Matter of Intelligence
Dedicated to Kelvin, Craig & Sarah-Ann – for your fascination with Angels.
When Yahweh’s creative Word was born ("God from God, Light from Light, One in True Being With The Father"), and all creation came into form, among the primal creation to attend to the divine Word were the choirs of spiritual forces, which we can recognise as angels. The Divine Word, or in Greek Logos, identified by John as Jesus, present in fullness of the Father's glory as the Son.
To the Mind of the Most High, and attending to the Word that brought into being all creation, these attendant spirits form a particular function or intelligence.
Now the intelligence we speak of here is supernatural, and as spirit is non-corporeal, these species are illuminated solely by Divine grace. Supernatural intelligence is fueled by the Divine Mind, and hence, these catch and reflect the divine light of Yahweh, whereby they have specific presence and abilities. These angelic intelligences have no particular will, as these attend solely to the divine Mind and Word.
As functionaries, they assist in the natural order of the cosmos, but have limited tangible contact with matter. These intelligences influence and rule but as spirit, they have limited ability to inhabit and take full form.
It seems that at some point immediately after creation, as these supernatural intelligences perceived the mystery of the Divine Word, some were confounded and entered into everlasting praise (hence we have the first two choirs of angels – seraphims and cherubims), others formed themselves to act according to the divine Will and ruled over men and nature.
Some others, imperfect in their intelligence, failed to grasp the magnitude of the Word, and failed hence to cooperate perfectly with the divine Will. These failed to be fully illuminated, being more confounded by what they cannot comprehend, while the other angels subjected their intelligence to the full glory of Yahweh.
These failed intelligences did not diminish or cease to grow, and glow. They merely do so less perfectly and in the process, do not cooperate with the divine order for the cosmos. As a result, their perception of all life, creation and power is limited or retarded, and they simply cannot proceed along with the divine Life in all creation.
Naturally, as intelligences, these angels become adverse to Light, Life, Love as illuminated by divine grace, but become attracted to matter as their juvenile minds try to comprehend by their own limited power, its mystery. These adverse intelligences, which we now recognise as fallen intelligences, are imagined as curious, noisy, wicked, mischievous, disobedient, and some times unruly, loud, angry, ferocious, evil.
The Word became Incarnate, at the beginning of all things, and entered in to our history as Jesus. We capture a specific moment when the fabric of space and time is rent by the creative Word and hear the heavenly hosts proclaim the glory of Yahweh (Luke 2:13). For as angels have no sense of time, but at that moment they perceive the Incarnate glory of God dwelling among men, they reflect the divine Mind and proclaim: Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!
As they enter back into heaven, they are preoccupied with the divine Mind, and the affairs of men are again dominated by their specific functions. What does this mean?
To someone like you, or I, it means that as we use our faculties of mind - our neurological abilities to observe, record, analyse and express - we process particular knowledge and make specific value judgments or decisions, we act in similar fashion to these angelic intelligences simply by our ability to perceive. When we act on these thoughts and perceptions, we exercise human will. This independent will of men, to act upon their mind’s work, reflects the divine in a limited way, as time and space only permits us to perceive the effect of our thoughts and actions, a moment by moment. With Yahweh, the divine mind is not restricted by any dimension of our cosmic reality.
How do angels play a part? When we are inspired by our conscience, to designs of nobility and goodness, beauty and compassion, gentleness and affection, the instinct and intelligence at work in our minds mimic the nature of these angelic intelligences.
Thus, institutions in our human society that govern our lives, rule over our state are given to sovereignties, dominions, principalities, and powers. These are the angelic powers that guard and rule nations, authorities and community leaders. While some exert good influence and reflect the glory of the Will of Yahweh, some others thwart the divine plan. Therefore, when you imagine nations at war, genocides caused by policies of tyrants and despots, destructive ideologies and sciences that debase human morality, all these, which come out of the machinations of the human mind, are partly influences of adverse angelic intelligences. Human will, still, is the catalyst by which these intelligences find expression and form in our world.
When we think, and muse, and fantasize, we are communing in part with the angelic intelligences. Hence the word “muse” comes from the Hellenistic idea that the daughters of Zeus inspire us to produce art and other great works of civilised society.
Specific to each human person, as does all created species as well, is an angel that is assigned to us. As creatures we are summoned to praise, proclaim and act as functionaries of Yahweh in the world. We differ from angelic forces because of our corporeal form, which the divine Word is the original design. We can cooperate and function in ways which reflect the divine Will and Mind and Word, through our creative thoughts, our inventive minds and our productive acts, including human creative reproduction.
We can also flounder in our ability to cooperate with the divine and inspire terror, pain, anguish, hurt, and much that subtract from the Joy that is reflected in the presence of the Divine.
What does this mean: when we pray, we come into spiritual union with the illuminated hosts of Yahweh. When we disconnect, we are preoccupied and subject to the influences that rule the cosmos. All ethos, rules and regulations are extensions of these angelic intelligences that serve the divine Order, subject to natural law.
When and how then do we see angels? They are manifest when we cooperate fully with grace, and Christ as the Incarnate Word is made visible. We also see angelic intelligences at work when we browse the newspapers and look at the language of life. We also see angelic influence at work when natural law is in action, be these in the form of tectonic plate movements, earthquakes, disease and plagues, storms and balmy weather. We know angelic forces are at work as all these manifest the creative Mind of Yahweh.
Just as all laws are subject to Yahweh, all equations, formulas and matrices are patterns by which the human mind seeks to express the divine. These are never perfect reflections of ultimate Truth. We can describe the physics of light but we will never master completely the mystery of quantum science. We may explain in our own ways the fusion processes with the stars, but there remain myriad related mysteries that will boggle our minds.
Does this mean that the human mind is forever meant to be limited? Well, like angelic intelligences, we were firstly meant to reflect the mystery and glory of Yahweh, and not take that glory for ourselves by attempting to comprehend its working by sheer personal effort.
In fact, the eternal anguish of the juvenile and fallen, adverse angelic forces, lies in their obstinacy or refusal to allow the effect of supernatural grace to operate with their intelligences. Hence, these spirits suffer incompletion and a sense of futility. All these are also mimicked in human intelligences when people cannot get what they desire greatly or are obsessed with some issue.
Finally, we come to the idea where adverse angelic spirits forcefully operate in our world through cooperative human agents. A person who is attracted to pornography for instance and indulges in it, is subjecting himself or herself to this particular type of evil influence. The idea - or intelligence - that personal physical pleasure can be derived materially through pornography (in any form). As he or she subjects himself or herself with this act, it is submission to temptation, sometimes described as “repression” by exorcists.
When such a person progresses further, it is described as “obsession”. When the evil influence takes full control (or dominion and power) over such human will and life, it is regarded as “possession”.
For anyone who have been enticed by the nonsense of Dan Brown’s the Da Vinci Code and fascinated as a result by the character of Mary of Magdala, here is a juicy titbit. In Luke 8:1-3, we are introduced to her, and some others:
“Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.”
Far from being an adulteress, Mary of Magdala, was someone whom Jesus had released from specific adverse angelic influences.
Now, when we regard Mary, mother of Jesus as Queen of Angels, do we now perceive the beauty of that title? Mary, for her obedience, faithfulness and humility as the archetype Poor of Yahweh, reigns mindfully as one who cooperated fully with the divine Mind and Will, in order to bring the divine Word Incarnate into this world. She is therefore queen of all angelic influences, and hence we are able to find inspiration in her as a model of Christian virtue, power, etc. and seek her intercession before the throne of Jesus Lord and Saviour, in the Mercy Seat of Wisdom and Throne of Grace.
No wonder, when the angel was sent to her, Gabriel was astounded to find her filled with the grace of Yahweh, perhaps reflecting even more eloquently than any spirit might be able to, the glory of Yahweh’s goodness: she is one highly favoured, blessed, overflowing with grace… and whom the power of Yahweh overshadowed, just as this same power overshadowed Jesus at Tabor (Transfiguration) and the waters of Galilee (Baptism).
When Yahweh’s creative Word was born ("God from God, Light from Light, One in True Being With The Father"), and all creation came into form, among the primal creation to attend to the divine Word were the choirs of spiritual forces, which we can recognise as angels. The Divine Word, or in Greek Logos, identified by John as Jesus, present in fullness of the Father's glory as the Son.
To the Mind of the Most High, and attending to the Word that brought into being all creation, these attendant spirits form a particular function or intelligence.
Now the intelligence we speak of here is supernatural, and as spirit is non-corporeal, these species are illuminated solely by Divine grace. Supernatural intelligence is fueled by the Divine Mind, and hence, these catch and reflect the divine light of Yahweh, whereby they have specific presence and abilities. These angelic intelligences have no particular will, as these attend solely to the divine Mind and Word.
As functionaries, they assist in the natural order of the cosmos, but have limited tangible contact with matter. These intelligences influence and rule but as spirit, they have limited ability to inhabit and take full form.
It seems that at some point immediately after creation, as these supernatural intelligences perceived the mystery of the Divine Word, some were confounded and entered into everlasting praise (hence we have the first two choirs of angels – seraphims and cherubims), others formed themselves to act according to the divine Will and ruled over men and nature.
Some others, imperfect in their intelligence, failed to grasp the magnitude of the Word, and failed hence to cooperate perfectly with the divine Will. These failed to be fully illuminated, being more confounded by what they cannot comprehend, while the other angels subjected their intelligence to the full glory of Yahweh.
These failed intelligences did not diminish or cease to grow, and glow. They merely do so less perfectly and in the process, do not cooperate with the divine order for the cosmos. As a result, their perception of all life, creation and power is limited or retarded, and they simply cannot proceed along with the divine Life in all creation.
Naturally, as intelligences, these angels become adverse to Light, Life, Love as illuminated by divine grace, but become attracted to matter as their juvenile minds try to comprehend by their own limited power, its mystery. These adverse intelligences, which we now recognise as fallen intelligences, are imagined as curious, noisy, wicked, mischievous, disobedient, and some times unruly, loud, angry, ferocious, evil.
The Word became Incarnate, at the beginning of all things, and entered in to our history as Jesus. We capture a specific moment when the fabric of space and time is rent by the creative Word and hear the heavenly hosts proclaim the glory of Yahweh (Luke 2:13). For as angels have no sense of time, but at that moment they perceive the Incarnate glory of God dwelling among men, they reflect the divine Mind and proclaim: Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!
As they enter back into heaven, they are preoccupied with the divine Mind, and the affairs of men are again dominated by their specific functions. What does this mean?
To someone like you, or I, it means that as we use our faculties of mind - our neurological abilities to observe, record, analyse and express - we process particular knowledge and make specific value judgments or decisions, we act in similar fashion to these angelic intelligences simply by our ability to perceive. When we act on these thoughts and perceptions, we exercise human will. This independent will of men, to act upon their mind’s work, reflects the divine in a limited way, as time and space only permits us to perceive the effect of our thoughts and actions, a moment by moment. With Yahweh, the divine mind is not restricted by any dimension of our cosmic reality.
How do angels play a part? When we are inspired by our conscience, to designs of nobility and goodness, beauty and compassion, gentleness and affection, the instinct and intelligence at work in our minds mimic the nature of these angelic intelligences.
Thus, institutions in our human society that govern our lives, rule over our state are given to sovereignties, dominions, principalities, and powers. These are the angelic powers that guard and rule nations, authorities and community leaders. While some exert good influence and reflect the glory of the Will of Yahweh, some others thwart the divine plan. Therefore, when you imagine nations at war, genocides caused by policies of tyrants and despots, destructive ideologies and sciences that debase human morality, all these, which come out of the machinations of the human mind, are partly influences of adverse angelic intelligences. Human will, still, is the catalyst by which these intelligences find expression and form in our world.
When we think, and muse, and fantasize, we are communing in part with the angelic intelligences. Hence the word “muse” comes from the Hellenistic idea that the daughters of Zeus inspire us to produce art and other great works of civilised society.
Specific to each human person, as does all created species as well, is an angel that is assigned to us. As creatures we are summoned to praise, proclaim and act as functionaries of Yahweh in the world. We differ from angelic forces because of our corporeal form, which the divine Word is the original design. We can cooperate and function in ways which reflect the divine Will and Mind and Word, through our creative thoughts, our inventive minds and our productive acts, including human creative reproduction.
We can also flounder in our ability to cooperate with the divine and inspire terror, pain, anguish, hurt, and much that subtract from the Joy that is reflected in the presence of the Divine.
What does this mean: when we pray, we come into spiritual union with the illuminated hosts of Yahweh. When we disconnect, we are preoccupied and subject to the influences that rule the cosmos. All ethos, rules and regulations are extensions of these angelic intelligences that serve the divine Order, subject to natural law.
When and how then do we see angels? They are manifest when we cooperate fully with grace, and Christ as the Incarnate Word is made visible. We also see angelic intelligences at work when we browse the newspapers and look at the language of life. We also see angelic influence at work when natural law is in action, be these in the form of tectonic plate movements, earthquakes, disease and plagues, storms and balmy weather. We know angelic forces are at work as all these manifest the creative Mind of Yahweh.
Just as all laws are subject to Yahweh, all equations, formulas and matrices are patterns by which the human mind seeks to express the divine. These are never perfect reflections of ultimate Truth. We can describe the physics of light but we will never master completely the mystery of quantum science. We may explain in our own ways the fusion processes with the stars, but there remain myriad related mysteries that will boggle our minds.
Does this mean that the human mind is forever meant to be limited? Well, like angelic intelligences, we were firstly meant to reflect the mystery and glory of Yahweh, and not take that glory for ourselves by attempting to comprehend its working by sheer personal effort.
In fact, the eternal anguish of the juvenile and fallen, adverse angelic forces, lies in their obstinacy or refusal to allow the effect of supernatural grace to operate with their intelligences. Hence, these spirits suffer incompletion and a sense of futility. All these are also mimicked in human intelligences when people cannot get what they desire greatly or are obsessed with some issue.
Finally, we come to the idea where adverse angelic spirits forcefully operate in our world through cooperative human agents. A person who is attracted to pornography for instance and indulges in it, is subjecting himself or herself to this particular type of evil influence. The idea - or intelligence - that personal physical pleasure can be derived materially through pornography (in any form). As he or she subjects himself or herself with this act, it is submission to temptation, sometimes described as “repression” by exorcists.
When such a person progresses further, it is described as “obsession”. When the evil influence takes full control (or dominion and power) over such human will and life, it is regarded as “possession”.
For anyone who have been enticed by the nonsense of Dan Brown’s the Da Vinci Code and fascinated as a result by the character of Mary of Magdala, here is a juicy titbit. In Luke 8:1-3, we are introduced to her, and some others:
“Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.”
Far from being an adulteress, Mary of Magdala, was someone whom Jesus had released from specific adverse angelic influences.
Now, when we regard Mary, mother of Jesus as Queen of Angels, do we now perceive the beauty of that title? Mary, for her obedience, faithfulness and humility as the archetype Poor of Yahweh, reigns mindfully as one who cooperated fully with the divine Mind and Will, in order to bring the divine Word Incarnate into this world. She is therefore queen of all angelic influences, and hence we are able to find inspiration in her as a model of Christian virtue, power, etc. and seek her intercession before the throne of Jesus Lord and Saviour, in the Mercy Seat of Wisdom and Throne of Grace.
No wonder, when the angel was sent to her, Gabriel was astounded to find her filled with the grace of Yahweh, perhaps reflecting even more eloquently than any spirit might be able to, the glory of Yahweh’s goodness: she is one highly favoured, blessed, overflowing with grace… and whom the power of Yahweh overshadowed, just as this same power overshadowed Jesus at Tabor (Transfiguration) and the waters of Galilee (Baptism).
