A Brief Natural History of Angels

One of my fave Media Store authors, Patrick Harpur, recently wrote an article for Fortean Times about guardian angels (requires free registration). It gives a sense of Harpur's supple intellect, especially in the little riff on Richard Dawkins's selfish gene theory.

I love this:

Those exceptional souls [perhaps You, dear Reader] who become aware of their daimon, as Jung did, have the satisfaction of fulfilling its purpose and hence of fulfilling their true selves. But this does not make them immune to suffering; for who knows what Badlands the daimon would have us cross before we reach the Isles of the Blessed? Who knows what wrestling, what injury, we are in for - like Jacob - at the hands of our angel? What our daimon teaches us, therefore, is not to always be seeking a cure for our suffering but rather to seek a supernatural use for it. "I have had much trouble in living with my ideas," wrote Jung at the end of his long and fruitful life. "There was a daimon in me… It overpowered me, and if I was at times ruthless it was because I was in the grip of a daimon… A creative person has little power over his own life. He is not free. He is captive and driven by his daimon... The daimon of creativity has ruthlessly had its way with me."