Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite is the modern name for the anonymous Christian author of The Divine Names, Mystical Theology, and the treatises on celestial and ecclesiastical hierarchy, probably written in the late fifth or early sixth century. Writing under the name of Paul’s Athenian convert, the author translated major themes of late Neoplatonism into a Christian language of divine names, sacred symbol, hierarchy, liturgy, and ascent into the darkness beyond every concept.
Dionysius is a decisive bridge between Proclus and the Christian mystical West. For the Royal Art, he offers a disciplined account of how symbol and hierarchy can lead beyond themselves: the mind names God, negates every name, and passes into reverent unknowing rather than making an idol of its own concepts.