When someone says "cherub", the image that springs to mind for most people is a chubby little fella with a mop of curly hair and little wings, which is a relatively recent thing, a result of conflating cherubim with putti derived from Roman depictions of cupid. A far cry from the accounts in eclesiastical literature, that describe them in various, frequently quite bizarre forms. For example, early Midrash literature has them as totally non-corporeal, whereas in the Old Testament, Ezekiel states they had four faces, four wings, legs fused together into a single trunk and a calf’s hoof... Going back to their origin, cherubim are high ranking angels; perhaps best illustrated by their Arabic name, karubiyyin (meaning "the close ones"), referring to their elevated position in the celestial hierarchy and their closeness to the divine throne. Indeed, the roles of the cherubim include the bearers of the throne as well as the guards at the gates of Eden, and it’s the latter I have re-imagined here. Let’s face it, with the ever-accelerating destruction of the few wild places left on earth in the pursuit of yet another generation of phone or some equally pyrrhic goal, we could use a few more such guardians... #guardian #eden #forest #angel #cherubim