The Divine Names

^4. These mysteries we learn from the Divine Scriptures, and thou wilt find that in well-nigh all the utterances of the Sacred Writers the Divine Names refer in a Symbolical Revelation^[72] to Its beneficent Emanations^[73] Wherefore, in almost all consideration of Divine things we see the Supreme Godhead celebrated with holy praises as One and an Unity, through the simplicity and unity of Its supernatural indivisibility, from whence (as from an unifying power) we attain to unity, and through the supernal conjunction of our diverse and separate qualities are knit together each into a Godlike Oneness, and all together into a mutual Godly union^[74] And It is called the Trinity because Its supernatural fecundity is revealed in a Threefold Personality,^[75] wherefrom all Fatherhood in heaven and on earth exists and draws Its name. And It is called the Universal Cause^[76] since all things came into being through Its bounty, whence all being springs; and It is called Wise and Fair because all things which keep their own nature uncorrupted are full of all Divine harmony and holy Beauty;^[77] and especially It is called Benevolent^[78] because, in one of Its Persons, It verily and wholly shared in our human lot, calling unto Itself and uplifting the low estate of man, wherefrom, in an ineffable manner, the simple Being of Jesus assumed a compound state,^[79] and the Eternal hath taken a temporal existence, and He who supernaturally transcends all the order of all the natural world was born in our Human Nature without any change or confusion of His ultimate properties. And in all the other Divine enlightenments which the occult Tradition of our inspired teachers hath, by mystic Interpretation, accordant with the Scriptures, bestowed upon us, we also have been initiated: apprehending these things in the present life (according to our powers), through the sacred veils of that loving kindness which in the Scriptures and the Hierarchical Traditions,^[80] enwrappeth spiritual truths in terms drawn from the world of sense, and super-essential truths in terms drawn from Being, clothing with shapes and forms things which are shapeless and formless, and by a variety of separable symbols, fashioning manifold attributes of the imageless and supernatural Simplicity. But hereafter, when we are corruptible and immortal and attain the blessed lot of being like unto Christ, then (as the Scripture saith), we shall be for ever with the Lord,^[81] fulfilled with His visible Theophany in holy contemplations, the which shall shine about us with radiant beams of glory (even as once of old it shone around the Disciples at the Divine Transfiguration); and so shall we, with our mind made passionless and spiritual, participate in a spiritual illumination from Him, and in an union transcending our mental faculties, and there, amidst the blinding blissful impulsions of His dazzling rays, we shall, in a diviner manner than at present, be like unto the heavenly Intelligences.^[82] For, as the infallible Scripture saith, we shall be equal to the angels and shall be the Sons of God, being Sons of the Resurrection.^[83] But at present we employ (so far as in us lies), appropriate symbols for things Divine; and then from these we press on upwards according to our powers to behold in simple unity the Truth perceived by spiritual contemplations, and leaving behind us all human notions of godlike things, we still the activities of our minds, and reach (so far as this may be) into the Super-Essential Ray,^[84] wherein all kinds of knowledge so have their pre-existent limits (in a transcendently inexpressible manner), that we cannot conceive nor utter It, nor in any wise contemplate the same, seeing that It surpasseth all things, and wholly exceeds our knowledge, and super-essentially contains beforehand (all conjoined within Itself) the bounds of all natural sciences and forces (while yet Its force is not circumscribed by any), and so possesses, beyond the celestial Intelligences,^[85] Its firmly fixed abode. For if all the branches of knowledge belong to things that have being, and if their limits have reference to the existing world, then that which is beyond all Being must also be transcendent above all knowledge.^[86]

5. But if It is greater than all Reason and all knowledge, and hath Its firm abode altogether beyond Mind and Being, and circumscribes, compacts, embraces and anticipates all things^[87] while Itself is altogether beyond the grasp of them all, and cannot be reached by any perception, imagination, conjecture, name, discourse, apprehension, or understanding, how then is our Discourse concerning the Divine Names to be accomplished, since we see that the Super-Essential Godhead is unutterable and nameless? Now, as we said when setting forth our Outlines of Divinity, the One, the Unknowable, the Super-Essential, the Absolute Good (I mean the Trinal Unity of Persons possessing the same Deity and Goodness), ‘tis impossible to describe or to conceive in Its ultimate Nature; nay, even the angelical communions of the heavenly Powers Therewith which we describe as either Impulsions or Derivations^[88] from the Unknowable and blinding Goodness are themselves beyond utterance and knowledge, and belong to none but those angels who, in a manner beyond angelic knowledge, have been counted worthy thereof. And godlike Minds,^[89] angelically^[90] entering (according to their powers) unto such states of union and being deified and united, through the ceasing of their natural activities, unto the Light Which surpasseth Deity, can find no more fitting method to celebrate its praises than to deny It every manner of Attribute.^[91] For by a true and supernatural illumination from their blessed union Therewith, they learn that It is the Cause of all things and yet Itself is nothing, because It super-essentially transcends them all. Thus, as for the Super-Essence of the Supreme Godhead (if we would define the Transcendence of its Transcendent Goodness^[92]) it is not lawful to any lover of that Truth which is above all truth to celebrate It as Reason or Power or Mind or Life or Being, but rather as most utterly surpassing all condition, movement, life, imagination, conjecture, name, discourse, thought, conception, being, rest, dwelling, union,^[93] limit, infinity, everything that exists. And yet since, as the Subsistence^[94] of goodness, It, by the very fact of Its existence, is the Cause of all things, in celebrating the bountiful Providence of the Supreme Godhead we must draw upon the whole creation. For It is both the central Force of all things, and also their final Purpose, and is Itself before them all, and they all subsist in It; and through the fact of Its existence the world is brought into being and maintained; and It is that which all things desire—those which have intuitive or discursive Reason seeking It through knowledge, the next rank of beings through perception, and the rest through vital movement, or the property of mere existence belonging to their state.^[95] Conscious of this, the Sacred Writers celebrate It by every Name while yet they call It Nameless.^[96]

[72] ἐκφαντορικῶς καὶ ὑμνητικῶς.

[73] i.e. God’s differentiated activities. Since the ultimate Godhead is ineffable, Scripture can only hint at its Nature by speaking of Its manifestations in the relative sphere. See Intr., p. 8.

[74] God is ineffable and transcends unity, see Intr., p. 5. But, since His presence in man produces an unity in each individual (and in human society), Scripture calls Him “One.”

[75] The ineffable Godhead transcends our conception of the Trinity. But we call Him a Trinity because we experience His trinal working—as our ultimate Home, as an Individual Personality Who was once Incarnate, and as a Power within our hearts. See Intr., p. 7.

[76] God is not a First Cause, for a cause is one event to a temporal series, and God is beyond Time and beyond the whole creation. Yet in so far as He acts on the relative plane He may, by virtue of this manifestation of Himself in the creation, be spoken of as a Cause.

[77] Beauty is a sacrament and only truly itself when it points to something beyond itself. That is why “Art for Art’s sake” degrades art. Beauty reveals God, but God is more than Beauty. Hence Beauty has its true being outside itself in Him. Cf. Intr., p. 31.

[78] Love is the most perfect manifestation of God. Yet God is in a sense beyond even love as we know it. For love, as we know it, implies the distinction between “me” and “thee,” and God is ultimately beyond such distinction. See Intr., p. 35.

[79] ὁ ἁπλοῦς Ἰησοῦς συνετέθη. Cf. Myst. Theol. III., “Super Essential Jesus.”

[80] ἱεραρχικῶν παραδόσεων, i. e. Ecclesiastical Tradition.

[81] I Thess. iv. 16.

[82] ἐν θειοτέρᾳ μιμήσει τῶν ὑπερουρανίων νοῶν—i. e. the angels.

[83] Luke xx. 36

[84] Meditation leads on to Contemplation; and the higher kind of Contemplation is performed by the Via Negativa.

[85] i.e. The Angels. I have throughout translated ὑπερουράνιος “celestial” instead of “super-celestial.” Presumably the meaning is “beyond the material sky,” or “celestial in a transcendent sense.”

[86] The whole of this passage shows that there is a positive element in Unknowing.

[87] παντῶν... προληπτική—i.e. contains them eternally before their creation.

[88] ἃς εἴτε ἐπιβολὰς εἴτε παραδοχὰς χρῆ φάναι—i. e. according as we describe the act from above or below. God sends the impulse, the angels receive it.

[89] οἱ θεοειδεῖς... νόες—i.e. human minds.

[90] ἀγγελομιμητῶς. “In a manner which imitates the angels.” Cf. Wordsworth, Prelude, xiv. 108, 102: “Like angels stopped upon the wing by sound of harmony from heaven’s remotest spheres.”

[91] This shows that the Via Negativa is based on experience and not on mere speculation.

[92] ὅ τι ποτέ ἐστιν ἡ τῆς ὑπεραγαθότητος ὑπερύπαρξις.

[93] “Union” (ἕνωσις). This word has more than one meaning in D., and hence occasional ambiguity. It may = (1) Unity (i. e. that which makes an individual thing to be one thing); (2) Mental or Spiritual intercourse; (3) Physical intercourse; (4) Sense perception. Here it = either (1) or (2), probably (1).

[94] ἀγαθότητος ὕπαρξις—i. e. the ultimate Essence in which goodness consists.

[95] Man—Animal—Vegetable—Inorganic Matter. For the thought of this whole passage, cf. Shelley, Adonais: “That Light whose smile kindles the universe.” “The property of mere existence” = οὐσιώδη καὶ ἑκτικὴν ἐπιτηδειότητα. οὐσία = an individual existence. Its highest meaning is a “personality,” its lowest a “thing.” οὐσιώδης refers generally to its lowest meaning and = “possessing mere existence,” i. e. “belonging to the realm of inorganic matter.” See Intr., p. 4.

[96] This shows that there is a positive element in D.‘s Via Negativa.