Introduction
The Spiritual Hierarchy
The Nine Orders Explained
Description of the Best Known Angels
Introduction
All
three major religions of the Western world, Christianity, Judaism,
and Islam, as well as virtually all of the world's other systems
of religious belief, include celestials in their cosmologies.
Their
scriptures all contain references to angelic interventions. Angels,
like people, belong to families or clans. Many names have been
given to them, but in the opinion of a number of angel historians,
the most familiar can be arranged in three categories, or spheres,
starting at the top with those closest to God, and moving down
to those who are connected to the physical world.
The word 'angel' itself is used both as a generic term to refer
to all heavenly beings, and as a specific term to refer to the
members of the third sphere, those closest to the physical. So,
too, the word 'archangel' is often used as a generic term to refer
to all the high orders of heavenly beings, although they are in
fact but one of the higher orders.
While
it looks like there is a higher and lower echelon, it's more accurate
to visualize all these orders in a great circle, with the "highest"
and the "lowest" holding hands. For
example, seraphim, who appear to be closest to the Creator, also
serve the God in us.
In
the New Testament celestial beings are grouped into seven ranks:
angels, archangels, principalities, powers, virtues, dominions,
and thrones.
Plus,
the Old Testament adds cherubim and seraphim, which with the other
seven ranks, comprise the nine choirs of angels in later Christian
theology; although the number has generally been fixed at seven.
The
Spiritual Hierarchy
The 9 orders of angelic beings (1 being the highest order)
The
First Sphere -- angels who serve as heavenly counselors
1
- SERAPHIM
2
- CHERUBIM
3
- THRONES
The
Second Sphere -- angels who work as heavenly governors
4
- DOMINIONS
5
- VIRTUES
6
- POWERS
The
Third Sphere -- angels who function as heavenly messengers
7
- PRINCIPALITIES
8
- ARCHANGELS
9
- ANGELS
The
Nine Orders Explained
SERAPHIM
The
highest order of the highest hierarchy are the seraphim, the celestial
beings said to surround the throne of God, singing the music of
the spheres, and regulating the movement of the heavens as it
emanates from God.
CHERUBIM
Beyond
the thrones are the cherubim. They are the guardians of light,
and of the stars. Remote from our plane of reality, still their
light touches our lives, the divine light that they filter down
from Heaven.
Lucifer (Satan/Devil) is known as the 'angel of
light, whom God's light shown through' - before his 'sin against
God'.
THRONES
The
first order in the third sphere is the thrones. They are the companion
angels of the planets.
DOMINIONS
The
dominions are the heavenly beings who govern the activities of
all the angelic groups lower than they are. Divine bureaucrats,
they also serve to integrate the spiritual and the material worlds.
Although they take their orders from God, and rarely contact individuals,
their work is connected to our reality.
VIRTUES
Beyond
the powers are another group of beings, the virtues. They are
of particular importance to us now because they are able to beam
out massive levels of divine energy.
POWERS
The
first order of the second sphere are those beings who have been
known as powers. They are the bearers of the conscience of all
of humanity, the keepers of our collective history. The angels
of birth and death are in this category. They are able to draw
down and hold the energy of the divine plan the same way trees
draw down the energy of the Sun. In this way, the powers can send
all of us a vision of a world spiritual network.
PRINCIPALITIES
Beyond
the group of archangels are the principalities. They are the guardian
angels of all large groups, from cities and nations to recent
human creations such as multi-national corporations. These might
more accurately now be called integrating angels.
ARCHANGELS
Beyond
the angels are the beings we are used to calling the archangels,they
tend the larger arenas of human endeavor. These beings are from
a different family from the angels. There are many different kinds
of archangels in this larger family. The four we are most familiar
with are Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, and Uriel.
ANGELS
The
angels that we are most familiar with are those in the last order.
They are the ones who are closest to humanity, the ones most concerned
with human affairs. Within the category of angels, there are many
different kinds, with different functions. The ones that we know
best are the guardian angels.
Because
of shifts in their functions and our consciousness, it is useful
to think of these celestial beings as companion angels. As we
enter a time of increased light and love on the planet, they will
not need to guard us, but rather will be our guides to greater
and greater consciousness.
Description
Of The Angels Best Known To Us
MICHAEL
(Archangel):
Michael
is surely the best known of the archangels. Michael is acknowledged
by all three Western sacred traditions. He is believed to appeared
to Moses as the fire in the burning bush, and to have rescued
Daniel and his friends from the lions' den.
To
Christians, he's the angel who informed Mary of her approaching
death.
Islamic
lore tells us that his wings are the color of 'green emerald and
are covered with saffron hairs, each of them containing a million
faces and mouths and as many tongues which, in a million dialects,
implore the pardon of Allah.'
In
the Dead Sea Scrolls Michael emerges as the 'Prince of Light'
fighting a war against the Sons of Darkness in which he leads
the angelic battle against the legion of the fallen angel, Belial.
Michael
is the protector of the Christian Church, guardian angel of Israel,
and commander-in-chief of God's angel armies. He led them during
a war in heaven in which Satan and his fallen angels were driven
out of the clouds.
Even
though he lives in the seventh heaven. Christian art and iconography
shows Michael with a sword or with a scale weighing the souls
of the dead.
GABRIEL (Archangel):
Gabriel
seems to be our most frequent visitor from the higher realms.
He astonished Mary, and her cousin Elizabeth, mother of John the
Baptist, with the pronouncements concerning the births of their
respective sons.
To
the followers of Islam, Gabriel is the Spirit of Truth who dictated
the Koran to Mohammed.
In
Jewish legend it was Gabriel who parted the waters of the Red
Sea so that the Hebrews could escape from the Pharaoh's soldiers.
According
to court testimony of the time, it was Gabriel who came to Joan
of Arc and inspired her to go to the aid of the dauphin (the eldest
son of the king of France).
Gabriel's
apparent ongoing interest in this planet is most probably due
to his function as heavenly awakener, the angel of vibratory transformation.
Gabriel in Hebrew means 'man of God', and is seen as God's messenger.
Described
as a human figure with long hair and multi-colored wings and often
seen holding a scepter or lily.
RAPHAEL
(Archangel):
Raphael
is perhaps the most endearing of all the angels, and the one most
frequently depicted in Western art. His image is featured on the
canvases of such masters as Botticelli, Titian, and Rembrandt.
He appears to be the high archangel charged with healing the Earth.
Raphael is the travelers guide, guardian of youth. The ruler of
the second heaven shows up in Christian paintings carrying a pilgrim's
stick, a wallet and a fish. The poet Milton has Raphael eating
supper with Adam and Eve in Eden.
Raphael's career seems to be peppered with medical missions. He
healed the pain of circumcision for Abraham as the old man had
not had the procedure done when he was young.
Raphael
was then sent by God to cure poor Jacob's thigh after he'd bee
n roughed up by Samael. And it's also claimed that Raphael gave
Noah a much-prized 'medical book' after the flood. There's a legend
that when Solomon prayed to God for aid in building the great
temple in Jerusalem, Raphael personally delivered the gift of
a magic ring with the power to subdue all demons. It was with
this 'slave labor' that the Hebrew king completed the construction.
Raphael has also been called 'a guide in hell,' which after all
is where healing is needed the most.
URIEL (Archangel):
Uriel
is ranked variously as a seraph, cherub, regent of the Sun, flame
of God, presider over Hades and, in his best-known role, as the
Archangel of Salvation.
Like
Metatron, Uriel is said to be one of the angels of the Presence,
a most high posting since only the highest voltage angels can
sustain the presence of God. Uriel is thought to have been
"the spirit who stood at the gate of the lost Eden with the fiery
sword."
The
Book of Enoch tells us that it was Uriel who was sent by God to
warn Noah of the impending flood, and elsewhere it is written
that he disclosed the mysteries of the heavenly arcana to Ezra,
and that he also led Abraham out of Ur in the Chaldean region.
Some
have claimed that the divine art of alchemy was brought down to
Earth by Uriel, and that it was also this angel who gave the Kabbalah,
the Hebrew mystic tradition, to humankind.
METATRON (Cherubim):
In
the world of Jewish mystics, came to hold the rank of the highest
of the angels despite his not being mentioned in the Scriptures.
The meaning of his name has never been satisfactorily explained
although one interpretation of it is "one who occupies the throne
next to the Divine throne.
In
a number of traditional sources, Metatron is said to have been
the prophet Enoch, who was taken up to Heaven and transformed
into an angel of fire, with thirty-six pairs of wings, to continue
his days as a celestial scribe.
Metatron
has also been identified as the Liberating Angel and the one who
wrestled with Jacob; the one who stayed Abraham's hand from sacrificing
his son Isaac; and the one who led the Hebrews through the forty
years in the wilderness.
In
certain schools of mysticism, Metatron, said to be the tallest
of all the heavenly beings, became known as Lesser YHWH. In Hebrew,
the letters 'LHWH' stand for the most sacred and unpronounceable
name of God." "As God has many names, so, too, Metatron was thought
to have many names, the use of which was believed to offer the
user protection and access to this great angel's powers. Yahoel,
Yofiel, Surya, and Lad are just a few of his other names."
MELCHIZEDEK: Lived and taught 2000 years before the Christ!
Melchizedek,
the Sage of Salem, is another of the few known cases of a high
angel taking a human, very male, body. He appeared fully formed,
some two thousand years before Christ, announcing that he was
a servant of El El yon, the Most High. He then set up a teaching
center over which he personally presided for ninety-four years.
It
was Melchizedek who delivered God's Covenant to Abraham and introduced
the revolutionary concept of salvation through pure faith to the
thinking of the planet. He established an extraordinary wide-flung
missionary program, centered in Salem, the ancient site of Jerusalem,
sending out thousands of missionaries who literally circled the
globe.
Melchizedek was believed to be the father of the seven Elohim
(Angels of the divine presence).
In
the third century a.d. a group of 'heretics', calling themselves
Melchisedans, claimed to be in touch with 'a great power named
Melchizedek, who was greater than Christ'.
His
sojourn here as the Sage of Salem was said to have been a concerted
effort on behalf of the celestials to bring some much-needed light
to a dark and chaotic time, and to set the seeds for the coming
of the Christ.
ARIEL (Throne):
Some
confusion exists as to exactly whose side Ariel is on. He's ranked
as one of the seven princes who rule the waters and is also known
as Earth's Great Lord. To the poet John Milton, however, Ariel
is a rebel angel who is overcome by the seraph Abdiel on the first
day of the great war in Heaven.
Jewish
mystics used Ariel as a poetic name for Jerusalem.
In
Gnostic lore, Ariel is the angel who controls the demons. Ariel
has also been associated with the order of angels called the thrones
and is known to have assisted the archangel Raphael in the curing
of disease.
ISRAFEL:
Israfel,
whose name in Arabic folklore means 'The Burning One', is both
an angel of resurrection and of song. By these same accounts,
Israfel paved the way for Gabriel by serving three years as a
companion to Mohammed, whom he'd originally initiated into the
work of being a prophet.
In
an Islamic variant of the Genesis account of Adam's creation,
Allah sends Israfel, Gabriel, Michael, and Azrael (the Angel of
Death) out on a mission to fetch the seven handfuls of dust needed
to make humanity's progenitor. According to legend, only Azrael
returned unsuccessful.
RAZIEL
(Power):
Raziel
is believed to be an 'angel of the secret regions and Chief of
the Supreme Mysteries'.
There
is a legend that Raziel is the author of a great book, 'wherein
all celestial and Earthly knowledge is set down.' When the angel
gave his tome to Adam, some envious angels stole it away and threw
it in the ocean. After it had been recovered by the primordial
angel/demon of the deep, Rahab, the book passed first to Enoch,
who apparently claimed it as his own, then to Noah, who learned
how to make his ark from it. Solomon, too, was thought to have
possessed the book, which allowed him his unusual knowledge of
magic and control over the demons.
The
Zohar, the major work of Jewish mysticism, claims that set in
the middle of Raziel's book there is secret writing 'explaining
the fifteen hundred keys (to the mystery of the world), which
were not revealed even to the angels.'
Other
Jewish mystics report that 'each day the angel Raziel, standing
on the mount of Horeb, proclaims the secrets of men to all mankind'.
Editors
Note: To talk with your Angels you need to be 'clear'.
By clear I mean you need to be free of emotions and thoughts that
block communication. Everyone has the ability to communicate with
their Angels, however not everyone is willing to clear a path.
It's
easy but self development requires effort. Find
out more here.
