Angels are all around us. We hear this all the time. They help us through our hardships, our challenges, our triumphs, and tribulations.
Our guardian angels. But the question arises – who or what are these divine creatures who so selflessly help us or rather why or what are they doing?
Creatures who give us messages from the Divine voice? Angels are tightly connected to the Catholic religion. However, we come across beliefs of them in Judaism and Islam. In this short article, we will explore the very beginnings of angels and how many hierarchies there are, we will lightly touch upon seraphs and Metatron.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Angels, with their origins rooted in various religious traditions, have played diverse roles throughout history, serving as messengers, protectors, and intermediaries between the divine and mortal realms.
The concept of angels is intricately tied to the nine choirs or orders, which classify them based on their heavenly duties, from the highest order, Seraphim, to the lowest, Angels.
Seraphims, the highest choir of angels, are characterized by their fiery nature, residing closest to the divine presence, and often depicted as six-winged beings, exemplifying their profound connection to God.
Among the notable angelic figures, Metatron stands out as a unique entity, traditionally serving as the heavenly scribe and bridge between the earthly and celestial realms, making Metatron a fascinating figure in angelic lore.
The Beginnings of Angels
The expression »angel« originates from a Greek translation of the Hebrew name »Mal’Akh«, which originally meant »the shadow side of God«, but later it was translated into »the messenger«.
Who angels are or what they are, is not the problem we are really concerned about, however, we need to know what is their role. Their being and existence is strongly connected to the primal Force, God or the Beginning. »We find a messenger- angel in Iranian religion who is named Vohu-Mahana[1], which means »good spirit« or »good thought«, which revealed the Truth to Zarathustra[2], alongside angel Gabriel, who (…) dictated Koran to Prophet Mohammed in Islam.« (Godwin, 1990: 8). In both religions, the role of these divine spirits is far more important that their identity. Angels are strongly connected to Bog, but also to people who witnessed them.
Most of the scripts is assumed to be found in the Christian Bible – in the Old Testament, there are only three angels are mentioned. However, mostly these mentions are not written in the canonic books of the four religions which believe in the existence of angels. Majority of the scripts were marked as a lie or herecy. Yet still these exact scripts are the base of our imaginations of the heavenly army.
Like mentioned before, the angels or the fallen angels were mentioned until the New Testament was written, yet still, there is not a single mention of Satan being evil. We may catch a glimpse of an angel named Hasatan, the competitor, however, the description is about his role, his chore in the Heavens, not about its name. His chore had nothing to do with God because it is shown, that whoever had this job was very dear and loved by God, and definitely was not Satan, described in the New Testament.
At the time of the writing of the New Testament, the third of the Heavenly Army with Satan as the leader already fell. The recollections are not a static group of information, but an everlasting intertwining of new interpretations and dinamic story-telling about the fight of good and evil.
Angel Species
Just the idea of the development of the angel-kind can be observed in multiple religions. If we look in history it is blatantly obvious that the sole idea of a winged creature comes as a result of morphing ancient Egyptian, Sumerian, Babylonian, and Perzian supernatural beings. In the 1st Century AD, this idea of the winged messenger gained mass popularity if the Jewish community and 6 centuries later, was adopted by the Muslim community. Since then, the shape, the chores and the idea of these beings has not changed.
With all that being said, the timelines and descriptions are still, some would say now more than ever, confusing and hard to understand. The constant changes of the number of Heavens, different hierarchies and departments of angels, and similarity or sameness of titles of different angels,… not even two sources of the reports can agree upon a decision of the number of Archangels. The common public will say it is seven, however, Islamic community will tell you there are only four.
And since we are talking about different hierarchies and departments of angels, it is only fair I introduce them to you for a better understanding of this article.
The 9 Choirs
Dionisius and Thomas Aquinas suggested that there are 9 heavenly choirs, which reside around the Throne, similarly to our planetary system. They gathered them into 3 main hierarchies:
First hierarchy:
1 Seraphim 2 Cherubim 3 Thrones
Second hierarchy:
1 Dominions 2 Virtues 3 Powers
Third hierarchy:
1 Principalities 2 Archangels 3 Angels
The Divine core has been described as the base and beginning of pure thoughts and the highest vibrations. Therefore the first hierarchy of angels is known to take in the highest of vibrations and thus can not be seen with a human eye.
Although there are thoughts that Thrones receive the least amount of the vibrations, being the last of the First Three, and with them we can start talking about appearances in visible, physical forms.
Throughout the script we still are able to detect the depictions of the First Three, which reminds us again that the scripts and the interpretations are endless and very confusing. That being said, let us dive a little deeper into the First Angels who sit next to His Divine Throne – Seraphims.
Seraphims
»Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh – Holy, holy, holy is Lord of all hosts, the whole Earth is full of His glory!«(Godwin, 1990: 25) is actually a song of creation that Seraphims sing while they are dancing around the Throne. This is supposed to be the ultimate and the original base of love. The creation of Life.
Seraphim are in direct contact with God, and with that they are beings of purity, light and thought, which start in the fire of Love. When they are shown to human eyes, they are described as fiery six-winged and six-headed creatures.
Symbolically they are depicted as snakes or dragons and are also known as »fiery, flying snakes of lightning,« who in anger »rawr like lions.« (Godwin, 1990: 25). A snake symbolizes youthfulness because of the snakes ability to shed the skin and reappear in a new state. Their name consists two Hebrew expressions rapha, meaning »doctor« or »healer« and ser or »higher being« or »guardian angel.«
This explanation of its name in the correlation with their symbol being a snake, we can connect to medical practices. The symbol of the snake, wrapping around a stick, was attributed to god Mercury, who was called Hermes in Indo-European space. Both of their symbolisms and imagery were very similar to the Ancient Egyptian god Thot.
And if we look at the Judo-Christian development of supernatural beings we see similarities between the previously mentioned gods and Seraphim Michael, who was also an Archangel.
Alongside Michael, there were four other, far more important, Seraphims according to some of the scriptures. Why four? Some say because there are four types of wind or directions, each rules one. This theory is in line with the idea of them having four heads. But later, interpreters corrected the statements above, saying that these four main angels were four rulers who ruled over all other seraphim. There were Kemuel, Nataniel, Gabriel, and their ruler, Metatron or better known under his other name – Satan.
We arrived at one of many peaks of confusion. As you saw in the paragraphs above, there is a mention of a few names of angels who are also known to us as Archangels. However, they were listed under Seraphims as well.
And it has also been established that Seraphim and Archangels are 6 choirs apart. An easy explanation is that »Archangel« is a title and a Choir. Therefore we can find Archangels among the Seraphim as well. The perfect example is Metatron himself.
He is not very known under this name, but he is known as the ruler of the fiery, snake-like angels. In the occult circles, his name is Satan. What is the most fascinating is his supposed sight – he is depicted as a being with 36 wings and infinite eyes.
Metatron
For the end of this article, I want to tell you some more about Metatron and invite you to learn more about him.
Most of the rabbis are convinced that this being is the greatest of all angels, for his mission is to maintain the world. For this and many other attributes he possesses, he is presented as Michael. This confusion is easy to explain – the differences between Jewish and Christian teachings, but the base is the same; Metatron is the connection between God and humankind.
Metatron is the youngest angel in the heavenly army. Other angels were created alongside the universe 15 billion years ago, but Metatron, who is 8500 years of age, was supposedly a human named Henoh who was changed into a supernatural being. The connection with Henoh was made a little clearer when we draw the lines between their missions, given to them by God. Henoh was known as the writer of the Truth and Metatron’s mission was to write down everything in the archives.
Metatron in itself is such an exciting being. On one hand, he is depicted as a warrior for Good when he defeats the sorceres of Egypt alongside Gabriel and Michael; on the other hand he is shown as this bloodthirsty angel who enjoys the sight of thousands of people being in agony and dying in the desert.
Conclusion
I want to end this article with another addition to the Metatron image – a mysterious relationship with Shekinah. The latter is a Hebrew variation of the Hindu Goddess Shakti, who we can associate with a female personification of a God. In one of the theories, Shekinah was the creator of the world. The male part of this imagery is the Creator, demirurg, which is Metatrons place.
After the exile of Adam and Eve, Shekinah was shunned as well and rabbis are certain that the one true meaning of the Torah is to reunite Shekinah and God.
In other words, the true meaning of life and the battle between the good and the evil in the reunion of the woman and the man. Some also point out the sexual duality observed in angels. They seem to be neither men nor women, however, they are presented as men, sometimes performing or displaying feminine traits.
Angels seem as complex and confusing as humans are. We have guardian angels, but we also can be guardian angels. The lesson here might be that we are all bathing in the light and love of the Divine.
SOURCES:
- Bloom, H. (1996). Omens of the millennium: the gnosis of angels, dreams and resurrection. New York
- Godwin, M. (1990). Ogrožena vrsta. London.
[1] Religion being Zoroastrism
[2] Zarathustra was a Persian prophet and a poet
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