I have received a few very polite e-mails regarding my recent post about Supernatural. In that post, I had stated that with the inclusion of the angels of the Lord, the show had settled into a Christian-centric myth arc. It has been pointed out to me that in fact, angels are not just the property of Christianity and in fact show up in many different spiritual traditions. I would like to thank those who took the time to pass along this very constructive criticism, and for the respectful way you offered it! In fact, I did know this, but didn't really convey that well in the post. I think, perhaps in common with many others, that I just sort of automatically associate angels more with the Judeo-Christian faith.
In fact, if you look up the word 'angel' in most dictionaries, the definition is not specific to any particular faith system, and usually describes angels as messengers of a supreme being. Such messengers actually appear in faith systems older than Christianity, Judaism and Islam. There are references to angelic creatures in Buddhism and Hinduism, as well as in Zoroastrianism. They may not be labeled 'angels' but in fact function in the same way.
Perhaps the common association of angels with Christianity stems from the fact that members of Jewish and Muslim faith systems weren't allowed to make images of religious figures, so most images of angels have come to us from Christian art, which depicted them often in carving, painting and in the stained glass windows of churches.
Often there is a hierarchy assigned to angels - probably the most commonly known one is the following, which I believe is of Judaic origin;
Seraphim, or 'burning ones' appear as burning red beings, often with 4 different faces. Followers of the X-files will remember the All Souls episode, where Dana Scully saw a Seraphim as a man in a dark suit with 4 faces.
Cherubim are the record keepers of God, and although they often appear in Victorian art as chubby babies with wings, in fact they may have originally been more like the Cherubim in Madeleine L'engle's memorable book, A Wind in the Door, with many wings and eyes.
The Thrones, or Ophanim appear as fiery wheels with many eyes, and the order continues through Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, and finally and most important and closest to God, the Archangels.
A branch of modern Theosophy has a different approach, here, angels are what fairies evolve into after a long process of experience and acquiring of knowledge. This process begins with Elementals, moving through Gnomes, Elves, Fauns, Cherubs, Seraphs, and finally Angels.
I think the most interesting thing here is the different ways these beings have been portrayed in art and entertainment over the years. We are all familiar with the stock image of an angel draped in white, haloed and floating upon high, harp in hand. Similar such angels have become rather widely known on Canadian TV advertising Philly Cream cheese. When I read the aforementioned 'A Wind in the Door', at about the age of 11 or 12, I was so taken by the image of the Cherubim Proginoskes ('Progo', for short), with his many wings and eyes, who taught Meg a form of telepathy. The All Souls episode of the X-files had an equally fascinating portrayal of a Seraphim with a countenance ever shifting between man, lion, eagle and bull, and remains one of my favorite episodes of television.
The angel characters on Supernatural appear as human, but have an aura of something ultimately powerful and otherworldly. Supernatural has a knack of portraying it's mythical creatures in unexpected ways. 4 angels have shown up thus far in the story; Castiel, Uriel, Anna, and Zachariah. Castiel is interesting because he struggles with a dilemma - complete and utter obedience to God, or thinking for himself - free will or no free will. (Different faith systems have angels as having free will, or none.) Castiel appears to have a conscience, and interacts mainly with Dean. At the end of Season 4, he appears to choose free will and assists Dean to escape the angel's imprisonment and find Sam. (If you want to know the whole story, go to www.jesterz.net) Uriel, who in some traditions is in fact one of the archangels, (which incidentally have also made an appearance in Supernatural - and I can't wait to see how that pans out!) unlike Castiel has nothing but scorn for human beings, referring to them as 'mud monkeys' and 'plumbing on two legs', and in fact seems to have had an agenda of his own going on that had little to do with good triumphing over evil.
Anna (the name is actually that of her human host, her angelic name isn't mentioned, that I can remember) is a sort of renegade angel, who defied God's law of utter obedience and fell to earth to experience human emotion. Anna too has a special relationship with Dean, although I don't know whether or not she'll show up in Season 5.
Zachariah is just an unknown quantity right now, guess we'll have to tune in for Season 5 to see how he pans out.
I like how in Supernatural you just get glimpses of the angels wings, for me the hidden, the merest suggestion, is so much more effective than showing everything in full-on graphic detail.
