One of the greatest dangers with new age thinking on the angels is actually as old as the oldest stories in the world. It is the confusion of earthly things with heavenly things; it is the confusion of the things that are below with the things that properly find their home above. And so one finds in the ancient world men bowing their heads and bending the knee to the very things that were beneath their feet. The soil, the stone, the wood taken from the tree; these very earthly items could and often did become idols because we mistook and misunderstood their participation in creation. And the more the thing from below seemed to participate in God’s beauty or power or knowledge, the more this confusion embedded itself in our common experience.
We still do this today don’t we? We find ourselves enraptured by the film and we forget quite easily that there is in fact a mind that brought it into being. Something captivates us about the human child, and we forget very often that it is only with the mystery of man and woman (and of course the hand of God) that this little one came about.
And when something evil stands before us, we can also and quite easily forget about its source, about its role in creation, and what it is meant to be but is no longer; and we can instead get lost in its beauty, its secret knowledge it too easily gives, and the power with which it enables us.
Think back to that creature Moloch, the being who demanded child sacrifice in the early books of the Old Testament. Think back to the Judaic understanding of what they called Mastema, a personality who seemed to walk among the heavens but only cast his thoughts to the destruction of those below. Think back to the Biblical Belial, who if the ancients were right, concerned himself with bestowing the greatest of knowledge on humanity to offend God and all his precepts. Think also of Tobias’ adversary Asmodeus, a powerful figure who according to tradition could topple even King Solomon, only to be bound in the end by the greater and more glorious figure of Raphael.
Why in each of these cases were people fooled? Why in each of these cases did men and women like you and I fall to their influence?
You see there it is again, we mistake the lower for the higher. Demons are angels by nature but now they have lost their footing. Demons are beautiful, powerful, knowledgeable, but now, far from being a signpost that leads to God, they are instead one of the greatest stumbling blocks for those who are seeking God on the path that is life.
Demons continue to fool people because of what they were made to be; but they lead people away from God by what we in our desperation want them to do for us.
And here is the great danger of not knowing your Faith. For an angel might propose a path that is different from the one Jesus gives; and simply because they still smell of heaven, you might make the mistake of following them.
Why can’t people discern the heavenly angel from the fallen, demonic one, especially in new age thinking and teaching? Why do people set up ‘angel altars’ and call upon these divine beings through mediums, and play a game with giants while we are all clearly out of our league?
It’s simple really. Too many of us continue to look down.