Angels are considered pure, majickal, beautiful, wonderous creatures who come from Heaven alone, to bring us justice, order, protection, love, and joy. They are to be respected and worshipped and above all else, heard and seen. As long as you’re white, cis, and Christian.
Demons are ugly, twisted, and evil. Never to be trusted, they have walked through Hell and survived, but that’s not because they worked hard and earned their place on this earth. It’s because they are eviler than any evil they have ever faced and are never to be trusted. That’s the law if you’re white, cis, and Christian.
White, cis/heterosexual Christian folk like to think that Angels and Demons are strictly a white cis/heterosexual Christian mythology. But the truth is there are ancient and fantastical stories about both going back centuries from around the globe.
This website In Different Languages has more than 30 different ways to say, Angel and over 100 different ways to say Demon. The mythos and legends about both number in the millions of stories. But we as a society are so convinced that English is the first language – because it’s used so often around the world – that we forget there are languages that are millions of years older than English.
Angels and Demons go back millions of years, and it’s often well-considered that they are among some of the first creatures on this earth.
There are different categories of Angel, and depending on where they come from, they each answer to different hierarchies. “Angels” are considered to be creatures who look like humans and have bright white wings. They travel through space and time with orders from Heaven. They help people fall in love, they inspire great works of art and literature, and they inspire mathematicians and scientists. They bring nothing but good and allegedly they are always in a good mood. (For the record most of this is bullshit.)
Demons come from Hell or a Hell-type dimension. They are not soldiers or warriors, they are corruptors, designed only to be here to destroy all that matters to you. It’s very rarely you’ll find a story where a demon becomes the hero, and only then because it’s usually a ridiculously good looking human type creature, who also happens most often to come in the form of a white person who is breaking convention to be all they can be.
It’s only as I sit here thinking about the theme of Angels and Demons that I realize that not all I’ve been told is true. There is a band of bikers around the world called The Hell’s Angels. Legally I’m not allowed to write about them without permission, but I don’t give a fuck.
Ask any cop, any person in the world and they will tell you that “The Hell’s Angels, are the most dangerous people on earth, they’ll cut you with a rusty spoon and leave you to die. They’ll kidnap your children and turn them into drug dealers, they’ll destroy the lives of women and children everywhere, beware the Hell’s Angels because they are evil incarnate.”
In my fictional novel, however, A Hell’s Angel is not a human man who rides a motorcycle and wears a black vest covered in various patches outlining their successes in crime and evil. In my novel, A Hell’s Angel is someone who has walked through the thirteen layers of Hell and returned to Earth, to tell the secrets of their success.
They are humanoid in form, and they do have wings, some wear crowns and others carry swords, they are strong, and powerful creatures who have come to earth to change the world, to help the humans who are fighting against the true evils of the world. This is specifically because in my lifetime, the bikers that everyone is so afraid of, are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met, who in many cases, did not commit the crimes they were accused of. To be fair, that’s just my experience, I can’t speak for anyone else.
In my novel, “Angels,” the ones that come from Heaven have no concept of humanity, they don’t understand the way we communicate, and they don’t often understand why we make the choices that we make, largely because they’ve been living in Heaven for centuries.
They have forgotten what it means to be confused, unsure, filled with anxiety and depression, and when they come to earth they are filled with nothing but because they are completely out of their element.
Both angels and demons in my fictional stories forgot that we don’t fight the way they used to, with fire, bombs, and swords and knives. We fight with words, vote, and make our opinions known by sharing our thoughts with the world.
Demons have no concept of this because they’ve spent so long fighting for survival, that they’ve forgotten how to live with anything but the fight for survival. Angels haven’t had to fight for survival for centuries, they’ve had nice cushy lives up in Heaven reading great books, looking at great art, and celebrating their freedom from struggle and trauma.
Christianity would have you believe that Angels and demons have no thoughts of their own, that they have no emotions or opinions, that they can’t think for themselves, and thus are the most prized of God’s collection of creatures because they do what they are told and stay in their place.
The truth is that Angels and Demons both are incredibly complicated and layered creatures. If you’re willing to work with them, they’ll help you discover untold truths, and wildly accurate fantastical majickal moments in your life that you might have missed the first time. Not all Angels are good and not all Demons are bad, just like humans, Angels and Demons both make mistakes.
They challenge us to teach them how to live, how to see, and how to be like us while teaching us how to be more like them. They share with us stories of their passion, desire, challenges, and battles while giving us the strength we need to keep going through whatever muck we’re experiencing at the moment.
It’s easy to look at the Bible as the only source of information about Angels and Demons, but that’s because we have been conditioned to believe that the lives of Angels and Demons began with Jesus. The truth is that Angels and Demons have walked this earth for millions of years, long before Jesus existed on this planet, the only difference between before and after him, is that he taught us how to see them for what they are.
When we start to acknowledge that Angels and Demons both, are in their own right individuals, then we begin to see their true power. Just like with humans, when we give Angels and Demons the opportunity to shine, they often do, in ways that we didn’t and couldn’t possibly expect.
Understanding that you, reading this, walk with both Angels and Demons can be a huge relief to your mental health, and if you think I’m writing this fictionally then you aren’t really getting the point of what I am saying.
Every day we do and say things that surprise us. Maybe we “randomly” decide to buy someone a coffee, or a meal. Perhaps we just “randomly” get the idea to donate our old clothing, or more importantly, our time.
When we get passed the idea that Angels and Demons are strictly a white Christian idea, we open our eyes and our hearts to the majick of the universe. To the hundreds of billions of stories of greatness, kindness, and love. Angels and Demons can enrich and enhance our lives, regardless of what the Christians have to say.
And if all else fails, just remember believing in Demons the way that they believe in you, much like Angels, is a tremendous act of rebellion.
Sending all my love,
Devon J Hall
Loud Mouth Brown Girl 