Is there a difference between an Angel and an Archangel?
Traditionally, the image that we have of an angel or an archangel is the image of the cherub, the chubby angel or the winged man messenger of the divine world. It is the image of the heavenly creature who guides men, protects them, blesses them, and guards them from dangers. It is the image of the spiritual being sent by God who guides the people of God, the saints, the prophets, the sons of God.
This image is conveyed by monotheistic religions and more particularly by the Judeo-Christian tradition through the Old Testament, the Apocalypse and the New Testament which relate numerous stories in which angelic and archangelic beings rub shoulders with Men.
We have been formed, educated in this conception of the world. Today, we mainly solicit Archangels and Angels as celestial entities that can bring us protection, healing, a blessing or some kind of help for our lives.
Can we see beyond these images and look at the creation of the world in a different way to understand what the Angels and Archangels really are in the divine hierarchy?
For the Essenes, the reign of the Archangels and the Angels are realities superior to the reign of men. Superior not in value but superior in the hierarchy of worlds.
What is this hierarchy of worlds?
In Genesis, God created the universe in 7 days. In the Essene cosmogony, these 7 days are 7 stages, 7 kingdoms of existence from the most subtle to the most dense.
These 7 kingdoms, which are the Gods, the Archangels, the Angels, the Men, the Animals, the Plants, the Minerals, form the alliance of the worlds, the alliance of Light which through the 7 spheres of existence unite the sky and the earth, the Father and the Mother in a single divine order.
This divine order is unique, it is the great body of creation. Each of the kingdoms, each of the living beings has its place and its function.
At the origin of all, there is a unique body, a unique being, the ray I, the divine body of the Light, the unique word of God, God.
This unique being is without limit, without beginning, without end because it IS by essence. It is life. God is life.
To understand the creation of the world, and the appearance of celestial as well as terrestrial creatures, we can imagine that from this primordial being, a ray appeared.
This ray, coming out of the source, made appear a hierarchical order through the 7 kingdoms of the creation.
Thus appeared the 3 kingdoms of the invisible world, of the world of the Father: the Gods, the Archangels and the Angels and the 3 kingdoms of the visible world, of the world of the Mother: the animals, the plants, the minerals. Men are located in the center of these two worlds. They are part of the realm of the Mother and at the same time have the ability to ascend to the higher worlds. This is why Man, in his capacity as a human being, is an intermediary between worlds.
These 7 kingdoms live in different spheres but in reality, they are a single body, which manifests itself in different ways.
That is why, in absolute terms, we can say that Angels and Archangels are not different. They are simply different realities, different planes of manifestation of the same body, the body of God.
That said, in their particular manifestation, Angels and Archangels are quite different because they carry functions and attributes that are unique to them.
Angel or Archangel, can you really tell the difference?
The term "Angel", comes from the Greek word "angelos" which means the messenger. The term "Archangel" is made up of the prefix "Arch" which means both the command, the beginning, the fact of being at the head of. That is why, in monotheistic religions, Angels are considered as messengers of God and Archangels are like leaders among Angels. All, Angels and Archangels have different functions, more or less close to men.
These views are not wrong, but they are not complete either.
In reality, Angels and Archangels belong to different kingdoms. Therefore, they have different natures and different functions in the celestial order.
But this does not mean that they are separate. From a certain point of view, Angels and Archangels are facets of the same body, the one body of God.
The Archangels are a world of universal laws. They address humanity through universal, cosmic teachings.
The Angels are a world of facts, of virtues, they are the protectors of the souls of men. In this they are a more individualized kingdom, closer to humanity;
The Archangels
The archangelic kingdom is the second kingdom of creation, which stands in the invisible worlds of the Father.
They are the divine laws. That is, they are the ones who maintain the cosmic order, the universal order, they are the guarantors of the great universal harmony.
Everything is governed by laws. The cycle of life is law, God is law. Everything that happens on earth is the result of God's law. You cannot stand outside it because it is universal. If you transgress it, you will pay the price in one way or another. For in the absolute God reigns.
The Archangels speak to humanity in a general way. They teach the great laws, the great functions and universal principles. They transmit the great keys of wisdom to live on earth in conformity with the divine world.
"You reap what you sow" is a universal law.
"This is the law: you can only see on the outside what you carry inside you, what you are." Gabriel 191 verse 23
"Everything that appears is right and according to God's law. Nothing, absolutely nothing can be outside his law." Michael 292 verse 52
In this, the Archangels have taught the envoys of God, the prophets, the initiates to pass on their knowledge and to be its representatives for all mankind.
The Angels
"How can you know an Angel if you don't know what he or she looks like in your heart? You can only know an Angel if you are on the path of living with him on a daily basis, if he teaches you how to live well and if you carry out his word. Then, indeed, a bond will be forged and an understanding can be born from the living relationship; you will approach the Angel until you become an Angel and know what an Angel is" Michael 209 verse 32
The reign of the Angels is a reign of virtues. Not virtues as we humans might conceive them, but virtues in their eternal origin, unchanging divine forces.
Angels are not beliefs but facts, facts that are in potential of realization in man.
In this vision of things, Angels are more real than men because they are not in the process of becoming. Men are in the process of becoming, they are constantly seeking to become what they think they are, what they think they are. Angels are.
Take for example peace. Peace is a great virtue to which everyone aspires. In the world of man, peace does not really exist. It may manifest itself in inner or outer states that are emanations of his being, but it is not really.
The Angel of Peace is peace as it is in its essence. It is a virtue which is the body of manifestation of a higher reality, it is a manifestation of God, that is why we say that Angels are messengers of God, while the world of man is a changing, moving world.
Of course, we can catch glimpses of peace, but this will be nothing compared to the superior reality of the Angel of Peace.
A man or a woman who wants to live with an Angel must offer him a space within himself.
A man can pray, invoke as much as he wants the Angel of Peace, if he does not give him space in him, to incarnate him in his daily life, the Angel, the being of peace, will not be able to really come and live with him.
Of course, prayer and devotion can be a help, a preparation of the inner earth, to welcome the subtle aura of the Angel, but it is by living, feeling, tasting, sharing peace in his word, in his look, in his gestures that the Angel will really be able to make himself a body in the man, in the woman.
In this the Angel is a protector, a guardian, because virtue is a rampart against the dark forces.
-A future article will go into more detail about the angelic kingdom, explaining the difference between the Solar Angels and the Lunar Angels, who can also be called "Guardian Angels".
The path of ascent to God
The Angels, the Archangels are not of our world. If we want to approach them, we must prepare ourselves, educate ourselves, train ourselves to welcome them in our lives.
Because contrary to the generally accepted ideas, the Angels and the Archangels are not at the service of men. Angels can guide men, they can be for them a blessing, a protection, they can bring them healing, sweetness, inner awakening, ... but it is above all so that the man, the woman can serve the divine world, that is to say the divine in them as in all beings.
To evolve, to go back to the source, men must rise towards the Angels because only the Angels can open the doors of a higher perception and then walk towards the archangelic and divine realms.
The man who awakens to the reality of the higher worlds is the hope of the worlds because since the creation of the world and the fall of mankind, all the kingdoms of the Mother have been placed in bondage. Just look at how animals, plants or minerals are treated or considered today. To give them back their dignity, Man must recover his original memory, the one that is in him the alliance of the worlds.
Man must recover the memory in him that he is one with the stone, one with the plant, one with the animal but also one with the Angels, the Archangels, the Gods. Man must remember that he is a universal being, that he carries within him all the kingdoms, the whole universe.
The creation of the world is the inner creation of the original man.
Man is not isolated from the other kingdoms, he is called to live again with the virtues, to incarnate them on earth, to live again in the great body of the divine laws to commune with the great universal harmony.
The ancestral theurgical knowledge of the Essenes to communicate with the superior worlds
Since Enoch, the Essenes have developed very precise theurgical techniques for communicating with the higher worlds.
It is not enough to believe that one can enter the spiritual worlds without preparation in order to communicate with higher realities. This would be a great illusion.
To do so, one must study, understand, know the laws of these worlds and know what it takes to gain access to them. As in everyday life one does not address one's friend or one's banker in the same way, one does not address a man or an Archangel in the same way.
This knowledge is a very precise sacred science which answers to fundamental laws. This is why the Essene community is a community of priests and priestesses who are constantly training, working on themselves, praying in temples, meeting every three months to celebrate the Round of Archangels and thus honor the alliance of the worlds.
By celebrating the Round of the Archangels, all the kingdoms of creation are placed in victory because it is the body of God that is honored.