^8 Diony silts the Areopagite
to assimilation to itself; but, as regards repellent
opposing substances, either it leaves none, or a
very light, trace of its fiery energy; and further,
when through substances favourable to its proper
action, it comes in contact with things not con-
genial, — first, it perchance makes things easily
changed to heating hot, and through them heats
proportionately either water or something else which
is not easily heated. After the same rule, .then,
of Nature's well-ordered method, the regulation
of all good order, both visible and invisible, mani-
fests supernaturally the brightness of its own gift
of Light, in first manifestation to the most exalted
Beings, in abundant streams, and through these,
the Beings after them partake of the Divine ray.
For these, as knowing God first, and striving pre-
eminently after Divine virtue, and to become first-
workers, are deemed worthy of the power and energy
for the imitation of God, as attainable, and these
benevolently elevate the beings after them to an
equality, as far as possible, by imparting ungrudg-
ingly to them the splendour which rests upon them-
selves, and these again to the subordinate, and
throughout each Order, the first rank imparts its
gift to that after it, and the Divine Light thus rests
upon all, in due proportion, with providential fore-
thought. There is, then, for all those who are
illuminated, a Source of illumination, viz., God, by
nature, and really, and properly, as Essence of Light,
and Cause of Being, and Vision itself; but, by
ordinance, and for Divine imitation, the relatively
on the Heavenly Hierarchy . 49
superior (is source) for each after it, by the fact,
that the Divine rays are poured through it to that.
All the remaining Angelic Beings, then, naturally
regard the highest Order of the Heavenly Minds
as source, after God, of every God-knowledge and
God-imitation, since, through them, the supremely
Divine illumination is distributed to all, and to us.
Wherefore, they refer every holy energy of Divine
imitation to God indeed as Cause, but to the first
Godlike Minds, as first agents and teachers of things
Divine.
The first Order, then, of the holy Angels possesses,
more than all, the characteristic of fire, and the
streaming distribution of supremely Divine wisdom,
and the faculty of knowing the highest science of
the Divine illuminations, and the characteristic of
Thrones, exhibiting their expansion for the reception
of God ; and the ranks of the subordinate Beings
possess indeed the empyrean, the wise, the knowing,
the God-receptive, faculty, but subordinately, and
by looking to the first, and through them, as being
deemed worthy of the Divine imitation in first oper-
ation, are conducted to the attainable likeness of
God. The aforesaid holy characteristics, then, which
the Beings after them possess, through the first, they
attribute to those Beings themselves, after God, as
Hierarchs.
Section IV.
He who said this, used to afl^rm, that this vision was shewn to the Theologian ?, through one of the
' Isa. vi. £
50 Dionysitis the Areopagite
holy and blessed Angels set over us, and that from
his illuminating direction, he was elevated to that
intellectual contemplation in which he saw the most
exalted Beings seated (to speak symbolically) under
God, and with God, and around ^ God, and the
super-princely^ Eminence elevated unspeakably above
them and all, seated on high in the midst of the
superior Powers. The Theologian then learned, from
the things seen, that, as compared with every super-
essential pre-eminence, the Divine Being was seated
incomparably above every visible and invisible power,
yea, even that It is exalted above all, as the Reality
of all things, as Absolute — not even like to the first
of created Beings ; — further also, that It is source
and essentiating Cause, and unalterable Fixity of
the undissolved continuance of all things, from
Which is both the being and the well-being of the
most exalted Powers themselves. Then he revealed
that the Godlike powers of the most holy Seraphim
themselves, whose sacred appellation signifies the
Fiery, concerning which we shall shortly speak as
best we can, conducted the elevations of the empy-
rean power to the Divine likeness. And, the holy
Theologian, by viewing the description of free and
most exalted elevation of the sixfold wings to the
Divine Being in first, middle, and last conceptions,
and further, their endless feet and many faces, and
their extended wings — one under their feet, and the
other over their faces, as seen in vision, and the
perpetual movement of their middle wings — was
•^ John i. I. * Or super-original.
on the Heavenly Hierarchy. 5 1
brought to the intelligible knowledge of the things ,
seen, since there was manifested to him the power'
of the most exalted minds for deep penetration and
contemplation, and the sacred reverence which they
have, supermundanely, for the bold and courageous !
and unattainable scrutiny into higher and deeper
mysteries ; and of the incessant and high-flying
perpetual movement of their Godlike energies in
due proportion. But he was also taught the hidden
mysteries of that supremely Divine and much es-
teemed Hymn of Praise — whilst the Angel who
formed the vision imparts, as far as possible, his
own sacred knowledge to the Theologian. He also
taught him this, that the participation, as far as
attainable, in the supremely Divine and radiant
purity, is a purification to the pure however pure ;
and it being accomplished from the very Godhead
by most exalted causes, for all the sacred Mind^by
a superessential hiddenness, is in a manner more
clear, and exhibits and distributes itself, in a higher
degree, to the highest powers around It ; but with
regard to the second, or us, the lowest mental powers,
as each is distant from, as regards the Divine like-
ness, so It contracts its brilliant illumination to the
single unknowable of its own hiddenness. And it
illuminates the second, severally, through the first ;
and, if one must speak briefly, it is firstly brought
from hiddenness to manifestation through the first
powers. This, then, the Theologian was taught by
the Angel who was leading him to Liglit — that puri- \
fication, and all the supremely Divine operations.
53 Dio7iys{us the Areopagite
illuminating through the first Beings, are distributed
to all the rest, according to the relation of each for
the deifying participations. Wherefore he reasonably
attributed to the Seraphim, after God, the character-
istic of purification by fire. There is nothing, then,
absurd, if the Seraphim is said to purify the Prophet
For, as God purifies all, by being cause of every puri-
fication, yea, rather (for I use a familiar illustration)
just as our Hierarch, when purifying or enlightening
through his Leitourgoi or Priests, is said himself
to purify and enlighten, since the Orders consecrated
through him attribute to him their own proper sacred
operations ; so also the Angel who effected the purifi-
cation of the Theologian attributes his own purifying
science and power to God, indeed, as Cause, but
to the Seraphim as first-operating Hierarch ; as any
one might say with Angelic reverence, whilst teaching
one who was being purified by him, " There is a pre-
eminent Source, and Essence, and Worker, and
Cause of the cleansing wrought upon you from me,
He Who brings both the first Beings into Being,
and holds them together by their fixity around
Himself, and keeps them without change and with-
out fall, moving them to the first participations of
His own Providential energies (for this. He Who
taught me these things used to say, shews the mis-
sion of the Seraphim), but as Hierarch and Leader
after God, the Marshal of the most exalted Beings,
from whom I was taught to purify after the ex-
ample of God — this is he, who cleanses thee
through me, through whom the Cause and Creator
on the Heavenly Hierarchy. 53
of all cleansing brought forth His own provident
energies from the Hidden even to us." These
things, then, he taught me, and I impart them
to thee. Let it be a part of thy intellectual and
discriminating skill, either, to acquit each of the
causes assigned from objection, and to honour this
before the other as having likelihood and good
reason, and perhaps, the truth ; or, to find out from
yourself something more allied to the real truth, or
to learn from another ; (God, of course, giving ex-
pression, and Angels supplying it ;) and to reveal to
us,' the friends of Angels, a view more luminous if
it should be so, and to me specially welcome.
CAPUT XIV.
What the traditional number of the Angels sig?iifies.
This also is worthy, in my opinion, of intellectual
attention, that the tradition of the Oracles concerning
the Angels affirms that they are thousand thousands,
and myriad myriads, accumulating and multiplying,
to themselves, the supreme limits of our numbers,
and, through these, shewing clearly, that the ranks
of the Heavenly Beings cannot be numbered by us.
For many are the blessed hosts of the supermundane
minds, surpassing the weak and contracted measure-
ment of our material number, and being definitely
known by their own supermundane and heavenly
intelligence and science alone, which is given to
them in profusion by the supremely Divine and
Omniscient P>amer of Wisdom, and essentiating
54 Dionysius the Areopagite
Cause and connecting Force, and encompassing Term of all created things together J.
CAPUT XV.
Section I.
Come, then, let us at last, if you please, rest our
mental vision from the strain of lofty contemplation,
befitting Angels, and descend to the divided and
manifold breadth of the many-shaped variety of the
Angelic forms, and then return analytically from the
J Dan. vii, lo.
on the Heavenly Hierarchy. 55
same, as from images, to the simplicity of the
Heavenly Minds. But let this first be made plain
to you, that the explanations of the sacredly de-
picted likenesses represent the same ranks of the
Heavenly. Beings as sometimes ruling, and, at other
times, as being ruled ; and the last, ruling, and
the first, being ruled ; and the same, as has
been said, having first, and middle, and last powers
— without introducing anything absurd into the de-
scription, according to the following method of
explanation. For if indeed we were to say that
some are ruled by those above them, and then
that they rule the same, and that those above,
whilst ruling those below, are ruled by those same
who are being ruled, the thing would manifestly
be absurd, and mixed with all sorts of confusion.
But if we say that the same rule and are ruled,
but no longer the self-same, or from the self-same,
but that each same is ruled by those before, and
rules those below, one might say appropriately that
the Divinely pictured presentations in the Oracles
may sometimes attribute, properly and truly, the
very same, both to first, and middle, and last powers.
Now the straining elevation to things above, and
their being drawn unswervingly around each other,
as being guardians of their own proper powers, and
that they participate in the providential faculty to
provide for those below them by mutual communi-
cation, befit truly all the Heavenly Beings, although
some, pre-eminently and wholly, as we have often
said, and others partially and subordinately.
56 Dionysiiis the Areopagite
Section II.
But we must keep our discourse within bounds,
and must search, in our first expla.nation of the types,
for what reason the Word of God prefers the sacred
description of fire, in preference to ahiiost every
other'''. You will find it, then, representing not
only wheels of fire, but also living creatures of fire \
and men, flashing, as it were, like lightning™, and
placing around the Heavenly Beings themselves
heaps of coals of fire^, and rivers of flame flowing
with irresistible force ^ ; and also it says that the
thrones are of fire^; and that the most exalted
Seraphim glow with fire, it shews from their appel-
lation, and it attributes the characteristic and energy
of fire ^ to them, and throughout, above and below,
it prefers pre-eminently the representation by the
image of fire. I think, then, the similitude of fire ""
denotes the likeness of the Heavenly Minds to God
in the highest degree; for the holy theologians fre-
quently describe the superessential and formless
essence hy fire^ as having many likenesses, if I may
be permitted to say so, of the supremely Divine
property, as in things visible. For the sensible
fire is, so to speak, in everything, and passes through
everything unmingled, and springs from all, and
whilst all-luminous, is, as it were, hidden, un-
known, in its essential nature, when there is no
^ Dan. vii. 9. ^ Ezek. i. 13, 16. °^ Ibid. 14.
n Ibid. X. 2. 0 Dan. vii. 10. P Ibid. 9. ^ Isa. vi. 6, 7. J" Le Cratyle de Platon, i. 302.
on the Heavenly Hierarchy. 57
material lying near it upon which it may shew its
proper energy. It is both uncontrollable and in-
visible, self-subduing all things, and bringing under
its own energy anything in which it may happen
to be; varying, imparting itself to all things near
it, whatever they may be ; renewing by its rousing
heat, and giving light by its uncovered illuminations;
invincible, unmingled, separating, unchangeable,
elevating, penetrating, lofty; subject to no grovelling
inferiority, ever moving, self-moving, moving other
things, comprehending, incomprehended, needing
rto other, imperceptibly increasing itself, displaying
its own majesty to the materials receiving it; ener-
getic, powerful, present to all invisibly, unobserved,
seeming not to be, and manifesting itself suddenly
according to its own proper nature by friction, as it
were by a sort of seeking, and again flying away im-
palpably, undiminished in all the joyful distributions
of itself. And one might find many characteristics
of fire, appropriate to display the supremely Divine
Energy, as in sensible images. The Godly-wise,
then, knowing this, depict the celestial Beings from
fire, shewing their Godlikeness, and imitation of
God, as far as attainable.