The Irish Independent has a story on…angels. Not a story on the oddity of belief in angels in 2013, but rather the contrary. More like a story on angels finally getting the recognition they deserve.
Time was when you wouldn’t hear about angels from one end of the year to the next — except at this time of year, of course, when they did their duty in the Christmas story, bringing messages to shepherds watching their flocks by night.
It is in this capacity, however, as messengers and guides, that these ‘spiritual beings’ have come into the greater, everyday consciousness.
On the one hand, scare quotes on “spiritual beings,” and on the other hand, they have at last emerged into the Great Public Mind.
Angelology has always been a legitimate part of divinity studies, but like much else that organised religion has sought to keep from the masses, it has edged its way out into the larger world.
The past 10 to 15 years have seen a huge growth in angel awareness, thanks in large part to Doreen Virtue and Diana Cooper whose books, blogs and decks of angel cards have paved the way for the acceptance of others whose talents, and life path, have led them to chiming in with the ever-growing chorus of angel communicators.
What? What? What? There’s a “what?” for every clause of that. Legitimate? According to whose criteria, exactly? Organized religion has sought to keep angels from the masses?
That suggests a strange picture, in which priests and bishops hang out with angels behind closed doors in the back rooms of churches, while the masses outside sadly live their lives with no idea that there are such things as angels. Movies, greeting cards, songs, Milton, Fra Angelico, woo meisters – none of those have made a dent on the blindly secular public who’ve never so much as heard of angels.
And then the growth in “angel awareness,” as if there’s actually something to be aware of, other than the movies and greeting cards and the rest. And, “angel communicators” – which is apparently both a special talent, and one that is susceptible of growth. And yet notice that there’s no such field for ordinary secular communication. With real people you just get talking and Twitter and the like. It’s only with these Special entities that you need “communicators” – ghosts, gods, angels, witches, prophets, ancestors.
Maybe we should combine the pet industry and the unseen agents industry. Ghosts, gods, angels, witches, prophets, and ancestors should all be assumed to be living in dogs and cats. That way we can have something to touch.
In many ways, the current crop of angel practitioners suffered so that we don’t have to.
Each of the four we spoke to has gone through dark nights of the soul before they got to where they are today, living fully in the faith that they, and we, are watched over every moment of our lives.
This dreck is in an actual newspaper. Jeez, Ireland.
The Indo stopped being an actual newspaper at least a decade ago.
I blame Doctor Who.
* DON’T BLINK! *
That’s true of so many newspapers.
Independent – of what? Verifiability? Universe? Truth? Sanity? Reality? Physics? Quota? O’Reilly? Necromancy? Magic? Logic? Kettles? Jesuses? Iodine? How many letters of the alphabet can dance on a pinhead’s toupé? Gravity?
Let the devil stay up all night making angels, it’s such an inhuman work task.
In all fairness to keeping it a secret, more than 10,000 little angels were in the back with the priests from 1950-2000 that we’re now aware of. Of course, I don’t think that’s what the author was going for.
NSA = angels. That’s something the right can get behind.
Don’t miss next Sunday’s special issue, including an interview with a leprechaun and a banshee!
Come off it Pierce, eveyone knows banshees can’t talk.
Somebody has already combined the pet industry and the unseen agents industry:
http://www.angiearistone.com/working-with-animals.html
So, Ireland is infected with the same New Age meets Christianity crap all sorts of other places are. Not much of a surprise.
Angelology has always been a legitimate part of divinity studies
Well, that is right in the sense that it’s no more or less legitimate than any other aspect of divinity “studies”.
Hahahahahah. Angelology! Hahahaha what a silly word! Hee hee hee!!!
Angelology is a fine word.
It contains its own LOL.
“Angel awareness” reminds me of the Dara O’Briain line about crime:
“Crime is going up.”
“No, actually, the numbers are going down.”
“Well, the numbers may be going down, but the fear of crime is going up.”
Evidence for angels may be going down, but the awareness of angels is going up!
Video here
Old news. Snowden told us that months ago.
It’s not surprising, though, is it? This is all of a piece. If you have a society that cheerfully hands over its daughters to decades of abuse by the professionally superstitious you will have a society that can talk like this about angels. It’s difficult to know whether the writer is deceived by verbal habits or maliciously cynical. I suspect both.
I find I’m a lot more aware of them after “Angels Take Manhattan”. Whomever said “Don’t Blink” upthread: *pawbump*
Living in Ireland I can attest to angels being a “thing” here. At one point, there was even an “angel shop” in my local village selling all manner of angelic tat, at least until quite recently; it seems to have vanished.
I also live near to a hotel which has “angel conferences” along with the more usual sorts of industry-specific get-togethers that one encounters in hotels.
Come to think of it, I think it was actually more prevalent a few years ago before the property bubble burst..