my services, you could have done it a lot more. I really would not have minded. I would have been glad to help. Nor do I have any problem with the fact that you didn’t ask me as much as you might have done. I live in the here and now, remember. I don’t do judgement and I don’t do resentment, either.
Under the strict cosmic laws that govern our relationship, I cannot tell you how you should be living your life. I can, however, drop a few hints and hope you catch them.
You might start by wondering what I am doing in your world. Does every human being have a guardian angel? Absolutely. There is exactly the same number of us as there is of you. Do we communicate with each other? As much as we need to. Do we sometimes find ourselves in conflict? Ah. Now there’s a good question.
What happens if one human requests the Koh-I-Noor diamond and then another human asks for the very same thing? Do their respective guardian angels go off and have a wrestling match to see which one can win the honour of taking back the prize? Not quite. We simply don’t fulfil orders of this kind. We can’t. It’s much better if you are less specific. If you just ask for the Koh-I-Noor, you’re asking for something that belongs to someone else. Not only is that someone else asking their own guardian angel to help them keep it, they are employing a lot of earthly guardians to make sure it stays in their possession.
I am going to back away the moment you come into conflict with someone else whose guardian angel is on an identical mission to me. It doesn’t matter if one of you is an honest, law-abiding citizen, and the other is a ruthless, merciless fiend. It’s not as if the two guardian angels have to sit down and have a conversation. ‘Okay, your candidate is clearly a nicer person than mine, so I will step out of the way.’ Niceness doesn’t come into this, because judgement doesn’t come into this.
What does come into this is a kind of polarisation. The two guardian angels effectively cancel each other out. They exert an equal and opposite force on each other. They remain locked in a kind of stasis for as long as the two human beings in their care are both striving for something that only one of them can have.
This is why, whenever there is a situation that contains plenty of conflict, you rarely see much evidence of a guardian angel at work on either side of the argument. It is only when one person finds the wisdom to back down, let go and reach, somehow, for resignation and acceptance, that both guardian angels are effectively released from the state of perpetual stalemate.
So, if you want your guardian angel to work well for you, you need to make requests that the angel has a chance of fulfilling, keep your angel away from ‘black holes’ like the one I have just described, and work within the limits of what your angel can or cannot do.
Ah! Well spotted. That was very astute of you. I did say, several pages ago, that I existed in a world that was limitless. That’s true. I do. I have the whole of eternity to work with, so if I get caught up in a conflict, it is really no problem to me if it takes a few hundred years to resolve itself.
But while I can wait forever, you can’t.
Actually, that reminds me of a joke. I’ll share it with you now.
There is this person who is desperate to speak to God. They pray and they pray - and they badger their guardian angel for some assistance. Eventually God decides to grant them an interview. The supreme Creator manifests in the form most appropriate to this person’s religion and proceeds to say in a deep, booming voice, ‘What do you want to know, my child?’
Our deeply humbled and awestruck individual gathers their composure and, after making various gestures of gratitude and respect, says, ‘I really want to understand the meaning of time. Could you help me to comprehend something of its true nature?’
The temporary incarnation of ultimate, infinite consciousness replies, in a slightly kinder and rather less booming voice, ‘Okay, try to imagine the passage of a million years. That, to me, is but a second in all of eternity.’
The person stops for a while to consider this mindboggling explanation. Human beings have not been alive on the earth for a million years. Even the Sphinx, in ancient Egypt, is no more than a few thousand years old. Though it is possible to imagine many civilisations that may have come and gone before this, leaving no trace, it is clear that the entire journey of human evolution has taken place in the blink of an eye. One single life, no matter how long it lasts or how much is achieved within it, is entirely insignificant by comparison. A million years is no more than a single second. It’s unimaginable.
Suitably humbled, our seeker of spiritual insight summons the courage to attempt a supplementary question. ‘Dear God, what, then, is the real meaning of this stuff called money…which we human beings seem to value so dearly?’
The Creator, by now, is speaking in a much softer tone and adopting an almost chummy demeanour. ‘Well, try thinking of it this way. From the perspective of supreme spiritual wisdom and knowledge, a million pounds has no more or less meaning or value than a single penny.’
Not wanting to waste the opportunity of a lifetime, our questioner then attempts a third inquiry. ‘In that case, could I have a million pounds?’
‘Sure,’ says the Creator. ‘Just wait a second!’
CHAPTER 2 What can I do for you?
Now, perhaps you are starting to feel disappointed. After all, it must be clear that if even God can’t guarantee you an instant million, your guardian angel stands no chance of organising such a development. But this lottery-winning thing is tricky.
You want to win the lottery. So does every other person who has purchased a ticket. You have asked for my help in this. They, too, have beseeched their guardian angels to do the same. So what do you think happens in the invisible realm, when those numbers come rolling out of the machine? Hundreds and thousands of guardian angels find themselves caught up in that black hole of cosmic conflict. They all have the power to influence the outcome - their power is equal, but they are all trying to influence it in different ways. The upshot is a kind of mass paralysis.
You are right, though. Somebody still has to win it. So, what then, if not a guardian angel, determines who that somebody is? In all honesty, I’m still trying to work it out. It’s one of the things I ponder over while I’m sleeping, in between carrying out your requests. What I can tell you is this. Play the lottery if you want to. Don’t if you don’t. If, though, you are looking for ways to engage the help of your guardian angel and improve your lot in life, try understanding more about how your angel is best able to help you.
Let’s go back to that Koh-I-Noor diamond for a moment. If, instead of requesting the Koh-I-Noor itself, you ask for ‘a diamond that’s rather like the Koh-I-Noor’, you slightly increase your chance of getting one because you are placing less of a limit on what your guardian angel has to do for you.
If you can be even more flexible and request ‘the wherewithal to attain a diamond’, you are definitely helping me to help you. I will always do what I can on your behalf, but I need you to put in some effort, too.
So, even better than, ‘Hey, guardian angel, please fetch me what I require,’ is, ‘Hey, guardian angel…I’ve got a plan that might gradually put me in a position where I could afford a nice big diamond. Could you work with
