As I sit here looking out the window of my tiny bedroom down onto the busy freeway, I lean back in my chair, sigh, and wonder what in the world God has planned for all of us—for this reality we live in. In a life wrought with uncertainty, tensions are high, fears are soaring, and it seems as if existence itself is out to make a mockery of the beliefs and ideals we all hold dear.
Despite feeling that the world is spinning out of control, I still cling to the understanding that all this is God’s Plan—from the rising and setting of the sun right down to whether Meagan across the street will land her first job with the local coffee shop this summer. But knowing that God is in control of what we may otherwise see as pure chaos doesn’t help me with the feelings of dissatisfaction, sadness, or confusion that we all seem to constantly face.
There are times when emotions get the best of me and I scream heavenward, clutching my hair in frustration, “God, what are you up to now?” It is then that Archangel Michael appears, bringing his golden rays of sunlight with him.
“You chose this, Chantel,” the angel whispers. “You knew, well before you came here, the world you would have to endure.”
Well, that bit of insight does little to ease my discontent about the never-ending struggle with itself that humanity seems to be locked into. But at the end of the day, Michael is right. We all knew the turmoil we’d have to suffer when we chose to partake in this reality. It’s as Archangel Uriel told me a long time ago—no one is here because they were forced to be.
We’re all here because we want to be.
Given that, I guess there’s little excuse to bemoan our dispositions and circumstances, our decisions and their consequences. We all came here because we knew we could withstand everything this reality had to throw at us. And we’re here only because God trusted that we could handle it. Nevertheless, we are human, and subject to human emotions and frailties. This can create stumbling blocks along the arduous road of life we travel as we try to make our way back home.
I mean, that’s where we’re really headed, after all. Home to the realm of spirit, to the bosom of God (however you view him … her … it). A friend of mine once mused, “It’s like God drove me out to the forest and dropped me off, spun me around, and left me with a compass and a Swiss Army knife to find my way back to him, some light-years away.” The more I thought about this, the more I began to share that sentiment. I’m guessing that a lot of you reading this feel the same way.
I’m not saying God abandoned us. Not in the least. He’s hovering quietly, watching to see how we do on this survival challenge. So we tread along like little children, trying so hard to be brave because we told Daddy we were big enough now to go it alone. But deep down inside, we’re scared to death of the slightest shift of the wind and every little rustle of the leaves. We want so badly to call out and say, “I changed my mind!” But we can’t. Dad told us, when he plunked us down here, that once he did that, there was no turning back.
And so the journey begins.
So here you are, trekking along a very set and directed path home (though you’ve no map that tells you this). Just because God isn’t visible to our human eyes doesn’t mean that he isn’t present. Not only is he observing your journey, but he’s sent your big brothers and sisters—the angels—to watch over and help you. It may seem like you’re walking alone, but there will come a moment when you spot, out the corner of your eye, your brother’s smile or a wisp of your sister’s hair. You may hear your sister’s giggle on the wind, or wake up after a lonely night to find that someone covered you with a warm blanket. So, regardless of obstacles or fears, you keep pressing along. When you reach the edge of the forest, you realize that you were never in any real danger—after all, you were only exploring your own back yard! And there on the patio sits Dad with a knowing grin. You run toward him with a beaming smile.
“I did it! I did it!” You jump into his strong, loving arms and hop up on his knee to tell him all about your adventure. You boast about how you fended off a big grizzly bear with a couple of pine cones. (In actuality, that was your brother Michael in last year’s Halloween costume, but he did such a great acting job that you darn near wet your pants—although Dad doesn’t need to know that part.) You tell him about how the fairies left you cookies and milk along the trail (when it was actually your sister Iophiel the entire time). You tell him about how the moon and stars were so bright that you really weren’t that scared (and all the time, it was actually your father switching on the Christmas lights he and your brother Metatron had strung along the path to light your way).
Although you struggled with your fears and maybe even wept a little in the night, you were never really alone. Not once. You may have felt lost and as if you were going in circles, but there was only one path for you to take home—and your sisters and brothers were there to make sure you stayed the course. They planted clues along the road home … whispered guidance to you in your sleep … put up barriers blocking off where you weren’t supposed to go … and cleared away the brush from the path you were supposed to travel.
It’s all in a day’s work for the archangels—keeping us humans, their spiritual siblings, aligned with God’s Plan.
Regardless, walking the long, arduous road is no picnic. I think many of us can attest to that. But God wouldn’t have us wandering this world languishing, nor would he have us wandering this world clueless. Time and time again, he sends his messengers to deliver words of wisdom and signs of Divinity’s presence among us. But we’re so caught up in our human drama—so distracted by what’s going on around us—that we often miss these messages and signs.
It doesn’t always have to be this way, however. The moment we tap into our intuition and open our spiritual eyes, all the wisdom and knowledge we will ever need to navigate this road will become available to us. The purpose of this book is to assist you in doing just that. My goal is to help you learn how to initiate and establish connections with your angels, and then to decipher their messages as you embark upon your spiritual journey.
Because connecting with the angels is such a highly personal and ever-evolving process, I chose to tackle this subject using a workbook format. While the first chapter of this book contains a basic overview and my thoughts on key aspects of angel communication, by the second chapter you are invited to get to know the angels on your own, through a variety of methods and approaches. The rest of the chapters expand upon this idea. You will be encouraged to learn about individual angels and discover how they appear to you, experiment with creating and utilizing a sacred space, and work with exercises and logs to track and reflect on your angel encounters.
This interactive approach seems more useful, to me, than asking you to simply read about angels. Doing that would have made me guilty of doing what so many other books do: imposing my own views, and the views of authors before me, upon your angelic world. In sum, this workbook is designed the way it is for a reason: so that you may compile and develop your own personal language with the angels. I’ve come to call this language the Angel Code.
The Angel Code is made up of icons, signs, and symbols that the angels use to communicate their messages to us here on the earthly plane. As I’ve said many times in my lectures as well as in my previous book, Azrael Loves Chocolate, Michael’s a Jock, the angels will always speak to us in ways that we understand. The angels may connect with a musician through the notes of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” with a painter through a vibrant self-portrait of Frida Kahlo, with a writer through the words of Maya Angelou.
While I believe that connecting with the angels can lead to a more meaningful and fulfilling life for you, I make no promises that it will improve your circumstances. After all, the angels are not here to fix your life, but to help you to navigate it using the tools that God has already given you.
I can, however, promise that through joy and sadness, triumph and turmoil, gains and losses, your angels will always be by your side, offering their unyielding support and comfort. No matter how turbulent the waters may be, God’s messengers will always keep you buoyant—not to reinforce your faith in them, but to reinforce your faith in yourself. You are someone God trusts can weather any and all of the circumstances that come your way.
The time to connect with your angels is now. And don’t worry, it’s not as difficult as you may think. After all, the only thing you need is the desire. Then the high-speed data channels will burst open, allowing insight and wisdom to flow into your being.
So, let’s plug in and ready ourselves for direct access to Heaven. Adjust your firewalls, shut down all other programs, and let’s begin streaming the one download you will ever need—the Angel Code.