February 2015: The Angel's Angle

Astral Facts, February 2015

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

The Angel’s Angle

This time of the season usually brings the Astral Facts of life into the limelight with the celebration (or at least acknowledgement) of the Lunar New Year (often referred to as the “Chinese” New Year) with one of the significant animal representations.  This year has drawn attention more so than in the past, for it has been designated the Year of the Sheep, which has caused some debate since this animal motif has been referred to as the Year of the Ram and the Year of the Goat in the past.  This issue of translation is rather interesting, for the natures of the sheep, ram, and goat certainly have quite different connotations.

While that might be a combative linguistic issue in some cultures, it does strike a chord in connection with cultural concepts in “Western” culture related to the nature of angels.  In the past, theologians used to argue over how many angels could dance on the head of a pin, which might be relative to the fields of the natural sciences and the nano-technology of using subatomic forces in medicine to scrub the cholesterol out of clogged arteries.

 

However, from a different perspective, I often hear people refer to a departed loved one by mentioning the person is “an angel in heaven now, looking down at us.” 

Is that our human destination?  Will we have wings if we live a good life before we die?   The film It’s A Wonderful Life back in 1946 suggested that this wouldn’t be automatic.  In that one, Clarence, an angel 2nd class, needs to do some kind of “post-graduate” work to earn his wings.  If that doesn’t ring a bell, here’s a 2-minute overview of his situation:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2ZZUu2HUuo

Certainly for most people, “Clarence” did not fit the standard image of what an angel looks like.  The Renaissance painters have offered us a variety of concepts.  Are angels dressed in white with accompanying white wings, playing beautiful soothing music –  on harps or violins?  On the other hand, are they purveyors of justice, striking the evil doers with the laws of the cosmos, with wings not quite so downy soft and white?  Perhaps even they mete justice with a heavenly sword, clad in colors other than white with wings of darker shades?

How can we be sure about the identity and credentials of apparent angels? 

In 1928, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, perhaps because of his first name, pondered this same question, which he posed in a literary medium in his short story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.” 

Essentially, the story begins on the third day of a terrible storm, with thousands of crabs coming ashore and filling the home.  The baby is sick and the father is killing the crabs and tossing them back into the sea.  On the beach he finds the washed up nearly dead body of an old man with enormous wings.  Not sure if this is an angel or just a shipwrecked Norwegian fisherman (for he speaks only a few words of a strange language), the family puts him in the chicken coop.  When the people hear of this, some say he is the angel of death coming for the child, but hundreds line up to see him, so the family charges five cents admission and becomes wealthy.  The priest suspects he is not an angel, for he does not seem to understand either Latin or Aramaic.  People lose interest in the old man when a circus comes with a girl who was hit by lightning and transformed into a giant spider with a female head.  As the old man’s molting wings grow new feathers, the wife is upset by having a home “lousy with angels” getting in her way.  Naturally, I have omitted many details as well as the ending but the full text is here: http://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~cinichol/CreativeWriting/323/MarquezManwithWings.htm  Also, a 2-minute YouTube overview is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bljRZP1QYlg. 

Of course, the question is: was he an angel or not?  If so, the angel of death blown off course or a guardian angel, like Clarence, using unusual methods to protect the child? In my classes, when students have “taught” this story in group presentations, sometimes they have asked their classmates to (1) draw a picture of an angel and then (2) draw a picture of the old man in the story.  Similarities and differences have been a source of lively discussions.

Which opens up another can of worms or perhaps delicious tidbits:  do all angels have wings?  One of the prime sources of content is the Bible.  What does it say?  Often when people refer to angels, the image is of some kind of powerful supernatural winged being.  However, the Bible often presents angels quite differently.   For example, when two angels visit the home of Lot, nephew of Abraham, Lot prepares a feast for them and the angels eat the food.  The people in the town (Sodom) and Lot himself refer to them as “men” and the fiancés of Lot’s daughters do not leave the town when the angels warn it will soon be destroyed.  Even Lot himself hesitates to leave (New Scofield Study Bible, Gen 19.1-16).  In other words, none of the participants in the story recognize that these are two angels.  Since they don’t recognize them, this means they did not have wings or dress in the shiny white clothing most people imagine angels wearing.   In fact, the angels seem to have taken on physical attributes, for they are able to eat the food, and they are able to physically pull Lot and his womenfolk away from the impending disaster.  Earlier the Bible in Genesis 6:4 says, “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and bore children to them” (New Scofield Study Bible).  According to the notes accompanying this verse, “sons of God” refers to fallen angels.   Thus, this verse also indicates that angels were understood to be similar to humans in structure and appearance enough to mate with the human women.   These angels not only appear in human form, but they have physical substance as well – in fact enough to cause pregnancy in the women.  These two examples indicate that angels can and do have appearances similar to humans and sometimes humans cannot tell if they are angels or not.  Also, the concept that angels are supernatural and only spiritual in essence seems to be contradicted as well.  These angels exhibit carnal behavior and desire not usually associated with the typical concepts people have about angels.

Throughout the Bible, angels are referred to as being “ministering spirits” and “messengers,” as well as fulfilling other roles as servants.  Thus, the concept of people going to heaven to become angels might not fit the general concept of the role of angels or of people who have passed away.

We might ask ourselves if perhaps we have unknowingly encountered angels.  I suspect I had such an experience many years ago when I was an adjunct instructor living on an even tighter budget than now.  My in-laws were getting old, and my wife and I decided she should go to visit them with our children.  Since they live in Austria, the trip would be expensive, and I was hoping to sell my vehicle to pay for the trip.  Unfortunately, my asking price of $1900 for a twenty-year old vehicle with over 300,000 miles wasn’t getting any response. 

I drove the family to the airport, and on the way home, I knew I had a $1200 payment due in a few days, so I decided to reduce the price down to that amount (still about $1000 over the Blue Book listing).  When I got home, I picked up the phone to call to change the ad, but I didn’t hear a dial tone.  I said “Hello? Hello?” and a voice responded, “Do you have the car for sale?”  I affirmed this and gave the caller the address.  In 20 minutes he arrived, a lean, 40ish year old with tattooed arms and wearing dusty jeans and a soiled sweatshirt.  He said he had done a short-term construction job nearby.  He took the car for a five-minute test drive, asked where the nearest bank was, and came back 30 minutes later with 19 $100 bills.  Since I had a free tow from AAA, we arranged for them to come and follow him to his home in Seattle with the car.  My wife had taken our camera with her to Austria, so while we waited we used one of those disposable cameras to take a last picture of me with the car, him by the car, and then I used up the final frames of the car on the truck leaving. 

The next day, the camera disappeared.  I was the only one home and I had left it on my desk, but it was gone the next day when I looked for it to take for developing.  My only conclusion was that he was an angel sent to help us.  Perhaps many of us might reflect to identify such experiences as well.

Another question might relate to the role of animals.  Here is a recent suggestion by a syndicated cartoonist:  http://www.gocomics.com/wumo/2015/02/25.  Or, as Mark Twain has noted:  “Heaven goes by favor.  If it went by merit, you would stay out and the dog would go in.”

  

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a somewhat regular presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices during the academic year.