28. Angels Carry Thoughts from Prophet to Prophet.
28. Angels carry thoughts from prophet to prophet.28
Aquinas has some amazing teachings about angels, or what indigenous people call “spirits.” That is one reason British biologist Rupert Sheldrake and I chose Aquinas as one of our principal thinkers with whom to dialogue on the subject (along with Hildegard of Bingen and Denys the Areopagite) in our book The Physics of Angels.
One lesson that Rupert found astonishing was that if one substitutes the word quanta for “angels,” Aquinas’s angelology addresses many of the same questions that today’s quantum physics asks. “When Aquinas discusses how angels move from place to place, his reasoning has extraordinary parallels to both quantum and relativity theories” (23).
The issues that Aquinas deals with in relation to the movement of angels—continuity, discontinuity, action in place—are similar to the discussion about the movement of photons and other quantum particles in quantum theory. Writes Sheldrake: “Part of my interest in Aquinas’s work on angels was awakened precisely by seeing these parallels. I think the parallels arise because he’s dealing with the same question: How can something nonmaterial and indivisible move and act on bodies located in particular places?” (104-105). Yet angels are distinguished from quanta insofar as they employ conscious choice in their movement per Aquinas.
In discussing angels and instantaneous movement, Sheldrake cites Aquinas who says: “The beginning is in one instant and the end in another between these there is no time at all.” Sheldrake comments: “Let us say then that [a photon’s] movement is in time, but not in the way that bodily movements are” (106). Photons, like angels, can be said to exist in an eternal now where one does not grow old. A photon can be in one place at one instant, as when light leaves the sun and another place at another instant as when the flight from the sun hits something on the earth and lights it up about eight minutes later. But from the point of view of the photon itself, no time elapses. And the photon does not age in the process.
Aquinas calls angels “beings of light.” Says Sheldrake: “It is not just a coincidence that we find remarkable parallels today between angels and the nature of light.” Aquinas reminds us that angels are cosmic beings who assist with the work of the unfolding and evolving universe. Angels are not just about guarding individuals but are instrumental in “governing the universe.”
Rupert taught me a story I had never heard before about evolution—namely, that Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution along with another scientist, Alfred Russel Wallace, and they presented their findings for the first time back-to-back at the Linnean Society of London on July 1, 1858. They were very close, but eventually they separated around the question of angels. Wallace was convinced that guiding intelligences or angels would be necessary to explain the developments of the universe, and that natural selection did not fully account for the immense creativity in nature that occurred over a very limited time period. Darwin’s position, however, resulted in “a gloomy materialism which now pervades the thinking of neo-Darwinism,” including the notion that “the universe has no meaning or purpose,” comments Sheldrake (24).
Aquinas was convinced that angels or spirits play an important role in bringing the prophetic imagination alive in people. He believed that angels learn exclusively by intuition and a lot of prophetic insight derives from intuition. “The divine enlightenments and revelations are conveyed from God to humans by the angels. … Prophetic revelation which is conveyed by the ministry of the angels, is said to be divine [revelations]” (89). Dreams often play a part in the process of waking prophets up, and Aquinas recognized that explicitly. This is why he insisted that “angels carry thoughts from prophet to prophet.” The image I get from this observation is that of bumblebees carrying pollen from flower to flower.
Since Aquinas teaches that angels learn exclusively by intuition—they don’t need schools, teachers, or books—it follows that when we become more in touch with our intuition or mysticism, it is very likely that we will come into contact with angels. As we mature into our mystical brain you can expect more encounters with angels. Einstein says that intuition and deep feeling are the same thing. Angels “hitchhike” on the highway of intuition. After all, the word “muse”—from which we get “music” and “museum”—refers to those angels that accompany us during our most creative times. Many artists encounter angels or spirits in their creative moments. It wouldn’t hurt to invite angels into one’s life when one is busy solving problems or creating art.
Aquinas tells us that “angels are always announcers of divine silence” (91). Silence is surely one of the deep ways into the human heart and into divine mysteries, and it is integral to many forms of meditation in both the east and the west. But Aquinas gives credit to angels for bringing silence alive.
He is also being somewhat paradoxical in calling angels “announcers of divine silence.” Isn’t announcing always an act of speaking? Not necessarily, Aquinas clarifies—not when it comes to the divine silence, which is so deep and speaks to us deep to deep, depth to depth, heart to heart.
But Aquinas also says that the angels don’t stop with the announcing; they also assist us to understand and interpret the divine silence derived from the divine mystery. “It is necessary after something is announced to someone that they understand the announcement. In addition, therefore, because we can understand by the intellect the things that are announced to us through the angels, they themselves by the brightness of their own light help our intellect grasp the secrets of God” (94).
According to Aquinas, “angels cannot help loving, by force of nature. The will of angels is by nature loving” (102). The universe, inhabited by angels, is neither impersonal nor neutral. There is a lot of love going on. Angels are compassionate beings that care and love. Sheldrake comments again: “The gravitational field unifies the whole universe. Like love, it is unifying by its nature. But we usually think of gravitational attraction as a completely unconscious process. To introduce this element of consciousness goes far beyond the field concept of contemporary science” (100).
We have metaphors that connect gravity and love, such as “falling in love.” It is good to know that we are loved by cosmic forces like angels, since there are times when human love fails us.
Lorna Byrne, an Irish peasant woman who has been experiencing angels ever since she was two years old, says that today “there are many unemployed angels in the world.” They are here because “God knows how much trouble humans are in today and is sending many angels to earth to assist us. But no one is asking them for help.” Thus, unemployment reigns among the angelic host.
Is it time to ask them for help once more?
There is a
Double
Resurrection