Advent and Christmas are imbued with the presence of angels. The angel Gabriel’s annunciation to Mary and her beautiful response speak to us through the ages, teaching the inner prayer of Advent: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
Zechariah also met an angel, who taught him the virtue of contemplative silence, preparing him to be the first to speak John the Baptist’s name.
The multitude of the heavenly host visited some poor shepherds and taught them to sing in harmony with the music of the spheres: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”
Not long after Jesus was born, an angel visited Joseph as well. The angel called Joseph to action. He must gather his family together and flee to Egypt. This message had practical importance, saving Jesus’ life from King Herod, but the angel also imparted a spiritual meaning, the fulfillment of a prophesy: “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”
In the modern world many people struggle with the idea of angels and other spiritual beings. We often make reference in modern conversations to the fruitless debates about the nature of angels in the middle ages. We hear something like, “how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” and we scoff at it. However, the ancient understanding of angelic life is neither silly superstition nor an exercise in pedantry.
Following the teachings of Dionysius the Areopagite, mediaeval Christians understood there to be nine orders of angels organised into three choirs, a fractal of the divine Trinity. The heavens emanate out from God, carrying and communicating her will to the whole of creation.
The singing of the angelic hosts gives order and structure to the universe. Their song determines what is possible and what is not. Within the flourishing of its melody, burst forth the laws of mathematics and physics – very real patterns with no physical existence of their own. Without the angel song, materiality would never know how to organise itself into rocks or stars or gamma radiation. Heaven sets the stage for cosmic history to unfold through the particularity of embodied creatures.
There is both an inner and outer meaning to the nine ranks of heaven. Our angelic nature is a microcosm of heaven with its own internal song. Each choir of angels represents one stage of the Triple Way. We do not abandon ourselves in order to reach some distant paradise. We are actually moving through the layers of our own soul, coming into contact with the depths of what we really are. With each upward movement, we align our inner selves more fully to the patterns of heaven. In his seminal work Celestial Hierarchy, Dionysius wrote,
“Each intelligent being, heavenly or human, has its own set of primary, middle, and lower orders and powers, and in accordance with his capacities these indicate the aforementioned upliftings, directly relative to the hierarchic enlightenment available to every being. It is in accordance with this arrangement that each intelligent entity – as far as he properly can and to the extent he may – participates in that purification beyond purity, that superabundant light, that perfection preceding all perfection.” (Trans by Luibheid)
The motions of our soul are a fractal image of the angelic orders, following the same patterns of possibility found in heaven. According to Dionysius, this pattern is a spiral consisting of two motions: circular and linear.
“The divine intelligences are said to move as follows. First they move in a circle while they are at one with those illuminations which, without beginning and without end, emerge from the Good and the Beautiful. Then they move in a straight line when, out of Providence, they come to offer unerring guidance to all those below them. Finally they move in a spiral, for while they are providing for those beneath them they continue to remain what they are and they turn unceasingly around the Beautiful and the Good from which all identity comes.” (Trans by Luibheid)
Our angelic nature dances unceasingly around the Good and the Beautiful from we emerge. This circumambulation represents the interior harmony of our soul. The circle is stable within itself, lacking beginning or end, perfectly balanced. It is our home, the place where we become ourselves. When our inner circle is strong, we gain consistency and equilibrium.
Our inner angels are linear as they move outside of themselves. A stable circle is like a bow, sending forth a straight arrow of love, allowing us to participate in the lives of others and see into the hidden causes of things. It is also how we ascend upwards through the nine orders of angels towards union with the One.
As the arrow of our love penetrates the depths of nature, it pierces through the cloud of unknowing, beyond which our thinking mind can never pass, and is lifted up beyond itself into the heart of the One who is before all things. The circle is therefore a symbol for purity of heart while the arrow is a symbol for the contemplative gaze. When the two work together in harmony we remember the spiralling love of heaven and approach the mysteries of heaven.
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