Dionysius the presbyter to timothy the fellow-presbyter

 ...ous intelligences he described in the sacredly-written compositions of the oracles, so that he might lead us up through the sensible to the intelli

 Anagogical interpretations, which propose to us the formations possible for us of the formless and supernatural visions, but that this also is most fi

 To be entirely deprived of participation in the beautiful, if indeed, as the truth of the oracles says, all things are very good. <4> it is possible

 They veil the “holy of holies” and honor the dissimilar sacred representations, so that neither are the divine things easily accessible to the profane

 To be led up by analogy to the imitation of god and, what is the most divine thing of all, as the oracles say, to become a “fellow worker with god” an

 Beings and irrationally living things and we rational beings have come to be in participation of the divine bestowal. for, intelligibly impressing the

 The things divinely promised to the forefather david have been fulfilled, while another announced the good news to the shepherds as those who had been

 Their own powers and illuminations and their own sacred and supermundane good order. for it is impossible for us to know the mysteries of the super-ce

 And stably established and receptive of the visitation of the godhead in all passionlessness and immateriality, and god-bearing, and servingly opened

 That jesus himself initiates them immediately and first-givingly reveals to them his philanthropic good-working. for “i,” he says, “speak righteousnes

 Below the earth extending its most good providence over all beings, as the super-princely principle and cause of every essence, and embracing all thin

 Being led up to the super-essential principle of all things, and becoming partakers of the initiating purifications and illuminations and perfections,

 To lead principially and to be formed as much as possible in the likeness of that very principle-making principle and to reveal its super-essential or

 From which we also have looked up to the infinite and ungrudging sea of the divine light, opened readily to all for participation, over which no forei

 Is led up. <2> and all are revealers and messengers of those before them, the most senior ones of god the mover, and correspondingly the rest of those

 <χii.> <1> this also is inquired into by those who love to contemplate the intelligible oracles: for if the last ranks are unparticipant in the entire

 He has assigned the primary hierarchy. and is this statement perhaps true? for he who said this said that the thearchic power, proceeding to all thing

 They do participate, but in a subordinate manner, looking to the first orders and through them, as those primarily deemed worthy of imitating god, are

 Has reasonably ascribed the property to the seraphim, after god. it is not at all strange, therefore, if the seraph is said to purify the theologian.

 It having been previously understood that the clarifications of the sacredly-formed images sometimes show the same orders of the celestial essences hi

 Of operations. indeed, the divinely wise, knowing this, form the celestial substances out of fire, showing their god-like and, as far as possible, god

 And that which is dedicated to the whole of life, and the girdles, the guarding of their generative powers and that their unifying disposition is turn

 Strong and indomitable, and that which assimilates itself, as far as possible, to the hiddenness of the ineffable thearchy by the covering of its inte

 Let this much be said by me also concerning the sacred formations, falling short of their precise manifestation, but contributing, as i think, so that

is led up. <2> And all are revealers and messengers of those before them, the most senior ones of God the Mover, and correspondingly the rest of those moved by God. For the super-essential harmony of all things has so provided for the sacred good order and ordered uplifting of each rational and intellectual being, that it has set sacred orders within each of the hierarchies themselves; and we see every hierarchy divided into first and middle and last powers, but also, so to speak, it distinguished each particular order by these same divine harmonies. Wherefore the theologians say that even the most divine Seraphim cried out one to another, clearly indicating by this, I think, that the first impart their knowledge of divine things to the second. <3> And I might add this, not unreasonably, that each celestial and human mind has its own first and middle and last orders and powers, in proportion to the appropriate upliftings of the aforementioned hierarchical illuminations revealed to each, according to which each one participates, as far as is lawful and attainable for it, in the most holy purification, the super-full light, the pre-perfect perfection. For nothing is self-perfect or in no need of any perfection except that which is truly self-perfect and pre-perfect. <ΧI.> <1> These things having been defined, it is worthwhile to consider for what reason we are accustomed to call all the angelic essences together celestial powers. For it is not possible to say, as in the case of the angels, that the order of the holy powers is the last of all, and that the orders of the essences above them participate in the holy illumination of the last, but the last in no way participate in that of the first, and for this reason all the divine minds are named celestial powers, but Seraphim and Thrones and Dominions are not. For the last do not partake of the total properties of the highest. For the Angels, and before the Angels, the Archangels, and Principalities and Authorities, being ranked by theology after the Powers, are often called by us, along with the other holy essences, celestial powers in common. <2> But we say that in commonly using the name of celestial powers for all of them, we are not introducing any confusion of the properties of each order, but since all the divine minds are divided into three, according to their super-cosmic principle—into essence and power and energy—when we call all or some of them without distinction celestial essences or celestial powers, we must think that we are periphrastically indicating those of whom we speak from the essence or power of each one of them; for we do not attach the superior property of the holy powers, already well distinguished by us, wholly to the subordinate essences, to the overthrow of the unconfused ordering of the angelic worlds. For according to the principle often correctly stated by us, the higher orders have in superabundance the sacred properties of the subordinate ones, but the last do not have the superior totalities of the more senior ones, with the first-revealed illuminations being conveyed through the first to them in part and in proportion to them.

ἀνάγεται. <2> Ἐκφαντορικοὶ δὲ πάντες εἰσὶ καὶ ἄγγελοι τῶν πρὸ αὐτῶν, οἱ μὲν πρεσβύτατοι θεοῦ τοῦ κινοῦντος, ἀναλόγως δὲ οἱ λοιποὶ τῶν ἐκ θεοῦ κεκινημένων. Τοσοῦτον γὰρ ἡ πάντων ὑπερούσιος ἁρμονία τῆς ἑκάστου τῶν λογικῶν τε καὶ νοερῶν ἱερᾶς εὐκοσμίας καὶ τεταγμένης ἀναγωγῆς προενόησεν, ὅτι καὶ αὐτῇ τῶν ἱεραρχιῶν ἑκάστῃ τάξεις ἱεροπρεπεῖς ἔθετο· καὶ πᾶσαν ἱεραρχίαν ὁρῶμεν εἰς πρώτας καὶ μέσας καὶ τελευταίας δυνάμεις διῃρημένην, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὴν ἑκάστην ἰδικῶς εἰπεῖν διακόσμησιν ταῖς αὐταῖς ἐνθέοις ἁρμονίαις διέκρινε. ∆ιὸ καὶ αὐτοὺς τοὺς θειοτάτους Σεραφὶμ οἱ θεολόγοι φασὶν ἕτερον πρὸς τὸν ἕτερον κεκραγέναι, σαφῶς ἐν τούτῳ καθάπερ οἶμαι δηλοῦντες ὅτι τῶν θεολογικῶν γνώσεων οἱ πρῶτοι τοῖς δευτέροις μεταδιδόασιν. <3> Προσθείην δ' ἂν καὶ τοῦτο οὐκ ἀπεικότως ὅτι καὶ καθ' ἑαυτὸν ἕκαστος οὐράνιός τε καὶ ἀνθρώπινος νοῦς ἰδικὰς ἔχει καὶ πρώτας καὶ μέσας καὶ τελευταίας τάξεις τε καὶ δυνάμεις πρὸς τὰς εἰρημένας τῶν καθ' ἕκαστον ἱεραρχικῶν ἐλλάμψεων οἰκείας ἀναγωγὰς ἀναλόγως ἐκφαινομέ νας, καθ' ἃς ἕκαστος ἐν μετουσίᾳ γίνεται κατὰ τὸ αὐτῷ θεμιτόν τε καὶ ἐφικτὸν τῆς ὑπεραγνοτάτης καθάρσεως, τοῦ ὑπερπλήρους φωτὸς, τῆς προτελείου τελειώσεως. Ἔστι γὰρ οὐδὲν αὐτοτελὲς ἢ ἀπροσδεὲς καθόλου τελειότητος εἰ μὴ τὸ ὄντως αὐτοτελὲς καὶ προτέλειον. <ΧI.> <1> Τούτων δὲ διωρισμένων ἐκεῖνο ἄξιον ἐννοῆσαι, δι' ἣν αἰτίαν ἁπάσας ὁμοῦ τὰς ἀγγελικὰς οὐσίας δυνάμεις οὐρανίας καλεῖν εἰώθαμεν. Oὐ γὰρ ἔστιν εἰπεῖν ὡς ἐπὶ τῶν ἀγγέλων ὅτι πασῶν ἐστιν ἐσχάτη διακόσμησις ἡ τῶν ἁγίων δυνάμεων καὶ τῆς μὲν τῶν ἐσχάτων ἁγιοπρεποῦς ἐλλάμψεως αἱ τῶν ὑπερκειμένων οὐσιῶν διακοσμήσεις μετέχουσιν, αἱ τελευταῖαι δὲ τῶν πρώτων οὐδαμῶς καὶ τούτου χάριν οὐράνιαι μὲν δυνάμεις ἅπαντες οἱ θεῖοι νόες ὀνομάζονται, Σεραφὶμ δὲ καὶ θρόνοι καὶ κυριότητες οὐδαμῶς. Ἀμέθεκτοι γὰρ αἱ τελευταῖαι τῶν ὑπερτάτων εἰσὶν ὁλικῶν ἰδιοτήτων. Oἱ γὰρ ἄγγελοι καὶ πρὸ τῶν ἀγγέλων ἀρχάγγελοι καὶ ἀρχαὶ καὶ ἐξουσίαι μετὰ τὰς δυνάμεις ὑπὸ τῆς θεολογίας ταττόμενοι κατὰ κοινοῦ πολλάκις ὑφ' ἡμῶν ὁμοῦ ταῖς ἄλλαις ἁγίαις οὐσίαις οὐράνιαι δυνάμεις ἀποκαλοῦν ται. <2> Φαμὲν δὲ ὅτι κοινῶς ἐπὶ πάσαις κεχρημένοι τῇ τῶν οὐρανίων ἐπωνυμίᾳ δυνάμεων οὐ σύγχυσίν τινα τῶν ἑκάστης διακοσμήσεως ἰδιοτήτων εἰσάγομεν, ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ εἰς τρία διῄρηνται τῷ κατ' αὐτοὺς ὑπερκοσμίῳ λόγῳ πάντες οἱ θεῖοι νόες, εἰς οὐσίαν καὶ δύναμιν καὶ ἐνέρ γειαν, ὅταν ἅπαντας ἤ τινας αὐτῶν ἀπαρατηρήτως οὐρανίας οὐσίας ἢ οὐρανίας δυνάμεις ἀποκαλοῦμεν, αὐτοὺς περιφραστικῶς τοὺς περὶ ὧν ὁ λόγος ἐμφαίνειν ἡμᾶς οἰητέον ἐκ τῆς καθ' ἕκαστον αὐτῶν οὐσίας ἢ δυνάμεως· οὐδὲ γὰρ τὴν ὑπερκειμένην ἰδιότητα τῶν ἤδη καλῶς ἡμῖν διακεκριμένων ἁγίων δυνάμεων καὶ ταῖς ὑφειμέναις ὁλικῶς προσάπτειν οὐσίαις ἐπ' ἀνατροπῇ τῆς ἀσυγχύτου τῶν ἀγγελικῶν διακόσμων τα ξιαρχίας. Κατὰ γὰρ τὸν πολλάκις ἡμῖν ὀρθῶς ἀποδοθέντα λόγον αἱ μὲν ὑπερβεβηκυῖαι διακοσμήσεις περισσῶς ἔχουσι καὶ τὰς τῶν ὑφειμένων ἱερὰς ἰδιότητας, αἱ δὲ τελευταῖαι τὰς τῶν πρεσβυτέρων ὑπερκειμένας ὁλότητας οὐκ ἔχουσι μερικῶς εἰς αὐτὰς τῶν πρωτοφανῶν ἐλλάμψεων διὰ τῶν πρώτων ἀναλόγως αὐταῖς διαπορθμευομένων.