(4) Let me also recall this to your Hierarchical judgment--that both to Pharaoh, from the Angel who presided over the Egyptians, and to the Babylonian Prince, from his own Angel, the watchful and ruling care of the Providence and Lordship over all, was interpreted in visions; and for those nations, the worshippers of the true God were appointed leaders, for the interpretation of things shaped by Angelic visions revealed from God through Angels to holy men akin to the Angels, Daniel and Joseph. For there is one Prince and Providence over all. And never must we think that the Godhead is leader of Jews by lot, and that Angels, independently, or as of equal rank, or in opposition, or that certain other gods, preside over the other nations. But that particular phrase of the Divine Word must be accepted according to the following sacred intention; not as though God had divided government amongst men, with other gods, or Angels, and had been elected by lot to the government and leadership of Israel, but in this sense--whilst the one Providence of Highest over all, assigned all mankind, savingly, to the directing conduct of their own Angels, yet Israel, almost alone in comparison with all, turned himself to the Light-gift, and recognition of the true Lord-Hence the Word of God, as shewing that Israel elected himself for the worship of the true God, says this, "He became Lord's portion;" and as indicating that he was assigned equally with the other nations, to one of the holy Angels, for the recognition, through him, of the Head of all, said "That Michael became leader of the (Jewish) people," demonstrating distinctly that there is one Providence of the whole, superessentially established above all the powers, unseen and seen, and that all the Angels who preside over each nation, elevate, as far as possible, those who follow them with a willing mind, to It as their proper Head. Next: Caput X. 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

(4) But I observe that Angels first were initiated in the Divine mystery of the love of Jesus towards man, then, through them, the gift of its knowledge passed to us. Thus, for example, the most divine Gabriel instructed Zachariah, the Hierarch, that the son who was to be born to him, beyond hope, by Divine grace, should be a prophet of the God-incarnate work of the Lord Jesus, to be manifested to the world for its salvation, as becomes the Divine goodness; and he revealed to Mary, how, in her, should be born the supremely Divine mystery of the unutterable God-formation. Yet another Angel instructed Joseph, how, in very truth, should be fulfilled the things Divinely promised to his ancestor David. Another declared glad tidings to the shepherds, as being purified by their separation from the multitude, and their quiet life, and, with him, a multitude of the Heavenly Host announced to those on earth that often-sung doxology. Let us then ascend to the highest manifestations of light contained in the Oracles, for I perceive that even Jesus Himself, the superessential Cause of the super-heavenly Beings, when He had come to our condition, without change, did not overstep the good order which becomes mankind, which Himself arranged and took, but readily subjected Himself to the dispositions of the Father and God, through Angels; and, through their mediation, was announced to Joseph the departure of the Son to Egypt, which had been arranged by the Father, and again the return to Judaea from Egypt. And through Angels we see Him subjecting Himself to the Father's decrees. For I forbear to speak, as addressing one who knows the teaching of our hierarchical tradition, both concerning the Angel who strengthened the Lord Jesus, or that even Jesus Himself, when He had come to manifest the good work of our beneficent salvation, was called Angel of Great Counsel. For, as He Himself says, after the manner of an Angel, "Whatsoever He heard from the Father, He announced to us."

(18) And it was also from or out of the heart of God, counited or mixed in the body of the angel in their first compacting or incorporating together; therefore the angel's government in the mind generateth itself as the Deity does.

(75) Here the spirit sheweth that where every angel is constituted, stated or settled, there that place in the heavenly nature, wherein and out of which he is become a creature, is his own seat, which he possesseth by right of nature, as long as he abideth in God's love.

(81) This worldly Right taketh its original from heaven; as also many other worldly rights, which are written in the books of Moses, take their beginning and original from the divine nature in heaven, which I shall demonstrate plainly in its due place, from the true ground in the Deity. Now one might object and say: Objection. Then an angel is fully bound and tied to that place in which he is created, and must not stir, nor can stir from thence. Answer.

(2) No doubt, as regards that message, which is said to pass through one angel to another, we may take it as a symbol of a perfecting completed from afar, and obscured by reason of its passage to the second rank. For, as men skilled in our sacred initiations say, the fulness of Divine things manifested directly to ourselves is more perfecting than the Divine contemplations imparted through others. Thus, I think, the immediate participation of the Angelic ranks elevated in first degree to God, is more clear than those perfected through the instrumentality of others. Wherefore by our sacerdotal tradition, the first Minds are named perfecting, and illuminating, and purifying Powers of the subordinate, who are conducted, through them, to the superessential Origin of all things, and participate, as far as is permissible to them, in the consecrating purifications, and illuminations, and perfections. For, this is divinely fixed absolutely by the Divine source of order that, through the first, the second partake of the supremely Divine illuminations. This you will find declared by the theologians in many ways. For, when the Divine and Paternal Love towards man whilst chastening, in a startling manner, His people Israel, for their religious preservation, after delivering them to terrible and savage nations for correction, by various leadings of His guided people to better things, both liberated them from their misery, and mildly led them back, through His compassion, to their former state of comfort; one of the theologians, Zechariah, sees one of the first Angels, as I think, and near God, (for the Angelic appellation is common, as I said, to them all), learning from God Himself the comforting words, as they are called, concerning this matter; and another Angel, of inferior rank, advancing to meet the first, as for reception and participation of enlightenment: then, by him instructed in the Divine purpose as from a Hierarch, and charged to reveal to the theologian that Jerusalem should be abundantly occupied by a multitude of people. And another theologian, Ezekiel, says that this was righteously ordained by the glorious Deity Itself, seated above the Cherubim. For Paternal Love towards man, conducting Israel as we have said through chastisement to better things, by a righteousness worthy of God, deemed right to separate the guilty from the guiltless. This is first revealed to one after the Cherubim; him who was bound about the loins with a sapphire, and wore displayed the robe coming down to the feet, as a Hierarchical symbol. But the Divine Government enjoins the other Angels, who bore the battle-axes, to be instructed from the former, as to the Divine judgment in this matter. For, to one, He said that he should go through the midst of Jerusalem, and place the sign upon the forehead of the innocent men, but to the others; "Go into the city after him and strike, and draw not back your eyes, but to every one upon whom is the sign draw not near." What would any one say concerning the Angel, who said to Daniel, "The word has gone forth?" or concerning him the first, who took the fire from the midst of the Cherubim, or what is more remarkable than this for shewing the good order amongst the Angels, that the Cherubim casts the fire into the hands of him who wears the sacred vestment; or concerning Him Who called the most divine Gabriel, and said to him, "Make this man understand the vision," or whatever else is recorded by the holy theologians concerning the Godlike order of the Heavenly Hierarchies; by being assimilated to which, as far as possible, the discipline of our Hierarchy will have the Angelic comeliness, as it were, in reflection, moulded through it, and conducted to the superessential Source of order in every Hierarchy. Next: Caput IX. 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

(40) Therefore they all did as he did, and all would sit in the primacy of the Deity, and would rule powerfully in the whole region, circuit or circumference, over and above the whole divine power: They were all of one will, and would not suffer the same to be taken from them. Now thou wilt ask: Question. Did not the whole, total or universal God know this, before the time of the creation of angels, that it would so come to pass? Answer.

(23) Thou must not understand this in an earthly manner; for an angel has no guts, neither flesh nor bones, but is constituted or composed by the divine power in the shape, form and manner of a man, and has all members like man, except the members of generation, and the fundament or going out of the draff, neither has an angel need of them.

(121) Thou must not understand this, as if these royal angels were to rule in the Deity, that is, in the seven qualifying or fountain spirits of God, which are without or distinct from the creatures; no, but each over his creatures, or the creatures of his own dominion.

(68) For there is no difference between the spirits of God and the angels, but only this, that the angels are creatures, and their corporeal being has a beginning; but their power, out of which they are created, is God himself, and is from eternity, and abideth in eternity.

(5) As the condition and constitution of an angel is, in his corporeal body, with all the members thereof, such also is the condition of a whole kingdom, which together is as it were but one angel.

(33) Every angel is created in the seventh qualifying or fountain spirit [or faculty], which is NATURE, out of which his body is compacted or incorporated together, and his body is given him for a propriety, and the same is free to itself, as the whole Deity is free.

(32) The angel-princes were created according to the spirits of God, and the Cherubim according to the heart of God: And as the divine being works, so also do the angels.

Now, as for that angel, I cannot speak of his power. His appearance is like fine gold and his raiment is like snow. No, truly, my mouth cannot bear to speak of his power and the appearance of his face. But I said, “Sir, teach me about these authorities. How did they come into being? By what genesis, and out of what material, and who created them and their power?” The great angel Eleleth, understanding, spoke to me: “Incorruptibility inhabits limitless realms. Sophia, who is called Pistis,wanted to create something, alone, without her partner, and what she created was celestial. “A veil exists between the world above and the realms below, and shadow came into being beneath the veil. That shadow became matter, and that shadow was projected apart. And what she had created came to be in matter, like an aborted fetus. It assumed a shape molded out of shadow, and became an arrogant beast resembling a lion. It was androgynous, as I have already said, because it derived from matter. “Opening his eyes he saw a vast quantity of endless matter, and he turned arrogant, saying, ‘I am god, and there is no one but me.’ “When he said this, he sinned against all. And a voice came from above the realm of absolute power, saying, ‘You are wrong, Samael,’ that is, god of the blind. “And he said, ‘If any other thing exists before me, let it become visible to me!’ Immediately Sophia pointed her finger and introduced light into matter, and she pursued it down to the region of chaos. And she returned up to her light. Once again darkness returned to matter. “This ruler, by being androgynous, made himself a vast realm, an endless precinct. And he contemplated creating offspring for himself, and created seven offspring, androgynous like their parent. “And he said to his offspring, ‘I am the god of all.’ “Zoe the daughter of Pistis Sophia shouted, saying to him, ‘You are wrong, Sakla’ (for which the alternate name is Yaldabaoth). She breathed into his face, and her breath became a fiery angel for her; and that angel bound Yaldabaoth and cast him down into Tartaros, at the bottom of the abyss. “Now, when his offspring Sabaoth saw the strength of that angel, he repented and condemned his father and his mother matter. “He loathed her, but he sang songs of praise up to Sophia and her daughter Zoe. And Sophia and Zoe found him and put him in charge of the seventh heaven, below the veil between above and below. And he is called ‘god of the forces, Sabaoth,’ since he is up above the forces of chaos, for Sophia placed him there. “Now, when these events had come to pass, he made himself a huge four-faced chariot of cherubim and harps and lyres and an infinity of angels to act as ministers. “Sophia took her daughter Zoe and had her sit at his right to teach him about the things that exist in the eighth heaven, and the angel of wrath she placed at his left. Since that day, his right has been called life, and the left has signified the unrighteousness of the realm of absolute power above. It was before your time that they came into being. “Now, when Yaldabaoth saw him in this great splendor and at this height, he envied him, and the envy became something androgynous, and this was the origin of envy. And envy engendered death, and death engendered his offspring and gave each of them charge of its heaven. All the heavens of chaos became full of their multitudes. “But it was by the will of the father of all that they all came into being, after the pattern of all the things above, so that the sum of chaos might be attained.

(57) Every angel is constituted as the whole Deity is, and is as a little god. For when God constituted the angels, he constituted or framed them out of himself.

(76) Thus God may withdraw his divine power, which is externally without the angels, when they elevate themselves against him; but when that is done, a spirit must pine away and perish.

(1) Now that we have defined these things, it is worthy of consideration for what reason we are accustomed to call all the Angelic Beings together, Heavenly Powers. For it is not possible to say, as we may of the Angels, that the Order of the holy Powers is last of all. The Orders of the superior Beings share in the saintly illumination. of the last; but the last in no wise of the first; and on this account all the Divine Minds are called Heavenly Powers, but never Seraphim and Thrones and Lordships. For the last do not enjoy the whole characteristics of the highest. For the Angels, and those above the Angels--Archangels, and Principalities, and Authorities,--placed by the Word of God after the Powers, are often in common called by us, in conjunction with the other holy Beings, Heavenly Powers.

(2) The holy orders, then, of the Heavenly Beings share in the supremely Divine participation, in a higher degree than things which merely exist, or which lead an irrational life, or which are rational like ourselves. For by moulding themselves intelligibly to the Divine imitation, and looking supermundanely to the supremely Divine likeness, and striving to mould their intellectual appearance, they naturally have more ungrudging communications with It, being near and ever moving upwards, as far as lawful, elevating themselves with the intensity of the Divine unswerving love, and receiving the primal illuminations without earthly stain, and ranging themselves to these, and having their whole life intellectual. These, then, are they who, at first hand, and under many forms, participate in the Divine, and, at first hand, and under many forms, make known the supremely Divine Hiddenness. Wherefore, beyond all, they are deemed pre-eminently worthy of the appellation Angelic, on the ground that the supremely Divine illumination comes to them at first hand, and, through them, there pass to us manifestations above us. Thus, then, the Law, as the Word of God affirms, was given to us through the ministration of Angels; and Angels led our illustrious fathers before the Law, and after the Law, to the Divine Being, either by leading them to what was to be done, and by converting them from error, and an unholy life, to the straight way of truth, or by making known to them sacred ordinances, or hidden visions, or supermundane mysteries, or certain Divine predictions through the Prophets.

(13) For as none, no not anything, can destroy the whole Deity, so also there is not anything that can destroy an angel; for every angel is formed, figured, set together or composed out of all the powers of God, not with flesh and blood, but out of the divine power.

(31) True it is that their body is their own propriety, for God has given it to them for a propriety. Now whatsoever is given to any one for his own, or for propriety, that is his by right of nature, and he does not deal righteously who taketh it from him again, unless [he does so] upon condition and agreement; and thus neither does God [take things away again]. Therefore an angel is an eternal incorruptible creature, which stands or subsisteth in all eternity.