They're not necessarily even a Christian phenomena nor a near-eastern one. The jumping off point perhaps is to explore concepts of panpsychism and animism.
Gordon White recently had Peter and Alkistis on again from Scarlet Imprint (the video titled Halloween Special) where they talk about their move to Cornwall, England, the oddities of the weather there (ie. the semi/dem-tropical aspects), and Peter does launch into a bit of discussion about his study and work with angels and what he's gleaning both from studying the renaissance work and doing his own experiments. Gordon asked him what myths he was hoping to dispel about angels and he replied that it's the notion that angel magic is exclusively a province of wealthy people through the renaissance attempting to swing political power or nation-build. They also did something interesting in saying that, in their minds, angels technically are the weather and that the 'principalities of the air' thing is quite accurate.
I get that these kinds of abstractions tend to leave most people cold (and I might be thread-killing just by saying something that isn't a prepackaged popular position here) but I think it also helps underscore just how degenerate, off the mark, and generally bankrupt the dichotomy question of 'Is it all dead/unconscious matter or is the bible the literal and infallible history and science book of God?' that almost all popular discussions of these things in the west gets framed around actually is.
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The loneliest part of life: it's not just that no one is on your cloud, few can even see your cloud.