FOREWORD: ANGELS OF DIVINE LIGHT
When I came to write the foreword to this deeply moving, healing and thought provoking book I wondered how I could convey how blessed I was the day the author, Aidan Storey came into my life. For blessed I truly was to be given the gift of such a dear and precious friend.
I thought of Yeats’s quote "Think where man's glory most begins and ends and say my glory was I had such friends." Or Coleridge’s “Friendship is a sheltering tree.”
Or Kahlil Gibran’s “In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.”
All beautiful, evocative sentiments but not quite accurate enough and then I remembered the most perfect description of love and friendship anyone could wish for. This beautiful poem The Thousandth Man by Rudyard Kipling capture’s Aidan’s character so accurately and far better than any words I could write.
One man in a thousand, Solomon says,
Will stick more close than a brother.
And it's worth while seeking him half your days
If you find him before the other.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine depend
On what the world sees in you,
But the Thousandth man will stand your friend
With the whole round world agin you.
His wrong's your wrong, and his right's your right,
In season or out of season.
Stand up and back it in all men's sight --
With that for your only reason!
Nine hundred and ninety-nine can't bide
The shame or mocking or laughter,
But the Thousandth Man will stand by your side
To the gallows-foot -- and after!
Aidan and I met when I was at a very low point in my life. For ten years I’d struggled with chronic back pain after a failed operation. I feared I was going to end up in a wheelchair. I had constant spasms and sciatica and was bed ridden for much of the time. Fortunately I could write my novels in bed so I didn’t have to give up working, but my spirit was crushed and I was struggling to keep some sort of hope that the Divine Plan of my life was working and that all was as it should be.
In the way of synchronicity that always happens when someone comes into your life that you are meant to connect with, a woman I’d never met sent me a manuscript to read and advise her on in the course of a phone conversation when she enquired as to how my back was, she said. ‘You should go to Aidan Storey for Reiki healing.’ I’d had Reiki healing from a wonderful woman called Mary Fanning, several years previously and had really enjoyed it so I thought, yes, that would be good, and maybe there’s a reason I have to meet this Aidan Storey. (When we sent off this manuscript to various editors, one of the publishers asked me how Aidan and I met, and had I expect to be ‘healed.’ I explained to her that no I didn’t expect to be cured and pain free and that when I went for ‘healing’ it was for my spirit and to help me reconnect with the Spiritual Dimension in my life that I seemed in danger of losing.)
I rang Aidan and explained that I was due to have major back surgery and I was worried and in bits and asked for an appointment to see him. He was fairly booked up but told me he would fit me in, in three week’s time. I then asked for directions, my heart sinking a little when I heard he lived in Lucan and that it would involve a drive across the dreaded M50. (This is to be avoided at all costs when suffering severe back spasms) There was silence on the phone and then he said to me, ‘they’re telling me you can’t drive and that I need to go to you and you can’t wait three weeks. Are you free tomorrow night and I can come and give you a healing?’
I was astonished and overwhelmed that a complete stranger would put himself out so much for me. As I got to know Aidan I realized this was par for the course for him.
We connected instantly the minute I opened the door to him. In his beautiful book, Anam Cara, John O’Donohue writes of ‘The Knowing” when two souls meet again and that was the way with Aidan and me. We became the greatest of friends and I learned so much from him. I also learned how respectful and honouring he is of his healing gifts. I’ve met many people over the years that have been gifted as healers; sadly there are some in the field who forget where the ‘gift’ comes from, and some who work from ego. Aidan is completely the reverse, his acknowledgement of his God given gift in all his healing sessions has never faltered despite his great success. He never puts himself forward, never makes himself out to be ‘special’ and never thinks he is in any way superior because he ‘sees’ things. He shares his gift with a quiet humility that is the hallmark of a true ‘healer’.
That first night, five years ago I said to him…’you should write a book…’
‘I’ll leave that to you he said. But I persisted and persisted. Finally last November when he was helping me to recover from another big operation he sat down and began this book. His plan was to write a few pages so that I would stop ‘nagging him’ and then he could say he’d tried but he wasn’t a ‘writer’.
I thought I knew Aidan very well until I read his book. Even though I knew he’d been abused, nothing prepared me for the shock of reading about it. I cried my dear friend and saluted his bravery in writing about such a devastating life experience. Nor was I prepared for the wondrous angelic revelations in this beautiful book, nor the healing that flows from every page.
I know many people will be comforted as they read Angels of Divine Light. Anyone who has been abused will find solace in the chapter where the Angels bring him back to the scene of his abuse and erase for ever the awful words of a priest who passed a cruel and unforgivable judgement on him.
Anyone who has lost a child to death will certainly find peace in the chapter where the Angel Metatron and many more Angel’s comes to be with a little girl who is killed in a road accident.
Anyone who wants to know more about their Angels and Guides and how to connect with them will certainly find it in the pages of this book.
The questions and answers about death, relationships, the state of the planet, and many more, that come directly from the Angels in the third part of the book are thought provoking and utterly reassuring and comforting.
An added bonus is the evocative descriptions of Aidan’s childhood in James’s Street, which will bring back many wonderful memories to many. I defy anyone to read his description of making his Holy Communion and not laugh.
I couldn’t end this Foreword without making a mention of Kathleen, Aidan’s mother whom I had the pleasure and privilege of meeting and getting to know.
Kathleen was an amazing woman and I can see where Aidan got his courage, dignity, and fantastic sense of humour. She would be so proud of him if she was here today but I know she is with him in spirit every step he walks and I thank her for rearing a wonderful, courageous, kind, compassionate and very loving son whom I’m deeply honoured to call a friend.
Patricia Scanlan
