What Are Archangels?

FROM ABOUT.com

Archangels are the highest-ranking angels in heaven. God gives them the most important responsibilities, and they do their work both in the heavenly dimension and in the earthly one. The word “archangel” is from the Greek words “arche” (ruler) and “angelos” (messenger), signifying archangels’ dual duties. Archangels rule over the universe’s daily operation on missions from God, while also delivering messages from God to human beings.

Archangels in World Religions

Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all give some information about the archangels in their various religious texts and traditions. However, while the different religions all say that archangels are incredibly powerful, they don’t agree on the details of what the archangels are like.

Some religious texts mention just a few archangels by name; others mention more. While religious texts usually refer to archangels as male, that may be just a default way of referring to them. Many people believe that angels don't have a specific gender and can appear to humans in any form they choose, according to what will best accomplish the purpose of each of their missions. Some scriptures imply that that there are too many angels for humans to count. Only God knows how many archangels lead the angels that he has made.

In the Spiritual Realm

In heaven, archangels have the honor of enjoying time in God’s presence. Many people believe that archangels spend their time in heaven praising God and checking in with him often to get new assignments for their work on Earth. Archangels also spend time elsewhere in the spiritual realm fighting evil, say many believers. One archangel in particular -- Michael -- appears to be the head archangel who often takes the lead to battle evil with good, according to accounts in the Torah, Bible, and Qur’an.

On Earth

Believers say that God has assigned guardian angels to protect each individual person on Earth, but he often sends archangels to accomplish earthly tasks of a larger scale. For example, the archangel Gabriel is known for his appearances delivering major messages to people throughout history. Christians believe that God sent Gabriel to inform the Virgin Marythat she would become the mother of Jesus Christon Earth, while Muslims believe that Gabriel communicated the entire Qur’an to the prophet .

Muhammad

Their Names Represent Their Contributions

People have given names to the archangels who have interacted with humans throughout history. Most of the archangels' names end with the suffix "el" ("in God"). Beyond that, each archangel's name has a meaning that signifies the unique type of work that he or she does in the world. For example, archangel Raphael’s name means “God heals,” because God often uses Raphael to deliver healing to people who are suffering spiritually, physically, emotionally, or mentally. Another example is the archangel Uriel’s name, which means “God is my light.” God charges Uriel with shining the light of divine truth on the darkness of people’s confusion, helping them seek wisdom.

We are entering the holiday season for 2016. We have so much to be grateful for. Since the first time of hosting the Archangels, my life has become one miracle after another. Last year we met with Pope Francis twice!! And we just returned from working with World Leaders at Windsor Castle to help one another as we embark on this beautiful time of transformation and awakening.

Angels are everywhere and help each of us all of the time. But I think there was/is something really magical about this simple yet profound way to acknowledge angelic help. Our world is spiritual in a physical place. As we practice methods of thanksgiving and acknowledgement, our universe expands.

Welcoming the Archangels to Our House

In the email instructions that my friend sent to me, it said that I needed to make an alter with meaningful things on it and a white candle, a white flower and an apple on top of a letter with intentions written down. So yesterday we went to the store and bought three Jesus candles; two pure white ones and one that has a picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe on it. It also has a prayer on the back of it:

Merciful Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, show clemency, love and compassion to those who love you and search for your protection. May the sweet fragrance of roses reach your divine Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that He may hear our prayers, wipe our tears and give us comfort and assistance (concentrate on your own desires ), Amen

Jesus candles are usually in the Mexican Food section of the grocery stores because most Hispanic families use them regularly in their homes with their prayers. I love them and have used them for years, because they make me happy, they are pretty, safe and relatively inexpensive compared to other candles. They seemed to match perfectly for our endeavor.

We didn't have time to get flowers yesterday so this morning as we slept-in late, at 9:00am I asked Steve to hurry and go get a white flower at AJs grocery store. We needed to be ready to welcome the Angels at 10:00am. I told Spryte that we had to hurry and arrange an alter for the ceremony and for the week. She went outside to pray for a while and I gathered whatever I could find to put on top of an alter. I was trying to figure out where to put an alter in our house for this week when it occurred to me that we HAVE an alter!! Years ago, we bought an antique Chinese alter rescued from a Buddhist temple in China that was going to be destroyed by the large dam China was building. It is beautiful and has hand-painted priests on the front. Perfect! And it is in the middle of the house, in the livingroom. So I decorated it, lit the candles and Steve brought back a perfect white rose to place on our alter. We each wrote our own notes with three wishes/intentions for the earth, our family and ourselves and put them into individual envelopes. We placed the envelopes on the alter and put an apple on top of them.

It was almost 10 o’clock as I had been watching carefully on the Internet U.S. Navy Time site so we would be precise. We opened the doors and went to the front porch to welcome the Archangels at exactly 10:00am. We read from the Bible, we each said prayers and we welcomed the Angels in one by one as we closed our eyes and imagined that they were actually coming into the house; Archangel Metatron, Archangel Gabriel, Archangel Michael, Archangel Raphael, and Archangel Uriel.

I didn’t really feel that different but we went inside and began praying some more. The three of us meditated together and hummed together for nearly forty minutes, holding hands, sitting on the floor, with Teddy the Dog (God spelled backward) wanting to sleep in the middle of us. When we started walking around again, Spryte went into the kitchen and noticed the clock’s time was 9:43. She called out to me and said she thought we were supposed to welcome them in at 10am. I assured her that we did and took her to the computer to read the U.S. Navy time and sure enough, it was 9:45! We all started laughing so hard. How we made the mistake between all three of us seemed hilarious, but we realized that we probably needed to get the energy in the house right, anyway so it was probably meant to be.

I went in to find some healing music to play in the background and as I was looking, one of my Harp playing friends, Joyce Bueker’s Angel Song Program CD magically appeared. Sherry Lund, a friend and member of my board sponsored the CD so I figured that this too, was perfect. I thought it was her Christmas CD but didn’t mind. I put it on a few minutes before 10—the real 10am---and again we went to the front porch to welcome the five Archangels to our home.

The harp music wasn’t Christmas but instead, contained songs for children and the first was When You Wish Upon a Star. This touched me emotionally as we stood on the front porch and started our prayers. All of a sudden, I was engulfed in those spine-tingling shivers I get when I say that I was just touched by an angel. Everyone gets those shivers that come when the hair rises on their arms, when something unexplainable happens. And it didn’t stop. Tingling just kept happening to me, over and over.

We prayed and talked about the difference that we were feeling from the previous hour. The birds outside seemed to be singing to us and the water fountains seemed louder than normal.

I called my sister Darlene, and my mom, Ruby, and told them about all of our experiences. Mom said, just the intention to stay focused in doing well and being loving will change everything, even if someone human made up the ritual, it didn’t matter. Practicing in this way is God’s idea of faith. I love my mom, (and my sister and the rest of my family for their wisdom.)

This is the beginning of a new adventure. It’s fun so far. I wonder what this week will be like? Unusual or not? I have a feeling that this week will be incredible.

Archangels Are Coming to My House Tomorrow

Last Wednesday I met an unusual and gifted woman. She came to talk to me about StarShine Academy and some of our curriculum to help students to learn better. She is a friend of a friend of mine, a powerful business woman in Phoenix, and is a long-time Episcopalian, as I have been. I was impressed with her knowledge, kindness, background and recommendations.

As she was beginning to leave she stopped, looked intently into my eyes and said, "I feel very compelled to say something to you. It may seem unlikely and if it does not feel right, please just say so." My mind was racing as to what she was about to say. I was also in a hurry to get to my next meeting. What she said to me next caused me to stop, focus and allow my mind, on its own to block out all other distractions. The woman said, "Would you consider hosting Archangels in your home for the next week?" Stunned and perplexed by what she had just asked of me; again my mind wondering and racing about what this could possibly mean? I said, "Well, is it hard?" I know, dumb question, but that is what came up for me. I was picturing them each needing a bed to sleep in. "No," she said, "There is a slight preparation, but it is mostly an awareness and a direct communication with their presence and their blessings and help for you and your work."

As anyone who knows me knows, I need massive amounts of help. Helping to save the world demands alot of hours and constant energy. Besides, it is really hard sometimes and has many, many disappointments. So her words were magic to my ears. "Absolutely I could use the help. What do I need to know?" She gently said that she would send the directions to me by email and that again, if anything did not feel right, to  just let her know as she was just going by her own intuition.

As I assured her that I was ready for this and totally open to God using all kinds of messengers to help me, tears began to well up in her eyes, immediately causing my own to get soggy. I cannot explain the magnificence of this strange moment. I truly felt that we were supposed to be right there, right at that moment and that this calling was truly divine.

As I came home that night, the night of Ash Wednesday according to Christian customs and my own, I relayed this story to my husband. Steve is very spiritiual and has had many amazing experiences of a divine nature in his own life, so he was very interested in this story. We spent some time researching anything we could about anglels, archangels and anything else that we could find about visitations from angels.

But that night I became very depressed. I could not figure it out. It did not seem to be having anything to do with the upcoming angel visits. But I could not shake it. I prayed, I meditated, I read various religious books and the Bible, but after a few hours decided to go to bed early because I felt so awful.

Steve awoke me on Thursday morning with news that Japan had experienced a devastating earthquake that morning and said it was probably what I was feeling. I had grown up there and am very attached to the country, its people and customs.

The past two days have been surreal. I keep praying for divine protection for Japan and all of the people there and for help with the nuclear power plant. My sister Darlene, and her girls, Wendy and Cheri are here visiting from Denver. My friend and business partner, President of the Manifest Foundation, Spryte Loriano came in yesterday to stay with us and work with me on some projects for StarShine. And last night an old friend, Cassandra Denver, formerly married to John Denver and mother of his daughter surprised me by coming to a fundraising event at Soca Galleries to benefit StarShine. Melonie, who became famous for "I Gotta Brand New Pair of Roller Skates, You Gotta Brand New Key" performed with her two talented grown children for the event. It was like being at Woodstock in a little gallery in Scottsdale. The whole thing started being about love, peace and healing.

Afterward, Steve, me, Spryte, Cassie and her friend, John a famous piano player went to the Biltmore to have a glass of wine and catch up. I told them all about the scheduled Archangels' visit. Spryte said that she had been reading about angels for the past five years. We all shared stories about various spiritual interventions we thought we had in the past. They all said they wanted to welcome the Archangels with me to our house.