By Reverend Mother Mary Kateryn

Angel Video

In various religious traditions, an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God and humanity. Other roles include protectors and guides for humans, such as guardian angels and servants of God.

The word angel comes to us (modern English) from the Old English word engel and the Old French word Angèle. Both of these derive from the Late Latin word angelus, which in turn was borrowed from the Late Greek: Ἄγγελος“ (Angelos) or Angelia (Ἀγγελία). Some say Angelia was the daughter of Zeus and Hera, later becoming known as a Chthonic deity (belonging to or inhabiting the underworld.) However, there is another school of thought that Angelia was a message personified and the daughter of the Greek God Hermes. Angelia is a translation of the Hebrew word Malakh meaning messenger, and it would make sense that this Goddess would be the daughter of Hermes, as he was known himself as a messenger and attributed to giving humans the written word in the form of Thoth.

In the Hebrew Bible, the Torah, and the Greek New Testament, the word Angel refers to heavenly and human messengers. When translated into Latin, the meaning of the word was split, and human messengers were referred to as “Nuntius” or simply “the messenger” in the English Translation, “Legatus” was used, meaning a high-ranking Roman military officer, an ambassador, sent, dispatched, etc. While alternatively, all heavenly beings except God were then referred to as angels or angelus.

The Bible uses many terms to reflect heavenly beings, sons of God, sons of the mighty, heavenly hosts, holy ones, holy watchers, etc.

I can tell you where it does not come from; that is the Bible.

Although the Bible says, Michael is an Archangel, a Prince Angel.

Thomas Aquinas (Italian Dominican Friar and Priest 1225-1274) was an influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism from the county of Aquino in the Kingdom of Sicily, Italy; in his work Summa Theologica (the best known of Thomas Aquinas's works, some say the most important book on Catholic theology ever written) Thomas lays out a hierarchy in heaven.

Thomas acquired his information from the works of Dionysius, here's where it gets confusing, Dionysius was an Athenian judge who lived in the first century, converted to Christianity, and was mentioned in Acts as a student of Paul the Apostle . His association with Paul gave his works a certain amount of Apostolic credibility. Many books were said to have been written by him; they were attributed to him in the Middle Ages. However, De Coelesti Hierachia is a “Pseudo-Dionysian” work on angelology, written in Greek and dated to the 5th century; we now know the same Dionysius did not write it, but instead, it was written by a Dionysius that lived in the 5th century, in Syria. Thomas, however, thought it was the work of Dionysius of Athens and gave it near apostolic authority.

Introduction aside, let's delve deeper and look at The Angelic Hierarchy – starting at the bottom.

This hierarchy is closest to mankind, and their responsibilities reflect that. They can take human form.

“So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.” They said, “Do as you have said.”

Thomas Aquinas separated the ranks of angels based on their knowledge of the universe. He said these angels had the least understanding of God's plans of all the angels and were ordered to protect individuals and families. Next, we have ArchAngels; the name would make us think they are the top ranking, but no, according to Medieval Catholic theology, they are second from the bottom. Archangels deliver the most important messages and do the most critical jobs for God on Earth. They are also the only angels to have names. (If you don't count “fallen” angels.) There are two named angels every Christian will agree on. The first is the Archangel Gabriel; his name means, “God is my strength.” He is the foremost messenger of God. Gabriel is first seen in the Book of Daniel, where he explains a vision Daniel saw. He was also the angel who famously announced to Mary in Luke about the coming of Christ. While not explicitly called an Archangel in the Bible, other works like The Book of Enoch do describe him as such. Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, and Lutherans all call him an Archangel.

Next, we have Michael, whose name means “who is like God.” He is Chief of the Angels, protector of Israel and the church. Michael is in the Book of Daniel but most prominently featured in the New Testament book of Revelations, in which he defeats “the Devil” in the form of a Great Dragon.

Most Christian scholars agree these two angels are archangels; there are two others usually included, Raphael and Uriel. Raphael, whose name means “God Heals,” from the Book of Tobit (An Apocrypha book of the old testament, not included in the modern Jewish Bible, accepted by Catholics and Orthodox but not Protestants.) Raphael is mentioned in the Talmud. (The Hebrew term Talmud means “study” or “learning” and typically refers to a collection of ancient teachings regarded as sacred by Jews from the time it was compiled through to modern times and is still considered as such by traditional Jews.)

Uriel, whose name means “Flame of God,” found in the second book of Esdras also considered an apocryphal work.

Many, if not most Christian denominations widely accept these four archangels.

“But I am a Wiccan; I don't believe in the Bible,” you say. Let me explain that it is your right to believe or not what you choose to. If, however, that is your attitude, you will miss out on many historical, philosophical, and theological truths. The Order of Sen-Taur seeks wisdom where it is found, and we are not prejudiced against Christians or the Bible.

There are beings similar to archangels in other religious traditions besides Christianity and Judaism.

The word archangel derives from the Greek ἀρχάγγελος (arkhángelos). The Greek prefix “arch” means “chief.” In Judaism, the highest-ranking angels, who are usually referred to as Archangels in English, are given the title śārīm (Hebrew: שָׂרִים, sing. שָׂר, śār), which means “princes.” See Daniel 10:13 and 12:1; referring to Michael as “one of the first princes.” And “the great prince.”

In Jewish literature, besides the Book of Daniel, there is the story of Jacob wrestling with God, or an angel of God, in some interpretations. Lot also encountered angels who warned him of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah before the event. Jewish literature also mentions the “Highest” of the angels, Metatron; though he is not “canonical” in all faiths, he is in The Book of Enoch.

It is commonly speculated that Jewish interest in angels developed during their captivity in Babylon, when names of the angels were brought back from there, according to the 3rd century Rabbi Simeon ben Lakis of Tiberias.

In Merkavah, a school of early Jewish Mysticism and Kabbalistic Mysticism, Metatron is considered one of the highest angels, is briefly mentioned in the Talmud, and is a significant figure in Merkavah's mystical texts. We will get to more about the Kabbalistic angels in a moment.

The named archangels in the Islamic tradition are likely the same angels but with different names: Jibra'il, Mika'il, Israfil, and 'Azra'il.

Some traditions identify up to Eight Archangels by their names; the names vary depending on the belief system. Jerahmeel is mentioned in 2nd Esdras as is Uriel.

In The Book of Enoch chapter 20, we find a list of seven Holy Angels who watch, Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, Uriel, Sariel, Raguel, and Remiel. The book, The Life of Adam and Eve, also known in its Greek version as the Apocalypse of Moses, is an apocryphal Jewish group of writings that recounts the lives of Adam and Eve after they departed the Garden of Eden to the time of their deaths, has, of course, Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael, but also adds Joel.

Many experts in philosophy, theology, and anthropology believe that Zoroastrianism is where the angels have been filtered from, coming from the concept of the “beneficient immortals” that resemble Archangels, called the Amesha Spentas.

The Kabbalah has archangels assigned to a sephira (or sefirot), which requires an in-depth study on its own aside from this essay to determine who these archangels are and what their job is in this tradition. There are a variety of angels found in the Kabbalistic literature.

One of the prolific and influential Torah scholars, Maimonides (1138-1204), composed a Jewish angelic hierarchy in his work Mishneh Torah counting ten ranks of angels. The Mishneh Torah, also known as Sefer Yad ha-Hazaka, is a Rabbinic Jewish religious law code.

The Zohar also counts ten ranks of angels, as do other systems or traditions.

While there are over a hundred references to angels in the New Testament, the word archangel only appears there twice, once in First Thessalonians and once in Jude. The book of Tobit quotes Raphael's words where he plainly states that he is an angel, one of seven who stand and serve before the Glory of the Lord.

In other sources, names for archangels such as Izidkiel, Hanael, and Kepharel are found.

In The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn one of the primary rituals of their tradition has an invocation that includes, “Before me Raphael, Behind me Gabriel, on my right hand Michael, on my left hand Uriel.” Thus you see the Angels assigned to the Watchtowers of the East, West, South, and North, respectively.

So, the top of the lowest hierarchy are principalities, their name, and the names of three other choirs of angels we will get to in a moment, come from a single line in Colossians (one of Paul's letters.)

“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:” King James Version (KJV).

Dionysius interpreted these names as ranks of angels. Principalities are thought to have responsibility over large groups of people, nations, churches, and large organizations. Because of this, they do not typically interact with individuals.

The middle hierarchy includes powers, virtues, and dominions. These angels deal very little with humans; little is written about them by Dionysius or Thomas Aquinas.

Powers are warrior angels who make up most of God's celestial army. They have the power to suppress evil and demonic forces.

Virtues whose name doesn't appear in the Bible as referring to an angel or a group of angels, but instead, we find them in other esoteric writings; Virtues have power over the elements, meaning they make natural phenomena happen. They assist in miracles on Earth.

The highest in the middle tier are dominions. They are only described as having authority over other angels below them, making them “middle-management.”

The highest hierarchy is the Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim. These angels spend all their time with God in the celestial realm and have virtually nothing to do with humans.

Thrones are likely the most famous rank in the Biblically accurate Angel iconography, and these are the ones that are described as looking like wheels with eyes on them, which comes from Ezekiel in one of his visions, and in The Book of Enoch.

16: The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.

17: When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went.

18: As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.”

Most scholars believe this is a metaphor to describe the wheels of God's throne. Some artists interpret it as circles of angels flying around God in Heaven, not that the angels themselves looked like wheels. Their job is to hold up God's throne.

The Cherubim, famously referenced in both songs and art, are often illustrated as Cupid or Pluto, young babies with wings, typically from Renaissance art. However, it is not the way they were described in the Bible. The Biblical reference to Cherubim in Genesis is when God places a Cherubim in the Garden of Eden, holding a flaming sword to guard it. Their primary function, then, is to protect sacred spaces. Two images of cherubim were placed on top of the Ark of the Covenant. In Ezekiel's vision, the cherubim were guardians of God's throne. Ezekiel describes them as having four faces, one as a man, one as a bull, one as a lion, and one as an eagle. They have two sets of wings, two that are wrapped around themselves and two that they use to fly with. Some artists illustrate them with bodies of beasts, sometimes holding things or having hands and feet. Human/animal hybrid images are common in Middle Eastern mythology and religion. An example would be the Sphinx in Egypt and Lamasu from the ancient Mesopotamian religion.

Thomas Aquinas and other medieval theologians thought the” Devil“ or Lucifer was a Cherubim before “the fall.” The highest of all the angels is the Seraphim. Most prominently found in Isaiah 6, where they are described from a vision. Isaiah said they surrounded God's throne, having each six wings, two covering their eyes, two covering their feet, and two used to fly. These are the ones who tend to God's throne and constantly sing, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts. The whole Earth is filled with his glory.”

The name Seraphim is usually translated as “Burning Ones,” this could mean they were beings of fire or light, but the word serif means serpent; they are never, however, depicted as snakes; there are scholars who have suggested that they should be. The theory is that some snakes are red, or their venom burns like fire.

Let's go deeper still. There is a text on Ancient Angel Magic, one of the oldest surviving books of magic in the Western world, The Book of Secrets or the Sefer HaRazim. This book is said to have been revealed to Noah by Raziel. Raziel is an angel whose name means in Hebrew “The Secret of God.” The book has survived, having been passed down through the ages; cosmology, angelology, and Greco Egyptian Magic are mixed into it, and it describes magical practices for many different outcomes. This text comes before many of the occult practices prevalent in the European Middle Ages and forms a link between the late classical and Medieval times' ritual magic.

This text is one of the thousands of fragments stored in a Genizah (or Geniza, Hebrew for “hiding place”) of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, Egypt. Because of religious respect, Jewish texts cannot be thrown away; instead, they are stored in a Ganiza or storehouse to await burial. The ones in this synagogue were never buried. Over 400,000 texts were discovered there in the late 1800s. These texts are still being examined by scholars today. In this collection, Mordecai Margalioth, a Jewish scholar visiting Oxford in 1963, discovered the texts and restructured the ancient magical manuscript from 1963 to 1966. Scholars date the originals to the 3rd or 4th centuries.

The Sefer HaRazim combines both to culminate in a text where the heavenly inhabitants provide humans with access via angels to supernatural powers. It sets the stage for later angelic and demonic magic. The text was found and likely produced in Egypt.

The introduction of the Sefer HaRazim reveals the history of the antediluvian (before the deluge) text; it also describes the various heavens and their angelic guardians along with the angelic encampments and the military-like divisions. It describes their powers; the Magus can harness these supernatural powers from the angels.

Interestingly, Noah inscribed the text Raziel gave him onto a sapphire, reminding us of the famed alchemical text Hermes Trismegistus had inscribed on the Emerald Tablet. Per the introduction, Noah gains cosmological wisdom and magical powers from understanding the text.

The Sefer HaRazim was transmitted through the ages, eventually coming to Solomon, who uses it to manipulate demons. It is a core concept in the history of Solomonic magical tradition. It was ultimately transmitted through the prophets to the sages and down to its current form. Following the introduction are the various firmaments (layers of heaven), and the powers of the angels are somewhat revealed.

The second firmament (heavenly realm) is said to be full of terror and inhabited by countless divisions of angels. This second heaven is divided into 12 sublayers, or Malo, as the text refers. Each Mala has nine and twenty angelic guardians with a commanding officer. Per the text, it is possible to approach these guardians of the malot; to accomplish this, one's heart must be purified of sin, refraining from wine, meat consumption, and other requirements. For example, the sixth Mala has 17 different angels named in the text, and these angels are said to be humble, but their faces are “full of glory.” Following this is a magical spell that allegedly cures someone suffering from a stroke or when half of their body has shriveled up.

The angelic names are sometimes familiar and sometimes not; some are impossible to pronounce, and magic systems' catalogs of angels and later demons become typical.

Later on in the text is another spell to prevent horses from stumbling in a race. While the entire magical spell is interesting, one part indicates that the angels who drive the stars will drive the horse you want to win by this spell. The spell will cause the horses to win and protect them from other interference, specifically from other magic or witchcraft. This indicates there was an entire culture of cursing and counter-cursing in that culture at that time.

There are a variety of other spells in this work that we will not elaborate on here; however, the angels described in the text are quite interesting. A particular angel mentioned in the fourth encampment of the first firmament, Christos, spelled in Hebrew letters but reflecting the Greek name “Christ.” Other angels in the text include the fourth step of the third firmament, and we find two Jewish people; one seems to be BarKokhba, the Messianic Jewish leader Shimon BarKokhba, who led the rebellion against the Romans in 135 CE.

In the same encampment, we find the demon (not angel) Asmodeus, who also appears in the apocryphal Book of Tobit, the Babylonian Talmud, and throughout Jewish lore.

The Sefer HaRazim would eventually be translated into Arabic and then Latin, thereby influencing the angelic/demonic magic that became so important later on; it is the most influential magical textbook carrying on to the present day. A translation by Michael Morgan can be obtained online. Angel Encounters

Today, people report more encounters and sightings of angels than can be elaborated on here.

Angels in cloud formations are a familiar occurrence, one that everyone witnesses. A famous angel of cloud formation is the 911 photo from Rich McCormack, published in various places online and in magazines. Disbelievers and skeptics can say this is just an unusual cloud; it is undoubtedly celestial.

As we learned earlier in this work, angels can take on human form; at least some can. Many stories have surfaced over the last fifty years of being saved from car accidents by “angels” in human guise who seem to disappear right after the person is rescued, never to be seen again by that person.

Numerous angels have been spotted on camera, perhaps tricks of light and dust, but they are evidence in some form. Here is a photograph of security camera footage from Glen Thomas, the angel with a sword is seen clearly above his truck. Several additional photos from another source of a ranch in Texas and their trail camera caught some images here, and we will let you judge what these images are.

A Baylor University national study indicates that more than half of all Americans believe a guardian angel has helped them.

Countless stories come from hospital or hospice experiences.

One lady reported to me that she encountered a long-haired, bearded man who comforted and talked her out of suicide when she was young; as usual, with these happenings, she didn't know who he was and never saw him again.

Many stories are told of people desperately needing money, and it comes to them from unknown or mysterious sources. Another frequent story of angelic encounters is help from nowhere. A lady told of running out of gas in the middle of the night with her children asleep in the back seat. Alone and with no cars around, a man came out of the darkness to help her and pushed her vehicle over the off-ramp rise to roll into a gas station where she could get fuel. The man disappeared, and she was not even able to thank him.

Some can see spirits, see in the spirit, and see angels, guardian angels, and spirits of those who have passed on. Most won't tell about it because they believe people will think they are lying, crazy, or both. Yet their encounters and visions are authentic. Often this gift comes with the ability to see past, present, or future events.

One prominent recent author Lorna Byrne reports she has seen angels since childhood and hears them as well. Ms. Byrne has several books published on the subject.

Many people have photographs of orbs, and others tell of occurrences with beings of light. One thing is sure; all these tales have one thing in common the experience brings a feeling of being protected, at peace, and a sense of security.

Esoterica – YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@TheEsotericaChannel

Michael Morgan - Sepher Ha-Razim: The Book of Mysteries - 978-0891306153

Margalioth, Mordecai - Sepher Ha-Razim - Jerusalem: Yediot Achronot, 1966

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sefer_HaRazim

The Generalist Papers YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@TheGeneralistPapers