We've all heard about Guardian Angels and most Judeo-Christians believe they have one. That an angel is assigned to them when they are born to watch out for them. Some believe it's not an angel but a loved one, such as grandma or an ancestor. Some believe it to be a distant ancestor or perhaps a spirit of something else, such as a house or forest spirit.
Let me quote an excerpt from the book, "Concealed in the Darkness by J.K. James"
Is the threat of the unknown real? We are constantly discovering things in this world that we don’t fully understand. Whether it be a simple ghost sighting or something else.
The word “demon,” also spelled “daimon” or “daemon,” comes from Greek mythology for an inferior deity or an attendant spirit also know as a “genius.” It's interesting that the word genius has a meaning beyond our regular usage for someone with an exceptional intellect, but also means a spirit. The plurals for the word genius are geniuses (or standard usage) and genii, which comes from Roman mythology meaning a tutelary deity or guardian spirit of a person or place. The Romans plural the word genius into genii to mean a deity or spirit and the Muslims spell genii as jinni or djinni, which is pluralized for those words jinn or djinn.
In some Islamic beliefs, the djinn or jinn are any of a class of spirits lower than the angels and are capable of appearing in human or animal forms and influencing humankind. In the original Hebrew text used in Judeo-Christian tradition the word djinn or jinn doesn't occur of the Bible, although in old Arabic translations the word jinn is often used. Modern translations instead use words like: demon, spirit, and other words like seraphim, such as the burning/fiery ones that appeared to Isaiah (Isaiah 6).
Islam teaches that the djinn are creatures with freewill that were made from smokeless fire by Allah (God) as humans were made of clay (Adam). According to the Holy Qur’an, Iblis (the father or leader of all djinn) refused to bow to Adam when Allah ordered the angels and djinn to do so. For disobeying Allah (God), Iblis and the djinn that followed him were expelled from Paradise and called "Shaytan" or Satan (sound familiar?). Shaytan is often simply translated as "the Devil," but the term can refer to any of the djinn who disobeyed God and followed Iblīs. There are several classes of djinn and they aren't the “Genie in the Bottle” that pop culture depicts them as. They would be more accurately depicted as nonhuman spirits, demons, and shadow people.
Djinn are frequently mentioned in the Qur’an and are similar to humans in that djinn have freewill allowing them to do as they choose, even follow any religion or none at all. They are usually invisible to humans and humans do not appear clearly to them. Djinn have the power to travel large distances at extreme speeds and are thought to live in their own communities, have kings, government, and a world of existence of their own separate from our own. In Islamic theology, the class of djinn known as Shaytan are the "whisperers" whom whisper into the chests of men and women urging them to commit sin. Djinn are pretty much what we Westerners think of as demons, shadow people, and other nonhuman spirits. Those unseen hidden beings that we can't exactly explain.
These hidden beings come in a variety of themes and names depending on which culture they are told from. But one thing consistent is that every culture throughout history tells of them in some form or another. The Norse (Vikings) called them hidden people (Huldufólk). They are also known to the Old Norse as vættir or wights, which are nature spirits and literally means “beings,” more specifically, “supernatural beings.” Belief in various forms of vættir continues today, especially in Iceland, regardless of Christian efforts to eradicate such beliefs over the past centuries. Most of these beliefs are taken in the form of house spirits or house dwellers. In contrast to many faery tales that have a variety of depictions of them, good or bad, in all cultures these beings are unseen or invisible.
The bible forbids the worship of house spirits or household deities. Which implies that they exist by modern religious standards, no matter what they are called. Each culture calls them something different with their own angle of what they are and where they come from. Typical of many modern beliefs, house spirits are usually labeled are guardian spirits that watch over us or in some cases cause mischief. Some Islamics believe a djinni is assigned as a guardian spirit for every person born, whereas many Christians believe an angel is assigned as a guardian. It must be noted that in some Islamic teachings the djinn helped the angels, it was only a portion of them that refused to serve mankind (the Shaytan) and were expelled from Paradise. Many Christians call this same happening as the fallen angels that were expelled from heaven. You say to-may-toe and I say to-mah-toe, nevertheless it's still a tomato.
So, the words demon, daemon, genius, djinn, genii, jinni, seraphim, seraph, house spirit, nisse, goblin, shadow people, tomte, vættir, and wrights all mean the same thing, non-human unseen spirit-type beings. It's merely a matter of language, culture and custom, but they are all the same thing. Every single religion, mythology, and peoples of the World speak of them. The unseen things that go bump in the night have always been known to humankind and are even known today. Today, we place new labels on them and try to deal with them rationally. Ghost hunters try to record evidence of them by means of cameras, video, electronic voice phenomenon, and with the use of sensitives and mediums whom are more in tune and able to detect them slightly better than the average person.
So what of these things? Are these ghosts and shadow people that so many swear are real and that they've seen, really there? The skeptics that can't explain certain phenomena and try to come up with scientific explanations that later convert them to being believers when they see things they wish they'd never seen. The unseen things that go bump in the night that have been called so many different things that are said to exist by every culture in the World since as long as we know."
(source: Concealed in the Darkness by J.K. James, Foreword pages 4-8.)
What's being said here? There are things that exist which we cannot see? We know this already. It's hard to find a single person who doesn't believe (even when they deny it) in some form or another that something is there. Scientists no longer downplay or deny their existence. They simply quote 'energy' and that the very essence of our minds is comprised of energy and energy can never be destroyed, it just changes its form. This rational scientific explanation implies that when we die, we don't actually die but exist in another form and thus must be the explanation for ghosts or spirits.
The bible tells us there are spirits, in fact it tells us directly and also implies in several cases that there are many kinds of spirits. We are told about and instructed not to worship household deities (Genesis 31:19) and not to worship other gods (Exodus 34:14, Exodus 20:3, Jeremiah 25:6).
The practice of either worshiping, paying homage, or respecting household "beings" is known and practiced across ALL cultures throughout history. From as long as we can tell with primitive humans to modern days. And this is all cultures, languages, and peoples - whether they had contact with each other or not. Their stories are all the same. There's something there we cannot see, we don't know what it is but we know it's there. Some of these unseen things are evil, some are good, and some are neutral.
In some Islamic beliefs (and Arabic before Islam), they don't believe an Angel is assigned to us, but a Djinni. This is an interesting concept. As explained in the book excerpt above, the Djinn are also creations of God (Allah), made after the Angels and before Humans. They were made from smokeless fire as the Angels were made from spirit and humans were made from clay. They are different from angels, because like humans they were given the gift of freewill. It is taught that before humans were created that many Djinn used to help the Angels. They also helped the angels when mankind was created and helped watch over Paradise. When God(Allah) created the humans, He ordered the angels and djinn to bow down to the humans. Some djinn refused to do this. They felt they didn't need to bow down to the inferior humans because they were created before them and should not be their servants nor be considered lower than them.
This was the great rebellion where those djinn that refused were cast out of paradise and called shay'tan (satan or the devil(s)). This is the same story told by Judeo-Christians, except they don't mention the djinn, they call them angels that were cast down from Heaven into Hell. Most often it is taught that one-third of the angels were cast down - our fallen angels. Or as taught in Islam and Arabic folklore, the Djinn.
Now it should be noted, especially due to proxemics and disregarding the fact these three religions (Jewish, Christian, and Islam) have been at war with either other since....forever. That they all use nearly the same religious books. Without arguing the differences, I am just saying the same texts and books in the "Old Testament." Yes, they have big differences, but they also have the same root teachings. So their stories are nearly exact. I am not going to speak any deeper on that, I don't want to light up a religious debate. I am merely trying to point out that they have the same teachings in many regards. One of these stories is that of Solomon. In Judeo-Christian teachings, King Solomon enslaved demons to work for him and build the Temple. In Islam, Solomon enslaved djinn and had them work and built the Temple.
This is where the grey area comes in between djinn, angels, demons, and spirits as far as some of the most common religious teachings as concerned. Those religions speak of unseen things, good and bad (and neutral). Some Jews and Christians believe of these unseen things, an angel is assign to watch over us as a guardian. Some Islamics believe a djinni si assigned to watch over us (note: not all the djinn disobeyed Allah (God) and were cast from Paradise (Heaven) and some still serve Allah (God) and help the Angels.
I am of Norwegian descent, so my heritage comes from Old Norse beliefs. In those beliefs, we also have household spirits. Unseen beings that live with us, often refer to as fairly-like creatures. They are usually considered 'neutral' beings, neither good or evil. They don't serve us, but if they 'like' us they will be helpful to us (and if they don't like us, they will make life a living hell). We call them Nisse (pronounced: 'nees-sah').
Every religion and custom has them in some form or another. Unseen things around us. We've always known about them, just never really had a grasp of what they are or where they come from and why they hide from us.
So what are these so-called "Guardian Angels?' Angels, Djinn, Nisse, Faeries, ghosts of our ancestors? Some other ghosts or spirits that seem to like us and look out for us in their spare time? We've also come across some of these unseen beings that don't like us and do everything they can to make life miserable. What are these things? That's a huge question I don't think ever gets answered until we die (then we can't tell anyone about it) or is simply NEVER answered.
I wrote the book, "Concealed in the Darkness" telling of some experience with these things. It's a true story about events that took place, but it's written as a fiction. Because after who reads nonfiction ghost-type stories? Well I do and I am sure many of you do as well. But we are few, so I wrote it as a fiction and pretended it was a made up story to reach more readers and try to get the word out. It was my attempt to not only entertain the reader, but to make them think about the unseen things they catch in the corner of their eye. To relate to the story and reflect upon it and wonder, what are these things?
Are the Shadow People what are considered the Djinn? Are they spirits? We seem to be able to catch glimpses of them and even communicate in limited means. With our modern technology and cameras just about everywhere, we're all too often catching that shadow walking down the hall or up the stairs (apples and pears - ha, the only Cockney I know). We can see its form and its movements, but are too fast to deny it as a camera glitch. Can all of our cameras across the World have the same glitch? Literally millions of cameras of various designs and makes set up in different ways all be glitching the same way? Somehow I doubt that.
Why are we able to communicate via EVP? They answer questions and tell us things we can't hear with our ears but are able to record through sound equipment. As much as we'd all like to believe it's just a hoax or gag, we can do this ourselves whereas we know nobody's hoaxing us. Way too strange and unexplained.
How often have we heard someone admit to seeing something in the corner of their eye or a brief glimpse of something walk across the room. I have been in a room where there were several of us and we all seen it at the same time. Not one of us could explain what we'd just seen. Heard whispering, unable to make it out because it's too faint but swear it was right next to our ear.
I only have the possible explanations that I've already given with no real answers. Hard to believe that literally billions of people see and hear them, but none know what they are. Even through hundreds of centuries of them being told about. The same things we see now, they seen thousands of years ago.
I mention an experience with these unseen things in my book, "Concealed in the Darkness" and I hope you get the opportunity to read it. To be able to look within your own experiences and wonder, what are these things. Perhaps maybe you will be able to come up with the answer.
© 2013 by J.K. James. All rights reserved.
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