(42) Whereof you have an Image in the Revelation of John, where he sees seven Golden Candlesticks or Lights before the Son of God, which signify the seven Spirits of God, which shine in great Clarity, Brightness, or Lustre before the Son of God, out of which the Son of God is continually generated from Eternity to Eternity, and is the Heart of the seven Spirits of God, which I will here describe in Order one after another. [Rev. 1.]

(19) In the fourth and fifth chapters St. John describes the throne of God upon which sat the Holy One "which was and is, and is to come." About the throne were twenty-four lesser seats upon which sat twenty-four elders arrayed in white garments and wearing crowns of gold. "And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God." He who sat upon the throne held in His right hand a book sealed with seven seals which no man in heaven or earth had been found worthy to open. Then appeared a Lamb (Aries, the first and chief of the zodiacal signs) which had been slain, having seven horns (rays) and seven eyes (lights). The Lamb took the book from the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne and the four beasts and all the elders fell down and worshiped God and the Lamb. During the early centuries of the Christian Church the lamb was universally recognized as the symbol of Christ, and not until after the fifth synod of Constantinople (the "Quinisext Synod," A.D. 692) was the figure of the crucified man substituted for that of Agnus Dei. As shrewdly noted by one writer on the subject, the use of a lamb is indicative of the Persian origin of Christianity, for the Persians were the only people to symbolize the first sign of the zodiac by a lamb.

(21) In the central foreground, St. John the Divine is kneeling before the apparition of the Alpha and Omega standing in the midst of the seven lights and surrounded by an aureole of flames and smoke. In the heavens above the twenty-four elders with their harps and censers bow before the throne of the Ancient One, from whose hand the Lamb is taking the book sealed with seven seals. The seven spirit, of God, in the form of cups from which issue tongues of fire, surround the head of the Ancient One, and the four beasts (the cherubim) kneel at the corners of His throne. In the upper left-hand corner are shown the seven angels bearing the trumpets and also the altar of God and the angel with the censer. In the upper right are the spirits of the winds; below them is the virgin clothed wit h the sun, to whom wings were given that she might fly into the wilderness. To her right is a scene representing the spirits of God hurling the evil serpent into the bottomless pit. At the lower left St. John is shown receiving from the angelic figure, whose legs are pillars of fire and whose face is a shining sun, the little book which he is told to eat if he would understand the mysteries of the spiritual life.

(46) The alchemists were went to symbolize their metals by means of a tree, to indicate that all seven were branches dependent upon the single trunk of solar life. As the Seven Spirits depend upon God and are branches of a tree of which He is the root, trunk, and the spiritual earth from which the root derives its nourishment, so the single trunk of divine life and power nourishes all the multitudinous forms of which the universe is composed.

(2) Invoking then Jesus, the Paternal Light, the Real, the True, "which lighteth every man coming into the world," "through Whom we have access to the Father," Source of Light, let us aspire, as far as is attainable, to the illuminations handed down by our fathers in the most sacred Oracles, and let us gaze, as we may, upon the Hierarchies of the Heavenly Minds manifested by them symbolically for our instruction. And when we have received, with immaterial and unflinching mental eyes, the gift of Light, primal and super-primal, of the supremely Divine Father, which manifests to us the most blessed Hierarchies of the Angels in types and symbols, let us then, from it, be elevated to its simple splendour. For it never loses its own unique inwardness, but multiplied and going forth, as becomes its goodness, for an elevating and unifying blending of the objects of its care, remains firmly and solitarily centred within itself in its unmoved sameness; and raises, according to their capacity, those who lawfully aspire to it, and makes them one, after the example of its own unifying Oneness. For it is not possible that the supremely Divine Ray should otherwise illuminate us, except so far as it is enveloped, for the purpose of instruction, in variegated sacred veils, and arranged naturally and appropriately, for such as we are, by paternal forethought.

(22) the seven Spirits are the Father of the Light, and the Light is their Son, which they always continually generate thus from Eternity to Eternity, and the Light enlightens and always eternally makes the seven Spirits living and joyful, for they all receive their Rising and Life in the Power of Light.

(28) Against the wall on the southern side of the Holy Place stood the great Candlestick, or lampstand, of cast gold, which was believed to weigh about a hundred pounds. From its central shaft branched out six arms, each ending in a cup-shaped depression in which stood an oil lamp. There were seven lamps, three on the arms at each side and one on the central stem. The Candlestick was ornamented with seventy-two almonds, knops, and flowers. Josephus says seventy, but wherever this round number is used by the Hebrews it really means seventy-two. Opposite the Candlestick, against the northern wall, was a table bearing twelve loaves of Shewbread in two stacks of six loaves each. (Calmet is of the opinion that the bread was not stacked up but spread out on the table in two rows, each containing six loaves.) On this table also stood two lighted incensories, which were placed upon the tops of the stacks of Shewbread so that the smoke of the incense might be an acceptable aroma to the Lord, bearing with it in its ascent the soul of the Shewbread.

(4) There are seven Spirits of God, all these seven have moved themselves, and the Light therein has also moved itself, and the Spirit, which goes forth out of the seven Spirits of God, has moved itself also.

(11) Behold, all the seven Spirits of God are generated alike together at once; none of them is the first, and none of them is the last; but we must have an Eye to the Kernel, and consider how the divine Birth or Geniture rises up, otherwise Man understands it not.

(37) But the Light is another Person, for it is continually generated out of, or from the seven Spirits, and the seven Spirits rise up continually in the Light; and the Powers of these seven Spirits go forth continually in the Glance or Splendor of the Light in the seventh Nature-spirit, and form and image all in the seventh Spirit; and this Out-going or Exit in the Light is the Holy Ghost. [Or Spirit of Nature.]

(42) Now if any Body would come into the Garden, he must press in through the Sword of Death; though indeed Christ has broken the Sword, so that now we can much easier enter in with our Souls, yet there is a Sword before it still; but he that finds the Way right, him it does not cut very much, for it is blunt, and it is bent; and if the Soul goes but into the Gate into the Center, then it is presently helped by the noble Champion Christ; for he has gotten the Sword into his Hands. He is the slain Lamb of the House of Israel, in the Revelation of John, which took the Book of the first Principle, out of the Hand of the Ancient [of Days] who sat upon the Throne, with his four and twenty Elders, which [Book] had seven Seals, or seven Spirits of the Birth of God, and opened them; where the Elders fell down before him, and worshipped the Lamb that was slain, and gave Praise and Honour to him which sat upon the Throne, because the Champion of the House of Israel had overcome. The seven golden Candlesticks are his Humanity, the seven Stars are his Deity, as the divine i Birth in itself stands in a sevenfold Form, as it is explained in the Beginning of this Book, in the first four Chapters.

(7) In like Manner also the Spirit went forth from the Heart into all the qualifying or fountain Veins of the Body, and kindled all the seven Spirits, and so the royal Body was glorified in the Twinkling of an Eye, and there he stood as a King of God, in an unsearchable Clarity or Brightness, transcendently excelling the whole heavenly Host or Army. [Viz. the seven Spirits of Nature which they were constituted of.]

(44) But the seven Spirits, which are in an Angel, which generate the Light and Understanding, they are bound and united with the whole God, that they should not qualify any other Way, either higher or more vehemently, than God himself; but that there should be one and the same Manner and Way between them both.

(41) But when the Light is generated, then it enlightens all the seven qualifying or fountain Spirits, so that all Seven are Understanding, and do all Seven give their Will to the Birth of the Light.

(15) The seven stars carried by this immense Being in his right hand are the Governors of the world; the flaming sword issuing from his mouth is the Creative Fiat, or Word of Power, by which the illusion of material permanence is slain. Here also is represented, in all his symbolic splendor, the hierophant of the Phrygian Mysteries, his various insignia emblematic of his divine attributes. Seven priests bearing lamps are his attendants and the stars carried in his hand are the seven schools of the Mysteries whose power he administers. As one born again out of spiritual darkness, into perfect wisdom, this archimagus is made to say: "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forever more, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."

(137) the Lights, Flame or Flash, which in the Twinkling of an Eye or Moment shines into all the Powers, even as the sun does in the whole World, is the Holy Ghost, which goes forth from the Clarity or Brightness of the Son of God, and is the Flash of Lightning and Sharpness; for the Son is generated in the Midst or Center of the other Qualities, and is catched by the other Qualities. Understand this high Thing rightly.

(36) But the Vail (in the Death of Christ) was since taken away from the Face of Moses, instead whereof the Stars with the four Elements have yet cast a Mist and Cloud (through the Infection of the Devil) before Man; for the a Region of this World has generated the Antichrist, and set [him] before the Countenance of Moses, in a Cloud, as if he were Christ; so that the Countenance of Moses cannot be apprehended [or beheld.] Therefore we have Need of the Lily, which grows through the Tables of Moses, (that were graven through,) with its strong Smell, which reaches into the Paradise of God; from whose Virtue, the People [or Nations] shall be so virtuous and strong, that they shall forsake the Antichrist, and shall run through the Darkness to the Smell of the Blossom. For the Breaker-through the Gates has planted the Lily, and he has given it into the Hand of the noble Virgin, and this [Lily] grows in the Element wonderfully against the horrible Storm of Hell, and [against] the Kingdom of this World; where then many Branches will fall to the Ground, from whence Antichrist becomes blind, and grows stark mad and raving in the Fog and Mist, and stirs the four Elements in the [Wrath and grim] Fierceness; and then it is needful for the Children of God to awake from the Sleep of the Fog; this the Spirit intimates, in the Light of Nature, seriously and earnestly.

(10) Since, then, as those who understand Hebrew say, the most Divine Seraphim were named by the Word of God, "Kindling" and "Heating," by a name expressive of their essential condition, they possess, according to the symbolical imagery of the Divine Muron, most elevating powers, which call it to manifestation and distribution of most exhilarating perfumes. For the Being, sweet beyond conception, loves to be moved by the glowing and most pure minds into manifestation, and imparts Its most Divine inspirations, in cheerful distributions, to those who thus supermundanely call It forth. Thus the most Divine Order of supercelestial Beings did not fail to recognize the most supremely Divine Jesus, when He descended for the purpose of being sanctified; but recognizes, reverently, Him lowering Himself in our belongings, through Divine and inexpressible goodness; and when viewing Him sanctified, in a manner befitting man, by the Father and Himself and the Holy Spirit, recognized its own supreme Head as being essentially unchanged, in whatever He may do as supreme God. Hence the tradition of the sacred symbols places the Seraphim near the Divine Muron, when it is being consecrated, recognizing and describing the Christ as unchanged, in our complete manhood in very truth. And what is still more divine is, that it uses the Divine Muron for the consecration of every thing sacred, distinctly shewing, according to the Logion, the Sanctified Sanctifying, as always being the same with Himself throughout the whole supremely Divine sanctification. Wherefore also the consecrating gift and grace of the Divine Birth in God is completed in the most Divine perfectings of the Muron. Whence, as I think, the Hierarch pouring the Muron upon the purifying font in cruciform injections, brings to view, for contemplative eyes, the Lord Jesus descending even to death itself through the cross, for our Birth in God, benevolently drawing up, from the old gulping of the destructive death, by the same Divine and resistless descent, those, who, according to the mysterious saying, "are baptized into His death," and renewing them to a godly and eternal existence.

(50) And behold, I tell you a Mystery; as all whatsoever Adam was guilty of must stand yet [and be manifested] in this World on the Body of Christ, and must be seen in this World, so also you shall see this Temple (before the Time that the Incorruptible shall wholly swallow up the Corruptible) in the Lily in the Wonders; where the Anger opposes the Lily, till it be reconciled in Love, and till the Driver be put to open Shame (as was done also in the Death of Christ) which the Jews hope for. But their Scepter is broken, and their Life stands in the Birth of Christ; yet they come from the Ends of the World, and go out from Jericho again into the holy Jerusalem, and eat with the Lamb; this is a Wonder; but the a Driver is taken captive, and therefore we speak thus wonderfully; and at present we shall not be understood, till the Hunter is destroyed; and then our Life comes to us again, and stands in the Valley of Jehosaphat. The other Gate of the Sufferings of Christ.

(7) Also, the Word of God attributes to the Heavenly Beings a likeness to Brass, Electron, and many-coloured stones. Electron, as being partly like gold, partly like silver, denotes the incorruptible, as in gold, and unexpended, and undiminished, and spotless brilliancy, and the brightness, as in silver, and a luminous and heavenly radiance. But to the Brass, according to the reasons assigned, must be attributed either the likeness of fire or that of gold. We must consider that the many-coloured appearances of stones denote either as white, the luminous; or as red, the fiery; or as yellow, the golden; or as green, the youthful and the full grown; and within each likeness you will find an explanation which teaches the inner meaning of the typical images. But since, I think, according to our power, this has been sufficiently said, let us pass to the sacred explanation of the Divine representations of the Heavenly Minds through wild beasts. We must consider that the shape of a Lion signifies the leading, and robust, and indomitable, and the assimilation, as far as possible, to the unutterable Godhead, by the concealment of the intellectual footprints, and by the mystically modest covering of the path, leading to It, during Divine illumination.