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

DIONYSIUS THE PRESBYTER TO TIMOTHY THE FELLOW-PRESBYTER

ON THE CELESTIAL HIERARCHY <I.> <1> "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights." But also every procession of light-revelation from the Father, coming to us in goodly gifts, again as a unifying power uplifts us and returns us to the unity and deifying simplicity of the gathering Father. For "From Him and to Him are all things," as the sacred Word has said. <2> Therefore, invoking Jesus, the Paternal Light, which is "the true Light, which enlightens every man coming into the world," through whom we have had access to the Father of primal light, let us, as far as we are able, lift up our eyes to the illuminations of the most sacred Oracles handed down from the Fathers, and let us behold, as we are able, the hierarchies of the celestial minds revealed to us by them symbolically and anagogically, and having received with immaterial and unwavering eyes of the mind that primal and super-primal light-giving of the Thearchic Father, which reveals to us the most blessed hierarchies of the Angels in typological symbols, let us from it be uplifted again to its own simple ray. For it itself never departs from its own unifying oneness, but while being multiplied and proceeding in a manner fitting its goodness toward an uplifting and unifying tempering of those under its providence, it both remains firmly within itself, steadfastly fixed in an unmoved sameness, and uplifts and unifies, in proportion to them, those who look up to it, as is right, according to its simplifying union. For it is not possible for the Thearchic ray to shine upon us otherwise, unless it be anagogically enveloped in the variety of the sacred veils, and fashioned for us naturally and fittingly by fatherly providence. <3> Wherefore also the rite-founding sacred institution, having deemed our most holy hierarchy worthy of the supermundane imitation of the celestial hierarchies, and having variegated the aforesaid immaterial hierarchies with material shapes and formative compositions, has handed it down, so that we might be led up, in proportion to ourselves, from the most sacred images to the simple and unformed ascents and assimilations, since it is not possible for our mind to be uplifted to that immaterial imitation and contemplation of the celestial hierarchies, unless it should use the material guidance that is proper to it, considering the visible beauties as images of the invisible comeliness, and the perceptible sweet odors as impressions of the intelligible diffusion, and the material lights an image of the immaterial light-giving, and the detailed sacred teachings as of the contemplative fulfillment according to the mind, and the ranks of the orders here as of the harmonious and ordered disposition toward the divine, and the partaking of the most divine Eucharist as of the participation in Jesus, and whatever else has been handed down to the celestial beings supermundanely, but to us symbolically. For the sake, therefore, of our deification in proportion to ourselves, the philanthropic Source of rites, both revealing to us the celestial hierarchies and perfecting our hierarchy to be their fellow-minister through the assimilation, according to our power, to their Godlike sacred office, with perceptible images the supercelestial

ΤΩι ΣΥΜΠΡEΣΒΥΤEΡΩι ΤIΜOΘEΩι ∆IOΝΥΣIOΣ O ΠΡEΣΒΥΤEΡOΣ

ΠEΡI ΤHΣ OΥΡAΝIAΣ IEΡAΡΧIAΣ <I.> <1> «Πᾶσα δόσις ἀγαθὴ καὶ πᾶν δώρημα τέλειον ἄνωθέν ἐστι κατα βαῖνον ἀπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς τῶν φώτων.» Ἀλλὰ καὶ πᾶσα πατροκινήτου φωτοφανείας πρόοδος εἰς ἡμᾶς ἀγαθοδότως φοιτῶσα πάλιν ὡς ἑνοποιὸς δύναμις ἀνατατικῶς ἡμᾶς ἀναπλοῖ καὶ ἐπιστρέφει πρὸς τὴν τοῦ συναγω γοῦ πατρὸς ἑνότητα καὶ θεοποιὸν ἁπλότητα. Καὶ γὰρ «Ἐξ αὐτοῦ τὰ πάντα καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν» ὡς ὁ ἱερὸς ἔφη λόγος. <2> Oὐκοῦν Ἰησοῦν ἐπικαλεσάμενοι, τὸ πατρικὸν φῶς, τὸ ὂν «τὸ ἀληθινόν, ὃ φωτίζει πάντα ἄνθρωπον ἐρχόμενον εἰς τὸν κόσμον», δι' οὗ τὴν πρὸς τὸν ἀρχίφωτον πατέρα προσαγωγὴν ἐσχήκαμεν, ἐπὶ τὰς τῶν ἱεροτάτων λογίων πατροπαραδότους ἐλλάμψεις ὡς ἐφικτὸν ἀνανεύσωμεν καὶ τὰς ὑπ' αὐτῶν συμβολικῶς ἡμῖν καὶ ἀναγωγικῶς ἐκφανθείσας τῶν οὐρανίων νοῶν ἱεραρχίας ὡς οἷοί τέ ἐσμεν ἐποπτεύσωμεν καὶ τὴν ἀρχικὴν καὶ ὑπεράρχιον τοῦ θεαρχικοῦ πατρὸς φωτοδοσίαν, ἣ τὰς τῶν ἀγγέλων ἡμῖν ἐν τυπωτικοῖς συμβόλοις ἐκφαίνει μακαριωτάτας ἱεραρχίας, ἀΰλοις καὶ ἀτρεμέσι νοὸς ὀφθαλμοῖς εἰσδεξάμενοι πάλιν ἐξ αὐτῆς ἐπὶ τὴν ἁπλῆν αὐτῆς ἀναταθῶμεν ἀκτῖνα. Καὶ γὰρ οὐδὲ αὐτὴ πώποτε τῆς οἰκείας ἑνικῆς ἑνότητος ἀπολείπεται, πρὸς ἀναγωγικὴν δὲ καὶ ἑνοποιὸν τῶν προνο ουμένων σύγκρασιν ἀγαθοπρεπῶς πληθυνομένη καὶ προϊοῦσα μένει τε ἔνδον ἑαυτῆς ἀραρότως ἐν ἀκινήτῳ ταὐτότητι μονίμως πεπηγυῖα καὶ τοὺς ἐπ' αὐτὴν ὡς θεμιτὸν ἀνανεύοντας ἀναλόγως αὐτοῖς ἀνατείνει καὶ ἑνοποιεῖ κατὰ τὴν ἁπλωτικὴν αὐτῆς ἕνωσιν. Καὶ γὰρ οὐδὲ δυνατὸν ἑτέρως ἡμῖν ἐπιλάμψαι τὴν θεαρχικὴν ἀκτῖνα μὴ τῇ ποικιλίᾳ τῶν ἱερῶν παραπετασμάτων ἀναγωγικῶς περικεκαλυμμένην καὶ τοῖς καθ' ἡμᾶς προνοίᾳ πατρικῇ συμφυῶς καὶ οἰκείως διεσκευασμένην. <3> ∆ιὸ καὶ τὴν ὁσιωτάτην ἡμῶν ἱεραρχίαν ἡ τελετάρχις ἱεροθεσία τῆς τῶν οὐρανίων ἱεραρχιῶν ὑπερκοσμίου μιμήσεως ἀξιώσασα καὶ τὰς εἰρημένας ἀΰλους ἱεραρχίας ὑλαίοις σχήμασι καὶ μορφωτικαῖς συνθέσεσι διαποικίλασα παραδέδωκεν, ὅπως ἀναλόγως ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς ἀπὸ τῶν ἱερω τάτων πλάσεων ἐπὶ τὰς ἁπλᾶς καὶ ἀτυπώτους ἀναχθῶμεν ἀναγωγὰς καὶ ἀφομοιώσεις, ἐπεὶ μηδὲ δυνατόν ἐστι τῷ καθ' ἡμᾶς νο πρὸς τὴν ἄϋλον ἐκείνην ἀναταθῆναι τῶν οὐρανίων ἱεραρχιῶν μίμησίν τε καὶ θεω ρίαν, εἰ μὴ τῇ κατ' αὐτὸν ὑλαίᾳ χειραγωγίᾳ χρήσαιτο τὰ μὲν φαινόμενα κάλλη τῆς ἀφανοῦς εὐπρεπείας ἀπεικονίσματα λογιζόμενος καὶ τὰς αἰ σθητὰς εὐωδίας ἐκτυπώματα τῆς νοητῆς διαδόσεως καὶ τῆς ἀΰλου φωτο δοσίας εἰκόνα τὰ ὑλικὰ φῶτα καὶ τῆς κατὰ νοῦν θεωρητικῆς ἀποπληρώ σεως τὰς διεξοδικὰς ἱερὰς μαθητείας καὶ τῆς ἐναρμονίου πρὸς τὰ θεῖα καὶ τεταγμένης ἕξεως τὰς τῶν ἐνθάδε διακοσμήσεων τάξεις καὶ τῆς Ἰησοῦ μετουσίας τὴν τῆς θειοτάτης εὐχαριστίας μετάληψιν, καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα ταῖς οὐρανίαις μὲν οὐσίαις ὑπερκοσμίως, ἡμῖν δὲ συμβολικῶς παραδέδοται. Ταύτης οὖν ἕνεκα τῆς ἡμῶν ἀναλόγου θεώσεως ἡ φιλάνθρωπος τελεταρ χία καὶ τὰς οὐρανίας ἱεραρχίας ἡμῖν ἀναφαίνουσα καὶ συλλειτουργὸν αὐτῶν τελοῦσα τὴν καθ' ἡμᾶς ἱεραρχίαν τῇ πρὸς δύναμιν ἡμῶν ἀφο μοιώσει τῆς θεοειδοῦς αὐτῶν ἱερώσεως αἰσθηταῖς εἰκόσι τοὺς ὑπερουρα