Angels: What do they look like and how do they serve?
In the history of Christianity the appearance and duties of angels have come down to us mainly from the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Various passages describe them according to a human vision that was so important it was written down for other people to read. But the existence of angels is also present in the religious texts of Islam, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and the Bahá'í fatih, to name a few.
All these works are valuable to understanding the nature and purpose of angels, most often portrayed as messengers between the Supreme Deity and human beings. As angels are so close to heaven, the home of God and the Saints, they bring inspiration, consolation, guidance and protection, from higher realms.
The idea that angels can fly come to us from the Old and New Testament. In Revelation (14:6) John describes in his vision, “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven,…” In Ezekiel (3:10:19) it is written, “And the Cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight..”
After Roman Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity, in A.D. 312, artists began to paint angels with wings, suggesting their ability to travel swiftly, and with halos, indicating their holy aura. Toward the end of the fifth century, flowing robes were added to angels’ attire. In the centuries to follow artists such as Rembrandt, Botticelli, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael (both named after archangels) painted the angels in such vivid detail that those images have become part of our culture and collective consciousness.
Those depictions reflected the symbols of strength and power in the time they were painted. Angels wore the flowing robes and capes of the medieval ages. The higher angelic ranks wore gold crowns, carrying scepters and orbs, which were symbols of authority for royalty and the ruling class. Archangels were sometimes drawn in soldier’s costumes, carrying spears and skewering evil spirits. These representations were understandable to the common man.
But we no longer live in a time in which inherited royalty rules most countries, especially the United States. How do people in the 20th and 21st centuries see angels? What artistic forms would be meaningful to the modern mind?
In a world that has the rapid communication of the cell phone and Internet, how would angelic messenger skills be viewed? When jet planes, rockets and space shuttles zoom into the sky, faster than any earthly bird, how do the old images of human figures with wings hold up? Present day soldiers no longer hold spears or swords, but carry terrifying guns and missile launchers.
From a scientific viewpoint, angels may come to be seen as beings of measurable energy and light, able to bring down manifest wisdom and effect healing from higher levels of consciousness we have yet to discover. The Christian celestial hierarchy might someday be seen as layers of beings who translate and transmit the tremendous energy and light that is the Higher Deity.
The Christian concept of an angel is a messenger of God. Angels are seen as good, spirits of love, and messengers
of God. Later came identification of individual angelic messengers: Michael, Gabriel, Chamuel, Jophiel, Uriel,
Zadkel and Raphel.