An Historical Summary of Angelic Hierarchies from Part VII: The “Seven” Thrones in In Operibus Sigillo Dei Aemeth by David Richard Jones.

“In order to see why Dee and Kelly would have recognized a term like ‘Throne’ to be a definition of one of the Orders found in the Sigillum, it is important to understand how the concept evolved theologically.” [via]

Consider also:

  1. The Initiate
  2. “In the first section below and the text following it, not given but to which the careful reader is referred, the hierarchy is fairly strictly that of Saint Gregory and Denis. In the second section here we have a threefold division according to the lower planetary spheres, exactly along the lines given in the passage describing the principle hierarchies of the Sigillum, that is Thrones, Archangels (or as demonstrated above Trumpets) and Angels. And in the final section we see that Thrones are assigned to the motions of the heavenly spheres. This is the function they seem to have in the overall structure of the Sigillum and which clearly relates to the magical theories of Dee’s own Propeadeumata Aphoristica.”
  3. “Thrones and the divine order appear again in Dante’s unfinished Convivio or Banquet, a work reflecting his interest in ancient philosophy and modeled on the symposia of the ancient Greeks. Here we find a particular reflection of what we find in Dee and in the Spirit Actions of Liber Secundus.”
  4. Although scholarly opinion differs as to its date of composition and origin, the earliest form of this text can be traced to what is now referred to as that Aramaic Levi Document. And though the text of The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs is clearly a compilation by an early Christian author (circa 2C C.E.), it is now known with certainty to have been derived from pre-Christian, and probably sectarian Jewish sources.”
  5. “A similar, though less elaborate nine-fold celestial hierarchy was proposed by Pope Gregory I in his Gospel Homilies and in his Moralia on Job by collecting the Old Testament and Pauline references to angelic orders and arranging them by logical inference. We speak of nine orders of Angels, because we know, by the testimony of Holy Scripture, that there are the following: Angels, Archangels, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Dominations, Thrones, Cherumbim and Seraphim. Nearly every page of Scripture is witness to the fact that there are Angels and Archangels. The prophetic books, as has been noted often, speak of Cherubim and Seraphim. Four more orders are enumerated by Paul the Apostle, writing to the Ephesians, when he says, ‘Above every Principality and Power and Virtue and Domination.’ And again writing to the Colossians, he says, ‘Whether Thrones, or Powers, or Principalities, or Dominations.’ When ,then, we add the Thrones to those he mentions to the Ephesians, there are five orders, to which are to be added Angels, Archangels, Cherubim and Seraphim, certainly making nine orders of Angels in all. Homily XXIV — Pope St. Gregory I”