Angels: Your Guides to Esoteric and Personal Wisdom

There is something of great importance that I touched upon in my last post regarding discovering and working with your Holy Guardian Angel or HGA. There are many methods available to achieve this, most notably Liber Samekh or what is known as The Bornless Ritual. I'm not going to include the ritual itself here, because it's readily available if you Google it. This is the most formal way to invoke your HGA and it is a beautifully written piece. However, there are other less formal methods which can be equally as effective. Here's a little secret about magick and invocation that some practitioners don't know. It's not about the incense, candles, robes, or wands. These are simply props that enable you to temporarily leave your worldly identity and assume the identity of "Master Mage". It's not even necessarily the words you utter. The key is the intention. If you are confident and truly desire to connect with your HGA, you simply cannot fail. If you are apprehensive, fearful, or too skeptical you will indeed fail. It's that simple. The same holds true for any spell or ritual that you wish to perform. A great deal of success and magical ability lies in knowing EXACTLY what you wish to achieve. This may sound like a no brainer, but it's vitally important.

What I really want to discuss in this post is not magick or ritual, but the Angels themselves. I cannot state enough how important they are to our evolution as spiritual beings and how vital they have been to my own personal evolution and magical path. Many think of Angels as messengers, but that is not their only function. They are our connection and link to the Creator, God, the Source, or whatever you'd like to call Him. God is simply too vast for us to know on a personal basis. In fact God can be quite impersonal and the true nature of God is simply unknowable, as expressed in Kabbalah. Some may argue this point and say, "I pray and talk to God. Yes, I do have a connection to Him." -- but having a connection to God and knowing God are not synonymous. It is an aspect of God that you are experiencing, not the entirety of the being that is God and these aspects are expressed through the Angels.

The very names of the Angels bear this out. Most angelic names end in the letters el, which means "of God" or the letters on, which means great; for example, the Angels Metatron and Sandalphon. Thus you have Raphael, the root name Rapha or Rafa which means "to heal" and the suffix el, "of God" -- thus Raphael's name means "Healer of God" or  "God has healed" and Michael whose name means, "who is like God". When you think of the angelic names and the Angels themselves in the context of being aspects of God, you begin to gain an ability to create a frame of reference and a better understanding of not only the sheer vastness of God, (as there are innumerable Angels), but just how complex a being God is!

I hope you can see now the importance of the Angels in not only their ability to help us establish a connection with God, but also a greater understanding of (for lack of a better word), personality of God. Actually, the sense that we are disconnected from God is simply a misperception on our part. What we are actually doing is creating a conscious connection to God through the Angels. They help us not only in our spiritual evolution, but with worldly concerns such as relationships, career, health, etc. They can open so many doors for us. God in His infinite wisdom created the Angels to act as intermediaries and conduits to Himself and the Cosmic forces of nature and the universe. Communicating and working with the Angels is an invaluable tool to understanding ourselves, why we are here, our life's purpose, and the nature of God and the inner and outer workings of Creation.

Also know that the Angels are indeed for the time being in our evolution, higher beings, but that both they and we, are created from the same spark. I like to view them as my brothers and I work with them under that context. They are not to be worshipped and do not ask or require that we do so. We are all evolving and growing, as are the Angels. I believe as the human, earthly experience and society in which we live change, the Angels have learned to adapt and hone their teaching skills. Some have even picked up on a bit of the more modern vernacular! They are learning too :-)  Indeed each have their own personalities and ways in which they prefer to work with you. I have read of accounts from other fellow magicians that the Angels can be stern and unfriendly. For the most part, I have not experienced this, although when I have been stubborn they certainly let me know! Mostly, I have found the vast majority of them to be supremely loving, supportive and infinitely patient.

If you are still struggling with big questions like, "Why am I here?", or keep running into the same problems or issues in your  life, then working with the Angels will most definitely be of benefit to you. There are a glut of books on the market about Angels -- most of them are truly awful! They're what I like to call, "Fluffy New Age Bullshit" :-)  It's obvious in a lot of these books that the authors have no clue about Kabbalah, Neo-Platonism, or initiatic science. These long standing teachings are the backbone of an initiate's spiritual journey. The Angels are not going to give you all the answers. You must have at least an introductory knowledge of one or all of these, or you will be missing the bigger picture. The seeker has to have an expanded enough consciousness in order to obtain higher knowledge. For instance, Doreen Virtue's books will give you ways to get started in the most basic sense of learning how to communicate with the Angels. She also suggests using automatic writing, which can be a portal for low level spirits -- a method I do not recommend. It's an overly simplistic view of the Angels and how to work with them, which is what many of these books are guilty of. The novice is unaware of potential dangers that exist when opening yourself up to spiritual communication of any kind. This is where initiatic science and Kabbalah and it's teachings about qlippotic or nasty beings comes in. All the best intentions in the world cannot save somebody who has no knowledge or experience of how to protect themselves. This seems like a contradiction of what I stated earlier about intention, but it is intention plus knowledge that is the key to not only success, but safety. This information is not to be found in New Age books, not to mention anything about about the heavenly hierarchies or methods by which to influence or change circumstances around you. Only the Kabbalah or initiatic sciences can give you that. Likewise, you will not have access to any of the higher realms. Why hang around in the lobby when there are so many areas of the heavenly and astral "rooms" to explore? For this reason, I have some book/author suggestions for those of you looking for "The Real Deal", when it comes to learning about and experiencing these realms and higher states of being. These suggestions are by no means exhaustive either. I read sometimes up to 3 books a week, sometimes 2 at a time -- lol! What ends up happening is I'll be reading something and it will then inspire other questions within me, which then leads to another book and so on.

Omraam Mikhail Aivanhov was a both a student and master of initiatic science, a kabbalist and a magician. The first book I ever read by him is called "Angels and Other Mysteries of the Tree of Life". I cannot begin to tell you how great this book is! Even if you don't really have a working knowledge of Kabbalah or the Tree of Life, I highly suggest you check this out. It's available in e book format. If you like this book, he has many others which are all great. He was not an author, but gave lectures which were then compiled. The books are done very well, so it will feel like you're reading an authored book and not something that was piece mealed or slapped together.

Another suggestion are 2 books by the author Migene Gonzalez-Wippler: "The Kabbalah and Magic of Angels" available in e book format and "Return of the Angels" which is an oldie in print format only. I found a super cheap ($8 including s&h) copy on Amazon. She, like Aivanhov, writes from the Kabbalistic perspective regarding the Angels and how to work with them.

For those interested in a more Christian/world religion viewpoint, there is a great book called "World of Angels" by George E. Yurchison. He covers Angels through both the bible and the Apocryphal books of the bible, as well as Zoroastrianism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism to name a few. It is one of the most comprehensive books about Angels I have ever read and that's saying a lot, because I am a voracious reader! There are some concepts in his book I do not agree with, but this doesn't take away from the fact that it is still a wonderful book. It can get a bit dry in spots, because it is so comprehensive, but stick with it. If you really want to learn about the Angels it's worth it.