Knowledge Center ~ The Angelic Kabbalah and the 72 Angels of the Tree of Life
Looking at Angels in a Different Light.....
Through the ages, Angels have been in the religious histories, spiritual experiences, imagination, literature and art of humankind as Divine messengers, guardians and guides. While they are usually thought of in reference to God, we don’t think of them as exclusive to any one creed or culture. Indeed, Angels have somehow escaped our long history of yoking the spiritual with dogmatic beliefs! Rather, we think of them more mystically and personally, especially since so many of us have experienced their remarkable presence with particular circumstances or events at crucial moments in our lives.
Angel-consciousness has grown by leaps and bounds throughout the 20th century and continues today as more and more people have been drawn to spiritual thought and practice outside of religious doctrines. Many of us want a spirituality that addresses our daily lives and enables us to explore the “more than meets the eye” of life, and ourselves, that we often sense and are drawn to, and which religious dogmas often don’t satisfy. And deep in our hearts, we are finding it harder to believe in fear-based portrayals of a God that would exclude anyone on any basis whatsoever from Divine love, compassion and acceptance. As at least one timely and profound answer to these concerns has been the late 20th century revelation of the ancient Angelic Kabbalah, which invites us into relationship with our inner Divine through the 72 Angels of the Tree of Life which represent the Presence of Divine Light and Being in particular and unique ways within each of us. |
The 72 Angels tradition is interwoven with the mysteries of the Tree of Life, and can be traced back to at least the 12th century work of Rabbi Yitzhak Ha-Ivver (Isaac the Blind) in Provence, France (1160–1235)...Read more.
The 72 Angels' Days & Times of Support: |
The 72 Angels tradition is a whole other level of angelology. As presented in "Work & Play with the 72 Angels & Your Personal Birth Angels," relationship with the 72 Angelic Energies of the Kabbalah is about much more than invoking Angels as guardians and protectors. As "refractions," or "angles" of the Divine Light and Being, they are regarded by Kabbalists not as creations of the Divine, but as the Divine Itself -- what has been referred to in certain ancient works, and possibly in the Old Testament of the Bible, as "Angels of the Presence," and in the Kabbalah Tree of Life mysteries as "the Divine in detail," the "Faces of God," and the "edible fruits of the Tree of Life." As particular qualities of the Divine "I AM" working within, and as, the qualities of our own human isness, the role of the 72 Angels in our lives is to help us know and express who we are as a unique expression of the Divine on Earth. They do this by amplifying our soul-awareness and "activating" the Divinity within our humanity so that we might bring more of the love and truth of who we are into all our being and doing.
The early Kabbalah mystics and scholars understood the roles of the 72 Angels in both the cosmos and human life in ways that go much beyond our age-old concepts of them as "guardians" and "messengers." They are regarded as light-emanations of the Divine Itself that Kabbalah collectively calls the energetic embodiments of “the Divine Name-in-Detail." Likewise, I was inwardly given to understand them as "refractions" or "angles" of the Divine Light, which reveal the inherent diverse qualities of Its nature. I also began to suspect in my research of Kabbalah writings and mysticism with other traditions, including Christianity, that the 72 Angels were perhaps the mysterious "Angels of the Presence" that are referred to as either singular or plural in various passages of the Old Testament -- not as created beings, but as "faces," or the "Presence(s)," of the Divine Itself. At each appearance the "Angel of the Presence" would exhibit a particular attribute and meet a particular need of humankind. The correspondence to the mysteries of the 72 Angels tradition is uncanny. Indeed, there is something different about these 72 Angels -- something that connects them to the very soul-substance of humanity and how we are made, and increased, in the "image and likeness" of the Divine. In these transformative dynamics of working with the 72 Angelic Energies, I discerned the tradition's link with Hermetics and ancient alchemy, which is about transforming the base "mettle" of our humanity into the spiritual gold of higher
consciousness and being. |
Each of the 72 Angels correspond astrologically to specific dates and times in their spiritual support of human being and doing through these planes of our existence:
(1) Incarnation Days: One 5-day period in the year during which it corresponds to the physical being and life purpose, (2) Heart Days: Five 1-day periods in the year in which the Angelic Energy supports the feeling and emotional center, as well as the cultivation of personal truth and wisdom; (3) Intellect Time: One 20-minute period in the 24-hour day in which it supports the intellect plane and the cultivation of higher-mind. It is said that all 72 Angels support all of us all the time; however, the Angels that correspond to our particular date and time of birth are considered to be our personal "Birth Angels," which support who each of us uniquely are in our particular being and doing. It has also been said that work with our personal Birth Angels is most potent during their particular days and times of support that correspond to our own birth date and time. However, while our "Heart Angel" supports our particular day of birth, we may also tap into Its energies on the other 4 days in which It supports the heart plane. * * * |
My research confirmed this, for there is indeed a tradition known as the "Hermetic Kabbalah," which began to be connected to the Angelic Kabbalah in medieval times because both traditions are about transformation. Kabbalah says that these 72 "Angles" of Divine Love-Light serve as transformative awakeners and amplifiers within us of the many energetic qualities of the Divine "I AM" of Love and Truth imprinted at every level of our hue-man beingness and which are reflected in the diversity of humanity. As expressions of the Divine Heart, the 72 Angels enable us to draw on particular aspects of our own inner Divine in our days and hours of challenge and potential, and also help us to know what qualities of the Divine we are here to uniquely express.
Going Deeper. Years after publication of Birth Angels, I was compelled to create a work that would give each of the 72 Angels a voice for our time and a dynamic presence in our daily lives. And thus in 2013 I began the Birth Angels Book of Days, which would encompass five volumes of Daily Wisdoms with the 72 Angels spanning their five cycles of daily support over the entire year. The inspired co-creation of this work began the next transformative journey of my own life, which is still ongoing.
Ultimately, the Wisdoms say, and as I've experienced, it’s not about what we must do to be “more spiritual,” but rather our willingness to allow awareness of our inherently-Divine nature to emerge and expand into all our feeling, thinking, being and doing. Always, the Wisdoms remind us, it is “the softer, receptive side of will that is willingness” which brings us into the full power of our Divine-Human beingness. This doesn’t mean the capitulation of our human will – but rather the recognition that “Thy Will” is the will of the Divine that is so very personally and relevantly present within us as our own truest will, which is to express here on Earth, in physical life, the purpose and potential held within our soul.
In this we come to know that Divine-Self realization is about the full engagement of all our Divine and Human aspects – not a matter of our humanity “getting out of the way,” but rather “becoming the way” -- echoing perhaps what mystic-scholar Andrew Harvey calls, the "divinization of our humanity." By realizing that even what we consider to be the grosser “humus” of our humanity is also Divine, we can honor our flesh and bone, ego and personality as co-creators in the manifesting life of our soul on Earth – not to be shamed or diminished in their importance, but ennobled and purposed by the soul-light within.
Ultimately, the Wisdoms say, and as I've experienced, it’s not about what we must do to be “more spiritual,” but rather our willingness to allow awareness of our inherently-Divine nature to emerge and expand into all our feeling, thinking, being and doing. Always, the Wisdoms remind us, it is “the softer, receptive side of will that is willingness” which brings us into the full power of our Divine-Human beingness. This doesn’t mean the capitulation of our human will – but rather the recognition that “Thy Will” is the will of the Divine that is so very personally and relevantly present within us as our own truest will, which is to express here on Earth, in physical life, the purpose and potential held within our soul.
In this we come to know that Divine-Self realization is about the full engagement of all our Divine and Human aspects – not a matter of our humanity “getting out of the way,” but rather “becoming the way” -- echoing perhaps what mystic-scholar Andrew Harvey calls, the "divinization of our humanity." By realizing that even what we consider to be the grosser “humus” of our humanity is also Divine, we can honor our flesh and bone, ego and personality as co-creators in the manifesting life of our soul on Earth – not to be shamed or diminished in their importance, but ennobled and purposed by the soul-light within.
If you are interested in how I came to the Angelic Kabbalah, I invite you to check out the article "My Spiritual Journey."
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I invite you to watch this video presentation on the 72 Angels tradition with Charlotte McGinnis and the Namaste Center in Flat Rock, NC in June 2012. Disclaimers: (1) Since my subsequent "inspired co-creation" of the Book of Days, a 5-volume series of Daily Wisdoms with the 72 Angels starting in June 2013, I was able to get more clarification about the history of the tradition in the 20th century, (2) I've come to understand more deeply the mysteries of interaction with the 72 Angels, and (3) I will never slouch in public again! :-)
For information about discovering your personal Birth Angels, click here. |
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Usage Permission: You may quote from this article, but please credit Terah Cox and link to this page.
Image credits: Fresco Angel detail, "The White Angel," c. 1224-35, Mileseva Monastery in Serbia, artist unknown;
Depiction of Isaac the Blind (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_the_Blind)
Angel/leaf imprint from pottery dish (graphically altered): Lisa Knaus 1994 (or '99);
Image credits: Fresco Angel detail, "The White Angel," c. 1224-35, Mileseva Monastery in Serbia, artist unknown;
Depiction of Isaac the Blind (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_the_Blind)
Angel/leaf imprint from pottery dish (graphically altered): Lisa Knaus 1994 (or '99);
