(115) Antiquity has represented the angels in pictures like men with wings, but they have no need of any wings, yet they have hands and feet as men have, but after a heavenly manner and kind.

(113) Now their foot does stay upon the seventh spirit of God, which is solid like a cloud, and clear and bright as a crystalline sea, wherein they walk upward and downward, which way soever they please. For their agility or nimbleness is as swift as the divine power itself, yet one angel is more swift than another, and that according to the quality of each.

(36) The Rosicrucians and the Illuminati, describing the angels, archangels, and other celestial creatures, declared that they resembled small suns, being centers of radiant energy surrounded by streamers of Vrilic force. From these outpouring streamers of force is derived the popular belief that angels have wings. These wings are corona-like fans of light, by means of which the celestial creatures propel themselves through the subtle essences of the superphysical worlds.

(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.

(9) And as there are seven principal qualities in the divine power, out of which the Heart of God is generated; so there are also some mighty princely angels created in each host, according to each head or chief quality, the number of which I do not exactly know; and they are with or near the king, and are leaders of the other angels.

(15) For He who prohibited the making of a graven image, would never Himself have made an image in the likeness of holy things. Nor is there at all any composite thing, and creature endowed with sensation, of the sort in heaven. But the face is a symbol of the rational soul, and the wings are the lofty ministers and energies of powers fight and left; and the voice is delightsome glory in ceaseless contemplation. Let it suffice that the mystic interpretation has advanced so far.

(78) In this form, condition and manner it is with the angels also. All the angels of one kingdom signify the many and various powers of God the Father; the angelical king signifieth the Son of the Father, or the heart out of the powers of the Father, out of which the angels are made; the exit out of the king of angels, or his going forth into his angels, or his affecting of his angels, signifieth God the Holy Ghost.

(55) The celestial triads are further shown by the Egyptians as a globe (the Father) from which issue a serpent (the Mind) and wings (the Power). These twelve forces are the fabricators of the world, and from them emanate the microcosm, or the mystery of the twelve sacred animals--representing in the universe the twelve parts of the world and in man the twelve parts of the human body. Anatomically, the twelve figures in the upper panel may well symbolize the twelve convolutions of the brain and the twelve figures in the lower panel the twelve zodiacal members and organs of the human body, for man is a creature formed of the twelve sacred animals with his members and organs under the direct control of the twelve governors or powers resident in the brain.

(2) Gravitation, which is a law in the material world, is the impulse toward the center of materiality; levitation, which is a law in the spiritual world, is the impulse toward the center of spirituality. Seeming to be capable of neutralizing the effect of gravity, the bird was said to partake of a nature superior to other terrestrial creation; and its feathers, because of their sustaining power, came to be accepted as symbols of divinity, courage, and accomplishment. A notable example is the dignity attached to eagle feathers by the American Indians, among whom they are insignia of merit. Angels have been invested with wings because, like birds, they were considered to be the intermediaries between the gods and men and to inhabit the air or middle kingdom betwixt heaven and earth. As the dome of the heavens was likened to a skull in the Gothic Mysteries, so the birds which flew across the sky were regarded as thoughts of the Deity. For this reason Odin's two messenger ravens were called Hugin and Munin--thought and memory.

(12) Before the throne of God was the crystal sea representing the Schamayim, or the living waters which are above the heavens. Before the throne also were four creatures--a bull, a lion, an eagle, and a man. These represented the four corners of creation and the multitude of eyes with which they were covered are the stars of the firmament. The twenty-four elders have the same significance as the priests gathered around the statue of Ceres in the Greater Eleusinian Rite and also the Persian Genii, or gods of the hours of the day, who, casting away their crowns, glorify the Holy One. As symbolic of the divisions of time, the elders adore the timeless and enduring Spirit in the midst of them.

(169) IV. The birds or fowls, fishes and beasts, signify and denote the several forms or shapes of figures in heaven.

(1) AS appropriate emblems of various human and divine attributes birds were included in religious and philosophic symbolism that of pagans and of Christians alike. Cruelty was signified by the buzzard; courage by the eagle; self-sacrifice by the pelican; and pride by the peacock. The ability of birds to leave the earth and fly aloft toward the source of light has resulted in their being associated with aspiration, purity, and beauty. Wings were therefore often added to various terrene creatures in an effort to suggest transcendency. Because their habitat was among the branches of the sacred trees in the hearts of ancient forests, birds were also regarded as the appointed messengers of the tree spirits and Nature gods dwelling in these consecrated groves, and through their clear notes the gods themselves were said to speak. Many myths have been fabricated to explain the brilliant plumage of birds. A familiar example is the story of Juno's peacock, in whose tail feathers were placed the eyes of Argus. Numerous American Indian legends also deal with birds and the origin of the various colors of feathers. The Navahos declare that when all living things climbed to the stalk of a bamboo to escape the Flood, the wild turkey was on the lowest branch and his tail feathers trailed in the water; hence the color was all washed out.

(48) In the midst of the Table is a great covered throne with a seated female figure representing Isis, but here called the Pantomorphic IYNX. G. R. S. Mead defines the IYNX as "a transmitting intelligence." Others have declared it to be a symbol of Universal Being. Over the head of the goddess the throne is surmounted by a triple crown, and beneath her feet is the house of material substance. The threefold crown is here symbolic of the Triune Divinity, called by the Egyptians the Supreme Mind, and described in the Sepher ha Zohar as being "hidden and unrevealed." According to the Hebrew system of Qabbalism, the Tree of the Sephiroth was divided into two parts, the upper invisible and the lower visible. The upper consisted of three parts and the lower of seven. The three uncognizable Sephiroth were called Kether, the Crown; Chochmah, Wisdom; and Binah, Understanding. These are too abstract to permit of comprehension, whereas the lower seven spheres that came forth from them were within the grasp of human consciousness. The central panel contains seven triads of figures. These represent the lower Sephiroth, all emanating from the concealed threefold crown over the throne.

(55) As when the flash of life riseth up in the centre of the divine power, wherein all the spirits of God attain their life, and highly rejoice, there is a loving and holy embracing, kissing, tasting, touching or feeling, hearing, seeing and smelling, so also there is among the angels; when the one seeth, heareth, feeleth or toucheth another, then there riseth up in his heart the flash of life, and the one spirit embraceth the other, as it is in the Deity. Observe here the Ground and highest Mystery of God's Angels.

(86) And as is the rising up of the spirits in every place, so the tone also formeth itself, but very meekly, and incomprehensibly to the bodies of the angels, but very comprehensibly to the animated or soulish birth or geniture of angels: and as the Deity presenteth itself in each place, so the angels also present themselves: For the angels were created out of this being, and have among them their princes of the qualifying or fountain spirits of God, as these princes are in the birth or geniture of God.

(25) TABLE VII., Figure 6. In Figure 6 the letter a marks the center of eternity. The motion of the rays toward b, d, and c was the first divine manifestation and is symbolized by the equilateral triangle, b, d, c. The eternal world within the inner circle became manifest in the water (salt), the light (mercury), and the fire (sulphur) of the archetypal world, represented by the three circles (f, e, g) within the triangle of complete equality (h, i, k), which is in turn surrounded by the circle of the high throne. The circle f is named understanding; e, wisdom; g, reason. In circle i is the word Father; in circle h, Son; in circle k, Spirit. The seven outer circles are the seven spirits before the throne. The lower part of the figure is similar to Figures 53 and 54. The outer circles are the angelic world ending in the cognizable world of the Sons of God. Then comes the circle of the visible constellations and fixed stars; within this is the solar system with the sun as the center (l). Ungrund means the Abyss.

(49) Their constitution or composition is from divine power, from the Salitter and Mercurius of the divine pomp, and they are the food of the holy angels.

(104) So also, when God moved himself and created the angels, there came to be three special angels out of the best kernel of nature, out of the being of the Ternary in the nature of God, and in such power, authority and might, as has the Ternary in the seven spirits of God; for the Ternary of God riseth up in the seven spirits of God, and is again the life and heart of all the seven spirits.