Chapter 4, Section 1m

Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.

The passage explicitly discusses the use of human terms like 'Love' and 'Yearning' for God, noting that mankind associates them with physical qualities.

Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.

The text warns against grasping the unity of Divine Yearning and describes it as a 'lapse therefrom' when understood partially.

The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.

The passage mentions that the highest moves to take thought for those below through a mutual connection.

The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.

The text emphasizes that the true nature of Divine Yearning is concealed from ordinary human understanding and perception.

The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.

The passage contrasts the simplicity of one Divine Yearning with the partial and divided quality of earthly desire.

A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.

The distinction between earthly desire (below static conditions) and Divine Desire (above them) implies a hierarchical structure.

Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.

The text describes the goal of being 'set free from all offence' through knowledge of Real Yearning rather than mere faith or ritual.

Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.

The passage notes that the word 'Love' is used to stimulate minds by its unexpectedness and hint at a mystery.

Diotima's staged ascent from love of beautiful bodies → beautiful souls → beautiful pursuits → beautiful knowledge → Beauty itself; the canonical scala amoris that grounds Plotinus's On the Beautiful and Bruno's Eroici Furori — distinct from generic spiritual_ascent in that eros is the specific motive force.

The passage centrally discusses the ascent from earthly desire to Real Yearning as a path toward knowledge of the Divine Wisdom.

The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.

The divine is described with active faculties such as unifying and conjoining rather than as an abstract principle.

The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.

The text emphasizes the 'unity intended' in Divine Yearning and contrasts it with divided earthly qualities.

The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.

The passage describes a faculty that pre-exists for the sake of the Beautiful and Good and holds together things by mutual connection.

Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.

The text presents the paradoxical use of 'Love' for God to stimulate penetration beyond the word to the mystery.

The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.

The goal described is being 'set free from all offence' and raised to the knowledge of Real Yearning.

Divine names or formulas that carry ontological power, used in prayer, liturgy, or magical practice.

The passage discusses the ontological power and reverence associated with specific divine titles like 'Love' and 'Yearning'.

The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.

The text describes mankind's fall into a notion of partial, physical quality that is a lapse from the true unity of Divine Yearning.

A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source.

The text outlines a movement from earthly desire to Real Yearning as a path toward knowledge and freedom.

The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.

The passage emphasizes the 'unity intended' in Divine Yearning and contrasts it with divided earthly qualities.