The PRINCIPALITIES are the first of the choirs most concerned with the earth and are traditionally declared to have the roles of caretakers over every nation, province, county, district, city, town, village, and house, working with the guardian angels, who also are assigned to every spot and person. Two other areas of concern for the principalities are religion and politics. The former they encourage to spread by prayer and spiritual encouragement; the latter they seek to regulate for the good of humanity by guiding the thoughts and especially the ethics of what Dionysius termed the “leaders of people” all over the world.

The POWERS have the task of defeating the efforts of the demons in overthrowing the world and are declared the awesome defenders of the cosmos against all evil and the maintainers of all cosmic order and equilibrium. They are the guardians of the heavenly paths, policing the routes to and from heaven to the earth, which means that they concern themselves as well with all humanity. The great harmonizers, they assist each soul to overcome the temptations placed before it to do evil and to lean instead toward the proper action, which is to love and worship God.

The VIRTUES specifically preside over the elements of the world and the process of celestial life. Thus all heavenly bodies—from the stars and planets to the galaxies themselves—are kept in their divinely appointed routes and progress. On earth the Virtues maintain a watch over nature, marking and guiding every facet of natural life: rain, wind, snow, etc. St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica, noted that Virtues are in charge of miracles. As if these duties were not enough, the Virtues also assist humanity by bestowing grace and valor within the mortal heart. They give encouragement to the human to turn always to the good and help bolster the person’s will to endure hardship and suffering and to have the personal strength to turn ever toward God. As the angels in charge of miracles, they receive their orders from the powers, but they also are connected closely to the saints.

The DOMINATIONS are called also the Dominions. The Dominations belong to the second triad, with the virtues and powers, and are ranked fourth overall among the angelic choirs. The Dominations have the duty in the heavenly host of regulating the tasks of the angels, and “through them the majesty of God is manifested.” Through the efforts of the Dominations—who are naturally seen only rarely by mortals—the very order of the cosmos is maintained. They handle the minute details of cosmic life and existence, designating tasks to the lower orders of angels. The Dominations receive their instructions from the cherubim or thrones.

The THRONES belong to the first and highest triad of the heavenly host, standing just below the seraphim and the cherubim; this position makes them some of the most powerful angels in the service of the Lord. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, the thrones have the task of pondering the disposition of divine judgments, meaning that they carry out or fulfill the divine justice of the Lord. Like their counterparts in the first angelic triad, they come the closest of all angels to spiritual perfection and emanate the light of God with mirrorlike goodness. They are, despite their greatness, intensely humble, an attribute that permits them to dispense justice with perfect objectivity and without fear of pride or ambition. Because they are the living symbols of God’s justice and authority, they are called Thrones.

The CHERUBIM are some of the most powerful and awe-inspiring of all angels, standing below only the seraphim in direct closeness to God; they thus are second only to their seraphic brethren in the degree to which they emanate the love of God and possess knowledge and wisdom. Their illuminative knowledge and wisdom are thus so great as to be utterly incomprehensible to the mortal mind, blinding the blessed human who has the honor of actually beholding them in this world.