Italian
“ANGEL OF GOD, who are my guardian…” is the prayer taught to children and often recited before sleeping. I hope it is still the same today. But do angels really exist? Who are they and why are they here? They are mysterious beings, halfway between the divine and the human, but endowed with great powers. They are divine messengers who bring help to those who call upon them.
In religious iconography, they are often depicted as hybrids between human and animal. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, they are half birds and half children, just as in ancient mythology Love and Psyche were represented. In archaic Latin religion, we find figures like sirens, half fish and half woman, also present in the Nordic pagan world. All these creatures, despite possessing great powers, are friends of humans, regardless of divine will. They act without the need for intercession. Simply, they act.
We become aware of their presence and their powers even when we do not call upon them for help. In avoided or overcome misfortunes, it is often said: “A guardian angel protected you.” The same happens in the fundamental choices of our lives, those we make intuitively without foreseeing the consequences. And when everything goes right, we say it was thanks to our guardian angel. Because we believe, rightly, that each of us has one in particular, or perhaps more than one.
Yet, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, there are also demons. They are evil angels who rebelled against God. As punishment, they are forced to prod humans, to lead them to evil, and to tempt them in every way to distance them from the Creator. They are in a perpetual struggle with guardian angels, who always win and dedicate much of their time to us, rather than to the fight against their antagonists.
The morning star is called Lucifer, the prince of demons. It is the celestial body that heralds the day and ends the darkness of the night, and that is why it is referred to as the “light bearer.”
Yet, it is a light that can be seen but does not illuminate like the sun. It gives no life or color, does not show reality and its beauty. It attracts, but does nothing more: it is sterile, cold, and useless. Because the sun, in the end, rises anyway, and the good angels return to give us courage and protect us throughout the day and for all the days of our lives.
