Samhain and Angel Wings

I sometimes think about odd things. I was puttering with some jewelry making stuff the other day. Some of the new charms I had just obtained were wings, I think allegedly angel wings. They were rather stylized and all at once a question popped into my mind. What kind of wings do angels really have?

I know they are most often portrayed with somewhat swan-like wings of white feathers but why? Angels are humanoid beings, or at least that is how they are normally shown and as such are mammals, not birds, right? There are not many flying mammals. The only ones that comes to mind are the varied group of bats. They do not have feathers but do have wings, leathery skin-panels stretched across a somewhat hand-shaped frame of fine bones. Not exactly photogenic, so I guess no one wants to picture angels like that! Well then, how about fairies, another creature that flies and that few to none have ever actually seen. Again in art work they normally seem to have fragile wings a bit like dragon flies or even butterflies. No, they are not insects but again humanoid creatures thought said to be tiny. Hmm. This is all very odd!

In a book I have been reading about Celtic angels and coming to know your personal or guardian/guide angel, the author indicates they don't have wings at all! The reader is asked to draw or design a likeness of your personal angel, how you visualize he or she will look. There is something about visualizing and creating there--as you picture this magical spiritual being, so it may be. Mine is rather neuter gender, could be either male or female or maybe both and no, I did not give it wings. I'd earlier in a dream 'met' my guardian angel who is either two or again, both male and female, and goes by the short name Dara. I stayed close to this image. But the question remained.

What kind of wings does an angel really have? Or do they have wings at all? Certainly an entity with the power and 'magic' that we ascribe to them would not need any device to fly. They could simply levitate, teleport or move about in any manner they chose. So wings are kind of extraneous, perhaps. That being said I suppose they could appear with any type of wings they wish. I am seeing now something between the bat and the butterfly perhaps, a more delicate and less spooky look than the bat but maybe a bit more substantial than the butterfly--iridescent colors and a bit translucent, able to fold neatly out of the way but also a wide span to soar and float upon. Does anyone know? I'd welcome your suggestions!

And Samhain, seemingly unrelated but actually linked to the previous in that our ancestors styled this night one of several times each cycle of a year when the barriers between worlds and realms thin to a gossamer web and things can go back and forth with ease. Maybe angels or fairies or even dragons and monsters. I have absolutely no doubt that all these so-called mythical or allegorical entities do exist somewhere and have probably visited our realm at times and been seen. The old saying, "Where there's smoke, there's fire," comes to mind. Humans are very imaginative in many ways but we have to have some inspiration or nudge to create from. I do not think we could have invented all of the chimera that frequent our fairy tales, mythology, nightmares and legends from nothing all! Who knows, perhaps tomorrow night I will actually see a fairy or an angel and be able to answer this question!

Go in peace and have a lovely holiday, one of my favorites of the year's assortment!