This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Dionysian Choirs gathers the nine ranks of the angelic hierarchy set out by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in The Celestial Hierarchy, later taken up by Thomas Aquinas, and every member of this group exists because that one text placed it in one of three triads of three. The first and highest triad, closest to God and given to pure contemplation, holds Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones: the Seraphim as the burning ones of Isaiah's vision who cry holy, holy, holy above the throne, the Cherubim as the many eyed, winged guardians of divine wisdom who bore up that same throne and once guarded the way to the Tree of Life, and the Thrones as the seat and chariot of divine judgment where higher counsel becomes settled order. The second, middle triad, mediating between contemplation and the created world, holds Dominions, who regulate the duties of the lower angels; Virtues, who work miracles and govern the movements of the heavens; and Powers, the warrior angels who restrain disorder and keep the cosmic order from being overthrown.
The third and lowest triad, nearest humanity, holds Principalities, Archangels and Angels, and their descending order maps a real narrowing of scope: Principalities guard nations, cities and their rulers, Archangels carry God's most important decrees and lead the choir below them, and Angels, the ninth and last rank, are the ordinary messengers, word for word what the name means, including the guardian angels assigned to individuals. This scheme's edges are named rather than smoothed over: Cherubim and Seraphim are shared with unrelated ranks in the separate Kabbalistic ordering of angels, so identical words in the two systems name different things, a distinction the members draw rather than let a reader assume the two hierarchies agree.