by Bruce Johnson —
Bruce Johnson has over 30 years of study in the fields of Ancient Wisdom and occultism. He has taught classes on a wide range of topics, from Atlantis to mediums to Zoroaster. He is also a spiritualist minister, with a background in spiritual astrology. He lives in Colorado with his wife and their cat.
The sacred scriptures of all major religions teach about the existence of a kingdom of spiritual beings called angels. These angels, called devas or gods in the eastern religions, constitute a non-human line of evolution that equals in importance and parallels our human evolution. Devas live on all seven planes of our solar system within a great hierarchy that incorporates varied levels of consciousness and intelligence. The Deva Kingdom includes good angels, evil angels labeled fallen angels by the Christians, and the Inverse Sephira by Kabbalists, and those devas indifferent to ethics. Diverse religions categorize the angelic kingdom using different numbers and systems. The Eastern classification accents the number seven when describing the angelic domain.
Deva bodies are made of light substance and appear somewhat like human forms, although much finer and having light radiating from them. Devas spiritually reincarnate in groups, not individually, and never experience incarnation into a solid physical body like humans do. Communication between devas does not involve sound like human speech, instead, they use a color language that expresses light, forms and symbols. All seven primary color rays can be seen reflected in various classes of devas, including the white, violet and green devas living on the etheric planes of Earth. Devas can be generally divided into those connected with involution, and those devas linked the evolutionary process.
This writer classifies devas according to three criteria. 1-By affinity to a color ray, 2- by the type of work they do, 3- by their evolutionary status. Having touched on deva color ray attunement, let’s look at the types of service or work accomplished by angels. The gifted clairvoyant Geoffrey Hodson lists these seven areas of angelic service. 1- Angels of power, 2- angels of healing, 3- angels of nature, 4- angels who build forms based on divine direction, 5- angels who are guardians of homes, people and places, 6- angels of music, 7- angels of art and beauty.
The angel kingdom division by evolutionary standing is as follows. The seven groups of entities known as the Dhyan Chohans are at the top of the deva evolutionary ladder. The Dhyan Chohans correspond to the Christian archangels. Dhyan Chohan bodies are composed of a mysterious substance called phlogiston. Below them are the Arupa or formless angels of the higher heaven world. They are also called the greater angels who are associated with the three highest sub-planes of the mental plane of life. Under the Arupa angels are the Rupa angels, or angels of form. Associated with the four lower sub-planes of the mental plane, Rupa devas are also known as lesser angels.
The astral plane with its seven subplanes, is home to the subordinate devas called Kama or desire devas. Devas less evolved than Kama devas are known as elementals or nature spirits. The most advanced nature spirits are known as sylphs, or air elementals, and also live on the astral plane.
The four highest sub-planes of the physical plane constitute the etheric plane, in which reside the remaining nature spirits. The highest of these nature spirits are the fire elementals called salamanders. The water elementals called undines, as well as fairies, are both found on etheric sub-planes below the fire nature spirits. Occupying the lowest rung of the angelic evolutionary ladder are the earth elementals, often referred to as brownies and gnomes.
