The Celestial Hierarchy

We must now pass on to the middle rank of the heavenly intellects, contemplating, as far as possible, with supermundane eyes those Dominations, and the truly powerful spectacles of the divine Powers and Virtues. For every name of the essences above us signifies their deiform properties, by which they imitate God.

Therefore I judge that the manifesting name of the holy Dominations declares a certain absolute anagogy, free from every disgrace of diminution; a lordship in no way inclined toward the likeness of tyrannical dissimilarities; a dominion liberally severe, set above every diminishing servitude, needing no subjection of any kind, removed from every dissimilarity, unceasingly desiring the true Lordship itself, and, as far as possible, deiformly conforming both itself and those after it to the likeness of that lordly power which subsists by nature. It is turned toward no vain appearance, but toward the universal reality which properly is, and it is made, as far as possible, a participant in the ever deiform Lordship.

The name of the holy Virtues, however, signifies a certain strong and immutable manliness in all their operations according to their deiformity; a nature not weakly disposed toward the reception of the divine illuminations given to it, but powerfully led back into the imitation of God; not abandoning its deiform motion through any weakness of its own, but firmly bearing the superessential and power-giving Virtue, and becoming, as far as is lawful, an image resembling that Virtue. It is powerfully turned toward that Virtue as the principle of all virtues, and it proceeds deiformly toward those below as a giver of virtue.

The name of the holy Powers signifies an order equal in power to the divine Dominations and Virtues, well ordered and unconfused with respect to divine receptions; an ordered power of supermundane and intellectual authority, not tyrannically rushed downward toward inferior things by authoritative powers, but powerfully led upward to divine things after due order, and deiformly leading those after it upward. It is assimilated, as far as is lawful, to the power-giving Authority, and reveals that Authority, as far as possible, to the angels through the well-ordered ranks established by it, with authoritative power.

Possessing these deiform properties, the middle rank of the heavenly minds is purified, illuminated, and perfected, as has been said, by the divine illuminations given to it secondarily through the first hierarchical rank, and conveyed through that middle rank by a second manifestation.

Therefore, when we hear that speech comes through one angel to another, we shall take this as a symbol of a perfection which is far more than perfect, and which, hidden in itself, proceeds to those that follow. For those who are wise concerning our sacred sacrifices say that the perfections of divine things which shine by themselves are more perfect than those which exist through other participations of contemplation.

Thus I judge that the immediate participation of the angelic orders first extended toward God is more perfect than participation through the mediation of those already perfected. For this reason, in our sacerdotal tradition, the first intellects are called the perfective, light-giving, and purifying powers of the lower ones, since through them the lower orders are led back to the superessential principle of all things, and are made participants, as far as is lawful for them, in the perfection-giving purifications, illuminations, and perfections.

For this is altogether the divinely promulgated order of divine rank: that the second orders participate in divine illuminations through the first.

You will find this also expressed many times by the theologians. For when the divine and paternal philanthropy was instructing Israel for its sacred salvation, correcting it convertibly, and handing it over to avenging and harsh nations for discipline, by every kind of providential guidance toward the better, it both sent Israel into captivity and mercifully restored it again to its former constancy.

One of the theologians, Zacharias, saw one of the first angels, as I judge, one of those around God—for, as I said, the name “angel” is common to all—learning from God Himself the words of counsel concerning this matter. He then saw another angel, one of the subordinate angels, going forth to meet the first, as though for the reception and participation of illumination. Then, having been instructed by him in the divine counsel as by a high priest, this second angel turned to teach the theologian that Jerusalem would be fruitfully inhabited by a multitude of men.

Another theologian, Ezechiel, says that this was most sacredly promulgated by the most glorious Divinity established above the Cherubim. For the divine philanthropy, instructing Israel, as has been said, by disciplinary training and leading it toward the better, by divine justice condemns the guilty and justifies the innocent.

The first after the Cherubim, girded about the loins with sapphire and clothed, according to the hierarchical symbol, in a long robe, teaches this. The divine ordering commands the other angels, who had axes, to be taught by the first concerning this divine judgment. For He said to the one: “Pass through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the innocent men.” But to the others He said: “Go through the city after him and strike; let not your eyes spare. But do not come near anyone upon whom the mark is.”

What might one say, perhaps, of the angel who said to Daniel, “The word has gone forth”? Or of that first angel receiving fire from the midst of the Cherubim? Or, still more abundantly for showing the angelic order, that the Cherubim put the fire into the hands of the one clothed in the sacred stole? Or of the one calling the most divine Gabriel and saying to him, “Make this man understand the vision”? Or whatever else has been said by the sacred theologians concerning the deiform order of the heavenly Thearchies?

To this order the arrangement of our own hierarchy is assimilated, as far as possible. It will have the angelic beauty so far as this can be represented in images, being formed through it and led back to the superessential ordering-principle of every hierarchy together.