title: author: publisher: isbn10 | asin: print isbn13: ebook isbn13: language: subject publication date: lcc: ddc: subject: Encyclopedia of Angels Rosemary Ellen Guiley Facts On File, Inc. Encyclopedia of Angels Copyright © 1996 by Rosemary Ellen Guiley All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. 11 Penn Plaza New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Guiley, Rosemary. Encyclopedia of angels / Rosemary Ellen Guiley. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8160-2988-1 1. AngelsDictionaries. I. Title. BL477.G87 1996 291.2'15'03DC20 96-12009 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at 212/967-8800 or 800/322-8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com Cover design by Dorothy Wachtenheim Front cover art: Detail from Ascension of Mary (Perugino, 1500). Courtesy of the Galleria dell' Academia, Florence / AKG, London Printed in the United States of America VB INNO 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii FOREWORD ix ENTRIES AZ 1 BIBLIOGRAPHY 205 INDEX 209 For Lynne Hertsgaard Page vii Acknowledgments My deepest appreciation and gratitude go to Rosemary McMullen and Joanne P. Austin, who were instrumental in researching and compiling portions of this book. Page ix Foreword The angel is a mystery, one that we have attempted to explain for more than two thousand years. The study of angels is vast and complex. Thousands of angels (and demons) are cited in lore and literature. However, contradictions abound concerning name spellings, functions, duties and identities. In fact, one can become submerged in minutiae about angels that does little to shed light on their true essence. For Encyclopedia of Angels I have chosen to cover angels by topic. Many significant angels and demons are listed by name and by group. Otherwise the characteristics, functions and nature of angels, and our beliefs about them and experiences with them, are covered under general subject headings and under biographical profiles of mystics, theologians, philosophers and others. I also compare angels to similar beings in non-Western religions. The collection of these entries provides what I hope will be for the reader a fascinating journey into the evolution of the angel in Western thought. This evolution has been shaped largely by visionary experience. What we know about angels comes through our otherworldly contact with them. My own interest in angels was sparked in the mid-1980s (before angels became the darling of the media), when I began having archetypal dreams that included a mysterious figure I identified as an angel. This figure served as a psychopomp into the reaches of inner space, leading me through a psychic transformation from one life- stage of consciousness to another, which unfolded over time. Earlier in life I had received no particular religious indoctrination about angels, and felt rather neutral about the question of their existence as portrayed in text and art. However, it was obvious to me that I was nonetheless tapping into an archetypal form that exists in the collective unconscious regardless of my own personal views. This is an ancient archetype, shaped by countless experiences, which in turn shaped beliefs, which revolved to shape experience. And now this archetype was breaking through the unus mundus, the undifferentiated whole of the universe, in response to my own psychic need. I found that the more I accepted this angel, the more the archetype became energized in my life, expressing itself not only through dreams but through inspiration, creativity, intuition and even visionary experience. In the ensuing years I have found myself in the company of numerous angelic presences. Do I believe in angels? The answer must of course be yes, although even after years of study on the subject, I remain open as to their exact nature. I do not believe there are easy answers. Under the entry, I ANGEL have given the definition traditional to our mythology: "a supernatural being who mediates between God and mortals." Do they exist in their own right, in celestial realms? Perhaps so. Or perhaps there is an energy, a vibration of love and light from the Godhead, which becomes an "angel" when it interacts with human consciousness, taking on a form that we can comprehend and integrate into our spiritual and cosmological outlooks. Perhaps it is our need for semidivine messengers, for spiritual companions, protectors and guides, and for divine beauty in our own likeness, that draws to us what we call the angel. Our monotheistic God is imageless, abstract and remote. The angel, upon whom we project a form that is an exalted image of ourselves, helps us to feel closer to the Source of All Being. The world's mystical traditions teach oneness, that everything is part of everything else. Quantum physics tells us that there is no separation between object and observer, that we are inexorably bound up in what we think we merely observe. Consequently we and the angels are part of each other; the good angel can be seen as an expression of our higher self (and the demon as an expression of our lower nature). The dynamics between the two, high and low, are what psychic integration and spiritual growth are all about. The angel is a profound mystery, as deep as the mystery of the soul, as limitless as the mystery of infinity and eternity. This is a puzzle we may never be able to solve, but our probing of the mystery yields endless permutations that deepen our insights into ourselves. The experience of an angelan is just as powerful today as it was ANGELOPHANY for the visionary prophets of the biblical era. The prophets were escorted to a state of consciousness called heaven and were given the word of God in the form of laws and moral codes. Today the epiphanies are more personal, but just as life-changing. Via the angel we glimpse the unknown, and we are encouraged to press on. Rosemary Ellen Guiley Annapolis, Maryland
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