Monday, August 07, 2006
Saints & Angels: The TLB Prime Series
The question has been asked before - where do you find all of these angels to talk about, here on TLB Prime or anywhere really! Where, man - WHERE? Where, one presumes, in BLUE BLAZES... right? Well, aside from the Primary Source of Knowledge that there could ever be, on the subject as on any subject, of course, THE GOOD BOOK Itself - this book (see the cover, on the left here? We'll repeat it for good measure - on each paragraph!) is another important source of names and facts about heavenly attendants and their fallen counterparts as well! For it is important to admit it (and I know several of you do not want to) - but there were several angels who did fall from Grace (one cannot believe in God Alone - see; one has to take the good with the bad - in every aspect of life) and their ranks have been steadily bolstered since the dawn of mankind, with each and every human soul that embraced evil and turned exactly like them (only, in all likelihood, less powerful because they will derive both their wickedness as, most importantly, their power from the first few fallen angels - hence, the human souls that become devils or demons now are second-rate and not as powerful - logically! In fact, that is the dichotomy that I always make; "devils" are the humans who joined the evil side - the losing side. While genuine "demons" are the fallen angels who once were by God's Side - those who were once bonafide heavenly creatures. Quite a shame to ruin that condition out of sheer vanity. But that is another story...) This book is the complete compendium, extracting from EVERY POSSIBLE SOURCE the names of angels known to man! That means names that are known to Jews, Gentiles, Muslims and Mystics alike! Most people only know THREE: Gabriel, Michael and Raphael, maybe! (No - Clarence is not one, but I believe that he still is found in the book, because the lists also include illustrious fictional angels, created for a variety of "charming tales that mean to enlighten through entertainment" - and so It's A Wonderful Life certainly qualifies as THAT... Some of the angelic names listed here are truly are to pin down for even the trained eye - after all, one can imagine, who really can tell what an angel's name is? Sometimes, we meet angels and are not aware of it! Most times, they are invisible and imperceptible to our senses! None of them ever left their calling card - not in a non-figurative sense anyway! One angel comes to mind to exemplify what I'm thinking of here: AQUA! There is, reputedly, an angel named AQUA that used to be invoked in Solomonic rites (Kabbalah stuff? Ah - those Judaic priests! They knew Aqua but knew not their Messiah when He Came... sheesh!) and these rites are full-fledged exorcisms! Indeed, judging by the movies we all saw, exorcisms can be pretty rough stuff and one will need all the help one can get! If we know an angel BY NAME - we might as well give him a buzz and hope he answers the call! My question though is: is this another fictional angel? King Solomon knew of this? After all, the rite's named after him! So, he should know! To the best of my knowledge though, he was too busy frolicking with the Queen of Sheba to take note of angels' names or participate in any exorcisms - maybe even too busy to authorize them! Nonetheless, an angel named AQUA is all the explanation I need to justify my having had, for as long as I remember, the sea-faring hero AQUAMAN as my favorite childhood hero! It wasn't just the orange shirt he wore! (Orange being my favorite color as a kid!) OKAY? Good! Know thy enemy - that is always good too. However, I always felt uncomfortable checking out the lists of names of fallen angels that are provided in this book too. Everyone knows up to three of them as well - because the Bible mentions them. A fourth one - Mephistopheles - is well-known because of the tale of Faust. From Judaism comes a famous she-devil, Lilith, who would actually still be quite obscure if not for Sarah McLachlan and her "Fair" that seemed to be dedicated to her memory if not merely her example... But enough of the fallen fools; this is, after all, "SAINTS and ANGELS" on THE LUMINOUS BLOG! I'll leave "sinners and demons" up to the darkness blog - whoever does that crap! Whoever it is, have a nice trip down to Gehenna! *lol* Still, I do believe it not to be a disservice at all to gather up all the names one can find - and back stories too. Gustav Davidson did a huge job to that effect - he wanted his book to be the definite one on this subject; and it sure is. Illustrated extensively with all manners of depictions of both angels and fallen angels throughout the history of mankind, this book gives us the entire scope, from all points of views, being multi-ethnic and "inter-religious" too. One could not have been one without being the other anyway! Davidson has passed away years ago - and maybe his case is one for my other blog, "saint or sinner" now? The case be made both for and against him for having produced this book. Did he help or cause more spiritual ills by putting it all together in this manner? As often the case, only God Can Make the call! Except with extreme cases such as Hitler or De Sade, no one can readily judge a fellow man as "evil". Or even "good" - unless, again, it can be safely and assuredly assessed in some extreme cases. Only God Knows for sure, normally! We're all shades of grey. God Knows - and angels know it well, also! This dictionary though is a rare book put to print in recent years that has no shades of grey at all; it is all either incandescent or darker-than-dark here! It is all presented as is - and there are no doubts on their nature then! Such is the path, ultimately, going to be as well. One gets to a point where there is no return from. And Perdition is, at that point - once the soul is without a body - most probably a path one cannot come back from. Unless GOD Intervenes - and Is Willing! See, Muslim, Jewish and mostly "assorted Christian types outside of the Roman Catholic Church" - this is the charm of the catholic concept of PURGATORY! It offered a way out - the living could intervene too and bail out their loved ones who died "a tad too grey"for any pious soul's taste, through constant prayer on this side... But if it does not exist, well then we're all on our own. All the time. We are born alone - even twins - and we will die alone. We will fend for our soul's salvation alone too. And some do not even bother with it! But those are the agnostic or truly atheistic - the Believer will always have a buoying Life-Saver; God's Salvation, which Is Christ. And there should certainly be some Heavenly Attendants along the way, to guide us through, once the Path is Clear... if you get what I am screaming here!I believe that Gustav Davidson did bother with that aspect - greatly! And he believed that God wanted him to complete this work before he died - so that he would leave behind a complete compendium of all angels' names ever known, ever uttered or whispered or even imagined... Even if imagined, what if an angel inspired it? Isn't art, whether writing, painting, sculpture or music, inspired by the Divine? God Does prohibit graven images - if they are to become idols and the object of worship. God Would not Have Given such incredible talent to the likes of Michelangelo, Rembrandt and, yes, Leonardo Da Vinci so that these great artists create things that would offend Him or, worse still, betray Him! Unbelievers are such gnats - they wouldn't admit even this: that God Is Logical! He Giveth, He Proscribed - but it all makes sense! Like the entire intricate universe does - when you really look at it! And there are tons of examples out there of misguided so-called "creative exercises" - in all artforms! There is some art that is really devil-inspired - such as Dan Brown's most celebrated book there, for example - but I have no doubt that the magnificent paintings and sculptures of Michelangelo were inspired by God, Who Did Give him his awesome talent. And Blessed the results - since they did not result in anything misguided! God Gives us our talents - and what we do with them is what makes them good or bad. Such is the lesson I always took from Jesus' parable about the Talents! Angels could be there, at every turn, as invisible watchers - intervening sometimes, not always successfully I might add...! But like Clarence from It's A Wonderful Life - they try! Angels can be very much like us, after all - and Gustav lists those too; the ones who descended from Heaven to "know women" and sire a race of giants in the process... We all have our desires, y'know! Angels do understand that... especially cinematic versions of them! But that's another story too...
And so, under that perspective, even the fictional angels' names have more value than anything else fictional out there - for it probably is God's Will for us to see His Heavenly Attendants everywhere in nature, in the flow of time, in the entire universe, both seen and unseen!
God Inspired that in many an author - Milton comes to mind - as surely as He Inspired me today to pen this out of... thin air verily!
I did not know what to blog about this morning - and THIS came out!
Hurray for Divine Inspiration! ;)
Labels: Saints And Angels
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