“Then I looked, and above the dome that was over the heads of the cherubim there appeared above them something like a sapphire, in form resembling a throne. He said to [the angel] ‘Go within the wheelwork underneath the cherubim’” (Ezekiel 10:1)
The prophet-priest Ezekiel is explaining the vision given to him by the river Chebar when he was in exile with his fellow Hebrews in Babylon. This gift was an encouragement to have faith in the Lord who would return them to their own land.
Angels are categorized in three sets of three types. The highest group is the Seraphim, the Cherubim and the Thrones. As you may notice from the vision recorded above, Thrones are the angels nearest to the locus of God, if we may dare to suggest that the Lord Almighty can be located, He whose parameters are nowhere and whose center is everywhere. Yet as the great and anonymous Church Father and specialist in explaining the ways of the angels, [Pseudo] Dionysus the Aeropagite related, whenever we contemplate or express the meaning of Thrones, we are conveying beings that transcend everything earthly. They whirl about the Throne of God and they do so eternally. Everything else other than the divine essence of the Holy Trinity is lower. They relish the privilege of being so near the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Free of all inferior emotions, they focus unceasingly on the divine Presence.
Cherubim inspire us to make our brief lifetime the opportunity to grow in wisdom and learning, and as we do so we open ourselves to the gift of illumination. As we gain in the ability to tune out the world and its hold on us, we become enabled to open the eyes of our souls to a transcendent wisdom from beyond creation. When this comes about, we then have the opportunity to share those gifts with any and all who yearn to have them, just as the Cherubim pour out wisdom on those who came below them.
Seraphim also travel around divinity, and they overflow with warmth. As they circle and move, they inspire the lower angels and us humans with the zeal [hence warmth] to rise towards the divine. To meditate on their presence is to set aside all thoughts of failure, all doubts about our inabilities, and all hesitation. Here is the ultimate expression of the power of positive thinking. Our sole problem then becomes how to increase the illumination that is uncreated and everlasting, and how we may avoid, ignore or triumph over all the shadows and dark experiences of our life here on earth. When monastic men and women are blessed with the name of Seraphim given them upon their tonsure, it is as a prolepsis to inspire them and remind them of what they will be striving for through the remaining days of their lives.
Whenever we touch upon the reality, ranks and descriptions of the angels, we must ever bear in mind that they are a form of creation apart and outside of human beings. In the past, especially when the creation as we know it was deprecated and the human body seen as spiritually worthless, good only as a cage of the soul, then the angels were uplifted out of all proportion to their place in the divine plan. In today’s world modern man and woman have strayed so far from faith in God that they seek out angels to fill up the vacuum where the Lord desires to abide; yet never violating the gift of freedom He gave to us, He will not be where He is unwanted. Angels are neither worshipped nor ignored, but presented by the Lord to us as creatures of another kind, to pray with us and for us that we may grow in the ways of the Spirit.