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expressively and hymnodically arranging the divine names of nature, Then, confirming our account more clearly, he clearly adds concerning what has been said, the same [author] again says: (19) to these the godlike minds are united in imitation of the angels, as far as possible, that is, to the divine powers of the angels, since such a union of the deified minds with the super-divine light comes about through a cessation of all intellectual activity, they hymn it most properly through the negation of all existing things, truly and supernaturally illumined by the most blessed union with it: that it is the cause of all existing things, but is itself nothing, as being super-essentially removed from all things.

13. Knowing this, then, the divine father Symeon, as a wise theologian, both hymned the divine and supernatural nature as nameless and theologized about it as the cause of every name that is named and as namelessly established above all things; now, for the purposes of the present treatise, gathering from the theologies and using what has been said as a kind of rule, with a view to them he proceeded to the unfolding of the intelligible divine names; now, with a divinely-seeing mind contemplating the theophanic manifestations and visions, setting the holy things before the holy, according to the divine tradition of the Apostle, he was commissioned and the divine spectacles sacredly contemplated by him he dutifully, as first to the second and subordinate, ungrudgingly in proportion to them showed and worthily imparted the sacred things to those who have scientifically and completely partaken of the priestly perfection, removing them from the laughter and mockery of the uninitiated, or rather, redeeming those very people, if any such men exist, from the battle against God on this account, not making these things public to the many, as long as he was among the living and was seen, (20) being persuaded in this by the great Dionysius writing thus to Timothy: "See," he says, "that you do not reveal the holy of holies, but you will both revere and honor the things of the hidden God with intelligible and invisible knowledge, keeping them inaccessible and undefiled to the uninitiated, and communicating the sacred things sacredly with sacred illumination only to the sacred."

14. For thus as theology has delivered to us its adherents, these things we too, as having been his disciples and knowing the height and depth and breadth of his wisdom, through what has been said and the present account we distinguish from the utterly crude and uninitiated and wish them to be unutterable to them, clearly unfolding these things only to those who have their ears sacredly opened from care for their habits and divine understanding and who are plainly holy both from their life and from knowledge from above; for this also the divine Paul wishes, writing thus to Timothy: "Entrust these things to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also."

15. Those therefore who have ascended to contemplation from philosophical practice and have ascended into the depth of theological concepts should give the investigation of their soul to these things with faith, and from that very place, I know well, they will harvest much benefit; but the rest, whose mind is scattered into many othernesses and is darkened by the gloom of ignorance, who do not even know what practice and contemplation and the revelation of divine mysteries are, let them be alienated from the reading of what is written here; for having a mind incapable of sublime revelations and words (21) they are accustomed to trample on and profane divine things, being able to assent to nothing of the things beyond us.

16. And otherwise, and since every soul, having been well purified to the utmost, being immortal and intellectual, by divine power is stretched out toward the angelic lives according to the hierophant Dionysius who says thus: For when it comes to be within itself in a circular motion and uniform coiling from its external intellectual powers, as in

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φύσεως ἐκφαντορικῶς καί ὑμνητικῶς τάς θεωνυμίας διασκευάζουσαν, Εἶτα τόν λόγον ἡμῶν τρανότερον ἐπιβεβαιούμενος οὕτω σαφῶς ἐπιφέρει περί τῶν εἰρημένων ὁ αὐτός καί αὖθις φησι˙ (19) ταύταις οἱ θεοειδεῖς ἀγγελομιμήτως, ὡς ἐφικτόν, ἑνούμενοι νόες, ταῖς θείαις δηλονότι τῶν ἀγγέλων δυνάμεσιν, ἐπειδή κατά πάσης νοερᾶς ἐνεργείας ἀπόπαυσιν ἡ τοιάδε γίνεται τῶν ἐκθεουμένων νόων πρός τό ὑπέρθεον φῶς ἕνωσις, ὑμνοῦσιν αὐτό κυριώτατα διά τῆς πάντων τῶν ὄντων ἀφαιρέσεως, τοῦτο ἀληθῶς καί ὑπερφυῶς ἐλλαμφθέντες ἐκ τῆς πρός αὐτό μακαριωτάτης ἑνώσεως˙ ὅτι πάντων μέν ἐστι τῶν ὄντων αἴτιον, αὐτό δέ οὐδέν, ὡς πάντων ὑπερουσίως ἐξῃρημένον.

13. Εἰδώς οὖν ὁ θεῖος τοῦτο πατήρ Συμών, οἷα δή σοφός θεολόγος, καί ὡς ἀνώνυμον τήν θείαν καί ὑπέρ φύσιν φύσιν ἀνύμνει καί ὡς παντός ὀνόματος ὀμοναζομένου αἰτίαν καί ἀνωνύμως ὑπεριδρυμένην τῶν πάντων ἐθεολόγει˙ νῦν μέν, ὅσα τῆς παρούσης ἐστί πραγματείας, ἐκ τῶν θεολογιῶν συνάγων καί ὥσπερ τινί κανόνι τοῖς εἰρημένοι χρώμενος πρός αὐτά σκοπῶν ἐπί τήν ἀνάπτυξιν τῶν νοητῶν θεωνυμιῶν προήρχετο˙ νῦν δέ θεοπτικῇ διανοίᾳ τάς θεοφανεῖς ἐποπτεύων ἐμφάσεις καί θεωρίας, τοῖς ἁγίοις τά ἅγια κατά τήν θείαν τοῦ Ἀποστόλου παράδοσιν παρατιθέμενος, ἀνετάττετο καί τά πρός αὐτοῦ ἱερῶς ἐποπτευθέντα θεῖα θεάματα τοῖς μετ᾿ αὐτόν χρεωστικῶς, ὡς πρῶτος πρός δευτέρους καί ὑφειμένους, ἀφθόνως ἐν συμμετρίᾳ τῇ κατ᾿ αὐτούς ὑπέδειξε καί κατ᾿ ἀξίαν τά ἱερά τοῖς ἐπιστημονικῶς καί ὁλοκλήρως μετασχοῦσι τῆς ἱερατικῆς τελειώσεως μετέδωκε, τῶν ἀμύστων αὐτά γελώτων καί ἐμπαιγμῶν ἐξαιρούμενος, μᾶλλον δέ αὐτούς ἐκείνους, εἴπερ τινές τοιοῦτοί εἰσιν ἄνθρωποι, τῆς ἐπί τούτῳ θεομαχίας ἀπολυτρούμενος, μή ἔκφορα ταῦτα ποιῶν τοῖς πολλοῖς, ἕως ἄν ἐν τοῖς ζῶσιν ἦν καί ἐφαίνετο, (20) κἄν τούτῳ τῷ μεγάλῳ ∆ιονυσίῳ πειθόμενος οὕτω πρός Τιμόθεον γράφοντι˙ ὅρα δή, φησίν, ὅπως οὐκ ἐξορχήσῃ τά ἅγια τῶν ἁγίων, εὐλαβηθήσῃ δέ καί τά τοῦ κρυφίου Θεοῦ ταῖςνοεραῖς καί ἀοράτοις γνώσεσει τιμήσεις, ἀμέθεκτα μέν αὐτά καί ἄχραντα τοῖς ἀτελέστοις διατηρῶν, ἱεροῖς δέ μόνοις τῶν ἱερῶν μεθ᾿ ἱερᾶς ἐλλάμψεως ἱεροπρεπῶς κοινωνῶν.

14. Οὕτω γάρ ὡς ἡ θεολογία καί τοῖς θιασώταις ἡμῖν παραδέδωκε, ταῦτα καί ἡμεῖς, ὡς αὐτῷ μαθητευθέντες καί τό ὕψος καί βάθος καί πλάτος τῆς αὐτοῦ σοφίας εἰδότες, διά τῶν εἰρημένων καί τοῦ παρόντος λόγου τῶν πάντῃ χοντρῶν καί ἀμύστων διαστέλλομεν καί ἀνέκφορα τούτοις εἶναι βουλόμεθα, μόνοις ἐκείνοις ταῦτα δηλαδή σαφῶς ἀναπτύσσοντες τοῖς τά ὦτα πεπετασμένα ἱερῶς ἔχουσιν ἐξ ἐπιμελείας τῶν τρόπων καί συνέσεως θείας καί ἁγίοις ἄντικρυς οὖσιν ἔκ τε τοῦ βίου καί τῆς ἄνωθεν γνώσεως˙ τοῦτο γάρ καί Παῦλος ὁ θεῖος βούλεται πρός Τιμόθεν οὕτω γράφων˙ ταῦτα παράθου πιστοῖς ἀνθρώποις, οἵτινες ἱκανοί ἔσονται καί ἑτέρους διδάξαι.

15. Ὁ γοῦν πρός θεωρίαν ἐκ φιλοσόφου πράξεως ἀναδραμόντες καί εἰς βάθος θεολογικῶν ἐννοιῶν ἀνελθόντες πίστει πρός ταῦτα τήν τῆς ψυχῆς ἔρευναν δότωσαν, καί πολλήν αὐτόθεν, εὖ οἶδα, τρυγήσουσι τήν ὠφέλειαν˙ οἱ δέ γε λοιποί, ὧν ὁ νοῦς εἰς πολλάς ἑτερότητας διεσκέδασται καί σκότει ἀγνωσίας ἐζόφωτοι, οἱ μηδέ ὅ τι ποτέ ἐστι πρᾶξις καί θεωρίας καί θείων ἀποκάλυψις μυστηρίων εἰδότες, τῆς ἀναγνώσεως τῶν ἐνταῦθα γεγραμμένων ἀλλοτριούσθωσαν˙ ἀχώρητον γάρ τήν διάνοιαν ἔχοντες τῶν ὑψηλῶν καί λόγων ἀποκαλύψεων (21) τά θεῖα καταπατεῖν εἰώθασι καί κοινοῦν, πρός μηδέν τῶν ὑπέρ ἡμᾶς ἀνανεύειν δυνάμενοι.

16. Ἄλλως τε δέ καί ἐπεί πᾶσα ψυχή εἰς ἄκρον ἐκκαθαρθεῖσα καλῶς, ἀθάνατος οὖσα καί νοερά, δυνάμει θείᾳ πρός ἀγγελικάς ζωάς ἀνατείνεται κατά τόν ἱεροφάντην ∆ιονύσιον οὕτω λέγοντα˙ ἡνίκα γάρ εἰς ἑαυτόν κατά κυκλικήν κίνησιν καί ἑνοειδῆ συνέλιξιν ἀπό τῶν ἔξω τῶν νοερῶν αὐτῆς δυνάμεων γένηται, ὥσπερ ἔν