What are angels?

Angels are bodiless fast moving light energy that are capable of being in more then one place at a time, so it is believed. They have been created for the purpose of serving all free-willed beings such as humans. It has been known that Angels may interfere without permission if they so need to, however those occurences are usually very rare. Most Angels respect the individuals free will and will not interfere unless they are called upon to help. Angelic magick practitioners/Angelologists/Angelolaters may find that working with these spirits have a positive outcome on the practitioner. The practitioner may become more positive and happy, seeing life in a whole new light. However like all spirits you should still be cautious. Just because you may be talking or working with an Angel does not mean they are purely benign. I believe that there could be Angels out there that may be malicious. Plus, in certain cultures and religions there are mythologies of spirits that can be considered to be Angels that are negative and sometimes malicious.

http://www.archangels-and-angels.com/index.html This site has helped me grasp the basic information on the Archangels that show up in the Abrahamic traditi-ons.

-Written by Son of Raven

that is a very intersting text, but with all due respect, espeaclly to one of your class, i must disagree....

do i belive that there are creature of light that help us should we want it or not:yes

do i think that there are also dark ones: most definatly

but i do not think a proper name for them is angel. the reason being is that angels is a term used in many christain religions. so you would be weaving together to religions that could and will find offence in that. christian see angels as servants of there god, while i must say that this is the first place i have ever heard of such a statment, that angels are in both religions. also i can see the argumant being raised that if angels are in our religion than the anti-christ is also. so we follow him. whats your opinon.....

with love and light
Ravensong

With all do respect, whether you are Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Taoist, or any significantly religion, Angels are angels. All of these religions/spiritualities agree on that. Yes we DO differentiate between angels of various religions and the exact definition, but Angels are a HUGE part of paganism, and even Advanced Wicca. Just like Demons, the creatures are very important to paganism, but are defined differently.

I agree wiyth your notion of keeping Paganism and Christianity separate, but as paganism is older than Christianity, I can confirm the belief in angels was present in paganism first (along with Buddhism and Taoism). Then Islam, the Judaism, and finally Christianity was the last religion in the whole world to adopt the notion of angels.

Angels are present in just about every religion that can be named, I believe. I've never really seen angels as servants of the Christian god, but rather those who upkeep the Universe. Humans, for example, are keepers of the 3rd dimension. We are the ones who are supposed to maintain order here (humanity is clearly doing a poor job) in the the 3rd dimension. There have been countless stories of angels that predate Christianity. It is obvious that with the rise of Christianity, many things became blurred and then associated with that religion. An obvious example of this are the holidays of Christmas and Easter.

Very interesting debate started here. Thank you for your contribution, Ravensong

Love and Light,

Blessed Be.

Yes, thank you for the contribution. However Manny is right, almost every angel story and even the word "angel" predate Christianity and are present in just about every religion that came before Christianity (and Christianity is the youngest major religion so thats saying a lot). Dont feel bad though, Christianity has tried very hard and long to make people think angels are theirs. Pay no mind

Ps. This is not the board for archangel articles if you were curious it is the topic entitled "Archangels"

Also, icant hep but notice your statement about the antichrist. The important thing to remember, is that here, and in about 90% of pagan groups, the PRE-christian definition of angels and demons is used. We do not believe in an antichrist, because we do not believe in the christian devil. Satan exists, but as a deity in and of himself and completely different from the christian devil. also Angels do not carry the same connotation.

You will find these same sentiments in advanced wicca study and advance paganism in general.

i love this converstion, so many views.... so i would like too add a few things, i was raised catholic, in my teaching we learned that there devil had three faces(this is somewhat advanced): the beast, dragon and anti-christ...which is were i got that statment from. on the other hand i agree with you that in the begining the devil and ant-christ were sperate. but they have now melted into one divine evil in the modern world. second i would like to add that there is a thrological differance between panganism and wicca. i would agree that paganism predates christianity by almost two and a half thousand years, the idea of entities for good did arise at that time. but the name angel did not come around untill the forming of the monothistic god. the reason i say monothiestic is because christianity/jeudism/ and islam share a very common GOD figure. lastly i would like to say that this topic is very interesting and i thank the person who created it, would also like to add that these are stricly my OPINONS, i am in no way trying to undermind your views or religion......just food for though

with love and light
Ravensong

Angels have existed since way before Christianity, Ravensong
They may have not been named "angels" at the time, but they looked the same as Jewish, Christian and Islamic angels. The word angel was originally derived from the word angelos, which means Messenger, in Greek. Interestingly enough, the word Malakh, the word used for angel in Hebrew, also means Messenger. Thirdly, in Persia, the word Angaros, which was used for angel, meant Courier(which is a version of a messenger).

Most people think that Judaism or Christianity were the first Monotheistic religion in the world. They are in fact wrong. The first Monotheistic religion to have ever existed was Zoroastrianism. Ever heard of it? They believe in the Holy God Ahura Mazda or Ormazd and the Evil God Ahriman. Ormazd created the Universe and the World. He created man and the ox. After his creations, from what I understand, he gave up his rule to Ahriman as part of a deal he made with him. So, Ormazd ruled for 2000 years, gave up his reign to Ahriman to rule for another 2000 years. After that, the World would have another 2000 years without rule. (I am not positive about all of this. I'm going off of memory and I strongly suggest you look Zoroastrianism for the full story, without flaws) During Ahriman's reign, he introduced darkness, evil, and death to the world. After the end of the last 2000 years, Ormazd would purify the world and destroy his evil brother.
If you ask me, that religion sounds extremely similar to Christianity...

Back on to the main subject, angels have been seen all across the world in all cultures. Egypt, Sumeria, Babylonia, Persia, Greek... those are just a few cultures in which angels existed. Take a look, Ravensong... Off of memory, how many religions have winged creatures as spiritual beings? Even the Native-Americans had winged spiritual creatures in their spiritual accounts!

Simply saying, angels are not Christian. Angels are spiritual beings that exist in the Universe who help all humans who look for their aid. They were placed in the Universe to maintain order, to help, to heal... beautiful creatures, are they.

Let me know what you think. I encourage you to do some research on the existence of angels.

Love and Light,

Blessed Be.

I am not sure if I mentioned this earlier, or if someone else did. But Ido not view angels or archangels as a form or pantheon of Deities. They are simply spirit-beings, in my opinion. Anyone care to share their view on this?

Let me just say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this entire thread! So much gets brought up in the name of religion. Angels existl I virtually every religion. I agree that they are spiritual beings, with mostly great intentions for us. Angels are different in all religions, however, as Manny mentioned, they are thought of mostly as messengers to the beings of this dimension. In Christianity, its also often believed that angels are guardians (we've all heard "guardian angel") I, personally, believe that angels can be the messenger of anything. Whether they are revealed to help you spiritually, physically, mentally, etc is all based on the individual situation. I loved this debate, guys! I hope you emrace my input :-)

Note: I'm on my iPad, so its kind of difficult to type and to fix my errors, so there may be a couple

i agree, they are wonderful creatures...but they are also not a forces to be played with for fun

They aren't deities, rather upholders of the Universe. As humans are guardians of the 3rd Dimension, they are guardians, too. I think they vary through the spiritual hierarchy. Metatron, for example, is the grandest of all the angels and I would imagine he'd reside within a greater dimension. Michael would be closer to the 3rd Dimension, as he is always in contact with humanity. This is strictly my opinion, though, and I can't say that all would agree with this.

Love and Light,

Blessed Be.

I am going to have to disagree about angels residing in higher dimensions based on rank (your example being Metatron. I believe that all of the angels reside in one dimension, just as humans reside in only one. Humans have somewhat of a hierarchy too. if you consider our governments.

Demons have a very complex hierarchy much like the angels, but I think that the levels of power and authority all exist within the same dimension.

I think they can move through dimensions, but I also think that they usually dwell in certain dimensions for their purpose. Since different angels do different things, I would also think that they'd do those things more so within a dimension that dealt with their purpose. However, like I said, I think they can go through different dimensions for whatever the purpose.

I believe they can travel as well. I was was reffering to where they reside, not where they can travel. But if you are saying you meant they can travel between dimensions, then yes I agree with that.