Barachiel, from the 15-book series, The Archangel Chronicles) Chapter 2, Part 1

Chapter 2, Part 1 A Cornfield in Iowa Late Summer              Ginger spun around, clearly delighted. “Hey, I recognize this place!” She gazed around the area more closely. “I’m not sure if this is our farm, but if it isn’t, it sure looks just like it!”            As Barachiel patiently waited, the young girl slowly walked a few steps into the corn rows, Ginger’s hand gently brushing the tall stalks. “My brothers and I used to play games in here, but Mom always made sure our dog, Sadie, went with us since it was easy to get lost. We had a blast, playing hide and seek, but we were careful not to damage anything or Dad would follow through on his threat to ban us from the fields.”            Filled with precious memories, she wandered back to Barachiel, who had seemingly majicked up two comfortable-looking chairs. The archangel motioned her to sit. Once seated, Archangel Barachiel smiled at her new assistant, already recognizing Ginger to be a whirling dervish in both the physical and nonphysical worlds. After Ginger settled in, Barachiel spoke.           “I thought we’d start by getting to know each other a bit more. How about if I go first?”           Ginger nodded enthusiastically, but kept uncharacteristically mum. She was exceedingly grateful for the opportunity she had been given, and didn’t want her tendency toward impulsivity to mess up what appeared to be a very good thing.           “First and foremost, you don’t have to try to be someone you are not in order to be accepted or to please me. I would vastly prefer the sparkling personality known as Ginger to be herself – yourself. Nothing you could do or say will send you packing!”           When a greatly relieved Ginger met the archangel’s eyes, a powerful, golden blast of Unconditional Love filled her, startling her. Barachiel reached for her hands, and immediately, the Light lessened, and Ginger gazed deeply into Barachiel’s beautiful green eyes – so much like her own. But before she could voice her delight in this magnificent angel, she looked more deeply, and found whole worlds and galaxies within them, spinning in harmony. Ginger gasped as images came to light before her – images of a time before time, and fabulous beings of all description. She watched as raw Emotion evolved into Love and Compassion. After what appeared to be a very long Earth time, but may well have been just a heartbeat in space, time, and dimension, the images slowed and transformed into an exquisite white rose, before finally dissipating with the others.          “Roses hold the highest level of energetic vibrations of all the flowers, and serve as a symbol of the Creator’s Unconditional Love for all creation. As a so-called Prince of heaven, many humans perceive me with roses.”          Ginger lifted her hand, and Barachiel chuckled. “You’re not in school. When you have a question, just ask.”          Ginger nodded. “Prince of heaven? You certainly look female to me. How can you be a prince?”          “In the Third Book of Enoch, an ancient Jewish text, I was first described as one of the great and honored seven princes of heaven.” Barachiel smiled and patted her flawless, wrinkle-free face. “I may not look like it, but I am one of the earliest archangels – actually, one of seven, the others being Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, Uriel, Selaphiel, and Jegudiel.”          “No offense, Ma’am. I recognize most on that list, but honestly, yours is one I don’t know.”           “Ha! No offense taken, Ginger. And please don’t call me Ma’am. Barachiel will do just fine. If you do research, you may find varying archangels on that list, but generally speaking, I seem to make the cut most days!”           “You could say that, but throughout the human timeline, many viewed me as masculine and so pronounced my name as Ba-RAY-kee-ul, so there may be those who are surprised at my feminine form and/or pronunciation of my name for this visitation – Ba-RASH-ee-ul.” She laughed softly. “But does it really matter in what form I appear or the pronunciation of my name? If I am invited into a human’s life, I generally appear as the situation warrants –­ male or female, winged archangelic being or as a ladybug, dragonfly, or hummingbird. It’s all just an illusion for human understanding.”  The angel paused. “Would you like to invite me into your life?’            “Absolutely!” Ginger replied. “Archangel Barachiel, I officially invite you into my life! There. How was that?”            “Perfect. It’s just common courtesy for angels not to barge into someone’s life without permission, not that I would actually barge into your life!”             Ginger laughed. “Barge in all you want. As my mother would say, In for a penny, in for a pound!” Ginger gazed at the angel for a long moment.   “Again, no offense, but your name, Barachiel, is rather strange to me. What’s it mean?”             “Again, none taken. Ask me anything you want. Barachiel means God’s blessings. There have been lots of spellings of my name throughout human time: Barchiel, Baraqiel, Barkiel, Barbiel, Barakel, Baraqel, Pachriel, and Varachiel, but they all mean the same thing: God’s blessings.”              “Hey, it seems that we’re both royalty, Ms. Heavenly Princess!” Barchiel nodded, and suddenly, she appeared in exaggerated Disney-princess array, including an over-sized, glittering tiara that slipped down onto her nose. Ginger laughed, thinking, I can’t believe my luck in having this funny, amazing archangel in my life, or death, or whatever they’re calling this thing I’m in right now.              In a heartbeat, Ginger changed her casual look to Disney Princess, as well, complete with oversized tiara. She spun around, giggling, and finally plopped down between the corn rows, Disney princess gone. Barachiel did the same, and joined her.              “I agree, Ginger,” Barachiel replied. “But, you will find that you and I have lots more in common than just royal blood, so to speak. Seeing as there are no coincidences in this world, it is no coincidence that you appeared at Michael’s door when you did. We wanted you to better understand your last lifetime, so planted the seed to go seek out Michael of Archangel fame, which would eventually lead to me, but more on that later. Let me share a bit more about me.”              “With my name meaning God’s blessings, it won’t surprise you to learn that I most enjoy helping humans open their minds, hearts and souls to blessings from God, as well as giving them a morale boost, and helping them release the memory of past sad experiences, which weighs them down. I help humans maintain a positive outlook, and am happy to facilitate miracles that come to you from God. I am also an intercessor, asking God to help humans achieve success.”              The archangel chuckled and continued. “In some circles, I am also known as the laughing archangel because I love humor. I know that there are many challenges living on your realm, but you have chosen them for the lessons within. Humor is a gift from God that reduces the stress from those challenges by putting them into better perspective. Just like anger and shame are conscious, deliberate choices that humans make, so are joy and laughter. One of my favorite things about my job is that I get to remind humans that God did not create humanity to moan and groan, but to find Divine Joy everywhere and laugh to your hearts’ content – often at your own serious absurdity. Lighten up, humanity! The very act of laughter will not only release physical chemical endorphins from the brain into your bloodstream, making your whole body feel better, but it also helps in raising your vibrations.”             “I love to laugh, too, but raising my vibrations?”             “Yes, but let’s save that conversation for another time. Now, you know a bit more about me. I’d like to learn more about you!”              “I think we did that already. You know – loving Iowa farm family, loving dog, movie star royalty, undiagnosed, congenital heart defect, there one day and not there the next, …” Ginger paused, looking confused. “You know, the whole shebang! And while I wasn’t crazy about that whole death-at-a-young-age part, I had a great life!”              Barachiel smiled and nodded. “Indeed, it may seem to you that you have given me the whole shebang, but I venture to say that you have given me only a part of your life – a partial shebang. In order to get the whole shebang, you need to dig a little deeper. How about if I ask you some questions to get you going?” After a moment’s thought, Ginger nodded.             “When you were growing up, did you ever feel as if you didn’t fit in? That somehow, you were different?”             “Well, I was different since Tom and John were boys, and I was a girl, but now that I think about it, yes, I guess I did feel different.”             “Think about that, Ginger. How did you feel different?”             For a long moment, Ginger was lost in thought. Finally, she said, “Well, I was a loner in elementary school, but once I got to middle school, I made a couple of friends. I liked them and they seemed to like me, I guess, but I knew they thought I was weird and different. I just didn’t feel as if I really fit in with them, either, and it was nothing they had done to make me feel that way. It just was. And even though those weren’t close friendships, I was relieved not to be so all alone anymore.”   (Excerpt from Barachiel from The Archangel Chronicles © Marty Boyle. All Rights Reserved.)   /www.martyboyle.com