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...bonds, nor is it or can it be of itself; nevertheless, the angelic world is held to be far holier and more divine than the celestial. But why do we pursue these more remote similarities? For if the last part of the tabernacle was common to men and beasts, and the second—which shone entirely with the splendor of gold—was illuminated by a lampstand Latin, Greek, and Hebrew interpreters distinguished by seven lights, which all Latin, Greek, and Hebrew interpreters say signify the seven planets; and if in the third part, the most sacred of all, there were winged cherubim—do they not place the three worlds before our eyes? Namely, this one which both beasts and men inhabit, the celestial in which the planets coruscate, and the supercelestial dwelling-place of the angels. Moreover, we are admonished even from this of a higher evangelical mystery. For since the way to the supercelestial world and to the company of angels has been opened to us through the cross and blood of Christ, therefore, upon his death, the veil of the temple was rent, by which the Holy of Holies (signifying the angelic world) was partitioned off from the other parts. This was a sign that the approach to the kingdom of God, and to God himself who flies above the cherubim—an approach closed from the beginning by the laws of justice on account of the sin of the first parent—was now open to man. This is enough regarding the three worlds, in which this must be observed first and foremost (upon which nearly our whole intention depends): that these three worlds are one world, not only because they are all related to one principle and to the same end, or because, tempered by due numbers, they are bound together both by a certain harmonic kinship of nature and by an orderly series of degrees, but because whatever is in all the worlds together is also contained in each one, nor is there any one of them in which everything is not present that is in each individual world—an opinion I believe was held by Anaxagoras (if we consider his view to have been rightly explained), and then by the Pythagoreans and Platonists. But those things which are in the lower world are in the superior ones, but of a better mark; likewise, those which are in the superior ones are also seen in the lowest, but in a degenerate condition and with an adulterated nature, so to speak. Among us, heat is an elementary quality; in the celestial bodies, it is a heating power; in the angelic minds, it is the Idea of heat. I shall speak more precisely: among us, there is fire, which is an element; the Sun is fire in heaven; in the ultra-mundane region, there is the Seraphic fire of the intellect. But see how they differ: the elemental fire burns, the celestial vivifies, the supercelestial loves. There is water among us; there is water in the heavens, the mover and mistress of which is the porch of the heavens, namely the Moon; there are also waters above the heaven, the Cherubic minds. But see the disparity of condition in the same nature: elemental moisture overwhelms the heat of life; celestial moisture nourishes it; supercelestial moisture understands it. In the first world, God—the first Unity—presides over the nine orders of angels as if over as many spheres, and being himself immobile, he moves them all toward himself. In the middle world, that is, the celestial, the Empyrean heaven presides likewise over nine celestial spheres as a leader over an army; though each of these is revolved with unceasing motion, that heaven, representing God, is nevertheless immobile. There are also in the elemental world, after prime matter (which is its foundation), nine spheres of corruptible forms. To wit: three of bodies devoid of life, which are the elements and mixtures, as well as those intermediate things, the mixtures which are indeed imperfect, such as the impressions that occur on high. Three are of vegetable nature, which is divided first into three kinds: herbs, shrubs, and trees. Three are of the sensual soul, which is either imperfect, such as that in zoophytes, or perfect indeed but within the limits of irrational imagination, or that which is highest in brutes, even capable of human training, which is as it were a medium between man and brute, just as the zoophyte is a medium between brute and plant. But of these things, more than is necessary. Let us only add this: that the mutual containment of the worlds is indicated even in the Sacred Scriptures, since it is written in the Psalms, "Who creates the heavens in intellect," and we read that the angels of God are "spirits" and his ministers "a flame of burning fire." Hence, celestial names are often given to divine things, and often even earthly names, while now through the stars The rending at Christ's death signifies the approach to God Three causes why the world is one Anaxagoras, Pythagoreans, Platonists Exemplar of the proposed truth Ten minds/spheres of the intellectual world, ten spheres of the celestial world, ten spheres of the elemental world. Body, Nature, Soul Testimonies from the Sacred Scriptures