(4) And from thence came the Names of the Thrones and Principalities, all according to the Essences of the first and great God goes forth again into many thousand Thousands, yet there is a certain Number [of them,] and in the Center of God none, [or no Number but Infinity;] and thus out of the Fountain of every Essence are gone forth, first the Thrones, and in the Throne many thousand Thousands.

(32) Then Thomas said to him: "Lord, Savior, how many are the aeons of those who surpass the heavens?"

(1) 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 measurement 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 Framer of Wisdom, and essentiating Cause and connecting Force, and encompassing Term of all created things together. Next: Caput XV. Sacred Texts | Christianity « Previous: The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite: On the Heavenly Hi... Index Next: The Works of Dionysius the Areopagite: On the Heavenly Hi... » Sacred Texts | Christianity

(18) There went multitudes with Jesus: and he turned, and said unto them,

(1) While I was listening to these things as as those there spoke them, there was within me a stillness of silence, and I heard the Blessedness whereby I knew proper self. And I ascended to the Vitality as I sought it. And I mutually entered it and stood, not firmly but quietly. And I saw an eternal, intellectual, undivided motion, all-powerful, formless, unlimited by limitation.

(11) The Lord said: Behold My forms, Ο Pārtha, by the hundreds and the thousands— manifold and divine, various in shape and hue.

(2) "And the voice of the word was heard saying through the majesty of the unconceived spirit, 'Look, the power has been completed. The one who was revealed by me appeared in the spirit.'

(1) Then others from the seed of Ham and Japheth come, four hundred thousand, and enter another land and stay with those people who came from the great eternal knowledge. The shadow of their power protects those with them from everything evil and every filthy desire.

(6) "And you, increase ye and multiply upon the earth, and become many upon it, and be a blessing upon it. The fear of you and the dread of you I shall inspire in everything that is on earth and in the sea.

(2) "And all the angels of the æons and their archangels and their rulers and their gods and their lords and their authorities and their tyrants and their powers and their light-sparks and their light-givers and their unpaired and their invisibles and their forefathers and their triple-powers saw me, shining most exceedingly, and there was no measure for the light which was about me. And they were thrown into agitation the one over against the other and great fear fell upon them, when they saw the great light that was about me. And in their great agitation and their great fear they withdrew as far as the region of the great invisible Forefather, and of the three great triple-powers. And because of the great fear of their agitation, the great Forefather, he and the three triple-powers, kept on running hither and thither in his region, and they could not close all their regions because of the great fear in which they were. And they agitated all their æons together and all their spheres and all their orders, fearing and being greatly agitated because of the great light which was about me--not of the former quality that it was about me when I was on the earth of man-kind, when the light-vesture came over me,--for the world could not bear the light such as it was in its truth, else would the world at once be destroyed and all upon it,--but the light which was about me in the twelve æons was eight-thousand-and-seven-hundred-myriad times greater than that which was about me in the world among you.

(3) And now seeing the Virgin of the eternal Wisdom has a discovered herself in the eternal Original, and in the eternal Mind in the sharp Essence of the Breaking of the Darkness in the Fire-flash [has found] the Depth of the [very] Image of God, and that the Similitude of God is there in the eternal Original, therefore she has longed after the Similitude, and that Longing makes the Attracting in the Will, and the Will stood [fright] against the Similitude; and the Fiat in the Attracting of the Willing, created the Will in the Similitude, out of which came the Angels all together. But now the eternal Essence was in the Similitude, and the Wisdom discovered [or manifested] herself in the Essences in many thousand Thousands, that the eternal Wonders might be revealed [or made manifest;] and thereupon there went forth (according to every Essence, as out of a Fountain) many thousand Thousands.

(3) Jesus arose and followed him, and so did his disciples: much people thronged him.

(5) And they raised their eyes and saw a great, exceedingly mighty light, which no man in the world can describe. He said unto them anew: "Look away out of the light and see what ye may see." They said: "We see fire, water, wine and blood."

(7) From the One who constantly stands, there appeared an eternal Life, the Invisible and Triple Powered Spirit, the One that is in all existing things and surrounds them all while transcending them all. A shadow [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [ ] ... [ ] [ ] ... [ ] he [was filled with power. And] he stood before [them], empowering them all, and he filled them all.

(1) And I saw three persons before me whose likeness I was unable to recognize. They were not from the powers of the god who created us. They surpassed glory, saying to me, "Rise, Adam, from the sleep of death, and hear about the eternal being and the seed of that person to whom life has come, who came from you and from Eve, your wife."

(2) "And all the rulers and all those who are in the Fate, were thrown into agitation and fell on one another and were in exceeding great fear on seeing the great light that was about me. And they gazed on my vesture of light and saw the mystery of their name on my vesture and fell into still greater agitation; and they were in great fear, saying: 'How hath the lord of the universe passed through us without our knowing?' And all the bonds of their regions and of their orders and of their houses were unloosed; they all came at once, fell down, adored before me and sang praises all together to the interiors of the interiors, being in great fear and great agitation.

(23) And the days will begin to grow many and increase amongst those children of men, Till their days draw nigh to one thousand years, And to a greater number of years than (before) was the number of the days.

(10) Between these trees of such kinds is formed the mountain with cavities, 9999 thousand myriads in number, each myriad being ten thousand.

(11) The Lord said: It is very hard to see this form of Mine, which you have seen. Even the gods are ever eager to see this form.

(3) And close to me approached, even as before, The very same who had entreated me, Attent to listen in their countenance. I, who their inclination twice had seen, Began: "O souls secure in the possession, Whene'er it may be, of a state of peace, Neither unripe nor ripened have remained My members upon earth, but here are with me With their own blood and their articulations. I go up here to be no longer blind; A Lady is above, who wins this grace, Whereby the mortal through your world I bring. But as your greatest longing satisfied May soon become, so that the Heaven may house you Which full of love is, and most amply spreads, Tell me, that I again in books may write it, Who are you, and what is that multitude Which goes upon its way behind your backs?" Not otherwise with wonder is bewildered The mountaineer, and staring round is dumb, When rough and rustic to the town he goes, Than every shade became in its appearance; But when they of their stupor were disburdened, Which in high hearts is quickly quieted,