Part 2 (1/2)

Trinity, is the Logos ”by whom all things were made”. He is shown in the

act of ”setting his compa.s.s upon the face of the deep”, since it is by division

and measurement (mays) that distinct ”things” are recognized in the

continuum of life.

THE CREATION OF THE WORLD.

This remarkable Christian mandala is a thirteenth century mosaic upon the

vault of the atrium in St. Mark's, Venice. Reading anticlockwise, the

subjects are as follows: Inmost ring, (I) The Spirit upon the face of the

Waters, (2) the Separation of Day and Night, (3) the Creation of the

Firmament, (4) the Division of the Waters, (g) the Trees of Life and

Knowledge. Middle ring, (r) Creation of the luminaries, (2) of fish and

birds, (3) of planu and herbs, (4) of Adam from the dust, (5) the Sabbath,

(6) the Spirit breathed into Adam, (7) Adam brought into Eden where the

Four Rivers, represented as men, flow from the Two Trees. Outer ring,

(r) Adam's Dominion over Nature, (z) the Creation of Eve, (3) the Naming

of Woman, (4) Adam and Eve in the Garden, (5) the Temptation and

Eating of the Fruit, (6) they hide their nakedness with leaves, (7) they hide

from G.o.d, (8) who discovers them, (9) rebukes them, (to) gives them

clothes. and (It) exnells them from Eden.

In the Beginning 39 The Princ.i.p.alities are rather remote, in the sense that they govern such vast spheres as natural laws and great areas of the universe. The Christian tradition names only four of the Archangels-Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel-and the general function of the Archangels may be surmised from the respective duties of these four. Michael is the messenger of divine judgement, and Gabriel of divine mercy. In the Last Days at the end of the world, Michael is destined to vanquish the Devil and to drive him down to the bottomless pit of fire. And at the final judgement of the living and the dead, it is Michael who holds the terrible scales in which the souls are to be weighed. Gabriel is the messenger of good news, and was thus the Archangel of the Annunciation, who came to the Virgin Mary with the news that she was to be the mother of Christ. Raphael is the angel of healing, the dispenser of divine mercy to the sick, while Uriel, the Fire of G.o.d, is the minister of prophecy and of the interpretation of G.o.d's will to the minds of men.

The Angels-the generic name for the whole company of spirits being used in particular for the lowest choir-are specially charged with the protection of individual men, each human being having, at birth, a guardian angel a.s.signed to him as minister of divine guidance and guard against the powers of darkness. As the guardian angel is the bearer of divine love and wisdom to each man, so in turn he is the bearer of the individual's prayers to G.o.d.

The angels of every order are winged to designate their spiritual nature, as well as the instantaneous manner in which they discharge all their activities. For an angel is where it thinks, and thus any number of angels ca.n stand on the point of a pin because any number of angels can think of the point 1 Jewish tradition preserves the names of three other Archangels, making seven altogether. These are Chamuel, the Seer of G.o.d, Jophiel, the Beauty of G.o.d, and Zadkiel, the Justice of G.o.d. The names of all seven are Hebrew in form, the final .el being the general Hebrew word for a G.o.d, a divine being, or of something belonging to G.o.d.

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of that pin. As thought can move faster than light, jumping instantaneously from earth to the utmost nebulae, so likewise the angels can move from heaven to earth, and from end to end of the universe in almost no time at all. Furthermore, angelic thought is said to be many times faster than human thought because it does not require the c.u.mbersome instrumentality of material images, which take time and effort to form within the mind 1 In the beginning, in that first moment of created time in which the angelic choirs were made, the whole of G.o.ds creation was perfect in every respect. Because the realm of spirits was, however, finite and created it was naturally not as perfect as G.o.d himself, yet it was nonetheless as perfect, as G.o.dlike, as finite things could possibly be. And in so far as it was G.o.dlike, every created spirit was endowed with that most divine of all properties-autonomy, the power of sel&direction without compulsion, otherwise known as the freedom of will. Lacking this power, created spirits would have been incapable of the one thing which their Creator wanted them to have, the one thing which so intimately const.i.tuted his own essence-the capacity of love. For love exists only when it is given freely, without any duress.