Angel Fire

What's in a name? There is a place near Taos, NM with this name--Angel Fire. I've heard it often, but was struck recently by the fact that both the Christian and the Islamic traditions believe that every human being, whether they know it or not, have the capacity for "angel fire," that is to see through the fiery eyes of the Angel of their own being. Though this terminology is strange to us now, it is not foreign to the traditions of either faith. The meaning here is that each individual, besides his or her human capacity to see physically, carries inside another capacity: the "angelic function of being." This function, when it is operative, allows a human being to see things not simply with their outer eye, but with their inner eye (the eye of the heart) that has an entirely different perspective.

The perspective of the inner eye is bi-directional. It can see God, but it can also see from God's perspective (the way angels do). It can see the inner dimension of things. Here are some eye-witnesses to that vision:

Miraculously ... it was as if I were seeing the forest for the first time. A fir tree was not only a fir tree but also something else much greater. The dew on the grass was not just dew in general. Each drop existed on its own. I could have given a name to every puddle on the road -- Vladimir Maximov

We have lost the flame of things and the secret content of simple reality. ... the unspeakable and prodigious fire hidden in the essence of things, as in the [burning] bush, is the fire of divine love and the dazzzling brilliance of the divine beauty inside everything. -- Paul Evdokimov.