And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him (Revelation 12:7-9)

 

 

 

God created all things rightly. It has been said that the mysteries of God shine in his sight and are beyond the comprehension of man's knowledge. This has been said by the angels, by spirits, by ministers, by those who speak forth, and by those who rejoice with joy. His mysteries are unknowable to man because of their quality and type. Although man's knowledge is like a mountain since his knowledge enables him to rise up right below God, no man nevertheless sees the top of the mountain nor even the higher part of the mountain, which is God's knowl edge. Neither can man climb it. Nor can he know the mysteries of God, nor the secrets of those who always stand in the sight of God. Some of these who are always in God's sight have been named by the prophets and other holy ones who see through the power of the Holy Spirit. Others, however, have not been named because they only spoke moderately
when they were touched with divine inspiration, as Paul the Apostle has written.  (Book of Life’s Merits I, 45, 46)

 

One group of the blessed spirits remains hidden in heaven, ever present before the face of their Creator, and only rarely sent outside heaven; while another is honored with the title of “angels,” and goes ever forth in various duties to appear to humans when necessary; and every rational creature ought always to seek not its own glory but that of the Creator. (Book of Divine Works III 1:5)

 

 

Angels, living light most glorious!

Beneath the Godhead in burning desire
in the darkness and mystery of creation
you look on the eyes of your God
never taking your fill:
What glorious pleasures take shape within you
and remain intact from all the evil work
which first arose in your companion,
the angel of perdition,
who wished to soar
above the inward hidden pinnacle of God.
From there he fell, and plunged to his destruction;
and yet he delivered
the instruments of his fall
to the work of God’s finger.

 

I [John] saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse! Its rider is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems; and he has a name inscribed that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron; he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’. (Revelation 19:11-16)

 

 

This blazing fire that you see symbolizes the Omnipotent and Living God, Who in His most glorious serenity was never darkened by any iniquity; incomprehensible, because He cannot be divided by any division or known as He is by any part of any of His creatures' knowledge; inextinguishable, because He is that Fullness that no limit ever touched; wholly living, for there is nothing that is hidden from Him or that He does not know; and wholly Life, for everything that lives takes its life from Him.... You see that that fire has a flame in it the color of the sky, which burns ardently with a gentle breath, and which is as inseparably within the blazing fire as the viscera are within a human being; which is to say that before any creatures were made the Infinite Word was indivisibly in the Father; Which in course of time was to become incarnate in the ardor of charity, miraculously and without the stain or weight of sin, by the Holy Spirit's sweet freshness in the dawn of blessed virginity. But after He assumed flesh, the Word also remained inseparably in the Father; for as a person does not exist without the vital movements within his viscera, so the only Word of the Father could in no way be separated from Him. (Scivias II 1:1,3)

 

And why is He called the Word? Because, just as a word of command uttered by an instructor among local and transitory human dust is understood by people who know and foresee the reason he gave it, so also the power of the Father is known among the creatures of the world, who perceive and understand in Him the source of their creation, through the Word Who is independent of place and imperishable in His inextinguishable eternal life; and as the power and honor of a human being are known by his official words, so the holiness and goodness of the Father shines through the Supreme Word. 

 

And you see that the flame sparks and blazes up. This is to say that when every creature was raised through Him, the Word of God showed His power like a flash of flame; and when He became incarnate in the dawn and purity of virginity, it was as if He blazed up, so that from Him trickled every virtue of the knowledge of God, and Man lived again in the salvation of his soul. 

 

And the atmosphere suddenly rises up in a dark sphere of great magnitude. This is the material of Creation while still formless and imperfect, not yet full of creatures; it is a sphere, for it is under the incomprehensible power of God, which is never absent from it, and by the Supernal Will it rises up in God's great power in the twinkling of an eye. And that flame hovers over it like a workman and gives it one blow after another, which strike sparks from it, until that atmosphere is perfected and so Heaven and earth stand fully formed and resplendent. For the Supernal Word, Who excels every creature, showed that they all are subject to Him and draw their strength from His power, when He brought forth from the universe the different kinds of creatures, shining in their miraculous awakening, as a smith makes forms out of bronze; until each creature was radiant with the loveliness of perfection, beautiful in the fullness of their arrangement in higher and lower ranks, the higher made radiant by the lower and the lower by the higher. 

 

But then the same flame that is in that fire and that burning extends itself to a little clod of mud, which lies at the bottom of the atmosphere; this is to say that after the other creatures were created, the Word of God, in the strong will of the Father and supernal love, considered the poor fragile matter from which the weak frailty of the human race, both bad and good, was to be produced, now lying in heavy unconsciousness and not yet roused by the breath of life; and warms it so that it is made flesh and blood, that is, poured fresh warmth into it, for the earth is the fleshly material of humans, and nourished it with moisture, as a mother gives milk to her children; and blows upon it until it rises up a living human, for He aroused it by supernal power and miraculously raised up a human being with intelligence of body and mind. (Scivias II, 1:4-7)

 

 

 

O men of sight—what a sight! You’ve passed,
as mysteries perceiving,
through spirit’s eyes
to announce
in shining shadow
a living, piercing light
that buds upon that single branch
that flourished at
the entrance of
deep-rooted light:

You saints of old!
You have foretold salvation
of souls in exile plunged,
in death immersed.
You circled
wondrously like wheels,
proclaimed the mountain’s mysteries
whose top the heavens touched
and passed through many waters with anointing—
yet still among you
rose a shining lamp
that raced ahead, that mountain to reveal. (Trans. by Nathaniel M. Campbell)

 

 

And I [John] saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. He held a little scroll open in his hand. Setting his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, he gave a great shout, like a lion roaring. And when he shouted, the seven thunders sounded. And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.’ Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and the land raised his right hand to heaven  and swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it: ‘There will be no more delay, but in the days when the seventh angel is to blow his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled, as he announced to his servants the prophets.’ (Revelation 10:1-7)

 

 

I [Hildegard] saw a Man of such stature that from the tops of the clouds in the sky he reached down into the abyss; sothat from above his shoulders he was higher than the clouds in the bright ether, and from below his shoulders down to his thighs he was beneath the clouds in another white cloud; from his thighs to his knees he was in the earthly air, from his knees to the calves of his legs in the earth, and from his calves to the soles of his feet in the waters of the abyss (but in such a way that he also stood above the abyss). He had turned towards the East, so that he looked both East and South.

Now his face shone with such splendour that I could not perfectly see it. The white cloud was near his mouth in the likeness of a trumpet, full of the rapid soundings of all musical sounds, and when the man blew a breath, it sent out three winds: one bore a cloud of fire; one bore a cloud of storms; one bore a cloud of light. And each cloud was supported by its wind.

While the wind bearing the cloud of fire remained before the man’s face, the other two winds descended with their clouds to his chest, and there they expanded their breath outwards. But the wind that had stayed before the man’s face extended its cloud from the East to the South.

In the cloud of fire were myriads of fiery beings; and they were all one life, in one will and one conjunction. And in their presence a writing tablet was laid out, filled with feathers. The tablet soared in the precepts of God when the precepts of God bore it aloft. And the knowledge of God had inscribed hidden mysteries upon it which the myriads of beings observed with one unified devotion. And when they had studied what was written the divine virtue came upon them and like a single mighty trumpet they sounded forth with one sound in all varieties of music. Now the wind bearing the aforesaid storm cloud dispersed it from the South to the West, in length and breadth like a road greater than any human intellect could comprehend. And in the cloud were a great number of blessed beings; they all had the spirit of life in them and no one could possibly count them. Their voices were like the sound of many waters, and they said: ‘We have our habitations, just as the maker of the wind desired; but when will we finally receive them? If we had them with us, we would rejoice more fully than we do now.’ But the aforementioned multitude of beings in the aforesaid cloud of fire answered them in a voice of praise
saying: ‘When the Deity takes hold of his trumpet, he will send forth thunder, lightning, and flaming fire upon the earth. He will strike the fire contained within the sun, so that all the earth will be moved; all this will be when God chooses to reveal his great signs. Then, with the trumpet blast, he will call out to all the nations from all the varieties of the tongues of the earth; and in this way you will receive your habitations.’ (The Book of Life’s Merits I)

 

 

 

R. O luminous
apostles’ band—
to recognize the truth you rise
and open wide
the schoolhouse prison of the devil’s mastery,
to wash
its captives clean within the font
of living water—
you are a brilliant light
within the darkest shadows,
the strongest kind of pillars
the Lamb’s Bride to uphold
in all the ornament 

R. of him through whose rejoicing
that Mother Virgin bears
her banner.

V. For the spotless Lamb’s
the Bridegroom of
that spotless Bride

R. of him through whose rejoicing
that Mother Virgin bears
her banner. (Trans. by Nathaniel M. Campbell)