Sylvia Browne's Book of Angels Read online

  Angels are pure, androgynous beings—beautiful, tall, and emanating light. Sometimes the only way you can discern a particular phylum is by their wings, which have either a particular tint in them or a particular color emanating from the tips (we’ll discuss the colors further as we explore each individual phylum). This color is also duplicated on the outer fringes of their auras, which are always quite brilliant and which most artists depict as halos.

  Jennifer from Indiana writes:

  “I’ve sometimes felt the presence of what I thought were angels in very powerful dreams that I’ve had. In the dreams, the angels are usually black (dark skinned), and in the last two (especially the one right after my younger brother died), three tall black women in purple were comforting me. My family isn’t black, but my older sister also mentioned something about black angels, and my mother said she heard that they were usually very tall. I don’t remember my angels having wings, and in one dream the black angel took my hand (it gave me such peace) and said (in my mind) that his name was William. Do these seem like other descriptions of angels?”

  Jennifer’s letter not only tells a lovely story, but it confirms Raheim’s description of angels as beautiful beings who know no racial barriers. Like us, they come in all races, sizes, and forms.

  Raheim also describes angels as being basically androgynous in nature, as they have no need for reproductive organs. Elaborating on this topic, Francine tells us that on the Other Side, every spirit has physical characteristics and a sexual gender, as well as “merging ability,” the ability of the body and/or spirit to unite with another entity. There’s a certain amount of sexuality in the merging process, which is very much like an orgasm of the mind and/or body. Angels, however, do not have this ability. Although some are feminine looking and some are masculine looking, they have no genitalia. They are totally perfect, androgynous beings. They don’t have soul mates, they don’t live in abodes, and they can’t perpetuate their own reality as other entities can on the Other Side.

  Oh, Those Beautiful Wings!

  So many of us think that we may absolutely know something . . . until we get hit by a proverbial two-by-four filled with some additional information or truth. The following stories show that I’m no exception to this phenomenon.

  When I was about 22 years old and newly married to my first husband, I was sitting in my car outside the building where I taught school. It was raining very hard, and I sat there with my head on the steering wheel, thinking that I didn’t want to go home. I felt so alone. All of a sudden, there was a knock on the window, and I looked up to see a beautiful man standing there. He had the bluest eyes, steel-gray hair, and a beard. I rolled down the window (something you would never do now), and this man said, “I know you feel alone, but you haven’t perfected enough yet to be alone.” I stared at him, trying to figure out what he could have meant. I shifted my eyes for a moment, and he was gone. I was shaken by the experience, because I realized I hadn’t really heard his words audibly, but more in my mind.

  I started the car, and as I began driving home, Francine said, “Well, Sylvia, you just saw an angel.”

  At the time, I replied, “An angel! No wings, no color.”

  She said, “Yes, they come as messengers in human form.”

  From that point on, as some people can attest from attending my early lectures and reading my previous books, I firmly believed that angels didn’t have wings. But all that changed in an instant four years ago when I was staying overnight at my son Chris’s house.

  I’d gotten up in the middle of the night to go from my room across the long entry hall with its high, vaulted ceiling to get a drink of water in the bathroom. Much to my amazement, there in the foyer was a huge—and I mean gigantic—being, the likes of which I’d never experienced. Not only was the height of this being awesome, but it had magnificent, gorgeously colored wings folded carefully into place. As I stood there staring at this beautiful creation for a good two minutes, the angel remained perfectly still as if it were guarding the house. He (and I say “he,” even though I know angels are androgynous) seemed more male than female. His face shone like a luminescent light.

  I smiled, not really knowing what else to do. As best as I can convey here, the angel smiled softly and with such love, and then this gorgeous entity was gone, or at least gone from my sight, but I still felt the power of its presence around me. This may surprise some of you, but I don’t go around being visual all the time. Regardless of my ability, I’m very rooted in reality. Do I see ghosts? Yes, but this was different. It was truly in 3-D, living, solid color . . . and it had wings! I’ve since learned that an angel’s wings are not only real, but on a deeper level they symbolize our freedom. We feel content knowing that these beautiful entities can reach us in the blink of an eye or, as I believe, are with us constantly to wrap their wings of protection around us.

  Angel-to-Person Communication

  The preceding stories confirm another interesting fact about angels: They rarely speak orally. Francine says that angels can communicate in many ways, but they almost always choose to do so telepathically. A few times, as you’ll read in subsequent chapters, people will report that they thought an angel was speaking, just as I did in the encounter in my car. However, looking back, I now know that it was a telepathic communication that was so real that, at the time, I was sure it was actual speech. Only rarely will angels use a voice. In fact, if you think you’ve heard the voice of an angel, it was probably your spirit guide speaking while the angel was present.

  Anne’s story is one such example. She writes:

  “One memory I have is when I was 30 years of age. I’d been doing genealogical research in a cemetery in a nearby town, and I was headed home. I pulled to a stop at an intersection and did the customary ‘look left, look right, look left’ before starting to pull out onto the highway. I saw absolutely nothing and I heard absolutely nothing until, as I started to pull out into the road, I heard ‘Stop!’ I was so taken by surprise, and so frightened, that I stomped on the brakes just in time to watch a fully loaded, huge truck approach from my left and speed by. The truck was definitely surpassing the speed limit; had I pulled into the intersection, it would have hit me broadside, and I surely would have died.

  “I sat at the intersection with my heart pounding and my palms sweating. I looked all around me and nobody—nobody—was around. No people, nothing. It was a Sunday afternoon, and I can only describe the town as vacant—except for me and that truck. I shakily looked in the backseat. Nothing. I again scanned all around me. Nothing. I then heard a soft, ‘You are protected.’ Panicking, I looked in the backseat and saw . . . nothing. I went home, and have never told anybody about it until now.”

  Anne’s story provides a great description of angels and guides working in tandem. Angels are often the first to sense danger; they alert our guides, who use their voices to warn us. I’ve questioned hundreds of people who have had angel sightings, and many times they recall hearing the angels at first. However, when questioned further and in more detail, nearly everyone who’s had this experience agrees that the communication was clear in their mind, not their ears.

  Not to change the subject, but it bears mentioning here that the same thing happens more often than not with the appearance of loved ones who have passed over: No speech is heard, but a loudly spoken message is conveyed. Why is this so? Well, it seems reasonable to me that thoughts are much less apt to be muddled than spoken words. How many times have you experienced the frustration of being at a loss for words and wishing you could somehow make the other person just feel or hear what was in your mind? Spirits and angels can do just that. Angels can also immediately understand when we’re in need. Their vibrational level and makeup of pure, protective loving and healing allows them to comprehend our problems or needs without our having to communicate in words.

  Raheim describes an angel’s telepathic ability as highly developed and very persuasive. He says that many times guides have been known to recruit a couple of angels to relay a thought to us because their telepathic power, combined with the spirit guide’s, can get the thought across more effectively.

  Francine says that every time we talk to angels, a fibrous silver thread begins to wind between us and them. It looks cobwebby, but it’s not. It’s actually quite thick and strong, forming a tentacled webbing, and it appears to contain jewels. When we communicate with the angels, our silvery strands connect with theirs. Usually they hook right into our chakras, which yoga philosophy describes as our body’s physical or spiritual energy points. I know that sounds like a painful analogy, but it doesn’t hurt. It’s simply a painless and miraculous energy connection.

  Some people have actually gotten ectoplasm from contact with an angel, as I once did when I was investigating a haunting. I was dealing with a cranky spirit named Judge. He was very unpleasant to me, so an angel stood in front of me to protect my heart chakra. The angel smooshed up against me and accidentally smeared me with its ectoplasm. It was sort of silvery and filmy, according to my assistant, Michael, and several other witnesses who saw it appear.

  When I go to bed at night and have a particular problem I’m trying to solve, I always ask God to help me first, then the Christ consciousness, the Holy Spirit, Francine, and the angels. Many times when I’ve awakened, I’ve received the answer, and many times my spirit guide has said the answer came from the angels, either telepathically or through infused knowledge (implanted in my mind). While a spirit guide’s “voice” can often be more audible than an angel’s, never underestimate the power and truth of what angels can impart.

  Pure, Unconditional Love

  Raheim talks about one last thing that every angel offers, no matter which phylum we consider: unconditional love. No entity, other tha
n God, can ever provide us with the unhesitating magnitude of unconditional love that an angel can. Even spirit guides, who are certainly made out of love and have perfected as much as they can, have limiting conditions. As I said earlier, spirit guides are humanized, and it’s this humanity that allows them to become emotional about the entities they watch over. Francine and Raheim become emotional over what they perceive to be injustices to me and my family, just as all guides relate to the injustices that we humans go through. For instance, if we contracted a terrible disease, our guides would be upset and empathetic. Even if we had something minor, like a backache, our guides would be concerned. Angels, however, stand seemingly emotionless and offer a pure, unmitigated, and constant flow of love.

  I don’t want to give you the idea that angels are mindless. It’s just that they haven’t had to live a life, so they have no individuality, and they’re pure innocence. You won’t see an angel stomping around upset or emitting human emotions. Angels are not argumentative and they don’t have their own agendas. You won’t see an angel going to Council, except in rare instances, and only with a spirit guide who needs to petition for something. For instance, if my guide was having problems with my chart or couldn’t get me to listen, she could ask the appropriate angels to accompany her to the Council and help her plead her case.

  Angels also don’t have much of a sense of humor. In fact, they have none, but they have great joy and a wonderful ability to laugh. You might think, Well, if they laugh, then they must have a sense of humor, but their laughter seems to come from a pure joy of the sense of being, not from having a sense of humor. This quality is enviable.

  Along with their joy, angels have a static intelligence. I would never say that one angel is smarter than another because they all seem to have the same level of intelligence. One phylum may be higher than another in terms of its power, but not its intelligence. In other words, the Thrones or Principalities may be considered higher phyla than the Angels or the Archangels, but they aren’t more intelligent; they simply know their job and do it. Here again, you might ask, “Do the Thrones or Principalities have more love than the Angels or Archangels?” No, they’ve all reached the same magnificent level of infinite, unconditional love.

  Angels are the only creation that can transcend both the Earthly side and the Other Side. They aid, quiet, guide, and help entities on the Other Side just as much as they help us, and in much the same way.

  Angels: Fact and Fiction

  Before we go any further, let’s clear up a few myths about angels. Since we’ve spent so much time talking about what angels are, it’s equally important to go over what they are not.

  First of all, contrary to popular belief, there are no dark angels. Some religious texts warn us to be careful of “evil angels.” Others say that Satan is a fallen angel. Not only is there no devil, but Raheim says, “I have never seen a dark angel, ever. There are no evil angels, and there are no dark or fallen angels. The word angel itself defies darkness; it’s almost like the antithesis of the word evil. Angels fight and dispose of evil. They are not in any way evil themselves, just an outpouring of unconditional love.”

  Another myth about angels is that they come to us singularly. Angels will come to us one at a time, as some of the angel stories included in this book will demonstrate, but it’s somewhat of a rare occurrence. Most of the time when angels help us, they’re in groups, usually of ten or more—sometimes even in the thousands at the scene of great catastrophes. Whether it’s a matter of the Virtues going over our charts, the Angels protecting us, or the Archangels and Powers healing us—whatever the purpose—more often than not a group of angels attends us.

  When it’s written that a band of angels was present, it means exactly that. I find it a little inaccurate to say that only one angel such as Gabriel addressed Mary and told her she was carrying the Christ child. No, Mary was visited by many angels, as were all messiah- or messenger-bearing females, from the mother of Islam’s founder, Muhammad, to the mother of the Baha’i faith’s founder, Bahaullah. Examples of this can be traced all through antiquity in the ancient writings. There’s always the heralding of the messenger; there’s always a band of angels. Whether it was the shepherds who heard and saw the bands of angels rejoicing at Christ’s birth, or those who celebrated the birth of Buddha, throngs of angels have always been present. As the Bible says, their minions will be with us.

  The ongoing confusion and myths about angels will probably continue until the end of time, since they seem to have been with us from the beginning, but I hope I’ve done my part to clear up some of the most common misperceptions.

  The Ten Phyla of Angels

  As I mentioned earlier, there are ten different phyla or levels of angels.* In the chapters that follow, we’ll explore each phylum in detail. For now, the following chart presents an overview of each phylum and its totem, element, representative stone, wing color, purpose, and function.

  *Please note that certain words such as “Angels” are capitalized when their phylum is referred to, but not when discussed generally.

  Angel Chart

  Angels and Their Totems

  The word totem, or anima, means a living thing that brings about some luck or message. The term comes from American Indian shamans, and literally refers to a person’s representative animal. Each of us has a totem, and many times we take on our totem’s characteristics. My totem, for example, is the elephant, and like an elephant, I am family conscious, I never forget, and so on. Sometimes groups share a common totem. In the American Indian culture, for example, each tribe has its own totem, an animal that sometimes helps or protects the members of that tribe.

  Similarly, each phylum of angels has its own totem, and they’re listed in the preceding chart. The angel’s totem is its symbol, an animal the angel is sympathetic to and relegated to by way of its phylum. For example, Angels (the first phylum) use the seagull as their way of occasionally showing up. This doesn’t mean that Angels appear as seagulls, but that seagulls are their particular animal, specific to Angels. The Archangel’s totem is the wolf: swift, enduring, and ferocious when it has to be. The canary, simplistic and beautiful, loves to sing, just like the Cherubim and Seraphim it represents.

  All angels can appear to you briefly in the form of their particular anima or totem, but they generally don’t do so. Instead, they’re more likely to manipulate the energy of your totem or other animals (such as a bear, eagle, hawk, or lion) to appear and speak to you if needed. Raheim says that angels can manipulate animals because they have great power over the dominions of the earth.

  In many native cultures, people tell stories of totems that came and spoke to them. With the aid of the angels around them, an animal warned them or protected them from harm. When that happens, it means one of two things: The animal was either the person’s own totem, or it was an animal manipulated by an angel. Do not confuse your own totem with that of an angel. An angel may manipulate your totem to speak, but angels rarely take the form of their totems.

  Elements and Stones

  The element that symbolizes each phylum of angels represents that substance by which the phylum is identified. For example, rain is the element of Archangels. To most people, rain can be dreary or depressing, but stop and think about what rain does. It cleanses, washes, takes care of ulcerations, and purifies, just like the healing of an Archangel. As an aside, no one I know loves rain more than I do, and I have ever since I was a child, although I’m not really sure why.

  Each phylum of angels has a corresponding jewel or stone that not only symbolizes what that phylum resonates to but also takes on the power of that phylum. For example, Cherubim and Seraphim have quartz as their stone. These stones can be seen in meditation or, if we’re lucky, when we communicate with our angels.

  Whom Should You Call?

  Each phylum has a particular purpose and can help with emotional functions or problems that show up. Knowing which angel to call on when we need a particular type of help—whether it’s a messenger, a protectorate, or a healer—makes it easier to get the job done and helps us feel better. It’s not that they don’t all come when we call, but do we really need a painter to show up when we want to fix a broken door?