Theos-Talk Archives (December 1993 Message tl00050)

This is by Brenda Tucker.

Sarah:

I ran across a story about Balaam and was wondering if there is a
connection to your code name or if the story is one that you also
heard and if you based your choice of code name on the personage
in this story or had heard another story about this character???

An angel stopped the prophet Balaam who was accompanied by a
donkey.  The donkey saw the angel with drawn sword, became
frightened, began to balk, fret, and run away.  The prophet caught
the animal and beat it mercilessly, as he could not see the angel
and did not know the reason for the donkey's behavior. (A BOOK OF
ANGELS by Sophy Burnham)

Friends:

I'm referring to a book that's on the general marketplace called A
BOOK OF ANGELS by Sophy Burnham, and the rest of this note is also
information taken from this book.

So great is the power of angels in the spiritual world that, if I
should make known all that I have witnessed in regard to it, it
would exceed belief.  Any obstruction there that ought to be
removed because it is contrary to Divine order the angels cast
down or overthrow merely by an effort of the will and a look. -
Emanuel Swedenborg HEAVEN AND ITS WONDERS AND HELL

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth unseen, both when
we wake and when we sleep. - John Milton PARADISE LOST, IV

It is said, and it is true, that just before we are born a cavern
angel puts his finger to our lips and says, "Hush, don't tell what
you know."  This is why we are born with a cleft on our upper lips
and remembering nothing of where we came from. - Roderick MacLeish
PRINCE OMBRA.

Intuition runs in families.  We know it can be strengthened or
lost and forogtten from disuse.  It is SUDDEN knowledge, SUDDEN
insight, an instant, unexpected connection, usually only after
days or weeks of fruitless work.  Intuition is believed by the
Asians to be a part of the Akashic records, a river of knowledge
that encircles the earth and that certain favored people may dip
into. (p. 56) (Not an exact quote.)

Zoroaster, or Zarathustra (the name meaning "rich in camels"), was
the one who introduced a montheistic deity to ancient Babylon and
Assyria, transforming the old gods into archangels.  He lived
between 1000 and 600 B.C. and protested a religion that was close
to the Hindu Vedas and included fire worship, sacrifice, and
possibly the worship of the Goddess and of Ba'al or Ba'lim.
Zoroaster taught ethics, and like Buddha would do later,
emphasized good thoughts, good words, and good deeds.  The one
Supreme God, Ahura Mazda, is helped by seven amesha spenta,
representing seven moral ideas.  These are found in various
enumerations, with one enumeration as follows: Good Knowledge (or
Wisdom), Truth (or The Way), Piety, Salvation, Immortality (or
Delight in Beauty), Obedience, and Deserved Good Luck.  Wisdom is
the protector of the Earth, Truth the protector of Fire, Delight
in Beauty is protector of plants, etc.  Until Zoroaster's time,
the Supreme Being contained within itself both good and evil.
With Zoroastrianism came the duality we are familiar with, good
and bad waging an uneven battle since good is assured victory.
Only about 250,000 Zoroastrians remain today, mostly around
Bombay. (p.115-118)(Not an exact quote.)

Many cultures hold to it that human souls evolve eventually into
protecting angels, as angels themselves evolve to higher and
higher forms. Or, as described in this quote from the KORAN, VII:

     "And He created you, then fashioned you, then told the
Angels: Fall ye prostrate before Adam! And they fell prostrate,
all save Iblis, who was not of those who make prostration.
     He said: What hindered Thee that thou did not fall prostrate
when I bid thee? (Iblis) said: I am better than he.  Thou
createdst me of fire, while him Thou didst create of mud.   He
said: Then go down hence! It is not for Thee to show pride here,
so go forth! Lo! Thou art of Those degraded." (p. 136)

"In 1259 Aquinas gave a series of lectures on angels at the
University of Paris." Since people could not read they came as
spectators.  "His lectures (15) were written down as he spoke them
and formed the foundation of our knowledge about angels for the
next eight hundred years." (p. 166-167)

Listen to this:  "Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite was a Syrian.
He wrote four obtuse books of mysticism, full of literary
artifice, one being DE HIERARCHIA CELESTI, about the nature and
properties of angels.  In this he pretended to be Dionysius the
Areopagite, the first-century Greek who was converted by Saint
Paul at Athens (Acts 17:34).  Later he was thought to be the first
bishop of Athens, and later still he was identified with Saint
Denis of France, until around 1450 it was discovered he was a
fraud.  To avoid confusion, therefore, he's called the Pseudo-
Areopagite, or the Pseudo-Dionysius for short.  Nonetheless, his
influence in the Middle Ages was enormous, and the best-known
hierarchy of angels is his.
     According to the Pseudo-Dionysius, the three highest angels
are the Old Testament seraphim, cherubim, and thrones.  The next
two triads come from the various lists that Paul poetically tossed
off in the first century to the new Christian disciples when he
was touring the Mediterranean basin, building a young Church...
...
     At any rate, and Pseudo-Dionysius arranged the angels into
three groupings, using Paul's list, and everyone else took them
up:
     1. Seraphim, cherubim, and thrones
     2. Dominions, virtues, and powers
     3. Principalities, archangels, and angels (lowest)

SERAPHIM, the highest order, the six-winged ones, surround the
throne of God, singing ceaselessly, Holy, Holy, Holy.  They are
angels of love, light, and fire.

CHERUBIM are the guardians of the fixed stars, keepers of
celestial records, bestowers of knowledge.  In the Talmud cherubim
are equated with the order of wheels, also called ophanim. Chief
rulers are Ophaniel, Rikbiel, Zophiel, and, before his fall,
Satan.

THRONES bring God's justice to us. They are sometimes called
WHEELS and in the Jewish Kabbalah, CHARIOTS or the MERKABAH.  The
occult book, the ZOHAR, ranks wheels above seraphim, but other
sources place them as cherubim, the whole thing being confused.
The ruling prince is Oriphiel or Zabkiel or Zaphiel.

DOMINIONS or DOMINATIONS regulate angelic duties.  Through them is
manifested the Majesty of God.  They hold an orb or sceptre as an
emblem of authority, and, in Hebraic lore, the chief of this order
is named Hashmal or Zadkiel.

VIRTUES work miracles on earth. They are bestowers of grace and
valor.

POWERS stop the efforts of demons to overthrow the world, or else
they preside over demons, or perhaps (according to St. Paul) they
are themselves evil. Ertosi, Sammael or Camael (depending on the
source) is chief of the Powers.

PRINCIPALITIES are protectors of religion.  Nisroc, in Milton, is
"of principalities the prime," and others, according to various
sources, are named Requel, Anael, and Cerviel.

ARCHANGELS and ANGELS are guardians of people and all physical
things."
(p.171-175)

Rudolf Steiner drew up his own hierarchy of the angels.
     "Seraphim receive the ideas and aims of the cosmic system
from the Trinity. Cherubim transpose these ideas into workable
human plans. The Thrones, "figuratively speaking" (he adds), work
with humans to put into practice the thoughts received by the
seraphim from God and pondered over by the cherubim.
     After these come dominions, mights (or virtues), and powers,
followed by archai, archangels, and angels. ... Every human
individual, Steiner says, has an angel which guides that person
through incarnation after incarnation.  At a certain stage you can
ask your angel to reveal your former incarnations.
     Angels, the lowest on the scale, stand behind each person, a
guiding hand on his or her shoulder, and this influence is
strongest in childhood.  As the person grows older, the angel
retreats in order to permit the human's development of freedom and
personal individuality between the ages of twenty-five and forty,
when the founding of a family and career are uppermost in his or
her consciousness. Later, in the middle years, the person is
rejoined by the angelic being, as again he or she turns toward
understanding of the spiritual dimension.
     Angels are Water Spirits. They rule a sphere from earth to
the moon.
     Archangels are Fire Spirits, concerned not with individuals
but with the evolution of race-souls, folk-souls. They govern the
relationship between individual human beings and the whole of a
people or a race. Their sphere of influence runs from earth to
Mercury.
     And rising higher in this last triad, we find archai, or
spirits of Personality, which govern the relationships of the
whole human species on earth.  These angels live in waves of time,
change their spiritual bodies from age to age, and are the "spirit
of the time." They rule as far as Venus.
     From them come the great beings who descend to earth to lead
us. They are the bodhisattvas, yogis, prophets, and saints, who
APPEAR to be people but aren't, the appearance being MAYA, or
illusion, as everything on this earth, including physical matter,
is illusion."

COMMENTS

This book mentions the Theosophical Society as well as approaching
the study of angels from every religion and down through
antiquity. There are lots of interesting modern day stories as
well.  However, it made me form the most negative opinion of the
way most people interpret "Theosophy" to mean Ancient Wisdom.
This book says "wisdom of the gods" and Steiner's Anthroposophy
being related to "wisdom of man," but many people freely interpret
theosophy as "ancient wisdom."  When I read about Zoroastrianism's
amesha spenta and wisdom being related to the earth, I couldn't
help but shun this name "Theosophy" for The Thesophical Society's
motto: "There is no religion higher than truth." If there were a
choice between "ancient wisdom" and "truth," I'd gladly lean
toward truth.  I read a beautiful quote the other day, not about
the delivering of truth to the earth in one of the many forms of
knowledge, but about one of the tests of truth being that it is
really a gift of truth if it is made known for all men to partake
of and benefit from. This would include not only the Path of
Occultism, but also most scientific discoveries that are then used
to make life more blessed.

The only reason I can think that the angels were asked to
prostrate before man was that it was a great work and a great plan
for evolution, not that the angels weren't as good, but so the
angels could appreciate their wholeness and the thought that all
life, including the earth could benefit from man's existence.  It
isn't proper for an angel to think that they are capable of any
and all work and that there isn't a need for other beings..  Their
field of endeavor may be limited to only a certain type of task.

I didn't think Steiner's hierarchy was different from Pseudo-
Dionysius' in the basic classifications, perhaps it was different
in the way it described the functioning and activity of the
classes primarily.