
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, December 27, 1994                   TAG: 9412270137
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

SHE TALKS TO ANGELS, WILL TEACH HOW

Angels, it seems, are everywhere these days. They're a topic of self-help books, they're in calendars, they've been on Broadway and public television.

Karyn Martin-Kuri, who calls herself an ``angelologist,'' said she thinks the recent interest in angels is sparked by angels who are inspiring people to reflect on the topic. She said she believes angels are doing so because they see troubles that humans are perpetuating.

``I think there is a choice we are making now,'' she said. ``It is between further addiction to materialism, or seeing our way to putting the main focus of thinking in the divine, whatever the tradition.''

Martin-Kuri, who has spent 25 years studying and teaching others how to get in touch with guardian angels, is moving her Twenty-Eight Angels organization early next year from East Falmouth, Mass., to Charlottesville. The name comes from the numbers in her birth date, which add up to 28.

The organization, which employs about 15 people, runs courses designed to help people ``open to the angels of God and receive blessings from the Divine,'' according to a brochure.

Martin-Kuri will kick off a 10-week version of the course Jan. 11 in Charlottesville, which will be taught by retired minister Don Cassidy.

To Martin-Kuri, guardian angels aren't chubby babies with wings. They don't play harps. They aren't your dead relatives. You have one, she believes. We all do. For life.

``Every person has one guardian angel, but they can have more than one according to their willingness to help humanity,'' Martin-Kuri said. ``Like Beethoven would have angels to help him with music.''

People who work closely with their guardian angel get more, she said. Martin-Kuri said she has ``a group,'' the result of being aware of angels since infancy.

Martin-Kuri said she first saw her guardian angel, complete with halo, hovering over her crib. In the first grade, she said she had her seminal angelic experience: She was walking across a lawn when she sensed the heavens open up behind her. She said she turned and saw a host of angels.

Angels are nondenominational, transcend the material and are as old as the universe, Martin-Kuri said.

Her field, ``angelology,'' is recognized and defined largely by angelologists themselves. Martin-Kuri said she qualifies because of years of researching the color theory, theology, philosophy, painting and music for any and all connections with the angels.

Martin-Kuri said she believes humans cannot bear the intensity of the ``creator,'' a term she uses to apply to deities in all religions. She considers angels to be the links between the creator and humanity.

Both Martin-Kuri and Cassidy stress that they don't support idolatry of angels, but rather worshipping the creator through angels.

by CNB