Akiva and the Jewish angels

R. Akiva came to me when I was studying Hagigah the other day. The tractate was about why Abuyah committed heresy and became Acher. It talked about Akiva getting to Pardes by means of the angels carrying him there, and that the angels that carried him were the angels that were assigned to Akiva. I likened this to the 27 ancestral souls that one calls in the shamanism I've learned. Akiva told me that his angels were Jewish ones, called by Jewish means. Abuyah's angels were mixed with the Greek and roman angels that fascinated him. That's why Abuyah was led astray after he returned to Pardes. Akivah was very firm that the practice had to be Jewish in order to lead one in the right direction.

I had always assumed that we all go to the same place, just by different paths. There is one god, but we all experience him differently. Akivah seemed to think differently. That we really do get to different places and if one wants to get to a Jewish God, one needs to use Jewish ways of getting there.

My mentor John said that he thinks that we do get to the same place, but the way we get there helps to determine how we experience it. Kind of like wearing different color glasses - you may be looking at the same thing, it just appears differently.

I don't know what to think, though I think the two viewpoints, from a practical point of view, aren't really very different.