The Hierarchy of Angels

Taken from the Pseudo-Dionysius' "Angelic Hierarchy... "

The First Order of Angels, (Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones) in the Heavenly Hierarchy are said to be ever around God and permanently united with Him ahead of any others and with no intermediary. They are in a proximity enjoyed by no other. This threefold group is said to form a single heierarchy where its members share equal status. No other is more like the divine or receives more directly the first enlightenments from the Deity. The Angels of the First Order are truly superior beings as they are God's immediate neighbor being grounded directly aroung God and receive primal theophanies and perfections. Their names indicate what God is. They are "utterly pure" because they transcend all weakness and all the lesser grades of the sacred. They are contemplative because they are filled with a superior light beyond any knowledge. They enter into communion with Jesus by participation in the divine lights working out of Him. To be like God is their special gift to the extent it is allowed them. They share, with primordial power, in His divine activities and loving virtues. They share in God's work. They are 'perfect' because of a primary and supreme deification, a transcendent and angelic understanding og God's work. They are initiated into the understandable explanations of the divine works by the very source of perfection. The First Order is said to perfect, illuminate and purify the Second and Third Orders.

- Seraphim have six wings and are Angels of Love – Seraphim means " firemaker" or "carrier of warmth" in Hebrew. Seraphim are a penetrating warmth; the overflowing heat of a movement which never falters and never fails. They purify by means of lightning flash and flame.
- Cherubim have many eyes. Cherubim means "fullness of knowledge" or "outpouring of wisdom" in Hebrew. The name means to know or see God, to receive the greatest gifts of His light, to contemplate the divine splendor in primordial power, to be filled with the gifts that bring wisdom and to share these generously with subordinates as part of the beneficient outpouring of wisdom.
- Thrones possess transcendance over every earthly defect. Their bearing is toward the ultimate heights and they are forever separated from what is inferior. They are completely intent on remaining in the presence of Him who is truly the most High. They are free of all passion and material concern and are utterly available to receive his divine visitation. They bear God and are ever open, like servants, to welcome God.

The Second Order of Angels (Authorities, Dominions, Powers ) are said to have eyes that look beyond the world. Each are far superior to us in ways that God is imitated and conformed to. This middle rank of the heavenly intelligences manifests its conformity to God which is how it achieves purification, illumination and perfection at second hand from the divine enlightenments by way of angels of the First Order and passed on secondarily through that mediating rank. The Second Order receives enlightenment from the Godhead through the beings of the First Order.

- Dominions forever strive mightily toward the true dominion and the true source of all dominion. The receive, as do their subordinates, the semblance of that domination. They signify a lifting up which is free and are unfettered by earthly tendencies of tyrrany and harsh dominion.
- Powers refer to a kind of masculine and unshakeable courage in all its Godlike activities; the type of courage which abandons laziness and softness during the reception of the divine enlightenments granted it, and it is powerfully uplifted to imitate God. It looks, without deviation, to the trtancendent power which is the source of all power. This courage becomes, as far as it is possible, the very image of that power to which it shapes itself, being powerfully returned to it because it is the source of all power. It transmits to its inferiors its dynamic and divinizing power.
- Authorities have an equal order with dominions and powers. They receive God in a harmonious and unconfused way and indicate the ordered nature of the celestial and intellectual authority. They do not employ their authoritive power to do tyrranous harm upon inferior ranks; they are uplifted harmoniously and unfailing toward the things of God and, in their goodness, lift up the inferior ranks with them. They are likened, insofar as they can be, to that authority which is the source of all authority and creates all authority; they make that authority evident, to the extent angels can, in their harmonious orders of authoritive power.

The Third Order of Angels (Principalities, Archangels and Angels) the final ranks have no share in the attributes to those superior

- Principalities refer to those who possess a godlike and princely hegemony, with a sacred order most suited to princely powers, the ability to be returned completely toward that principle which is above all principles and to lead others to Him like a prince, the power to receive to the full the mark of Principle of principles and by their harmonious exercise of princely powers, to make manifest this transcendent principle of all order.
- Archangels have the same order as Principalities and join with Angels to form a single hierarchy and rank. Every Hierarchy has first, middle and last powers, and the holy order of Archangels has something of both the others by virtue of being a mean between extremes. Archangels commune with the most holy Principalities and with the holy Angels. Like a principality, it is returned to its transcendent principle (source), that it receives upon itself as far as possible the mark of this principle and it brings about the unity of the angels due to their shared order as interpreters of those divine enlightenments mediated by the first powers. It generously announces these to the angels and through them to us insofar as we are capable of being sacredly enlightened.
- Angels complete the entire ranking of heavenly intelligences and they possess the final quality of being an Angel. Being closer to us, their hierarchy is more concerned with revelation and is closer to the world. The angels are said to take care of our own hierarchy, or so the Word of God tells us. Michael is called the ruler of the Jewish people, and other angels are described as rulers of other nations for "the Most High has established the boundaries of the nations by the number of his angels." (Dn 10:13).

*** Within all divine beings, there is a threefold distinction of "being, power and activity." Heavenly beings are called "heavenly powers" in common because each Order possesses specific powers from the Godhead and so there can be no confusion of the attributes peculiar to each rank.