Estelle Ana Baca

Category: Ministers of Grace Universe

This category encompasses all writings related to Ministers of Grace, or all things related to angels, demons and assorted monsters.

  • A Cathedral of Books

    I’ve got news, folks. Ministers of Grace: Cherubim & Seraphim is finally with the last proofreader who’ll ever lay eyes upon it. The manuscript will be back in my hot little hands early next week, which means that I’ll be able to announce an official release date for it sometime this month.

    On a side note, the following came up in conversation this week…

    When I was a highly impressionable German student twenty years ago, I was treated to my first screening of Der Himmel über Berlin/Wings of Desire. Its very essence has stuck with me ever since, to the extent that my initial impressions of it mark a starting point in regards to my fascination with angels in European art and literature.

    According to the soundtrack by Jürgen Knieper, this scene is entitled “Die Kathedrale der Bücher,” which literally translates to the Cathedral of Books. It’s evocative of some of Rilke’s musings about angels, providing an answer to the question posed in the first lines of the Duino Elegies:

    Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel
    Ordnungen?

    Who, if I cried out, would hear me from the Orders of the Angels?

    More to come very soon. Thank you for your patience with me.

    ♥ EAB

  • New Things!

    18th Anael, Day of Cassiel, Hour of Gabriel 18.10.3.2.31.23

    While I’ve been working on the final draft of Cherubim & Seraphim—almost done!—I took a break to update the site. There are a few new pages that relate to the Ministers of Grace universe.

    One includes a table on the Archangels and their rulerships.

    Three pages are on time: the first is an index, the second contains the angels’ calendar as it relates to the Western Gregorian calendar, and the third lists the hours.

    One of these days, I reckon I’ll know a programmer who’ll be able to hook me up with an instant human-to-angel-time converter. In the meantime, if there’s a specific date you’d like converted (e.g. your birthday, your anniversary, etc.) please click on the expandy button below, leave me a comment, and I’ll reply with the conversion. Please be sure to provide the month, day, and year, as well as the time and place. (e.g. October 18, 2012, 4:21 am, Oakland, California. This converts to 1st Raziel, Day of Raziel, Hour of Anael. 1.8.3.2.31.23) Bear in mind that angels—particularly the Virtues—are persnickety about the relationship between space and time, so you can’t calculate the correct hour without knowing the place.

    ♥ EAB

  • I am Kickstarter Funded. Thank you!

    There’s a perfect word somewhere for what I’m feeling, but it keeps getting pushed out of my head. I’ll give a crack at describing it:

    I’m overwhelmed
    and overjoyed
    and astonished
    and astounded
    and floored
    and totally, completely overcome with gratitude.

    So many incredible people have been unbelievably generous over the last four weeks. Their actions have plunged me into speechlessness many, many times over since I first announced this project on September 21st. I asked for $3,500, and my backers pledged $4,269. Thank you, all of you.

    My gratitude isn’t limited to those who put up cash and passed around hats, although if I could, I’d conjure some sort of fairy to make all their wishes come true for at least a day. I’m massively grateful to the many who shared the link on Facebook, Twitter and email to spread the word. I’ll also never forget all the efforts of the various cheerleaders who offered love and support without limitation.

    Ministers of Grace is going to be in print. I toiled on the entire trilogy for forty to eighty hours a week, seven days a week, over a seventeen-month period with only a scattering of breaks and holidays. I never thought I’d have the opportunity or summon the discipline to put it to the page, and now, with the assistance of all these fantastic benefactors, it’s going to be a reality.

    Please stay tuned. The plan is to have the book out in early 2013 and all the donor rewards sent out by the end of March. You can get a taste of the cover read: rough mock-up if you scroll down. You can also check out and like the new page I’ve created for it on Facebook to get updates in your Live Feed.

    I literally couldn’t have done this without you. Thank you. And thank you again. And thank you over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over

    ♥♥♥♥♥ EAB ♥♥♥♥♥

    UPDATE: There have been some queries regarding the cover. It’s based on Le mort du fossoyeur/La mort et le fossoyeur (The Death of the Gravedigger/Death and the Gravedigger) by Carlos Schwabe. I’ve discovered two different names for the painting depending upon the source. I designed it with the help of Photoshop.

  • Kickstarter campaign has been launched!

    The time has come for me to put the first book of my trilogy Ministers of Grace into the hands of readers, but to do that, I need your help. I’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to produce it in both print and electronic formats. The funding deadline is October 16 at 11:59 pm MDT, so you’re welcome to donate anytime between now and then. Any contribution is immensely appreciated!

    If you’d like to read or download the first chapter before you navigate to the Kickstarter page, you’re welcome to do so here.

    Thank you and thank you again!

    ♥ EAB

  • Spotify lets me share Keys with you.

    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.

    ♥ EAB

  • Until Further Notice

    Nine months isn’t a terribly long time, in the whole scheme of things. Estelle wrote about a conversation we’d had about time from my perspective not too long ago. We’ve been working on this blog over the last nine months with the aim of presenting something for you every single Tuesday, and we’ve been extremely conscientious about it since the first week of August last year, too. Most of it has fallen upon my shoulders, though, and lately, I’ve had a hard time dealing with the past. I’d much rather spend my time concentrating on the present and the future, and fortunately, I work with someone who’s understanding enough to realize when I need a break.

    In the meantime, Estelle’s on point… until further notice… to employ a rather maddeningly-indirect, passively-aggressive phrase… My my my… aren’t humans something?

    Dominus vobiscum.

  • Antonio Canova

    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.

    Detail of the Angel from the Cenotaph for Maria Christina of Austria by Antonio Canova
    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.

    ♥

  • On Time: The Hours

    Nadiel is still away this week. Sorry.

    One of the greatest discoveries that we humans made during the 20th century was the concept of relativity. To describe part of it very, very simply, imagine you’re on a train that’s travelling over a bridge spanning a river at a rate of 50 mph/80 kph. Are you passing over the river, or is the river passing under you? Because you don’t actually feel as though you, personally, are travelling at 50 mph to cross the bridge with such haste, chances are that you’ve rather unconsciously decided that the river is travelling underneath you. That’s not really what’s happening, but that’s what it feels and looks like.

    Space and time are inextricably bound to each other in this Universe, and the angels, having designed them to function together, experience time as it is relative to space, so that time on any point on Earth is unique to that particular point on Earth.

    Nadiel has expressed to me a remarkable amount of bemusement at the idea of time zones and the much hated daylight saving time. I tried explaining to her that we, as a species, standardized time for a few reasons: 1) we needed consistent schedules for people in different parts of the world; 2) we needed to measure longitude; and 3) it’s just easier for us. She thinks it’s cute.

    How the angels handle time is ridiculously complicated to humans because we have neither the mental capacity nor eons’ worth of experience with spacetime to perfect the sorts of calculations they perform to measure time like they do. But, if we were immortal, we’d have a different way of looking at time, too.

    After Nadiel tried explaining it to me a few times, she agreed to help me locate tools on the internet to help me calculate how they measure time, so that I wouldn’t have to bother her about it constantly. The smallest unit of time that we humans have is the second; the smallest angelic unit is the hour. Nadiel said that to the angels, hours are ludicrously short enough not to have to divide them into even smaller units, and if you were older than time itself, an hour would seem like a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of a thousandth of second.

    The angels’ day begins at sunrise, the night at sunset. The day has twenty-four hours: twelve hours of the day and twelve hours of the night. How the angels calculate each hour is by dividing the whole of the day and the night respectively into twelve, so that each hour is then one-twelfth of the day or one-twelfth of the night. We humans used to mark the day like this, too, but we got rid of it when we wanted schedules. Humans who practice magics are known to divide the hours like the angels despite the precision of our time pieces, for they find that it is useful in helping them to achieve a specific result with their spells. Further to this, there is a curiosity known as Oxford time in which one of the colleges at the University observes the hour five minutes later than the standard GMT, which is actually in accord with relative time.

    So—how would you be able to convert our time into the angels’ hours for today, March 15, 2011? First you need to find out what times the sun rises and sets to know where to start. The Astronomical Applications Department of the U.S. Naval Observatory can help you find out what time the sun will rise and set where you are, and if you need to find your latitude and longitude, you can find out here. Nadiel is presently located at 36°11′55″ North and 105°53′19″ West, where the sun rises at 7.15 AM and sets at 7.11 PM Mountain Daylight Time.

    Next, you can either find the sum of all the minutes in the day and divide by twelve, which is a recipe for a migraine, or you can go to a site that will calculate the planetary hours as are used by magicians and alchemists. Simply enter the sunrise and sunset times where you live, and it will do the calculations for you. Once that’s done, you simply disregard the planetary name of the hour and replace it by numbering the hours from one to twelve for the day and night respectively.

    Thus, the hours for today, provided you are at 36º11′ North and 105º53′ West, are:

    1st hour of the day – 7:15 AM to 8:14 AM
    2nd hour of the day – 8:14 AM to 9:14 AM
    3rd hour of the day –  9:14 AM to 10:14 AM
    4th hour of the day –  10:14 AM to 11:13 AM
    5th hour of the day –  11:13 AM to 12:13 PM
    6th hour of the day –  12:13 PM to 1:12 PM
    7th hour of the day – 1:12 PM to 2:12 PM
    8th hour of the day – 2:12 PM to 3:12 PM
    9th hour of the day – 3:12 PM to 4:11 PM
    10th hour of the day – 4:11 PM to 5:11 PM
    11th hour of the day – 5:11 PM to 6:11 PM
    12th hour of the day – 6:11 PM to 7:11 PM
    1st hour of the night – 7:11 PM to 8:11 PM
    2nd hour of the night – 8:11 PM to 9:11 PM
    3rd hour of the night – 9:11 PM to 10:11 PM
    4th hour of the night – 10:11 PM to 11:12 PM
    5th hour of the night – 11:12 PM to 12:12 AM
    6th hour of the night – 12:12 AM to 1:12 AM
    7th hour of the night – 1:12 AM to 2:13 AM
    8th hour of the night – 2:13 AM to 3:13 AM
    9th hour of the night – 3:13 AM to 4:13 AM
    10th hour of the night – 4:13 AM to 5:14 AM
    11th hour of the night – 5:14 AM to 6:14 AM
    12th hour of the night – 6:14 AM to 7:14 AM

    As we’re pretty close to the equinox, the hours here have a pretty uniform length, because the length of the days and nights are almost identical. When the days are significantly longer or shorter in the months surrounding the solstices, the difference between the lengths of the hours of the day and night is more pronounced. Bear in mind, however, that this is all dependent upon whether you’re in an area above or below the Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, where the lengths of days and nights wax and wane depending on the season. If you live in an equatorial region, the lengths of the days and nights are rather equal all year round, and the angels’ hours are similarly regular year round. More relativity.

    But of course, this is only a tiny part of the angelic reckoning of time. There are Archangelic rulerships of hours, too, which we’ll get to when Nadiel’s got another week off.

    Have a great week!

    ♥

    UPDATE, January 6, 2013

    OK OK OK What I should’ve written before is that there are twelve months in the angels’ year, with one Archangel ruling over each month. Within each month, the days are ruled by the Archangels, and each Archangel rules over an hour of the day and an hour of the night. Moving on…

    Now that we’ve done all the math above, let’s go back and finish converting March 15, 2011 at Nadiel’s location in Dixon, New Mexico, at, say, 2:54 pm into Angelic time. If you go to the Calendar Page, you can see that March 15 (regardless of the year) corresponds to the 25th day of the month of Barakiel, which is a day of Sachiel. 2:54 pm falls during the 8th hour of the day above, which, if you go to the Hours Page, corresponds to the Hour of Michael.

    Therefore, March 15, 2011, 2:54 pm, in Dixon, New Mexico, converts to 25th Barakiel, Day of Sachiel, Hour of Michael. 25.12.1.1.29.23

    “But what about leap years? And feast days? What do we do for those?!”

    The Angelic Year starts on the first day of the Vernal Equinox. A year in which you’d use the leap year dates would start the year before we’d mark it, e.g. March 21, 2011 to March 20, 2012 is an angelic leap year. That means that December 7, 2011 corresponds to a Day of Camael. The angels’ leap year would then continue past our new year, so that February 15, 2012 would be a day of Metatron, a feast day.

    Feast days mean that you use the second table on the Hours Page, and not the nice, standardized version that you get on all the normal Archangels’ days.  Then you have to know which day of Metatron you’re dealing with… ::siiiigh:: This is why Nadiel says that most mortals avoid dealing with feast days.

    Let’s convert 11:29 am on February 15, 2012 for Dixon, New Mexico. Using the same tools we employed above, it corresponds to the 6th hour of the day, 26th Cassiel, a day of Metatron. After some more ludicrous calculations that only some of the angels care about, you’ll arrive at the conclusion that it’s the 1st day of Metatron, in which the 6th hour is ruled by Dirachiel.

    So, at long last, February 15, 2012, 11:29 am in Dixon, New Mexico, converts to 26th Cassiel, Day of Metatron, Hour of Dirachiel. 26.11.2.2.30.23

    I know, I know. It’s ridiculously complicated. If you’d rather have someone do the work for you, head over here and I’ll convert it for you.

    ♥ EAB

  • Musical Interlude #2: Joy

    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 be Beethoven’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!

    ♥

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