Do pagans believe in angels?

At some point, you may begin to wonder about the concept of guardian angels. For example, maybe someone told you that there is one who watches over you ... but angels are not found more commonly in pagan Christianity? Do pagans even believe in angels?

Well, just like many other aspects of the metaphysical world and its associated community, the answer will really depend on who you ask. Sometimes, it's just a matter of terminology. In general, angels are considered a kind of supernatural being or spirit. In an Associated Press poll taken up in 2011, nearly 80% of Americans reported believing in angels, and this also includes non-Christians who participated.

If you look at the biblical interpretation of angels, they are specifically used as servants or messengers of the Christian god. In fact, in the Old Testament, the original Hebrew word for angel was malak, which translates to messenger. Some angels are listed in the Bible by name, including Gabriel and the archangel Michael. There are other nameless angels that also appear in the scriptures and are often described as winged creatures, sometimes they look like men, other times they look like animals. Some people believe that angels are the spirits or souls of our loved ones who have passed away.

So if we accept that an angel is a winged spirit, who does a job on behalf of the Divine, then we can look back on a number of other religions besides Christianity. Angels appear in the Qur'an and specifically work under the direction of divinity, without their free will. Belief in these ethereal beings is one of the six basic articles of faith in Islam.

Although angels are not specifically mentioned in the beliefs of the ancient Romans or Greeks, Hesiod wrote of divine beings who watched over humanity. In Works and Days, he says,

"After the earth has covered this generation ... they are called pure spirits who live on earth, and are kind, free from harm and guardians of mortal men; for they roam everywhere on earth, dressed in mist and watch cruel judgments and actions, donors of wealth; also for this royal right they received ... Because on the generous earth Zeus has three ten thousand spirits, observers of mortal men, and these watch over wrong judgments and actions while wandering, dressed in fog, over the whole earth ".

In other words, Hesiod is discussing beings who wander in helping and punishing the human race on behalf of Zeus.

In Hinduism and the Buddhist faith, there are beings similar to the previous ones, who appear as deva or dharmapala. Other metaphysical traditions, including but not limited to some modern pagan religious paths, accept the existence of such beings as spiritual guides. The main difference between a spiritual guide and an angel is that an angel is a servant of a deity, while spiritual guides may not necessarily be so. A spiritual guide can be an ancestral guardian, a spirit of place or even an ascended master.

Soul Angels author Jenny Smedley has a guest seat at Dante Mag and says:

“The pagans consider angels as beings made of energy, adapting more closely to the traditional idea. However, pagan angels can appear in many forms, such as gnomes, fairies and elves. They have no reverential fear of angels as some more modern religious practitioners are and treat them almost as friends and confidants, as if they were here to serve and help man rather than being merely enslaved to one god or goddess. Some pagans developed a ritual to help them communicate with their angels, which involves creating a circle using the four elements, water, fire, air and earth. "

On the other hand, there are definitely some pagans who will tell you clearly that angels are a Christian construction and that pagans simply don't believe in them - that's what happened to blogger Lyn Thurman a few years ago after writing about angels and was chastised by a reader.

Because, like many aspects of the spirit world, there is no concrete evidence of what these beings are or what they do, it is really a question open to interpretation based on your personal beliefs and any unverified personal gnosis that you may have experienced.

The bottom line? If someone told you that you have guardian angels watching over you, it's up to you whether you accept it or not. You can choose to accept it or consider them something other than angels, for example a spiritual guide. In the end, you are the only one who can decide whether these are beings that exist under your current belief system.