Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Ph.D

The Encyclopedia of ANGELS The Encyclopedia of ANGELS Second Edition Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Ph.D. Foreword by Lisa J. Schwebel, Ph.D. The Encyclopedia of Angels, Second Edition Copyright © 2004 by Visionary Living, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Guiley, Rosemary. The encyclopedia of angels / Rosemary Ellen Guiley; foreword by Lisa Schwebel.—2nd Ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8160-5023-6 (alk. paper) 1. Angels—Dictionaries. I. Title. BL477.G87 2003 202’.15’03—dc22 2003060147 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322–8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com Text design by Erika K. Arroyo Cover design by Semadar Megged Printed in the United States of America VB FOF 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. For Lynne Hertsgaard CONTENTS f ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix FOREWORD xi AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION xv AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST EDITION xvii ENTRIES A TO Z 1 BIBLIOGRAPHY 380 INDEX 387 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS f My deepest appreciation goes to Joanne P. Austin, who was instrumental in researching and compiling portions of the first edition of this book. ix FOREWORD f A huge fan of encyclopedias, I only recently updated thinking about them over time. Suitable for teenagers the one-volume encyclopedia I have used since child- as well as adults, experts and nonexperts, believers hood (there is no entry for “particle accelerator” in the and nonbelievers, her specialized encyclopedias (on 1950s edition). It saw me through grade school, high witches, saints, ghosts, and angels) provide solidly school, several colleges, graduate school in Scotland, researched, comprehensive, detailed, cross-cultural and back home again to a career as a teacher and writer. information on what are complex and—for many peo- It has attended more family dinners than some mem- ple highly charged—topics. It is difficult to strike the bers of my family and any number of bets have been right tone when dealing with such subjects, and settled by “going to the encyclopedia.” For a while, Rosemary Guiley has perfect pitch. Nowhere is this encyclopedias seemed to go out of fashion. I could not more necessary, and more in evidence, than in her understand this. Of course, some encyclopedias tell Encyclopedia of Angels. Here her low-key and respect- you too much about a subject, or presume you know ful presentation is just what is needed to engage a wide more than you do, and so are more obfuscating than audience. illuminating, but this is certainly not true of all of As a resource, this is the go-to book on angels; the them. A good encyclopedia is still the best first line of revisions add both breadth and depth to the original information on just about any topic, and I wouldn’t while maintaining its accessible style. This is a vol- think of beginning a research project without checking ume for looking up specific topics and for dipping the relevant encyclopedias. When students come by for into at random. As with all of her encyclopedias, I help in getting started on a topic, I direct them to the tend to do both: I start out needing to know about the set of encyclopedias in our main office, telling them to angel Gabriel and end up also reading about come back to me if they don’t find anything. Mostly, Schemhamphorae. I frequently recommend the first they don’t come back. In fact, it was while doing edition of this encyclopedia, but always with the research for my doctoral dissertation on mysticism that warning that it is not possible to read only one entry. I came upon Rosemary Ellen Guiley through her excel- The short bibliographies included after most entries lent Encyclopedia of Mystical and Paranormal are useful in directing the reader to supplemental Experience. I became an instant fan and collector of her reading. Last, the artwork is wonderful; Rosemary is work. to be commended for finding pieces—whether they Rosemary Guiley epitomizes the qualities one hopes are paintings, photos, or 19th-century sheet music for in an encyclopedist. She takes a historical and phe- covers—that not only illustrate an entry but also nomenological approach to her subject matter, report- reveal new dimensions of it. I have found that the art- ing—in a neutral and nonjudgmental manner—what work constitutes a reference resource on its own. folklore, myth, and religion have to say about angels, My religious upbringing was such that I knew about their significance, and about developments in angels to be messengers or agents of God’s will who xi xii Foreword appeared mysteriously and usually in disguise to mor- comprehensiveness, clarity, and consistency, was that tal men and women. The angels I grew up reading angels are transpersonal figures of archetypal signifi- about in the Bible were not particularly sweet, loving, cance. That is, as messenger figures between God and or delightful; their appearance was not unambiguously human beings, as intermediaries who both deliver and good news. On the contrary, angels did serious and dif- effect the divine will in the world, angels symbolize the ficult work. The Hebrew Bible is full of the delicate connection between the conscious mind and the missions entrusted to angels; missions that, according unconscious, that vast, unbounded reservoir of psyche to the Bible, changed the course of human history. from and through which the great visionaries of all reli- Angels tell Abraham that Sarah will bear him a son, and gions claim the divine makes itself known. Angels it is an angel who later stops Abraham from sacrificing appear to “move the story along”; they “force the plot” Isaac. Angels are involved in the destruction of Sodom in particular directions by shaking things up, disturb- and Gomorrah, and though they lead Lot and his ing the status quo. Understood as manifestations of daughters to safety, the fate of Lot’s wife (being turned consciousness, the appearance of an angel in one or into a pillar of salt) is a chilling lesson in what happens another form is always a revelation of some unac- to those who do not listen to angels. Not two chapters knowledged, and generally difficult, truth (e.g., the later an angel of God attempts to comfort Hagar, appearance of the “angel of death” for one obvious Abraham’s outcast mistress and the mother of his first- example). Thus psychologically, angels are agents of born son, Ishmael, with the promise that Ishmael will change and growth. The range and variety of angels be “made into a great nation.” The business of angels, speaks to the depth and complexity of the psyche; and, it was clear to me as a child, was dark, dangerous, and transcultural and transhistorical similarities among demanding. One did not trifle with angels or get in angel figures suggest that consciousness has a collec- their way; they dealt with important people and with tive or cosmic quality to it. the very very good and the very very bad. As a result I It seemed, though, that in all of this I had left out did not grow up thinking of angels as having much to the most important questions about angels: Are angels do with ordinary people, let alone as being potential supernatural beings? Do they have spatiotemporal friends or advisers. In fact it seemed safer on the existence? Can a manifestation of consciousness exist whole—the example of Lot’s wife before me—to stay as independently of consciousness? A student, respond- far away from their notice as possible. ing to my suggestions about writing a paper on angels, My view of the subject did not change much as an had this to say: “though it would probably be easier adult and as a Ph.D. student in religion. The appear- [sic] to write about angels as archetypes, I think it ance of angels was still an ambiguous blessing; what- would be much more interesting to focus on angels as ever “good” news they brought was invariably tem- created beings.” The student’s interest reflects the cen- pered by pain and suffering. Reading the Annunciation, tral concern people have today about angels—not it seemed to me that the angel Gabriel should have “what are they?” but “where are they?” But even this warned Mary: “The good news is you will bear a son, betrays, it needs be pointed out, an archetypal charac- the bad news is he will die a slow and horrible death.” ter. The student adds: “I’m not sure how much text I To be sure there was better news to come but, from the will come across with regard to that, but I find the con- point of view of motherhood, what agony Mary must cept of powerful beings with free will a compelling have known seeing those nails pounded into the flesh track.” Indeed. of her beloved child, standing helplessly by as hour Not satisfied by the psychic reality of angels, we after hour he slowly asphyxiated.

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