The Celestial Hierarchy (Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite)

The Celestial Hierarchy, part of the Corpus Dionysiacum written around 500 CE under the name of Paul's convert Dionysius the Areopagite, is the classic Christian treatment of the angelic orders. It introduced the word 'hierarchy', which the author defines as a sacred order, knowledge and activity that assimilates its members to God and passes divine illumination downward from rank to rank. Drawing on scriptural names, the treatise arranges nine choirs of angels in three triads: seraphim, cherubim and thrones; dominions, powers and authorities; principalities, archangels and angels. Each triad receives light from the one above and transmits it to the one below, so that the cosmos becomes a graded procession and return modelled on the Neoplatonism of Proclus. The author also explains why scripture depicts angels with incongruous material images, arguing that dissimilar symbols better guard divine mysteries. The scheme became the standard angelology of the medieval West through Gregory the Great, Aquinas and Dante, and it passed into Renaissance occult philosophy, where Agrippa and others correlated the nine orders with the spheres, the Kabbalistic sefirot and planetary intelligences, and so into ceremonial magic. The archive presents the 1935 translation issued by the editors of the Shrine of Wisdom. The 1987 Luibheid and Rorem translation and Rorem's commentary are the standard modern guides.

What it contains

• Definition and purpose of hierarchy
• Why scripture uses material images of angels
• Nine orders of angels in three triads
• Illumination passing from rank to rank
• Meaning of the angelic names
• Interpretation of scriptural angelic symbols