Beam Me Up!

UFOs and other Holy Guardian Angels can be comprehended/framed as a collective-definition/synonym for consciousness-broadening and/or altering phenomena. The quasi-religious Visions and Voices[10]  described in „Abramelin & Co“ are similar to UFO-encounters in the circumstances of their occurrence: Half-sleep, repeated ascensions or visits to Heaven (Astral travel), cellular dissolution of the body, dissolution of the Ego, memories of unknown origin, encounters with superhuman beings or societies with interests in the individual and humanity, apocalyptic visions, changes in consciousness created by the experience, a sense of Mission. This study however, has in no way the intention to advance the thesis that UFOs and aliens are „modern“ visions of Angels and Demons. It is merely pointing out noteworthy similarities. To emphasise these similarities the terms „extra-human“ and „praeter-human“, as well as „extra-terrestrial“ and „praeter-terrestrial“ etc, will be used synonymously.

The theme of UFOs and Guardian Angels is strictly limited to the surroundings of Crowley and the O.T.O.  The following schema could categorise the visions (whether occult or UFO related): Quasi-physical events (experiences with Angels or UFOs relating to the body or to consciousness), the transmission of information, and finally the results of the changes in consciousness (creativity, mission). Within a widened concept of what consistutes consciousness, rationality and irrationality can be united as orientating powers for human behaviour.

Mysterium iniquietatis

Since the Abramelin-Text appears to be both Judaic and Roman-Catholic, it is worthwhile to go into the respective Angelogies and Demonologies of both orientations of belief. Abraham, the Author of the  Abramelin-Text, lived in the time of the highest bloom of the Roman-Catholic church, and its popularised dogma must certainly have impacted the text. In contract to this, it appears that the Judeic Cabbalah has hardly any standard expressions, so that only individual influences can have flowed into the Abramelin-Text. Due to their widely diverse complexity, these, however are only intimated here. – The Lutherian dogma is ommitted here, since the Abramelin-Text was created in the time before Luther. From the Roman-Catholic point of view, anything that does not place Jesus Christ at the center of the place, must be „Satanism“. To avoid a purely christian stigmatisation of the groups (eg O.T.O.) and individuals (eg Crowley) that appear in this work, by the use of the term „Satanism“, this terminology will used only in „quotes“.  (as far as it appears outside of the Roman-Catholic continuum, or external to specific quotations).

Roman-Catholic Angels

"In the Beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth" (Gen. 1,1), and "for the completion of the Universe- certain spiritual beings [...] without Bodies."[11] "At the same time in the beginning of Time, God created both creations, the spiritual and the bodily from Nothingness [ex nihilo] ,[12] namely the Angels and the World."[13] However "nothing is non-corporeal except only God [John 4;24], since He alone can be a non-corporeal being".[14] All his creations are characterised by a multitude of properties: The Angels are constructed of „action and potential“, of „reality and possibility“ of „substance and existence“, of „being-thus and being-there“, of „essence and existence“ yet not of „body and spirit“ nor of „matter and form“.[15] Yet form can exist in the absence of matter and embodiment and remains assembled from action and potential.[16] Since the creation cannot be uniform, one finds a hierarchy within it[17] - so it is also amongst the Angels. The Angels exist outside of Space and Time: they stand of the banks of Time, into which they can dip as needed. They posses no presience, since future events only attain their consciousness when the relevant moment „floats“ by.  Visions of the future and Free Will are mutually exclusive. The Angels are ruled by inherent Ideas: it is not possible for them to learn something: they are not able to collect individual experiences (as humans are able to) rather Angels regard the beings of creation as if with one glance and unalterable.[18] For them there exist only natural and normal and never unnatural or paranormal experiences and realms of action. It is their very immortal and unchanging nature, and relative Time- and Spacelessness, that gives them their intermediary position between God and the rest of Creation. They are praeter-human, personal beings. The final objective of every creation in the blissful, immediate regard of God, face to face.[19] Are the Human-Angelic communications therefore a rehearsal for the ultimate super-natural goal ?

God’s Test and the sins of the Angels.

All God’s creations possess free will, so also the Angels. God sets a burden of proof upon all, and a special one upon the Angels, regarding which however, we find no dogmatic pronunciations. Theologists speculate, whether some of the Angels wanted to become God themselves, or did not accept Jesus Christ, who God introduced them to in His prescience. Perhaps God ordered all the Angels to kneel down before humanity, and some Angels refused.[20]  Possibly certain Angels were jealous of the hypostatic Union with God that was made possible to humans..[21] Pride and imitation of the Son of God (Lucifer as 2. Son of God)[22] are other possible causes of the sins of the Angels. The theory of an alleged sin of the flesh on the part of the Angels from the apocryphal Book of Enoch and Gen 6,2 , related to a sin of the second order at worst[23], when seen from a theological point of view.

What ever the cause, the fight for the proximity to God, goes badly for the Archangel Lucifer[24] and his flock. Together they fall from Heaven.

The Sins of the Angels transform Lucifer into "Satan" and the fallen ones with him into the subservient Demons. The sinners receive new names,[25] that is to say Official Titles or Activity-denominators.[26] Lucifer the Lightbringer, doesn’t become the „given name“ of the foremost of the Fallen Angels until the high middle ages, according to Isiah 14;12: before this the name Lucifer is also used to refer to Christ.[27]

All beings are created for the glory of God, the good turn to Him in gratitude; Evil, however seeks a special aim.[28] "The Devil and the other Demons are created by God to be good by nature, but became Evil [by their own free will] ."[29]

The striving towards Good is now misused by the Demons for Evil. Even when they occasionally "do something Good, it is not real – their actions are always Evil. ."[30] There are no neutral Angels.[31] Their decision, which led to their Fall from Heaven, remains irrevocable.[32] The Earth now becomes the Arena of the battle of the Angels for Man.

The Destiny of Man

Man is destined to replace the fallen demons in Heaven, to take their empty heavenly thrones.[33] The Human creature is exposed to the tides of battle of the demons for the abandoned seats of the Angels in Heaven. Matter has as its main aim to keep Man from irrevocable sin, (since matter causes delay), but it also fulfills a rather special purpose as a sacrament (and in the form of sacrements), in that it expiates misused Matter as a type of medicine.

Man is created into the material world, that has no purpose in and of itself, but rather a purpose of usefulness. Matter too, was created for the glory of God. The Gnostic conception, that creation is a meaningfully invented work of Art, yet tainted with (planned) material- and marketing faults, is not recognised by the Roman-Catholic dogma.  God planted Man into Matter, since certain Angels definatively left their Heavenly thrones as a result of a single decision, taken in a state of judgement unfettered by any delaying effects of Matter.

Angels posses the most complete blessedness possible to them.  Only an insignificant addition is granted to the Angels after the creation of Man -  born from the Joy of success, in service to those they are sworn to protect.[34]

All Angels are destined to protect Man. They protect from the dangers on the way to Heaven, and especially against those who would try to barr this way by means of trickery and cunning.[35] It is no dogma rather theologically certain and morally obvious that every individual Human being is provided with a Guardian Angel.[36] The protection of the Angels is not only turned against the „Violence of the Demons“ in general, but in particular against the personal injurious demons.[37] These are imitations of the guardian angels that seduce to all the vices determined by Lucifer, and whose numbers are legion.[38] Even from birth onward the Roman Catholic church provides ritual exorcisms (ie in the Baptism ritual).

Just as the Angels, Man is tested also. The first „pact with the Devil“ was the desire of the proto-parents Adam and Eve, to expand their knowledge and ability with the help of the snake. [The Guardian Angel of Abramelins is therefore a demon from the Roman Catholic point of view].[39] To make pacts with demons means to be delivered unto Evil. The Devil is not able to be banished by the might of Man, he only obeys the orders of human in apparence. Other than God, only the Guardian Angels are stronger than the injurious demons, since they attained to greater strength by the appearance of Christ (in order to serve Man), the demons, on the other hard become „weak and impotent“ and could therefore be „overcome by the Angels“.[40] Additional to the passive punishments of Hell, the demons must also obey, which constitutes the active punishment of Hell.

With a divine dispensation the demons may temporarily leave Hell[41] and have the natural freedom to connect with humans. In accord with their Angelic nature, they can move lightning fast from one place to another, however this does take up a certain amount of Time/Space and they are not omnipresent.

Direct relations/dealings with the Angels is only possibly through the senses: by visions and voices.  Hence the Angels must take on a corporeal shape and make use of the human language. Vision and seeing, however, can also occur by means  of internal comptemplative images and the excitation of fantasy.

How does one distinguish Angels from demons? Angels can only take on human form, whereas demons can also appear in as animals. "Satan disguises himself as an Angel of Lights" (2. Cor. 11;14).[42] There is however no certain sign to distinguish demon from Angel. Demons will trick all those who enter into a pact with them, for example, the memory of man is open to them, from which they can raise images of memory anew.[43]

In the true Mystic, God draws the Soul to Himself,[44]  elevated it in extacy above the depths of sensuality, now silenced. The Angels and demons can in no more enter into the soul,[45] at most they can enter into the body,  a state which expressed itself as possession.[46] To invite this consciously and expressly as a sort of balance-disorder between body and soul, points to a demonic delivery.[47] Unnecessary discussions with the demons are to be avoided.[48] The primary purpose of the demons is to work against the Holy Guardian Angel.[49] Mystical visions and speeches, appearances and revelations can be imitated. Even the unio mystica itself can be simulated.

In the same measure as Mercy, the Holy Guardian Angel falls back from the sinning Man and yields territory to the demons.[50] On the death-bed there is a battle between Guardian Angel and injurious demon, depending on the situation the hellish spirits are so closely ranked that they no longer allow the Gurdian Angel through. After the death there is a peculiar court, in which the Guardian angel and the injurious demon oppose each other as lawyer and prosecutor. Depending on the outcome the Guardian Angel guides his client to Heaven at which point the duty is discharged, and the Human is made party to the co-regent Angel, the joy of glory, and the blissful regard of the face of God. The connection with the injurious demon is torn once and for all.[51] It is also possible, that the Guardian Angel takes the soul to the punishments of purgatory, where the demons attend to its torture. But neither Angels nor demons are to be understood as the executors of punishment. If the soul goes to Hell, all connections with the Guardian Angel are broken.

In the Orthodox churches the worship of Angels was more pronounced than in the Roman-Catholic church;[52] the Angel cult was judged as idolatrous as early as 372 by the Synod of Laodicea. The Reformation later exterminated the worship and conjuration of Angels (John. 19;10 und 22;8-9).[53]

Judeo-Cabbalistic Angels

There is no unified judeic Angel-script, rather only angelogical speculations that partially contradict one another.[54] "No official Angel cult has come into official Judaism. In the Talmud and Midrasch we find positions taken against such a cult.."[55]

In the beginning a sound emanates from the mouth of the Fatherless Father, the great name, composed of thirty letters, whose sounds form the beingless and unbred Aeons: The Angels.  The Angels are a form of manifestation of Jahweh, and one hardly recognises a difference between Jahweh and the Angels of Jahweh. Being without material existence and not the product of breeding in any sense. (Gen 16;7, 10-13, 21;17-19, 22;11, 31;11). This contradicts the Roman-Catholic dogma, in which the Angels may not be confused with divine potencies.

 Another judaic Angelogy speaks of seven highest Angels that God created first. A further tradition designates a sort of disposable Angel; the possibility of a daily passing-into-the-beyond of these Angels, once they have sung a song unto God.  

Before the Fall man is totally and completely spiritually pure, like the Angels. Patriarchs too, are elevated to Angel-status, (Enoch to Metatron) The highest Angel is either Enoch or Anafiel depending on the tradition.

Translated by Susanne Williams

[continued in Part Two]