Encyclopedia of Angels
angels. He told me that people who went to the school down the road (the Catholic school) had guardian angels, but we didn’t need them. I thought this was unfair but didn’t know enough about angels at the time to question him further. It was not until I was in my mid-twenties that I discovered that I not only had a guardian angel, but that I also definitely needed him. This book is the result of the fascination I’ve had with angels since then. Angels are spiritual beings of light. The word angel comes from the Greek word angelos, which means “winged messenger.” This is because one of their main functions is to carry messages between mankind and God. They also serve and worship God. The concept of angels is an ancient one. Many early religions believed in beings that could freely travel between this world and the realm of the gods. Jewish legends tell us angels were created on the second day of Creation. The oldest known illustration of an angel can be found on a six-thousand-year-old stele from Ur. This shows a winged figure pouring the water of life into a cup held by a king. There are many other early examples of winged figures. The enormous parthuman, part-animal winged griffins from Mesopotamia are one example. In Assyria, the griffins were considered Cherubim. They were strange figures with human or lion faces and the bodies of bulls, eagles, or sphinxes. These figures show the close relationship astrology has always had with angels, as griffins contain the four signs of the zodiac that mark the solstices and equinoxes: Taurus the Bull (spring equinox), Leo the Lion (summer solstice), the Eagle for Scorpio (autumn equinox), and the Water Carrier for Aquarius (winter solstice). The Egyptian goddess Nepthys was often depicted as a winged figure. The ancient Egyptians believed everyone had an invisible double, called a ka. The ka was probably the person’s soul, but it may well have been an early form of guardian angel. Although wings are the most recognized attribute of angels, angels do not necessarily have wings. In fact, until the time of Emperor Constantine, wings were not usually visible when angels