Archaeologists find images of these mysterious creatures on the walls of ancient cities and in the Roman catacombs. Such strange faces were one of the favorite themes of Renaissance artists. For several millennia, people have called such heavenly creatures angels.
In different beliefs - in different ways
The first mentions of angels can be found in the texts of the Old Testament, dated back to the year 2000 BC. Around the same time, similar creatures are spoken of in the sacred books of other world religions. The ancient Greeks called the winged creatures choirs - the goddesses of the seasons, and the Germans called the Valkyries. Among Buddhists, angels are enlightened - people whose consciousness and spirit have reached the highest stage of perfection. During their lifetime, the enlightened devoted themselves to serving the enduring values - kindness, mercy, humility and selfless help to a person in achieving their highest goal. However, Buddhist angels, like the Buddha himself, are mortal. When the time allotted to them for the path of life passes, they die in order to find a new incarnation after death.
In Chinese mythology, Tao angels are called spirits who in the recent past were people, but managed to reach extraordinary moral heights. As a reward for this, such people receive immortality and amazing abilities - the ability to levitate, travel between the worlds of the dead and the living, perform miracles, providing invaluable help to mere mortals.
The pantheon of angels in pagan religions and beliefs is extremely diverse. So, among the northern peoples - Aleuts, Khanty, Eskimos and Itelmens, the role of winged defenders is performed by the spirits of deceased ancestors, who protect the clan and its individual representatives, warning them in a dream about impending troubles or sending special signals from their world.
The Australian aborigines and indigenous African peoples consider angels to be good spirits of different elements: water, desert, land and mountains. For example, if a resident of a tribe goes on a trip along the river, then he asks the river spirits to send him a successful voyage, bringing all kinds of sacrifices to them in advance for this.
In Christian mythology, angels are kind, incorporeal beings who help people and protect them. Angels are subject to four elements: water, air, earth and fire. Each season, week, day and hour has its own patron, and each person, according to Christian teaching. have their own, and often not one, guardian angel.
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The divine essence controversy
In the second half of the 20th century, attempts were made to question the divine essence of angels and their existence in general. Materialistic scientists argued that this phenomenon has a psychological basis and is a sudden manifestation of the hidden reserves of the human brain in extreme situations, as well as in borderline states: during clinical death, with a mental disorder or the use of psychotropic or narcotic substances.
Supporters of the other version are confident. that angels are not actually messengers of God, but aliens from other planets. Numerous witnesses to the apparitions of angels describe them as tall, golden-haired creatures, outwardly similar to people, with bluish skin, in silvery or dazzling white clothes. These characteristics are very similar to the descriptions of aliens made by contactees in different parts of our planet. In support of their hypothesis, supporters of the alien version cite the most striking known case of this kind, which occurred with Soviet cosmonauts in 1984. Then, on the 155th day of the work of the next space expedition at the Salyut-7 orbital station, cosmonauts Oleg Atkov, Vladimir Solovyov and Leonid Kizim suddenly saw a bright light hitting the windows. Soon the mysterious light was extinguishedand the astronauts were able to see that seven snow-white creatures with human faces and bodies hovered in outer space next to the station. Behind the incredible satellites of the Salyut-7 were huge spread wings. Each angel was the size of an airliner. For 10 minutes, the mysterious creatures accompanied the spaceship, after which they disappeared without a trace. Later, on the 167th day of the flight, when Svetlana Savitskaya, Igor Volk and Vladimir Dzhanibekov, who arrived from Earth, joined the expedition, the angels briefly appeared again.after which they disappeared without a trace. Later, on the 167th day of the flight, when Svetlana Savitskaya, Igor Volk and Vladimir Dzhanibekov, who arrived from Earth, joined the expedition, the angels briefly appeared again.after which they disappeared without a trace. Later, on the 167th day of the flight, when Svetlana Savitskaya, Igor Volk and Vladimir Dzhanibekov, who arrived from Earth, joined the expedition, the angels briefly appeared again.
Winged saviors
So there are angels. This is evidenced by thousands of facts of meetings with them and hundreds of miraculously saved human lives. Especially often people encounter such phenomena in long-term and global cataclysms: during war, natural disasters and large-scale disasters. A large number of fantastic salvations given by angels were noted during the Great Patriotic War. In particular, during the operation to capture Konigsberg, one of the Soviet assault groups captured a dilapidated residential building, which occupied an important strategic position. The Germans tried their best to knock our soldiers out of the house, making one assault after another. At some point, the group commander, senior lieutenant Ivan Kestelev, who sat on the third floor of the building, heard the characteristic sound of an artillery shell flying towards him. Kestelev recoiled from the window opening and in the next instant, as if in slow motion, saw a metal blank pierce the wall opposite from the window. At the same time, a white, transparent human figure appeared out of thin air right in front of the senior lieutenant. An explosion thundered, a hail of fragments and broken bricks rained down. In any other similar situation, the Soviet officer had no chance to survive. However, at that moment, the mysterious alien, as if with invisible armor, covered Kestelev, on which even the smallest scratch remained after the explosion.a hail of fragments and broken bricks rained down. In any other similar situation, the Soviet officer had no chance to survive. However, at that moment, the mysterious alien covered Kestelev with invisible armor, on which even the smallest scratch remained after the explosion.a hail of fragments and broken bricks rained down. In any other similar situation, the Soviet officer had no chance to survive. However, at that moment, the mysterious alien, as if with invisible armor, covered Kestelev, on which even the smallest scratch remained after the explosion.
When Kestelev, prepared for the worst and shrinking into a ball, opened his eyes, the transparent figure in front of him was no longer there.
My angel, be with me
The facts of the miraculous help of angels were also noted during the terrible earthquake that happened in Armenia in 1988. In particular, in Spitak, after the collapse of a five-story residential building, a group of residents was walled up under the rubble. The desperate people spent four days in stone captivity. When there was no longer any hope of salvation, one of the women began to pray. Soon, everyone in the ruins joined her. Suddenly, somewhere ahead, among the overhanging beams and floor slabs, the unfortunates noticed a faint flickering light. At their own peril and risk, obeying a sudden inner impulse, the captives began to crawl in the direction where the light came from nowhere, which seemed to lead them through the tight and dangerous labyrinths. Soon, people stumbled upon a small hole through which they were able to get to the surface …
Despite the fact that a lot is known about meetings with angels - from the stories of priests, specialists in esoteric sciences, and ordinary people - at present, the phenomenon is still very poorly studied. And this despite the fact that most of the planet's inhabitants continue to hope that the disembodied helpers of God are somewhere near us. A poll by American writer Sophie Burnham, author of the bestselling book about human encounters with winged heavenly messengers, found that 48 percent of people in Germany believe in angels, 52 in France and 69 percent in the United States. In Russia, out of 100 people, 99 declared that these wonderful creatures exist, and 86 citizens of our country were sure that they had their own guardian angels …
Today, as well as centuries ago, finding ourselves in a difficult situation, we again and again turn to the higher powers for help, and leaving the house, many of us secretly utter a secret request: “My angel, be with me! You are ahead, I am behind you!"
Source: Magazine "Secrets of the XX century" № 20. Sergey Kozhushko