Must Be Talking to an Angel
Because I am a little slow on the uptake, it occurred to me to ask a question that might seem obvious – given all the signs – but that I buried beneath several fluffy, insulating layers of NOPE. Somehow it managed to worm its way out from under the covers and would not stop pestering me until I finally dealt with it. So, with no small amount of eye-rolling at my own expense, I sat down with the Wildwood and negotiated some pretty firm terms:
What was the question [X]?
Are you an angel?
Wildwood Tarot by Mark Ryan, John Matthews and Will Worthington; Sterling Ethos, 2011
Oh you son of a- But, there is a bird on the card – the wren. And I like that the hooded man is holding up a light to see the wren, something found in the dark. Psyche and her lamp. Though we agreed, NO SUBSTITUTES. No “winged beings”. Angel only.
So then, confirm.
Wildwood Tarot by Mark Ryan, John Matthews and Will Worthington; Sterling Ethos, 2011
Welp. I’m out.
*aaaargh* Shifty bugger. On the one hand, this is a firm “Yes”; the wren repetition is a nice touch. On the other, it’s an arrows card, and the original card isn’t dedicated to a bird (there are several Wildwood cards that are), so it’s a “Maybe”.
Or am I being thick-headed again?
I rounded up the evening’s entertainment by offering him his usual chance to say something for himself, using the Maat Tarot app. The question – just so we can be very clear on this – was, “What would you like to say to me tonight that we haven’t covered here?”
Final LOLS beneath the cut (because who doesn’t like a big reveal?)…
Maat Tarot by Julie Cuccia-Watts; Blue Moon Trading, 2006
Sweet-talker.
[I am a hypocrite, I admit it. I can't get into the whole angel thing, and yet I can accept a daimon/whatever no problem. A lot of it has to do with angels being Middle Eastern and tied to all the accompanying mythology and gods. The type of gods I am soooo done with. But then, angels have their own mythology beyond all the Love&Light&Fluff, that stretches back beyond the Christian Bible.
I'm dealing with this in my usual manner: moderate-to-severe freak out; LEARN ALL THE THINGS; big ol' grains of salt; keep calm and carry on; ohhhh, what about this then?]
That sounds like a pretty straight answer to me, especially given the double wren in there. That it’s an arrows card to me doesn’t make it a maybe, but a double confirmation: it’s both ‘yes’ *and* ‘you’re on the right track’.
I’ve drawn my him several times now with wings; I don’t know how I feel about angels, either. I maybe have less of a history with the Abrahamic religions, though, as I didn’t get it beaten into my head as a kid, as we were brought up areligious; I ‘only’ absorbed it through the culture around me. For me I think the imagery (and sometimes he does have wings in the visions, but that’s I suspect more him playing to my not expectations, but ideas, maybe?) is more in the sense of guardian angel (who watches over you) than the host and choir sitting at the throne of the Big God Guy thing. I’m not sure, really, what the difference in the original Greek versions of these things were. I guess I don’t know how old the Greek term angelos is. Is it classical (i.e. Pagan)? Could Hermes be technically an angelos?
Hang on, just looked it up: Okay, Wikipedia, so shoot me, but, it says the oldest form of the word is Mykenaean, Linear B: a-ke-ro, which is interesting. It doesn’t say anything about the pagan Greek concept of angels if there was one, though, just that it means ‘messenger’, of course. I suppose that could be a purely mundane use of the word, on par with ‘postman,’ not necessarily the messenger of the Gods. Okay, hang on, looked that up too (theoi): Hermes could be called both Angelos Athanatôn, the Messenger of the Gods, or Angelos Makarôn, Messenger of the Blessed Ones, so the word did have some divine associations in pagan Greece.
I’m not honestly sure what the difference between a daimon and an angel in the Pagan sense then would be; they are all mixed up in my mind. Wait, I have an expert handy here, come here you. Oh, that helped. He said, “Define angel.”
Mine will always come back to “it’s all the same thing”; I’m sure you’ve heard/read him say that about a million times now. I think maybe you are getting hung up on definitions? Are you trying to put a very complex concept into a neat little box, and that’s not why you’re getting a clear answer? (Though again I think that was pretty damned clear, especially for your brat of a him.) Mine certainly can have angelic aspects, let’s say. Yet he is nothing but Pagan through and through just like me. I don’t know.
Also, how is Eros different from an angel? Fewer clothes, maybe?
But I liiiike to tie things up in neat little packagesssss *whine*
When I asked the question I stated very clearly that Hermes, Eros/Cupid, and any other winged being not of the Middle Eastern messenger variety does not fall under the definition of “angel” for this reading. But then, boxes, as you say. Maybe they can’t be separated out from each other completely? If I really want to pursue this line of questioning, I’ll have to go all scholarly on his ass. Accessible angelic “literature” is either all Love&Light or BIBLEBIBLEBIBLE. And him? With his behaviour? Does not fit either of these templates!
Mine’s had wings from the start, but I thought that was just pandering. Interestingly enough, he has – as far as I can understand – distanced himself from the role of guardian. What doesn’t jive in this case is the other things, like the mirror people etc. Angels are separate and discarnate, so then who was he showing me in the mirror? It couldn’t have been him, because he couldn’t have been there. Never mind the various other distinctly non-angelic behaviours he exhibits. Oh! But silly me – he’s bound to be a rule-breaker
Boxes, right? Stupid boxes. WHY WON’T YOU FIT??
p.s. Last night’s bedtime card: Maat Ace of Cups. What a charmer.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAaaaaa
There is a tenuous link to “Angelos” being an early name of or equated to -
*drumroll please*
Hekate.
I’ll be over here. Cackling hysterically.
Oh, Arrows. “NOT TO PUT TOO FINE A POINT ON IT.” I suppose. Get straight to it. ZING. Or in more modern parlance, “BAZINGA!” You’ve tapped into the angelic version of Sheldon Cooper
If you weren’t so horribly correct, this would be funny
I’ve always been a bit of a Blossom/Amy Farrah Fowler myself, so there’s that!
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