Curious Christian

Reflections on culture, nature, and spirituality from a Christian perspective

Dancing With Angels: A Curious NeoPagan Meditation

Published by

Matt Stone

2005-09-30

I was recently scanning the blog of Wiccan author Silver RavenWolf and noted she has recently published an Angelic Circle Meditation by Celestia:

…A sound jars you from your euphoria, and you listen intently. A far-away song descends from above, and looking upwards you see the glittering and sparkling of many feathered wings. You watch in astonishment, as thousands of angelic figures, dance and spiral together singing. Their words are unintelligible, but the notes descend, filling you with comfort and peace. A lone Angel begins to float toward you, beckoning you to join in their heavenly dance. At your thought, your wings begin to slowly move. You slowly rise to the waiting Angel…

I found it fascinating to see neopagans meditating on angels given the typical Christian connotations and all. Meditating on gods and goddesses, yeah I get that, but angels? Maybe they are being reinterpreted as sky elementals? Anyway, I find it intruging. I appreciate the richness of the visualisation and wonder about what shape a Christian meditation on Angels would take. There are certain injunctions that would have to be respected (Revelation 22:8-9) but approached astutely interesting possibilities could present themselves.

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6 responses to “Dancing With Angels: A Curious NeoPagan Meditation”

Gabreael

2005-10-01

As an Esoteric Christian I have studied many faiths. True Wiccian’s believe in the “God,” of the Jews (The same as Christians God), but most simply believe they are “The Others.” The others are the ones that Cain was sent to when he killed able. Most believe they were created by Gods and Goddesses from a first earth age. They even have simple little “Wiccian Tracks,” made up just like the Christian ones you can buy in Christian bookstores explaining this. They do believe in angels, but the purposes they serve to them are entirely different than Christianity. I am sure there is plenty information on the net if you would like to check it out for yourself.
Take Care,
Gabreael
http://journals.aol.com/gabreaelinfo/GabreaelsBodyMindSpiritJournal/

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Galadriel

2005-10-01

Typical Christian connotations? The assumed “meaning” of an entity doesn’t mean that other people of other faiths can’t believe in it as well – so I don’t get the comment of incongruity. All comes from the same source – no matter what name you want to call it. I thought it was a beautiful meditation, one that any person of any faith can use to get in touch with the sacred element that angels provide to all of us. By the way – did you know that angels ‘typically’ pre-date Christianity and even Judaism?

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Matt Stone

2005-10-03

Thank you both for your thoughts. As you have both raised a host of further issues I think it is best if I list them point by point.
Galadiel, you said, “True Wiccian’s believe in the “God,” of the Jews.” This begs the question as to what defines a ‘true’ Wiccan. Are you suggesting there is such thing as a ‘heretical’ Wiccan? From what I have observed Wiccans tend to be bound together by common ritual and experience rather than common creed and theology, so I am not entirely sure where you are coming from on this.
Furthermore, most Wiccans I have encountered over the years were keen to distance themselves from Christian understandings of deity. The God of the Wiccans is incomplete without his Goddess counterpart. By contrast the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is gender neutral with no counterpart. If you read Genesis 1:27 it says quite explicitly that both men AND women reflect YHWH’s image, not men alone. True, our God is conventionally referred to as a ‘he’ but that has more to do with the fact we have no gender neutral personal pronoun in our language than any theological requirement for YHWH to have masculine genitalia. As for the divinity of Jesus, I have asserted elsewhere that his gender is not an essential aspect of his divinity, not any more than his skin colour or facial features. So in short, while Wiccans and Christians both use the same word ‘God’ we use it in fundamentally different ways. If the Christian God is equivalent to anything in Wicca I would say it was the unity which Wiccans see manifested in the sexual union of their God and Goddess, i.e. not either the God or the Goddess but the underlying union itself.
As for Wiccan tracts, I have never seen these in Australia despite attending numerous Wiccan events. I suspect it is an American thing. My Aussie Wiccan contacts have never mentioned a previous earth age either or angels which is why I expressed puzzlement. I have heard of Doreen Virtue, but I’ve only seen the teens use it over here, never the hard core. But I suspect you are right and the purposes they serve them are quite different.

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Matt Stone

2005-10-03

Galadriel,
You seem to have misunderstood me somewhat. I am not denying the right of Wiccans or people of any other religion to believe in angels. I am merely querying whether we are actually using the word ‘angel’ in the same way.
By way of example, the Christian belief in angels is integrally connected to belief in Satan and demons, all of whom are angels – dark angels. Now if my past interaction with Wiccans serves as any guide I suspect there would be no room in your beliefs for a Satan figure. Correct me if I am wrong.
Can you see then why I suspect there are incongruities between our beliefs that require exploration? If we are to understand each other? Yes, the winged human motif goes way back, even to the Sumerians, but these messengers are not understood in the same way between different cultures or religions. You wouldn’t want me assuming you believed in Satan would you? But that could be a potential consequence of accepting your “all comes from the same source” comment at face value.
I agree it was a beautiful visual meditation and I though I made that clear, so apologies if it was not. But it is problematic from a Christian perspective. The problem is twofold. The more obvious is the central motif of scrying. I could use this if I reworked the pool as a metaphor for the Spirit but not use it as it stands. The second and ultimately more problematic is the moon motif which is quite obviously being used as a symbol for the Goddess. Again I’d have to modify it somewhat before I could use it.
That being said, I loved the imagery of the angelic dance. Hauntingly beautiful.

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Andrew Goodman

2005-10-22

There’s a new set of Angelic Realm cards with daily actions/meditations from Bruce Stanley, creator of http://www.rejesus.co.uk. See http://www.onearthasinheaven.co.uk

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Matt Stone

2005-10-22

Thanks Andrew, yes I am aware of the project and will be interested to see how these are received at alternative spirituality festivals.
We’ve been doing tarot style outreach in Sydney for over a decade now and this venture may open up exciting new possibilities. The cards seem reminiscent of Doreen Virtue’s “Healing With The Angels” oracle cards which are a real hit down under. One question I have though is how deep the associated meditations go.
I anticipate they will be useful for initial level engagement but I’m not clear on how they are intended to be used with / by more serious devotees. I’ll be keen to work on this when the full packs become available.

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