Angelic Pathways (22 page)

“What the hell is this?”

“Unfinished business,” Cassiel said as he sat at the dining table and began eating
my
lunch. No, I was not liking him at all. “That’s everything you’ve got to complete before you go back.”

“Go back? I’m not going back. I’m happy here!” I was scrolling through what looked like Santa Claus’s checklist from Hell. It was names, nothing but names.

“I told you,” my father said with a bit of amusement in his voice. “He’s stubborn, like me.”

“Like you used to be,” Cassiel corrected and then approached me. “Vacation’s over. You’ve got work to do, but first a debriefing.”

“What the fuh … ? You’re joking, right? Dad, tell me he’s joking.”

“If it were Michael, I would say yes, he’s joking, but …,” my father muttered matter-of-factly.

“I don’t joke. I’m not known as the patron saint of jokes. You of all should know that,” Cassiel fumed, and with that, we were no longer standing in my father’s house but were back in that dark, silent vacuum. And damn it all, I was still holding my list of names.

“First you’ll report to the Council. They’ll assess what you’ve done. If you want to appeal the list here, that’s your best chance to do it.”

“Who are you, my defense lawyer?” Council? Council of whom?

“I’ve moved up a notch. Last time we were here, you called me the prosecutor.”

“Last time?” I arched my brow and glared at him. What the hell was that supposed to mean? In that instant, his entire body flashed before me, nearly blinding me. I shielded my eyes for a moment until the light dimmed. I then looked up and beheld a radiant golden light. It was formless and constantly changing, with luminous tendrils, leaving wisps of light as it ebbed and flowed. And strangely, I knew I had seen this before … several times before.

“I remember now,” I exhaled and turned to look up into the darkness to see twelve other orbs of light. As memories came flooding back, I knew I had indeed been here before. It was then that I looked down at the long list and realized it was my handwriting. “Why didn’t you talk me out of this the last time I was here?”

“We tried to,” said a soft, feminine voice surrounding me. “We know that those born of Cassiel’s energies tend to be the most obstinate of souls.” Her voice seemed to smile.

“So many to tend to,” I continued as I scrolled through the names on the paper and sighed.

“You have the time. Unless, of course, you’d rather not pursue the task at this time, Jake. You are free to do as you wish.”

“No. No, I want to get as much done as I can. I’m promised to a few on here.” I smiled a bit as a few familiar names rolled in front of my eyes: they were friends I had not met among the living but had known all too well from the Realm of Spirit.

I had my work cut out for me, there was no doubt of that. Keeping the promises made to those on my list would be easy, but much of the work relied on interrealm communication—direct communication between the human world and the higher realms. Establishing connections would prove a bit daunting. It seemed like eons since my contacts and I agreed that our life paths should merge on this level, but I remember telling them, “Don’t worry. I’ll think of something creative,” when they asked how I would manage to get in touch with them from this side of the fence.

“We’re not worried about you,” my friends had said when we made the arrangements. “We’re worried about us not believing in you.” We all knew that passing through the veil into the human world was like being anesthetized, like going into a coma where we’re completely closed off to the reality around us. In essence, we equated becoming human to slipping into a dream where we’re at the mercy of our five senses. And because the brain is easily fooled and often appeased by what it experiences, rarely do we question whether or not the experience is real, whether or not it is just a dream.

Those who have engaged the sixth sense begin to see past the dream world and out into the higher realms in which the dream is contained. Contacts that had done this would make my job of establishing connections a lot easier, but still I held some pity for those who had chosen to open their spiritual eyes in a human lifetime. Now that I look back on the experience of my most recent life, I realize just how dumb I was. But that was the existence I chose, to sleepwalk through that life just for the sake of ease. Actually, at the expense of enraging philosophers and clerics ages old, I will even go so far as to say that being oblivious is not always a bad thing.

Am I saying ignorance is bliss? You bet. But just because I chose to live a life oblivious to my spiritual existence does not in any way imply that I left purposes undone. Quite the contrary. If my only purpose was to be oblivious so as to be an example to someone else of how not to live, then my deed was done. I came to this understanding after the Council dismissed me and I once again found myself following Cassiel in darkness.

“So, how did I score?”

“You tell me,” Cassiel grunted. “Did you learn what you wanted? Did you experience what you wanted?”

I paused and instantly thought of the unfinished business I had left behind with those I loved so much. But that was business that the human side of me clung to. As I reflected back upon my intentions before I was even born as Jake, I realized that even my death, as well as what I thought was unfinished business, had all been part of the planned experience, part of my purpose. Cassiel continued walking, leaving me to process my thoughts, but then he returned to my side with a softer gaze in his eyes than what I had seen earlier.

“Did you accomplish what you went there to do? Think back on the last time you went to the Council and arranged all this. Did you finish or not?”

“Yes, I did.” I had asked for certain experiences and gotten them, and after a moment of reviewing my life and my short twenty-something years, I finally resigned myself to what my father had said: I was finished. It was just that simple. Well, I was finished with that part of my existence anyhow.

Since receiving my itinerary, I have been steadily working with my assignments—those I am to connect with. I know now that I am a child of Cassiel, the angel of tears, forged of his strength and spirit to help bring balance to those I encounter. While serving as a guardian and confidant, I have observed a flood of tears, pain, and injustices. So my work is never really done. I am still quite busy helping those I am promised to, but I have all of eternity to do it, for what seems like a lifetime on Earth is but a simple exhale and inhale in the Realm of Spirit.

Chantel asked me years ago if I missed the family I left behind. While it is painful to watch them grieve, I see them every day with the understanding that grief is a part of their learning, a part of the experience they chose for this lifetime. My family may not realize I’m still with them, but they don’t need to. I didn’t realize that my father was watching over me during the twenty years we were apart, and yes, there were days when I felt lost and alone without his presence in my life. I know now that my father never once left me, as I will never leave the ones I love; it’s impossible, for everything in this universe is connected.

In the end, I take comfort in knowing that the connections we share with those we love are reinforced by love and are impervious to time, space, and death. Then again, I contradict myself. There is no time, no space, and no death, but just a thin veil between worlds—places where time stands still, places where souls are intertwined and connected, places where death is a passing whim, a fading notion for those who once lay asleep but are now awakened to the vast and spectacular beauty of a universe without end.

[contents]

appendix b

GABRIEL’S STORY:
THE UNSEEN PASSION
OF THE CHRIST

I had never seen [Archangel] Michael as incensed as he was the day all the angels had been called together for an announcement of colossal proportions. No one was sure what was about to transpire, and even I—a minister of communication—was out of the loop. But when I saw my brother Michael emerge from the throngs of us who were there, I felt fear, and that is not an emotion that we angels experience often, if at all.

With a grim look on his face scolding enough to send an entire world of humans scrambling for cover, he stood tall with a wide stance in his human form and announced with a resounding, commanding voice that one of us was entering a human reality.

Initially, I did not believe such an announcement was cause for alarm because we angels weave in and out of human realities all the time. Contrary to popular belief, many of us have had very human experiences, some of which were assignments that human souls were too young and inexperienced to achieve—and not all the assignments were what many humans would consider to be of “noble” purpose, but they were of divine purpose, as you’ll soon find out.

What made this moment so significant was that one of us was going to fully immerse himself into a human reality. Now, allow me to clarify that I’m using genders here for ease of your understanding. In Heaven, all of us—including you—may appear as one gender or another, but in our true, spiritual forms, we are genderless. There is nothing in our spirit form that would make us male or female. This is what makes us perfect beings, because we are in perfect balance, carrying within us the potentialities of all gender traits. Moving on …

The feat of completely immersing oneself into a human reality had not been attempted before. In fact, I know of no angel who had even pondered the notion, and I personally didn’t see a need for such an effort. Though many of you envision us angels in human form, like yourselves, we angels—being the firstborn of the Source and the first of individual consciousness—are pure, uncorrupted energy. Speaking in simple terms, we possess the ability to shed particles that are capable of becoming another angel entirely. (This is the exact same way souls are born of the Source.) The shedding of these particles does not deplete us, yet allows us to be in many places at the same time.

We’re everywhere, and nowhere. We can cross the illusion of space-time without moving. For instance, if I were to shed one million particles of my being, they would become one million Gabriels that were all of the same mind and connected to me, the Gabriel-Source. Hence, even as I relay this information to you, I’m engaged in countless experiences. Humans have this same capability, though not on as grand of a scale. You’re still children in terms of spiritual maturity, our baby siblings whom we love, nurture, and hope will one day be as elevated in knowledge and wisdom as we are.

Despite being capable of sending just
one
particle into the human realm to fulfill whatever divine will the Source decrees—which is what we angels tend to do—Archangel Michael had announced that one of us was, as you humans put it, “going all in.” It had not been done before. And quite frankly, the thought sent a collective chill through all of us.

When Michael announced which of us was to make this attempt, there was a silence that seemed to last an eternity. If we’d been in physical form, I’m sure I would have felt my heart drop into my stomach, for it was revealed that the most evolved of us, the most cherished, was going in. This is the one who embodies the energy that your current reality recognizes as Jesus of Nazareth.

Because of this, it was then all too apparent to me why Michael looked so grim.

Jesus, for as high as his status and power rank, is still younger than Michael. Michael and Lucifer were the first of the Heavenly Hosts to emerge from the Source—twins, whose consciousnesses were very much alike … until human souls emerged from the Source. Upon the emergence of human souls, there were those of us who looked at our siblings as simply another—albeit strange—facet of the collective consciousness. But then there were those, like Lucifer, who saw the humans as flawed. They were spheres of energy that were easily corrupted, imbalanced, and lacking in their connection to, and even reverence of, the Source.

Jesus was not of that opinion. His wisdom far surpassed that of Michael and Lucifer, though he was not the first of us to emerge from the Source. Actually, he emerged as a separate consciousness some time later, but here in Heaven we tend not to take such things into account, for we are all born of the Source, of the Eternal Light that has neither a beginning nor end. There was no race to see who would emerge first. It just so happened that one individual consciousness developed and more followed thereafter. The order in which it happened is usually irrelevant to us.

But on this day, it was very relevant to Michael, for he saw Jesus as his younger brother. Michael does not boast about being the eldest for ego’s sake, but instead sees himself as responsible for all of us as his “younger” siblings. He was one of the first, and hence feels it is his duty to watch over every single soul that comes into creation—angelic, human, or other. Despite being a “younger” sibling, Jesus possessed a power and wisdom that none of us had yet attained, not even Michael, and so in this, the eldest deferred to the youngest.

“Is there any way I can talk you out of this?” I heard Michael whisper to Jesus. Calmly, the young lord shook his head and placed his hand on Michael’s shoulder.

“I have to know. I must experience what so many others are experiencing. Fully experience it,” Jesus responded. I pondered those words for a moment because none of us had experienced imperfection. It was a last frontier in Heaven. To have our entire being submerged in the human experience, to be completely human, was foreign to us. Because we’re all interconnected, I heard the thoughts of many other angels mingled with my own:
What will happen? What if he doesn’t return the same? What if he returns
…
corrupted? Then what?
We were wholly unprepared, but because the Source did not disagree with the young lord’s desire, we had no choice but to acquiesce and follow his lead.