A propos my newly-confirmed belief in the existence of angels, Ashok says in his new post: “He will not believe in anything easily unless he has very sound proof of it.”
Au contraire, my dear Ashok. (I seem to be starting each sentence in French.) There is no need for proof when the experience is by its nature subjective. To quote from dear departed blogger Jim, “Some things I just ‘know’ and believe in as fact without any proof.”
Jim disappeared suddenly from the Blogosphere on Sept 14th 2008. I hope he is in jail. That’s an astonishing thing to say, but I’d wish that upon him rather than suicide. He deleted his blog just before he went, and seemed to know something serious was about to happen. But by some anomaly in Google Reader, I still have copies of his posts going back several years. I sent them to him, too. He had a lot to say about angels and I wish he were here today.
It is of course possible to ‘just know’ and be wrong. I ‘just knew’ it was the same cat that prowled on the top of my backyard fence until one day, when I saw it fighting for the privilege of prowling that fence with its apparent twin. One of them ran off with a torn ear, and I’ve never known which was which.
Is there one angel per person, on permanent standby? Or do you call one up like a taxi when the need arises? To me these are idle questions which don’t make sense. I’ll explain angels as I see them. They are messengers. That is my experience, but it is also gratifying to know that the word “angel” originally meant “messenger” in Latin and Greek, and was used to translate a similar Hebrew word in the Bible. So I feel happy that my experience is mainstream, common to different tribes in different millennia. But it’s not proof.
I was going down the Desborough Road this morning on an errand, when it came to me that the Angel’s main message, to me at any rate, is “Wherever you go, remember to be at home there. This earth is made for you.” In other words, it’s sheer foolishness for me to feel alienated from myself or my environment. There’s a very close link between my self and my environment, as if one mirrors the other, but I can’t explain it rationally.
When I do feel alienated, when I feel some fear, persecution or enmity—different sides of the same thing—then the angel sends a warning message, a kind of chastisement. The more alertly I listen to these messages, the milder and more symbolic the chastisement. I see this phenomenon happening to others as well, not just to me.
When I am in need of encouragement, in general or in a particular direction, the message is more affirming. I can’t call it a blessing because even the chastisement is a blessing, being a message to warn of danger. If you were two yards from a precipice, because you didn’t know where you were going, and someone shot you in the leg, so that you collapsed on the ground before falling off the cliff, that person would be a true friend.
Just as a child needs to break free of the parent’s restraining hand to see where wilfulness will lead, I go through negative phases, at first from the sheer urge to rebel. But then like a child I get lost. That is when I am particularly grateful to angels—my angel, the angel, whatever. Even there, you see, I don’t want to believe beyond what I know; even though my knowing has no proof.
a wayfarer’s notes 
i felt like commenting on this. loved your article, Ian.
just one question. if angels can warn you, why can't they protect you?
another, does that mean your angel is working against the person's angel who is about to do you harm.
lion kills the wilderbeast and thus he survives. in the game of life you have to harm the other, consciously or subconsciously, to survive.
not physical harm may be. suppose your angel schemes to get you that job. that means my angel was not efficient enough for me to get that job instead, when we both were contenders for the same job. what wrong i have done? why are the angels fighting with each other? why should i have a angel who is good in losing? spirituality doesn't make sense to me. is believing in angels spirituality?
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Answer to first question: they are just messengers. they are not bodyguards.
As for the person who is about to do you harm, same answer. Their objective is not to support us in every objective we may have in life, but to remind us of what is most important. And what is that? In Ashok's latest post he says “Spiritual evolution to me is establishing a closer relationship of our finite part with this Infinite Whole.”
Let's suppose that I need to get that job to survive, and so do you. Angel doesn't care who gets the job and won't help you or me to get it. Angel cares about quickest way to make both of us establish closer relationship with the Whole. That is, to realize what is really going on in this world.
Quickest way may be for us both to lose the job, because some person with imperceptible progress in spiritual evolution gets it: some person who lies and betrays his way to the top. this gives you and me the chance to learn. His turn will come later: when he is at the top and has something big to lose.
No, believing in angels is not spirituality. It's not necessary. Angels are there whether we believe in them or not.
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When I play a game of Dominoes, Chess, or Backgammon. I have often tried to call upon what you might refer to as Angels. I think of the move I would like my opponent to make in order to give me some advantage. I concentrate on this move, the way I imagine some people pray.
When it works I feel some responsibility for influencing the outcome. I am aware that this is not logical and I do not posses any control over my opponents actions. None the less I am unable to resist the temptation to enforce my will in this manner. Of course, it doesn't always work, and sometimes it never works.
In much the same way, when I have some objective, and I confront obstacles, I imagine ways in which these obstacles can be over come. I concentrate on the desired outcome and occasionally it plays out the way I'd like it to.
I think all this is natural and instinctive. Much in the same way we might imagine a threat behind a tree whilst walking down a path in the dark. We may even, subconsciously, see the tree itself as a threat. Keeps our senses sharp and our minds ready to confront the real threat, when, and if, it manifests itself.
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Well, Charles, nobody has a monopoly on what angels are. If the experience is by its nature subjective then I can't argue with you.
But if we follow traditions going back thousands of years, we'll accept that they are agents of the divine force, not genies bound to obey human demands. I know you are not saying that.
I've heard some people talk about their “parking angel”: a being whom they pray to for a convenient parking spot. But I think this is all to do with rituals and talismans. My angel is on a different level.
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I believe in angels, in a sense, they are those in human body's, the old lady next door is an angel.
I've never assumed that an angel wouldn't swear some and love sex.
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Answer to first question: they are just messengers. they are not bodyguards.
Actually, some are, and some of them pack guns and will kill someone that is fucking with someone they love.
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“There’s a very close link between my self and my environment”
That sounds like you experiencing unity with the universe, the sort of thing that angels probabaly do all the time. You are quite right that it is not possible for us to know everything about them, centered as we are in our bodies and the physical world, with angels belonging more to the realm of spirits and consciousness.
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BBC appears to have a broad definition of angels that includes all humans in the category. It is amusing to think of a swearing angel.
I would like to think of all old ladies as angels but some of them pull out a broomstick at night and go flying through the sky ;_)
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My favourite is butterscotch flavour, oh, hang on, we're not talking about Angel Delight here? Ok, serious head on…I actually found this a fascinating conversation and a top notch post Vincent. I think I like to believe in the idea of angels, in the context of messengers as you set out, and I've certainly “experienced” making decisions as if guided from somewhere else. But the rational part of me just wonders if that’s just the vanity of humanity in not willing to accept that things are just random and chaotic and there's not really anything guiding us? If I had the answers I'd be a very rich man, instead of the most highly paid hack, per word, in Tinsel Town. But this is all excellent food for thought…which kind of links nicely back to where I came in…
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I'm sorry to hear of your thinking on Jim. I knew he “vanished” – but I wasn't a constant reader, and I knew he was a man of many blogs, so was never sure if I'd just missed the point where he shut down one and opened another. He is an interesting soul…
In those days, when Jim was around, the very idea of angels – since I hadn't experienced them and it wasn't 'rational' completely frustrated me. I seemed as if there were this group of people speaking a secret language in which the word angel stood for something I couldn't imagine.
How shocked I was the first time I realized I was seeing them, because my first thought was “OMG! there they are! Light Beings!” and my second was “WAIT! I've seen them many times before!” and just dismissed it as imagination, a trick of light, strange things in that neatherworld before we sleep.
In my experience they do protect us, and there is no conflict between them. The trick is that all is helped “for the greatest good.” To worry about a specific job is irrelevant – the key is 'sufficient means to survive.' And sometimes that amount isn't the number we think is best. And sometimes we need to make internal changes, and our experience of deprivation helps us along that road.
From that perspective, right now the financial crash has reoriented many away from a consumer-oriented existence, and led them back closer to sustainable living and spending time in community. Not a bad outcome, if that was what was intended. Difficult, painful – but arguably for the best.
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Billy, as for angels that swear some and love sex, you are describing the Archangel Michael played by John Travolta in the film Michael.
He did not pack guns as it happens but that does not prove you wrong. The scriptwriter may have forgotten to put that in.
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I do feel that unity sometimes, Ashok. For some reason I don't strive to feel it more often. That's why the angels nudge me so much. Some of them specialize in helping idiots.
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Lehane, we're agreed, both about the butterscotch flavour and the vanity of humanity. For myself I think it appears chaotic and random most when I'm so way off track that I can't listen to the guidance or follow it.
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Hayden, Jim did have a secret language, and he used blogging for secret purposes, I think as a Kabbalistic tool for talking to his Hebraic God or angels. I also have the impression (his words were difficult to understand as you will recall) that he didn't think some of the angels were necessarily working for the greatest good. I think he had a different concept.
But as for your change of view it has been fascinating to watch over the years various transformations (as reflected in your blog) – sometimes sceptical, sometimes not.
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Vincent I remember being very lost in some of Jim's long, Kabbalistic posts – and being struck by the intense energy, the sense that he might not be sleeping. I'd agree with him (now) that not all spirits are working for the greater good… and we'd have to work at it before I was sure that what I call a “Light Being” and he called an “Angel” are the same thing.
Establishing common language is tricky when you speak of things not seen in this world. Maybe that was the reason for his secret language…. but I had the sense that there was more than a difficulty in communicating. I had the sense that the secrecy was to prevent mundane communication, to preserve the secret.
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Butterscotch is my favourite flavor too.
I seem to have missed Jim. Perhaps he has gone off to a Himalyan Monastery and will suddenly return one day with more news of Angels.
DBA, one might consider that many things happen at random in the universe, or, examine the hypothesis that everything moves according to a precise plan that is not known to us. I tend to believe in the latter hypothesis. Certainly at large scales such as the movement of planets the plan is precise.
I tend to agree with Hayden that Angel guidance would be limited to meeting essential needs for most of us, and not any sort of surpulus abundance. I for one would get easily spoilt if I had that kind of abundance.
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ah, ashok, but the key is to define “abundance” and “spoiled” is it not?
Many in your country and mine would consider us both floating high in abundance. I am not in the least worried that I will not eat when I wish to, and I have a sound roof over my head, heat when I need it.
Yet from my perspective, I pinch my pennies and occasionally lament that overseas travel is no longer on my horizon.
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Yes Hayden the concept of abundance does vary from person to person and what one is used to. I presently live in a country where many persons compromise even on basics like food and nutrition and for me that has never been a consideration and I live in a house with surpulus rooms that I hardly ever visit and therefore many would regard me as living in abundance although I do not think so. I am not careful with pennies but I tend to avoid any large expenditure and know that had I been careful with the pennies I would have had the surpulus for some projects that I might have pursued. Yet, I am certain our guardian angels know what is best for us and assist us in achiving exactly that much, no more and no less, and, at times we are forced into depravation too if that has some education we can benifit from.
With you Hayden, the angels appear to have provided you with surpulus forest land because they know that you will preserve that forest most responsibly and not misuse it. A person like me might have sold off bits of it to others who would have pulled down the forest.
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thought form…. ashok, are you familiar with that phrase? I've been told that a “thought form” bound the land – (sounds so much nicer than “curse,” doesn't it) to my family and kept it together and protected. So protecting this land is perhaps not a duty I embraced, but one forced on me. Bound, yes, in past tense. The thought form was removed; it's not something I wanted passed to my niece and nephew. In the meantime I've grown to love it for itself, and will continue to pay taxes on it for the rest of my life, if I'm given the where-with-all to do so. I'd still love to build and live there, but not in a conventional home. One of Nadir Khalili's homes would be gorgeous there, but even building of earth is expensive. Time will tell.
but then, as I say that…. no surer way to bind the next generation to the land by love and leave it protected, than to build a cosy and sturdy house there that will entice the right owners. Perhaps that IS my destiny. We shall see in time.
(as for pennies, a friend once told me he was admonished by his first employer “take care of the pennies, and the dollars will then take care of themselves.” I thought it so wise that I try – but usually fail – to keep it in mind.)
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ghetufool says: “why should i have a angel who is good in losing?”
Vincent says: “Angel cares about quickest way to make both of us establish closer relationship with the Whole.”
Now if you will suffer my equating “the angel dynamic” with the dao:
Laozi says,”Heaven has no favorites, it favors the person who is adept (at using it)”
So if one person is good at using angels (the intuitive psyche) and the other person is not (concrete thinker), the one who is adept will obtain a better outcome.
If they are both “good at” using angels, the outcome will probably be the one Vincent describes.
Life is not fair, some have learned how to use angels, others have not.
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Raymond, I do not think we can use angels. They might use us if they wish however. Whatever, they do for us is out of love for us as the lesser children of creation (lesser compared to them) perhaps in a manner similar to some humans who care for some animals. Yes certainly some animals like cats and dogs are more adept at getting that care from humans because of their loving or faithful nature, but they do not use humans.
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Thanks Ashok
This would be a nice subject to discuss when I get back from my trip. I appreciate your insights. Of course my provisional view of this matter is very different from yours.
I believe we can actually force angels to work for us. But that paradoxically involves surrendering our linear goals.
Here is a reference from my website:
“Do not imagine that God is like a carpenter who works or not, just as he pleases, suiting his own convenience. It is not so with God, for when he finds you ready he must act, and pour into you, just as when the air is clear and pure the sun must pour into it and may not hold back. Surely, it would be a very great defect in God if he did not do a great work, and anoint you with great good, once he found you empty and innocent.”
Meister Eckhart: A Modern Translation, Raymond B. Blakney, page 121
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Hope you have a nice trip Raymond. Thanks for the reference and more on the subject.
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