The name Seraphim means "the burning ones." In chistianity they are the caretakers of God's throne and continuously shout praises: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. All the earth is filled with His Glory."
The Seraph which had three pairs of wings, has to be interpreted as a symbol of a philosophical and religious idea. It is possible to explain the symbol of the six-winged Seraph as the six stages of illumination, which begin with God's creatures and lead up to God. The wings become stages in the process of the mind's elevation to God, and their position on the body of the Seraph indicates the heights of the stages of the soul's powers by which we mount from the depths to the heights, from the external to the internal, from the temporal to the eternal... As if, on the six wings by which the mind of the truly contemplative man grows strong to rise, filled with the illumination of supreme wisdom.
Detail of seraphim, Hagia Sophia
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