The following is an excerpt from the writings of Michael Saunders (The Fallen and the Elect - The Eulogy of Angels) providing background on the realm of Angels. What is provided here lightly touches the massive notes he’s developed.

The Legacy of Angels

Angels are considered to be very enigmatic for a modern day world.  Religious history finds these unique personages littered with their appearances helping to mold human history and affairs.

Introduction.  If you were to be there at the creation of the angels, each created in beauty, gifted only by what was bestowed by the creator.   The Bible says that angels were created by Christ (Col. 1:16), that they carry out the will of God, are wise, mighty, and holy (set apart unto God).  It is thought they existed since before the beginning of human history, witnessing the creation of the cosmos (Job 38:1 - 7).  Yet their past is dark and elusive, revealed only in fragments of religion, literature, and in some cases even mythology. Yet, they are not creatures of mythos for those who believe.

The elect and the fallen, they are both humble in their own ways.  Only with the fallen does their humility become their arrogance, the arrogance announcing their shame.  It is when they practice the art of arrogance that the fallen set their course.  To practice the art of humility without arrogance, the elect choose their course - a dedicated course, either the righteous path or the fallen path, is cemented in their consciousness by their unwavering volition.

An angel’s impact is felt on human history, an echo of past actions reflected in today's world.  It is still men who wrap their hands around the reins, confirming the grip, determining self’s destiny, a destiny changing each moment with each decision.  The volition of angels, however, is like train tracks racing through history, the results born from the origin of  their original decision causing them to become locked upon a set path, ultimately each still responsible for his own will no matter how cemented the fatalistic course  has become as a beacon to some, the abandoning of hope to others. This is one reason men are not like angels.  Men are silly, changing their mind to and fro many times, never fully committed to its whims and thus another final chapter chiseled upon the history with each man's extinguishing.

Some seek angels as a parsonage of hope; as if they will be the benefactors to dispense sought after emotional reprieve.  Some men seek angels to change their fortunes.  These men seek what is unattainable.  If they by fate have received their fortunes, fame, honor, it wasn't because of angels but by the effort of each own self.  It is because of the ambitions of frail mankind that men are driven to seek power, wealth, prestige, many times an insatiable cornucopia never completely filled.  This is not the same motivation that drives angels.  If it were, angels would be chauffeured, they would be served, and they would be attended to.  Would men have the power or ability to resist these potential taskmasters? 

Angels serve. They serve to whisper the commonest vestiges of simple morality as the internal guide ensuring the integrity of a man is unpolluted, or they serve to put a man in a compromising position within the easy grasp of temptation's embrace. 

Angles are not like men, whose flesh is fallible and susceptible to extremes of the environment and apprehension for simple missteps that  could inflict injury or harm.  Yes, if angels were to exist, they would be known to maintain a strength that only the strongest of men would yearn for; lifting the weight of a mighty boulder would be compared to the lifting of a mere pebble.

So what would happen if angels started to appear with the frequency of a deliveryman or other recurrent figure?  Would men recoil in shame, or would our sense of marvel and awe overwhelm our emotions of fear?

As with any organization, collection of those gathered for a common purpose, or other community, society, association, there must be a structure to ensure the effective operation and management of said grouping.  Thus how is the hierarchy of angels structured?

The Orders/Rankings (Choirs) of Angels according to most major constructs:

1. Seraphim (Seraph)

2. Cherubim

3. Dominations

4. Thrones

5. Principalities

6. Potentates (Powers)

7. Virtues

8. Archangels

9. Angels

Read more of Michael Saunders writings concerning Fallen Angels

Read more of Michael Saunders writings concerning Elect Angels