What are the external forces that the beings may thus represent? They may include healing and illness, strength and weakness, love and hate, evil and good, wisdom and folly. Using the medieval Jewish philosophers’ metaphysics, these are God’s intermediaries, the vehicles through which divine efflux or emanation influences the universe, how Providence is effected in the world. For example, apprehension of the activity of the angel Raphael may represent the local action of universal healing forces, and Gabriel those of strength. These world-affecting forces manifest in comprehensible visual,
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