Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

Understanding Biblical Symbolism


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ANGELS

 A symbol of spiritual influences able to minister to the aspirations of the soul. They are messengers of the inner light to arouse the higher faculties. There are many intelligences who point the way to Truth, and are a means of aiding the soul's evolution.

"And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire." - HEB. i. 8.

"Winds" and “fire” indicate that the "angels are on the higher mental and buddhic planes.

“The Kether Malkhuth says of the angels: Some of them sheets of flames, and some of them breathing winds, some of them composed of fire and water, some Seraphim and some Cherubim.' - I. MYER, Qabbalah, p. 192.

“And there were shepherds in the same country abiding in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock. And an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid." - LUKE ii. 8, 9.

And there were in this pure and peaceful condition of the soul, simple qualities attracted to virtue instinctively, and co-ordinating in a subjective state (night), the virtues and living truths possessed by them. And a messenger from the Spirit,-a sweet influence which put them in touch with the Highest,-vibrated within them, and, as it were, startled them in their quietude.

“As God is everywhere, so also the angels are everywhere; but each one in its own principle, and in its own property, or (if you had rather) in its own place. The same Essence of God, which is as a Place to Spirits, is confessed to be everywhere; but the appropriation or participation hereof is different to everyone, according as each hath attracted it magically in the earnestness of Will. The same Divine Essence which is with the Angels of God above is with us also below. And the same Divine Nature which is with us is likewise with them; but after different manners and in different degrees communicated and participated." - J. Behmen, The Super-sensual Life, pp. 94-5.

“By angel in the Word is everywhere understood the angelic heaven, and in a supreme sense the Lord himself. Sending by his angel, signifies the things which are revealed from the Lord through heaven to those who are in the good of life." - SWEDENBORG, Apocalypse Revealed, n. 4.

“Eichorn in regard to the many apparitions of angels, refers the super-natural to the figurative, in which, for example, a happy accident is called a protecting angel; a joyous thought, the salutation of an angel; and a peaceful state of mind, a comforting angel.' - D. F. STRAUSs, Life of Jesus, p. 18.


“God's Ideas, like God, are beings, Divine Personages, that is, Gods. Put forth by, and in a sense divided from, God, in order to accomplish God's purposes, these become messengers of God, that is, Angels." - ANNA KINGSFORD, The Perfect Way, p. 213.

“No angels come to us! No celestial voices speak to us! Oh! believe it not. Every deep impression of the rightness of an action, every keen conviction of a truth, every inward cry for light and impulse onwards, are messengers, voices of God." - STOPFORD A. BROOKE, Serm., Angelic Life, etc.

 

See Also

AMSHASPANDS
APSARAS
ARCHANGELS
BIRD'S NEST
BIRTH OF JESUS
COLCHIANS
DEMONS
DEVAS
GANDHARVAS
GUARDIANS
KHORDAD
KHUS (Higher)
LADDER (Jacobs)
MESSENGER
SIRENS
WIND