Many, many people have been enlightened by angels. In fact it may not be an exaggeration to say that most Light is passed down from God by the angels to the human realm. Let’s listen to two experiences of enlightenment at the hands of angels. First Judge David Hatch describes his upliftment at the hands of an angel, in the astral realms:
“Imagine youth immortalized, the fleeting made eternal. Imagine the bloom of a child’s face, and the eyes of the ages of knowledge. Imagine the brilliance of a thousand lives concentrated in those eyes and the smile upon the lips of a love so pure that it asks no answering love from those it smiles upon.
“But the language of earth cannot describe the unearthly, nor could the understanding of man grasp in a moment those joys which the Beautiful Being revealed to me in that hour of supreme life. For the possibilities of existence have been widened for me, the meanings of the soul have deepened. Those who behold the Beautiful Being are never the same again as they were before. They may forget for a time, and lose in the business of living the magic of that presence; but when ever they do remember, they are caught up again on the wings of the former rapture.” (1)
Second, Alfred Lord Tennyson describes his profound enlightenment at the hands of a Seraph. I’ve never heard a more entrancing description than Tennyson’s and so I quote it at length.
“I stood upon the Mountain which o’erlooks
The narrow seas….
“A curve of whitening, flashing, ebbing light!
A rustling of white wings! the bright descent
Of a young Seraph! and he stood beside me
There on the [mountain] ridge, and look’d into my face
With his unutterable, shining orbs.
So that with hasty motion I did veil
My vision with both hands, and saw before me
Such colour’d spots as dance athwart the eyes
Of those, that gaze upon the noonday Sun….
“I felt my soul grow mighty, and my spirit
With supernatural excitation bound
Within me, and my mental eye grew large
With such a vast circumference of thought,
That in my vanity I seem’d to stand
Upon the outward verge and bound alone
Of full beatitude. Each failing sense,
As with a momentary flash of light
Grew thrillingly distinct and keen. I saw
The smallest grain that dappled the dark Earth,
The indistinctest atom in deep air,
The Moon’s white cities, and the opal width
Of her small glowing lakes…
“… The clear Galaxy
Shorn of its hoary lustre, wonderful,
Distinct and vivid with sharp points of light,
Blaze within blaze, an unimagin’d depth
And harmony of planet-girded suns
And moon-circled planets, wheel in wheel,
Arch’d the wan sapphire….
“… my human brain
Stagger’d beneath the vision, and thick night
Came down upon my eyelids, and I fell.
“With ministering hand he rais’d me up:
Then with a mournful and ineffable smile,
Which but to look on for a moment fill’d
My eyes with irresistible sweet tears…
“‘There is no mightier Spirit than I to sway
The heart of man: and teach him to attain
By shadowing forth the Unattainable….'” (2)
I almost feel as if I should apologize for having cited so long a passage, but where else will you hear such sacred utterances as from a man who has just been illumined by a Seraph, a being from the most advanced realms of the angels, whom Archangel Michael described metaphorically as standing at the throne of God?
Not only did Tennyson derive his poetic skill from this encounter. But a poor shepherd named Caedmon was transformed into a poet by the touch of an angel.
“Caedmon was an illiterate herdsman, who did not even know the alphabet. One night he had a vision of an angel, and by that angel’s grace his poetic faculty came to life. Caedmon composed extemporaneously and even recited his hymns and poems in public.” (3)
Angels enlightened Moses, Mohammed, Isaiah, Ezekiel. They protected Elijah, Daniel, Jesus.
When Moses looked upon the burning bush, it was the sight of an angel in the midst of it that enlightened the prophet.
“And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.” (4)
If you were to ask me what my favorite film clip was of all times, it would have to be Moses, played by Charlton Heston, coming down from seeing the burning bush. You’ll have to add in your imagination the sight of the angel who enlightened Moses.
Mohammed was enlightened by Gabriel on the Night of Qadr and given the Koran to communicate to humanity.
“This is an inspired revelation. He is taught by one who is powerful and mighty.
He stood on the uppermost horizon; then, drawing near, he came down within two bows’ length or even closer, and revealed to his servant that which he revealed.
His own heart did not deny his vision. How can you, then, question what he sees?
He beheld him once again at the sidrah-tree, beyond which no one may pass. (Near it is the Garden of Repose.)” (5)
“We revealed the Koran on the Night of Qadr. … (6)
On that night the angels and the Spirit by their Lord’s leave come down with His decrees.
That night is peace, till break of day.” (7)
Daniel was enlightened by angels who surrounded the throne of Sanat Kumara, also known as the Ancient of Days. A thousand thousand angels stood around Lord Sanat.
“I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheel as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.” (8)
Just to show you how lucky this generation is, this same Sanat Kumara graces us with his presence on our radio shows. How much luckier can a generation get?
I’m pretty sure that this same “Raj,” as he prefers to be called, is the King of kings and Lord of hosts whose Seraphim servants illumined Isaiah:
“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple … and one [Seraph] cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
“… Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
“Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
“And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
“And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
“Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.” (9)
Last time we asked him if he was Quetzlcoatl, he acknowledged he was. But serving him are the same angelic hosts who minister to all the holy ones. And these same angels are here now serving us as we approach the end of a cycle and Ascension.
Angels serve many functions but the one that we probably appreciate most is that they grant us what all of us seek – the bliss, wisdom, and certainty that go with enlightenment. It is they who take us that further step along our journey that leads ultimately to the final goal – when God meets God in a moment of final and absolute enlightenment.
Footnotes
(1) Judge David Patterson Hatch (“X”), Letters from a Living Dead Man. Elsa Barker, med. New York: Mitchell Kennerly, 1914. Ebook downloaded from https://www.earthlypursuits.com/LtrLDMan/LtrLDMan.htm, 28 August 2008, 169-70.
(2) Alfred Lord Tennyson in Marghanita Laski, Ecstacy in Secular and Religious Experiences. Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1961, 401-2.
(3) Swami Chetanananda in They Lived with God. Life Stories of Some Devotees of Sri Ramakrishna. St. Louis: Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 1989, 373.
(4) Exodus 3:2.
(5) Koran, 112.
(6) The night of glory; i.e., the night of his enlightenment.
(7) Koran, 27.
(8) Daniel 7:9-10.
(9) Isaiah 6:1 + 5-10.