Observations placeholder
Dionysius the Areopagite - De Mystica Theologia - God
Identifier
003909
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Dionysius the Areopagite – Mystical Theology and Dionysius the Aeropagite – the Celestial Hierarchy
We therefore maintain that the universal and transcendent cause of all things is neither without being nor without life, nor without reason or intelligence; nor is He a body, nor has He form or shape, or quality, or quantity, or weight; nor has He any localised, visible or tangible existence; He is not sensible or perceptible; nor is He subject to any disorder or inordination; or influenced by any earthly passion; neither is He rendered impotent through the effects of material causes and events; He needs no light; He suffers no ... corruption, or division, or privation, or flux, none of these things can either be identified with or attributed unto Him....
Nevertheless Moses did not attain to the presence of God himself, he saw not Him for he cannot be looked upon.
this I take to signify that the divinest and highest things seen by the eyes or contemplated by the mind are but the symbolic expressions of those that are immediately beneath Him who is above all
Now if anyone should say that God has shown Himself without intermediary to certain holy men, let him know beyond doubt, from the holy scriptures, that no man has ever seen, nor shall see, the hidden being of God; but God has shown Himself, according to revelations which are fitting to God, to his faithful servants in holy visions adapted to the nature of the seer
For the higher we soar in contemplation, the more limited becomes our expression of that which is purely intelligible, even as now, when plunging into the Darkness which is above the intellect, we pass not merely into brevity of speech, but even into absolute silence, of thoughts as well as of words …. according to the degree of transcendence, so our speech is restrained, until, the entire ascent being accomplished, we become wholly voiceless, inasmuch as we are absorbed in Him who is totally ineffable