Dante's Angelology

(Paradiso, Canto XXVIII): Angelology, Pseudo-Dionysius and the hidden order of the cosmos

The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish.

~ Herman Hesse

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Welcome to Dante Book Club, where you and I descend into Hell and Purgatory to be able to ascend to Paradise. Our guide in Paradise is Beatrice, and in this twenty-eighth Canto, Dante learns about the nine levels of the celestial hierarchy of angelic beings. You can find the main page of the read-along right here, reading schedule here, and the list of chat threads here.

In each post you can find a brief summary of the canto, philosophical exercises that you can draw from it, themes, character, and symbolism explanations.

All the wonderful illustrations are done specially for the Dante Read-Along by the one and only Luana Montebello.

This Week’s Circle ⭕️

The ninth celestial realm of the Primum Mobile - Dante sees a divine reflection in Beatrice’s eyes - The light of God as a distant, brilliant point - The nine rings of the angelic hierarchy - Beatrice describes the orders of the angelic realms.

Canto XXVIII Summary:

Beatrice had fallen silent after explaining the disordered nature that kept some on earth in a state of dimmed sight and erroneous action. In the silence that followed, Dante looked into her eyes and saw reflected in them a sight that made him turn and look behind him to see what it could be, and if he saw that reflection correctly. It was as if he was standing before a mirror and had seen the image of a double candle placed behind him shine in the mirror before him; was the reflection the same as the reality? Was the image as in harmony with the reality as a singer was in tune with a musician?

Just as one who sees a mirrored flame—
its double candle stands behind his back—
even before he thought of it or gazed

directly at it, and he turns to gauge
if that glass tells the truth to him, and sees
that it accords, like a voice and instrument,

so—does my memory recall—I did
after I looked into the lovely eyes
of which Love made the noose that holds me tight.
xxviii.4-12

The light of God and of the angelic rings which circle it are first seen by Dante reflected in the eyes of Beatrice, just as, in the Pageant of the Church in the Garden of Eden he saw “mirrored in their range” the double nature of the Incarnate Love, “now in the one, now in the other guise”, that is, now as wholly divine, now as wholly human. He could not then see the two as one.¹

As he turned to look, he saw the substance of that which was within their present sphere, the ninth and highest celestial circle, the Primum Mobile. He also saw a bright point of light far, far away, his first glimpse of the highest One, of God in His Empyrean realm. In size, it was as if the smallest star seen from earth would look as large as a moon next to it, but still it was that piercingly bright. Around that point was a ring of fire, as one would see a halo round the moon.

This ring of fire moved more swiftly than the ring within which it was contained; this, as will be explained more explicitly, was the ring of Seraphim spinning within the sphere of the Primum Mobile.

Around that point a ring of fire wheeled,
a ring perhaps as far from that point as
a halo from the star that colors it

when mist that forms the halo is most thick.
It wheeled so quickly that it would outstrip
the motion that most swiftly girds the world.
xxviii.22-27

From his vantage point, Dante then saw all nine concentric rings, the sphere of each heaven along with their orders of hierarchical angelic powers. Since the sphere of the Primum Mobile was closest to the Empyrean realm above it, it spun the fastest. Each successive sphere, moving toward earth, moved more slowly, until the last and final sphere was the slowest of all. The ninth sphere had a clearer, more ineffable flame than any other, being so close as it was to the point of the One and the truth that it embodied. Beatrice saw Dante take all this in, wondering at it all, and she spoke, referring to the bright point of light that he had seen:

“On that Point
depend the heavens and the whole of nature.

Look at the circle that is nearest It,
and know: its revolutions are so swift
because of burning love that urges it.”
xxviii.41-45

Here we begin to see the fulfillment of the perfectly ordered love that we have been tracing for so long, the step by step journey through every level of being that has finally brought us to the top of the ladder, the highest realm that perceives of God without intermediary, existing in eternal adoration and praise without even a remnant of earthly limitation. These beings move the fastest because they are that full of love for the highest good, it is the highest possible expression of desire for the One, the unmoved mover of Aristotle:

It is on such a principle, then, that the heavens and the natural world depend.
Aristotle, Metaphysics, xii.7.1072b

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Hence it is on this principle, i.e., the first mover viewed as an end, that the heavens depend both for the eternality of their substance and the eternality of their motion. Consequently the whole of nature depends on such a principle, because all natural things depend on the heavens and on such motion as they possess.
Thomas Aquinas, Exp. Metaphysics xii, lecture 7, n. 2534

Dante responded, always with the medieval worldview informing his understanding of the very real presence of the influence of the heavens on life, the earth and the celestial sphere. In that medieval worldview, each material sphere in this conception became ‘ever more divine’ the higher it climbed from earth.

But he had a question as he tried to understand the difference between the ‘model’ of this spiritual universe as presented before him, compared to the ‘copy’ of the physical universe. He saw a discrepancy between what he understood of the physical universe and what was being presented as the nature of the spiritual universe.

Cosmic order by Robert Fludd

Beatrice has confirmed what Dante’s own vision has perceived, that the inmost circle is the fastest moving of the nine, and that the speed of each successively decreases. Dante is perplexed by this because the heavenly spheres present a reverse order of speed, the Primum Mobile being the swiftest, the heaven of the moon the slowest.²

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The symbolic vision before Dante’s eyes, with God as a point at the center (a purely spiritual “model,” in which the wheels of fire seem spheres, but are orders of angels), and..the “copy” is the physical universe bounded by the Empyrean, with the earth at its center surrounded by nine material spheres.”³

His question represented a question for the ages, for it was a puzzle—the correspondence between the spiritual and physical world—that had been on the mind of the wisest thinkers for ages. Yet his question would be answered, and Beatrice proceeded to explain. The two representations were both matter and spirit conjoined with each other, the wider the material sphere, the more power those within it could contain.

More excellence
yields greater blessedness; more blessedness
must comprehend a greater body when
that body’s parts are equally complete.
xxviii.66-69

The Primum Mobile, with its swift movement that it passed down to the levels below it, must hold within itself the angelic order that moves the most swiftly, the Seraphim. She encouraged him to look at the spiritual dimension of the sphere, and not just the material conception of it; from these observations the two would then be in accord with each other.

If Dante will consider the power of each angelic order (instead of the apparent circumference of each angelic circle), he will see that each heaven is controlled by the angelic order most suited to it: the Seraphim move the Primum Mobile, the Cherubim the eighth heaven, and so on down to the angels who move the heaven of the moon. Hence, swiftness and brightness being the measure of the excellence of the angelic circles, and size the measure of the excellence of the heavenly sphere, the correspondence between the two spatial presentations is complete.⁴

Beatrice’s answer regarding these correspondences made the matter so clear to Dante, it was as though the Northwest wind—the Boreas—had blown clear all the lingering questions at the corners of his mind.

The wind-gods were often represented as heads blowing a threefold blast from the middle and the two corners of their mouths…According to Brunetto Latini the direct north wind brings clouds and cold, the northwest wind brings snow and hail, while the northeast wind keeps off rain and clouds. It appears evident that Dante is here speaking of the northeast wind.⁵

Just as the hemisphere of air remains
splendid, serene, when from his gentler cheek
Boreas blows and clears the scoriae,

dissolves the mist that had defaced the sky,
so that the heavens smile with loveliness
in all their region; even so did I

become after my lady had supplied
her clear responses to me, and—like a star
in heaven—truth was seen.
xxviii.79-87

All the angelic realms, each being as a point of light, now thronged in their respective rings, shining their light, like sparks flying from molten metal. Their numbers seemed so infinite that they were virtually uncountable, reminding Dante of the story of the inventor of the chessboard:

The number of angels in each circle now increases to such a vast extent that they exceed by thousands the total figure arrived at by the progressive doubling of sixty-four figures. According to an ancient Eastern legend, a Brahmin once brought to a king the game of chess, which he had invented. The king was so delighted that he offered the Brahmin in return anything that he might ask. The Brahmin said he would take only a grain of wheat, doubled as many times as there are squares on a chessboard. The total figure goes into many millions.⁶

Each circle of angelic beings sang together the praise of Hosanna, to the One that gave order to their circling. Beatrice began to describe the levels of heavenly beings, each with their own name and properties, beginning at the quickest, stationed closest to the One. The first two realms closest to God were the Seraphim in the circle of the Primum Mobile, and the Cherubim, of the Fixed Stars. They were the angelic beings that were most like God and were those who were the most powerfully moved by love; they were as like to God as it was possible for anything in the material universe to be. The third realm below these two were called Thrones, and they inhabited the realm of Saturn; these made up the first triad of beings extending out from the Empyrean realm.

And she who saw my mind’s perplexities
said: “The first circles have displayed to you
the Seraphim and Cherubim. They follow

the ties of love with such rapidity
because they are as like the Point as creatures
can be, a power dependent on their vision.

Those other loves that circle round them are
called Thrones of the divine aspect, because
they terminated the first group of three.
xxviii.97-105

We accept that this is how the holy hierarchies are ordered and we agree that the designations given to these heavenly intelligences signify the mode in which they take on the imprint of God. Those with a knowledge of Hebrew are aware of the fact that the holy name “seraphim” means “fire-makers,” that is to say, “carries of warmth.” The name “cherubim” means “fullness of knowledge” or “outpouring of wisdom.” This first of the hierarchies is hierarchically ordered by truly superior beings, for this hierarchy possess the highest order as God’s immediate neighbor, being grounded directly around God and receiving the primal theophanies and perfections. Hence the descriptions “carriers of warmth” and “thrones.” Hence, also, the title “outpouring of wisdom.” These names indicate their similarity to what God is.
Pseudo-Dionysius, The Celestial Hierarchy 7.205b

Before going any further, let us look at the larger scope of the architecture of heaven that Beatrice is expounding upon; the nine levels of the heavenly beings are divided further into three groups of three; therefore you will find us building trinity upon trinity, as we will explore more.

Each angelic realm corresponded with a planetary sphere. The first triad, from closest to God down, is made up of the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones. The second triad, is made of Dominions, Virtues and Powers, and the third triad, closest to earth, is made of Principalities, Archangels and Angels. While the circle closest to earth is the only one where the intelligences are actually called Angels, all realms can be considered angelic beings for the purpose of putting words to the forms. Each realm also holds a specific quality. These are the hierarchies of the heavens as outlined in the text The Celestial Hierarchy by Pseudo-Dionysius, and whose authority Dante pulled on for informing this architecture of heaven.

The glory and participation in God is highest at the highest level, and as we move downward from the Empyrean toward the earth, each level participates as much as it is able by its nature; so it is not that the lower realms are lesser than the higher as far as any morality goes, but that they are not able to participate as fully in the highest due to their nature, and so participate as much as they are able. Keep in mind however, that however much the lower orders can participate, is their fullest expression of that participation.

And know that all delight to the degree
to which their vision sees—more or less deeply—
that truth in which all intellects find rest.
xxviii.106-108

Dante here added a theological distinction as to what element in these beings did the participating, and how it sprung into being; to the Scholastics and theologians that Dante drew upon, these were matters of great importance.

In these lines Beatrice formulates a concept which is stated or implied at various points throughout the Comedy. The question which she settles here is this: does love of God spring from knowledge of Him, or does knowledge of God arise from love of him? It is a matter which was debated by the theologians and Dante has come down firmly on the side of St. Thomas Aquinas, who says: “Ultimate and perfect bliss can only be in the vision of God in His essence.”⁷

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Here, as elsewhere, Dante takes his stand with those philosophers and theologians (Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, and the Dominicans generally) who assigned primacy to the intellect rather than to the will (this latter position being more commonly held by the Augustinian-Franciscan school.)⁸

Beatrice next expounded upon the second triad, composed of the Dominions, Virtues, and Powers, which occupied the celestial spheres of Jupiter, Mars, and the Sun. Each of the ranks are taken from Biblical references, both Old and New Testaments, and arranged so in Pseudo-Dionysius’ text.

Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
Isaiah 6:2-3

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The Lord reigneth; let the people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved.
Psalm 99:1

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And he made the mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half was the length thereof, and one cubit and a half the breadth thereof. And he made two cherubims of gold, beaten out of one piece made he them, on the two ends of the mercy seat; One cherub on the end on this side, and another cherub on the other end on that side: out of the mercy seat made he the cherubims on the two ends thereof. And the cherubims spread out their wings on high, and covered with their wings over the mercy seat, with their faces one to another; even to the mercy seatward were the faces of the cherubims.
Exodus 37:6-9

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Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.
Ephesians 1:21

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To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.
Ephesians 3:10

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For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.
Colossians 1:16

Tenth Heaven, or Empyrean

Finally Beatrice named the last triad, that which was closest to earth which corresponded to Venus, Mercury, and the Moon: the Principalities, Archangels and Angels.

It remains now to contemplate that final rank in the hierarchy of angels, I mean the godlike principalities, archangels, and angels…The term “heavenly principalities” refers to those who possess a godlike and princely hegemony, with a sacred order most suited to princely powers…[the archangels] relationship with the angels is 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…Among the heavenly beings it is they who possess the final quality of being an angel. For being closer to us, they, more appropriately than the previous ones, are named “angels” insofar as their hierarchy is more concerned with revelation and is closer to the world.
Pseudo-Dionysius, The Celestial Hierarchy 9.257b-260a

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Dante informs us that the three hierarchies contemplate respectively the three persons of the Trinity—Power, Wisdom, and Love, embodied in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And inasmuch as each person can be regarded in three ways—in itself, and in its relation to each of the other two—every hierarchy is divided into three orders. St. Thomas ascribes to the nine orders the following functions: Seraphim, love; Cherubim, sight; Thrones, taking and holding; Dominations, command; Virtues, execution; Powers, judgment; Principalities, direction of nations; Archangels, direction of leaders; Angels, direction of individuals.⁹

Using the Neoplatonic idea of abiding, proceeding and returning, each realm draws up the realm below it into the participation with the highest God in the Empyrean realm; all of these distinctions were written down by that figure to whom we have referred, known as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. Pseudonymous literature in antiquity were texts that were labelled as being written by a specific author—usually one that was well known and could be accepted with authority—yet were later discovered to have been written anonymously.

The historical figure of Dionysius is found in the book of Acts, and was thought to be the first bishop of Athens, attending and meeting with St. Paul:

Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
Acts 17:34

The texts attributed to him, however, were found to have been written in the sixth century by a figure well versed in Neoplatonic philosophy—but that history would need an entire separate study. Suffice it to say that Dante was not yet aware of the pseudonymous nature of the text, and still attributed it to that bishop of Athens mentioned as an associate of Paul.

These orders all direct—ecstatically—
their eyes on high; and downward, they exert
such force that all are drawn and draw to God.

And Dionysius, with much longing, set
himself to contemplate these orders: he
named and distinguished them just as I do.
xxviii.127-132

The placement of beings within these realms had been presented in different orders by different theologians, and St. Gregory had followed a different arrangement of some of the realms; Beatrice pointed out that once he arrived in the heavenly realms and saw the circles himself, he changed his mind about his earthly proclamations, going so far as to laugh at his own mistake.

Then, she said, if Dante should wonder how Dionysius knew their order, being mortal, that Dante was to keep in mind that Dionysius had received the information from St. Paul, who had journeyed into the high heavens while still a mortal, and passed on the information to him:

I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
II Corinthians 12:2-4

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As far as we are concerned, it is not possible to know the mystery of these celestial minds or to understand how they arrive at most holy perfection. We can know only what the Deity has mysteriously granted to us through them, for they know their own properties well. I have therefore nothing of my own to say about all this and I am content merely to set down, as well as I can, what it was that the sacred theologians contemplated of the angelic sights and what they shared with us about it.
Pseudo-Dionysius, The Celestial Hierarchy, 6.200d

Thus do we understand the placement of the spiritual celestial realms corresponding to the material planetary realms, and the divine architecture of Paradise.

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💭 Philosophical Exercises

‘The Empyreum’ (from The Divine Comedy, Paradise), 1 May 1807 After John Flaxman RA (1755 - 1826)

My dear reader,

I found this canto to be incredibly beautiful, because it reveals, perhaps more clearly than anywhere else in the Paradiso, how our universe truly moves.

Dante offers an extraordinary explanation of the connection between the physical, Ptolemaic universe and the deeper, divine universe that underlies it.

Essentially, he shows us that two universes operate in parallel: the earthly one we can measure, observe, and describe, and the interior one, where the very forces that move the heavens originate.

When Dante enters the Primum Mobile, he sees nine circles of living fire revolving around a blinding point of divine light. These are the nine angelic orders. Each circle spins more rapidly the closer it is to this point, closer, that is, to the love of God. These nine circles, as Dante learns, are the true engines of the cosmos.

What we call planetary motions—the turning of the heavens, the rhythms of time—are merely the shadows of their love.

The whole universe, in other words, turns because love burns.

It is important, I believe, to notice that Dante does not dismiss the physical astronomy he inherited. He doesn’t say that the science of his age is false; he simply says that it is not the deepest truth. Behind the tangible universe that we can study and model, there is something hidden, something more originating, something that causes the visible motions.

We can look at the heavens, we can observe how the planets and stars move, we can build systems to describe their paths, and yet we still cannot explain what truly sets everything in motion. Dante’s answer is that there is an astronomical surface and an angelic interior.

This is one of the aspects of the canto that moves me the most. I realised, reading it closely, that the way I used to imagine angels was incredibly primitive. I thought of them in the usual vague, symbolic way: beautiful messengers, decorative figures of light hovering somewhere “up there.”

Dante shatters this soft, sentimental image. In his universe, angels are not ornaments. They are transmitters of divine energy. Each angelic order receives something from God, gathers it, understands it, and transmits it downward into the lower orders, until eventually it reaches the physical world.

They are essentially miners of divine light.

This idea comes from a theologian of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite; I included a short exploration of his angelology in the themes.

Depending on their order, these angels extract from God intelligence, illumination, form, motion, order, and love. Each circle is at the same time a recipient and a giver. Each circle is both contemplative and active. Each one transforms the divine energy in a particular way and sends it outward.

They are messengers of meaning in the most literal sense: they do not merely bring us “messages,” they carry the very forms and forces through which reality becomes ordered and alive.

This is where the canto becomes most personal for me. It ties directly into something I keep returning to in my own writings and videos: the nature of our attention.

I have long believed that attention is one of the primary ways we participate in life, give it meaning, and in the case of the Commedia, the way we perceive the divine order. When I read Dante’s description of the angelic circles through this lens, I began to see each angelic order as a mode of attention, a way of receiving and transmitting the divine.

The Seraphim, who are closest to God, receive through burning love. When we attend to the world with love, with warmth, with that kind of intensity of presence, we participate, in a small human way, in the Seraphic mode. The Cherubim receive through perfect knowledge. When we attend with clarity, with a desire to understand rather than to control, we brush against the Cherubic way of seeing. The Thrones receive through stable judgment. When we attend with discernment, sobriety, and inner steadiness, when we resist the impulse to judge hastily, we echo something of the Thronal attention.

In this sense, our attention is not a neutral tool. It is a spiritual alignment. Where and how we pay attention determines which “circle” we are standing closest to. When you act in love, you enter into a distant but real kinship with that intensely burning circle of the Seraphim around the divine Point. When you seek understanding in humility, you are, in Dante’s symbolic language, in conversation with the Cherubim. When you practise a calm, grounded judgment, you are shadowing the Thrones. The genius of this canto is that it quietly suggests a parallel between the hidden movements of the cosmos and the hidden movements of the soul. Just as the visible heavens are moved by an invisible interior of angelic love, our visible actions are moved by an invisible interior of attention.

For me, this is the most beautiful explanation I have ever encountered of how we participate in the divine order of God. It is not a participation based on mere submission, nor on a rejection of earthly life, but on the way and the mood in which we pay attention to the world—how we attend to what is before us.

In this light, the simple image of a distant God reigning as a kind of celestial authoritarian governor, or of angels as strange beings appearing in hallucinatory visions starts to dissolve.

So, too does the narrow, transactional perception that by prayer we might simply obtain material rewards.

All of these images are quietly replaced, in Dante’s vision, by a deeper understanding: that beneath the surface of the things we can see, there is a subtler surface at work, a living order we can begin to perceive by choosing to participate in it.

This is why sometimes, my dear reader, when we do good despite the odds, it feels like more than just a private moral victory.

It feels like stepping, however briefly, into a movement that is larger than ourselves, as if our small act had aligned with a greater orbit, a greater burning circle of love turning silently at the heart of things.

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This Week’s Sinners and Virtuous 🎭

(Themes, Quotes, Terms and Characters)

Dionysius the Areopagite by André Thevet

I. Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

There is another layer to this canto that becomes visible when we understand the source Dante is drawing from: the mysterious thinker known as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. His writings shaped almost all medieval thought on angels, and Dante’s nine orders come directly from him. But Dante does not borrow Dionysius just to sound theological. He borrows him because Dionysius offers a structure, a way of imagining how God’s inner life becomes the architecture of the universe.

Dionysius teaches that God radiates Himself into creation through three triads of angels. The highest triad stands closest to God’s inner movements: Seraphim participate in the burning intensity of divine love, Cherubim in the luminous clarity of divine knowing, Thrones in the calm stability of divine judgment. When Dante places these three in the innermost circles around the Point, he is saying that the universe begins not with matter or motion, but with love, knowledge, and judgment.

The second triad (Dominions, Virtues, Powers) governs how this inner life becomes effective. They clarify what must be done, give strength to it, and protect its unfolding. The third triad (Principalities, Archangels, Angels) brings the divine light closest to human life, guiding peoples, events, and individual souls.

In this view, hierarchy is not a chain of command but a chain of transmission. God’s light does not leap from infinity to us in one step. It cascades through beings who understand it, shape it, and give it onward. Each order opens space for the one below it to receive more fully. The universe becomes a sequence of attentions bent toward the Point.

Seen this way, Dionysius is no longer remote. His hierarchy becomes a map of the soul. The Seraphim’s love, the Cherubim’s clarity, the Thrones’ stability are also modes of our own attention. Dante is not only describing the architecture of heaven; he is quietly sketching the architecture of a soul that wants to receive, understand, and transmit the divine.

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Quotes 🖋️

(The ones I keep in my journal as reminders of eternal wisdom):

Thus, if my longing is to gain its end
in this amazing and angelic temple
that has, as boundaries, only love and light,
then I still have to hear just how the model
and copy do not share in one same plan—
for by myself I think on this in vain.

~ lines 52- 57, Paradiso, Canto XXVIII

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1. Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise 305

2. Sayers 306

3. Charles S. Singleton, Commentary on the Paradiso 452

4. Sayers 306

5. Singleton 454

6. Sayers 307

7. Sayers 307

8. Singleton 457

9. Singleton 459