Angels

When I was little, my Catholic parents taught me five prayers to say every night before going to sleep. Those were:

What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would give him a lamb.
If I were a wise man, I would do my part.
What can I give him? I'll give him my heart.

Angel of God, my guardian dear.
To whom God's love commits thee here.
Ever this night, be at my side.
To light and guard, to rule and guide.

Hail Mary, full of grace
The lord is with thee
Blessed art thou among women
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus
Holy Mary, mother of God
Pray for us sinners
Now and at the hour of our death

Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
Now and forever more

Glory be to the father, and to the son, and to the holy spirit
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be
World without end

Those are the prayers that I have completely memorized to this day. When I got a little older they tried to teach me the Apostle's Creed but I've always had to think about that one when I try to recall it. These five though are etched into my mind permanently. As an adult who has spent a great deal of time contemplating my beliefs, I can't say that I still fully believe every word of every one of these prayers as a religious pluralist. However, when I feel the need to pray, these are still what my mind tends to go to automatically.

Of course, you can see that the prayer "Angel of God" is one of my go-to prayers. Lately I've been thinking a lot about the nature of angels. One of my best friends says that she doesn't believe in ghosts, but she believes that when people die, they go to heaven instead of haunting the earth and they become angels (which reminds me, I'd like to make a post about beliefs in ghosts and the afterlife soon!). When I was little I think I held the same belief. However, as an adult who has done some research, I realize that this particular belief really isn't backed up by much theological evidence (which doesn't necessarily make it less valid). It appears that according to Christianity, angels are something different and separate. I also know quite a few people who don't strictly consider themselves Christian or do consider themselves to be loosely a Christian but don't adhere to any one specific sect of Christianity that still believe in angels. In fact, I know of quite a few neo-pagans, New Age followers, Christian witches, and/or other witches who practice a sort of angel magic which admittedly I don't know much about.

Yesterday, my mother and I were at the Renaissance festival and we stopped at a shop that does tarot card and palm readings. We usually get our tarot cards read every year when we go, but last year I bought my own deck of tarot cards along with a guide book and a mat that teaches you how to lay out the cards for a full reading. I promised myself that I would learn how to read them myself although I haven't been making as much progress as I'd like, I decided to forego the reading this year in the hopes that it would motivate me to keep trying to learn it on my own. However, we still looked at the shop and realized they were selling a pack of angel cards, which to my knowledge are similar to tarot cards but involve specifically asking angels for answers. My mother has always been very interested in angels. She has a picture of Saint Michael the Archangel hanging in her house, she gave me a small statue of Michael for protection against demons, and she fully believes that she has personally seen and has been helped by angels before. She was immediately drawn to this deck and decided to purchase it. Now we'll both be trying to learn how to properly read our cards together. I've decided to look into angel magic and different views on angels a little more deeply now because of my mother's newfound interest in the topic so I'll probably try to spend some time researching it this week and may make another post about it soon.

Do you believe in angels? If so, what exactly do you think angels are? Do you think angel magic is a good thing or do you think it goes against what religion tells us? (Keep in mind for that last question that my mother is a Catholic who has always been completely okay with divination so that question would be different for her than it would be for someone else who has different religious beliefs.)