ON THE CELESTIAL HIERARCHY — CHAPTER II.

...ointment, and even as a cornerstone. Furthermore, they clothe Him in the forms of wild beasts, applying to Him the characteristics of a lion and a panther, and they say He shall be a leopard and a bear bereaved of her cubs in her fury. I will even add what seems the most lowly and absurd of all: for those skilled in divine things have handed down that He even fashioned for Himself the appearance of a worm original: "vermis." This refers to Psalm 22:6, "But I am a worm and no man," traditionally interpreted by theologians as a reference to Christ’s humility.. In this way, all those wise in divine matters and the interpreters of secret inspiration separate the "Holy of Holies" The most sacred things. in an unpolluted way from imperfect and profane things. They uphold these "dissimilar sacred fashionings" so that divine things are not easily accessible to the impure, nor should those who studiously contemplate the divine figures dwell upon these forms as if they were literally true. Rather, divine things are celebrated both through the most true negations original: "negationibus." This refers to "Apophatic theology," the belief that we can more accurately describe God by what He is NOT (e.g., infinite, or "not finite") than by what He is. and through various similarities to the lowest things, which nonetheless bear the traces of their own divine origin.

Therefore, it is by no means absurd if they fashion those celestial natures, for the reasons mentioned, through the "similarities of discordant dissimilarities." For perhaps we ourselves would never have come to investigate these matters through questioning—nor arrived at anagoge original: "anagogem" — a Greek term meaning "a leading upward." It refers to the process of the soul being lifted from material sights to spiritual truths. (which leads us to celestial things) through an accurate scrutiny of sacred matters—unless the "deformity" of these explanatory fictions regarding the Angels had struck us. This jarring imagery does not allow our minds to dwell upon these discordant depictions, but instead arouses the mind to abandon all material attachments and habituates it to aspire holily, through those things which are seen, toward "super-mundane" Above the physical world. elevations or ascents.

These things have been said by us on account of those material and dissimilar depictions of Angels found in the sacred scriptures. Next, however, we must define what we consider Hierarchy original: "Hierarchiam" — literally "sacred rule" or "sacred order." Dionysius is famous for being the first to use this word in its modern sense. itself to be, and what...