Protected by Angels

by Jacky Newcomb

  Now let’s look at some of the many signs that angels bring to let humans know that they are around us. If you are aware of the signs, you are less likely to miss them. Over the years I have collected loads of different types, and even if you are familiar with some, I am sure there will be a few new ones here for you to enjoy.

  Your deceased loved ones (as ‘guardian angels’ in their own way) will also use these exact same signs to show you that they are watching over you. These signs bring great comfort and joy to all who receive them.

  SIGNS FROM THE ANGELS

  White Feathers

  One of the more common signs of the existence of an angel is the gift of a white feather. I’m sure you will have heard of this one! When you need reassurance, ask your angel for a feather sign. Over the years people have shared extraordinary stories of angel feathers manifesting at the most unusual of times and in the most unusual of places.

  ‘I’ve recently moved house, and things have gone from bad to worse. My health isn’t great, and my little girl has spent three weeks in hospital with a broken arm.

  ‘As I was going through my boxes, a small picture of my granddad dropped to the floor. I immediately felt comforted as I picked it up and said, “Hi Granddad, love you,” then I carried on with my busy day. About half an hour later I came back to the spot where I’d found my granddad’s picture, and to my amazement there was the most beautiful big white feather just lying there. I’ve never found a feather before; usually I see butterflies when I’m thinking of Granddad, but this time he came to me (or maybe it was my angel) in a different way.’ – LISA

  One woman had an angel feather appear from the roof of a lift; another had an angel feather appear just moments after she had vacuumed a room in a house with no feather bedding and all the windows closed. Another lifted a cup and saucer to discover a feather nestling underneath. One woman found a feather (bright pink this time!) inside a sealed plastic shopping bag at a supermarket. The list goes on and on. Where will you find your white feather?

  Angel feathers are the ultimate of angel signs. They can be waiting for you on the seat of your car, or lying between the pages of a book. Feathers can be small and fluffy like those from the tiniest baby bird, or big and curled like those from a swan. They come in all sizes, but usually the gift is in their unexpected appearance. Don’t worry if your feather is a variation on the usual white variety – coloured feathers do have subtly different meanings but they all still mean, ‘We are with you, we are watching over you.’

  Angel feathers can be great gifts for those in trouble. Passed-over loved ones can bring a white feather as a present for a grieving relative. Collect the feathers and hand them out to friends in need. They lift the soul immediately. They are so simple, but the best gifts usually are… right? If you are lucky enough to find a lot of angel feathers, why not carry some around in your purse? The angels will show you people who need a little help and support. You too can be an angel and share these loving signs with people in their time of need. Just simply and quietly hand them over.

  ‘While I was on holiday I’d been reading an angel book. I decided to ask my own angels for a sign, and the following day this beautiful little white feather came floating down and I managed to catch it. Little did I realize that on the same street on the opposite side was a little restaurant/bar and it was called “Angel’s Bar” and the sign was of two cherubs and angels. I bought back an angel trinket box and a carved angel candle to add to my collection, and my feather is inside the trinket box on my shelf!’ – SARAH

  Bells and Chimes

  After my father and uncle passed away they were regular bell-ringers in the house – doorbell-ringers! If their name was mentioned they both at different times would alert us to their presence. We always checked at the door but no one was there. So concerned were we at one point that one of us would check at the window while another of us rushed to the door! If the doorbell rang, we wondered if it wasn’t just a child’s prank? It wasn’t.

  ‘I have regular contact from my loved ones in spirit, so at a church remembrance mass I asked them for a really big sign that they were there with us. Immediately the fire alarm was set off and I had to try and hide my smile for the rest of the service.’ – AMY

  Over the years I’ve collected many stories of spirits and angels setting off alarms and smoke detectors. As well as being a wonderful sign from the other side, it can also be good fun… and annoying in turn. If this type of sign occurs to you and you are not comfortable with it, then ask your angels to stop and they will. Personally I love the humour that comes with it!

  ‘Twelve years ago we heard a long ring on our doorbell in the early hours of the morning. The next day I was told my dad had died.’ – ANITA

  Flickering Lights

  This is another phenomenon that I am personally very familiar with. Usually you will sense the presence of an angel (often a feeling of great peace will come with the flickering). Sometimes another type of sign occurs at the same time. Your angel might also be a deceased loved one who is trying to communicate with you.

  I’ve had fun with this where a family spirit visitor was able to flicker the lights at will, enabling us to have a conversation involving yes/no flicker answers! I’ll admit this one can be a little frightening if you are on your own, though. You can ask for this sign if you specifically want it to occur or, as for all the other signs, ask for it to stop if it frightens you.

  ‘My brother turns my kitchen lights on and off; this happened shortly after he died, the first time after me asking him to do so. He didn’t do it instantly I asked, so I sat reading my book and about 10 or 15 minutes later one went off. This continued for a couple of weeks and it was always the same light.

  ‘Then one night I said, “Yeah, if it’s really you, why only that light?” A few minutes later it was a different light. People say it’s a fault with the wiring, but it’s been happening now for nearly three years, and when my mum and dad come to my house the lights are on/off, on/off like he’s acknowledging that they’re there. I know it’s him, nobody can tell me otherwise.’ – KAREN

  Clockwork

  I’m not sure how our angels are able to manipulate any type of clockwork items, but they do. Some of the earliest signs I came across at the beginning of my career involved watches that stopped at the exact time that the wearer/owner, or a loved one of the owner, passed over. It’s a classic afterlife sign of continuing awareness after death.

  The more modern versions include setting off music boxes that haven’t been wound up, winding up clocks that haven’t been wound by human hands, and messing with children’s toys. Some people have shared experiences of toys that talk in answer to questions they have posed… I can see why this would be spooky! Even though we want a sign, unexplained phenomenon can be quite startling when you are on your own (which is why many of these signs are subtle). As you get used to contact in this way, though, I promise it does get less scary and you’ll request it more and more.

  This week my bedroom door somehow locked itself from the inside. No one was in the bedroom; my husband had to open the door from the outside with a screwdriver! My signs can be funny… if not a little silly!

  Clockwork items that haven’t worked for many years can be adjusted and set off by our spirit friends, so do be on the lookout for this type of experience.

  ‘I have a wind-up musical angel globe. The day after I lost my 21-year-old son, Shane, I was lying on the sofa and my younger son was sitting on the floor with a friend. All of a sudden the music started playing by itself. Nobody had touched the globe. We all looked at each other and said, “Shane?” I believe he was letting us know he was OK and had arrived OK.’ – FIONA

  Birds

  The range of bird contact from the other side is vast: hummingbirds in one country and robins in another. Unusual birds (or those favoured by the deceased) can appear on cue, especially following the request for a sign. These birds appear to be very friendly.

  ‘Af
ter my father passed over a bird used to tap on the window while I was sitting on the sofa! I wondered what was happening at first! Every day without fail it would come!’ – SHARON

  My husband John had a baby bird sit between the windscreen wipers of the car last week. It just peered through the window for the longest time and didn’t appear afraid at all. It was so unexpected that I picked up my smartphone and took a couple of photographs of the cheeky chappie.

  ‘My adopted son and I went to tend to his mum’s grave. A robin landed on her name plaque in front of us and stayed for our whole hour-long visit. It didn’t move as we worked, and then near the end it flew to the tree next to us. When we asked it to fly back to the name plaque it did so immediately, it was if it was her saying hello. We then asked three more times and the bird followed our instructions each time!’ – LISA

  Among the reported phenomena is: a wild bird coming into the house, birds hopping up onto a table or chair where you are sitting, or even a bird sitting on the palm of your hand. You might have a visit from a particular type of bird for several days running following the loss of a loved one. They can tap on the window, as if in greeting, or sit alongside you in companionship while you carry out jobs in the garden or sit reading in the park.

  Watch out for groups of birds that usually fly alone, or appear on a specific birthday or anniversary as a ‘Hello, we remembered’ sign. This next story is particularly special.

  ‘My gran told me that when my granddad died she had seen a robin on a headstone near the grave during the burial. When Gran died I saw a robin on the same headstone during her funeral. Three years later my mum passed over, and during her funeral both my dad and I saw three robins sitting together on the same headstone!’ – TRACEY

  Butterflies

  Butterflies are renowned for appearing in funeral cars and at wakes. I’ve even seen them fly right down into a grave after the loss of a loved one. Watch out for butterfly signs if you’ve lost someone.

  ‘I used to work at Windsor Safari Park, where “misting” the butterfly house was my job. One butterfly always landed on my shoulder and some days it would be there most of the day. They have such short lives it left an empty feeling when one day it wasn’t there.

  ‘I searched for over an hour before I found it and cried the rest of the day. I buried it but thought of it every day for a long time. I dreamed about it the night before I found out I was pregnant, and now have three butterfly tattoos, one for each of my children. That butterfly never complained at my tears and listened without contempt, for the day before that butterfly took to landing on my shoulder my granddad had died, although it took three days for the news of his passing to reach me.’ – NATASHA

  I particularly love this fun story, too.

  ‘My mum always said she would return as a butterfly to watch us after she passed away. She died in the December and we were all supposed to be going to a pantomime together. We decided we would still go because we didn’t want to upset the children. On the stage, every time a certain actor came on, a butterfly would come onstage, too (a real one)! It had the audience roaring with laughter, considering it was December and not a time for butterflies! To this day I still say Mum didn’t want to miss out on the evening out that she’d planned with us.’ – MARYANN

  Rainbows

  We’re all familiar with this most beautiful of gifts, which never fails to delight. A rainbow is an arc of concentric bands of the colours of the visible spectrum of light. It’s created by the refraction and reflection of the sun’s rays in water droplets (raindrops, spray or mist, for example – you can get a similar effect by using a hosepipe in the garden on a sunny day, or watching a waterfall with the sun behind you!).

  A rainbow shows a continuous spectrum of colours, yet the colours that we see are only the seven colours identified by Isaac Newton (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). Rainbows have gaps between the colours (not evenly spaced) where other colours exist… colours our human eyes cannot perceive! Fascinating, right?

  Double rainbows are rare and are caused by a double reflection. The space in between a double rainbow is called ‘Alexander’s band’ after the scientist Alexander of Aphrodisias, who first described the phenomenon. The second rainbow has a reversed colour sequence (the colours are the opposite way round on the second arc). The air below the rainbow is nearly always brighter than the air above it. Despite the ‘science bit’, which I thought might interest you, rainbows are so magical and totally tied up with afterlife and angelic contact.

  ‘Last Monday evening my two Saudi Arabian students and I saw an upside-down rainbow above us in the garden. It must have been there 20 or 30 minutes and was brighter than a normal rainbow. There’d been no rain that day either. We Googled it on the computer and discovered they are very rare in the UK and are usually seen only in the Arctic. How lucky were we?’ – CAROL

  Upside-down rainbows of this type are known as a ‘circumzenithal arc’, and the sky has to be clear of rain/low-level clouds for it to be seen. Sunlight shines at a particular angle through a wispy type of cloud (at a height of around 20,000 feet) to create the phenomenon.

  I once personally witnessed a rare circular version of this type of ‘rainbow’, which is not really a rainbow at all. The circular band of colours sat in the sky above our car, and I even managed to get a photograph of this magical phenomenon. This rare sight is also called a ‘sundog’ and it happens when low sun catches the vapour of ice crystals in the atmosphere; this is what creates the halo effect. It was quite breathtaking! Of course, all rainbows are miracles and they make wonderful signs from heaven.

  On the morning of my dad’s funeral a beautiful bright rainbow appeared right over the top of the bungalow where my parents lived. All the family saw it and it felt like a real sign from the other side.

  ‘I visited my mum’s grave last month with a friend. I told my friend to look out for a rainbow when we went as it’s a common sign for me. Sure enough, the best rainbow he’d ever seen appeared… I knew it would!’ – HEV

  Telephones

  One of the first signs my dad brought us after he passed was to ring two mobile phones that had been switched off. On another occasion after my niece had won a prize for work at the local college, my sister’s mobile phone rang with a text message (and a little ‘1’ in the box to say a text had arrived). Nothing extraordinary there, until you consider that Dad had been gone for over three years when he ‘sent’ the message.

  Incidentally there was no actual message, but the fact that the phone had brought up his photo, which was still in the phone, was more than enough for us! It just goes to show how our loved ones continue to watch over us from the other side of life, taking an interest in what we are up to. Just this week at a book-signing, a lovely woman came over for me to sign her book and she shared an experience of her own where a relative had telephoned her (while she was fully awake) with the message, ‘I’m OK, don’t worry about me’. How fantastic is that?

  They sometimes use humour, too.

  ‘At my mam’s funeral there wasn’t a dry eye in the house after I’d read the poem I had written for her; even the priest had tears in his eyes. But then, as we all prayed in silence, my friend’s mobile started ringing, I couldn’t believe she’d forgotten to switch it off. Funnily enough, the ringtone was the song “Spirit in the Sky”! It wasn’t funny at the time, but we do laugh about it now!’ – ELEANOR

  Sometimes a house phone will ring in the night when no one is on the other end of the line. The ringing usually coincides with a special birthday or anniversary, or it might indicate news of a passing or the anniversary of a passing. The telephone call can also form part of a dream where the deceased loved one is ringing to let you know they have made it safely to heaven. These ‘dream’ visitations are always clear and vivid, and the dreamer is always fully lucid and aware.

  ‘I had to buy a new mobile phone one Christmas because the screen broke on my old one. I travelled to several towns
looking at phones until I saw one I felt drawn to. I bought it and charged the battery.

  ‘The first time I turned it on I got a text, yet I hadn’t given anyone the number and I didn’t even know what my own phone number was at the time! I thought it would just be a welcome or sales message from the mobile provider, but when I read it I got quite a surprise. It said, “Merry Christmas and Lots of Love, John and Tzar!” John is my beloved soulmate in heaven and his heavenly companion is called Tzar! Coincidence? I don’t think so!’ – KAREN

  Things Being Moved, Appearing and Disappearing

  Another common sign has the potential to be annoying and also funny. Small objects (jewellery, crystals, etc.) can appear and also disappear. Sometimes the object may not have been seen for a very long time when it just turns up right in the middle of the carpet you’ve just vacuumed. It’s always magical when something special turns up, as in this next experience.

  ‘My gran used to burn candles when she was alive. One day after she died I picked up the smell of candles from her room. When I went up there I discovered a letter she had written to my mum. The funny thing is I had been in her room a number of times since she died and I cannot remember seeing that letter before then!’ – TRACEY

  Photographs and objects that belonged to the deceased can move or fall over. Pictures of loved ones have the habit of wandering backwards and forwards along a shelf, turning themselves around to face the wall or simply flying off the wall!

  ‘My sister found a photo of my mum on the living room floor shortly after her passing in November! My other sister found a message written in condensation on her bedroom window around the same time, and I had a very vivid dream visitation from her. Mum was definitely trying to get through to us.’ – CLARE