Guardian Angels

You may see in popular Christian culture, various references to guardian angels. They claim these beneficent, cherub-like things flit around and try to fix stuff and keep their assignees out of trouble. However, if you look through their Bible, you won't find any of these creatures, and the angels you do find are rather horrific. So, where does the idea of guardian angels come from? Asatru has the answer.

There are several types of entity that fit the description and behavior of these so-called angels. The first, and most likely, are the Disir. These are family members who decided to stick around after death for the purpose of caring for the family. Traditionally, these are females who were so dedicated to caring for their children and grandchildren (and so on) that they just couldn't stop caring just because life was over. If you have a Dis looking after you, it is to your benefit. Of course, the Disir are known to play favorites.

If the "angel" shows up in a particular locale, there is a chance that it is a land spirit. The elves are known to be helpful sometimes. They don't have to be, and one can easily get on their bad side, but a helpful elf would appear to be a "guardian angel" to someone who didn't understand elves. It is usually a good idea to get along well with the elves in your area and try to respectful when you are in a different area.

Another possibility is not an outside entity at all, but is, instead, your fetch. The fetch is a part of you, typically in animal form, that travels beyond your normal physical range and interacts with the other worlds. By doing this, it brings to the rest of you information about things elsewhere. It can also give the appropriate nudge in the right place to turn your apparent luck. That sounds very much like the functionality of the guardian angel.

Most Christians don't know any better. Real religion was stolen from them and their ancestors a long time ago. Modern American Christians, as well as Christians in other countries, often try to adopt concepts from other cultures to fill in the missing pieces, like discussing auras because they don't know about their hama. Sometimes, though, there is not a ready analog available or it would contradict Christian dogma too severely. In those cases, they adapt the popular version of Christianity to accommodate the need and they pretend it has always been that way. They don't have Disir, elves, or fetches in their set of things, so they describe these entities as angels when there is an encounter.

For the most part, you can ignore people who go on about their guardian angel, unless there seems to be some sort of harm. Then you may want to interfere. Ask them where they heard about guardian angels. Ask them where these are defined in the Bible. In many cases, this might get them to slow down and think a little. If they really develop some skepticism about angels at that point, maybe it's time to talk about the Disir, elves, and everyone else.