Side Quest: Angelus Errare
Side Quest: Angelus Errare
"Where Angels Lose Their Way"
🔖🔖🔖 ABOUT THIS SECTION 🔖🔖🔖
This is a companion “sidebar” supplement to Game & Word: Issue 4.9. If you haven’t already, please go ahead and read the accompanying issue first. The first section of this supplemental content is available for all as a free preview. To unlock the entire thing, upgrade to a Game & Word paid subscription:
🚨🚨🚨 SPOILER ALERT 🚨🚨🚨
This post is one big, ginormous WALKING SPOILER for Chrono Cross. Also, you should probably read the accompanying article (Issue 4.9) before diving into this side quest.
🔥🔥🔥 CONTROVERSIAL TOPIC ADVISORY 🔥🔥🔥
This piece contains discussions of spirituality and religion, including alternative and non-mainstream belief systems. I make zero claims on the veracity (or lack thereof) of any of the faiths/beliefs discussed here, nor do I pass judgment on anyone’s belief or nonbelief in them (unless judgment is first passed onto me).
Please note that religious texts are often dense, cryptic, contradictory, inaccurately translated, incomplete, hard to find, and wildly open to interpretation (and that’s just the text that don’t require years of dedicated study to even begin making sense of them). As such, it’s highly likely that I’ve likely gotten some things wrong, and I welcome factual corrections and different interpretations of any of the information in this article. Comments for this post are disabled for reasons I hope are obvious, but feel free to shoot me an email (gameandword@substack.com) or hit me up on the Game & Word Subscriber Chat.
(That said, if you mean to complain or object to the mere mention of the beliefs I describe, just because they’re different from your own? Then don’t waste your time—maybe you should stop reading and go listen to THIS instead.)
Side Quest: Angelus Errare
"In three respects, demons resemble angels; in three others, mankind. Like the angels, they have wings, they move from one end of the earth to the other, and are prescient. Like men, they eat and drink, propagate themselves, and die.
In three respects, men resemble the angels; in three others, the animals. Like angels they have intelligence, they walk upright, and they speak the holy tongue. Like animals, they eat and drink, propagate themselves, and emit excrement."
~Babylonian Talmud (Chagigah. 16a:7), plus parallel passages (paraphrased)
To get an idea of just how much this notion of humanity constantly straddling the line between “good” and “evil” has been ingrained in our collective mythos, look no further than any of the world’s major religions (and plenty of the minor ones, for that matter). This theme recurs so consistently and with such primacy that it’s practically archetypal.
Much like how Western suburbanites took to Yoga pants, Tibetan singing bowls, and other elements from Eastern religions like incel edgelords at a Gaspar Noé film festival, Western religious imagery (particularly from Christianity, with Judaism a reasonably-close second) abounds in Japanese media. Often, the images are fairly divorced from their original religious contexts or display a superficial connection at most.1
But in Chrono Cross, some of the religious metaphors are quite accurately presented—and even if they don’t quite match up to scriptural canon, they sure as hell nail the folklore surrounding it.
I want to focus on one such metaphor in particular: the place in El Nido where the barrier between dimensions is at its thinnest, where Serge’s dimensional romp begins and where time itself might end, the place he either drowned or was saved from drowning (depending on timeline), and the gateway to the final confrontation with the Time Devourer.
The El Nido locals call this place “Opassa Beach.” But to Magus Guile, Lynx, and those in the know, it’s known as “Angelus Errare,” which is Latin for “Where Angels Lose Their Way.” But what did Masato Kato have in mind when he penned that name?
To even attempt to answer that question (which, in case the previous 24,000 words in this series hadn’t hinted at, might well be an exercise in futility), we must first answer:
1) What are Angels?
2) How would one “lose” its “way”?
And just in case you haven’t been paying attention: these questions are nowhere NEAR as simple as you’d think!
What IS an Angel?
“They sparkled like topaz, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel ... Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.”
~ Ezekiel 1:15
So, let’s start with the first question: What IS an Angel?
Unsurprisingly, there are many answers, perhaps as many as there are believers in religions with angels in their cosmologies. But to stay on topic, we’ll focus on the angels described in the major Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), the myriad denominations therein, their mystical and esoteric offshoots, and the common images/conceptions of these angels in the popular imagination.
The simplest way to define an angel is as a spiritual being who serves God. However, this is a simplistic and incomplete definition.
After all, humans are also spiritual beings. This concept isn’t restricted to Western religion, by the way—in Abrahamic Monotheism, it’s because humans are created in God’s image; whereas in Gnosticism, Buddhism, and several esoteric traditions, humans always carry a spark of divinity within them. Regardless of why, humans are creatures of spirit (“spiritual creatures”) as much as they are creatures of matter (“material creatures”).
And yet, even the most pious, God-fearing human alive is different than an Angel. This is a rare area of consensus across faiths and even denominations within faiths; although the children of Abraham disagree with each other on many, MANY things, they’re practically all in agreement on this point.
So, then, what differentiates an angel from a mere virtuous human (or even an ascended virtuous human, like a Saint)?
This is where you get into “ask 10 people, get 12 answers” territory, so I’ll go over some of the more common and relevant aspects that make angels… well, angels.
Popular culture tends to depict angels as tall, humanoid figures that dwell in an ethereal and cloudy realm (some call this “heaven,” though the cloud-filled version is more specific to Christianity) close to God. These pop-culture angels, when not disguised as humans, usually have feathered wings, wear loose white robes, have ringed halos above their heads, are proficient harp players, and relay messages to and from God and a select few special people.
This imagery doesn’t do these mighty beings anywhere close to justice. Whereas if you actually read the Bible, Torah, Talmud, or Qu’ran, you get a very different impression of them.
In the scriptures, angels are mighty and majestic beings who possess unfathomable power and are so awe-inspiring that the first thing they tell humans they appear to is, “Be not afraid”; lest their terrifying and otherworldy appearance (along with the intensity of their radiant power) melt the primitive brains of the humans they contact.
Angels do often serve as messengers in the original source material, and they perform that task well. But they’re more than just celestial couriers—they are guardians, guides, heralds, protectors, scribes, healers, and soldiers. They are the Army of God, complete with officers, ranks, and titles, with the Archangels at the top (you may have heard some of their names: Gabriel, Raphael, Michael, Uriel…).
They can also take on many more appearances than the popular “wings-and-halo” getup. They can appear like any other human, an animal, an abstract concept, a geometric shape, or even something so bizarre and alien, a human would even find it terrifying!
Oh, and Angels are also immortal.
In short, despite generally having calm demeanors and preferring peaceful solutions and actions, Angels can kick a TON of ass if needed. And in countless myths and tales (both biblical and folkloric), they do exactly that to the legions of hell, many times over, and on several occasions.
However, despite all this awesomeness, humans still rank above angels in the “celestial hierarchy” (with God, naturally, being at the top), for one key reason: free will.
(Yup, there’s that FATE thing again…)
Angels, mighty as they may be, were not created entirely in God’s image, with the capacity to freely choose between doing good and doing evil. Humans, however, were. And ever since that incident with the apple in the Garden of Eden cursed gifted imbued humanity with gnosis2 (Greek for knowledge) of the difference between good and evil—a human knowingly and willingly choosing to carry out a good deed over an evil one is going to carry more spiritual “weight” (so to speak) than an angel for whom carrying out an evil deed is literally inconceivable.
[As a neat aside, this also means people actually have the authority to command angels (as well as demons, for that matter)… as long as said people are in good moral standing and their commands are in alignment with whatever The Man Upstairs has planned.]
This leads us to our second question. If angels lack free will—or more accurately, the same degree of free will that humans have (angels are intelligent and sentient beings, not mindless automatons)—how can an angel possibly “lose its way”?
How Angels Lose Their Way
“The better stuff a creature is made of - the cleverer and stronger and freer it is - then the better it will be if it goes right, but also the worse it will be if it goes wrong.
A cow cannot be very good or very bad; a dog can be both better and worse; a child better and worse still; an ordinary man, still more so; a man of genius, still more so; a superhuman spirit best - or worst - of all.”
~C. S. Lewis (Emphasis Mine)
In pop culture’s retelling, angels lose their way by turning their backs on God/Good/Heaven, and in doing so become fallen angels. Or, as they’re more popularly known: demons.
But what about the primary sources?
This is another area where the three faiths (not to mention their countless internal denominations) sharply diverge from each other. But if you simplify the concept enough, they all seem to mostly agree with the pop-culture interpretation, albeit to varying degrees—especially the part about an angel needing to mess up in order to “lose its way” (or is it the other way around?).
Remember the list of angelic qualities I wrote a few paragraphs up? Go ahead, review it again, and notice that I didn’t include infallible.
That’s right. Angels, like humans, are not perfect. Only God is perfect; all others will eventually fall short. Back in the Old Testament days, this led to the wayward angel’s expulsion from the heavenly host, trading in its feathery wings for bat wings, and pivoting from helping people to tormenting/tempting/testing them (depending on who you ask) instead.
(God seems to have mellowed out quite a bit since those days, so I’m not sure what’s the current penalty for leaking heavenly plans. Hopefully, she’s started cutting everyone some more slack for unintentional slip-ups; though I’d imagine this is cold comfort to the poor angelic sod who accidentally let slip the planned destruction of Gomorrah. Whoops.)
So, now we know what angels are, and how they can lose their way. But that just brings up another question: what’s the deal with DEMONS, anyway?
Again, this is an area of fierce theological disagreement, so I’ll tread as lightly as possible. Let’s start with pop culture.
The popular image of a Demon is one of a horned monstrosity, with dragon wings and pointy tails, often wielding pitchforks, and of a nature that’s at best chaotic, temperamental, and/or self-serving, but usually more overtly malevolent. Basically, the opposite of an Angel.
Like Angels, Demons are powerful spiritual beings that can affect the material world. Unlike Angels, who are bound to carry out God’s will, demons are more or less free to do almost anything they want (with some very important caveats). And believe me, they’re more than willing to do anything, no matter how unscrupulous or depraved, if it’ll benefit them in some way.
As to their motives, or what “benefit” they stand to gain from sowing torment and discord, or carrying out morally questionable requests from morally questionable mortals? Well, that’s beyond the scope of this article. But the short answer is, whatever “benefit” a human would get from doing the same. Demons can be just as scheming, greedy, ruthless, and power-hungry as any human (though the jury is still out on whether demons or humans are overall more sus).
In Judaism, demons are not inherently evil, per se, but rather perform the important3—if undeniably unpleasant—task of constantly testing humans’ moral and spiritual growth by subjecting them to temptation and adversity.
By contrast, in both Christianity and Islam, demons (including Hell’s Head Honcho, himself) play a more explicitly adversarial role in the dualistic dance between good and evil/order and chaos/God and Satan/what have you. In this context, demons will earnestly pull out all their best tricks and tactics to actually lead humans astray from God’s will, and therefore divert otherwise paradise-bound souls to hell—itself, an act of defiance against God’s will.4
Qualitatively speaking, Christian demons also tend to be of a nastier flavor and more overtly position themselves in opposition to God (and especially to humans) than Islamic demons, which come in varying shades of grey and include spirits like djinns (you know, genies).
Another difference is that Islamic demons (like Islamic angels) are believed to lack free will, whereas Christian mythos tends to highly emphasize that it was an imposition of individual free will that caused Lucifer’s demotion from “Archangel” to “Devil” (and the name change to “Satan” that came with it).5
Interestingly enough, in all three religions, demons are firmly entrenched at the bottom of the “celestial hierarchy.” As such, no demon can so much as twitch its pointy tail without God allowing it.6
Anyway, that’s the traditional view of Angels and Demons. But there are others.
Demons and Angels by Any Other Name
“I tell you one time: you're to blame.”
~ The Rolling Stones, “Sympathy for the Devil” [Emphasis Mine]
Let's look at how a few other traditions view demons. Many Eastern faiths believe all beings, material and celestial, are trapped in an endless karmic cycle of birth and rebirth (in Buddhism, this cycle is called Samsāra). As such, it's entirely possible for a human to reincarnate not just as an animal, plant, or other human, but also a celestial being—including those we'd consider angels and demons in more Western contexts.7
Meanwhile, for some practitioners of animistic or more “earthy” belief systems (like shamanism, Wicca, paganism/neo-paganism, Shinto, and Voudou/Voudon), “angels” and “demons” are functionally similar (if not identical) to any other spirit or deity, with its own set of powers, domains, temperaments, and devotional preferences unique to them.
In fact, I’ve heard plenty of pagan/shamanic practitioners make the (intuitively credible) argument that many—maybe even most—spirits popularly thought of as “demons” are actually ancient/pagan spirits or deities that were literally demonized during the spread of more organized and… *ahem*… overbearing faiths.
Going further still, some “darker”8 occult traditions like certain offshoots of Thelema (the sect that Aleister Crowley started), Demonolatry, and Satanism (both the LaVeyan and Theistic varieties) view demons even more charitably. Within these systems, demons are either morally neutral; symbols of personal empowerment and liberation; helpful and powerful supernatural allies; perfectly safe when properly engaged and petitioned; actually the “good” guys in the cosmic struggle; or some combination of the above.
From their point of view, terms like “good” and “evil” are misnomers—the forces that shape the universe are fundamentally neutral, and this applies to spiritual forces as well as natural ones. Kind of like how fire can be helpful, or harmful, and has its own specific use cases. Similarly, angels and demons oversee entirely different departments.
Think back to how in the Chrono-verse, the Planet presides over Love, whereas Lavos presides over Hate (as you can see, there’s an obvious moral judgment here that we’ll just have to disregard), and neither can understand the other’s domain. In a similar vein, let’s look at Angels and Demons from a Jungian/Analytical Psych lens.
Within this framework, you could think of Angels as archetypes for “higher” brain functions like cognition, abstraction, and problem-solving. Conversely, you can think of Demons as archetypes for “lower” brain functions like survival, dominance, and reproduction.9
From this point of view, then, neither angels nor demons (regardless of whether you consider them actual supernatural beings, parts of the human psyche, or archetypal symbols) are “good” nor “bad.” Instead, “unbalanced” or “asymmetrical” might be more accurate.
So, how does an Angel lose its way? By SHIFTING its purview from its assigned domain to its opposite one.
Phew! Ok, then, so back to our original question:
Why is Opassa Beach the place “Where Angels Lose Their Way?”
Because it’s the one place on the whole planet, in the entire timeline, where everything SHIFTS to its polar opposite.
It’s where Serge was saved from drowning as a kid, causing a split (a type of SHIFT) in the timeline.
It’s where Serge SHIFTS from his Home Timeline (where he lives) to Another Timeline (where he died).
It’s where Serge eventually SHIFTS to the Darkness Beyond Time to confront the Time Devourer, which only exists because a previous angel Arbiter, Schala, lost HER way (meanwhile, everyone back in real-time is crossing their fingers and hoping that Serge doesn’t SHIFT from HIS goal to defeat, and not merge with, the abomination).
And finally… it’s where, after Lavos is gone, the Home and Another timelines SHIFT back into place, fusing to create the “Ideal Timeline.”
So, there you have it. Opassa Beach may well be “Where Angels Lose Their Way.” But as Serge once again proves, it’ll take more than an ominous name to stop your true meaning from breaking the bonds of fate!
Often, these images are included for purely aesthetic reasons, To illustrate, consider the massively influential and iconic anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, which is steeped in Christian iconography and symbolism. Years later, assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki straight-up admitted that these were included because the team thought they looked and felt cool, and had they known the anime would be so popular in the West, they might have toned the religious references down a notch.
If you’re wondering whether this is the same gnosis referenced/alluded to in the term Gnosticism (and the religious denominations the term refers to), the answer is “yes, it most certainly is.”
Important to God, in any case. I’m not God, nor a theologist. So I’ll leave it at that.
This does beg the question of why God doesn’t just will all souls to paradise, but again, I’ll just leave this to the experts at that and step away slowly.
In Islam, it was more an expression of petty spite and disagreement with Allah that led to the devil’s fall. A far cry from Lucifer’s attempted celestial insurrection in Christian mythos.
This leads to a whole bunch of other uncomfortable implications, which again, I’ll just leave riiiiight over there and slowly back away. Slowly.
Albeit the nature of “angels” and “demons” in Eastern traditions trends more towards morally neutral than in Western religions.
As the term’s popularly understood.
I realize that “higher” and “lower” are pretty loaded terms in and of themselves, but I don’t mean that one is intrinsically “better” or “worse” than the other. I mean it in more of a biological/psych sense—the “lower” functions being our instinctual behaviors, and the “higher” functions being our ‘abtracting’ brains.