a city raised

while i agree that “grilling” people who may already be having a crisis of identity is dumb and counterproductive, sometimes you should try and back up WHY you identify this way beyond some vague feel-good “idk i just like angels uwu.” especially if you’re trying to give advice or guidance to people.

people forget that being an incarnate (or any kind of Past Life alterhuman kinnie) is as much, if not more, about knowing about yourself NOW than knowing about your past self.

Hey there, I’m Cipher! I’m a fallen angel who’s been mostly lurking on forums and aesthetic blogging on tumblr for a few years now, and one thing I noticed is that while the therian and general otherkin sides of the alterhuman community have a lot going for them in terms of advice blogs and a wealth of solid resources, the angel/demon side is a bit lacking in that respect.

So I’ve set this blog up so you can ask about:

general questions about alterhuman things

specific advice/questions for angels, fallen angels, and demons

anything else relevant

The one thing this blog is not for is divination, moodboards, or canon calls. There’s plenty of those blogs already!

I’m also trying to put together a resources page of primary and secondary theological theory/sources for angels and demons, to make things a little easier for people trying to research. So if you know of something that can contribute, let me know and I’ll check it out!

Quick links:

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when i see it mentioned, it’s usually about heavens beyond the seventh too, which tosses out most abrahamic cosmology since they stop at seven (judaism sometimes mentions an eighth,) since seven is a symbolic number. christianity only mentions the third, but then you get the second book of enoch.

It was a little over a year ago that I remembered those words, and my SO made a post about them. Since then, I’ve seen what we’ve come to refer to as “the Quote” be used and abused all over the place, and it really needs to stop. Regularly, I see it mangled, most often as “In fire, in ash, in steel, we endure.” It gets slapped on anything even remotely related to angel stuff, with no regard for what it means or where it comes from.

The Quote isn’t about being an angel. It’s about being a soldier in a war that still hasn’t ended. It’s about battles won and lost, about the destruction of things you hold dear, about bloodshed and strife. It represents a very specific type of symbolism. Yes, it relates to many angels, but it is not an angelic saying. It goes back further than even the earliest moments of the angelic age, back further than anyone seems willing to admit.

if someone has something that they truly believe to be a prophecy, it’s up to them what they do with that information. i personally don’t have much faith in any of the apocalypse stuff going around, but if other people want to believe it and act accordingly, that’s their choice. 

my general feeling about prophecies and the like are this: they’re heavily steeped in symbolism. almost nothing should be taken at face value with it. for one, the future isn’t entirely set. think of fated events as beads on a string: they can slide around as they see fit, but if you follow the string, they’re going to happen eventually. though in this case, the beads can slide past each other too, so the order of events isn’t exactly set. and more importantly, symbolism is a way of distilling a large amount of information into a form that’s easier to comprehend and understand. you know the whole trope about going mad from the revelation? it’s basically a way of preventing that from happening, and it also keeps you from being too overwhelmed by the amount of info presented.

getting deeper into the dream side of the ask: most of the time, they’re complex. sometimes, it’s completely random and meaningless, and sometimes it’s your subconscious trying to tell you things. for some people, dreams are the best way for them to get visions, and oneiromancy is a thing that exists that’s been around for a long time, but it chains back to dream interpretation. dig into the meanings of that certain details within the dream could mean, rather than taking them literally. you might dream of the apocalypse, but it could be that your life is going through a big change. you might be dreaming of angels, but it could be that your brain feels you need a positive sign while you’ve it a rough spot in life, rather than it being a vision of heaven or a memory. it’s possible to get a memory or vision via a dream, but critical thought always needs to be put in to make sure that’s what it really is, rather than some sort of message from your brain. and if a sign in a dream is extremely blunt, sometimes to the point of derailing things? it’s probably something worth paying attention to, but there’s no guarantee that it’s gonna be something to take at face value.

so revelation? the locusts with human faces ruled by apollyon? the angel turning the rivers to blood? the lamb? (well, okay, everyone knows this one is jesus.) the seven angels with the seven plagues? none of those are direct signs of the apocalypse. it literally starts with an equivalent to “hey guys, i had this really wild dream,” and as such it’s very likely symbolic, though there’s also the chance that it’s completely meaningless, because dreams are like that sometimes. you can pull meanings and patterns out of nothing if you try hard enough, but that doesn’t necessarily make it true.

also, on the note of apocalypses, i’m gonna casually plug @apocalypseupdates​, for all your “worried about the end times” needs.

tl;dr, dreams, visions and prophecies are steeped in symbolism, and basically none of it should be taken at face value. dreams can also sometimes be absolutely meaningless, and that’s perfectly okay. and no, the apocalypse isn’t here.

The overwhelming majority of the angelkin community on Tumblr doesn’t actually want to engage in serious discussion (even if they say they do), most likely because it would require them to accept that Heaven wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, and that terrible things happened that rival or even surpass the terrible things humanity has done.

You don’t have to actively engage in discourse (for instance you can simply observe and read through other’s talked about topics), just try to always be open to entertaining other possibilities—you may find something new you never considered before!

a) kin

b) kinda frustrated with overly-positive kin blogs

c) a bit salty or unhappy or scared or feel negatively about your kintypes

d) interested in helping me maybe figure out my kintype

e) new to kin stuff and kinda scared

f) someone with a storm-related kintype

g) one of those people that was all “oh kin is dumb lol” until you realized you were kin and were all “oh….”

i’m not trying to be invalidating here, either. it’s just that the mind sometimes jumps to conclusions on things based on prior knowledge. the sky is blue, the grass is green, angelic holiness is associated with white and gold. it can easily lead to human ideas being imposed onto nonhumans. also, certain concepts and constructs that existed then no longer can be perceived accurately, since we no longer experience them, and so the mind fills in the blanks or leaves a void. it makes things easier to comprehend in some cases, yeah, but it also leads to the reality getting skewed, and certain things being flat-out missing.

example: the gardens in heaven are almost always described as seeming exactly like human gardens. why? angels interacted with humans in this hunk of reality, but they also existed long before humanity did. we functioned under different laws of reality. even if you’re of the belief that the realms are tied together, certain things that an angel can do simply don’t work here, because our world’s not constructed to work around it.

I started using the terms “my timeline/universe/heaven” to describe my personal experiences, because I saw it being used and thought that was a good way to help specify that I’m not some infallible super-mod who remembers everything in perfect, objectively correct detail. I make hella mistakes. 

I’m kind of dense, and I didn’t really realise that my use of those terms is encouraging people to not really reflect on their own (or other’s) memories, and reconciling differences as “well it must have been different in your timeline, because I’m right”

I really wanna highlight this tag because it makes the point better than any essay could

people encouraging you or even telling you that some of what you say doesn’t sound right can be a very important step in your journey and you will be grateful for them in hindsight

do not push these people and interactions away! they’re helpful!

Honestly? Doubt cannot harm you. It literally can’t. Because there are only two paths to go – realizing you were wrong and rectifying your mistake with their help, or solidifying your certainty all the more! Questioning isn’t just about finding the things that are wrong about your opinion, but also about finding out where and why you’re right. You don’t just need people to call you wrong see that you were, but also to see that you weren’t. It’s a win/win. Nothing bad can come from this.

Tell yourself: If I’m truly as sure of myself as I say I am, then what do I have to fear? What can other people’s disagreement and the arguments they make do to what I know is true? What can they do but prove me right, or make me see something I hadn’t seen before?

by “being a wheel” do you mean having the form that’s depicted in scripture? like. literally a wheel on fire with eyes?

i personally think that a lot of scripture is flawed (there’s a lot of things that can go wrong when humans write things - confusion, mistranslations, things lost in age, etc) - for example, not all seraphim have six wings, and there are archangels that aren’t recorded. on the wheel thing - i feel like there’s a good chance some dude saw a few thrones with that form (or similar) and was like “ah-ha! behold, a wheel!”

if you think you might be a throne, then i think you should try to explore that more! 

I only know of ours, tbh! I knew there were a lot more about a year ago, but I don’t know if those are still active.

(message us off anon if you want the link to join!)