In the Arms of Some Angels

Trigger warning for anyone who gets set off by art work with eyeballs not in a head

I have identified as Pagan for over forty years now and throughout those decades I worked with all different kinds of energies. I spent several years investigating saints. Although rightly associated with Christian theology, saints are used throughout HooDoo and Brujeria practices, so it was right on my radar. I was raised Southern Baptist and there was not a single saint in sight for us, so this was all new frontier for me. I still have a good relationship with several of the saints that became my favorites, especially the folk saints like St. Martha the Dominator, who let me tell you, is just itching to start some shit:

I am also partial to St. Lucy, who is usually depicted with a plate of eyeballs in front of her, so what’s not to love?

I kept getting nudged to work with dragons and after a couple of years of ignoring the call, I finally gave into it and had a rewarding decade or so of dragon work. I never worked with faeries/fae until I moved to Grizzly Flats, California and they were so present there that I couldn’t not work with them. In my current home, I am around 2000 feet lower in elevation and there are not very many of them that want to interact so far.

I’m good with that.

Out of the blue, earlier this year I got nudged to work with angels. I have worked with angels before, but only in the form of the four elemental archangels: Raphael, Gabriel, Michael, and Uriel. I also do some protection work with Jophiel.

Other than this, angels were never my direction. I acknowledged the, but never immersed. My favorite book on angels is Angels: Companions in Magick by Silver RavenWolf.

That notwithstanding, this was always my favorite painting when I was growing up:

A large version of it now hangs in my bedroom. Admitedly, I always thought the children were Hansel and Gretel.

So imagine my surprise when I kept getting nudges from all sides about angels. Not any angels in particular, but the concepts of Heavenly Hosts and gangs of angels lifting a person up to new heights or surrounding them with protection.

I dreamed an image that I made into reality. I imagined a ritual where I could place my client right in the middle of a circle of angels so that their focused energy permeated the person and their circumstances.

I have done this ritual four times and and each of the four times, the energy generated put the hair up on my arms. The sheer holiness and sacredness of the experience made the air electric.

This is my angel altar. One change that is coming for it is I have a really cool dividing painting of the 7 Archangels on the way and that will take up the entire area behind the altar:

I am excited to work with the area once that is in place. Additionally, this altar is almost at the foot of my bed:

This means that all those angels watch me sleep and curate my dreams.

One of the ways that this is exciting is that I am working to settle into my sparkling new role as associate editor for Green Egg magazine. For those of you who are not ancient enough to know what that is, Green Egg was the first print Pagan periodical on the shelves and it was and is just wonderful. I applied for the position, never imagining I would get it and sort of laughing and thinking, “Wouldn’t it be wild if..?” And it is wild and I did get it and it has been so much fun.

The way that ties into angels is that those two things make TWO brand new experiences that I am fully loving. I just turned 62 and there comes a time, or at least did for me and most over 60s I know, where you just stop expecting new stuff. Everything starts to feel familiar and repetitive, even if it is nice. To have two new, sparkly toys to play with is so exciting.

It makes me think about the concept of “Harvest” and how this is the time when our efforts pay off. How is your harvest manifesting? Are things coming to fruition for you? Are chapters ending with new ones beginning? Are the winds of changing stirring your spirit and your life?

Remember that you can find me at www.katrinarasbold.com. Classes and readings are at www.patreon.com/katrinarasbold.

The brand new edition of Green Egg Magazine (my first as associate editor) is up for grabs at www.greeneggmagazine.com. The theme for this one is Ancestors. Green Egg publishes each solstice and equinox (4 times a year). You get it in PDF form and it only costs $3.50. There are back issues available as well. I have a couple of articles in it. My friends, Debra DeAngelo and Cat Gina Cole also have articles. Jon Drum (from ADF) contributed a poem and my friend, Bram, has artwork featured in it. Our publisher is working on a blog for the Green Egg site and when that goes live, I will have regular posts there as well.

As always, you can find the magical products you loved from the shop at www.crossroadsoccult.com. You can also order the Circle of Angels ritual there if you want to. If you want something from the shop that Eric and I do not make (that is what is on the products pages of the website), shoot me an email at drrasbold@gmail.com and I will put you in contact with the vendor if I can.

Peace, y’all.