Angelcraft

[Guest guest]

Angelcraft

by Chandler Pittman

" Angels transcend every religion, every philosophy, every creed. In fact

angels have no religion as we know it . . . Their existence precedes every

religious system that has ever existed on earth. " ~ St. Aquinas, the

angelic doctor

Archangels at the watchtowers:

Hail Raphael, Archangel of East and Air!

Divine Healer and Archangel of Healing,

I call on you to assist me in healing others.

Hail, Raphael, Blessed Be!

Hail, , Archangel of South and Fire!

The archangel of Strength and Divine Warrior,

I call on your strength to fight and work for the good of all.

Hail, , Blessed Be!

Hail , Archangel of West and of Water!

The archangel of Truth and Wisdom,

I call on you to guide me in the search for truth as I

Following my inner voice and intuition.

Hail , Blessed Be!

Hail Uriel, Archangel of North and Earth!

Archangel of Divine Light and Mercy,

I call on you to bring me to greater understanding.

Hail Uriel, Blessed Be!

Angelcraft: Introduction

Angels have fascinated humankind throughout the ages. Magickal

libraries throughout the world are filled with holy books, magickal

journals, and grimoires that depict the blessings, guidance, and

reassurance that angels provide. Archives from cultures as far back as

the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and the Hebrews describe the events and

dialogue of priests, seers, and magi who devoted their lives to personal

study and documentation of their interactions with these enigmatic

beings of light. At the core of the highest forms of magick, we find

angels. They are sought for enlightenment and comfort. Just as Wicca

is one of the many forms of the Old Religion on the spiritual rise,

equal are its growing numbers of eclectic practitioners. Pagans,

Shamans, magickal Christians, and the ever-increasing ChristoPagan

community, are searching to re-incorporate the cycles of the seasons of

the year into their into the solar and lunar celebrations - angels are

no exception to the extension of one's spirituality.

Earth-based religions reinforce the theory that to be one with the

Divine, a natural magician must be one with creation (the Earth). The

Earth is the Divine Child of cosmic manifestation. To see the beauty

and simplicity of The Creator/Creatrix - one must merely look around them.

Wiccans do not worship the earth as a Deity, nor the sun, moon, or stars.

Communing with the angels is no different. Angels should not be worshipped,

but

sought for celestial enlightenment and higher understanding.

While Angelcraft or Angel Wicca may not be a tradition unto itself, it

is a formidable way of describing one's eclectic blending of angelology

into Wiccan practices. The concept of calling angels into your circle in

addition to the elements and deities has been integrated into both

natural magick and ceremonial magick for centuries.

Angels have been known for their strength and magickal aid for many

thousands of years. Many people are finding out that the Angels can

bring much power into their magickal workings and unity of their circle.

With the popularity of Wicca on the rise in the United States, many

practitioners who are new to the craft often find it more comfortable to

work with a pantheon of Angels instead of trying to integrate Pagan

godforms into their Christian background.

Not all 21st Century Wiccans find a need to assign a gender to the

Divine. Increasingly, people are acknowledging the Divine as a

genderless Being who transcends gender and whose power runs through the

university like a thread that connects us all to the stars, the heavens,

and the earth. For Wiccans who have a natural affinity toward angels,

this approach to Wicca is a very attractive addition.

Pioneer Dion Fortune was early to see the threefold correspondence of

Christianity, Hermeticism, and the Pagan Path. She states in her

collection of articles from 1927 to 1940 entitled Aspects of Occultism,

" the different gods and goddesses of a polytheistic faith, or the angels

and archangels of a monotheistic one, are neither divine creations nor

the arbitrary products of the imagination. They are the creations of the

created, fashioned in an astral substance after a manner well understood

by the esotericist, and ensouled by cosmic forces. "

So, why another book on angels you ask? It's simple! My intention is to

present angels in a magico-religious setting that seems to have

previously been overlooked! This book is not merely about angels - but

how they can be applied to the earth-based religion of Wicca. The

precepts of Angelcraft are based on working with celestial beings of

light as applied to the sabbats and esbats of Wicca, while upholding the

Wiccan Rede.

Earth-based spiritualities have always revolved around the realization

of the Divine Force in nature and the hunter-gather practicalities, as

applied to the seasonal wheel of the year. From this concept, we get

the term (and the movie!) " practical magick. " In the past, I found few

books on angels that was practical to me as an eclectic Wiccan. Angels

were portrayed as either mysterious beings of the upper world, untouchable

icons within the Christian mythos, or entities evoked and controlled in

Ceremonial Magick.

In the past, there has been no middle ground of information. ly, I

never liked having my spiritual options limited by a human being with a

pen and a little bit of political power. This type of censorship puts

limits on my spiritual options - I refused to adhere to anything that places

restrictions on my relationship with the Divine. Most magickal books on

angels seem to drift to one extreme or the other. They are either all

but childlike, causing me to feel the urge to pick up my 64 Crayola

crayons and color in the pictures drawn inside!! Or else, they are

dry, arcane, boorish and serve no practical purpose.

While I love angels and the depth of Ceremonial magick, it can become

overwhelming quite fast. Above all, the ceremonial mystery schools seem

to have never presented angels in a practical manner. They portray

angels exhibiting attributes as unapproachable as the Supreme Being.

According to most definitions of angels, they function as liaisons

between humanity and the Divine. However, there are no books forging

this type of practical application.

This type of thinking seemed very wrong to me. How efficient is an

unapproachable messenger?