Submitted by PALLAS ATHENA -... on
A basic characteristic of religious consciousness is distinguishing between sacred and secular space. Ceremonial sites such as temples have traditionally been set aside as special places to approach the gods, venerated spots where the business of everyday life is not allowed to intrude. As part of the traditional pattern of constructing sacred space, certain spirits or demigods are imagined as standing at the threshold—at the doorway of the temple or at the gateway to the ceremonial grounds—turning away unfriendly spirits and otherwise protecting the place.
The ancient Assyrian cherubim are examples of such threshold guardians. Assyrian art depicts the cherubim as spiritual beings having large, winged bodies of sphinxes, eagles, or other animals, with faces of lions or human beings. They were positioned at the entrances of temples and palaces as threshold guardians. Relying upon the Assyrian model, the Bible relates that God placed cherubim at the gates of Eden to prevent Adam and Eve from returning:
He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. (Gen. 3:24)
In this passage and others (e.g., Exod. 25:18–22, in which the cherubim are carved on the Ark of the Covenant), these angels are clearly performing the guardian function they served in ancient Assyria.
In later Christian thinking, it was natural to conceive of angels as the guardians of churches. A common motif was to carve a representation of Michael, the warrior archangel most associated with soldiering, into the doorway. In Gnostic thought, the archons of the various levels of the cosmos served as threshold guardians. Part of the knowledge imparted to Gnostic initiates was the passwords needed to pass through each archonic threshold.
This passage is from Angels A-Z (page 360) by Evelyn Dorothy Oliver and James R. Lewis
Sources:
Davidson, Gustav. A Dictionary of Angels: Including the Fallen Angels. 1967. Reprint.
New York: Free Press, 1971.
Layton, Bentley. The Gnostic Scriptures. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1987.
Mansfield, Richard. Angels: An Introduction to the Angelic Hierarchy. Encinitas,
Calif.: Estuary Publications, 1994.