Archangels and Angels abound throughout all of creation, both visible and invisible. We could compare them to engineers who work with the universal archetypes, templates of cosmic order, best imagined by us as patterns of number and harmonious proportion, or, better still, as great symphonies of music – it’s not for nothing we talk about “choirs of Angels.” These are then transmitted to the hosts of Angels below them. The Angels, like scores of creative artists, transform these archetypes down to the next level of creation as ideal forms and images of  everything that will eventually manifest in the world of  Nature. Below the angels are the nature spirits and elementals, the “building crew,” who work with the ideal forms on the etheric level,  the subtle realm of pre-matter. This is the etheric plane, which is composed of the “life-force,” “chi,” or “prana,” which animates the physical plane. The original creative impulse of the One is now able to flow into the myriad physical forms of the material world. The Angels have literally bridged Heaven and Earth. 

To give an example: Out of the Divine Mind that is the source of all existence comes forth the idea of “Rose.” The Archangels take this Idea and design the perfect template of a rose. Using the template, the hosts of Angels then create multitudinous images of all different species of roses; these astral forms are then passed on to the Devas and then the Elementals of earth, water, air and fire, and other Nature Spirits who animate them with the life force on the etheric plane, and finally, we enjoy the miracle of roses blooming in our gardens. And there is but one cause underlying the marvel of Creation: Love. As Geoffrey Hodson puts it: 

Love is the force which maintains the planets in their successive orbits, as they circle round the sun, their Lord of Love. Love binds into a whole the many systems of the universe. From the highest ruler of the rulers of universes, down to the lowest form of life on the densest plane in every system, there is a chain of love, unbroken and unbreakable. In the light of that supernal love, all differences and all diversities are seen but as the manifold expressions of that One infinite and eternal Power from Which all things sprang and to Which all things shall return.

The Company of Angels and Mortals

As creators of the cosmos, the Archangels and Angels are deeply concerned with the evolution of all its inhabitants so that the Divine Plan may be worked out and brought to fruition in every corner of creation. In this, they are powerful intermediaries between the Creative Intelligence, or God, and the human race; supreme teachers who offer us guidance, wisdom and protection as our race slowly and painfully evolves towards perfection. It might be said that angels stand above the human race in the same way that we stand above the animals. 

Legends from the morning of the world tell us that once Angels walked upon the earth, freely offering their gifts and closely assisting humanity in its evolution. Dion Fortune tells how this came about: 

The old tradition is that the choice was offered to the spirits whether they would remain on the inner planes, neither ascending nor descending, or descend to the depths of matter in order to rise higher than where they had started from; and one lot chose one line, led by Adam, or rather Eve,  and others  chose the other. So the angelic hosts are our kin and  if you go far  enough back you find a time  when angels and men were of  one company.

But although the relationship of Angels and mortals was sundered in due course, the truth is that we have never really been left without heavenly guides: Angels and Archangels still walk beside us – it is we who have closed our hearts and minds to them. If we are willing to believe in the reality of their presence and allow them to help us in our endeavors, they are willing and ready to be joyful co-creators with us. Geoffrey Hodson wrote:

The time will surely come when it may be said, as of old, "angels walked with men," for the blending of angelic and human life and consciousness is part of the plan for the coming age. The children of the new race will see and recognize their fairy and angel companions; will play and work with them instinctively. Let no one seek to dull their clearer vision by denial of the fairer world and its inhabitants which their young eyes can see. Rather let the elders train themselves to see and feel, with them, the beauties and the joys that lie outside the range of vision of the older race.