Ask an Angel 

stevan has been the channel for an angel named ariel since the summer of 1993.  in september, 1996 a book entitled interview with an angel was published to convey the divine messages of ariel, as channeled through stevan.   stevan continues to serve as the channel for ariel's wisdom and gives "an evening with an angel" events during which questions from the audience are answered by ariel. 

below we have included a few questions and answers for your reading pleasure.   please do not send additional questions to ariel via email.  we are currently so overwhelmed with the existing list of questions, it seems impossible to catch up with what we have already received!! 

thanks, and enjoy.

note: if you are bothered by ariel's use of the term "god", feel free to substitute a different term with which you are more comfortable!

dear ariel: is the rosary as powerful a prayer as the catholic religion would have us believe?

ariel:  it can be.

the rosary is a powerful prayer of gratitude directed to the feminine aspect of god as embodied by the virgin mary. furthermore, praying the rosary with rosary beads serves to unify your body and mind into the focused activity of prayer.

when you pray the rosary mindlessly, routinely or as an obligation, it does not have the true power it is capable of having. but, when you pray the rosary from the heart, it can be of extraordinary power.

prayer is a sacred act that is offered not to get something but to be something. it is this state of being created by prayer that is key. sincere prayer produces a soulful state of being that unites your heart with the heart of god in a holy state of communion. this state of being is filled with the gift of grace.

you, like the virgin mary, can be the vessel through which the divine love and creativity of god can bring miracles into the world. by praying the rosary sincerely, you can, in essence, enter into the state of being in which miracles can happen.

dear ariel:  many of us carry heavy burdens of guilt for mistakes we've made in the past. how does one forgive oneself for these mistakes?

ariel:  the answer is always love.

true healing is simply the result of love moving through a your life. it is only through loving yourself, in spite of what you perceive to be your mistakes, that you can ultimately forgive yourself and end your guilt.

as seen from the angelic perspective, there are no such things as mistakes. there are simply choices made, actions taken and situations experienced. it is only from the human perspective that you can judge in hindsight one choice being better than or worse than another. or judge an action as being right or wrong. if you could see life from a higher perspective, you would see how each choice and each action leads not only to experiences which are needed by your soul, but also lead to new choices and new actions which are part of your soul’s journey. seek not to be perfect in all of your choices and actions, rather, seek to make the best choice, and take the most loving action you can, knowing what you know at the time.

guilt is a feeling that requires judgement. without judgement, there can be no guilt. to end your guilt, simply stop judging your past as wrong and start loving yourself. carrying your burden of guilt over a mistake, does not change the past. it simply limits your future. please see yourself as we do – an innocent and loving child of god.

dear ariel: i have been searching for some time, trying to meet the "right" man to love, with whom i could grow and share for the rest of my life. why is it so hard for me to find my soulmate?

ariel: a soulmate is a special person you connect with soul-to-soul, for your mutual healing, growth and spiritual unfoldment. your question pertains to an external, loving soulmate--a person who will share your love, joy, passion and growth. like many others, you are seeking outside yourself for what you have not yet found within yourself. what we wish for you to understand is that until you cultivate your relationship with your internal soulmate, it will be difficult for you to invite an external soulmate into your life.

to develop your internal soulmate, you must first begin to experience within yourself the deep love, joy and passion that an external soulmate can ignite.

the two aspects of yourself--your ego and your soul--must in essence become

soulmates. you must first learn to like yourself, then to love yourself and, finally, you will have the internal passionate experience of being your own soulmate. only then will you have created the energetic environment necessary to allow an external, loving soulmate into your life.

if you seek deep within your heart, you will find that you doubt your own lovability and the fact that another person could love you and commit deeply

to you. you even doubt that it would be safe to allow another person that close. until you can be comfortable as a soulmate to yourself, comfortable loving and

being loved by yourself, comfortable with the inner wellspring of joy and love that will bubble up from your self-relationship, you will not allow your external soulmate to enter your life. you could be in a room with him, pass right by him on the street or in an office, and not even notice him.

in essence, a soulmate relationship is loving the divine through your humanness. the power ignited in the passion of a soulmate is simply the love of god being expressed through you. this must first be experienced within your own life. only then can you extend it, working through the fear of your ego, to experience it with another person. in essence, when two loving soulmates join their hearts together and send forth a beacon that is easily seen from this realm, it is as though god is loving god through their two hearts.

 dear ariel: i have epstein-barr which is a physical, chronic condition, and i was wondering if there is anything that i should be doing that would help me to overcome this?

ariel: as we reach out and offer an answer to your question, we unavoidably touch the pain of your heart. if you wish to heal this physical condition, which you call epstein-barr, it is imperative to first deal with and heal the pain, the sadness and the hurt that is below the higher levels of delight and joy and happiness in your life. your life’s journey contains a wound; a wound of the heart which has not fully recovered. and even as we speak of this, the pain that moves forth from your heart causes your heart to harden. the pain we speak of relates to a very important spiritual path that many have walked, and that all whom have walked have grown from. it is the spiritual path called betrayal, and it takes an extraordinary soul to dare to journey along this path. for the soul, in journeying through the path of betrayal must once again learn to trust. and learning to trust, really trust, not blindly but honestly and authentically from the heart, after having experienced betrayal, is one of the highest feats of spiritual growth that a soul may take. thus, as you progress along your journey, the healing activity of forgiveness will be essential. and as that pain in your heart, that wound of such depth is addressed through the activity of forgiveness, your heart will heal, trust will be reestablished, safety living within this vessel of a human body and amongst this world of other people will be regained. you will then notice, step by step as you progress along this path, that the very activity of your body, this disharmony, this dis-ease you know as epstein-barr, will be lifted. but seek not to heal the symptoms of the disease. seek to heal its core cause. love is the force which will heal it--love which is increased by your newfound trust.

 dear ariel: when i read the newspaper, i see all the reports on crime and violence, and i feel afraid. what can i do to prevent such a fearful response?

ariel: feeling afraid is a normal and natural reaction to being reminded of the fear-driven acts in the world. please do not seek to prevent your fear; instead, use your fear as the signal for action that it is designed to be.

fear is a signal for action that can work within you at many levels. for example, when you absent-mindedly walk in front of an oncoming car, fear is the signal to action that causes your reflexes to make you jump to safety. when a newspaper, tv or radio makes you aware of a life situation that causes fear, it too is a signal to action -- the action of loving compassion.

when the news makes you aware of an act of crime or violence, you can decide to make a positive difference in the situation. consciously focus your attention on the people involved. direct positive loving thoughts of support to them. call upon angels to help in the situation. offer your heartfelt prayers to them. your loving energy of compassion, consciously directed in this way, will go forth and positively affect the lives of the people involved.

as you do this, you will notice that your emotions will naturally shift from an initial feeling of fear to a feeling of peace. for as you reach out with your heart in compassion, you become a wonderful part of the solution.

dear ariel: many years ago, i was deeply in love with a man who ultimately broke my heart. at the time, i was absolutely devastated by the breakup, and it took many months for me to recover from this shattering experience. even now, i continue to wonder if it was necessary for us to part.

ariel: indeed, the parting of the ways was necessary because, on a soul level, your destinies could not be fulfilled with each other. there were too many limitations, too many areas of moving in different and diverse directions, to hold the unity that you had found together.  the trauma that you speak of, the shock of the ending, was in part necessary to break the strength of the bond that did exist, for the relationship had many merits, and there was much emotion and intensity of the heart between the two of you....your souls had bonded at a very deep level.  so, sometimes, as in this case, the wound associated with breaking apart is an unfortunate byproduct of the need to "shock" the connection, such that it will sever. many times when such jolts of distance between two people occur, bringing a sudden and traumatic ending to a relationship, this is done to avoid a lifelong staying together that would serve neither soul to its fulfillment. in that case, rather then blossoming to the fullness of their souls' potential, the two individuals make do with less then they originally came here to live out.

dear ariel: i was very close to my dad who passed away 2 1/2 years ago. i don’t feel that our bond can ever be broken. is this true? will my dad ever be able to let me know that he is still part of my life?

ariel: it is indeed true that he is part of your life. it is indeed true that all of us in this realm are part of your life - just as you are part of ours. it is an eternal truth that the bond of love can never be broken. two hearts and two souls united in love, like you and your father, can never be disconnected.

your mind may interfere with love when you are angry with someone. you might even feel a loss of love when someone moves to a different part of your world. please know, however, that the heart’s bond of love cannot be lessened. only your experience of the bond of love can change.

you ask if your dad will ever let you know if he is still part of your life. he is letting you know every day through his presence. your father is with you in your moments of triumph and failure. he witnesses your growth. he supports you in your choices. he is there for you when you feel alone. he loves you even more than when he was in his human form. if you simply bring a loving thought of him to mind and focus your heart on him, you will know beyond a shadow of doubt that he is still with you.

dear ariel: i somehow lost my sense of taste. do you have any thoughts on retrieving this basic pleasure?

ariel: you have experienced much that has caused you to taste the bitterness of life. you are bitter not only about what has happened but also bitter about what has not happened. your loss of the sense of taste is a signal from your soul that it is tired of tasting mainly bitterness in life. the antidote to bitterness is sweetness and the fastest path to reclaiming sweetness in life is to bring your self-will into alignment with divine-will for you.

you have lived much of your life trying to please others and do what other expected of you. you have, in essence, allowed your self-will to be shaped by the desires of others. as a result, as your life progresses, you are pulled further and further away from living your personal dream and filling your heart's desires. divine will is communicated to you though your soul, by means of your hearts desires, passions, longings and joys. it would be good to spend time listening to your heart. record its desires in a journal. let your heart align more and more with divine will. spend time dreaming about the wonderful sweet possibilities in your life.

let the taste of bitterness begin to gradually disappear from your life.

as you begin to align your heart more and more with divine will, you will find life bringing you new opportunities for growth and change, which will further increase the level of sweetness in your life. when the sweetness in your life has increased sufficiently, your soul will no longer need to signal you and your taste will return.

dear ariel: would you help me understand why angels take physical form and intervene in the lives of some people, especially during rescues and at other times of crisis, and why they do not for other people?

ariel:  your question implies that the times when an angel takes a physical form are more important than when an angel subtly whispers in one's ear or guides one's thoughts.  if you could view human history from the perspective of the angelic realm, you would see that the actual course of your world's evolution has been shaped more often by a subtle angelic whisper than by a physical manifestation.

please remember that our purpose for being is to convey the divine messages and loving guidance of the angelic realm to a human being in need.  for one person, the gentlest of angelic whispers creates an insight or guiding image that provides the needed direction.  for others, limitations of openness or the drama of the life setting requires a direct intervention in physical form.

you must be aware by now that, many times, when a stranger gives someone guidance, whether it be on a train platform, in a bus terminal or along the road, that stranger was not human, even though he looked and acted like a human being.  if you were to look back at that wonderful, caring stranger who just helped you, you would find he no longer appears.  for, once the message is given, the human disguise is no longer required.

from your realm, a physical manifestation may seem more impressive than an angelic whisper.  from this realm, however, when a divine message is perceived by its human recipient, a gentle whisper is as grand a miracle as the other.

as we have shared in many of our words to you, we work long and hard to find the minds and hearts that are open to receiving our guidance, and we will not cease our task until we have accomplished our mission.

dear ariel: is there a way for me to communicate with my grandmother who has alzheimer's disease?  i visit her daily, but she doesn't know i'm there.

ariel:  we find it so delightful when you view the world from your human perspective.  only from your human perspective can you encounter deep spiritual truth but be blind to it.  this is true of your most loving question.

you ask how to communicate with your grandmother, and in the same breath, you talk about your loving visits to her?  your visits themselves are the most wonderful means of communication with her that you have.  while your grandmother cannot perceive your loving communications through her ego, her soul perceives your communication of love precisely and flawlessly.  any time that you open your heart to another person through a loving visit, card, letter or telephone call, please know that you have communicated more profoundly and more effectively than you understand.

any soul who has advanced alzheimer's, or is in a state of coma, receives your message of love instantly.  furthermore, in many ways, they communicate that love back to you.  you may call it telepathy or extrasensory perception.  we simply call it love.  there is no human disease that can stop the communication of love.  even death can't stop it.

please continue to speak your message of love loudly to your grandmother, and offer it deeply from your heart each time you visit her.

dear ariel: is there one true love for everyone in life, and what determines whether or not we find our true love?

ariel:  there is indeed one true love for every human being; however, not the true love that you have asked about.  for when it comes to the one-and-only one true love, that qualification is reserved for god alone.  god is the one source of true love that all human beings have.

but the question you asked was about people, and about love, as in the idealized concept that you call a soulmate.  each human being has many, many possible soulmates.  each one can, if the personalities are in alignment and the timing of life is right, bring about a true, romantic and intimate soulmate experience.  this experience not only causes two hearts and two souls to experience love, but it also helps each soul support the other in fulfilling their true life's mission.  you are not restricted to an individual soulmate; you can, however, journey through life with one soulmate.

each and every human being without exception has the potential to have this perfect, wonderful, fulfilling and empowering love connection that you ask about.  what determines whether of not you find it is your level of fear.  for to experience the true power of a soulmate, you must be willing to receive the love that your soulmate offers.  love is a wonderful idea, yet for some it can be a frightening reality.   for, you cannot cling to your feelings of inadequacy, unworthiness, or smallness in the face of a soulmate's love.  their love will always bring to the surface of your consciousness anything unlike itself for healing.  thus your soulmate's love will support you in facing and healing your deepest fears.  when your desire to meet your soulmate exceeds your fear of meeting them, you will find the soulmate that we are guiding to you.

dear ariel:  what happens to the spirit of an atheist when he dies?

ariel:  this question can only be asked by one who does not remember dying.  for, in the moment of your death, it is impossible for you not to believe in what you identify by this name god.  as you die, your soul is set free from your ego's powerful ability to perceive yourself as separate from god.  as this illusion of separation ends, your absolute belief in god returns.  so each human being that dies believes to the very heart of his soul in the reality of the living presence of god.

you will see once again that regardless of your ego's beliefs, at the moment of your own death, your soul will be invited into a state of glory, grace and unity that is the very heart of god.

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