Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names · 7 of 12 · tr. C.E. Rolt
Chapter 5, Section 1g
as an Unity, produce the essences of things: laws which are called in Divine Science 141 “Preordinations” or Divine and beneficent Volitions, laws which ordain things and create them, laws whereby the Super-Essential preordained and brought into being the whole universe.
9.
And whereas the philosopher Clement 386 386 This is apparently the Bishop of Rome (c.
A.D.
95), writer of the well-known Epistle to the Corinthians, which is the earliest Christian writing outside the New Testament, and is published in Lightfoot’s Apostolic Fathers.
But no such passage as D.
alludes to occurs in the Epistle, which is his one extant writing.
maintains that the title “Exemplar” may, in a sense, be applied to the more important types in the visible world, he employs not the terms of his discourse in their proper, perfect and simple meaning.
387 387 Cf.
St.
Augustine, Commentary on St.
John, Tr.
XXI., § 2: ”Ubi demonstrat Filio Pater quod facit nisi in ipso Filio per quem facit?
.
.
.
.
Si quid facit Pater per Filium facit; si per sapientiam suam et virtutem suam facit; non extra illi ostendit quod videat .
.
.
in ipso illi ostendit quod facit.
.
.
.
(3) Quid videt Pater, vel potius quid videt Filius in Patre .
.
.
et ipse.“ (The Son beholds all things in Himself, and is Himself in the Father.) All things ultimately and timelessly exist in the Absolute.
It is their Essence (or Super-Essence).
Their creation from the Absolute into actual existence is performed by the Differentiated Persons of the Trinity: the Father working by the Spirit through the Son.
Thus the Differentiated Persons (to which together is given the Name of God) being the manifested Absolute, contain eternally those fused yet distinct essences of things which exist in the Absolute as a single yet manifold Essence.
This Essence they, by their mutual operation, pour forth, so that while ultimately contained in (or, rather identified with) the Absolute, it is in this world of relationships distinct and separate from the Differentiated Persons Which together are God, being in fact, a created manifestation of the Absolute, as God is an Uncreated Manifestation Thereof.
This created Essence of the world itself becomes differentiated into the separate creatures (water, earth, plants, animals, etc.), having this tendency because it contains within itself their separate generic forms which seek expression in the various particular things.
Wherever we can trace a law or purpose it is due to the presence of a generic form.
Thus vapour condenses into water in obedience to the generic form of water, and an oak-tree grows to its full stature in obedience to the generic form of the oak.
So too with works of art.
A cathedral is built in accordance with a plan or purpose, and this plan is the pre-existent generic form of the building; whereas a fortuitous heap of stones does not (as such) manifest any plan, and therefore has no generic form.
D.
attributing to Clement (perhaps fictitiously) the view that generic forms can in themselves— i.
e.
in their created essence—be properly called Exemplars, maintains that this is not strictly accurate.
Properly speaking, he says, they are Exemplars only as existent in God, and not as projected out from Him.
If, by a licence, we call them Exemplars, yet we must not let our minds rest in them, but must pass on at once to find their true being in God.
This apparent hair-splitting is really of the utmost practical importance.
D.
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Correspondencecosmology
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The text states that wherever we can trace a law or purpose it is due to the presence of a generic form.
All passages →Divine Providencetheology
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The passage explicitly describes laws that ordain things and create them through Divine Science and Volitions.
All passages →Emanation Hierarchycosmology
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 the pouring forth of Essence from the Differentiated Persons of the Trinity into actual existence.
All passages →Living Godtheology
The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.
The text describes God as an active agent who creates and brings into being the universe through Volitions.
All passages →Monadcosmology
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The Absolute is described as a single source from which all essences flow.
All passages →Paradox As Teachingethics
Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.
The passage presents the paradox of things existing in the Absolute as a single yet manifold Essence.
All passages →Unity Of Beingtheology
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The passage asserts that all things ultimately exist in the Absolute as a single yet manifold Essence.
All passages →Related passages · 9 parallels
neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 448
“Section 16 16. We have, of course, already seen that a secondary must follow upon the First, and that this is a power immeasurably fruitful; and we indicated that this truth is confirmed by the entire order of things since there is nothing,…”
Shared concept: Monad — The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows. (derived)
neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 451
“Section 1 1. Anything existing after The First must necessarily arise from that First, whether immediately or as tracing back to it through intervenients; there must be an order of secondaries and tertiaries, in which any second is to be re…”
Shared concept: Monad — The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows. (derived)
neoplatonism|Iamblichus: On the Mysteries|Chapter V
“But why am I prolix about these particulars? For I have abundantly shown, in what has been before said, the transcendency of divine above human divination. It is better, therefore, in compliance with your request, “ to point out to you the…”
Shared concept: Emanation Hierarchy — 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. (derived)
theosophy|The Secret Doctrine|Page 19 (part 1)
“The Secret Doctrine by H.
P.
Blavatsky -- Vol.
1 [[Vol.
1, Page]] 325 THE IMPARTIALITY OF SCIENTIFIC DENIALS.
[[This page continued from previous section ]] § III.
PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE AND DIVINE THOUGHT.
"As it would seem irrational…”
Shared concept: Unity Of Being — The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim. (derived)
theosophy|The Secret Doctrine|Page 3 (part 7)
“Herbert Spencer has of late so far modified his Agnosticism, as to assert that the nature of the "First Cause,"* which the Occultist more logically derives from the "Causeless Cause," the "Eternal," and the "Unknowable," may be essentially…”
Shared concept: Unity Of Being — The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim. (derived)
western_esoteric|The Kybalion (Three Initiates)|Chapter VIII (part 1)
“CHAPTER VIII PLANES OF CORRESPONDENCE "As above, so below; as below, so above."--The Kybalion.
The great Second Hermetic Principle embodies the truth that there is a harmony, agreement, and correspondence between the several planes of Mani…”
Shared concept: Correspondence — The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others. (derived)
platonism|Plato: Timaeus|Section 1ad
“That which yields has a small base; but that which rests on quadrangular bases is firmly posed and belongs to the class which offers the greatest resistance; so too does that which is the most compact and therefore most repellent.
The natu…”
Shared concept: Correspondence — The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others. (derived)
neoplatonism|Iamblichus: On the Mysteries|Chapter XXVII-a
“Moreover, neither is it sufficient to assert, “ that nature, art, and the sympathy of things in the universe, as if they were the parts of one animal, contain premanifestations of certain 188 things with reference to each other; nor that bo…”
Shared concept: Divine Providence — Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity. (derived)
western_esoteric|The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite)|Page 6 (part 1)
“PART I THE LITERATURE OF CEREMONIAL MAGIC Click to view THE SERPENT OF THE GARDEN OF THE HESPERIDES.
From a Greek Vase Painting.
CHAPTER I The antiquity of Magical Rituals § 1.
The Importance of Ceremonial Magic THE ordinary fields of ps…”
Shared concept: Paradox As Teaching — Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight. (derived)