I-6 The nine Hierarchies

Occult Science, Chap. 4 (pp. 122-128); Cosmic Memory, Essay xiv, “The Life of Saturn”; The Spiritual Hierarchies and Their Reflection in the Material World, Lect. 5; SB, Intro. by Querido (p. 17); Universe, Earth, and Man (UEM), Lect. Aug 7, 1908 (p. 63)

The spiritual Hierarchies, of which there are nine between the Trinity (Father-Son-Holy Spirit) and the human being, are as follows:

It is noted that in the most basic work, (OS), Steiner identifies his Spirits of Motion to the Christian esoteric term “Powers,” and equates his Spirits of Form to “Authorities.” However, in all the other works of his identified above, he conforms to the above listing in this regard.

An excellent article by Jennifer Mellett, entitled “The Spiritual Hierarchies as Depicted in the Florence Baptistry Dome and by Dante,” appeared in the informal publication entitled “Anthroposophy in Texas” in recent years, though I do not have the date of the issue. It has a most helpful tabulation entitled, “Different Systems of Ordering the Angelic Hierarchies,” which shows the terms used by Dionysius the Areopagite, Dante in Paradiso and in Il Convivio, Steiner, Brunetto Latini (Dante’s teacher) and Gregory the Great in Moralia and in Homilies. The terminology is generally in line with that above, though with some variations. Others who wrote on these Hierarchies, according to Querido’s Introduction to SB, include John of Salisbury, Bishop of Chartres, Thomas Aquinas, and Albertus Magnus. As Querido points out, by the sixteenth century, humanity (i.e., materialistic Christianity) had lost this spiritual view of the universe.