Angelic frame of awareness

Angels are a representation of invisible agents and operations considered to be involved in supernatural events and extra-sensory perception. However, sudden impulses of will, extraordinary imagination, and heightened cognition have been attributed to an angelic presence in man's inner world. Thus the characterization of angels ranges from unseen but sensed influences on mind and behaviour within normal limits, to such phenomena as mental communication and clairaudient perception (where the angelic agent is incorporeal) and to clairvoyant and sensible visions (where the angels have form and even substance, in as much as they are seen to conduct operations in the material world).

While the more popular view has always viewed angels as material beings of a higher order, philosophers (such as Philo) considered them to be incorporeal intelligences. On the other hand, psychologists, whether with Western scientific training or Eastern traditional backgrounds, have also considered that angels can represent a range of contents in the intermediate consciousness of man which lies between the personal and the transpersonal or universal. This may explain why, within the angelic frame of awareness, consciousness is so diversely characterized by the numerous classes of angels, and by "individual" beings within these, such as Michael, Gabriel, Lucifer and so many others. This frame of reference, therefore, is an implicit system of depth and height individual psychology. At the same time it expresses characteristics of social phenomena, since the world-wide diffusion of angels and related beings can be surveyed and studied in a variety of societies and cultures.

The greatest influences on Jewish angeology may have been from Babylonia and Persia; Parsee literature, for example, knows some 119 chief angels. But mediaeval Jewish, Islamic and Christian thinkers so developed the theory that individual angels were reckoned on a one-to-one-basis with the heavenly bodies, and also it would seem with the earthly, physical bodies of humans. Each soul could have its star and its angel by such perspectives.

The spheres of the star-angels reflected the psychic-projection of classifications for types of consciousness. Thus there were higher and lower, brighter and darker heavens and heavenly hosts and detailed classes that reflected human behaviour. Some classes reflected political power and organization, for example, in Christianity, dominions (or dominations) is a class, which is also called lordships. Dionysius describes this category as regulators of angels. Princedoms or principalities is another class, which, along with thrones and powers (or dynasties, potencies, potentates or authorities) bear names with a political sense. Another category belongs to this system which, while it is usually called virtues, corresponds mainly to the Hebrew malakim, the order whose name means kings.

In the Christian scheme of 9 orders of angels in the celestial hierarchy the 5 listed above are usually in the mid-range. The orders simply called archangels and angels come below, while the seraphs and cherubs maintain their Hebrew names and lead the lists. The ancient Hebrew names for most orders do not reflect political projections. Some of these are: fire-serpent (seraph), intercessor (cherub), zoa or divine animal (chayoh), wheel or chariot (ophan) and holy watchers (irin gaddisin). Moreover, individual angel names such as Raphael (the healer) and many such others indicate that "the names and presences were revealed to Israel on an experiential basis and were not elaborated at a single instant into a grand scheme".

The angelic hierarchies therefore reflect psychological, social and natural contexts whose integration was less successful than that of astrological dogma with which they have some relationship. The condition of the angelic system in the various faiths may be a psychological reflection on each. The greatest effort to codify and classify the heavenly hosts was spurred by the neo-Platonic revival in Islam, Judaism and Christianity during the Middle-Ages. Neo-Platonic philosophy provided the theory, while Aristotelianism provided the methodology and mysticism the authority. The Kabbalah, Sufism, and Dionysian-inspired Christian mysticism became the repository on the speculative side of hundreds of names of angels, and numerous classifications. The other side is the goetic, or mediaeval magic, whose practitioners were members of one or other of the three faiths. This had its own, very often debased, angelic literature which is still cultivated by modern occultists.

Invocations of angels, or prayers honouring angels or requesting their intercession, are still made in the Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Anglican-Episcopalian branches of Christianity. Angels have been suppressed (along with saints, mysticism miracles and sacraments) in most Protestant and Judaic official worship; however, spiritually gifted authors such as Boehme, Swedenborg and Steiner among those with Protestant background, and Maimonides, Karo and Buber of Judaic faith, attest to dimensions of awareness in which the angels are encountered.