Between the angelic nature, which is an intellectual thing, and the human soul there is no step, but they are both almost continuous in the order of gradation. … Thus we are to suppose and firmly to believe, that a man may be so noble, and of such lofty condition, that he shall be almost an angel. ~ Dante, Convivio, VII. 3
Nearly all that has been said theologically of the angels can be said metaphysically of the superior states of the being, just as in the astrological symbolism of the Middle Ages the ‘heavens’, that is to say the various planetary and stellar spheres, represent these same states and also the initiatic degrees to which their realization corresponds ~ Rene Guenon, Multiple States of Being
In flowing and running water, in mists dissolving into water, also in the winds and the lightning flashing through the air, in all these, you have to look for the physical body of Angelic beings. The difficulty for man consists in his fixed idea that a physical body must necessarily have a definite outline. It is difficult for a man to say to himself: I see fog rising, I see a stream of water dissolving into spray, I stand in the blowing wind, I see lightning dart from the clouds, and I know that all these are revelations of Angels; behind this physical body, which is by no means so limited as the human one I have to recognise the spirit. ~ Rudolf Steiner, The Spiritual Hierarchies
