Christmas Horse

Frosted Pine
Medium: digital painting

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!

Castiel

Castiel
Medium: digital painting

"I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition." - Castiel, Angel of the LORD

For those who don't know, Castiel is a fictional angel from the television show Supernatural, and arguably the fanbase's favorite character. There's speculation about whether he's based off of the angel Cassiel (Quafsiel, Mocoton, etc.) in extra-Biblical lore, but the show's writers haven't revealed that yet, so it’s most likely that the Castiel character was inspired by Cassiel and other angels, but is not meant to be any particular angel in lore. I made his wings white with rainbow iridescence, because I don’t think of his wings as black, dark gray, or blue (that was just their shadow in season 4). I didn't want to make them just plain white, however, because Revelation and other books of the Bible describe rainbows in Heaven. It's not clear where the rainbows are coming from, but I figured iridescent wings would look fabulous either way! I also took inspiration from Mrs. Whatsit in A Wrinkle in Time. I suspect she was representative of an angel.

“Now, don’t be frightened, loves,” Mrs Whatsit said. Her plump little body began to shimmer, to quiver, to shift. The wild colors of her clothes became muted, whitened. The pudding-bag shape stretched, lengthened, merged. And suddenly before the children was a creature more beautiful than any Meg had even imagined, and the beauty lay in far more than the outward description. Outwardly Mrs Whatsit was surely no longer a Mrs Whatsit. She was a marble white body with powerful flanks, something like a horse but at the same time completely unlike a horse, for from the magnificently modeled back sprang a nobly formed torso, arms, and a head resembling a man’s, but a man with a perfection of dignity and virtue, an exaltation of joy such as Meg had never before seen. No, she thought, it’s not like a Greek centaur. Not in the least.

From the shoulders slowly a pair of wings unfolded, wings made of rainbows, of light upon water, of poetry.

Calvin fell to his knees.

“No,” Mrs Whatsit said, though her voice was not Mrs Whatsit’s voice. “Not to me, Calvin. Never to me. Stand up.”

- A Wrinkle in Time, chapter 5


I wouldn't recommend Supernatural for everyone, certainly not underage people or those trying to figure out what they believe, but it is a fun show when taken as what it's meant to be: fiction. The characters are very interesting and well-written. None of them are 100% good or 100% bad, except maybe some of the monsters, of course. The show definitely has a sense of humor! It knows how to laugh at itself.

I haven't decided what I think of the show's portrayal of angels. Its portrayal of God is, well, how about NO, but with angels, it got some things right and some things wrong. One thing I definitely appreciated is how angels are portrayed as fearsome warriors rather than the fluffy fairies that pop culture depicts them as. 2 Kings 19:35 pretty much lays it out nicely. Angels are beast.



As with all my artwork, I don't mind this being shared on Pintrest, fansites, or other like websites, but if you see this picture anywhere without my signature and website URL in the bottom right-hand corner, then it has been stolen.