Check out this action shot submitted by Carla Kraft, reading her copy of Ministers of Grace: Cherubim & Seraphim at the beach this week.
If you don’t have yours yet and are dying for one, head over to Amazon.com to get your very own.
I had intended to pick only one winner of the July Contest. However, on account of the shocking heatwave that’s taken over the east coast of the US, two of the entrant’s names’ melted together when I went to pick them out of the hat. Congratulations to Steve Cabiedes and Len Pipkin!
Scroll down to the bottom of this post to check out a Spotify playlist that features a sampling of the songs that people submitted for the contest. And check this site out on Tuesday, when I’ll be posting fresh details as to where and how you can get your ebook version.
While we’re all still waiting for this book to come out – it will be soon, I promise, and I don’t make promises lightly – let me share with you some information on Keys.
Within the Ministers of Grace universe, all angels and Nephilim have two innate musical components: the Magnificat and Keys.
The Magnificat is the sound of Grace, the very essence of the divine, that exists within their soul and fuels their lifeforce. Only other creatures with Grace can sense it, and every Magnificat is unique. If you could hear it, it would sound like a song or a chant. It can gradually evolve over time, so that while you would still be able to name that tune from day to day, year to year, the instrumentation and tempo will differ with that angel or Nephil’s general state of mind or being or health.
Keys are similar, but they run deeper. They are the core quality of angels and Nephilim. They operate as something as a default emotional response, and they are expressed musically. There are twelve Keys: Joy, Comfort, Inspiration, Protection, Gratitude, Unity, Harmony, Renewal, Freedom, Fortitude, Lucidity and Fulfillment. Three pairs of Keys are twinned: Comfort and Protection; Renewal and Fulfillment; and Freedom and Lucidity.
How do they work? An angel with the Key of Protection would feel safe and secure when she’s at rest, whereas a Nephil with the Key of Lucidity would feel that all existence is alive and bright, infused with clarity, when he’s at his most calm state. As infants and children, angels and Nephilim broadcast them clearly. As they mature, they learn to control them, and there are two reasons for this. The first is that it is telling to know what it is that motivates them. A Nephil with the Key of Freedom might not be reliable in a situation that requires a great deal of patience and long-term toil, just as an angel with the Key of Fortitude might not always be yielding and understanding in a scenario that would require more subtlety and delicate finesse. The second reason Keys are controlled is that they tend to record all the experiences that an angel or Nephil has had over her lifetime. Unless a mature Nephil wants an angel to know everythinghe’s lived, then he would be better off keeping it to himself.
What might Keys sound like, if we could translate them into Western Music? I’ve compiled two Spotify playlists that demonstrate what they might sound like, one with classical music and the other with popular music. Embedded playlists are at the very bottom of this post.
Joy – W.A. Mozart, Overture, Le Nozze di Figaro
Comfort – J.S. Bach, Suite for Orchestra No 3, BWV 1068, II. Air
Inspiration – Modest Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition, XI. Limoges, la marché
Protection – Gabriel Fauré, “La Cantique de Jean Racine”
Gratitude – G.F. Händel, Serse, “Ombra mai fù”
Unity – Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No 6 in F Major, “Pastoral”, I. Allegro ma non troppo
Harmony – Edvard Grieg, Fire Salmer, II. “Guds Søn Har Gjort Mig Fri”
Renewal – Benjamin Britten, Hymn to St Cecilia, III. “O ear whose creatures cannot wish to fall”
Freedom – Jean Sibelius, Symphony No 6 in D minor, I. Allegro molto moderato
Fortitude – Carl Orff, Carmina Burana, “Ave Formosissima” into “O Fortuna”
Lucidity – Igor Stravinsky, The Firebird, Finale
Fulfillment – Arnold Schönberg, Verklärte Nacht, I. Grave into II. Molto Rallentando
N.B. The Spotify playlist is incomplete, as they’re lacking the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Radiohead’s In Rainbows ☹. I’ve provided a link to where you can listen to the track elsewhere on the interwebs.
Joy – The Beatles, “I Saw Her Standing There”
Comfort – Goldfrapp, “Let It Take You”
Inspiration – Stevie Wonder, “As”
Protection – Depeche Mode, “Home”
Gratitude – Jimi Hendrix, “May This Be Love”
Unity – Earth, Wind & Fire, “That’s the Way of the World”
Harmony – Queen, “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Renewal – Jeff Buckley, “Morning Theft”
Freedom – Elton John, “Rocket Man”
Fortitude – Led Zeppelin, “Kashmir”
Lucidity – Björk, “It’s Not Up to You”
Fulfillment – Radiohead, “All I Need”
If you really think about it, it’s not really all that difficult to conceive of all life of being composed of music. If you don’t believe me, just check this out.
If I had a Key, it’d probably be Gratitude. What would your Key be? Just think of a time of when you were most content. What did you feel then? Tweet or Facebook or G+ or comment me below if you want to share what your Key would be, although you might want to keep that to yourself.
I’ve made mention before that within The Ministers of Grace universe—that is, within everything that I’ve written that pertains to angels and demons—that there are these things called Angelic Keys, and that they sound pretty musical. Well, thanks to Spotify, I’m able to share with you what those Keys might sound like. Granted, these are merely examples. Each angel and Nephil who is in possession of a Key expresses it in a unique fashion. I implore you to use your imagination, but below are some playlists I’ve posted to Spotify that will allow you to listen to what the Keys might sound like in both popular and classical music. Yes, might. Gratitude and Renewal most likely sound like something different to you, but they sure sound like Hendrix & Händel and Buckley & Britten respectively to me…
Angelic Keys – Popular Music
1. Joy – The Beatles – “I Saw Her Standing There”
2. Comfort – Goldfrapp – “Let It Take You”
3. Inspiration – Stevie Wonder – “As”
4. Protection – Massive Attack – “Protection” (obvious, I know)
5. Gratitude – Jimi Hendrix – “May This Be Love”
6. Unity – Earth, Wind and Fire – “That’s the Way of the World”
7. Harmony – Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody”
8. Renewal – Jeff Buckley – “Morning Theft”
9. Freedom – Elton John – “Rocket Man”
10. Fortitude – Led Zeppelin – “Kashmir”
11. Lucidity – Björk – “It’s Not up to You”
12. Fulfillment – Radiohead – “All I Need”
Angelic Keys – Classical Music
1. Joy – Overture, Le Nozze di Figaro, KV 492, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
2. Comfort – Suite for Orchestra No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068, II. Air, Johann Sebastian Bach
3. Inspiration – Pictures at an Exhibition, XI. The Marketplace at Limoges, Modest Mussorgsky
4. Protection – Cantique de Jean Racine, Op. 11, Gabriel Fauré
5. Gratitude – “Ombra mai fu,” Xerxes, George Frideric Händel
6. Unity – Symphony No. 6 in F major, “Pastoral,” I. Allegro ma non troppo, Ludwig van Beethoven
7. Harmony – “Guds Søn Har Gjort Mig Fri,” Fire Salmer, Op. 74, Edvard Grieg
8. Renewal – “O Ear Whose Creatures,” Hymn to St. Cecilia, Op. 27, Benjamin Britten
9. Freedom – Symphony No. 6 in D minor, Op. 104, I. Allegro Molto Moderato, Jean Sibelius
10. Fortitude – Blanzifor et Helena: Ave Formosissima & Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi: O Fortuna, Carmina Burana, Carl Orff
11. Lucidity – The Firebird, V. Finale, Igor Stravinsky
12. Fulfillment – Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4, I. Grave & II. Molto rallentando, Arnold Schönberg
If you don’t have Spotify yet in the US, you can request an invite. I’d send you one, but for some reason, I have zero invitation tokens. Sadness. I know. I will try to remedy this ASAP.
Folks, I’m exhausted. I wrapped up the first draft of the trilogy in which our dear friend Nadiel has a starring role a few days ago, and I just don’t have a tale for you to read this week. “All” of “us” here are tired. Sorry.
The angel from Antonio Canova’s Cenotaph for Maria Christina of Austria in the Augustinerkirche
In the interests of giving you something to check out in the meantime, I’d like to let you know about a phenomenal and under-appreciated sculptor whom I came across while I was researching the Augustinerkirche in Vienna, which is adjacent to the Hofburg, for the trilogy. Antonio Canova (1757–1822) was the Venetian sculptor responsible for the exquisitely mournful and beautiful Cenotaph for Maria Christina of Austria that is within the Augustinerkirche. As is the case within all his sculptures, his subjects feel as if they’re alive and breathing, as if remaining motionless were a matter of conscious choice. I also love his Cupid and Psyche.
Nadiel says hi, by the way, and she wanted me to point you in the direction of “The Marketplace of Limoges” from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. (It’s another version of the Key of Inspiration, she says.) Me? I’m all about Gratitude right now, so if I had to give you something to listen to this week, I’d point you in the direction of the Largo from George Frideric Händel’s Xerxes, also known as “Ombra mai fu.” For my money, no one sings it better than Anne Sofie von Otter.
Thanks for understanding and being patient, loyal readers. We’ll be back when we’re back with more stories.
As I mentioned in a previous post, angels’ Keys are the core of their Graces. It’s part of what makes them immortal, and on a certain level, it operates as a guiding principle. If we humans were able to sense Graces and detect the Key beneath them, they would sound distinctly musical. Nadiel has described the music within them as reminiscent of a humming, chanting engine at work, and the angels refer to this audible quality of the soul as the Magnificat. I’ve always imagined that a Magnificat might sound like a large stadium crowd in which, if you listen carefully, you can pick out various bits of speech. Since Keys are related to Graces, Keys are the music within those Graces, or the song that’s sung by the most hopeful person in that crowd. If you aren’t listening for it, you won’t hear it, but it’s there.
Each of the twelve Archangels has a different Key with Graces that correspond to it, which isn’t the case with the other angels in all the other Orders. Some angels have Graces and Keys that don’t quite match up. For example, the Watcher Kivati, who had a role in Nadiel’s most recent tale, has a key of Freedom with the Graces of Sympathy, Mercy and Interdependence, which can seem a little contrary.
The Key that’s associated with the Archangel Camael is Joy. Ironically, if one were to seek expressions of Camael’s brand of Joy within music, one of the last places I’d look would beBeethoven’s Ninth Symphony and its Ode to Joy. I invite you to disagree with me, but Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is anything but joyful, for it is a devastatingly beautiful piece that is marked by alternating passages of angst and triumph. Beethoven’s Ode to Joy is about the search for joy in adversity, which isn’t quite the same thing as Joy for Joy’s sake. If I were to identify a piece that embodies Camael’s Joy, it’d have to be Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. Pick any part of it, and it’s joyful. Yes. The whole thing. He wrote it while he was still a newlywed, after he had a child who survived infancy and while was enjoying a more than decent amount of acclaim in Vienna at the time. It’s easy to infer that he was expressing his joy within the music of that entire opera. Even the tense parts of the opera can’t refrain from expressing Joy. I invite you to have a listen to the Overture. You’ve probably heard it before somewhere, and this particular version features an orchestra that’s about the same size as would have played in Vienna when the opera opened in 1786.
But what if you were looking to listen to something composed within human memory? Well, the Beatles are a good band to listen to if you want to hear some Joy. I recommend earlier Beatles, though. They stopped being explicitly joyful around the time of Revolver. If I had to choose one song, though, it’d most definitely be this one.
Nadiel has informed me that she might be going away for spring break next week. If she’s isn’t, you’ll get a fresh recollection from her. If she’s out of town, you’re stuck with me for another week. Either way, have a great one!
Nadiel wanted me to send out a whole spray of apologies. As she is posing as a fifteen-year-old Nephil girl, she has discovered the many obligations accompanying that assignment during the third week of November. She promises to provide another chapter in the tale of Astaroth’s Wager next Tuesday, at sunrise local time, per usual, when she won’t be on a plane to visit relatives in California.
She did mention to me, however, that I should share with you one of the musical expressions of her Key in lieu of a tale. A Key within an angel or Nephil is the core of the Grace within his or her soul. It is the prevailing emotional response when s/he’s at rest. Nadiel’s Key is Inspiration, and if you were to transpose that emotion into a pop song, it would probably sound a lot like this.
Not long after we angels were created by God, He separated us into the Orders. Angelic Orders can best be described as the different types of jobs that God assigned to us. Contrary to what has been written about angels by most humans, there are more than nine Orders. Most things relating to angels come in twelves (although on occasion, you can find concepts in sevens and fours and nines), and accordingly, there are were twelve Orders in the employ of God. Each angel was assigned to his or her Order based upon his or her unique talents. The Orders gave us purpose in the Universe, and our Graces helped us to execute our mission to care for the Universe.
Detail of Michael from Domenico Beccafumi’s Fall of the Rebel Angels. Michael prefers this likeness of himself, even though it doesn’t resemble his typical human manifestation. He doesn’t have wings, either. (None of us do, actually.)
I, Nadiel, was assigned to the Order of the Archangels. There are twelve of us: Camael, Ariel, Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, Uriel (pronounced OOH-ree-ell, if you please), Raziel, Sachiel, Anael, Cassiel, Barakiel and me. The twelve of us are the strongest and brightest of all angels, and Michael is the strongest and brightest of all. The Archangels were given the task of envisioning how the Universe should work and unfold, and we were chosen to rule over all of spacetime from a promontory point in Heaven after everything was up and running. Within this Solar System, I was given the responsibility of the planet Mercury and everything within its orbit (space), and one-twelfth of the duration of each planet’s revolution around the Sun (time). The month of Nadiel on Earth begins at sunrise on May the 20th and ends the moment before the sun rises on the morning of June the 19th. I do love to nurture creation in full bloom, and my brother Sachiel, who oversees oversaw the transition from spring into summer before the other solstice, was kind enough to let me assist him in the Southern Hemisphere.
Archangels’ strength and brilliance come from each of us being the embodiment of one particular type of the Graces. Just as there are were twelve Orders, there are twelve Graces. I am the truest expression of the universal concept of Inspiration, and my Graces of Adaptability, Judgment and Mindfulness extend from that concept. (Give it a good think and you’ll arrive at how each graduates to the understanding of the next.) We worked together with the other angels to put the formulae in motion for the Earth to evolve into the incredible planet it is now. Gabriel, Cassiel, Camael and I included the capacity for all living beings to appreciate beauty, along with the desire to protect it and create it within the world. I also added a bit of code, if you will, which successfully led to the creation of music.
Matters got very interesting on Earth a little more than 20 angelic generations ago—41,398 years ago, to be exact. I shan’t go into it now, Estelle won’t let me but suffice it to say that it wasn’t only homo sapiens that caught our attention. God reassigned several angels from the Order of the Watchers to observe and report back on what was transpiring here. As you can imagine, the Watchers’ mission throughout the Universe was almost exclusively observation and documentation. (Bear in mind that the Watchers who were assigned to Earth shouldn’t be confused with the fiction that was spun in the Book of Enoch, for Nephilim have different origins, appearance and purpose that she won’t let me talk about, either.)
Watchers were never allowed to interfere with creation unless the orders came from God, but nevertheless, God did give directives for intervention from time to time. There was one occasion in particular, in which the situation deteriorated in such horrific fashion so as to require a squadron of God’s army, the Heavenly Host, to set things right again. It all started when the Watchers Sabrathon and Kochabiel informed Michael—
