Active Contemplation

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IX

“In the last place, the dispositions of the soul of those that invoke the Gods to appear receive, when they become visible, a liberation from the passions, a transcendent perfection, and an energy entirely more excellent, and participate of…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter Xa

“What you introduce, however, for the purpose of obtaining a knowledge of these things, whether it be your own opinion, or whether you have heard it from others, is neither true nor rightly asserted. For you say, “ that to speak 104 boastin…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XIV

“Concerning another kind of divination, also, you say as follows: “ Others who are conscious what they are doing in other respects, are divinely inspired according to the phantastic part, some indeed receiving darkness for a cooperator, othe…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXI

“I think, therefore, that all who are lovers of the contemplation of theurgic truth will acknowledge this, that the piety which pertains to divine natures ought not to be exercised towards them partially or imperfectly. Hence, since prior to…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIe

““The divine Iamblichus, however, doubts how the Gods are said to be allotted certain places according to definite times, as, by Plato in the Timæus, Minerva is said to have been first allotted the guardianship of Athens, and afterwards of S…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIf

“Thus they recognised things supreme in such as are subordinate, and the subordinate in the supreme: in the celestial regions, terrene properties subsisting in a causal and celestial manner; and in earth celestial properties, but according t…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIg

“So that all things are full of divine natures; terrestrial natures receiving the plenitude of such as are celestial, but celestial of supercelestial essences; [153] while every order of things proceeds gradually, in a beautiful descent, fro…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII~

“But Pythagoras, as he was astronomizing, happened to meet with the Phrygian piper at an unseasonable time of night, and persuaded him to change his Phrygian for a spondaic song; through which the fury of the lad being immediately repressed,…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII

“Ταις ενεργειαις της μελῳδιας συμπασχειν ημων αντικρυς τας ψυχας, την συγγενειαν ωσπερ επιγινωσκουσας ——et, ποτε μεν εις ησυχιαν και κατασολην τρεπεσθαι, ποτε δε εις οἱσρον και ενθυσιασμον. And, in the last place, see Plato in his Io, and A…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIƒ

“with evil dæmons], which are hurled forth before the Gods, but on entering the interior parts of the temple, unmoved, and guarded by the mystic rites, they genuinely receive in their bosom divine illumination, and divested of their garments…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII„

“407; the Introduction to my translation of Aristotle on the Soul; and the long extract from Synesius on Dreams, in vol. ii. of my Proclus on Euclid. 70 . i. e. The discursive energy of reason. 71 . Proclus in Plat. Polit. having o…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII…

“To this, also, what every where occurs about prediction from the laurel pertains. For if the leaves of the laurel when committed to the fire made a noise, it was considered as a good omen, but if they made none, a bad one. 77 . Gale, in…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIŠ

“Η γοητεια δε εστι τεχνη τις περι τους ενυλους και χθονιους δαιμονας φαντασιοσκοπουσα τοις εποπταις τα τουτων ειδωλα. και τους μεν ωσπερ εξ αδου αναγουσα, τους δε υψοθεν καταγουσα, και τουτους κακωτικους. και ειδωλα αττα υφιστησι φαντασματ…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII‹

“και αετοι μεν, και δρακοντες, βιωσιμοι αυτοις προς υγειαν υποθεσις´ αιλουροι δε και κυνες, και κορακες αγρυπνητικα συμβολα. κηρος δε και πηλος εις τας των μοριων συμπλασεις παραλαμβανονται. φανταζει δε πολλακις, και πυρος ουρανιου εδοσεις…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 5

“Section 1 1. Pleasure and distress, fear and courage, desire and aversion, where have these affections and experiences their seat? Clearly, either in the Soul alone, or in the Soul as employing the body, or in some third entity deriving fro…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 30

“Section 4 4. But this science, this Dialectic essential to all the three classes alike, what, in sum, is it? It is the Method, or Discipline, that brings with it the power of pronouncing with final truth upon the nature and relation of thin…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 32

“Section 6 6. Philosophy has other provinces, but Dialectic is its precious part: in its study of the laws of the universe, Philosophy draws on Dialectic much as other studies and crafts use Arithmetic, though, of course, the alliance betwee…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 159

“Section 3 3. Ever illuminated, receiving light unfailing, the All-Soul imparts it to the entire series of later Being which by this light is sustained and fostered and endowed with the fullest measure of life that each can absorb. It may be…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 163

“Section 7 7. That this world has neither beginning nor end but exists for ever as long as the Supreme stands is certainly no novel teaching. And before this school rose it had been urged that commerce with the body is no gain to a Soul. But…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 255

“Section 3 3. What, then, can this be, this something in virtue of which we declare the entire divine Realm to be Eternal, everlasting? We must come to some understanding of this perpetuity with which Eternity is either identical or in confo…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 336

“Section 16 16. But if in the soul thing follows thing, if there is earlier and later in its productions, if it engenders or creates in time, then it must be looking towards the future; and if towards the future, then towards the past as wel…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 347

“Section 27 27. If the earth transmits the generative soul to growing things- or retains it while allowing a vestige of it to constitute the vegetal principle in them- at once the earth is ensouled, as our flesh is, and any generative power…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 358

“Section 38 38. Whatever springs automatically from the All out of that distinctive life of its own, and, in addition to that self-moving activity, whatever is due to some specific agency- for example, to prayers, simple or taking the form o…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 430

“Section 1 1. The One is all things and no one of them; the source of all things is not all things; all things are its possession- running back, so to speak, to it- or, more correctly, not yet so, they will be. But a universe from an unbroke…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 442 (part 1)

“Section 10 10. This matter need not be elaborated at present: it suffices to say that if the created were all, these ultimates [the higher] need not exist: but the Supreme does include primals, the primals because the producers. In other…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 460

“Section 7 7. Consider the act of ocular vision: There are two elements here; there is the form perceptible to the sense and there is the medium by which the eye sees that form. This medium is itself perceptible to the eye, distinct from the…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 461

“Section 8 8. So that we are left wondering whence it came, from within or without; and when it has gone, we say, "It was here. Yet no; it was beyond!" But we ought not to question whence; there is no whence, no coming or going in place; now…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 491

“Section 13 13. The God fettered [as in the Kronos Myth] to an unchanging identity leaves the ordering of this universe to his son (to Zeus), for it could not be in his character to neglect his rule within the divine sphere, and, as though s…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 506

“Section 14 14. There is, thus, a Nature comprehending in the Intellectual all that exists, and this Principle must be the source of all. But how, seeing that the veritable source must be a unity, simplex utterly? The mode by which from the…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 565

“Section 4 4. What, then, we have to ask, is the constant element in the first three entities? What is it that identifies them with their inherent Substance? Is it the capacity to serve as a base? But Matter, we maintain, serves as the base…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 567

“Section 6 6. Granted, it may be urged, that these observations upon the nature of Substance are sound, we have not yet arrived at a statement of its essence. Our critic doubtless expects to see this "Sensible": but its essence, its characte…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 568

“Section 7 7. But Matter, it may be contended, is the source of existence to the Sensible things implanted in it. From what source, then, we retort, does Matter itself derive existence and being? That Matter is not a Primary we have establis…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 635

“Section 15 15. We must repeat: The Collective Being, the Authentic, There, is at once Being and Intellectual-Principle and the Complete Living Form; thus it includes the total of living things; the Unity There is reproduced by the unity of…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 637

“Section 17 17. But what of the Infinite Number we hear of; does not all this reasoning set it under limit? And rightly so if the thing is to be a number; limitlessness and number are in contradiction. How, then, do we come to use the term?…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 645

“Section 6 6. But how can that higher soul have sense-perception? It is the perception of what falls under perception There, sensation in the mode of that realm: it is the source of the soul's perception of the sense-realm in its corresponde…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 660

“Section 21 21. Now what in all these objects of desire is the fundamental making them good? We must be bold: Intellectual-Principle and that life are of the order of good and hold their desirability, even they, in virtue of belonging to tha…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 695 (part 1)

“Section 13 13. Our enquiry obliges us to use terms not strictly applicable: we insist, once more, that not even for the purpose of forming the concept of the Supreme may we make it a duality; if now we do, it is merely for the sake of conv…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 697

“Section 15 15. Lovable, very love, the Supreme is also self-love in that He is lovely no otherwise than from Himself and in Himself. Self-presence can hold only in the identity of associated with associating; since, in the Supreme, associat…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 14

“Section 10 10. It will be objected, that if the Soul constitutes the We [the personality] and We are subject to these states then the Soul must be subject to them, and similarly that what We do must be done by the Soul. But it has been obse…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 17

“Section 13 13. And the principle that reasons out these matters? Is it We or the Soul? We, but by the Soul. But how "by the Soul"? Does this mean that the Soul reasons by possession [by contact with the matters of enquiry]? No; by the fact…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 25

“Section 7 7. The virtues in the Soul run in a sequence correspondent to that existing in the over-world, that is among their exemplars in the Intellectual-Principle. In the Supreme, Intellection constitutes Knowledge and Wisdom; self-concen…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 28

“Section 2 2. The born lover, to whose degree the musician also may attain- and then either come to a stand or pass beyond- has a certain memory of beauty but, severed from it now, he no longer comprehends it: spellbound by visible lovelines…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 29

“Section 3 3. The metaphysician, equipped by that very character, winged already and not like those others, in need of disengagement, stirring of himself towards the supernal but doubting of the way, needs only a guide. He must be shown, the…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 31

“Section 5 5. But whence does this science derive its own initial laws? The Intellectual-Principle furnishes standards, the most certain for any soul that is able to apply them. What else is necessary, Dialectic puts together for itself, com…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 43

“Section 10 10. Perhaps the reason this continuous activity remains unperceived is that it has no touch whatever with things of sense. No doubt action upon material things, or action dictated by them, must proceed through the sensitive facul…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 53

“Section 3 3. Yes, but if the well-being has lasted a long time, if that present spectacle has been a longer time before the eyes? If in the greater length of time the man has seen more deeply, time has certainly done something for him, but…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 65

“Section 4 4. But there are earlier and loftier beauties than these. In the sense-bound life we are no longer granted to know them, but the soul, taking no help from the organs, sees and proclaims them. To the vision of these we must mount,…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 66 (part 1)

“Section 5 5. These Lovers, then, lovers of the beauty outside of sense, must be made to declare themselves. What do you feel in presence of the grace you discern in actions, in manners, in sound morality, in all the works and fruits of vi…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 85 (part 1)

“Section 10 10. But if Matter is devoid of quality how can it be evil? It is described as being devoid of quality in the sense only that it does not essentially possess any of the qualities which it admits and which enter into it as into a…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 100 (part 2)

“Such motion alone can constitute its impulse towards its centre: it cannot coincide with the centre, for then there would be no circle; since this may not be, it whirls about it; so only can it indulge its tendence. If, on the other hand,…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 123

“Section 1 1. By common agreement of all that have arrived at the conception of such a Kind, what is known as Matter is understood to be a certain base, a recipient of Form-Ideas. Thus far all go the same way. But departure begins with the a…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 173 (part 2)

“Nothing base within can be beautiful without- at least not with an authentic beauty, for there are examples of a good exterior not sprung from a beauty dominant within; people passing as handsome but essentially base have that, a spurious a…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 174

“Section 18 18. But perhaps this school will maintain that, while their teaching leads to a hate and utter abandonment of the body, ours binds the Soul down in it. In other words: two people inhabit the one stately house; one of them declaim…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 202 (part 2)

“All this is the doing of man knowing no more than to live the lower and outer life, and never perceiving that, in his weeping and in his graver doings alike, he is but at play; to handle austere matters austerely is reserved for the thought…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 224

“Section 3 3. That Love is a Hypostasis [a "Person"] a Real-Being sprung from a Real-Being- lower than the parent but authentically existent- is beyond doubt. For the parent-Soul was a Real-Being sprung directly from the Act of the Hypostasi…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 226

“Section 5 5. But what is the Nature of this Spirit- of the Supernals in general? The Spirit-Kind is treated in the Symposium where, with much about the others, we learn of Eros- Love- born to Penia- Poverty- and Poros- Possession- who is so…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 236 (part 1)

“Section 4 4. We have, however, still to examine what is called the affective phase of the Soul. This has, no doubt, been touched upon above where we dealt with the passions in general as grouped about the initiative phase of the Soul and…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 257

“Section 5 5. This Ever-Being is realized when upon examination of an object I am able to say- or rather, to know- that in its very Nature it is incapable of increment or change; anything that fails by that test is no Ever-Existent or, at le…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 258 (part 2)

“But the conception of Eternity demands something which is in its nature complete without sequence; it is not satisfied by something measured out to any remoter time or even by something limitless, but, in its limitless reach, still having t…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 269

“Section 3 3. But if this Reason-Principle [Nature] is in act- and produces by the process indicated- how can it have any part in Contemplation? To begin with, since in all its production it is stationary and intact, a Reason-Principle self-…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 273

“Section 7 7. Certain Principles, then, we may take to be established- some self-evident, others brought out by our treatment above: All the forms of Authentic Existence spring from vision and are a vision. Everything that springs from these…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 274 (part 1)

“Section 8 8. From this basis we proceed: In the advancing stages of Contemplation rising from that in Nature, to that in the Soul and thence again to that in the Intellectual-Principle itself- the object contemplated becomes progressively…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 274 (part 2)

“The Intellectual-Principle on the other hand was never merely the Principle of an inviolable unity; it was a universal as well and, being so, was the Intellectual-Principle of all things. Being, thus, all things and the Principle of all, i…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 280 (part 1)

“Section 3 3. (A)... How, then, does Unity give rise to Multiplicity? By its omnipresence: there is nowhere where it is not; it occupies, therefore, all that is; at once, it is manifold- or, rather, it is all things. If it were simply an…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 300

“Section 13 13. The Ineluctable, the Kosmic Law is, thus, rooted in a natural principle under which each several entity is overruled to go, duly and in order, towards that place and Kind to which it characteristically tends, that is towards…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 325

“Section 5 5. But this power which determines memory is it also the principle by which the Supreme becomes effective in us? At any time when we have not been in direct vision of that sphere, memory is the source of its activity within us; wh…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 364

“Section 44 44. Contemplation alone stands untouched by magic; no man self-gathered falls to a spell; for he is one, and that unity is all he perceives, so that his reason is not beguiled but holds the due course, fashioning its own career a…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 414

“Section 5 5. How then can a multitude of essential beings be really one? Obviously either the one essence will be entire in all, or the many will rise from a one which remains unaltered and yet includes the one- many in virtue of giving its…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 423 (part 1)

“Section 7 7. We must be more explicit: The Intellectual-Principle stands as the image of The One, firstly because there is a certain necessity that the first should have its offspring, carrying onward much of its quality, in other words th…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 424

“Section 8 8. This is the explanation of Plato's Triplicity, in the passage where he names as the Primals the Beings gathered about the King of All, and establishes a Secondary containing the Secondaries, and a Third containing the Tertiarie…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 433

“Section 1 1. Are we to think that a being knowing itself must contain diversity, that self-knowledge can be affirmed only when some one phase of the self perceives other phases, and that therefore an absolutely simplex entity would be equal…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 435

“Section 3 3. Sense sees a man and transmits the impression to the understanding. What does the understanding say? It has nothing to say as yet; it accepts and waits; unless, rather, it questions within itself "Who is this?"- someone it has…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 437 (part 1)

“Section 5 5. Does it all come down, then, to one phase of the self knowing another phase? That would be a case of knower distinguished from known, and would not be self-knowing. What, then, if the total combination were supposed to be of…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 440 (part 1)

“Section 8 8. Now comes the question what sort of thing does the Intellectual-Principle see in seeing the Intellectual Realm and what in seeing itself? We are not to look for an Intellectual realm reminding us of the colour or shape to be…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 444 (part 2)

“The entire intellectual order may be figured as a kind of light with the One in repose at its summit as its King: but this manifestation is not cast out from it: we may think, rather, of the One as a light before the light, an eternal irrad…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 445

“Section 13 13. Thus The One is in truth beyond all statement: any affirmation is of a thing; but the all-transcending, resting above even the most august divine Mind, possesses alone of all true being, and is not a thing among things; we ca…”

◇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,…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 468

“Section 1 1. There is a principle having intellection of the external and another having self-intellection and thus further removed from duality. Even the first mentioned is not without an effort towards the pure unity of which it is not so…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 470

“Section 3 3. We may be told that nothing prevents an identity being thus multiple. But there must be a unity underlying the aggregate: a manifold is impossible without a unity for its source or ground, or at least, failing some unity, relat…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 475

“Section 1 1. We have to examine the question whether there exists an ideal archetype of individuals, in other words whether I and every other human being go back to the Intellectual, every [living] thing having origin and principle There. I…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 488

“Section 10 10. This is why Zeus, although the oldest of the gods and their sovereign, advances first [in the Phaidros myth] towards that vision, followed by gods and demigods and such souls as are of strength to see. That Being appears befo…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 494

“Section 2 2. What is this other place and how it is accessible? It is to be reached by those who, born with the nature of the lover, are also authentically philosophic by inherent temper; in pain of love towards beauty but not held by mater…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 495

“Section 3 3. We will have to examine this Nature, the Intellectual, which our reasoning identifies as the authentically existent and the veritable essential: but first we must take another path and make certain that such a principle does ne…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 496

“Section 4 4. But, soul reached, why need we look higher; why not make this The First? A main reason is that the Intellectual-Principle is at once something other and something more powerful than Soul and that the more powerful is in the nat…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 500

“Section 8 8. If, then, the Intellection is an act upon the inner content [of a perfect unity], that content is at once the Idea [as object: eidos] and the Idea itself [as concept: idea]. What, then, is that content? An Intellectual-Principl…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 510

“Section 2 2. But are we really obliged to posit the existence of such genera? Take Substance, for Substance must certainly be our starting-point: what are the grounds for regarding Substance as one single genus? It has been remarked that Su…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 552

“Section 14 14. Why is Quality, again, not included among the Primaries? Because like Quantity it is a posterior, subsequent to Substance. Primary Substance must necessarily contain Quantity and Quality as its consequents; it cannot owe its…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 564

“Section 3 3. How then do we go to work? Let us begin by distinguishing Matter, Form, the Mixture of both, and the Attributes of the Mixture. The Attributes may be subdivided into those which are mere predicates, and those serving also as ac…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 612

“Section 5 5. Often for the purpose of exposition- as a help towards stating the nature of the produced multiplicity- we use the example of many lines radiating from one centre; but, while we provide for individualization, we must carefully…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 636 (part 2)

“When you enumerate two things- say, animal and beauty- each of these remains one thing; the number is your production; it lay within yourself; it is you that elaborate quantity, here the dyad. But when you declare virtue to be a Tetrad, yo…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 650 (part 1)

“Section 11 11. The very heavens, patently multiple, cannot be thought to disdain any form of life since this universe holds everything. Now how do these things come to be here? Does the higher realm contain all of the lower? All that ha…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 652 (part 1)

“Section 13 13. For Intellectual-Principle is not a simplex, nor is the soul that proceeds from it: on the contrary things include variety in the degree of their simplicity, that is to say in so far as they are not compounds but Principles…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 663

“Section 24 24. But ourselves- how does it touch us? We may recall what we have said of the nature of the light shining from it into Intellectual-Principle and so by participation into the soul. But for the moment let us leave that aside and…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 670

“Section 31 31. But since Thence come the beauty and light in all, it is Thence that Intellectual-Principle took the brilliance of the Intellectual Energy which flashed Nature into being; Thence soul took power towards life, in virtue of tha…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 679 (part 1)

“Section 40 40. That there can be no intellection in the First will be patent to those that have had such contact; but some further confirmation is desirable, if indeed words can carry the matter; we need overwhelming persuasion. It must b…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 714

“Section 10 10. But how comes the soul not to keep that ground? Because it has not yet escaped wholly: but there will be the time of vision unbroken, the self hindered no longer by any hindrance of body. Not that those hindrances beset that…”

◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Bembine Table of Isisc

“For as in the Supreme Mind everything is simultaneous and spaceless, the future is therefore present in that Mind; and they thought that while the human mind was absorbed in the Supreme by contemplation, by that union they were enabled to k…”

◆Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter I (part 1)

“p. vii CONTENTS AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION xiii INTRODUCTION TO THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION 1 CHAPTER I What do we know and what do we not know? Our data, and the things for which we seek. The unknown mistaken for the known. Mat…”

◆Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter II (part 1)

“p. 23 CHAPTER II A new view of the Kantian problem. The books of Hinton. The "space-sense" and its evolution. A system for the development of a sense of the fourth dimension by exercises with colored cubes. The geometrical conception o…”

◆Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter III (part 2)

“In analogy with all this, the solid, in order to leave as the tracing of its movement, the four-dimensional figure (hypersolid) shall move in a direction not confined in it; or in other words it shall come out of itself, set off from itself…”

◆Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter IV (part 1)

“p. 38 CHAPTER IV In what direction may the fourth dimension lie? What is motion? Two kinds of motion—motion in space and motion in time—which are contained in every movement. What is time? Two ideas contained in the conception of time.…”

◆Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter IV (part 3)

“If, presupposing that we are moving upon a sphere, upon its equator or one of its parallels, then it will appear that we recognize as really existing only one meridian: those which are behind us have disappeared and those ahead of us have n…”

◆Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter IV (part 5)

“There results in the other case a life upon some sort of needle-point called the present , which is surrounded on all sides by an abyss of non-existence, a journey in a country which does not as yet exist , a life in a world which is born a…”

◆Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter IV (part 8)

“We have that sense, therefore we sense motion. The time-sense is the sensation of changing moments. If we did not have this time-sense we could not feel motion. The "time-sense" is itself, in substance, the limit or the surface of our "s…”

◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | INTRODUCTIONj

“The body is in the soul, the soul is in the mind, the mind is in God. The life of the soul is the true life of the man. Of all his various faculties, that which rules all, that which exalts our nature, is Thought. By means of it we rise…”

◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | First Dialoguea

“. Tansillo, Cicada. Tans. The enthusiasms most suitable to be first brought forward and considered are those that I now place before you in the order that seems to me most fitting. Cic. Begin, then, to read. Tansillo. 1. Ye Muses, t…”

◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | First Dialogued

“Some are called in vain to put in a ready appearance, and are chiefly those which proceed from the lower instincts, and which obey the reason either not at all, or very little; and forcing himself to prevent their actions and condemn those…”

◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | Second Dialoguee

“Herein he proves that his love is truly heroic; because he proposes to himself as the chief aim, not corporeal beauty, but rather the grace of the spirit, and the inclination of the affections in which, rather than in the beauty of the body…”

◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | Third Dialogueb

“It is not a fury of black bile which sends him drifting outside of judgment, reason, and acts of prudence, and tossed by the discordant tempest, like those who, having violated certain laws of the divine Adrastia, are condemned to be scourg…”

◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | Third Dialoguec

“Here he shows his love not to be like that of the butterfly, of the stag, and of the unicorn, who would flee away if they had knowledge of the fire, of the arrow, and of the snares, and who have no other sense than that of pleasure; but he…”

◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | Third Dialoguee

“Others esteem him unhappy through this appearance of an evil destiny, as being condemned to these pangs, for he will never cease from acknowledging the obligation he is under to love, nor cease from rendering thanks to him because he has pr…”

◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | Third Dialoguef

“Fitly, therefore, this rapture of heroic enthusiasm feeds on such "high emprise." For the object is infinite, and in action most simple, and our intellectual power cannot apprehend the infinite except in speech or in a certain manner of spe…”

◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 3, Section 1c

“It would be an impiety to do so, for he is almost equal to the Scriptural Writers, as he showed when he met with them to view the body of the B. V. M. even among our inspired Hierarchs (when, as thou knowest, we with him and many of our…”

◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1b

“Hence have they their celestial orders, their self-unities, their mutual indwellings, their distinct Differences, the faculties which raise the lower unto the higher ranks, the providences of the higher for those beneath them; their preserv…”

◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1€

“277 ἑνώσεις, διακρίσεις, ταὐτότητες, ἑτερότητες. 278 Hence parts are united into wholes and wholes articulated into parts, and hence each thing is identical with itself and distinct from everything else. 279 e.g. Moisture interpenetrates…”

◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 7, Section 1b

“(2) Wisdom as a whole = Wisdom embodied in the universe as a whole. (3) Wisdom in each individual instance = Wisdom as shown in the structure of some particular plant or animal, or part of a plant or animal. (1) Is an Emanation; (2) and (…”

◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 7, Section 1f

“The angels are conceived of as being always in such a state of contemplation. 408 God is the Manifested Absolute. Hence qua Absolute He is supra-sapient, qua Manifested He is wise (cf. ch. i, § 1). The Persons of the Trinity possess on…”

◆Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | VIe

“Therefore sanctification is the best of all things, for it cleanses the soul, and illuminates the conscience, and kindles the heart, and wakens the spirit, and girds up the loins, and glorifies virtue and separates us from creatures, and un…”

◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 1 (part 1)

“p. 33 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME. "Our whole doctrine is nothing else but an instruction to show how man may create a kingdom of light within himself. . . . He in whom this spring of divine power flows, carries within himself the d…”

◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 1 (part 8)

“1 "When my spirit, full of sorrow, earnestly, and as if moving in a great storm, arose in God, carrying with it my whole heart and mind, with all my thoughts and with the whole of my will, and when I would not cease to wrestle with the love…”

◆Orphic Hymns | Front Matter, p. 4 (part 7)

“And although the same employment is common both to the ruler, and those who are ruled; yet the latter, if destitute of a leader, could no longer conspire together in one occupation; as the concord of the fingers and ` dancers, and the exped…”

◆Orphic Hymns | Front Matter, p. 4 (part 10)

“For in this solemnity grass is carried about, enwrapping the kernels of olives, attended with figs, all kinds of pulse, oaken boughs or acorns, the fruit of the strawberry, wheat, and barley, a mass of dried figs, cakes composed from the me…”

◆Orphic Hymns | Front Matter, p. 4 (part 11)

“As the husbandman, therefore, performs sacred rites, by presenting handfuls of pulse and fruits, so ought we to sacrifice our purest thoughts, and other goods of the soul, thanking the divinities for the sublime contemplations they afford u…”

◆Orphic Hymns | Front Matter, p. 4 (part 15)

“For the generative causes of things, are contained by similitude in their effects; and in causes themselves their progeny subsist, comprehended in perfect union and consent. Hence the celestial orbs impart a copious defluxion of good to th…”

◆Orphic Hymns | Front Matter, p. 4 (part 16)

“This heated paper we may compare to a certain relation of inferiors to superiors; and its approximation to the lamp, to the opportune use of things according to time, place, and matter. But the procession of fire in the paper aptly represe…”

◆Orphic Hymns | Front Matter, p. 5 (part 4)

“Now Nature is called in these hymns, or rather initiations πολυμήχανε μῆτερ, or much-mechanic Mother, and παντοτεχνεσ or universal Artist; and Minerva is denominated μητερ τεχνῶν, or Mother of Arts. Likewise Nature is expressly called ἀθαν…”

◆Orphic Hymns | Hymn LXXV. THE MUSES (part 3)

“So in the poetic chain, it is requisite there should be something divine, which, through proper mediums, may connect the last to the first monad. This Fury Homer, as well as Plato, calls at one time in the plural number Muses, and at anoth…”

◆The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 4 (part 1)

“p. 1 THE GOLDEN VERSES OF PYTHAGORAS 1. First worship the Immortal Gods, as they are established and ordained by the Law. 2. Reverence the Oath, and next the Heroes, full of goodness and light. 3. Honour likewise the Terrestrial Dæmon…”

◆The Book of Concealed Mystery (Siphra Dtzenioutha) | 1a

“CHAPTER V. 1. (It is written) Isa. i. 4: "Woe unto the sinful nation, unto the people heavy with iniquity, unto the seed of evildoers, &c." (Here the author of the "Siphra Dtzenioutha" reasoneth concerning the small word HVI, "woe," whi…”

◆The Book of Concealed Mystery (Siphra Dtzenioutha) | 1c

“And to it also pertain the following names, namely, the name) IH, Yah (whensoever it is written in full with A in this manner:) IVD HA, Yod Ha (and containeth the number of the numeral powers of the letters of the Tetragrammaton, namely, 26…”

◆The Book of Concealed Mystery (Siphra Dtzenioutha) | 1e

“31: "And He was wise above every man." Because these are not classed with man. 21. (But when it is said) "And the Tetragrammaton gave him wisdom," then is understood the supernal He . (Because he gave unto him the influx of the wisdom of…”

◆The Book of Concealed Mystery (Siphra Dtzenioutha) | 1f

“[The letters of the Hebrew alphabet are divided into three classes, the three mothers as they are called, AMSh; the seven duplex letters, BGDKPRTh, so called because they are sometimes tenues and sometimes aspirates, according to whether th…”

◆The Book of Concealed Mystery (Siphra Dtzenioutha) | 1h

“35: "Ye shall not do iniquity in judgment, in dimension, in weight, and in measure." (Where these four are mystically intimated.) 37. (There is one) rigorous judgment (of severity),another that is not rigorous (that is, of the kingdom). T…”

◆The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter II

“CHAPTER II. 1. Observe ye everything that takes place in the heaven, how they do not change their orbits, ⌈ and ⌉ the luminaries which are in the heaven, how they all rise and set in order each in its season, and transgress not against thei…”

◆The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter III

“CHAPTER III. Observe and see how (in the winter) all the trees ⌈⌈ seem as though they had withered and shed all their leaves, except fourteen trees, which do not lose their foliage but retain the old foliage from two to three years till the…”

◆The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter V

“CHAPTER V. 1. Observe ⌈⌈ ye ⌉⌉ how the trees cover themselves with green leaves and bear fruit: wherefore give ye heed ⌈ and know ⌉ with regard to all ⌈ His works ⌉ , and recognize how He that liveth for ever hath made them so. 2. And ⌈ all…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 3: The Sacred Sermon | Section 1

“The Sacred Sermon 1. The Glory of all things is God, Godhead and Godly Nature. Source of the things that are is God, who is both Mind and Nature - yea Matter, the Wisdom that reveals all things. Source [too] is Godhead - yea Nature, Energy,…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 4: The Epistles | Section 1b

“And having raised themselves so far they sight the Good; and having sighted it, they look upon their sojourn here as a mischance; and in disdain of all, both things in body and the bodiless, they speed their way unto that One and Only One.…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 5: The Discourse of Hermes to Asclepius | Section 1a

“Though Unmanifest God Is Most Manifest 1. I will recount to thee this sermon (logos) too, O Tat, that thou may'st cease to be without the mysteries of the God beyond all name. And mark thou well how that which to the many seems unmanifest…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 5: The Discourse of Hermes to Asclepius | Section 1c

“And for this cause hath He all names, in that they are one Father's. And for this cause hath He Himself no nome, in that He's Father of [them] all. Who, then, may sing Thee praise of Thee, or [praise] to Thee? Whither, again, am I to tur…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 13: The Discourse of Hermes to Tat | Section 1d

“<lacuna in text>, though this Sermon (Logos) on Rebirth, on which I did not comment - in order that we may not be calumniators of the All unto the multitude, to whom indeed God Himself doth will we should not. 14. Tat: Tell me, O father:…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 13: The Discourse of Hermes to Tat | Section 1e

“Sing praise, my Self-control; sing thou through me, my Righteousness, the praises of the Righteous; sing thou, my Sharing-all, the praises of the All; through me sing, Truth, Truth's praises! Sing thou, O Good, the Good! O Life and Light,…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 14: The Discourse of Hermes to Ammon | Section 1b

“Now if the Maker is naught else but That which makes, Alone, Simple, Uncompound, it needs must do this [making] to Itself,—to Which its Maker’s making is “its being made.” 2 And as to all that’s being made,—it cannot be p. 261 [paragraph c…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 14: The Discourse of Hermes to Ammon | Section 1c

“Footnotes 257:1 εὖ φρονεῖν. I do not know the exact meaning of this expression. Everard translates “to be truly wise”; Parthey, “ recte sapere ” following Patrizzi; Ménard, “ sagesse ”; Chambers, “to be rightly wise.” I would suggest that…”

◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1~

“I might compare him to a person who began by maintaining generally that mind is the cause of the actions of Socrates, but who, when he endeavored to explain the causes of my several actions in detail, went on to show that I sit here because…”

◆Plato: Phaedrus | Section 1|

“The two speeches, as you may remember, were unlike-I the one argued that the lover and the other that the non-lover ought to be accepted. Phaedr. And right manfully. Soc. You should rather say "madly"; and madness was the argument of th…”

◆Plato: Phaedrus | Section 1

“I quite admit, Socrates, that the art of rhetoric which these men teach and of which they write is such as you describe-there I agree with you. But I still want to know where and how the true art of rhetoric and persuasion is to be acquire…”

◆Plato: Symposium | Section 1b

“But when I hear another strain, especially that of you rich men and traders, such conversation displeases me; and I pity you who are my companions, because you think that you are doing something when in reality you are doing nothing. And I…”

◆Plato: Symposium | Section 1m

“For if they had understood him they would surely have built noble temples and altars, and offered solemn sacrifices in his honour; but this is not done, and most certainly ought to be done: since of all the gods he is the best friend of men…”

◆Plato: Symposium | Section 1z

“Marvel not then at the love which all men have of their offspring; for that universal love and interest is for the sake of immortality." I was astonished at her words, and said: "Is this really true, O thou wise Diotima?" And she answered w…”

◆Plato: Symposium | Section 1{

“"These are the lesser mysteries of love, into which even you, Socrates, may enter; to the greater and more hidden ones which are the crown of these, and to which, if you pursue them in a right spirit, they will lead, I know not whether you…”

◆Plato: Symposium | Section 1|

“This, my dear Socrates," said the stranger of Mantineia, "is that life above all others which man should live, in the contemplation of beauty absolute; a beauty which if you once beheld, you would see not to be after the measure of gold, an…”

◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 33 (part 1)

“PLATE XXVI. underworld fear me, and they (17) fight for me [in their habitations]. I, in very truth I am a shining one and a dweller in light, who hath been created and who hath come into being (18) from the body of the god. I am one of…”

◇The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 19 (part 9)

“, the "house of cloth," was a district belonging to the temple of Suten-henen or Heracleopolis in Upper Egypt.] Ubes-hra-per-em-khet khet,[l] and Maa (106) -em-qerh-an-nef-em-hru.[2] The chief of the holy ones (107) who minister in his cham…”

◇The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 29 (part 2)

“Text [CHAPTER CXXXIII.]: (1) TO BE SAID ON THE DAY OF THE MONTH.[2] (2) Osiris Ani, the scribe, triumphant in peace, triumphant, saith: "Ra riseth (2) in his horizon, and the company of his gods follow after the god when he appeareth from h…”

◇The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 32 (part 2)

“May I enter into the presence of Ra daily to hear his words, and may I sit down among the (8) mighty gods of Nut. May a homestead be made ready for me, and may offerings of food and drink be put before me therein. May I eat therein; (9) m…”

◇The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 40 (part 4)

“I have sailed on its Lake that I may come unto its cities, and I have drawn nigh It unto the city Hetep.[3] For behold, I repose at the seasons [of Horus]. I have passed through the region of the company of the gods who are aged and venera…”

◇The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 43 (part 95)

“see also Maspero, Hymne au Nil, publié et traduit d'après les deux textes A Musée Britannique , Paris, 1868. 4to. 2 Pyramid of Unas, l. 219; Pyramid of Teta, ll. 60, 286; Pyramid of Pepi I., ll. 444, 593, etc. 3. Pyramid of Pepi I.,…”

◆The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 128 (part 5)

“Dze-sze 1 , Dze-yü 1 , Dze-1î 1 , and Dze-lâi 1 , these four men, were talking together, when some one said, 'Who can suppose the head to be made from nothing, the spine from life, and the rump-bone from death? Who knows how death and birt…”

◇Tao Te Ching | Chapter 10

“When the intelligent and animal souls are held together in one embrace, they can be kept from separating. When one gives undivided attention to the (vital) breath, and brings it to the utmost degree of pliancy, he can become as a (tender) b…”

◇The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 123 (part 1)

“p. 164 THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-DZE. BOOK I. PART I. SECTION I. Hsiâo-yâo Yû, or 'Enjoyment in Untroubled Ease 1 .' 1. In the Northern Ocean there is a fish, the name of which is Khwän 2 ,--I do not know how many lî in size. It changes…”

◆The Mabinogion | Tale PEREDUR THE SON OF EVRAWCl

“And in the morning he arose, and when he went forth, behold a shower of snow had fallen the night before, and a hawk had killed a wild fowl in front of the cell. And the noise of the horse scared the hawk away, and a raven alighted upon th…”

◆The Mabinogion | Tale PEREDUR THE SON OF EVRAWCm

“And while thy speech and thy soft words last, a coat of thin linen were armour sufficient for thee, and thou wilt not need to break either lance or sword in fighting with the knight in the state he is in.” Then said Gwalchmai to Kai, “Thou…”

◆Gospel of Thomas | Logion 2

“Jesus said, "Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the All."…”

◆Gospel of Thomas | Logion 9

“Jesus said, "Now the sower went out, took a handful (of seeds), and scattered them. Some fell on the road; the birds came and gathered them up. Others fell on the rock, did not take root in the soil, and did not produce ears. And others fel…”

◆The Dhammapada | Chapter II, Section 1a

“p. 9 CHAPTER II. ON EARNESTNESS [1] . 21. Earnestness is the path of immortality (Nirvâ n a), thoughtlessness the path of death. Those who are in earnest do not die, those who are thoughtless are as if dead already. 22. Those who are…”

◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY Ve

“"In yourselves are signs; will ye not behold them?" (Koran li, 21). 12. See Gulshan i Raz, I. 92. Mr. Mansel (Bampton Lectures, p. 49) says: "A thing can be known as that which it is only by being distinguished from that which it is n…”