5

Since, however, all of the aforesaid modes are twofold - as when we

consider God as the alpha and omega, or in so far as we happen to see God

in one of the aforesaid modes as "through" a mirror and "in" a mirror, or

as one of those considerations can be mixed with the other conjoined to it

or may be considered alone in its purity - hence it is necessary that these

three principal stages become sixfold, so that as God made the world in six

days and rested on the seventh, so the microcosm by six successive stages

of illumination is led in the most orderly fashion to the repose of

contemplation. As a symbol of this we have the six steps to the throne of

Solomon [III Kings, 10, 19]; the Seraphim whom Isaiah saw have six wings;

after six days the Lord called Moses out of the midst of the cloud [Ex.,

21, 16]; and Christ after six days, as is said in Matthew [17, 1], brought

His disciples up into a mountain and was transfigured before them.