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 turned together unitively toward itself and revolves in a circle with good order in unchanging sameness around itself, <5> and the rods, in turn, that which is kingly and ruling and accomplishes all things in a straight line, and the spears and axes, the power to divide dissimilar things and the sharp and effective and active quality of the discerning powers, and the geometrical and architectural instruments, the power of laying foundations and building up and perfecting and all other things that belong to the anagogical and converting providence for secondary beings.

But sometimes the fashioned instruments of the holy angels are also symbols of the divine judgments upon us, some signifying corrective discipline or avenging justice, others, freedom from affliction or an end to discipline or a return of former well-being or the addition of other gifts, small or great, sensible or intelligible, and in general the discerning mind would not be at a loss to fit the visible things appropriately to the invisible. <6> And their being called winds signifies their swift flight, extending almost timelessly over all things, and their conveying movement from above to below and again from below to the heights, which lifts up secondary beings to the higher eminence, and moves the first beings to a communal and providential procession towards their inferiors. And one might say that the name of 'wind' of the airy spirit also signifies the godlike nature of the celestial minds. For this too has an image and type of the divine operation (as has been demonstrated to us at length in the Symbolic Theology according to the four-element interpretation) in its natural power to move and to give life, and its swift and unrestrained course, and the hiddenness, unknown and invisible to us, of its principles of motion and its completions. “For you do not know,” it says, “where it comes from or where it goes.” But theology also fashions for them the image of a cloud, signifying by this that the holy minds are filled supercosmically with the hidden light, and that they receive the first-appearing manifestation of light without revealing it, and transmit this ungrudgingly to secondary beings in a secondary and analogical manifestation, and indeed that the power of generating, quickening, increasing, and perfecting exists in them according to the intelligible bearing of rain that calls forth the receptive bosom with fattening showers to life-giving birth pangs.

<7> And if theology also attributes the appearance of bronze and electrum and many-colored stones to the celestial substances, the electrum, as being gold-like and at the same time silver-like, signifies the incorruptible, as in gold, and costless and undiminished and undefiled transparency, and the bright, as in silver, and light-like and celestial radiance, while to bronze, according to the explanations given, either the fiery or the gold-like quality must be assigned, and the many-colored forms of the stones must be thought to signify, as white, the light-like, or as red, the fiery, or as yellow, the gold-like, or as green, the youthful and vigorous, and according to each form you will find an anagogical interpretation of the typical images. But since I think these things have been sufficiently stated by us according to our ability, we must pass on to the sacred unfolding of the sacredly figured beast-form of the celestial minds. <8> And the form of the lion must be thought to signify that which is ruling and

καὶ τὸ τῆς ὅλης ζωῆς ἀφιερωμένον, τὰς δὲ ζώνας τὸ τῶν γονίμων αὐτῶν δυνάμεων φρουρητικὸν καὶ τὸ τὴν συναγωγὸν αὐτῶν ἕξιν εἰς ἑαυτὴν ἑνιαίως συνεστράφθαι καὶ κύκλῳ μετ' εὐκοσμίας τῇ ἀμεταπτώτῳ ταὐ τότητι περὶ ἑαυτὴν συνελίσσεσθαι, <5> τὰς δὲ αὖ ·άβδους τὸ βασιλικὸν καὶ ἡγεμονικὸν καὶ εὐθείᾳ τὰ πάντα περαῖνον, τὰ δὲ δόρατα καὶ τοὺς πελέκεις τὸ τῶν ἀνομοίων διαιρετικὸν καὶ τὸ τῶν διακριτικῶν δυνάμεων ὀξὺ καὶ ἐνεργὲς καὶ δραστήριον, τὰ δὲ γεωμετρικὰ καὶ τεκτονικὰ σκεύη τὸ θεμελιωτικὸν καὶ οἰκοδομητικὸν καὶ τελειωτικὸν καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα τῆς ἀναγωγοῦ καὶ ἐπιστρεπτικῆς ἐστι τῶν δευτέρων προνοίας.

Ἔστι δὲ ὅτε καὶ τῶν εἰς ἡμᾶς θεοκρισιῶν ἐστι σύμβολα τὰ πλαττόμενα τῶν ἁγίων ἀγγέλων ὄργανα, τῶν μὲν δηλούντων ἐπανορθωτικὴν παι δείαν ἢ τιμωρὸν δικαιοσύνην, τῶν δὲ περιστάσεως ἐλευθερίαν ἢ παιδείας τέλος ἢ προτέρας εὐπαθείας ἐπανάληψιν ἢ προσθήκην ἑτέρων δωρεῶν, μικρῶν ἢ μεγάλων, αἰσθητῶν ἢ νοητῶν, καὶ ὅλως οὐκ ἂν ἀπορήσειεν ὁ διορατικὸς νοῦς οἰκείως ἁρμόσαι τοῖς ἀφανέσι τὰ φαινόμενα. <6> Τὸ δὲ καὶ ἀνέμους αὐτοὺς ὀνομάζεσθαι τὴν ὀξεῖαν αὐτῶν ἐμφαίνει καὶ ἐπὶ πάντα σχεδὸν ἀχρόνως διήκουσαν πτῆσιν καὶ τὴν ἄνωθεν ἐπὶ τὰ κάτω καὶ αὖθις ἐκ τῶν κάτω πρὸς τὸ ἄναντες διαπορθμευτικὴν κίνησιν τὴν ἀνατείνουσαν μὲν τὰ δεύτερα πρὸς τὸ ὑπέρτερον ὕψος, κινοῦσαν δὲ τὰ πρῶτα πρὸς κοινωνικὴν καὶ προνοητικὴν τῶν ὑφειμένων πρόοδον. Eἴποι δ' ἄν τις τὴν τοῦ ἀερίου πνεύματος ἀνεμιαίαν ἐπωνυμίαν καὶ τὸ θεοειδὲς τῶν οὐρανίων νοῶν ἐμφαίνειν. Ἔχει γὰρ καὶ τοῦτο θεαρχικῆς ἐνεργείας εἰκόνα καὶ τύπον (ὡς ἐν τῇ Συμβολικῇ θεολογίᾳ κατὰ τὴν τετράστοιχον ἀνακάθαρσιν ἡμῖν διὰ πλειόνων ἀποδέδεικται) κατὰ τὸ τῆς φύσεως κινητικὸν καὶ ζωογόνον καὶ τὴν ὀξεῖαν καὶ ἀκράτητον χώρησιν καὶ τὴν ἄγνωστον ἡμῖν καὶ ἀόρατον κρυφιότητα τῶν κινητικῶν ἀρχῶν καὶ ἀποπερατώσεων. «Oὐ γὰρ οἶδας» φησὶ «πόθεν ἔρχεται καὶ ποῦ ὑπάγει». Ἀλλὰ καὶ νεφέλης αὐτοῖς ἰδέαν ἡ θεολογία περιπλάττει σημαίνουσα διὰ τούτου τοὺς ἱεροὺς νόας τοῦ μὲν κρυφίου φωτὸς ὑπερκοσμίως ἀποπληρουμένους, τὴν πρωτοφανῆ δὲ φωτοφάνειαν ἀνεκπομπεύτως εἰσ δεχομένους καὶ ταύτην ἀφθόνως εἰς τὰ δεύτερα δευτεροφανῶς καὶ ἀνα λόγως διαπορθμεύοντας καὶ μὴν ὅτι τὸ γόνιμον αὐτοῖς καὶ ζωοποιὸν καὶ αὐξητικὸν καὶ τελειωτικὸν ἐνυπάρχει κατὰ τὴν νοητὴν ὀμβροτοκίαν τὴν τὸν ἐκδόχιον κόλπον πιαλέοις ὑετοῖς ἐπὶ ζωτικὰς ὠδῖνας ἐκκαλουμένην.

<7> Eἰ δὲ καὶ χαλκοῦ καὶ ἠλέκτρου καὶ λίθων πολυχρωμάτων εἶδος ἡ θεολογία ταῖς οὐρανίαις οὐσίαις περιτίθησι, τὸ μὲν ἤλεκτρον ὡς χρυσο ειδὲς ἅμα καὶ ἀργυροειδὲς ἐμφαίνει τὴν ἄσηπτον ὡς ἐν χρυσῷ καὶ ἀδά πανον καὶ ἀμείωτον καὶ ἄχραντον διαύγειαν καὶ τὴν φανὴν ὡς ἐν ἀργύρῳ καὶ φωτοειδῆ καὶ οὐρανίαν αἴγλην, τῷ δὲ χαλκῷ κατὰ τοὺς ἀποδοθέντας λόγους ἢ τὸ πυρῶδες ἢ τὸ χρυσοειδὲς ἀπονεμητέον, τὰς δὲ τῶν λίθων πολυχρωμάτους ἰδέας ἐμφαίνειν οἰητέον ἢ ὡς λευκὰς τὸ φωτοειδὲς ἢ ὡς ἐρυθρὰς τὸ πυρῶδες ἢ ὡς ξανθὰς τὸ χρυσοειδὲς ἢ ὡς χλοερὰς τὸ νεανικὸν καὶ ἀκμαῖον, καὶ καθ' ἕκαστον εἶδος εὑρήσεις ἀναγωγικὴν τῶν τυπωτικῶν εἰκόνων ἀνακάθαρσιν. Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ ταῦτα κατὰ δύναμιν ἡμῖν ἀρκούντως εἰρῆσθαι νομίζω, μετιτέον ἐπὶ τὴν ἱερὰν ἀνάπτυξιν τῆς τῶν οὐρανίων νοῶν ἱεροτύπου θηρομορφίας. <8> Καὶ τὴν μὲν λέοντος μορφὴν ἐμφαίνειν οἰητέον τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν καὶ