It's a little hard for me to think of the Archangel Gabriel without thinking of Christopher Walken's performance in the "Prophecy" series. Or Tilda Swinton's in "Constantine"...
Hollywood's conception of the Angelic aside, This is a pretty good book. I have to admit, I thought for a second that Doreen Virtue was "Going all Catholic" on me. When I got further into the book, though, I realized that she had spent a long time getting acquainted with all the lore on angels, and that, as usual, she finds a way to remind us that no one religion has a corner on the market of being able to communicate with angels.
She first takes us through that lore, including the biblical, extra-biblical, Jewish, and Muslim stories about Gabriel. Virtue then looks at things like the symbols of Archangel Gabriel, gender (if any), and then other are some chapters devoted to the functions of Gabriel.
This archangel presides over parenting, childbirth and childhood, writing and clear communication. It was interesting to learn of Gabriel's assistance to artists and writers, speaking as someone that wants to do both of those things.
Gabriel is presented as the Strength of God (one assumes that one can interpret the idea of God, whether male or female, one or many, for oneself, being a pagan that believes in angels I have a slightly different take on God(dess) than most who would read this, I'm sure.)
At the end of the day, this book did prove useful in drawing me closer to the Archangel Gabriel, it helped me to see that even as a pagan I have just as much right as anyone to communicate with God's messengers.
I received this book for free from Hay House for the purpose of writing a review, however the thoughts and opinions here are my own, based on my reading of the book.
