Tuesday, January 12, 2010

What does an angel look like?





Poetry
By Butternut Squash

Imperishable
God’s Words Whispered Obliquely
Mirror Creation


(another haiku for you)



I have been thinking a lot about angels lately, probably because Christmas has just gone by and I have been watching the Christmas trees pile up on the curbs and the angels disappear from windows. It occurs to me that what I know about angels is mostly from Renaissance paintings, Christmas cards and the nativity story. I have never read a book on angels other than the Bible, though I know that there are several available.

Some people say that we all become angels when we pass on. Others say that we are angels to one another in the present moment. When my grandmother was on her death bed, my aunt said, your grandmother has just seen an angel. And so I asked her, what did it look like. “Beautiful, I guess,” was all that she said. She was very ill, so I didn’t press for more. But I have always wondered what did she see and how did she know that it was an angel?

A few years ago, I was in a shop of crystals and rocks. The owner and her assistant were laughing while watching people walk through the door. “What’s the joke?” I asked. They told me that they had rearranged a bunch of crystals when they cleaned their shop. Something about the way that they had arranged the crystals was making people loopy when they walked through the door. I walked over to the door and put my palms out. Much to my surprise, there was an electrical flow in the air. I could feel it quite clearly. There were three large crystals, about 10 feet apart, forming a triangle that seemed to generate a very strong circular flow. Standing in it, I could feel energy enter one palm and shoot out the other. I felt like I was standing in a giant crystal radio kit. As I stood there I could feel a release of tension from the muscles in my back, neck and shoulders.

I closed my eyes and enjoyed the waves but when I opened my eyes, I saw that one of the women who had been laughing moments ago had her face buried in her shirt and she was crying. When I asked her what had happened she said that she saw an angel on either side of me. I couldn’t resist. What did they look like? Her description was that they were shafts of light that came from heaven. She could not see them when looking directly at them but only askance. How did she know they were angels? She just knew.

If you have seen an angel, I would love to know what it looked like.

Peace.

20 comments:

  1. I've known human angels, souls with heart, people who warmed you in their embrace.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know I saw an angel once. Maybe twice. But the one time I'm sure I saw one, I was in my studio apartment, lying in my bed. And, without a sound, a white shape, or a light came down into my room from the ceiling, as if gliding through the air. I couldn't see the whole form, just what looked like angel wings. And it couldn't have been a light from outside (as my logical side later tried to argue) because it didn't fall along the wall or the furniture. It glided through the air itself. I'm not sure why it appeared at that particular time, except maybe I was meditating more during that time, and feeling more centered than ever before. And I was going through a lot of painful changes. Anyway, that's my angel story.

    Lovely haiku and photos!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am surrounded at home by angels, from small cards, to a very large tapestry hanging in my living room, quite an eye catcher!
    Ages ago when I was working at a cosmetic counter at a major dept.store here, I was in the midst of making a huge spiritual decision. You couldn't tell anything of the sort by looking at me. Suddenly I spotted two very lovely women walking down the aisle, seemingly heading for me. They did stop in front of me. The older woman, who seemed to be the mother, handed me several pamphlets, smiled and said "I think you'll like these,". I took what turned out to be a series of spiritual and religious articles, and watched them turn and walk away. Angels, just delivering a much needed message? Why not?

    ReplyDelete
  4. butternut what a post! when i was little, angels were a lady - pale skinned, with white nightgowns and white wings who smiled kindly. then they became qualities of energy present at extraordinary events. now i know them as pure love that erupts much like solar flares across the human experience, directing the flow of energy on behalf of the one great pure love. my dad had a great medicine wheel in his backyard - he told me about the crystals and how you could enter the medicine wheel at different points for different purposes and to achieve different effects. have a lovely day. steven

    ReplyDelete
  5. The fact that you could feel the energy in the crystals, and cause your companions to become visible says, to me, that you're a very pure soul. From what I have read of your work and your travels you probably have more that a couple of angels with you. Love the photos of your snow angel too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The angels I see look like a child in the snow!
    Wonderful post.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a beautiful story! I like that description - the columns of light too bright to look at directly.

    The Sufi acupuncturist says that we sustain benefit from angelic intervention more often than we can imagine. I believe him.

    In Judaism, angels are simply energy signatures carrying out divine deeds. Some only exist for a split second, others "live" for hundreds of years. They can be as small as an atom or become really big - up to 1/3 the size of the Earth. (Ya gotta wonder what rabbi thought that one up!)

    In Judaism angels don't really have personalities, there exist for a purpose, and when that purpose is fulfilled they merge with God again.

    Always liked that idea.

    xx

    ReplyDelete
  8. The best part of this story is reading your comments. Beautiful and astonishing replies, every one!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Angels have kept me busy in my mind since last christmas as well. What an amazing experience you had. I already feel for a long time that I have 2 guardian angels who got me out of trouble several times. Never seen them. I also believe in human angels. People who are here to help you.
    Half a year ago in stoneweavers blog she said that if you wanted a sign from your angel you ask him for a feather. I did that and the next day my house was covered in feathers. My daughter took a white feathered boa to work in the morning, because after that she had a dress up party (she was dressed up as an angel with wings and a halo on her head)I was so focussed on the feathers that i even didn't realise she was dressed up as an angel.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I loved this story Butternut. I've not seen an angel, but I certainly have been helped by them. This was a wonderful story to read today. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  11. You have a great blog here. I like checking out travel blogs much like yours at times. I have a blog myself which I hope will be a great resource for those looking to go on vacation. I want everyone to get that "vacation feeling" every time they come to my site. You know what I'm talking about.

    I'd like to exchange links with you to help spread some traffic around between each other. Please let me know if this is possible. Until then, keep up the good work.

    Jason
    ThatVACATIONfeeling.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. My show schedule has started again. Off to Durham, NC today. I'm loving your stories. Peace.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I hope you have a great show, with much sucess.
    I don't think i've ever seen an angel,but i've felt what i hoped was one. more than once. If we believe it, that makes it true, right?
    love your snow angel.
    ♥ lori

    ReplyDelete
  14. I had a encounter with a angel one time.I was in my livingroom practicing my singing. After I got done hitting a high note,I saw a bright light appear from the ceilling.I forgot what happened after that encounter with my angel.I believe they appear in times of desperation or they just heard me singing up to heaven.

    ReplyDelete
  15. God's Holy Angels look much like people, except you can't "see" them. They come in various sizes and yes, some appear to have something that looks like wings. Not all of them appear to have wings though. Most are dressed in a robe type garment with a belt of some sort. Satanic angels can appear in almost any form, shape, size, male, female, animal, etc. How do you know the difference if a satanic angel tries to appear as a Holy Angel? Well they usually have cruel intentions and they will eventually show their true form if you look close enough, long enough or question who their authority is! Hope this helps you.....

    ReplyDelete
  16. ive seen the angel of death ...black robe ,,long feather like fingers and no face ..was scared as hell ...seen him or it a few times at my home

    ReplyDelete
  17. I think I saw an angel once. It was summer, it was dawn. I was waking up from my sleep. It was still dark, but all of a sudden it became very bright. I rose from bed and went to the giant window that faces west, to the dock and lake. I saw a row boat approaching the dock parallel to the land, a very bright light was in the boat. I run downstairs and out the door, through the yard to the dock. When I came face to face with this luminous creature, i felt a big wave of love and was amazed by his beauty. He was a young boy, blonde curls, blue eyes, golden skin, white robes. I didn't see wings cause he was surroungded by a brilliant halo of light. I didn't feel scared at all, i was wow how lucky to meet you. He asked me if I wanted to go for a boat ride and I accepted immediately! Apparently while I just stared at him in total peace and glory hours must have gone by, because now the beaches were starting to get populated. He started rowing to one of the beaches where there were children and neighbours that I knew. Once the boat was at short distance from them i said hello and they started talking to me but they didn't talk to him, they couldn't see him. I rowed back to my dock. I was too scared now to ask any questions. He said he wanted to swim and so we swam for a bit and shared many laughs and felt again very relaxed. Then we got out and stood on the dock. I was going to start making all this questions, why couldnt they see you, why did you come, what are you, what is your name? But before i could ask anything he looked straight at me and from his heart to mine came this ray of light that filled me with so much warmth, clarity and love I thought I was going to explode. Just as I thought I was going to die of heart love explosion he said to call him when i needed help and disappeared. I woke up from my dream, I was so happy, so warm, my sking crawling with pleasure, the biggest smile on my face, all anxiety gone, I felt grounded with the soft weight of peace. I felt so much love in his prescence and it lingered after he was gone. That was mesmerizing enough enough to me but what happened after that was even more shocking. I drew back the bed covers to get up and as I sat on the bed and put my hand down to push myself up, I feel something sharp and it is one of my platinum diamond small hoop earrings. I pick it up wandering how the hell it got open in the night as they close really tight. I wasnt too surprised to see that it wasnt opened, the backing still on. So I realize in a panick I must have torn the lobe of my ear while thrashing in my sleep, oh no... But I look down to find blood stains on my white pillow cases but nothing...I feel for blood in my lobe but nothing feels strange...I jump and go look in the mirror expecting to find my earlobe cracked open. But it was fine!!! just as it looked last night when it held my diamond platinum hoop earing safe in place...Questions questions? How would you feel? I felt Joy, love, peace in enourmous amounts and also a little fear that this is trascendental,the veil lifted, my life forever changed.

    ReplyDelete
  18. This description is from Anonymous. My apologies, but I did take out the strong language although I know it was not meant to offend, only to emphasize...

    I have been searching the internet for a few days now cause and angel just visited me, it was not what I was expecting…There was this It was just extremely powerful. There was this Youtube video, which is very very dark, though it says at the beginning of the video that you should pray to archangels for protection because.. or well I felt that this video could attract some very dark energies, but the video also said to ask for protection. Though I can’t say that I’m very Christian, but I believe there are angels and such.. Anyway, while I was asking for protection from Michael I believe it was, I was lying in my bed, trying to connect to the other side, so to speak. I tend to use the third eye as some kind of a gateway.. It just connects me in a way. This thing appeared in my room, it had no face like we do, it does not move like we do, it does not speak like we do and it can never look like me and you or like a human. It was clear this being was from a higher level of existence, though I must say it was nothing like I would imagine when you think of angels, but it was no doubt it was an angel. I couldn’t see it while looking directly on it, then I just saw a part of it I had to look away to see its outline. While looking directly at it you could see this white light with purple glow in it. The outline had the same color or presence.. Don’t know how to explain it. You could see it was powerful the whole attitude it had was like there was nothing that could mess with it so to speak, but in no way hostile to me or humans. It was just extremely powerful.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Dear Readers, I want to thank you for all of your comments and observations. This post is by far the most visited of all my hundreds of posts. It seems that every day someone asks what an angel really looks like. I marvel at all the different perceptions people have had. Feel free to continue to comment. I do look over every comment before I post it to check for advertisements, language, and appropriateness but other than that I will add it to the discussion.

    ReplyDelete
  20. About ten years ago around New Years Eve. My husband's friend and his girlfriend came to visit us. The girl and I were both kneeling and facing each other opposite a coffee table. She pulled a photo of her sister from her wallet to show me. She passed the picture to me and I looked down at a beautiful young woman in the photo. Instantly I felt but did not see an Angel standing in full human form behind the girl who had passed me the photo. The wings and palms of the angel stretched out and the Angel said sympathetically 'Only the good die young'. I saw and heard this in my mind but not with my eyes or ears. I knew then that the girl in the picture would die. I took my husband outside and told him what I'd experienced and suggested we take the girl back to her sister's holiday unit as I felt very concerned for her. My husband refused and a few hours later, the girl in the picture took a running leap off a ten story balcony and killed herself. We had to drive the girl and her boyfriend to the police to identify her sisters body. I felt much gulit for many years as though I was supposed to prevent it. My rational side tells me that the angel was there because it was not preventable but I never could understand why the angel appeared to me. I like to think the angel was there to give strength to the sister when it happened and that maybe I unwittingly caught a glimpse of the angel.

    ReplyDelete