST