Rishi adepts of theVedas.This ninefold celestial hierarchy, made visible
in sculpture on the south portico of Chartres Cathedral in the eleventh
century and poetically depicted by Dante in his Divine Comedy, was
made rationally comprehensible by Steiner at the beginning of this
century when he described the role and function of these spiritual be-
ings as they rise in spiritual bodies ever more tenuous and ever more
powerful toward their source, the Divine.
Angels and archangels-members of Dionysius's Third, or lowest,
Hierarchy-are qualified as messengers to indicate they are not carry-
ing out tasks of their own but fulfilling orders received from superior
hierarchies. And whereas archangels and archai are said to be barred
from erring, "being constitutionally incapable of sinking into evil out
of their own resolve," angels, because of their involvement in the
human scenario, have been allowed to err as part of the process en-
abling humanity to develop free will.
Characteristic of Steiner's beings of the Third Hierarchy is "being
filled with the spirit of the superior hierarchies, being controlled by
them, carrying out what is required by them." In their inner life, says
Steiner, angels of the Third Hierarchy originally had no independence
to do wrong, such as humans have. As tools or automata of higher au-
thority, they felt the force of superior hierarchies welling up in their
inner being and were inspired to manifest this superior will. Unlike
humans, who can shut up their thoughts and feelings within them-
selves, members of the Third Hierarchy were unable to hide their feel-
ings: "Any inner thought immediately manifested externally. They
could not lie or be untrue to their nature: thoughts and feelings had to
harmonize with the world around them."
Then, according to Steiner, an extraordinary development oc-
curred. "There were Angels, members of the lowest hierarchy, who
wished to deny their own nature.They wished to develop an inner life
of their own, to obtain illdependence from beings of the higher hier-
archies, to have experiences in their inner nature which they did not
have to manifest externally." Thus, says Steiner, were engendered the
Luciferic beings who wished to be filled with their own being. But in
so doing they did a service to humankind: they made it possible for
joyce
(Joyce)
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