Creative Angels

August Angels is the name that was chosen for the daily listing club on folksy during the month of August. This is a group of individual creative sellers on folksy who share their newly made items, chat, laugh, offer and receive support, commiserate, and celebrate both personal and folksy triumphs and report all folksy sales. A daily (monthly) tally is kept of all sales received by the group members. The club is open to anyone who wants to join and who regularly add new makes to their folksy shop.

What are angels?

Wikipedia defines angel as a supernatural being or spirit, usually humanoid in form, found in various religions and mythologies. They are often depicted as benevolent celestial beings who act as intermediaries between Heaven and Earth, or as guardian spirits or a guiding influence.

Other roles of angels include protecting and guiding human beings, and carrying out God's tasks.Whether you believe or don’t believe in angels, the notion of a supernatural benevolent being who acts as a guardian does appeal to some people. They like the idea that a guardian angel watches and cares for them during their 21st century lives.

Early Christians inherited Jewish understandings of angels, which in turn may have been partly inherited from the Egyptians. In the early stage, the Christian concept of an angel characterized the angel as a messenger of God. Angels are creatures of good, spirits of love, and messengers of Jesus Christ.

Many Christians regard angels as asexual and not belonging to either gender . Angels are on the other hand usually depicted in painting and sculpture as looking like male human beings. However, while cherubim and seraphim have wings in the Bible, no angel is mentioned as having wings.

Contemporary belief in angels

As recently as the 20th century, visionaries and mystics have reported interactions with, and indeed dictations from, angels.

A 2002 study based on interviews with 350 people, mainly in the UK, who said they have had an experience of an angel, describes several types of such experiences: visions, sometimes with multiple witnesses present; auditions, e.g. to convey a warning; a sense of being touched, pushed, or lifted, typically to avert a dangerous situation. In the visual experiences, the angels described appear in various forms, either the "classical" one (human countenance with wings), in the form of extraordinarily beautiful or radiant human beings, or as beings of light.

In the US, a 2008 survey by Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion, published by TIME magazine, which polled 1,700 respondents, found that 55 percent of Americans, including one in five of those who say they are not religious, believe that they have been protected by a guardian angel during their life.

A 2008 survey of over 1000 Canadians found 67 percent believe in angels.

The creative sellers in the folksy daily listing club are not angels as defined by Wikipedia, but they do regularly make the most beautiful handmade items, e.g. jewellery, cards, art, paintings, purses, knitted and crocheted goods, cushion covers, wonderful throws, blankets, quilts, cases, book covers, novelty items, and as in my case, handmade notebooks and journals.  You can also buy craft supplies – did you know that? I have illustrated my blog post today with a few of these lovely items.  Please click on the photographs and it will take you directly to the seller’s shop on folksy. Stop, have a browse, you are bound to find that gift you have been meaning to buy, or why not treat yourself?  Many of the sellers have "sale" items so you may even find yourself a bargain!

I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog post on angels and will come back for another visit soon.

BFN

Edwina

TOP TO BOTTOM: Violet Vickers Creations, Bojanglies, Wild Rose Designs - Handmade Bags and Accessories, The Card Jeanie, The Beaded Garden, JAustenJewelleryDesign and Whimsy Woo Designs.