In one of Jane Roberts’ channelings, she was asked about angels. Where did we get the idea that angels had wings?
Ҧ16 Angels have been represented in just this fashion.
¶17 At one time there were also species of birds, however, with high intelligence — this was before the period mentioned earlier.2 They were not humanoid; not, for example, people with wings.
They were large birds, with the capacity for dealing with concepts. They were social, could swim well (pause), and for some time could live on the water. They had songs of great beauty, and a most extensive vocabulary. They had talons. (Her eyes wide and dark, Jane held up her hands, fingers bent as though ready to grasp — or claw.)
When he was a cave dweller,3 man saw these birds often, particularly in cliffs by water. Many times the birds saved children from falling. Man identified with their easy flight up the cliffsides, and followed the sounds of their songs to safe clearings.
These memories turned into the angel images. In each case, in those times there was the greatest cooperation, on a global scale, between species.
Those who cooperated survived, but they did not think in terms of the survival of their own species alone — but, in time terms, of a greater living picture, or world inviolate, in which all survived.”
