Who are the Earth Island Angels?

(This essay can be downloaded in booklet form as a .pdf file. Get the booklet and the color cover.)

Welcome

Some of us have been listening to the Great Goddess Gaia - our Earth - and she is telling us things. She is telling us to remember the Angels of Earth Island. Earth Island is our planet, our home in the sea of space. It's the only place we have every lived and it may be the only place we ever will live.

Who are the Earth Island Angels? They are the Angels we know from Judeo-Christian religion, but they are also found in many other cultural and religious traditions. They represent the spirits of the generations who are not here on Earth now, both the ancestors and the future generations. Explore the topics below to learn more!

Seraphim

Angel lore comes from many sources: the Bible, the Talmud and Koran as well as Jewish mysticism texts like the Zohar and the Gnostic texts. Seraphim and Cherubim are the two most prominent orders of angels.

The Seraphim are the wisest angels. They are described as brazen or burning serpents. Seraph means serpent and their element is fire. They were recruited as God's messengers to man. Some of them are fallen angels, like Lucifer, bringer of light. The serpent almost always refers to the ancient Earth Goddess religion. The Seraphim are undoubtedly wise, but their loyalty to God is sometimes questionable because they still serve the ancient Goddess. The Seraphim are the spirits of our wise ancestors, priestesses and shamans.

The brazen serpent that healed the followers of Moses may have represented the Seraphim.

Lucifer, a fallen angel known as the bringer of light, was one of the Seraphim.

Cherubim

The Cherubim are the guardian angels. They wield the flaming, whirling sword. They are beasts with wings and four faces: Lion, Eagle, Ox and Man. Their wings cover the ark of the covenant, folded about it like a perfect yoni. The cherubim guard the east gate of Eden, the one where Adam and Eve were expelled.

The Cherubim are of air and breath. Their role is to touch the fetus while it is still in the womb and give it the breath of life. The mark on a newborn's upper lip is the sign of that touch. Since the Renaissance, cherubs have been portrayed in art as baby angels. This reflects their role in guarding the gates of Paradise, the Womb. Once we have left the Womb we cannot return. The Cherubim represent then, those children who died prematurely through miscarriage, abortion or infant neglect. Their souls have not been tried on earth and so they can return to Paradise to wait for another chance.

The chief Cherub is called Metatron. His female aspect is the Shekina, the Hebrew Goddess. Metatron is called "the small face of Yahweh" and "the Rod of Moses." From one side of the Rod comes life and the other death. He is the teacher of prematurely dead children in paradise while they await a more auspicious time for birth.

The Ark of the Covenant represents Eden or the Womb, to which we can never return. The Cherubim who guard it form a the shape of a vagina with their wings.

Cherubim guard the womb, and part of their role seems to be the approval of abortion and even infanticide. Throughout human history, around the globe, people have practiced abortion and infanticide as a necessary population control.

In Europe, from the middle ages until the nineteenth century, infanticide was institutionalized in several ways. First, the practice of hiring wet nurses often resulted in the death of the foster nursling as undernourished mothers had trouble keeping two or more infants alive. During the population explosion of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, abandoned infants became such a problem that foundling hospitals were established where unwanted babies could be deposited. However, very few infants survived the hospitals which farmed them out to wet nurses in the country. The winged baby cherubs that decorate so many sentimental objects are a way of unconsciously honoring the spirits of babies who did not survive.

The "putti", small angel faces found in much Renaissance art, represent unwanted babies sent back to heaven to wait a better time for birth.

Jizo Dolls

Many women or couples in Japan who have terminated a pregnancy, suffered a miscarriage, or had a stillborn baby choose to honour the soul of this child through a practice called mizuko jizo. Mizuko means ‘child of the water’ and is used to refer to the soul of a child who has been returned to the gods. Jizo is the name of the Buddhist god who protects and guides that soul on its journey to another world.

Abortion is regarded as the parents willingly making a decision to return a child to the gods, sending a child to a temporary place until such time that it is right for the child to come into this world, either into the same family or another one. The child is returned because the parents, at that time, would be unable to provide enough love, money, or attention to this child, without it being to the detriment of their present family. Practicing mizuko jizo allows the parents to provide a certain amount of attention to the child, who is regarded as a member of their family: to apologize to the child and to ask for forgiveness from their child for being unable to bring them up. This involves the practice of a ritual where the parents purchase a doll, adorn it and enshrine it in a temple where it is cared for by priests.

Jizo images at a Japanese shrine.

Jizos with the Buddha.

Tiki Gods

The heitiki, usually carved from native greenstone, is one of the most prized of Maori ornaments, and is worn as a pendant by women. It represents a human embryo. The heitiki gave its wearer mana (power) associated with fertility and creation. There is also an association with the Maori culture hero, Maui. Maui was aborted by his mother who already had too many sons. She placed his body on a bed of seaweed to be washed out to sea. Maui floated on the seaweed to another island where an aged couple rescued him and raised him.

Though she was required to cut off her topknot to atone for what she had done, Maui's mother was not evil. Later, Maui came back to her and she recognized him as her son. Maui became a trickster god, the author of many bold stunts including the attempt to defeat death by crawling back through the womb of the creator goddess Hine. The Maori call abortion "the excrement of the gods."

The Heitiki amulet worn by Maori women represents an aborted fetus and the culture hero Maui.

A tiki god of fishermen from Tahiti.

In Polynesian languages, a tiki is a penis as well as a small fetcher spirit that can protect a person, like a guardian angel. Tiki gods are especially useful to fishermen who enlist their help in catching fish. Fetuses disposed of in the ocean were thought to become fish and there are legends of women who encounter their aborted children who had become fish.

The Hawaiians had a god of abortion named Ku Po. He resembles the god of war with his cockscomb and his image is a fierce head on the end of a long pointed stick. The stick was the abortion instrument. In Hawaii, aborted and still born children were considered part of the family and after several generations they were deified as minor gods who watched over the clan.

In Tahiti, the Oro cult institutionalized abortion. Oro was a "soft" war god, "warrior-of-the-laid-down-spear," who promoted a peaceful alternative to war. Oro's disciples were a group of traveling entertainers, men and women who were singers, dancers and storytellers. These Arioi, as they were known, traveled about the islands throwing festivals. Wherever they arrived, village people were obliged to feast and gift them. Sometimes the Arioi became a nuisance and depleted people's resources, but there was nothing they could do. Those who joined the Arioi had to pledge to remain child free. They taught abortion techniques wherever they went as it was a necessary part of their program of making love not war. As many as a fifth of the population belonged to the Arioi, significantly reducing the number of breeders, and hence, the competition for resources leading to war.

On the small islands of the South Pacific, population regulation before the modern era of imported food must have been of paramount concern. Abortion and infanticide were widely practiced. Aborted children were thought to return directly to heaven and could serve as messengers to the gods. It was important to honor them or they could become angry and bring down the wrath of heaven. Eskimos also called abortion "the excrement of the gods" and they believed that if abortion was practiced irresponsibly it would disturb Sedna, mother of the seals, and the hunters would have poor luck.

Jinns, Water Babies and Twists of Clay

There are many more examples of angels and water babies used by different cultures to work through the feelings surrounding abortion. The European fairies and water sprites are fetus-like creatures who inhabit a nether world. Arabic Jinns, or Genies are the kind of spirits that can be either good or bad. The word Jinn is related to the words for fetus and garden and means a hidden spirit.

Pictures from the Charles Kingsley children's book, The Water Babies.

Certain small sculptures of the ancient Olmec people of Mexico appear to resemble fetuses. Archeologist Carolyn Tate has studied these sculptures and says: "Among the Mixe, contemporary descendants of the Olmecs, the female supernatural power that controls bodies of water also controls human childbirth and fishing. It is as if one "fishes" for children, or as if fish were placed in the womb in order to be "cooked" into human infants, as the Mixe say."

Two Olmec fetus sculptures from "Olmec Sculptures of the Human Fetus" by Carolyn Tate and Gordon Bendersky.

Abortion was openly practiced in the harem of the Aztec ruler Montezuma. The Aztecs and their precursors occupied deserts and jungles that provided very little in the way of protein. Their only domesticated animals were the turkey and the dog. With so little meat to go around, population limitation was desirable.

Representations of the fetus may be more common than we know. Marija Gimbutas identifies fetal twists of clay found in archeological sites in old Europe. Figurines of frogs, fish, salamanders and other such creatures may have actually represented fetuses in the minds of those who made them.

A fish-fetus sculpture from neolithic Europe.

A silver frog with a human face from the Alps, 19th century. From "The Language of the Goddess" by Marija Gimbutas.

The Fall

Adam's first wife Lilith was something like a goddess of abortion. She wanted to be his equal and when he refused to let her change their sexual position so she could be on top, she left him. Yahweh sent three angels after her, but she escaped and went to live in a cave. Yahweh punished her by decreeing that all her children would die, but since she knew the secret name of Yahweh, she retained power over all newborn children and could cause any of them to die. The daughters of Eve must protect their children from Lilith by using amulets to ward her off.

The story of Lilith and of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden represents the change of human social organization from matrilineal to patriarchal. In former times, all children belonged to their mothers and mother's brothers. But the fathers wanted their own children to honor them and care for them in their old age and slowly they subverted the ancient system. The knowledge Eve gave to Adam was the knowledge of his exclusive paternity (previously it was thought that a woman had to lie with more than one man to conceive). This knowledge knocked the old world off its foundations and began an era of pain and strife.

Lilith tempting Eve with the fruit of knowledge.

A representation of Lucifer after the fall. Note that he/she causes birth as well as death.

One consequence of the change was the loss of old methods of population regulation. Fathers wanted more sons to increase their power in commerce and war. The first written law codes, those of Assyria and Hammurabi, where primarily concerned with the regulation of women and their fertility. The law required that a woman who aborted should be impaled on a stake and refused sacred burial. Infanticide however, remained perfectly legal, if exercised by the father, as it was now his right to chose which children to keep and which to kill. Fathers were more likely to keep sons and to kill daughters.

Still, throughout much of the ancient world, women continued to practice abortion. Ancient medical texts show that a variety of effective herbal abortifacients were known. Mostly these were taken within the first month of pregnancy. An herb called silphium, a variety of giant fennel, was so effective that during Greek and Roman times it was harvested to extinction. It could not be cultivated and grew only in the deserts of Libya.

Toward the end of the Roman empire, rulers became increasing concerned about the slowing of population growth. More and more their subjects were refusing to birth large families. The custom was to sell unwanted infants as slaves, but fewer families were willing to do that. At its height, about twenty percent of the Empire's subjects were slaves. Imperial Rome imposed new laws against abortion.

A similar situation took hold with the rise of mercantilism during the Renaissance. In the aftermath of the bubonic plague and the depopulation of Europe, a general prosperity took hold as the survivors inherited the wealth of the land. Laborers and artisans commanded high wages. The wealthy merchants, however, wanted lower wages and so increased pressure was brought upon women to bear large families again. The period of the Renaissance coincides with the peak of the witch persecutions in which an estimated half million women were executed. Most of these women were either midwives with knowledge of contraception and abortion or single women who had aborted. As a result, most of the ancient knowledge of herbal abortifacients was lost to ordinary women.

Women healers murdered by the witch hunts.

Abortion and Democracy

The witch was called a baby killer because she took the regulation of population into her own hands against the interests of the merchant rulers who based their power on growth and war. This struggle continues. The interests of women, labor and the small democratic society are opposed to the interests of those who value the accumulation of obscene wealth and concentrated power above all else.

As human population continues to grow exponentially, it is now doubling at a rate of every 30 years. The stresses on the environment and systems of food production, water and energy are enormous and growing. The stresses on human society are equally great. Outbreaks of violence, substance abuse, disease and insanity are increasing. Poverty is on the rise as labor is oversupplied and wages fall. Since the globalization of economic systems, America is no longer immune to these forces.

One consequence we rarely think about is the impact of mass society on democracy. The Jeffersonian ideal of democracy is based on a small society where problems can be solved by participation of all citizens in town hall meetings. In 1800 it was quite possible that your representative to Congress would know you or your family by name. Now it is unthinkable unless you are a wealthy contributor, a lobbyist or a political activist. The number of constituents per representative has grown from 25,000 to 640,000 and is still growing. In the words of science fiction writer Isaac Asimov: "Democracy will not survive overpopulation."

The masses of men are easier to manipulate than thoughtful small groups and the mass media is the perfect instrument of control. Adolf Hitler said in Mein Kampf: "the great mass of people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one." Thus George W. Bush can claim to be "pro-life" while he sends young people off to die in an unprovoked war.

Fascist rulers have learned that the easiest way to control people is by controlling their sexuality. Women in particular are made to feel that their natural sexuality is "dirty" and the only noble function of sex is to produce children. A Nazi newspaper in 1931 published the following: "The family with many children must be preserved.... because it is a highly valuable, indispensable part of the German nation .... not only because it alone guarantees the maintainence of the population in the future but because it is the strongest basis of national morality and national culture.... the legalization of abortion is at variance with the function of the family, which is to produce children, and would lead to the definite destruction of the family with many children."

A large part of the success of the extreme right wing in American politics derives from its appeal to abortion opponents. Like the Nazis, the right wing has tied abortion to the stability of the family and ultimately the security of the nation. But this is a big lie. In fact the opposite is true. Abortion, family planning and comprehensive health care for women can halt exponential population growth. If we don't accept the necessity of population limitation, we will have it imposed upon us anyway as the burden of growing population continues to destroy our environment. As the environment deteriorates, we lose our health, our livelihood and our security.

Abortion is an emotional issue. It is never anyone's first choice and should not be used as a contraceptive. But the fact is that even modern contraceptives are hard to use, can harm women's health and can fail. Abortion is still necessary as a backup. Instead of fighting against abortion, let us honor the souls of the tiny beings we must send back to heaven and concentrate our energies and passions on creating a better world for the people who are already here. In the process we will also create a sustainable future so that those souls may have a chance to return to Earth some day.

Earth Island Angels

Earth Island Angels are the modern version of the Tiki god or the Cherub. Like the Buddhist Jizo dolls, we can use these icons to focus our thoughts and prayers.

Earth Island Angels can be anything. Angels and fairies are very popular today and lovely images of them can be found everywhere. Put an angel or a fairy on your personal altar or sacred space and use it to remind you of the sad but sometimes necessary sacrifice of abortion. Use it to give thanks that we have much better contraceptives today than our ancestors did. Give thanks that we rarely have to resort to abortion and never to infanticide. Give thanks also for the lives of millions of women that have been saved by access to safe, legal abortion.

I have created my own Earth Island Angels in the image of an embryo with butterfly wings. These images remind me of the wondrous biological diversity of the Earth as represented by the thousands of species of butterflies.

When I see these images I am reminded that because I chose to end my accidental pregnancies, there are two fewer human beings on the earth impacting the habitat of butterflies and other creatures. They make me feel good about the decision I made because I have left more room on Earth for nature to flourish. If you would like to see more of my images, go the gallery.

Questions? Comments? Write to: lily@earthislandangels.com