The Evolution of Our Beliefs About Angels

By Rosemary Ellen Guiley

c. Visionary Living, Inc.

(From a talk delivered at a film screening at the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, January 1997.)

In tonight’s film, “Messengers of God,” you will hear a fine summation of the highlights of the history of the angel, tracing the evolution of contributions from the Zoroastrians, Assyrians, Babylonians and Egyptians. The angel passed into Christianity and Islam. Among these three monotheistic faiths, the angel plays a significant role. It retains much similarity from one to the other, and some differences as well.

Essentially, the angel is a being who serves God by acting as messenger, carrying the prayers of humans to God and the answers from God to humans. The angel carries God’s word to humans in the form of messages and instructions. It acts as an intercessor figure by carrying out God’s will by intervening in the affairs of humankind. We regard the angel as a loftier, more spiritual being than humans, far closer to God; of being incorporeal in nature, but having the ability to assume form, especially a form like ours.

How our ideas about angels evolved throughout history is covered in the film. The subject is ancient and complex. To expand upon the film, I would like to turn to philosophical matters, and share some of my own beliefs about angels based on my research and experience.

I view the universe as a wholeness comprised of a web of interlocking dimensions and realities. The angel is a being without form–or at least a form that we can comprehend–that exists in its own reality as we exist in ours. It appears to be very service-oriented, and intersects with our world by fostering a relationship with the Divine, the Universal Mind, or God. Because all things in the universe are interconnected, the angel is part of our reality, part of our consciousness, even though it seems separate. There are many points of intersection between our world and theirs, and one of them is as an archetypal image and force. This is what I would like to explore in my brief comments tonight.

Certainly we have witnessed in the past few years a remarkable resurgence, a veritable explosion, of interest in angels in the Western world. Why is this? How can we explain angels in modern times–their manifestation in our world, our belief in them, and our need for them.

Throughout the history of Western monotheism, we have had a need for beings to fill the space between us and God, who remains abstract and remote, imageless and formless. As you will discover in the film, having beings to fill this space is necessary in monotheism. For most of us, God remains too remote to reach, but we must have some contact with the divine. For us, angels help to fill this need.

In spite of this helpful role, organized religion has always had an uneasy relationship with angels. They are necessary in order to provide a way for God to act in the world. They are depicted as having human forms–when they choose to manifest–which enables us to feel a personal rapport with them. Because of this personal rapport, and because they make God more intimate, angels have always been popular with the laity–too much so at various times in history. Church officials have feared that widespread adoration of angels, including prayer to angels, would lead to idolatry. These fears occasionally have proved right. For example, in the 4th century, an angel cult was suppressed as idolatrous, yet refused to die out. Four hundred years later, in 787, the cult was reinstated by the Seventh Ecumenical Synod–apparently it was no longer considered a threat to the Church, and so was tolerated. Yet in the same century, worried church officials opposed prayer to angels, and even had a popular archangel excommunicated, as it were, on the grounds that it was a demon in disguise. You will hear the story of the unfortunate Raguel tonight.

Angels continued to rise in popularity through the late Middle Ages. People believed especially in the protection of angels. They looked to scripture for verification: In Psalm 91:11-13, we are told that God “will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot.” In Matthew 18:10-11, Jesus says, “each one of the faithful has an angel that directs his life.” Thus responsibility for one’s fate lay in otherworldly hands.

Popular belief was finally dampened not by threats from the church, but by epidemic deaths from the Black Plague, which swept Europe in the 14th century. People died by the hundreds of thousands, and no amount of fervent praying and beseeching to angels abated the sweep of this deadly disease. Where were the protectors of humanity now, people wondered. Angels, it seemed, merely stood by helplessly and watched and wept.

On the heels of the Middle Ages came the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Science turned the celestial order of the ancients upside down. Angels began a long and steady decline in popular interest. By the 19th century, they were merely literary devices, and by the 20th century they were an idea definitely out of step with modern times. To believe in angels as real beings seemed almost embarassing, despite the fact that various popes, such as Pius XI and Pius XII and John XX, openly believed in them and talked about them. And, angels have been kept alive in various church rituals, such as in the Catholic Church.

Otherwise, angels faded from our worldview. In terms of daily life, they barely registered as a blip on the radar screen. Until recently, that is, when angels suddenly were everywhere.

What factors can explain the modern comback of the angel? Why are we so keen to know about them, and even more, to experience them and communicate with them?

There are several forces at work. Our belief in the angel and our ideas about this being have become indelibly impressed upon the human psyche. Thus the angel resides not only in its own realm but also within us as an archetype. The concept of archetypes reaches back to Plato and his Theory of Forms, which holds that the essence of a thing is its underlying form or idea. Carl Jung described archetypes as instincts, behaviors and urges that structure patterns of psychological performance. Archetypes themselves have no form, but are expressed in images and metaphors. One of the key characteristics of archetypes is that they remain numinous, that is, they retain a mystery and transcendent power that cause an alteration in consciousness.

The angel, then, arises within us an archetypal image in response to influences that act upon us. The angel is part of us, an aspect of ourselves, which, when activated, brings about an alteration in consciousness. Jung observed that archetypes can never be fully integrated–they always retain their own autonomy. But by recognizing this force within us, we can learn much about ourselves for our own (spiritual) advancement. Thomas Aquinas observed that the mere presence of an angel influences us for the better, but if we do not know we are being enlightened, then we are not enlightened.

Until recently, the angel archetype has been dormant. The angel has slept within us, deep in the collective unconscious, the pool of collective human thought, belief and experience that has accumulated over time. The renaissance of the angel is the awakening of this slumbering archetype. We have roused the angel from its sleep because evil erodes our lives, and God seems more remote than ever. We feel beset by evil, besieged by evil–indeed, we feel in danger of going under. The angel is a spontaneous and collective expression of our desperate need for hope, and of our desperate belief in the good of the universe, and that good will always and ultimately prevail against evil. The angel has the ear of God, is a link to God. The angel is a means by which we can reassert some measure of control over a world gone crazy, over our own lives and our destinies.

We have projected a human form onto the angel; we are its archetypal image. Thus we can see that the angel is a mirror of ourselves–a mirror that reflects back to us a more perfect version of ourselves, one that we perceive is closer to God. We are brightened by the hope that this vision in the mirror is attainable, that it is within our reach. And indeed it is–this aspect of ourselves is part of our birthright as human souls. The path of life is the road back to God. Are we not taught by every faith and religion since the dawn of our beginnings to purify our essence by purging the bad and refining the good within? This is the growth of the soul–the inner alchemy that drives our existence whether we are conscious of it or not. What we call the heavenly perfection of the angel, we are capable of becoming ourselves. The angel exalts God. The angel provides a way for God to act in the world. So, too, is it the highest spiritual purpose of the human to exalt God, to allow God to manifest in the world through our works and deeds.

The angel embodies desirable qualities and attributes to which we aspire. The virtues of the angel are to be sought; the vices of the fallen angels, the demons, are to be shunned. The angel pursues truth, mercy, justice, revelation and knowledge of God. These are all part of our own path back to God.

The angel in modern times is a response to a widespread cry for more spiritual meaning in life. It is a response that arises from the depths of our history, culture and religious heritage.

As the angelic archetype awakens, we have experiences. The archetype breaks through into the mundane world in many ways. As is characteristic of our scientific “show me” bent, we demand tangible evidence. We are not content with just voices from heaven, or visions, or exotic imagery in dreams. We seek evidence that can be registered on the five senses.

The archetype obliges. The most frequent experience involving angels in modern times is the encounter with the “mysterious stranger,” who seems like a flesh and blood human, arrives on the scene to avert a crisis, solve a problem or otherwise save the day, and then mysteriously vanishes.

Are these mysterious strangers really angels in disguise, summoned by the archetypal energy roused, or are they humans impelled by the mysterious workings of the universe to perform deeds that we would deem angelic? We have many such questions without adequate answers. The archetype remains autonomous and numinous. But focusing on physical intervention misses the essence of the angel.

In fact, no sooner do we applaud and revel in angelic intervention that we begin to question the apparent selectivity of it. Why is one person favored and not another? Why do angels seem to provide rescue and safety for some and allow disaster and even death to befall others? At the height of our awe of angels, we are threatened with the same disillusionment that struck the plague-weary survivors of the 14th century.

The question of why some people suffer and some do not is as old as the human race and cannot be given pat answers from within the context of the angel–nor sin, either, if the question can be answered at all. Instead, we must look elsewhere to explain the true benefits bestowed upon us by the angel.

The angel is more than a messenger or an intercessor. The angel is a wayshower, guide, a psychopomp into the mysteries of the soul. It reflects to us our own divine potential. Our path before us now seems very dark and fraught with danger. We are afraid of losing our way. Collectively, we have reawakened the brilliant light of the angel, as an archetype, to provide us with both a model and a comforting beacon on our long and uncertain journey.

Ultimately, we still need the angel. We needed the angel thousands of years ago, and we still need it today. Efforts to repress our need have met with only temporary success. We will continue to need the angel until we fully realize and accept that we are in control of our own destiny. If we are but passive recipients of angelic rescue, we are not enlightened. We will continue to need to angel until we fully recognize and utilize our full potential as human beings, and as human souls.

St. John of the Cross said centuries ago that when we attain higher spiritual levels, we no longer need the mediation of angels, but obtain our enlightenment directly from God. That awareness is something each of us must come to on our own, and is the angels’ greatest gift.