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Therefore the great Macarius says that this light is infinite and supercelestial. And another of the more perfect saints saw all existing things, as if contained under some single ray of this intelligible sun, and yet even he, seeing not what and how much it is, but as much as he made himself receptive of it, and learning from this vision and from the union with it that is beyond mind, not what it is by nature, but that it is what it is truly, and it is supernatural and superessential, being something other than all existing things, but being in the proper sense and alone, and having ineffably comprehended every being in itself. But this infinite is not seen always by one or by all. But he who does not see understands that he himself is unable to see, not being perfectly harmonized with the spirit through a more complete purity, but not that the thing seen is finite. When therefore the things of the vision have subsided, from the welling forth of a like dispassionate joy and noetic calm to the one seeing, and from the rekindled fire of love for God, the one seeing knows precisely that (p. 198) this is that light, even if he sees more dimly; and according to the proportion of God-pleasing practice, of abstinence from all other things and of the attention of prayer and of the turning from the whole soul to God, being always carried forward and experiencing a clearer vision, and from this he understands the infinity of the thing seen, that it is infinite, and he does not see a limit of that brilliance, but he sees rather the inactivity of his own aptitude for receiving light.

But neither does he think that what he was counted worthy to see is simply the nature of God, but just as by the soul life comes to be in the ensouled body, and we call life itself soul, but we know that the soul in us which is and furnishes life is something other than this, so also to the God-bearing soul light comes to be from the indwelling God. But the union of the God who is the cause of all with those who have been deemed worthy is even beyond this, according to a superessential power, while He remains whole in Himself and dwells wholly in us and imparts to us not His own nature, but His own glory and brilliance. This light, therefore, is divine and is rightly named divinity by the saints, for it deifies; so then not only this, but also self-deification and thearchy, and 'it seems to be a distinction and multiplication of the one God, but it is no less the God who is the principle of divinity, and beyond divinity, and beyond principle,' one in one Godhead, and for this reason the principle of divinity and beyond divinity and beyond principle, since He is the hypostasis of this divinity, as the teachers of the church according to the great Dionysius the Areopagite said, calling divinity the deifying gift that has proceeded from God. And so the same, writing to Gaius, who asked how God is beyond thearchy, says, 'if you, having understood divinity as the thing of the deifying gift by which we are deified, and if this becomes the principle of being deified, He who is beyond all principle is beyond the so-called divinity.' (p. 200) Therefore the divine grace of the light beyond sense is theologized by the fathers, but this is not simply God by nature, who is able not only to illumine and deify the mind, but also to bring forth from non-being every noetic essence.

Have you seen how even when they see Him they consider Him invisible, better than those who are excessive in external wisdom? Those, therefore, who have ascended to this vision know that they see light with a noetic sense and that this light is God, ineffably illumining by grace in the union those who partake. But if you ask them how the invisible is seen, they will answer you: 'not in the teachable words of human wisdom, but in the teachable words of the Holy Spirit.' For they are without need and do not require human wisdom, having the teaching of the Spirit and with the apostle this

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∆ιό ἄπειρον μέν ὁ μέγας Μακάριος καί ὑπερουράνιον τουτί φησι τό φῶς. Πάντα δέ τά ὄντα, ὥσπερ ὑπό μίαν τινά περιεχόμενα ἀκτῖνα τοῦ νοητοῦ ἡλίου τούτου, τῶν τελεωτέρων τις ἕτερος ἑώρακε ἁγίων, καίτοι κἀκεῖνος, οὐχ ὅπερ καί ὅσον ἐστίν ἐκεῖνο, ἀλλ᾿ ὅσον ἑαυτόν ἐκείνου δεκτικόν ἐποίησεν ἰδών, καί μαθών ἀπό τῆς θεωρίας ταύτης καί τῆς πρός αὐτό ὑπέρ νοῦν ἑνώσεως, οὐχ ὅπερ ἐστίν αὐτό τήν φύσιν, ἀλλ᾿ ὅ,τι ἐστίν ὡς ἀληθῶς, καί ὑπερφυές καί ὑπερούσιόν ἐστιν, ἄλλο τι παρά τά ὄντα πάντα ὄν, ὄν δέ κυρίως τε καί μόνον καί πᾶν ὄν ἀπορρήτως ἐν ἑαυτῷ συνειληφός. Πάντοτε δ᾿ ἑνί ἤ πᾶσι τό ἄπειρον τοῦτο οὐχ ὁρᾶται. Ὁ δέ μή ὁρῶν συνίησιν ὡς αὐτός ὁρᾶν ἀδυνατεῖ μή τελείως δι᾿ ἐντελεστέρας καθαρότητος ἐναρμοσθείς τῷ πνεύματι, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχί τό ὁρώμενον λαμβάνει πέρας. Ὅτε τοίνυν τά τῆς θεωρίας ὑποβέβηκεν, ἐκ τῆς πηγαζομένης ὁμοίας ἀπαθοῦς τῷ ὁρῶντι θυμηδίας καί γαλήνης νοερᾶς καί τοῦ ἀνακαιομένου πυρός τῆς πρός τόν Θεόν ἀγάπης, ἀκριβῶς οἶδεν ὁ ὁρῶν ὅτι (σελ. 198) τοῦτό ἐστιν ἐκεῖνο τό φῶς, εἰ καί ἀμυδρότερον ὁρᾷ˙ καί κατ᾿ ἀναλογίαν δέ τῆς θεαρέστου πράξεως, τῆς τε τῶν ἄλλων πάντων ἀποχῆς καί τῆς προσοχῆς τῆς προσευχῆς καί τῆς πρός τόν Θεόν ἐκ ψυχῆς ὅλης ἀνανεύσεως ἐπί τά πρόσω φερόμενος ἀεί καί διαυγεστέρας πειρώμενος τῆς θεωρίας, κἀντεῦθεν τό ἄπειρον συνίησι τοῦ ὁρωμένου ὅτι ἄπειρον καί τῆς μέν λαμπρότητος ἐκείνου πέρας οὐχ ὁρᾷ, τῆς δ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ πρός φωτοληψίαν ἐπιτηδειότητος ἐπί μᾶλλον ὁρᾷ τό ἀδρανές.

Ἀλλ᾿ οὐδέ αὐτό οἴεται εἶναι ἁπλῶς τήν φύσιν τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὅ κατηξιώθη βλέπειν, ἀλλ᾿ ὥσπερ ὑπό τῆς ψυχῆς ἡ ζωή ἐγγίνεται τῷ ἐμψύχῳ σώματι, λέγομεν δέ καί τήν ζωήν αὐτήν ψυχήν, ἀλλ᾿ ἴσμεν ἄλλο τι παρά ταύτην οὖσαν τήν ἐν ἡμεῖν οὖσαν καί παρεκτικήν ζωῆς ψυχήν, οὕτω καί τῇ θεοφόρῳ ψυχῇ ὑπό τοῦ ἐνοικοῦντος Θεοῦ ἐγγίνεται τό φῶς. Ἀλλά καί ὑπέρ τοῦτό ἐστιν ἡ τοῦ παναιτίου Θεοῦ πρός τούς ἠξιωμένους ἕνωσις, καθ᾿ ὑπερούσιον δύναμιν καί ὅλου μένοντος ἐν ἑαυτῷ καί ὁλικῶς οἰκοῦντος ἐν ἡμῖν καί μεταδιδόντος ἡμῖν οὐ τῆς οἰκείας φύσεως, ἀλλά τῆς οἰκείας δόξης τε καί λαμπρότητος. Θεῖον οὖν ἐστι τουτί τό φῶς καί θεότης ὑπό τῶν ἁγίων ὀνομάζεται δικαίως, θεοποιεῖ γάρ˙ οὐκοῦν οὐ τοῦτο μόνον, ἀλλά καί αὐτοθέωσις καί θεαρχία, καί «δοκεῖ μέν εἶναι τοῦ ἑνός Θεοῦ διάκρισις καί πολυπλασιασμός, ἔστι δέ οὐδέν ἧττον ὁ ἀρχίθεος καί ὑπέρθεος καί ὑπεράρχιος», εἷς ἐν μιᾷ Θεότητι, καί διά τοῦτο ἀρχίθεος καί ὑπέρθεος καί ὑπεράρχιος, ἐπειδή ταύτης τῆς θεότητός ἐστιν ὑποστάτης, ὡς οἱ τῆς ἐκκλησίας διδάσκαλοι κατά τόν ἀρεοπαγίτην μέγαν ∆ιονύσιον ἔφασαν, θεότητα λέγοντες τήν θεοποιόν ἐκ Θεοῦ προεληλυθυῖαν δωρεάν. Καί τοίνυν ὁ αὐτός Γαΐῳ γράφων, πῶς ὑπέρ θεαρχίαν ὁ Θεός ἐστιν ἐρωτήσαντι, «εἰ θεότητα», φησί, «νοήσας τό χρῆμα τοῦ θεοποιοῦ δώρου καθ᾿ ὅ θεούμεθα καί εἰ τοῦτο γίνεται ἀρχή τοῦ θεοῦσθαι, τῆς οὕτω λεγομένης θεότητος ὁ πάσης ἀρχῆς ὑπεράρχιός ἐστιν ἐπέκεινα». (σελ. 200) Θεολογεῖται τοιγαροῦν ὑπό τῶν πατέρων ἡ θεία χάρις τοῦ ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν φωτός, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τοῦθ᾿ ἁπλῶς ἐστι τήν φύσιν ὁ Θεός, οὐ φωτίζειν μόνον καί θεοῦν δυνάμενος τόν νοῦν, ἀλλά καί παράγειν ἐκ μή ὄντων πᾶσαν νοεράν οὐσίαν.

Εἶδες πῶς καί ὁρῶντες αὐτόν ἀόρατον ἡγοῦνται κρεῖττον ἤ κατά τούς τήν ἔξω σοφίαν περιττούς; Ἴσασι μέν οὖν οἱ πρός τοῦτο θεωρίας ἀναβεβηκότες ὅτι φῶς ὁρῶσιν αἰσθήσει νοερᾷ καί ὅτι τό φῶς τοῦτο ὁ Θεός ἐστι, τῇ ἑνώσει χάριτι λαμπρύνων ἀπορρήτως τούς μετέχοντας. Ἄν δ᾿ ἐρωτᾷς αὐτούς πῶς ὁ ἀόρατος ὁρᾶται, ἀποκριθήσονταί σοι˙ «οὐκ ἐν διδακτοῖς ἀνθρωπίνης σοφίας λόγοις, ἀλλ᾿ ἐν διδακτοῖς Πνεύματος ἁγίου». Ἀνενδεεῖς γάρ εἰσι καί τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης σοφίας οὐ δέονται, τήν διδασκαλίαν ἔχοντες τοῦ Πνεύματος καί μετά τοῦ ἀποστόλου ταύτην