TO THE FELLOW-PRESBYTER TIMOTHY, DIONYSIUS THE PRESBYTER

 I will try to speak, so far as it is possible, calling upon Jesus, the beginning and perfection of all hierarchies. <3> According to the venerable asp

 for their own sanctity), that you will not impart any sacred word of the supereminent hierarchy to another besides your like-ranked, God-like initiato

 of salvation, and in thanksgiving for the divine goodness, having gathered them into the sacred place, at the beginning he sacredly recites a certain

 indicating symbolically a complete cleansing for the body being cleansed naturally through water. <2> But let this be for the imperfect an introductor

 a tradition, sacredly signifying, having stripped the one approaching of his former life, so to speak, and having released him even from the final tie

 <III.> But it is well that we have remembered this, which it is not lawful for me, passing it by, to praise any other of the hierarchical rites before

 being led up hierarchically in purity of the godlike state. Contemplation. <1> Come now, then, O good child, after the images, in order and sacredly t

 way of life and sacred teachings, or the hidden and mystical vision of the beloved and divine of the disciples, or the supramundane theology of Jesus

 still entangled by contrary either charms or disturbances. But also from them the vision and communion of the most holy things is withheld, and very r

 to be gathered and to partake of the peaceful union of the one, those who are divided against themselves. For if, illuminated by the contemplation and

 most suffering alteration. And wandering and turned aside from the straight path which leads to the truly existing God, and being subject to the destr

 being formed from us and proceeding unchangeably from the one according to nature towards our divisible nature, and through this beneficent love for h

 for vain glory the beautiful and fragrant assimilations according to virtue of the hidden God. For the hidden and supra-intellectual fragrant comeline

 not only having but also bestowing the power to act against contrary fear, and to those who have passed over from worse things to a sacred mind, they

 of the understanding of the divine goods but the sixfold position of the wings, as the oracles say, I do not think signifies a sacred number, accordi

 Jesus, the altar, the thearchic consecration of the divine minds, in whom, according to the oracle, being consecrated and mystically offered as whole

 Theology calls the more perfect initiation our hierarchy, describing it as the fulfillment and sacred consummation of that other. It is both celestial

 For even if some of the venerable symbols are performed by the priests, yet the priest will never effect the sacred divine birth without the most divi

 The mystery of the priestly consecrations. The hierarch, being brought forward to the hierarchical consecration, having bent both knees before the div

 the Spirit hierarchically confers the source-of-perfection consecrating rite, commanding the disciples, as the oracles say: “Not to depart from Jerusa

 <VI.> <1> These then are the priestly orders and allotments, their powers and energies and perfections. We must next relate the triad of orders being

 mysteries. Contemplation. <1> That he does not bend either of his feet, nor has the divinely transmitted oracles upon his head, but stands by the prie

 multiplying, it was borne to a fall. But it is possible to say sacredly concerning the heavenly hierarchy, that purification for the inferior beings i

 but having surveyed with other eyes the perishing pleasures of their own passions and having blessed the sacred life from which they have senselessly

 Only the catechumens are cast out from the sacred places. For this class is indeed wholly uninitiated in every sacred rite, and it is not lawful for i

 and having a sacred disposition for participation in them, as one conscious of his own littleness, should go to one of the holy men and ask him to bec

 must be attended to as moved by God. For, He who rejects you, he says, rejects me. <8> But let us return to what follows the aforesaid prayer. For

 to a divine father and sponsor of holy salvation. The hierarch, therefore, requires him who confesses that he will lead the child up to the sacred lif

being led up hierarchically in purity of the godlike state. Contemplation. <1> Come now, then, O good child, after the images, in order and sacredly to the godlike truth of the archetypes, having said that to those still being perfected for their harmonious spiritual guidance, that the varied and sacred composition of the symbols is not unprofitable for them, appearing only as far as externals. For the most sacred odes and readings of the oracles prescribe to them the teaching of a virtuous life and, before this, the complete purification from corrupting evil, while the most divine, common, and peaceable partaking of the one and the same, both bread and cup, ordains for them, as for those who share the same nourishment, a divine conformity of life and leads to a sacred remembrance of the most divine supper and archetypal symbol of the rites being performed, according to which the author of the symbols himself most justly disinherits the one not having supped the sacred things with him in a holy and like-minded manner, teaching both piously and in a manner worthy of God, that the true approach to the divine things according to one's state bestows on those approaching communion with what is like them. <2> These things, then, as I have said, which are well inscribed upon the gateways of the inner sanctuary, let us leave behind as sufficient for the contemplation of those yet imperfect, and let us enter from the effects to the causes according to our sacred synaxis, and with Jesus as our light-bringer we shall see the comely contemplation of intelligible things radiantly shining forth the blessed beauty of the archetypes. But, O most divine and sacred rite, having unveiled the symbolic vestments of riddles that are around you, show yourself clearly to us and fill our intellectual eyes with single and unveiled light. <3> It is necessary, then, for us (for I believe we are within the most holy places), having stripped the intelligible content from the first of the images, to gaze upon its godlike beauty and to see the divinely inspired hierarch going with sweet fragrance from the divine altar to the uttermost parts of the sanctuary and again being perfectly restored upon it. For the Thearchic blessedness beyond all things, even if by divine goodness it proceeds into the sacred communion of those who partake of it, yet it does not go outside of its essentially immovable stability and foundation, but it shines upon all godlike beings analogously, being truly around itself and in no way moved from its own identity. Likewise, the divine rite of the synaxis, even if having a single and simple and unified principle it is philanthropically multiplied into the sacred variety of the symbols and proceeds to the whole of the hierarchical iconography, yet it is again gathered uniformly from these into its own monad and it unifies those who are sacredly led up to it. In the same godlike manner, then, the divine hierarch, even if in a good-like manner he brings down his single science of the hierarchy to those below him using the multitudes of the sacred riddles, yet again, as absolute and unconstrained by inferiors, he is restored without diminution to his own principle, and having made his own intellectual entrance into the one, he sees clearly the uniform principles of the rites being performed, making the end of the philanthropic procession to secondary things the more divine return to the first things. <4> But the sacred utterance of the psalms, being consubstantial with almost all the hierarchical mysteries, was not about to be detached from the most hierarchical of all. For every sacred and holy-written tablet either the created existence and ordering of beings from God, or the legal hierarchy and polity, or the distributions and possessions of the inheritances of the divine people, or the understanding of sacred judges or wise kings or inspired priests, or the philosophy of ancient men, unshaken in endurance in the variety and multitude of hardships, or wise counsels for things to be done, or songs of divine loves and inspired images, or the prophetic predictions of things to come, or the manly theurgies of Jesus, or the divinely-transmitted and God-imitating

ἱεραρχικῶς ἐν καθαρότητι τῆς θεοειδοῦς ἕξεως ἀναγομένου. Θεωρία. <1> ∆εῦρο δὴ οὖν, ὦ παῖ καλέ, μετὰ τὰς εἰκόνας ἐν τάξει καὶ ἱερῶς ἐπὶ τὴν θεοειδῆ τῶν ἀρχετύπων ἀλήθειαν ἐκεῖνο τοῖς ἔτι τελειουμένοις εἰς ἐναρμόνιον αὐτῶν ψυχαγωγίαν εἰπών, ὡς οὐδὲ τῶν συμβόλων ἡ ποικίλη καὶ ἱερὰ σύνθεσις ἀνόνητος αὐτοῖς ὑπάρχει καὶ μέχρι τῶν ἐκτὸς φαινομένη μόνον. Aἱ μὲν γὰρ ἱερώταται τῶν λογίων ᾠδαὶ καὶ ἀναγνώσεις διδασκαλίαν αὐτοῖς ἐναρέτου ζωῆς ὑφηγοῦνται καὶ πρό γε τούτου τὴν παντελῆ τῆς φθοροποιοῦ κακίας ἀποκάθαρσιν, ἡ δὲ θειοτάτη τοῦ ἑνὸς καὶ ταὐτοῦ καὶ ἄρτου καὶ ποτηρίου κοινὴ καὶ εἰρηναία μετάδοσις ὁμοτροπίαν αὐτοῖς ἔνθεον ὡς ὁμοτρόφοις νομοθετεῖ καὶ τοῦ θειοτάτου δείπνου καὶ ἀρχισυμβόλου τῶν τελουμένων εἰς μνήμην ἱερὰν ἄγει, καθ' ὃ καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ τῶν συμβόλων δημιουργὸς ἀποκληροῖ δικαιότατα τὸν οὐχ ὁσίως αὐτῷ καὶ ὁμοτρόπως τὰ ἱερὰ συνδειπνήσαντα διδάσκων εὐαγῶς τε ἅμα καὶ θεοπρεπῶς, ὡς ἡ καθ' ἕξιν ἀληθὴς ἐπὶ τὰ θεῖα προσέλευσις τὴν πρὸς τὸ ὅμοιον αὐτῶν κοινωνίαν τοῖς προσιοῦσι χαρίζεται. <2> Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ὡς ἔφην ἐπὶ τὰ τῶν ἀδύτων προπύλαια καλῶς διαγεγραμμένα τοῖς ἀτελέσιν ἔτι πρὸς θεωρίαν αὐτάρκη καταλιπόντες εἰσέλθωμεν ἀπὸ τῶν αἰτιατῶν εἰς τὰ αἴτια κατὰ τὴν ἱερὰν ἡμῶν σύναξιν, καὶ τὴν εὐπρεπῆ τῶν νοητῶν Ἰησοῦ φωταγωγοῦντος ὀψόμεθα θεωρίαν τὸ μακάριον ἀποστίλβουσαν ἐμφανῶς τῶν ἀρχετύπων κάλλος. Ἀλλ' ὦ θειοτάτη καὶ ἱερὰ τελετή, τὰ περικείμενά σοι συμβολικῶς ἀμφιέσματα τῶν αἰνιγμάτων ἀποκαλυψαμένη τηλαυγῶς ἡμῖν ἀναδείχθητι καὶ τὰς νοερὰς ἡμῶν ὄψεις ἑνιαίου καὶ ἀπερικαλύπτου φωτὸς ἀποπλήρωσον. <3> ∆εῖ δὴ οὖν ἡμᾶς (ἐντὸς γὰρ εἶναι τῶν πανιέρων οἴομαι) τὸ νοητὸν τοῦ πρώτου τῶν ἀγαλμάτων ἀπογυμνώσαντας εἰς τὸ θεοειδὲς αὐτοῦ κάλλος ἐνατενίσαι καὶ τὸν ἱεράρχην ἐνθέως ἰδεῖν ἀπὸ τοῦ θείου θυσιαστηρίου μέχρι τῶν ἐσχάτων τοῦ ἱεροῦ μετ' εὐοσμίας ἰόντα καὶ πάλιν ἐπ' αὐτῷ τελειωτικῶς ἀποκαθιστάμενον. Ἥ τε γὰρ ὑπὲρ πάντα θεαρχικὴ μακαριότης, εἰ καὶ ἀγαθότητι θείᾳ πρόεισιν εἰς τὴν τῶν μετεχόντων αὐτῆς ἱερῶν κοινωνίαν, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἔξω τῆς κατ' οὐσίαν ἀκινήτου στάσεως καὶ ἱδρύσεως γίνεται, πᾶσι δὲ τοῖς θεοειδέσιν ἀναλόγως ἐλλάμπει περὶ ἑαυτὴν ὄντως οὖσα καὶ τῆς οἰκείας ὅλως οὐ παρακινουμένη ταὐτότητος. Ὡσαύτως ἡ θεία τῆς συνάξεως τελετή, κἂν ἑνιαίαν καὶ ἁπλῆν ἔχουσα καὶ συνεπτυγμένην ἀρχὴν εἰς τὴν ἱερὰν ποικιλίαν τῶν συμβόλων φιλανθρώπως πληθύνηται καὶ μέχρι πάσης χωρῇ τῆς ἱεραρχικῆς εἰκονογραφίας, ἀλλ' ἑνοειδῶς ἐκ τούτων αὖθις εἰς τὴν οἰκείαν μονάδα συνάγεται καὶ ἑνοποιεῖ τοὺς ἐπ' αὐτὴν ἱερῶς ἀναγομένους. Κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν δὴ θεοειδῆ τρόπον ὁ θεῖος ἱεράρχης, εἰ καὶ τὴν ἑνιαίαν αὐτοῦ τῆς ἱεραρχίας ἐπιστήμην ἀγαθοειδῶς εἰς τοὺς ὑποβεβηκότας κατάγει τοῖς τῶν ἱερῶν αἰνιγμάτων πλήθεσι χρώμενος, ἀλλ' αὖθις ὡς ἀπόλυτος καὶ τοῖς ἥττοσιν ἀκατάσχετος εἰς τὴν οἰκείαν ἀρχὴν ἀμειώτως ἀποκαθίσταται καὶ τὴν εἰς τὸ ἓν ἑαυτοῦ νοερὰν ποιησάμενος εἴσοδον ὁρᾷ καθαρῶς τοὺς τῶν τελουμένων ἑνοειδεῖς λόγους τῆς ἐπὶ τὰ δεύτερα φιλανθρώπου προόδου τὸ πέρας τὴν εἰς τὰ πρῶτα θειοτέραν ἐπιστροφὴν ποιούμενος. <4> Ἡ δὲ τῶν ψαλμῶν ἱερολογία συνουσιωμένη πᾶσι σχεδὸν τοῖς ἱεραρχικοῖς μυστηρίοις οὐκ ἤμελλεν ἀπηρτῆσθαι τοῦ πάντων ἱεραρχικωτάτου. Πᾶσα μὲν γὰρ ἱερὰ καὶ ἁγιόγραφος δέλτος ἢ τὴν ἐκ θεοῦ τῶν ὄντων γενητὴν ὕπαρξίν τε καὶ διακόσμησιν ἢ τὴν νομικὴν ἱεραρχίαν καὶ πολιτείαν ἢ τῶν τοῦ θείου λαοῦ κληροδοσιῶν διανεμήσεις καὶ κατασχέσεις ἢ κριτῶν ἱερῶν ἢ βασιλέων σοφῶν ἢ ἱερέων ἐνθέων σύνεσιν ἢ παλαιῶν ἀνδρῶν ἐν ποικιλίᾳ καὶ πλήθει τῶν ἀνιώντων ἀκατάσειστον ἐν καρτερίᾳ φιλοσοφίαν ἢ τῶν πρακτέων σοφὰς ὑποθήκας ἢ θείων ἐρώτων °σματα καὶ ἐνθέους εἰκόνας ἢ τῶν ἐσομένων τὰς ὑποφητικὰς προαναρρή σεις ἢ τὰς ἀνδρικὰς Ἰησοῦ θεουργίας ἢ τὰς τῶν αὐτοῦ μαθητῶν θεοπαραδότους καὶ θεομιμήτους