[Paul Kieniewicz]

Letter 11/4/1967

Andrew Glazewski – On the Angelic Hierarchies

Andrew discusses the hierarchies of angels, the vision of angels with super sensible-vision, angelic languages and communication, the role of the archangel Michael and meditation.

I just wrote to B— , from whom I got a letter, and suddenly realised more explicitly, so to speak, that on the Earthly globe there are all sorts of points. Points of power, mercy, love, understanding, intellectual grasping, expansion etc…You know what I mean. Talland Bay, where I took B—- is for me a point of peace, soothing serenity, calm, the same as the Scillies are. Attingham has a point for intellectual insight and expansion of it. At Glastonbury there is something of an organising spirit. And so we can go on and on. These points on the Earthly organism are similar to the Chinese acupuncture points in the human body. A complete analogy. And further, where poweris concerned, there are different sorts of power, just like the separate angelic choirs of power. There are millions of them and each one is different, and represents different kinds here on this plane of our physical existence. B— who is so sensitive to power, understands this perfectly. What we must do, is to discriminate the powers, organise them in one great organic whole, something like a chessboard for a battle. Ordre de bataille so to speak. A new task for us, with the help of the great Order of Powers on the angelic level.

I already gave you the respective dispositions to those great entities, for organising and correlating these points or places. Well, I better tell you here a bit more about those high beings.

At the top of the hierarchy there are

Seraphims

Cherubs

Thrones

Then three middle ones

Virtues

Dominations

Powers

And finally the lowest three choirs

Principalities

Archangels

Angels

Nine altogether. In each of these choirs there are millions and millions of them, each one different from the other, differing from one another like unique species found on this physical plane. So, each Seraphim is a species unto himself, but there are innumerable millions of them (of their species), all organised into higher and lower, but all in the range of Seraphim. These are fires, glowing with love and their function is loving with a mounting direction toward God’s love, going higher and higher into infinity with their love. These represent the millions of kinds of love which exist in Creation, but mind you, only natural love, not supernatural. (I wrote you before about the distinction, for supernatural is the love of God as such — an uncreated being). On this natural love (or on their fire), modulating their natural love, is a beam of God’s love, so that their love sparkles with fantastic displays, not so much of colour as of qualities implying movement in a harmonious way, a glow or shape so to speak with a colouring of light. But it is a different kind of light from the one we know. Something beyond any explanation, unless you have experienced it. These beings of a fiery nature are of the highest order, and in some way have within themselves, what the lower ones have, though perhaps not so explicitly. This is because their nature is fiery, so they express themselves first with fire, whereas the Cherubs, the next order, express their nature with wisdom, understanding and intellectual comprehending.

Now these again, in their natural wisdom, understanding, intelligence and power of penetration, also acquire a new quality through the Grace of God. This time it is not fire, but the internal grasping in their nature, which displays a new sparkling display, a sort of shape, of moulding, or modulation. Very hard to describe. Again they are innumerable in number and each of a different species. A totally different world from the Fires. They in their turn represent in a sublime way the different kinds of wisdom-understanding, and all intellectual kinds of grasping. They are a sort of archetype of understanding, like the Fires were archetypes of love. The Cherubs, because they are of a lower grade, have not a fiery nature; they lack this. However, the Fires have the understandings of the lower ones in a certain way. I should say of a higher order than the Cherubs.

Then come the Thrones. Their nature is in the ease of their access to Godhood. They are as it were the “sedillas” of God. God sits in them in a way. A totally different world again, of these incredibly powerful beings, beings of possession. They represent the different kinds of possibilities of possession, but in relation to God. Now this choir is the transitional stage to the middle three choirs. From possession one passes to administration, whereby the Virtues, Dominations and Powers are the administrative group. The organisers.

The Virtues represent the strength of God, any strength and its derivative, as in the potency, of distributing in firmness, and this firmness is the nature of the Dominations. They are the planning rulers, while the Powers are the executive officers of the planning department. Each of these choirs is obviously a different world in itself, each innumerable, each containing millions of species, each magnificent, possessing respective proportions, enabling them to represent strength, planning capacity, and actual execution of plans and organising the lower strata of Creation. As mentioned above, to those has been given the disposition through the planning department, in fullness of strength of the Virtues, but with the mildness of possessing, understanding, wisdom and the Love of God.

Do you follow now how the orders come down from above to this Earthly plane of the physical world?

Now in each of these choirs there are higher and lower spirits, subordinated as well as concentrated, that is harmoniously related into a set of new proportions whereby all the proportions of each individual is a further development of the other. A magnificent correlation and totality in all this. It is all so to speak musical in shape and movement, constantly displaying the changes of the sets of proportions, and so acquiring a new pattern, but still being recognized as the same species. A most magnificent sight, if it can be called so, for it is not only a sight but an accumulation of “sensations” through millions of different senses, which are not known in this world. Actually, my vision is not the same as yours, for we see things through our personality, and these are totally different in each of us. So, if by some miracle you could see via my personality, you would see a totally different world than you see now. Each of us, each animal etc. sees things differently, so there are millions of visions. Now in the Kingdom, you suddenly realise that through a certain kind of archetypal potency in you, you can switch from one kind of seeing to another, and then of course there is no end to it, and no end of admiration, contemplation. It may be compared to a kaleidoscopic display of perceptions in all senses. To this natural display you have to add the Grace of God, and then and only then the picture is total, and assumes new, fantastic, sparkling qualities. Follow?

At the bottom of the angelic scale there are three others yet, Principalities, Archangels and Angels. The Principalities are the actual rulers of places, points of interest of every kind, the local stewards that execute orders given from above. The Archangels of which seven are the highest ones, have different functions. Michael is the fighter, Raphael is the healer, Azrael is the angel of death, Gabriel delivers the highest messages and so forth. The angels of the lowest choir are the caretakers so to speak. Still absolutely magnificent beings, so beautiful that nothing can be compared to them.

Now the hierarchy is so arranged that a higher one has in its root the lower prerogatives, though in a different way. But the lower ones do not have the higher’s, only a vestige of it, in the sense that by the power of God the lower could be exalted. As a matter of fact, it is through Grace. But as the Grace is received through the nature of the recipient, say through his pattern as such, a lower nature cannot express fire as a Seraphim , for his nature is not fit to accept it in the fiery way. However, through Grace, the lowest angel can speak immediately to a higher one or to the highest, thanks to his nature being raised to participation of Godhood as such (super-natural). In the natural order however, they cannot speak so, for each choir speaks a totally different language. They must go “through the usual channels”, that is from one choir to another until it reaches the top choir. May I say that they are of “different nationalities”. You know what I mean. Angelic speech is different from ours though I must say, it has a similarity to our speech. It is communication through the change of sets of proportions, fitting with the other angel. They do communicate but they do not speak as we do; it is the meaning that is impressed into the other being, into the other angel, as if one could play a different music into the nature of the other. It is all sets of proportions. Some sort of archetypal ones, but still different, for they have their own individuality in expression of meaning. It is so difficult to explain this in our physical terms.

The angelic world represents a whole branch of knowledge, a wonderful one. And mind you, for each action of ours, say for speech, there is a specific angel who takes care of it. Apply to him if you want to be successful and you shall be.

I am sorry, I have given you a whole treatise, a small part of Angelology but I think it will not bore you too much. And after all it may be useful to you in the future. How we, each of us can fit into different choirs of angels, this is a different branch of knowledge and I cannot describe it here. If you want it, do let me know.