For all the fear that gripped me when facing Anael, I was instead filled with a simmering joy to face Michael. I felt like a student returning from studies abroad, eager to show their mentor that the time apart was not wasted. Previous encounters with various forms of the Archangel Michael had taught me not to take their gentle appearance as a sign of gentility. I still hoped for it, just the same.
A friend and mentor once told me the story of a particular stone and the folklore of how its presentation came to be. They had warned me that once I learn that story, that it will unlock an apotropaic property of the stone but at the cost of never being able to forget the burdensome tale. I learned the story, unlocked the property, and immediately had a item containing it commissioned as a ward against evil spirits and a warning to myself to be careful what I wish for.
When I began this current series of summons on Monday, there was an overwhelming impetus to have that stone present as an additional shield. But the impetus was not present on Wednesday or Friday. Indeed, there was an unspoken directive to wear only what jewelry was my regular habit to wear. But today, the impetus was suddenly active and unwavering. It is left up to me to ascertain why I would need additional warding when working with the spheres of the Moon and the Sun, but not of Mercury or of Venus.
After a week of unwavering sunlight, today it is overcast and drizzling at dawn. I suppose some would say it is poor form to summon the angel of the Sun when said luminary is obscured. To that I answer, “The Sun is there, and I am here, and here I am.”
When the angel appeared from the summons, no detailed apparitions took over the room, at least not in the way that Anael did the day before. Instead, a thin string of light pierced the ceiling above the summoning table to touch the scrying globe. Contact made the string widened and as it did, sunlight flooded the room from directly overhead despite the only window present being to the north.
Michael made their presence known not by some appearance of physical embodiment, but by placing the glyph of the Sun ☉ in my awareness to the point that it obscured the spectacle of sunlight. Under what I realized was an All-Seeing Eye, I could not look away nor challenge. I was caught and bound in the light of the Sun, and at that moment, I wasn’t afraid to be there nor did I want to be anywhere else. In this moment of surrender, I felt the angel speaking from within me.
The words of Michael, Angel of the Sun: “In this light I bring you, look plainly at yourself, what you can do, and how you can do it. No grape will ever spring from a willow no matter what others may tell you. If you wish to traverse this sphere, you must do it as yourself and nothing else.”
After repeating the words three times to make sure I remembered it, I wanted to stay captive to the light surrounding me. But even as I acknowledged that desire, I knew that this would be literally hiding in plain sight. I could not use this appearance of glory as an excuse to avoid doing the (dirty) work.
In the silence that came after completing the ritual, I sat down at my desk to record the angel’s words and begin writing this post. The candle remained lit while the incense filled the room and swirled around my head. I would look up at the candle from time to time, just to make sure that all is well.
During one of these glances, I saw the light of the candle, the electric lights in the room, and even the hazy glow from outside was reflecting and refracting in the internal fissures and features of the scrying globe. As I rested my gaze upon them, the candle suddenly seemed to flare and a beam of light pointed from it to the globe, where it filled the sphere with a bright golden glow before pointing to my chest.
“The Sun is there“, I heard as the light illuminated me and pushed me back into my chair. I closed my eyes and yielded to the vision as it descended.
The light continued to reflect through the scrying globe and filled my head with visions of my everyday life. Unspoken words accompanied the montage revealed by the light of the Sun. “The Sun is there, within you, and you carry its light wherever you go. The Sun is there, even in the darkest depth of night and you have only your fears to keep you company. The Sun is there when you choose to be kind and when you choose to be cruel, when you choose to give and when you choose to receive, when you choose to offer yourself as help to others and when you choose to preserve yourself from predation. The Sun is there, and you are here, and here you are.”
That last sentence was given to me by a different spirit during a very difficult and emotionally dark period of my life. It has become a mantra that reminds me that for all the difficulty I may be experiencing at the moment, that I am still alive means there is still hope to be had. I suppose I should not be surprised that it continues to be reflected in my life.
As the rain continues to fall, it feels like reaching the halfway point in the series has given me a soft space to pause and catch my breath. I knew the workings would be intensive as each sphere’s consequence overlapped and built upon the previous. I have a feeling that when the rain ends and the clouds disperse that something is going to happen and I am going to need to be the light-bearer in my life for no other reason than I’m here. Like the Sun. Even when it is not in plain sight.