wise, patient and capable of bestowing miracles – or so we perceive them to be (according to Scripture, however, angels will punish humans if that is God’s directive.) We view angels as always with us – they never desert us, no matter how poorly we perform. And even though they do not always save us from catastrophe, they stand ready as a source of strength to help us through all our trials. We seem to have a great, collective hunger for spiritual guidance that is personal and intimate, a hunger that is not being met through conventional religion. Angels are our personal companions, our guides, our protectors.
Another major factor in their current popularity is our increasing openness to paranormal experience. Popular interest in the paranormal and things spiritual has gone through cycles in the past. The present interest is part of the so-called Aquarian Age or New Age, which gained momentum around the 1960s.
MICHAEL’S REQUEST
A most unusual angel encounter, which involved the archangel Michael, happened to a dear friend of mine, Juliet Hollister. The encounter is unusual because it featured a vivid visual apparition, clear telepathic communication and some odd synchronicities with other people.
Juliet is founder of the Temple of Understanding, the second oldest interfaith organization in the world. Juliet has travelled the world and has had audiences with, and has been entertained by, an impressive list of heads of state, spiritual leaders and other luminaries.
One might think that Juliet’s work with the leaders of the world’s major religions would bring her into constant contact with the angel kingdom. Far from it. Many of those leaders with whom she works are openly skeptical of the existence of angels, considering them metaphors or literary devices.
Her earliest encounter with other worlds took place when she was a child growing up in a suburb of New York. Juliet was fond of her grandfather and looked forward every summer to visits at his home. One afternoon in 1920, when Juliet was eight, her mother told her, ‘Grandpa has gone to another world.’ Two years later, when Juliet once again visited her grandfather’s old farm, she looked up from playing in the garden to see Grandpa, looking solid and real as if he were still alive. She received a mental message: ‘Surprised, aren’t you, little granddaughter. I just popped by to let you know I am keeping an eye on you.’ And with that, he was gone.
Juliet told her mother, who dismissed the episode as a trick of afternoon sunlight and a child’s imagination. Juliet knew better, and repressed talking about Grandpa’s visit.
Juliet’s encounter with the archangel Michael took place in October 1984, as she was preparing for the sixth Spirit Summit Conference sponsored by the Temple of Understanding. The conference was to take place at St. John the Divine, the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, located in Manhattan, New York. The audience was expected to number eight to ten thousand people – a standing room only crowd inside the giant and elegant cathedral.
At the end of the daylong conference, a candlelight ceremony was scheduled to take place. Juliet was to be included in this ceremony, delivering a fifteen-minute talk on the Temple, its purpose and its activities. The prospect of making a speech in front of so many of the world’s religious leaders and so many people made Juliet nervous. She slaved away over her speech, and rehearsed it again and again.
The conference was on Sunday, October 7. The final rehearsal was slated for the Friday night before. Juliet travelled to Manhattan on the Friday afternoon and settled into her hotel room. She took a shower and lay down to rest.
As she was getting ready to rise and dress, Juliet suddenly became aware of a presence in the form of a huge column of light standing at the foot of her bed. She perceived the outline of a figure and sensed that it was an angel, though she did not see wings or a face.
Juliet was startled but not frightened. She’d believed in angels all of her life, and knew they didn’t show up without good reason – just to check out a hairdo, as she put it later. As she studied it, the presence began to communicate telepathically with her.
‘You’re going to be speaking at the cathedral, and angels have a lot to do with holy, sacred places,’ the angel told her. ‘We guard them. Millions of people don’t believe in us, but we are real entities. On behalf of the angelic kingdom, we would appreciate it if, when you make your speech, you would tell the people about us, that we are real, that we love the human race, and that we would like to work on behalf of it. But we can’t unless we’re invited to do so. We don’t enter the life of a human unless we’re asked. We are very eager to help.’
This message overwhelmed Juliet. Never had she thought of saying anything about angels in her little speech. She replied to the figure of light, ‘I really do believe you’re an angel. In fact, I kind of think you’re the archangel Michael, although there’s no reason why I should have one of the top ones show up. I’d love to do anything to help this planet and all the people on it, but I don’t altogether trust myself here. I tell you what, I’ll make a bargain with you. I’ll do it if you do something to confirm that I’m not hallucinating, that I’ve got this straight.’
The form of light disappeared. Juliet rose, dressed and left the hotel to hail a taxi to go to the cathedral. It was a blowing, cold evening at rush hour on a Friday night. Anyone who has ever been in New York under those conditions knows how difficult it is to find a free taxi. Dozens and dozens roar by, all occupied, no matter where you are in that huge city. And so Juliet stood on the corner waiting in vain for a cab. Fifteen, twenty minutes went by. She grew anxious about arriving on time for the rehearsal.
Then she was struck by what seemed to be a brilliant idea. She said out loud, ‘Okay, Michael, here’s your chance. I’m in a jam. I’ve got to get up to the cathedral and I’m running late. Surely in all of Manhattan, you can find one cab that’s empty!’
Within minutes, a free taxi pulled up and she hopped in. Now Juliet grew up in New York and had been in hundreds of taxis. She always looked at the dashboard for the driver’s photos of his children or wife, or little images of saints, Jesus or the Virgin Mary that are commonly fastened to the dash. But in all her years, she had never seen anything like what greeted her that evening. There stuck onto the dashboard was a cheap plastic statue of a winged form that bore the words, The Right Archangel Michael. And it was huge – nearly a foot high.
For a moment, Juliet couldn’t speak. This was too weird – even synchronicity seemed unable to explain this incredible ‘coincidence.’
The driver was named Tony, according to the license visible on the dash. Finding her voice, Juliet stammered, ‘Tony, tell me, what are you doing with the archangel Michael here in your cab?’
Tony turned to her and said, ‘Lady, let me tell you, he’s a special friend of mine – he’s my best friend Mike!’
‘Your friend Mike?’
‘You don’t know about Mike?’ Tony asked. ‘Hey, he’s the greatest! Let me tell you, my wife, she gets mad at me, she throws the spaghetti across the kitchen or whatever, I call on Mike and ask him, how do you handle women. The kids get in trouble in school, I call on Mike. I can’t pay the rent, I call on Mike. I really recommend him to you – he can do anything! Of course I have him in my cab. Who else would I have?’
Throughout the journey Juliet heard a lecture on the virtues of the archangel Michael, and why he was Tony’s best and greatest friend. At St. John the Divine, she got out and paid Tony, and he drove off, his statue of Michael standing like a guiding beacon on the dash.
Juliet said to herself, ‘All right, Juliet, you asked for a message, and now
