Seraph

Seraphim

The Burning Ones

Guardian Angels

-

SERAPHIM

Source: https://thewatchersstory.wordpress.com/seraphim/?fbclid=IwAR2aMNcHasZMvm-azBCgbxhTadA6t57tFQCuEW6kI4NDAxTQLb3bLWsMzRE 

Chosen by Seraphim to protect the worlds, and unbeknown to them, from more than just the Dark

-

The vision in Isaiah Chapter 6 of seraphim in an idealized Jerusalem First Temple represents the sole instance in the Hebrew Bible of this word being used to describe celestial beings. “… I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and His train filled the Hekhal(sanctuary). Above him stood the Seraphim; each had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.” (Isaiah 6:1–3)

-

The seraphim cry continually to each other, “Holy, holy, holy, is YHWH of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.” (verses 2–3) One seraph then carries out an act of purification for the prophet by touching his lips with a live coal from the altar (verses 6–7). The text describes the “seraphim” as winged celestial beings with a fiery passion for doing God’s good work.

-

Notwithstanding the wording of the text itself, at least one Hebrew scholar claims that in the Hebrew Bible the seraphim do not have the status of angels and that it is only in later sources (like De Coelesti Hierarchia or Summa Theologiae that they are considered to be a division of the divine messengers.)

-

Seraphim appear in the 2nd-century BC Book of Enoch where they are mentioned, in conjunction with cherubim, as the heavenly creatures standing nearest to the throne of God. They are also called the Ikisat (Ethiopic: አክይስት—”serpents”, “dragons”; an alternate term for Hell) which, along with the cherubim and Paradise, are under the rule of Gabriel. 

-

In the Second Book of Enoch, two classes of celestial beings are equated with the seraphim and cherubim, known as the phoenixes and the chalkydri (from Gr. χαλκύδραι khalkýdrai, compd. of χαλκός khalkós “brass”, “copper” + ‘ύδρα hýdra “hydra”, “water-serpent”—lit. “brazen hydras”, “copper serpents”). Both are described as “flying elements of the sun” that reside in either the 4th or 6th heaven, who have twelve wings and burst into song at sunrise.

-

In the Book of Revelation (iv. 4–8) the seraphim are described as being forever in God’s presence and praising him: “Day and night without ceasing they sing: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.'” However, this account differs slightly from the account of Isaiah, stating in the eighth verse, “Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings.” They appear also in the Christian Gnostic text On the Origin of the World.

-

The 12th-century scholar Maimonides placed the seraphim in the fifth of ten ranks of angels in his exposition of the Jewish angelic hierarchy. In Kabbalah, the seraphim are the higher angels of the World of Beriah (“Creation”, first created realm, divine understanding), whose understanding of their distance from the absolute divinity of Atziluth causes their continual “burning up” in self-nullification.

-

Through this they ascend to God, and return to their place. Below them in the World of Yetzirah (“Formation”, archetypal creation, divine emotions) are the Hayot angels of Ezekiel’s vision, who serve God with self-aware instinctive emotions (“face of a lion, ox, eagle“). Seraphim are part of the angelarchy of modern Orthodox Judaism.

-

Isaiah’s vision is repeated several times in daily Jewish services, including at Kedushahprayer as part of the repetition of the Amidah, and in several other prayers as well. Conservative Judaism retains the traditional doctrines regarding angels and includes references to them in the liturgy, although a literal belief in angels is by no means universal among adherents. Adherents of Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism generally take images of angels as symbolic.

-

Medieval Christian theology places seraphim in the highest choir of the angelic hierarchy. They are the caretakers of God’s throne, continuously singing “holy, holy, holy”. Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in his Celestial Hierarchy (vii), drew upon the Book of Isaiah in fixing the fiery nature of seraphim in the medieval imagination. Seraphim in his view helped the Deity maintain perfect order and are not limited to chanting the trisagion. Taking his cue as well from writings in the Rabbinic tradition, the author gave an etymology for the Seraphim as “those who kindle or make hot”

-

The seraphim took on a mystic role in Pico della Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man (1487), the epitome of Renaissance humanism. Pico took the fiery Seraphim—”they burn with the fire of charity“—as the highest models of human aspiration:

“impatient of any second place, let us emulate dignity and glory. And, if we will it, we shall be inferior to them in nothing”, the young Pico announced, in the first flush of optimistic confidence in the human capacity that is the coinage of the Renaissance.

-

“In the light of intelligence, meditating upon the Creator in His work, and the work in its Creator, we shall be resplendent with the light of the Cherubim. If we burn with love for the Creator only, his consuming fire will quickly transform us into the flaming likeness of the Seraphim.”

Read More Cherub Cherubim One Who Blesses Guardians of The Covenant click

St. Bonaventure, a Franciscan theologian who was a contemporary of Aquinas, uses the six wings of the seraph as an important analogical construct in his mystical work The Journey of the Mind to God. Christian theology developed an idea of seraphim as beings of pure light who enjoy direct communication with God

-

The word Seraphim (one seraph, two or more seraphim) means “burning ones” or nobles. They are also sometimes called the ‘ones of love’ because their name might come from the Hebrew root for ‘love’. Seraphim are only fully described in the Bible on one occasion. This is in the book of the prophet Isaiah, when he is being commissioned by God to be a prophet and he has a vision of heaven.

-

So these types of heavenly beings have six wings, but they only use two of them for flying. It sounds strange to use wings to cover your face and feet. They may well cover their face because, being so close to God, they would witness His full glory which would be too powerful to behold. Feet are considered ‘unclean’ and so not worthy to be shown to God. (Some scholars also think that ‘feet’ could actually mean ‘genitals’.)

-

The Celestial Hierarchy of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

-

(Pseudo-)Dionysus is an unknown 5th century theologian and mystic who was named for the Dionysus the Areopagite, the first century follower of Paul the Apostle. His neo-Platonic mystical works were deeply influential on medieval Christianity., including The Celestial Hierarchy, a work which sets out an angelology of hierarchal triads, each one closer to the divine nature in its purpose and what it communicates to lower levels. This hierarchy is described at some length in chapters 6-9.

-

Chapter VI  (What is the first order of the celestial essences, what is the middle order and what is the inferior order.)

The angelic hierarchies divided into three triads:

First –Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones
Middle- – Dominions, Virtues and Powers
Last — Principalities, Archangels and Angels

Chapter VII (Of the Seraphim, the Cherubim and the Thrones and of the first hierarchy that they constitute.)

1. Seraphim — Fire, “Those who burn”–light and life

2. Cherubim — Fullness of knowledge or wisdom

3. Thrones — Seat of Exaltation

Chapter VIII (Of the Dominions, the Virtues and the Powers and the middle hierarchy that they constitute.)

Dominions — Justice

1. Virtues — Courage, Virility

2. Powers — Order, Harmony

Chapter IX  (Of the Principalities, the Archangels and the Angels and of the last hierarchy that they constitute.)

1. Principalities — Authority

2. Archangels — Unity

3. Angels — Revelation, messenger

-

Seraphim

Source: https://occult-world.com/seraphim/ 

In the pseudo-Dionysian hierarchy of angels, the highest and closest angels to God. The name “seraphim” is thought to be derived from the Hebrew verb saraf, which means to “burn,” “incinerate,” or “destroy,” and probably refers to the ability of seraphim to destroy by burning.

-

The seraphim may have evolved from the uraeus, the gold serpent (specifically a cobra) worn by Egyptian pharaohs on their foreheads. Uraei without wings and with two or four wings were depicted in iconography throughout the Near East. They protected by spitting their poison, or fire.

-

The seraphim who became angels in lore perhaps originally had serpent forms with human characteristics. In the Hebrew Bible, the term saraf is applied to fiery serpents. Numbers 21:6–8 refers to fiery serpents sent by the Lord to bite and kill sinning Israelites. After Moses prays for forgiveness, he is instructed to set a fiery serpent atop a pole. Whoever was bitten by it, when he looked upon it, would live.

-

Moses makes a bronze serpent. Deuteronomy 8:15 refers to the “fiery serpents” and scorpions in the land of Egypt. The prophet ISAIAH described more humanlike seraphim in a vision (Isaiah 6:2–3). He sees the Lord on his throne with six-winged seraphim standing above him.

-

Two wings covered the face and two the feet—probably to protect them from the intense brilliance of the Lord—and the other two wings were used for flying. The seraphim call out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; and the whole earth is full of his glory.” One seraphim takes a burning coal and touches it to Isaiah’s lips, proclaiming that his guilt is taken away and his sin forgiven.

-

According to 3 ENOCH there are four seraphim who correspond to the four winds of the world. Each has six wings that correspond to the six days of creation; each wing is as big as the fullness of a HEAVEN. Each has 16 faces, four facing in each direction, and each face is like the rising sun, the light of which is so bright that even the HAYYOTH, OPHANIM, and CHERUBIM cannot look upon it.

-

The text goes on to say that the seraphim are so named because they burn the tablets of Satan. Every day Satan sits down with Sammael, prince of Rome, and Dubbiel, prince of Persia, to write down the sins of Israel on tablets. Satan gives the tablets to the seraphim to take to God so that God will destroy Israel. But the seraphim know that God does not wish to do so, and so they take the tablets and burn them.

-

The Sefer Yetzirah says seraphim are the highest order of angels, and they exist in the Universe of Beriyah, where Binah, which is represented by fire, dominates. Beriyah is the world of the Throne that Isaiah sees in his vision. Some Kabbalists call the seraphim POWERS, forces, or potentials rather than angels. Seraphim are mentioned in Jewish literature and pseudepigrapha, sometimes without specific description, but as part of the high heavenly host.

-

According to the Testament of Adam, the seraphim stand before God and serve his inner chamber, and, like the Cherubim, sing the hourly “holy, holy, holy.” 2 Enoch describes them as having four faces and six wings. 3 Enoch says there are four seraphim, corresponding to the four winds of the world. Seraphim are not mentioned by name in the New Testament.

-

In other lore, seraphim are the created representations of divine love, the fire of which consumes them and keeps them close to the throne of God. They are the only angels to stand above the throne.

-

They establish the vibration of love, which in turn creates the field of life. They purify all and dispel the shadows of darkness. They are of such subtlety that they rarely are perceived by human consciousness. Rulers of the seraphim are Seraphiel, Jahoel, Metatron, Michael, and Satan prior to his fall from heaven.

Read More Michael Who is Like God Archangel click

Read More Metatron The Lesser Yahweh Archangel 3rd Book of Enoch click

-

According to AGRIPPA, seraphim help humans perfect the flame of love. The seraphim are sometimes equated with the Hayyoth. In the Kabbalah, they govern Geburah (Strength), the fifth sephirah of the TREE OF LIFE.