Chapter 4, Section 1o

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

The text describes God's nature by negation ('never varying its centre or direction'), emphasizing transcendence over spatial concepts.

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 describes a 'uniting and commingling power' that moves higher things to care for those below them.

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

The text refers to the 'very core of the Spirit' where the highest yearnings reside, implying a concealed divine depth.

The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.

The passage explicitly mentions 'those Beauties which have their veritable Being Yonder,' linking divine yearning to luminous qualities of truth and beauty.

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 text describes a downward flow of yearnings from the One to the world and above, establishing a structured hierarchy of being.

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

The passage emphasizes 'powers of knowledge' proper to spiritual yearnings as essential for understanding divine nature.

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

The text mentions bringing the Discourse to a 'holy consummation' through quoting esoteric Hymns of Yearning.

The doctrine of the universe as boundless and without center or circumference, populated by innumerable worlds — Bruno's rejection of the closed Aristotelian sphere; the divine and the cosmos as ontologically infinite.

The Divine Yearning is described as having a 'beginless and endless nature' revolving in a perpetual circle.

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

The Divine Yearning is depicted as an active, dynamic force that moves higher things to care for those below them.

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

The passage repeatedly references 'the One' as the singular source from which all manifold yearnings spring.

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

The text describes a movement toward union with the Good and the Divine Yearnings in the core of the Spirit.

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

The text presents the paradox that the Divine Yearning 'perpetually advancing and remaining and returning to Itself'.

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

The passage explicitly states the yearning is directed 'to the Good, from the Good, in the Good, and to the Good' with a perpetual return.

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 the movement of higher things to care for those below them, implying an inherent distance that yearning seeks to close.

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

The passage details a 'perpetually advancing' motion from the One toward the Good and Yonder.