On Perfumed Angel's Wings-4

In an introduction to one edition of the Koran, N.J Dawood writes: 'For Muslims it is the infallabile word of God, a transcript of a tablet preserved in heaven, revealed to the prophet Mohammed by the Angel Gabriel.' Their first encounter took place as Mohammed either slept or was in trance, while in a cave on a mountain in spiritual retreat, and the Koran was transmitted over a period of time. So important was Gabriel to Islam, that the five pillars of belief include angels: 'But it is righteousness - To believe in God, And the last day, And the angels, And the Book, And the messengers.' (koran, Sura 2:177) 

One well-known prayer speaks of angels: 'May Michael be at my right hand and Gabriel at my left, before me Uriel and Raphael, and above my head the divine presence of God. 'Kabbalah, the mystical tradition of Judaism, teaches that angels are God's messengers and can turn themselves into different 'shapes' - forms and manifestations. Throughout the Bible, accounts of angels abound. In the Old Testament, Jacob has a dream in which he sees a ladder between earth and Heaven, with the angels of God ascending and descending on it'; and an angel even leads people into battle: 'Behold, I send an angel before thee into the place which I have prepared.'

In the New Testament, Joseph, on learning that his fiancee Mary was pregnant, and 'not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily'. The story continues: 'But while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her of the Holy Ghost,. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shall call his name Jesus... 'In St Luke, the angel Gabriel had told Mary the same thing. News of Jesus' birth was spread by the shepherds, who'd been told Jesus was 'a Saviour' by an angel.

There was a great sadness, however, when Jesus was crucified and put in the sepulchre. At dawn the next day, the two Marys went there:'... the angel of the Lord descended from Heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow.' And he said,'... go quickly, and tell his disciples he is risen from the dead...' In the Epistles of Paul the Apostle, we hear the following:

There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. (1 Corinthians 15:40) Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.(Hebrews 13:1-2)

The appearance of angels can be dramatic, with 'a great earthquake' as at the sepulchre, or as St Paul states above, we may be unaware of who they are. Angels weave in and out of human existence, their missions to perform in countless different ways. Any dictionary of angels has so many entries, with so many names and events, it seems there have been many human-angel interactions over the years.

Angels have been ascribed to nations, fire, water, earth, air, wind, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, lightning, comets, as well as to strength and beauty, to plants, herbs, fruits and animals. In many spiritual traditions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam, angels have been more prevalent, particularly within the mystical traditions. Indeed, over the years angels have proliferated and caused major confusion amongst academics. 

Gustav Davidson, in the introduction to his A Dictionary of Angels: Including the fallen Angels, says he became overwhelmed by the sheer number of angels that appeared in the literature, which '... yielded a boundless profusion of angels (and demons), and I soon had more of the fluttering creatures than I knew what to do with'. No doubt some of the fallen angels, or 'dark angels'(those without light) as they are sometimes called, can be accounted for as excuses for things people did wrong;' the fallen angel made me do it' syndrome. But there is another dimension to this subject, which the Anglican priest and author, Dr Martin Israel, interpreted thus for the TV programme Network First:

I doubt whether anything defies the divine fiat. I think God created dark angels like the light angels. The dark angels are here to make us grow on through our own experience in life. We have to undergo darkness as well as light to grow as people.

There are two main sources of information about angels: books and people's experiences, and the two are often very similar. You could say that someone is influenced to believe something they read in a book, and have a 'vision' which materializes the thought. In other words, they imagined it. It's hard to believe this is the case with some of the many very down-to-earth people I've spoken to about angels.

Although angels are closely associated with Judaeo-Christian and Muslim traditions, they exist in other pats of the world too. In Southern Australia, the Great Spirit of Aboriginal myth goes by the name of Nepelle, and he has a messenger, Nurunderi. In Western Ireland, the late Irish poet, George W. Russell, described meeting beautiful 'Shining Beings' and 'Opalescent Beings'. He believed this latter group were what the pre-Christian Irish people called 'god':

... there was at first a dazzle of light... this came from the heart of a tall figure with a body apparently shaped out of half-transparent or opalescent air, and throughout the body ran a radiant electrical fire, to which the heart seemed the centre. Around the head...there appeared flaming wing-like aura. From the being itself light seemed to stream outward in every direction; and the effect left on me after the vision was one of extraordinary lightness, joyousness, or ecstasy.

The feeling when meeting angels is so 'out of this world', it is not confused with any other day-to-day mind-event, or dreaming experience. I asked Anne, who met her angel in the bar in Montreal 'Did you imagine it?' She said, 'Look, out of all the things that have ever happened to me in my life, that was the most real. What happened that day was very deep, and very wise - more wise than I could dream up!' This aspect of the experience, receiving knowledge, sometimes with no words being exchanged, is too extraordinary to attribute to the imagination.

There are only two alternatives: either there is an angel within, that emerges and floods us with visions, profound wisdom and infinite peace; or there are angels without. Or, maybe, there are both.

Reference: The Fragrant Heavens; Valerie Ann Worwood

On Perfumed Angel's Wings - 3

If angels are a link between the minds of man and God, fragrance is one language we speak. Fragrance stimulates and releases truth, opening our higher self, making us receptive to angels as we vibrate more spiritually, aligning our energy more closely with the angelic realm.The energy of angels is very powerful, so powerful that in most instances our feeble human bodies  could not withstand the force of their presence. Angels vibrate at such high rates that their frequency could easily fragment or immobilize us.

The individual guardian angels  that have been assigned to us may have the means to tap into our mortal frequency, with a little help from us in the form of prayer, right-thinking, love and perhaps, certain fragrances which put us in a state of spiritual grace.Perhaps when we are vibrating at a low emotional level - with anger, fear, hostility and guilt - they cannot come into touch with us for reasons to do with our own safety - or predestination - and can only stand by or help from a distance, invisible to us.

Today, all over the world, people are speaking openly about their experiences with angels, who assist people with warnings of rescues and offer consolation when things are tough. Some people are realizing that angels are our co-workers in positivity, although for others, angels remain the stuff of legends and fairy tales. Our perceptions are coloured not only by culture but by experience . This may come as a waking vision, or in dream state, it may be the whiff of a celestial aroma, a sound, or merely a feeling of presence. Acknowledgement is important.

If we tell our selves angels are not real, then they will not be. If we consciously dismiss angels as something from a bygone era, they may not show themselves to us. With their unconditional love, they may not wish to disturb our chosen life-view. This isn't to say they're not going to help - they do the work anyway. But if we consciously, or even subconsciously, exclude them that makes it less easy for them to cross over to the physical plane and help us. To give their help, they need our willingness to receive it.

• Behold, two (guardian angels)
  Appointed to learn (his doings)
  Learn (and note them)
  One sitting on the right
  And one on the left.
  Not a word does he
  Utter but there is a sentinel by him
  Ready (to note it)
• Koran, Sura 501:17-18

Once you start connecting with angels they're everywhere. It's like anything - your focus points shifts. From being 'blind' to angels, you suddenly notice them on cards or architecture and even in real life. Angels do not have to prove their existence to us. Angels are the thoughts of God manifest.

When we can all connect through the spark of love in our heart, then the angels will be visible. In holding love, no matter how small, no shadows can enter. When we all hold this divine spark of unconditional love, then the earth will glow and the work of the angels will be done. 

We may well smell, or see angels, looking as we expect them to - as designed by our cultural beliefs. In the Christian tradition they usually appear as sparkling white with wings, or they come in golden splendour, with halos. This may be an aspect of what Native Americans call 'shift changing' or 'shape' changing - the ability to change etheric shape and change kinetic energy into dynamic shape. The same angel energy may come to different people in different forms, as our intellect will accept. It may seem in human form and shining white or gold light. It may have two wings, or four, or six, or none, or big enfolding wings like a dove. Some people may see colourful ribes - of deep blue or turquoise, or silver and gold.

Some may see an intense diffuse light and no form as such. Some smell a fragrance, many do not. Some people simply sense a presence and call it, if not 'an angel' 'my guardian angel', or 'my guardian spirit', 'spirit guide' or 'spiritual keeper', a 'messenger' or 'traveller'. These words may describe a whole world of etheric beings that exist between humans and the deity, or these may all be manifestations of the same thing.

One thing is sure: there's something out there, and it's looking after us. Angels, speaking or not, manifesting or not, act as guides, teachers and protectors. They are consoling like a trusted parent, counsellors in life and death. They bring spiritual upliftment and balance. The word 'angel' means messenger, and whatever form they take, this is their constant role: being the link, the channel, carrying the messages between us and Heaven. The roots of many religions can be found in angel visitations. The Book of Mormon is based on 'the gospel of a new revelation': laws written on gold tablets which lay buried in the ground of a hill near Manchester - a village near Lake Ontario, New York State, USA - until their whereabouts were revealed by the angel Moroni thus:

Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole person was glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly like lightning. The room was exceedingly light, but not so very bright as immediately around his person.

Moroni can be seen atop many contemporary Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 'temples' with trumpet in hand. The New Jerusalem Church follows the teachings of the eighteenth-century Swedish mystic and theologian, Emanuel Swedenborg, who wrote of angels he had seen in human form 'a thousand times': 'I have conversed with them as man to man, sometimes with one alone, sometimes with many in company.'

Mary Baker Eddy, who founded the Christian Scientists, wrote: 'They are celestial visitants, flying on spiritual, not material, pinions. Angels are pure thoughts of God, winged with truth and love, no matter what their individualism may be.' 

Reference: The Fragrant Heavens : Valerie Ann Worwood  

On Perfumed Angel's Wings - 2

I'm inclined to believe an angel whispered in my ear, rather than it being intuition, because I have seen a shining being standing in my own living room and that wasn't intuition! Angels are very physical when they want to be, and very etheric when they want to be.

They straddle the two universes. This experiencing of them accords with the current theological position which, according to Canon Emeritus of Ely Cathedral describes angels as 'spiritual beings intermediate between God and mankind'. He adds that it's thought angels were created before mankind, and they were somehow implicated in 'the Creation's Fall for perfection', hence there are 'fallen angels'.

In New Catholic Encyclopedia, angels are described as 'celestial spirits who serve God in various capacities'. Pope John Paul the 11 has stated that angels do exist and that they 'have a fundamental role to play in the unfolding of human events'.

Religious literature abounds with accounts of angels. They feature strongly in the Bible, and the Koran, and they're known as devas or 'shining ones' in Hinduism. The sacred mountain of Kanchenjunga, on the border of Nepal and Sikkim, is known as the 'five thrones of the Shining Ones'. There are also Native American accounts of being advised by 'shining beings' during vision-quests, rather than by the usual totem animals, and stories about 'the feathered people' and 'the winged ones'.

In European art, angels grace the corners of innumerable religions paintings, put there by Renaissance and other artists who believed implicitly in their existence. In countless town and villages in Europe, angels carved in stone have been built into the fabric of medieval and later churches to protect the congregation within. 

• But verily over you
  (Are appointed angels)
  To protect you, -
  Kind and Honourable, -
  Writing down (your deeds)
  They know (and understand)
  All that ye do.
  Koran, Sura:10-12

Angels have a fragrance which, in my experience at least, precedes their 'appearance'. Perhaps the fragrance was also there when I actually saw the angel, but was 'cut out' as my senses focused intently on the vision in front of me.

I tried really hard to remember each visual detail, and was mesmerized by what appeared to be wings. Each 'feather' seemed to be a centre or vortex of energy made up of light - the spine in particular being a source of great light - yet also a route to the infinite, while each delicate strand coming off it was a chain made up of many sparkling lights.

Each sparkle on each strand had its own energy field, and together they made the form of each super luminous 'feather', which was less a material feather than an arrangement of light in a feather shape. The Overall effect was extremely powerful and awe-inspiring.

I've found the fragrance of angels elusive in the sense that it seems to have no source. It just suddenly appears and suffuses the whole body and mind. I can recall two aromas quite distinctly, neither of which I have encountered before.

One was fairly similar to a heavy, deep, exotic rose maroc. The other was a light fragrance that was sweet, and floralish, but not just floral, also resin - imagine frankincense as a flower but without the same aroma. Sometimes I will smell an angel without seeing one, and I know it's the fragrance of angels because it's so pervading and fills my nose even to the point that I feel I can't inhale any longer.

After such powerful aromatic experiences I always have a good look and sniff around to see if there was any other possible source for the phenomenon. I check my clothes for perfume; I sniff all the plants and flowers; and run through my mind who has been in the house, possibly wearing scent; but no source for the strange fragrances has ever been found. Others in the house have smelt it too - and the mystery remains long after the fragrance has gone.

People who report fragrance associated with angel visitations invariably say it was like Jasmine, rose, lilly, hyacinth or violets. Personally, I expect people use these descriptions because the actual smell is impossible to describe - as we have nothing to compare it to on earth - and the fragrance of these particular flowers is as close as we can get.

I've also smelt something like the aroma of freesias, but not quite. We should not expect the fragrance of the angels to reflect what is here on earth, as the angels are of Heaven, not earth. Indeed, as H.C. Moolenburgh MD has commented in A Handbook of Angels (1988), 'I think at times we take in the perfume of the angel hierarchies themselves.'

Fragrance is one of the sacred codes of the celestial heavens. We can in some sense consume the aroma of angles like angel food, an etheric manna from heaven, which is also angelic illumination. At the same time, fragrance invites the angels towards us, a celestial go-between. As light is contained within fragrance, it is a means by which we can communicate, a form of light transference  which carries our message to the illuminated realms.

Sometimes the fragrance of angels is overpowering, at other times it is barely perceptible, like a breath exuding a heavenly fragrance that only briefly touches the skin, a lightness etherical but tangible. Perhaps to smell an angel is to be kissed by the divine.

Reference: The Fragrant Heavens : Valerie Ann Worwood  …..Learn More...............

ON PERFUMED ANGEL'S WINGS

For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot gainst a stone.

PSALMS 91;11-12

When you're sitting around with friends and have time for a long conversation, ask if they believe in angels.

You'll be amazed by what you hear. On one such evening, I heard an account of a meeting with an angel, a rather handsome one it seems, in a bar in Montreal, Canada, on a cold, snowy night. The lady, Anne, was sitting at a table, quite near the stage, watching the band with her back facing the main area.

Suddenly she was overcome with the sensation of deep, unconditional love, and she could feel it emanating at first from the door, then passing the length of the bar at the rear of the room until it stopped. She said she smiled to herself because it was so absurd.

She knew, without having seen anyone, exactly where this person stood. It was like love-radar. And she was certain of her feelings. I knew I loved whoever was in that space, and it didn't matter whether it was a man, woman or gorilla. That's why it was so funny - in a split second, my whole outlook on life had changed.

After a while she turned around, knowing exactly where to look of course, and saw a tall handsome man standing there. She turned back, and had another laugh to herself - this was too good to be true! When the band finished - she got up and went back to her friends at the bar in the next room. Before she knew it, the man was standing behind her; she turned around and was amazed to see gold rays coming from around his head. The man had a halo! Nobody else seemed to notice. It was turning into a very unusual evening. 

'i think he was an angel' Anne told us. I've never felt so relaxed with anyone with anyone. It was a level of relaxation that is far and away more absolute than with a lover, or family, or friends, or while on my own.

⦁ It was another level of relaxation, like i'd just come extra alive.' Of course, we all wanted to know what happened to him. Apparently, they talked for hours at the bar, and he walked her back to where she was staying. The next day she would be getting on a plane to London while he planned to be in Los Angeles: they were going in opposite directions.

⦁ 'The strange thing is' she continued, 'I know we had no future, and didn't ask for, or give, an address. I knew I'd see him in Heaven, and that was enough.' Very appropriately, the bar was called  'The Rainbow', which made him the gold at the end of the rainbow!

⦁ Some people believe in angels because they have 'seen' them, even in some cases before their eyes beheld them. Other people believe in angels because they have heard their voices, or smelt their sweet fragrances and know they were near. When these things happen, there is no turning back....you believe in angels.

⦁ Accounts of meetings are often quite extraordinary - which is, when you think about it, what we might expect. Experiences are also very personal and varied, and full of love, poetry and drama. 

⦁ I met an angel twenty years ago, and so have no doubt they exist. The light and peace that angels emanate is so profoundly different from anything on earth, it's impossible to confuse it with everyday reality. The light I saw was overwhelming luminescence, shining in rays from every pore of the figure, who was beautiful in extreme.

The sense of peace that settled upon me was amazing, and it was alive in every molecule of my being.

⦁ Meetings with angels are a joyful gift, and a source of inspiration. I have no idea why the illuminated one visited me in my home at that time. I had not asked to see one, and was not aware that I needed comfort. Perhaps that first angel came just so I could know angels exist. Certainly, the memory has been there for me to draw strength from - particularly when there have been obstacles to overcome - and it will be there for me in the future. As well as the deeper certainty they bring, angels also look out for our immediate physical safety.

⦁I know  I've been helped many times by angelic beings, like when driving along, one whispered 'pull over' in my ear - which allowed me to avoid a collision, and turned out to be excellent advice.

It was not a loud voice, nor a particularly insistent one, but it had me on my feet n an instant and flying like the wind to the seashore. I reached the water just as an enormous wave poised itself over my little girl, who stood there watching the watery crest above her, oblivious to danger. I grabbed her in my arms, pulled her away, and thanked the voice from the bottom of my heart.

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Reference:The Fragrant Heavens : Valerie Ann Worwood