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| Angels sure love music |
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| "Lullaby and goodnight..." |
Despite what Supernatural tells you, not many angels have names or are known to us or in any major religion. But there is a sort of hierarchy: lower angels are basically foot soldiers and are numberless as well as nameless while there are higher angels who have names and command the legions. Students of angelology (yes that's a real thing) know that many religions know of this hierarchy. Names for these levels range from spheres; hierarchies; Angelic Choirs; triads; and or orders. The 3 main angels that we know of are known as the Archangels. Why they are called that is anyone's guess. Main reason we accept is that they are God's mightiest angels and they head the many other nameless legions of angels. The Archangels are named: Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. The first two are the most known in the 3 major religions. And in the Catholic faith these angels are all called saints. Not sure why since they're angels but they have their own feast day: September 29th ("Michaelmas" but other religions have them on different dates). All three archangels are celebrated that day so whatever your religion or lack there of you can give a shout out to them.
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| I'd be scared too if a stranger with wings came into my house and said I would give birth to a Savior. |
Not much we know about Gabriel other than it was he who told Mary that she was to give birth to a Savior and appeared to Zaccharias that his wife Elizabeth would give birth to John the Baptist. John the Baptist and Jesus were cousins for those who don't know or forgot. Even in Islam it's said that Gabriel appeared to Muhammad so we designate him as like a head messenger of sorts. In the book of Enoch it was said that God had sent Gabriel to lead the slaughter of the bastard children of the Watchers and humans, the Nephilim (although God sent a flood so why did He ask Gabriel to lead the slaughter?).
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| "Message for you. Sign here, please" |
There's also a tradition that states that Gabriel watched over the Garden of Eden and was in charge of taking unborn souls to be conceived and placed them in the wombs of human women during their conception. You may have heard the phrase: "Gabriel, blow your horn." We've seen a few images of Gabriel blowing his horn, which is said to herald the Lord's return to Earth. The horn doesn't really make an appearance in any religious text I can think of but there is mention of it in John Milton's Paradise Lost. But this only enforces our idea that Gabriel is a harbinger of divine messages whether of destruction or of a coming happy event like a Savior of Mankind.
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| "Take that!" |
Michael's job is leading Heaven's army. He commands legions and leads them into battle against evil. It was Michael who was said to have thrown Lucifer out of Heaven when he lead a rebellion against Heaven. Michael is often depicted in paintings as a winged god using a spear or sword and pushing Lucifer down to Hell. Because of this image we imagine Michael as a good soldier who follows orders. He does his duty and he carries out his tasks with brutal yet swift justice. But that doesn't mean Michael doesn't have fun or that he's any less proud or vain like Lucifer, which shall be discussed later.
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| Begone! Jerk! |
Lucifer is another angel many know about. In the Christian/Catholic version, Lucifer was an angel. Not just an angel though. Lucifer means "Light Bringer" and he was one of God's most beautiful and powerful of His angels (in other words, Daddy's favorite). But because of this favoritism Lucifer had a hubris that would lead to his downfall. When God made Man and told his angels to worship him, Lucifer refused. Why should he, one of God's greatest creations, bow down to a creature so inferior? Lucifer was every bit an anti-hero. He had charisma, a magnetic personality that drew people to him and made them follow him even if it was down the wrong path.
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| "Ouch! That hurt!" |
Lucifer in his pride led a rebellion against Heaven and by extension God, but Michael and his legion threw Lucifer out of Heaven and cast them into Hell. After that Lucifer became Mankind's greatest adversary. It's debated on whether or not it was Lucifer in disguise of a serpent that tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit of Knowledge. Some say it was Lilith (in Jewish texts Adam's first wife before Eve was made from his rib) to get revenge but others dispute that it was only one of God's creatures that He had created and that it had arms and legs. People theorize this because God had cursed the Serpent to crawl on it's belly and eat the dust it slithers on and that the seed of Man would be it's destruction. Something like that. I paraphrase. So before the Serpent may just have been a lizard monster? No idea. But because religions like to overlap, Lucifer and Satan fused together and now have become one and the same.
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| Revenge... |
In Judaism there is no real Devil per say. Satan's job is primarily to test people's faith in God. You may have heard the story of Job. It's a messed up story. Basically God made a bet with Satan that Satan said he could get Job, God's most faithful servant, to curse His name while God bet that Job would still praise Him. God allowed Satan to wipe out Job's family, his livestock, and cover his body with terrible sores but even after all that, Job still praised God. God practically allowed Satan to take everything Job had just to win a bet. God won the bet and gave Job back everything he lost (new livestock, new land, new health, and children) but I doubt Job's wives were grateful or praising as they wept over their children's graves.
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| And the catch of the day is... |
Back to the Archangels, I mentioned Raphael. Raphael is known in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Raphael is mentioned in the Book of Tobit, which is accepted as canonical by Catholics, Orthodox, and some Anglo-Catholics, and as useful for public teaching by Lutherans and Anglicans. He is an angel of healing (in all its forms physically, mentally, and emotionally). In Islamic tradition Raphael is also known as Israfil, an angel of song who inspires music. Raphael is generally associated with the angel mentioned in the Gospel of John as stirring the water at the healing pool of Bethesda. Raphael is also an angel in Mormonism, as he is briefly mentioned in the Doctrine and Covenants.
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| With one touch, you're healed |
The Archangel of healing has been said to have made a few appearances to humans. Raphael is often depicted holding a staff standing on top of a large fish at the end of a line. The fish has always been associated with monotheism mostly with Christianity. Jesus was said to have fed a multitude of people with only a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. But in paganism, the fish has long been a symbol of wisdom and hidden knowledge and given that Jesus Christ was essentially a teacher or a wise man, then the fish is the perfect symbol for him. As fish come from water and water is associated with not only secret knowledge but with healing they fit perfect with Raphael's duties as an angel with advanced knowledge in healing.
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| Look over there! |
The Flood is a worldwide story, not just a Christian, Jewish or Muslim story but there are pagan stories of a worldwide flood brought on by angry gods to wipe out the evil in humanity. Zeus sent a flood because humans took to cannibalism or something like that. Gods can be pretty capricious. But this is about angels (not unlike gods themselves). God's reasons for sending a flood are debated. One reason some claim is because of the Nephilim. Who were the Nephilim and why did God want them wiped from the Earth? Well it all goes back to the angels causing trouble again. This was probably after Lucifer and his legions were banished to Hell and after Adam and Eve began to populate the planet. There were a group of angels known as "The Grigorii" or simply "The Watchers" whose task was to watch over Man, be guardian angels if you will. However, sending your soldiers to occupy a city you sometimes have a case of those soldiers "going native". The Watchers saw the daughters of men and found them beautiful. They desired these women and began to copulate with them. Who wouldn't want to spend the night with an angel? And from these unions came the Nephilim. Nephilim were born with the powers of angels but with the souls of Man. I guess you can compare them to the demi-gods of Greek Myths like Hercules or Perseus.
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| "Ah! I'm falling!" |
God isn't said to have said anything bad or frowned on these angel/human unions at the time so this is a sign to me that God was okay with the whole sex thing. He must have known there was no way an omnipotent being couldn't. But the children of these unions were not okay. The Nephilim grew up and created chaos. We've read the Greek Myths and saw what the demigods could do, think about what the Nephilim were capable of. I suppose they used their powers for evil purposes. Where as Greek Demigods became heroes who helped man, I can only assume that the Nephilim were not unlike Lucifer; thinking themselves better than everyone else. They were called "Giants" but that doesn't have to mean size. "Giants" are generally viewed as creatures with great power, making everything around them seem small so the Nephilim may have been causing destruction and chaos demanding to be worshipped as gods. So God sent a flood to not only drown the evil and corruption of man but also to get rid of those pesky half-angels. It's said that the Watchers fell either before or after they had sex with the women. There was a part in the story where the fathers of the Nephilim begged an angel (can't remember who could have been Gabriel) to ask God to spare them but God said, "No."
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| "Don't mess with my sheep, man!" |
An angel's main task is to be Heaven's messengers but sometimes angels can act on their own. They can also be tricksters, messing with Man just for kicks. There was one story about Jacob who actually wrestled with an angel. And guess who that angel was: none other than the Archangel Michael himself! So even the military angel likes to have some fun. The story goes that Jacob was herding his sheep to visit his brother Esau with his wife and children and was about to cross the ford of Jabbok when a stranger, a shepherd with his own sheep and camels, came up to him and told him that they should cross the ford together and help each other move their livestock over. Jacob agreed but on the condition that his stock was to be brought over first. In no time at all, the stranger had Jacob's flock across the river and Jacob went to carry the shepherd's flock. However, every time Jacob brought a sheep over it ended up back where it started. This kept happening until Jacob realized that he was being tricked by some wizard.
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| "Having a host of angels on your side is cheating, dude!" |
Jacob called the shepherd out and with a smile the shepherd was consumed in flame and revealed himself to be the Archangel Michael. Jacob wasn't afraid though and began to wrestle the Archangel but Michael had his host of angels helping him. Jacob would have been overpowered had God not appeared and drained Michael's power. For one last blow, Michael touched the "hollow of Jacob's thigh" dealing him a fatal injury. At this point God cries out, "Dost thou act as is seemly, when thou causest a blemish in My priest Jacob?" At this Michael sort of whines and gets a bit jealous, "Why, it is I who am Thy priest!" God then says, "Thou art my priest in Heaven, and he is My priest on Earth." So now Michael knows he's in trouble and asks his comrade Raphael to do him a solid and heal Jacob. Why Michael doesn't heal Jacob himself is a mystery. But I suppose he was more equipped to dealing out injuries more than healing them. Apparently during all this, Jacob and Michael were still locked in combat and because Michael was weakened and Jacob was healed, Jacob had Michael in a choke hold and begging to be released before dawn broke. But Jacob wouldn't let go until Michael blessed him. So Michael blessed Jacob after whining again. Thus God made Michael guardian angel to Jacob and his family.
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| There's been a miscommunication. Our bad... |
Jacob's grandfather Abraham had a similar problem with angels. An angel told Abraham that it was God's Will that he sacrifice his only legitimate son, Isaac. Isaac had an older brother Ishmael by a slave girl when Sarah thought she couldn't bear children. So as Abraham was about to sacrifice his young son, who was probably around 10 or 12 or so (how traumatic!) but another angel intervened and told Abraham to sacrifice a lamb instead (which appeared out of nowhere by the way). People debate that this was simply a test of Abraham's dedication to God but that doesn't feel like it to me. Remember I talked about Job and God's bet with the Devil? Well if God wanted to test Abraham I think he would have just struck Isaac down Himself or ask the Devil to do it.
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| "DUDE! WTF? Use the sheep!" |
Or maybe I don't understand God's weird, cryptic plans. Either way it doesn't feel right reading that it was God who sent the first angel to have Abraham kill his son. Isaac's birth was not really expected since Sarah was past menopause already and was barren in the first place but an angel of God told her that she was to bear a son. Why would God go to all that trouble to help an old woman give birth to a son when Abraham already had one? God could have asked Abraham to kill Ishmael. Murdering the first son would be just as painful and traumatic as murdering the second son so the sacrifice would still prove God's point. My theory is that some mischievous angels or fallen angels were playing a cruel joke and God intervened just in time.
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| This Michael looks more malevolent. Must be the dark wings |
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| Michael wins! |
In many stories we write: TV shows, films, and books, angels have a vast knowledge of language and are masters of communication. They are messengers after all so it would make sense that they have a language encyclopedia programmed in their brains. In the Bible and some human reports who have had near death experiences claim that angels often appear in a fiery form radiating light that gives the impression of a halo but no mention of any wings. Wings are associated with air and the Ancients have watched birds and their habits to augur omens of weather, death, war, peace, or victory. Again the messenger thing so it would make sense that angels we would draw angels with wings without even mentioning them. I suppose the radiating light can give the appearance of wings as well as a halo. There were some reports in the Bible that angels appeared to Ezekiel with a flaming wheel and these angels looked anything BUT human. They had animal faces, several faces. I would think I had some bad mushrooms and was on a bad trip but back then that was considered a message from God. People ask, "Are there any girl angels?" It depends on what religious text you read really.
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| I think I took some of those bad mushrooms... |
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| St. Raphael the Archangel of Healing |
We need stop thinking of angels as chaste, black and white winged beings that you see on Christmas cards. They're like the pagan gods of old: they're vain, envious/ jealous, mercurial beings that can love and hate with the same intensity. There's little mention of them being kind or merciful just because they want to be. It depends on their mood or if they were told to do something. Angels are fierce, vengeful, powerful creatures that may be admired but also must be feared. Should they be loved? Are they even worthy of such an sentiment? We ask ourselves that same question about our own kind. I suppose given that angels are in fact very human it depends on if you ever really meet one or your guess based on stories you hear about them. Either way, I like to believe that some angels are generally good and love humanity despite our flaws; maybe because of our flaws. I would imagine we were depressing to watch with all of the evil acts we commit but also inspiring when some humans despite the evil done to them or evil that some have done that we are capable of redemption and good. But like I said, I'm not an expert on the matters of angels.
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| I believe this is supposed to be Raphael |
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| Gabriel always holds a Madonna Lily in Christian art works |
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