Mystical Union

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter I

“Hermes, the God who presides over language, was formerly very properly considered as common to all priests; and the power who presides over the true science concerning the Gods 18 is one and the same in the whole of things. Hence our ancest…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter II

“We shall, therefore, deliver to you the peculiar dogmas of the Assyrians; and also clearly develop to you our own opinions; collecting some things from the infinite writings of the ancients, but others from those particulars which were comp…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter III

“In the first place, therefore, you say, “ it must be granted that there are Gods .” Thus to speak, however, is not right on this subject. For an innate knowledge of the Gods is coexistent with our very essence; and this knowledge is superio…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter Va

“In the next place, let us direct our attention to the solution of your inquiries. There is, therefore, the good itself which is beyond essence, and there is that good which subsists according to essence; I mean the essence which is most an…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIb

“Hence, through these things such a corporeal-formed division as you introduce, is demonstrated to be false. It is, indeed, especially necessary not to propose any thing of this kind; but if this should appear to you to be requisite, yet yo…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IXa

“I consider you, therefore, as asking, for it is your inquiry, “ Why, since the Gods dwell in the heavens alone, there are invocations by theurgists of terrestrial and subterranean Gods? ” For 45 what you assert in the beginning is not true…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter Xa

“After these things, you again subjoin another division for yourself, “ in which you separate the essences of the more excellent genera by the difference of passive and impassive .” But neither do I admit this division. For no one of the mo…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XII

“You also say, “ that invocations are directed to the Gods as to beings that are passive, so that not only dæmons are passive, but likewise the Gods .” This, however, is not the case. For the illumination which takes place through invocation…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XIII

“Moreover, “ the pacifications of anger ” will become manifest, if we understand what the anger of the Gods is. [32] This, therefore, is not, as it appears to be to some, a certain ancient and inveterate rage, but an abandonment of the benef…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVa

“After this, you pass on to another division into contraries, viz. the division of Gods with reference to dæmons. For you say, “ that the Gods are pure intellects ;” but you propose this opinion as an hypothesis, or you narrate it as a dog…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVb

“Or what passion can accede to a thing of this kind, the purity of which the most worthy human manners cannot easily equal? You say, however, “ that the things which are offered in supplications are offered as to sensitive and psychical nat…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVII

“We will exchange, therefore, this division for the doubt which may be adduced by you against the present opinion. “ For ,” it may be said by you, “ how, conformably to what we assert, can the sun and moon, and the visible natures in the hea…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVIIIa

“Your next inquiry doubts, “ how some of the Gods are beneficent, but others malefic .” This opinion, therefore, is assumed from the predictors of nativities. It is, however, entirely remote from the truth. For all the Gods are good, and i…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XIXa

“In the next place, therefore, we shall answer your question, “ What it is which conjoins the Gods that have a body in the heavens with the incorporeal Gods. ” What this is, therefore, is evident from what has been before said. For 72 if t…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XIXb

“And secondary genera, indeed, remain with invariable sameness in the one of such as are primary; but the primary impart from themselves union to the secondary genera, and all of them possess in each other the communion of an indissoluble co…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XX

“After this, you again resume the same inquiries, of which what has been already said may be considered as a sufficient solution. Since, however, it is necessary, according to the proverb, frequently to speak of and consider things that are…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter II

“It follows, therefore, that in the next place we should define the energies of them. And those of dæmons, indeed, must be surveyed as occupied about the world, and more widely extended in their effects; but those of heroes as less extended,…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IIIb

“In addition also to these peculiarities, divine beauty, indeed, shines with an immense splendour as it were, fixes the spectators in astonishment, imparts a divine joy, presents itself to the view with ineffable symmetry, and is exempt from…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IVa

“Proceeding, therefore, to other peculiarities of them, we say, that with the Gods, indeed, there is acuteness and rapidity in the energies, which shine forth with greater celerity than those of intellect itself, though in themselves they ar…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter V

“Moreover, that which purifies souls is perfect in the Gods; but in archangels it is anagogic. Angels alone dissolve the bond of generation. Dæmons draw souls down into nature; but heroes lead them to a providential attention to sensible wor…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VI

“Moreover, the gifts arising from the manifestations are not all of them equal, nor have the same fruits. But the presence [44] of the Gods, indeed, imparts to us health of body, virtue of soul, purity of intellect, and in one word elevates…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII

“Moreover, with respect to the tenuity and subtilty of light, the Gods extend a light so subtle that corporeal eyes cannot sustain it, 100 but are affected in the same manner as fishes, when they are drawn upward from turbid and thick water…”

◆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 Xb

“For if these are not true, but other things are so which have a real existence, thus also in the appearances of spirits, they seem to be such as things which are true beings; at the same time they participate of falsehood and deception, in…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XIa

“In what follows, in which you think that ignorance and deception about these things are impiety and impurity, and in which you exhort us to the true developement of these particulars, is not, indeed, attended with any ambiguity, but is ackn…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter II

“Concerning the divination, therefore, which takes place in sleep, you say as follows: “ We frequently obtain through dreams, when we are asleep, a knowledge of future events, not being in an ecstasy, through which we are much agitated, for…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter III

“The wise, [49] therefore, speak as follows: The soul having a twofold life, one being in conjunction with body, but the other being separate from all body; when we are awake we employ, for the most part, the life which is common with the bo…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IV

“Afterwards, also, you say, “ that many, through enthusiasm and divine inspiration, predict future events, and that they are then in so wakeful a state, as even to energize according to sense, and yet they are not conscious of the state they…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter V

“There are, therefore, many species of divine possession, and divine inspiration is multifariously excited; whence, also, the signs of it are many and different. For either the Gods are different, by whom we are inspired, and thus produce a…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VI

“That, however, which is the greatest thing is this, that he who [appears to] draw down a certain divinity, sees a spirit descending and entering into some one, recognizes its magnitude and quality, and is also mystically persuaded and gover…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VII

“It is not, however, sufficient to learn these things alone, nor will he who only knows these become perfect in divine science. But it is requisite also to know what enthusiasm is, and how it is produced. It is falsely, therefore, supposed t…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII

“If, therefore, true divination was a solution of the divine part of the soul from the other parts of it, or if it was a separation of intellect, or a certain extension of it; or if it was a vehemence 128 and extension of energy or passion,…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IX

“What you afterwards say is as follows: “ That some of those who suffer a mental alienation, energize enthusiastically on hearing cymbals or drums, or a certain modulated sound, such as those who are Corybantically inspired, those who are po…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XIa

“Another species of divine divination which is much celebrated, most manifest and manifold, is that of oracles, about which you say as follows: “ There are some who drink water, as the priest of Clarius, in Colophon; [59] but others are seat…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XIb

“But when she places herself on the seat of the God, she becomes coadapted to his stable prophetic power: and from both these preparatory operations she becomes wholly possessed by the God. And then, indeed, he is present with and illuminat…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XII

“It appears, therefore, that the divination of oracles accords with all the hypotheses which we have before adduced concerning prediction. For if a power of this kind was inseparable from the nature of places, and of the bodies which are the…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XV

“Let us, therefore, pass on to the mode of divination which is effected through human art, and which possesses much of conjecture and opinion. But concerning this you say as follows: “ Some also establish the art of the investigation of futu…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVI

“Descending, however, to particulars, the soul of animals, the dæmon who presides over them, the air, the motion of the air, and the circulation of the heavens, variously change the viscera, [74] 156 conformably to the will of the Gods. But…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVIIa

“In the next place you inquire “ concerning the mode of divination, what it is, and what the quality is by which it is distinguished ,” which we have already explained, both generally and particularly. But you, in the first place, represent…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVIII

“Another contest, however, awaits us, not less than that in which we have been before engaged, and which you immediately announce, concerning the causes of divination, “ whether a God, an angel, or a dæmon, or some other power, is present in…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XIX

“But neither does the cause [of the energies] of more excellent natures subsist as a certain middle instrument, [77] nor does he who invokes operate through him who prophesies; for to assert these things is impious. And it is much more true…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XX

“Omitting, therefore, these things, we may reasonably adduce a second cause, assigned by you, of the above mentioned particulars: viz. “ that the soul says and imagines these things, and that they are the passions of it, excited from small i…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXI

“Is, therefore, what you add in the third place more true; viz. “ that there is a certain mixed form of hypostasis, consisting of our soul and divine inspiration externally derived ?” Consider this then more accurately, lest we should be dec…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXII

“You say, therefore, “ that the soul generates the power which has an imaginative perception of futurity, through motions of this kind, or 177 that the things which are adduced from matter constitute dæmons through the powers that are inhere…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXIII

“The animadversions which are after this adduced, at first, indeed, doubt about the mode of divination, but as they proceed, endeavour entirely to subvert it. We shall, therefore, discuss both these. And, in the first place, we shall begin t…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXV

“That which follows in the next place, descends from a divine alienation of mind to an ecstasy of the reasoning power which leads it to a worse condition, and absurdly says, “ that the cause of divination is the mania which happens in diseas…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXVIIa

“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…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter II

“But we sometimes see that take place which is now proposed to be considered. For it happens that spirits are commanded [to do this or that] who do not use a reason of their own, and have not the principle of judgment. Nor does this occur ir…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter III

“Dissolving, however, the doubts in a way still more true, we think it requisite, in invoking superior natures, to take away the evocations 208 which appear to be directed to them as to men, and also the mandates in the performance of works,…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter V

“The multitude, also, are accustomed to doubt in common the very same thing concerning providence, viz. why certain persons are afflicted undeservedly, as they have not done any thing unjustly prior to their being thus afflicted. For neither…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter II

“The hostile opposition, therefore, in the things that are now proposed, may be easily dissolved by demonstrating the dignity of wholes with 226 respect to parts, and by recalling to your recollection the exempt transcendency of the Gods abo…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VII

“The discussion therefore requires that we should show what it is through which sacrifices are effective of things, and are suspended from the Gods, the precedaneous causes of 234 effects. If then we say that the communion of similar powers,…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter Xa

“We, however, admit all these assertions; physical essences, indeed, being coexcited as in one animal, according to aptitude or sympathy, as in another respect being subjects, and following and being subservient to the cause of the efficacy…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XI

“It appears to me, also, that the present question errs in another respect. For it is ignorant that the offering of sacrifices through fire has the power of consuming and destroying the matter of them in a greater degree; that it assimilates…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XV

“Let us then, in the next place, direct our attention to that which accords with what has been before said, and with our twofold condition of being. For there is a time when we become wholly soul, are out of the body, and sublimely revolve o…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVIII

“According to another division, therefore, the numerous herd [or the great mass] of men is arranged under nature, is governed by physical powers, looks downward to the works of nature, gives completion to the administration of Fate, and to t…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XIX

“On this subject, however, there is also the following division. Of divine essences and powers some have [a genesiurgic] soul and nature subject and ministrant to their fabrications, whenever they wish to use them. But others are entirely se…”

◆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 XXII

“What then [it may be said], does not the summit of the sacrific art recur to the most principal one of the whole multitude of Gods, and at one and the same time worship the many essences and principles that are [rooted and concentred] in it…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXIV

“The same things also may be learned from the distribution of the Gods according to places; and from this, and the partible dominion over each particular thing, it may be seen how many allotments, greater or less, superior beings are assigne…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXVIa

“Since, however, prayers are not the smallest [but on the contrary a very great] part of sacrifices, especially give completion to them, and through these the whole operation of them is corroborated and effected; and since, besides 271 this,…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXVIb

“And, in the third and last place, it may easily be conceived from hence how prayer and sacrifice mutually corroborate and confer on each other a sacred and perfect power in divine concerns. Hence, since it appears that there is a perfect c…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VI

“These things also admit of another explanation of the following kind. The theurgist, through the power of arcane signatures, commands mundane natures, no longer as man, nor as employing a human soul; but as existing superior to them in the…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VII

“Or this thing may likewise be explained as follows: Dæmons preside with a guardian power over arcane mysteries, and this in so remarkable a degree, because the orderly distribution of things in the universe is primarily contained in dæmons.…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter I

“The doubts also that follow in the next place require for their solution the assistance of the same divinely-wise Muse. But I am desirous, previous to this, to unfold to you the peculiarity of the theology of the Egyptians. For they, imitat…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter II

“Hear, therefore, the intellectual interpretation of symbols, according to the conceptions of the Egyptians; at the same time removing from your imagination and your ears the image of things symbolical, but elevating yourself to intellectual…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter III

“Since, however, every part of the heavens, every sign of the zodiac, [123] all the motion of the heavens, every period of time according to which the world is moved, and all things contained in the wholes of the universe, receive the powers…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IV

“But the inquiries which follow in the next place, require a more abundant doctrine, in order to their elucidation. At the same time, however, it is necessary to discuss the truth concerning them with brevity. For you inquire “ what efficacy…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter V

“You object, however, “ that he who hears words looks to their signification, so that it is sufficient the conception remains the same, whatever the words may be that are used .” But the thing is not such as you suspect it to be. For if name…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter V

“This deific and anagogic path Hermes, indeed, narrated, but Bitys, the prophet of King Ammon, [138] explained it, having found it in the adyta of Saïs [139] in Egypt, written in hieroglyphics; 307 and the same prophet also delivered the nam…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VII

“Hence that of which you are dubious is not true, “ that all things are bound with the indissoluble bonds of Necessity ,” which we call Fate. For the soul has a proper principle of circumduction to the intelligible, and of a separation from…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII

“What then, is it not possible for a man to liberate himself [from fate] through the Gods that revolve in the heavens, and to consider the same as the leaders of fate, and yet as 311 those that bind our lives with indissoluble bonds? Perhaps…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VI

“If, however, it be requisite to unfold to you the truth concerning the peculiar dæmon, we must say that he is not distributed to us from one part of the heavens, or from some one of the visible elements; but that from the whole world, the a…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII

“Afterwards, abandoning these particulars, you pass on to the opinion of philosophy. But you subvert the whole hypothesis concerning the peculiar dæmon. For if [as you say] “ this dæmon is a part of the soul ,” such, for instance, as the int…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IX

“After this, therefore, you also mention another disquisition concerning the peculiar dæmon, which represents “ some as worshiping two, but others three, dæmons of this kind .” The whole of this, however, is erroneous. For it is a false mode…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter X

“And this order is adapted to dæmons; one part of it being allied to those that are invoked; another being derived from more ancient causes; and the third part effecting a common completion from both the others. Do not, therefore, assimilate…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter I

“It now remains, in the last place, that we should speak concerning felicity, about which you make various inquiries, first of all proposing objections, afterwards doubting, and then interrogating. Adducing, therefore, all that is said by yo…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter II

“Hence you in vain doubt, “ that it is not proper to look to human opinions .” For what leisure can he have whose intellect is directed to the Gods to look downward to the praises of men? Nor do you rightly doubt in what follows, viz. “ that…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter III

“I wish, in the next place, to reply to such assertions as calumniate divine prediction. For you compare with it “ certain other methods which are conversant with the prediction of future events .” To me, however, it does not appear to be an…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IV

“Divine divination, therefore, which is conjoined with the Gods, alone truly imparts to us a divine life; since it participates of [divine] foreknowledge, and divine intellections, and renders us in reality divine. It likewise causes us to b…”

◆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…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VI

“Moreover, after it has conjoined the soul to the several parts of the universe, and to the total divine powers which pass through it; then it leads the soul to, and deposits it in, the whole Demiurgus, and causes it to be independent of all…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VII

“With respect to the good , likewise, they conceive that one kind is divine, and this is the God who is prior to the intelligible; but that the other is human, and is a union with the former. And these two kinds of good Bitys has unfolded fr…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIa

“And thus we have answered, to the utmost of our ability, your inquiries concerning divination and theurgy. It remains, therefore, at the end of this discussion, that I should beseech the Gods to afford me an immutable guard of true concept…”

◆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 VIIIi

“This, however, our philanthropic lord and father Jupiter understanding, that we might not be entirely deprived of communion with the Gods, has given us observation through sacred arts , by which we have at hand sufficient assistance.” For t…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIj

“the connective, perfective, demiurgic, assimilative, and such others as are celebrated posterior to these; so that all are in all, and yet each is at the same time separate and distinct. “Indeed we obtain this knowledge of their union and…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIk

“the musical, the telestic, the prophetic, and the amatory, previous to the discussion of each, we must first speak about enthusiasm, and show to what part of the soul the enthusiastic energy pertains; whether each part of it possesses this…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIl

“Opinion, likewise, and the phantasy, are said thus to energize when they discover arts, and accomplish admirable works, such, for instance, as Phidias effected in the formation of statues, and another in another art, as also Homer says [157…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIm

“Thus, for instance, if the allotment of the soul was as far as to philosophy, the soul would be able, though it should not choose a philosophic but some other life, to energize in that life somewhat philosophically. There are also said to…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIn

“As, therefore, it is possible for the tyrannic life, when suddenly changed, to become aristocratic, through employing strenuous promptitude and a divine allotment, but the gradual ascent is from a tyrannic to a democratic, and from this to…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIo

“In the next place, departing from intellect, and descending into reasoning and dianoia, it no longer apprehended real beings by simple intuitions, but syllogistically and transitively, proceeding from one thing to another, from propositions…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIp

“It causes us, therefore, to pass through life in an irreprehensible manner; just as the internal prophetic mania contracts and elevates all the multiplied and many powers and lives of the soul to the one , in order that it may in a greater…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIq

“On the contrary, divinely-inspired poets, as Hermeas well observes, knock, as it were, at the gates of the Muses, and thus being filled from thence exclaim, Εσπετε νυν μοι Μουσαι And, Μηνιν αειδε θεα— And, Ανδρα μοι εννεπε Μουσα . For bein…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIr

“But there are a certain few who by employing a certain supernatural power of intellect, are removed from nature , &c. The class to which these few belong is beautifully unfolded, as follows, by Plotinus, in the beginning of his Treatise on…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIv

“Hence some of them preside over men, others over lions or other animals, and others over plants; and still more partially, some are the inspective guardians of the eye, others of the heart, and others of the liver.” He adds, “all things, ho…”

◆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

“Moreover, if it should happen that the whole race of some one successively use land which had originally been plundered, in this case, the injury in the first place becomes immanifest, and on this account is more difficult to be cured; and,…”

◆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…

“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 VIII†

“For these conceptions and these works teach us, that in reality we, through sacred operations, approach to divinity, but that divinity does not draw near to us. Hence Proclus in Alcibiad. εν ταις κλησεσι, και εν ταις αυτοψιαις προσιεναι π…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII‡

““The soul is bound to the body, by a conversion to the passions arising from her union with it.” And, “the soul binds herself in the body.” Philolaus also says, that the ancient theologists and prophets asserted, ως δια τινας τιμωριας α ψυχ…”

◆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 38

“Section 5 5. But what of sorrows, illnesses and all else that inhibit the native activity? What of the suspension of consciousness which drugs or disease may bring about? Could either welfare or happiness be present under such conditions? A…”

◆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 225

“Section 4 4. Does each individual Soul, then, contain within itself such a Love in essence and substantial reality? Since not only the pure All-Soul but also that of the Universe contain such a Love, it would be difficult to explain why our…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 235

“Section 3 3. But how do we explain likings and aversions? Sorrow, too, and anger and pleasure, desire and fear- are these not changes, affectings, present and stirring within the Soul? This question cannot be ignored. To deny that changes t…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 238 (part 2)

“It is lifeless objects that deal the severest blows; they hit hardest and hurt most; where there is life- that is to say participation in Being- there is beneficence towards the environment, all the greater as the measure of Being is fuller…”

◆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 293

“Section 6 6. But how comes it that while the All-Soul has produced a kosmos, the soul of the particular has not, though it is of the one ideal Kind and contains, it too, all things in itself? We have indicated that a thing may enter and dwe…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 341

“Section 21 21. That this is the phase of the human being in which desire takes its origin is shown by observation of the different stages of life; in childhood, youth, maturity, the bodily desires differ; health or sickness also may change…”

◆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 381

“Section 2 2. But of what nature is this sovereign principle? If material, then definitely it must fall apart; for every material entity, at least, is something put together. If it is not material but belongs to some other Kind, that new sub…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 403

“Section 3 3. The Human Soul, next; Everywhere we hear of it as in bitter and miserable durance in body, a victim to troubles and desires and fears and all forms of evil, the body its prison or its tomb, the kosmos its cave or cavern. Now th…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 442 (part 2)

“Similarly the knowing principle itself cannot remain simplex, especially in the act of self-knowing: all silent though its self-perception be, it is dual to itself. Of course it has no need of minute self-handling since it has nothing to l…”

◆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 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 558

“Section 20 20. We may thus distinguish two phases of Intellect, in one of which it may be taken as having no contact whatever with particulars and no Act upon anything; thus it is kept apart from being a particular intellect. In the same wa…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 602

“Section 12 12. Think of a sound passing through the air and carrying a word; an ear within range catches and comprehends; and the sound and word will strike upon any other ear you may imagine within the intervening void, upon any that atten…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 608

“Section 1 1. The integral omnipresence of a unity numerically identical is in fact universally received; for all men instinctively affirm the god in each of us to be one, the same in all. It would be taken as certain if no one asked How or…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 626

“Section 6 6. Granted, then, that there exist, apart from things, a unity absolute and a decad absolute in other words, that the Intellectual beings, together with their characteristic essence have also their order, Henads, Dyads, Triads, wh…”

◆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 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 678

“Section 39 39. Since the Supreme has no interval, no self-differentiation what can have this intuitional approach to it but itself? Therefore it quite naturally assumes difference at the point where Intellectual-Principle and Being are diff…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 680

“Section 41 41. Intellection seems to have been given as an aid to the diviner but weaker beings, an eye to the blind. But the eye itself need not see Being since it is itself the light; what must take the light through the eye needs the lig…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 687

“Section 5 5. Are we, however, to make freedom and self-disposal exclusive to Intellectual-Principle as engaged in its characteristic Act, Intellectual-Principle unassociated, or do they belong also to soul acting under that guidance and per…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 688

“Section 6 6. How then did we come to place freedom in the will when we made out free action to be that produced- or as we also indicated, suppressed- at the dictate of will? If what we have been saying is true and our former statement is co…”

◆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 696

“Section 14 14. Another approach: Everything to which existence may be attributed is either one with its essence or distinct from it. Thus any given man is distinct from essential man though belonging to the order Man: a soul and a soul's es…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 701

“Section 19 19. Stirred to the Supreme by what has been told, a man must strive to possess it directly; then he too will see, though still unable to tell it as he would wish. One seeing That as it really is will lay aside all reasoning upon…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 711

“Section 7 7. If the mind reels before something thus alien to all we know, we must take our stand on the things of this realm and strive thence to see. But, in the looking, beware of throwing outward; this Principle does not lie away somewh…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 713 (part 2)

“Any that have seen know what I have in mind: the soul takes another life as it approaches God; thus restored it feels that the dispenser of true life is There to see, that now we have nothing to look for but, far otherwise, that we must put…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 12

“Section 8 8. And towards the Intellectual-Principle what is our relation? By this I mean, not that faculty in the soul which is one of the emanations from the Intellectual-Principle, but The Intellectual-Principle itself [Divine-Mind]. This…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 13

“Section 9 9. That Soul, then, in us, will in its nature stand apart from all that can cause any of the evils which man does or suffers; for all such evil, as we have seen, belongs only to the Animate, the Couplement. But there is a difficul…”

◇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 19 (part 1)

“Section 1 1. Since Evil is here, "haunting this world by necessary law," and it is the Soul's design to escape from Evil, we must escape hence. But what is this escape? "In attaining Likeness to God," we read. And this is explained as "…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 19 (part 2)

“So with us: it is from the Supreme that we derive order and distribution and harmony, which are virtues in this sphere: the Existences There, having no need of harmony, order or distribution, have nothing to do with virtue; and, none the le…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 21

“Section 3 3. We come now to that other mode of Likeness which, we read, is the fruit of the loftier virtues: discussing this we shall penetrate more deeply into the essence of the Civic Virtue and be able to define the nature of the higher…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 22

“Section 4 4. We come, so, to the question whether Purification is the whole of this human quality, virtue, or merely the forerunner upon which virtue follows? Does virtue imply the achieved state of purification or does the mere process suf…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 23

“Section 5 5. So we come to the scope of the purification: that understood, the nature of Likeness becomes clear. Likeness to what Principle? Identity with what God? The question is substantially this: how far does purification dispel the tw…”

◇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 27

“Section 1 1. What art is there, what method, what discipline to bring us there where we must go? The Term at which we must arrive we may take as agreed: we have established elsewhere, by many considerations, that our journey is to the Good,…”

◇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 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 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 37

“Section 4 4. If, then, the perfect life is within human reach, the man attaining it attains happiness: if not, happiness must be made over to the gods, for the perfect life is for them alone. But since we hold that happiness is for human be…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 39

“Section 6 6. Now if happiness did indeed require freedom from pain, sickness, misfortune, disaster, it would be utterly denied to anyone confronted by such trials: but if it lies in the fruition of the Authentic Good, why turn away from thi…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 40

“Section 7 7. Then why are these conditions sought and their contraries repelled by the man established in happiness? Here is our answer: These more pleasant conditions cannot, it is true, add any particle towards the Sage's felicity: but th…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 42

“Section 9 9. But when he is out of himself, reason quenched by sickness or by magic arts? If it be allowed that in this state, resting as it were in a slumber, he remains a Sage, why should he not equally remain happy? No one rules him out…”

◇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 45

“Section 12 12. The pleasure demanded for the life cannot be in the enjoyments of the licentious or in any gratifications of the body- there is no place for these, and they stifle happiness- nor in any violent emotions- what could so move th…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 46

“Section 13 13. The characteristic activities are not hindered by outer events but merely adapt themselves, remaining always fine, and perhaps all the finer for dealing with the actual. When he has to handle particular cases and things, he m…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 48

“Section 15 15. But suppose two wise men, one of them possessing all that is supposed to be naturally welcome, while the other meets only with the very reverse: do we assert that they have an equal happiness? We do, if they are equally wise.…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 49

“Section 16 16. Those that refuse to place the Sage aloft in the Intellectual Realm but drag him down to the accidental, dreading accident for him, have substituted for the Sage we have in mind another person altogether; they offer us a tole…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 64

“Section 3 3. And the soul includes a faculty peculiarly addressed to Beauty- one incomparably sure in the appreciation of its own, never in doubt whenever any lovely thing presents itself for judgement. Or perhaps the soul itself acts immed…”

◇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 68

“Section 7 7. Therefore we must ascend again towards the Good, the desired of every Soul. Anyone that has seen This, knows what I intend when I say that it is beautiful. Even the desire of it is to be desired as a Good. To attain it is for t…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 70

“Section 9 9. And this inner vision, what is its operation? Newly awakened it is all too feeble to bear the ultimate splendour. Therefore the Soul must be trained- to the habit of remarking, first, all noble pursuits, then the works of beaut…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 73

“Section 2 2. But the Universe outside; how is it aligned towards the Good? The soulless by direction toward Soul: Soul towards the Good itself, through the Intellectual-Principle. Everything has something of the Good, by virtue of possessin…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 74

“Section 3 3. But if life is a good, is there good for all that lives? No: in the vile, life limps: it is like the eye to the dim-sighted; it fails of its task. But if the mingled strand of life is to us, though entwined with evil, still in…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 83

“Section 8 8. But there will still be some to deny that it is through this Matter that we ourselves become evil. They will say that neither ignorance nor wicked desires arise in Matter. Even if they admit that the unhappy condition within us…”

◇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 101

“Section 2 2. And what of lower things? [Why have they not this motion?] [Their case is very different]: the single thing here is not an all but a part and limited to a given segment of space; that other realm is all, is space, so to speak,…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 102

“Section 3 3. The truth may be resumed in this way: There is a lowest power of the Soul, a nearest to earth, and this is interwoven throughout the entire universe: another phase possesses sensation, while yet another includes the Reason whic…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 112 (part 2)

“For the Universe is in truth a thing of blend, and if we separate from it that separable Soul, the residue is little. The All is a God when the divine Soul is counted in with it; "the rest," we read, "is a mighty spirit and its ways are su…”

◇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 167

“Section 11 11. Now, in the first place, if the Soul has not actually come down but has illuminated the darkness, how can it truly be said to have declined? The outflow from it of something in the nature of light does not justify the asserti…”

◇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 193

“Section 6 6. As for the disregard of desert- the good afflicted, the unworthy thriving- it is a sound explanation no doubt that to the good nothing is evil and to the evil nothing can be good: still the question remains why should what esse…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 205

“Section 18 18. Souls vary in worth; and the difference is due, among other causes, to an almost initial inequality; it is in reason that, standing to the Reason-Principle, as parts, they should be unequal by the fact of becoming separate. W…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 220 (part 1)

“Section 6 6. What, then, is the achieved Sage? One whose Act is determined by the higher phase of the Soul. It does not suffice to perfect virtue to have only this Spirit [equivalent in all men] as cooperator in the life: the acting forc…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 223

“Section 2 2. The existence of such a being is no demand of the ordinary man, merely; it is supported by Theologians and, over and over again, by Plato to whom Eros is child of Aphrodite, minister of beautiful children, inciter of human soul…”

◇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 227 (part 1)

“Section 6 6. What then, in sum, is to be thought of Love and of his "birth" as we are told of it? Clearly we have to establish the significance, here, of Poverty and Possession, and show in what way the parentage is appropriate: we have a…”

◇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 259

“Section 7 7. Now comes the question whether, in all this discussion, we are not merely helping to make out a case for some other order of Beings and talking of matters alien to ourselves. But how could that be? What understanding can there…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 264 (part 1)

“Section 12 12. We are brought thus to the conception of a Natural-Principle- Time- a certain expanse [a quantitative phase] of the Life of the Soul, a principle moving forward by smooth and uniform changes following silently upon each othe…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 265 (part 1)

“Section 13 13. The Spheral Circuit, then, performed in Time, indicates it: but when we come to Time itself there is no question of its being "within" something else: it must be primary, a thing "within itself." It is that in which all the…”

◇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 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 275 (part 1)

“Section 9 9. Clearly a Being of this nature is not the primal existent; there must exist that which transcends it, that Being [the Absolute], to which all our discussion has been leading. In the first place, Plurality is later than Unity.…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 278 (part 1)

“Section 1 1. "The Intellectual-Principle" [= the Divine Mind]- we read [in the Timaeus]- "looks upon the Ideas indwelling in that Being which is the Essentially Living [= according to Plotinus, the Intellectual Realm], "and then"- the text…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 283

“Section 1 1. In the Intellectual Kosmos dwells Authentic Essence, with the Intellectual-Principle [Divine Mind] as the noblest of its content, but containing also souls, since every soul in this lower sphere has come thence: that is the wor…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 295 (part 1)

“Section 8 8. These considerations, amounting to the settlement of the question, are not countered by the phenomenon of sympathy; the response between soul and soul is due to the mere fact that all spring from that self-same soul [the next…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 296 (part 2)

“The universe spreads as broad as the presence of soul; the bound of its expansion is the point at which, in its downward egression from the Supreme, it still has soul to bind it in one: it is a shadow as broad as the Reason-Principle procee…”

◇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 307 (part 2)

“Because the soul is not seen and the body is: we perceive the body, and by its movement and sensation we understand that it is ensouled, and we say that it possesses a soul; to speak of residence is a natural sequence. If the soul were vis…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 321

“Section 1 1. What, then, will be the Soul's discourse, what its memories in the Intellectual Realm, when at last it has won its way to that Essence? Obviously from what we have been saying, it will be in contemplation of that order, and hav…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 324

“Section 4 4. In that realm it has also vision, through the Intellectual-Principle, of The Good which does not so hold to itself as not to reach the soul; what intervenes between them is not body and therefore is no hindrance- and, indeed, w…”

◇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 326

“Section 6 6. Souls that descend, souls that change their state- these, then, may be said to have memory, which deals with what has come and gone; but what subjects of remembrance can there be for souls whose lot is to remain unchanged? The…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 327

“Section 7 7. Well but can they not tell themselves that yesterday, or last year, they moved round the earth, that they lived yesterday or at any given moment in their lives? Their living is eternal, and eternity is an unchanging unity. To i…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 328 (part 1)

“Section 8 8. But, we need not record in memory all we see; mere incidental concomitants need not occupy the imagination; when things vividly present to intuition, or knowledge, happen to occur in concrete form, it is not necessary- unless…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 328 (part 2)

“And if it is in eternal perfection, it has no points of time and place at which it will achieve perfection; it will, therefore, have no concern about attaining to any such points: it will, therefore, make no measurements of time or place; i…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 331

“Section 11 11. The administration of the kosmos is to be thought of as that of a living unit: there is the action determined by what is external, and has to do with the parts, and there is that determined by the internal and by the principl…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 348 (part 1)

“Section 28 28. Thus much established, we may return on our path: we have to discuss the seat of the passionate element in the human being. Pleasures and pains- the conditions, that is, not the perception of them- and the nascent stage of…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 351 (part 2)

“It is not to be thought that such beings engage themselves in human affairs in the sense of making men thieves, slave-dealers, burglars, temple-strippers, or debased effeminates practising and lending themselves to disgusting actions: that…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 355 (part 1)

“Section 35 35. But we must give some explanation of these powers. The matter requires a more definite handling. How can there be a difference of power between one triangular configuration and another? How can there be the exercise of po…”

◇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 367

“Section 1 1. We undertook to discuss the question whether sight is possible in the absence of any intervening medium, such as air or some other form of what is known as transparent body: this is the time and place. It has been explained tha…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 370 (part 1)

“Section 4 4. But there is the question of the linked light that must relate the visual organ to its object. Now, firstly: since the intervening air is not necessary- unless in the purely accidental sense that air may be necessary to light…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 373 (part 1)

“Section 7 7. Our investigation may be furthered by enquiring: Whether light finally perishes or simply returns to its source. If it be a thing requiring to be caught and kept, domiciled within a recipient, we might think of it finally pas…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 382

“Section 3 3. Anyone who rejects this view, and holds that either atoms or some entities void of part coming together produce soul, is refuted by the very unity of soul and by the prevailing sympathy as much as by the very coherence of the c…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 399

“Section 15 15. (20) Thus far we have offered the considerations appropriate to those asking for demonstration: those whose need is conviction by evidence of the more material order are best met from the abundant records relevant to the subj…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 401

“Section 1 1. Many times it has happened: Lifted out of the body into myself; becoming external to all other things and self-encentered; beholding a marvellous beauty; then, more than ever, assured of community with the loftiest order; enact…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 402 (part 1)

“Section 2 2. Enquiring, then, of Plato as to our own soul, we find ourselves forced to enquire into the nature of soul in general- to discover what there can be in its character to bring it into partnership with body, and, again, what this…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 406

“Section 6 6. Something besides a unity there must be or all would be indiscernibly buried, shapeless within that unbroken whole: none of the real beings [of the Intellectual Kosmos] would exist if that unity remained at halt within itself:…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 408

“Section 8 8. And- if it is desirable to venture the more definite statement of a personal conviction clashing with the general view- even our human soul has not sunk entire; something of it is continuously in the Intellectual Realm, though…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 410

“Section 1 1. That the Soul of every individual is one thing we deduce from the fact that it is present entire at every point of the body- the sign of veritable unity- not some part of it here and another part there. In all sensitive beings…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 418

“Section 2 2. Let every soul recall, then, at the outset the truth that soul is the author of all living things, that it has breathed the life into them all, whatever is nourished by earth and sea, all the creatures of the air, the divine st…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 419

“Section 3 3. The Soul once seen to be thus precious, thus divine, you may hold the faith that by its possession you are already nearing God: in the strength of this power make upwards towards Him: at no great distance you must attain: there…”

◇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 423 (part 2)

“Now, even in the Divine the engendered could not be the very highest; it must be a lesser, an image; it will be undetermined, as the Divine is, but will receive determination, and, so to speak, its shaping idea, from the progenitor. Yet an…”

◇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 426

“Section 10 10. We have shown the inevitability of certain convictions as to the scheme of things: There exists a Principle which transcends Being; this is The One, whose nature we have sought to establish in so far as such matters lend them…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 427

“Section 11 11. Since there is a Soul which reasons upon the right and good- for reasoning is an enquiry into the rightness and goodness of this rather than that- there must exist some permanent Right, the source and foundation of this reaso…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 428

“Section 12 12. Possessed of such powers, how does it happen that we do not lay hold of them, but for the most part, let these high activities go idle- some, even, of us never bringing them in any degree to effect? The answer is that all the…”

◇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 434

“Section 2 2. We begin with the soul, asking whether it is to be allowed self-knowledge and what the knowing principle in it would be and how operating. The sense-principle in it we may at once decide, takes cognisance only of the external;…”

◇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 437 (part 2)

“It possesses self-knowing, thus, on every count; the act is itself; and the object seen in that act- self, is itself.…”

◇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 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 443

“Section 11 11. Thus the Intellectual-Principle, in the act of knowing the Transcendent, is a manifold. It knows the Transcendent in very essence but, with all its effort to grasp that prior as a pure unity, it goes forth amassing successive…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 444 (part 1)

“Section 12 12. But why, after all, should it not be such a manifold as long as it remains one substantial existence, having the multiplicity not of a compound being but of a unity with a variety of activities? Now, no doubt, if these vari…”

◇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 452 (part 1)

“Section 2 2. If the Intellectual-Principle were the engendering Source, then the engendered secondary, while less perfect than the Intellectual-Principle, would be close to it and similar to it: but since the engendering Source is above th…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 454 (part 2)

“How does the Intellectual-Principle come to meet with them as it travels round; what keeps each true to its character; what gives them enduring identity; what conceivable shape or character can they have? They are being presented to us as…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 462

“Section 9 9. Everything brought into being under some principle not itself is contained either within its maker or, if there is any intermediate, within that: having a prior essential to its being, it needs that prior always, otherwise it w…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 463

“Section 10 10. Still, do not, I urge you, look for The Good through any of these other things; if you do, you will see not itself but its trace: you must form the idea of that which is to be grasped cleanly standing to itself not in any com…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 464

“Section 11 11. It is infinite also by right of being a pure unity with nothing towards which to direct any partial content. Absolutely One, it has never known measure and stands outside of number, and so is under no limit either in regard t…”

◇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 471

“Section 4 4. Another consideration is that if The Good [and First] is simplex and without need, it can neither need the intellective act nor possess what it does not need: it will therefore not have intellection. (Interpolation or corruptio…”

◇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 477

“Section 3 3. In the case of twin birth among human beings how can we make out the Reason-Principles to be different; and still more when we turn to the animals and especially those with litters? Where the young are precisely alike, there is…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 479

“Section 1 1. It is a principle with us that one who has attained to the vision of the Intellectual Beauty and grasped the beauty of the Authentic Intellect will be able also to come to understand the Father and Transcendent of that Divine B…”

◇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 489

“Section 11 11. Similarly any one, unable to see himself, but possessed by that God, has but to bring that divine- within before his consciousness and at once he sees an image of himself, himself lifted to a better beauty: now let him ignore…”

◇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 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 512 (part 1)

“Section 4 4. We are told that number is Quantity in the primary sense, number together with all continuous magnitude, space and time: these are the standards to which all else that is considered as Quantity is referred, including motion wh…”

◇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 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 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 614

“Section 7 7. To Real Being we go back, all that we have and are; to that we return as from that we came. Of what is There we have direct knowledge, not images or even impressions; and to know without image is to be; by our part in true know…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 615

“Section 8 8. For my part I am satisfied that anyone considering the mode in which Matter participates in the Ideas will be ready enough to accept this tenet of omnipresence in identity, no longer rejecting it as incredible or even difficult…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 618

“Section 11 11. But how can the unextended reach over the defined extension of the corporeal? How can it, so, maintain itself as a unity, an identity? This is a problem often raised and reason calls vehemently for a solution of the difficult…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 621

“Section 1 1. It is suggested that multiplicity is a falling away from The Unity, infinity being the complete departure, an innumerable multiplicity, and that this is why unlimit is an evil and we evil at the stage of multiplicity. A thing,…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 622

“Section 2 2. What, then, of the "Number of the Infinite"? To begin with, how is Number consistent with infinity? Objects of sense are not unlimited and therefore the Number applying to them cannot be so. Nor is an enumerator able to number…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 624

“Section 4 4. We have to enquire into the existence of the Numbers in the Intellectual. Are they Ideas added to the other Ideas? Or are they no more than necessary concomitants to the Ideas? In the latter case, Being, as the first [in the In…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 627

“Section 7 7. It is inevitably necessary to think of all as contained within one nature; one nature must hold and encompass all; there cannot be as in the realm of sense thing apart from thing, here a sun and elsewhere something else; all mu…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 629

“Section 9 9. It remains then to consider whether Being by its distinction produced Number or Number produced that distinction. It is certain that either Number was the cause of Being, movement, rest, identity and difference, or these the ca…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 631

“Section 11 11. It may be suggested that the decad is nothing more than so many henads; admitting the one henad why should we reject the ten? As the one is a real existence why not the rest? We are certainly not compelled to attach that one…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 636 (part 1)

“Section 16 16. But here we may be questioned about these numbers which we describe as the primal and authentic: "Where do you place these numbers, in what genus among Beings? To everyone they seem to come under Quantity and you have certa…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 642

“Section 3 3. What then is there to prevent man having been the object of planning There? No: all stands in that likeness, nothing to be added or taken away; this planning and reasoning is based only on an assumption; things are taken to be…”

◇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 664

“Section 25 25. It is in view, probably, of this difficulty that Plato, in the Philebus, makes pleasure an element in the Term; the good is not defined as a simplex or set in Intellectual-Principle alone; while he rightly refrains from ident…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 675

“Section 36 36. We need not carry this matter further; we turn to a question already touched but demanding still some brief consideration. Knowledge of The Good or contact with it, is the all-important: this- we read- is the grand learning,…”

◇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 679 (part 2)

“But this would make the power something outside itself; there would be, I mean, the power it grasped and the power by which it grasped: if there is but the one power, what is there to grasp at?…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 681

“Section 42 42. Faced by the difficulty of placing these powers, you must in reason allocate to the secondaries what you count august: secondaries must not be foisted upon the First, or tertiaries upon the secondaries. Secondaries are to be…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 683

“Section 1 1. Can there be question as to whether the gods have voluntary action? Or are we to take it that, while we may well enquire in the case of men with their combination of powerlessness and hesitating power, the gods must be declared…”

◇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 698

“Section 16 16. We maintain, and it is evident truth, that the Supreme is everywhere and yet nowhere; keeping this constantly in mind let us see how it bears on our present enquiry. If God is nowhere, then not anywhere has He "happened to be…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 703

“Section 21 21. Could He then have made Himself otherwise than as He did? If He could we must deny Him the power to produce goodness for He certainly cannot produce evil. Power, There, is no producer of the inapt; it is that steadfast consta…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 706

“Section 2 2. It may be suggested that, while in the unities of the partial order the essence and the unity are distinct, yet in collective existence, in Real Being, they are identical, so that when we have grasped Being we hold unity; Real…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 708

“Section 4 4. The main part of the difficulty is that awareness of this Principle comes neither by knowing nor by the Intellection that discovers the Intellectual Beings but by a presence overpassing all knowledge. In knowing, soul or mind a…”

◇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…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 715

“Section 11 11. This is the purport of that rule of our Mysteries: Nothing Divulged to the Uninitiate: the Supreme is not to be made a common story, the holy things may not be uncovered to the stranger, to any that has not himself attained t…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 716

“Section 11 11. This is the purport of that rule of our Mysteries: Nothing Divulged to the Uninitiate: the Supreme is not to be made a common story, the holy things may not be uncovered to the stranger, to any that has not himself attained t…”

◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 10, Section 1c

“It is spoken of by ail the Christian Mystics as the root of our being, or as the spark, or the Synteresis, etc. Our perfection consists in this ultimate reality, which is each man’s self, shining through his whole being and transforming it…”

◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 10, Section 1d

“If Time be thought of as an infinite series of finite numbers Eternity is the sum of that series and not its process. But the name may be applied loosely to the process, though this is generally to be avoided. According to St. Thomas, Et…”

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

“51 CHAPTER I Dionysius the Presbyter, to his fellow-Presbyter Timothy. 45 45 The name of St. Paul’s companion is intended to give colour to the writer’s pseudonym. See Introduction, p. 1; cf. iii. 2. What is the purpose of the discou…”

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

“For even as things which are intellectually discerned 52 52 i. e. The Transcendent Truths which are beyond ordinary knowledge. νοητά . The word νοῦς = Mind in the sense not merely of abstract intellect but of the spiritual personality.…”

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

“59 59 ὡς οὐκ ὄντος ἴχνους τῶν ἐπὶ τὴν κρυφίαν αὐτῆς ἀπειρίαν διεληλυθότων. Two interpretations of this passage are possible: (1) Those who have penetrated the hidden Depths cannot describe the Vision (cf. Dante, Par. xxxiii. 55–66) ; (2…”

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

“And we press upwards to those beams which in the Holy Scripture shine upon us; wherefrom we gain the light which leads us unto 55 the Divine praises 64 64 πρὸς τοὺς θεαρχικοὺς ὕμνους. Either (1) “leads us to declare the Divine praises”; or…”

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

“These mysteries we learn from the Divine Scriptures, and thou wilt find that in well-nigh all the utterances of the Sacred Writers the Divine Names refer in a Symbolical Revelation 72 72 ἐκφαντορικῶς καὶ ὑμνητικῶς. to Its beneficent Emanat…”

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

“And in all the other Divine enlightenments which the occult Tradition of our inspired teachers hath, by mystic Interpretation, accordant with the Scriptures, bestowed upon us, we also have been initiated: apprehending these things in the pr…”

◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 4 (part 19)

“Chapp. 30B, 164, 37B and 148. Although these chapters were found at Hermopolis, the city of Thoth, it does not follow that they were drawn up there. 5. See Birch, in Bunsen, Egypt's Place in Universal History , vol. V., p. 125; Navill…”

◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 20 (part 3)

“I am the son of Osiris, I have made the way, I have passed thereover into Neter-khert." PLATE XII.-- Vignette V.: The fifth Arit, guarded by three gods; the first with the head of a hawk, the second the head of a man, and the third the head…”

◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 20 (part 7)

“"Lo, the Lover of fire, the purifier of sinners (?), the lover of slaughter, the chief of those who adore, the lady of the temple, the slaughterer of the fiends in the night. She judgeth the feeble bandaged one." THE NINETEENTH PYLON. "Lo…”

◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 21 (part 1)

“PLATE XIII. Vignettes (Upper register): A pylon, or gateway, surmounted by the feathers of Maat and uræi wearing disks. (Lower register): A pylon, surmounted by Anubis and an utchat . Text [CHAPTER XVIII.]: [" (1) Hail Thoth, who madest…”

◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 28 (part 2)

“May Ani (21) advance, even as thou dost advance; may he never cease [to go forward], even as thy majesty ceaseth not [to go forward], even though it be for a moment; for with strides dost thou (22) in one little moment pass over the spaces…”

◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 30 (part 1)

“PLATE XXII. "Osiris Ani, triumphant, hath not revealed what he hath seen,(17) he hath not, he hath not told again what he hath heard in the house which is hidden. Hail, there are shouts of joy to Osiris Ani, triumphant, (18) for he is a g…”

◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 32 (part 1)

“PLATE XXV. Vignette: A swallow perched on a conical object painted red and green. Text [CHAPTER LXXXVI.]: (I) HERE BEGIN THE CHAPTERS OF MAKING TRANSFORMATIONS. THE CHANGING INTO A SWALLOW. (2) Saith Osiris Ani, triumphant: "I am the sw…”

◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 36 (part 5)

“(16) I have not added unto nor have I minished the offerings which are due. I have not stolen from the orchards; nor have I trampled down the fields. I have not added to the weight of the balance; (17) nor have I made light the weight in…”

◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1a

“(Above image of the Gospel of Thomas courtesy of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont Graduate University) Visit the Bookstore for a complete selection of translations and books about The Nag Hammadi Library The Nag Hamma…”

◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1c

“And Jesus said, “Whoever will not eat my flesh and drink my blood has no life within him.” What does he mean? His flesh is the word and blood the holy spirit. Who has received these has food and drink and clothing. I condemn those who sa…”

◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1d

“When the child is grown, however, then the father turns over all he possesses. THE LOST Those who have gone astray are those born of the spirit. And they are usually lost because of the spirit. So from one single breath of spirit the fir…”

◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1f

“When wanton women see a man sitting alone, the man is overcome. They fondle him and pollute him. When wanton men see a beautiful woman sitting alone, they overcome her, and she is violated and polluted. But when spirits see a man and his…”

◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1h

“Now the woman and man are one in the chamber with the bed, and those so joined will not come apart again. Eve and Adam separated because when they joined it was not in the chamber with the bed. ADAM’S SOUL The soul of Adam came into being…”

◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1i

“His seed was Jesus, and the plant was the cross.” The tree of life in the middle of that garden of paradise is an olive tree, and from the olive tree comes chrism, and from that oil comes the resurrection. THE WORLD EATS BODIES The world e…”

◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1j

“In the world these are the true people. They are the attendants of the bridal chamber. POWER AND WEAKNESS In this world, power and weakness mingle when man and woman have sex. Joining is different in the eternal realm, though we use the…”

◆Gospel of Thomas | Logion 3

“Jesus said, "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and i…”

◆Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter LXV — How the Passions of the Mind can Work of Themselves Upon Another's Body | Chapter LXV, Section 1b

“For as the smell of musk doth penetrate, so something of either bad or good is derived from anything bad or good by those that are nigh to them; which may continue a long time. Now, if the foresaid passions have so great a power in the pha…”

◆Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter LXVII — How the Mind of Man May Be Joined With the Mind of the Stars, and Intelligences of the Celestials, and, Together With Them, Impress Certain Wonderful Virtues Upon Inferior Things | Chapter LXVII, Section 1

“CHAPTER LXVII. How the Mind of Man May Be Joined With the Mind of the Stars, and Intelligences of the Celestials, and, Together With Them, Impress Certain Wonderful Virtues Upon Inferior Things . The philosophers, especially the Arabians, s…”

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

“The primal idea of Pythagoras, which Bruno worked out to a more distinct development is this: numbers are the beginning of things; in other words numbers are the cause of the existence of material things; they are not final, but are always…”

◆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) | INTRODUCTIONl

“There he passed the first day of that imprisonment which was to last for eight years. The next day he went over the lagoon in a gondola, in the company of his jailors, who took him to the prison of the Holy Office, and left him there. Lev…”

◆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) | First Dialoguef

“One thing is certain, that he who loves wisely in youth will in age not go astray. But derision is for those of mature age, into whose hands Love puts the alphabet. Cic. Tell me now why Fate is called blind and bad. Tans. Again, blind…”

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

“"Steals it from me," he says of Jealousy, not simply in order that it may not be present to me; removing it from my eyesight, but in order that good may not be good, but an acute evil; sweet, not sweet, but an agonized longing; while the he…”

◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolismr

“Clement of Alexandria describes a figure of Serapis compounded from the following elements: First, filings of gold, silver, lead, and tin; second, all manner of Egyptian stones, including sapphires, hematites, emeralds, and topazes; all the…”

◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolism

“The Bacchic state signifies the unity of the rational soul in a state of self-knowledge, and the Titanic state the diversity of the rational soul which, being scattered throughout creation, loses the consciousness of its own essential one-n…”

◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Life and Teachings of Thoth Hermes Trismegistusj

“"Then, being naked of all the accumulations of the seven Rings, the soul comes to the Eighth Sphere, namely, the ring of the fixed stars. Here, freed of all illusion, it dwells in the Light and sings praises to the Father in a voice which…”

◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Initiation of the Pyramidj

“The hymns of praise no longer echo in muffled tones through the chambers; the neophyte no longer passes through the elements and wanders among the seven stars; the candidate no longer receives the "Word of Life" from the lips of the Eternal…”

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

“Laurentius Pignorius reproduced the Tablet in connection with a descriptive essay in 1605, but his timidly advanced explanations demonstrated his ignorance concerning the actual interpretation of the figures. THE BEMBINE TABLE OF ISIS. Co…”

◆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…”

◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | Wonders of Antiquityf

“She bathed in the Castalian well, abstained from all food, drank only from the fountain of Cassotis, which was brought into the temple through concealed pipes, and just before mounting the tripod, she chewed a few leaves of the sacred bay t…”

◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | Wonders of Antiquityg

“But when she places herself on the seat of the God, she becomes co-adapted to his stable prophetic power: and from both of these preparatory operations she becomes wholly possessed by the God. And then, indeed, he is present with and illum…”

◆Tao Te Ching | Chapter 14

“We look at it, and we do not see it, and we name it 'the Equable.' We listen to it, and we do not hear it, and we name it 'the Inaudible.' We try to grasp it, and do not get hold of it, and we name it 'the Subtle.' With these three qualitie…”

◆Tao Te Ching | Chapter 23

“Abstaining from speech marks him who is obeying the spontaneity of his nature. A violent wind does not last for a whole morning; a sudden rain does not last for the whole day. To whom is it that these (two) things are owing? To Heaven and E…”

◆The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 123 (part 2)

“In the south of Khû 2 , there is the (tree) called Ming-ling 3 , whose spring is 500 years, and its autumn the same; in high antiquity there was that called Tâ-khun 4 , p. 167 whose spring was 8000 years, and its autumn the same. And Phän…”

◆The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 126 (part 3)

“Doing what other men do, they would have no occasion to blame me. This p. 208 is what is called being a fellow-worker with other men. 'Fully declaring my sentiments and substantiating them by appealing to antiquity, I shall be a co-worke…”

◆The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 127 (part 1)

“p. 223 BOOK V. PART I. SECTION V. Teh Khung Fû, or 'The Seal of Virtue Complete 1 .' 1. In Lû 2 there was a Wang Thâi 3 who had lost both his feet 4 ; while his disciples who followed and went about with him were as numerous as those o…”

◆The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 127 (part 5)

“Though the realisation of this be not manifested in the person, things cannot separate themselves (from its influence).' Some days afterwards duke Âi told this conversation to Min-dze 3 , saying, 'Formerly it seemed to me the work of the so…”

◆The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 127 (part 6)

“What I mean when I say that he is without these is, that this man does not by his likings and dislikings do any inward harm to his body;--he always pursues his course without effort, and does not (try to) increase his (store of) life.' Hui-…”

◆The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 128 (part 12)

“All things begin from nothing and end in nothing. Their birth and their death are only the creations of our thought, the going and coming of the primary ether. When we have penetrated to the non-reality of life and death, what remains of…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 1: Poimandres | Section 1b

“But when He raised His head, I see in Mind the Light, [but] now in Powers no man could number, and Cosmos grown beyond all bounds, and that the Fire was compassed round about by a most mighty Power, and [now] subdued had come unto a stand.…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 1: Poimandres | Section 1e

“To the first zone he gives the Energy of Growth and Waning; unto the second [zone], Device of Evils [now] de-energized; unto the third, the Guile of the Desires de-energized; unto the fourth, his Domineering Arrogance, [also] de-energized;…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 1: Poimandres | Section 1f

“All this befell me from my Mind, that is Man-Shepherd, Word (Logos) of all masterhood, by whom being God-inspired I came unto the Plain of Truth. Wherefore with all my soul and strength thanksgiving give I unto Father-God. 31. Holy art T…”

◆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 1b

“Would that it were possible for thee to get thee wings, and soar into the air, and, poised midway 'tween earth and heaven, behold the earth's solidity, the sea's fluidity (the flowings of its streams), the spaciousness of air, fire's swiftn…”

◆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 9: The Decalogue | Section 1a

“On Thought and Sense <This somewhat diffuse essay covers a series of topics, starting with (and to some extent from) the concept that the set of perceptions we call "thoughts" and the set we call "sensory perceptions" are not significantly…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 10: The Sermon on the Mount | Section 1d

“Spirit pervading [body] by means of veins and arteries and blood, bestows upon the living creature motion, and as it were doth bear it in a way. For this cause some do think the soul is blood, in that they do mistake its nature, not knowin…”

◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1e

“And I rather imagine that Cebes is referring to you; he thinks that you are too ready to leave us, and too ready to leave the gods who, as you acknowledge, are our good rulers. Yes, replied Socrates; there is reason in that. And this indi…”

◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1f

“And being dead is the attainment of this separation; when the soul exists in herself, and is parted from the body and the body is parted from the soul-that is death? Exactly: that and nothing else, he replied. And what do you say of anoth…”

◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1g

“And he attains to the knowledge of them in their highest purity who goes to each of them with the mind alone, not allowing when in the act of thought the intrusion or introduction of sight or any other sense in the company of reason, but wi…”

◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1p

“or are they each of them always what they are, having the same simple, self-existent and unchanging forms, and not admitting of variation at all, or in any way, or at any time? They must be always the same, Socrates, replied Cebes. And wh…”

◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1q

“Then reflect, Cebes: is not the conclusion of the whole matter this?-that the soul is in the very likeness of the divine, and immortal, and intelligible, and uniform, and indissoluble, and unchangeable; and the body is in the very likeness…”

◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1s

“The lovers of knowledge are conscious that their souls, when philosophy receives them, are simply fastened and glued to their bodies: the soul is only able to view existence through the bars of a prison, and not in her own nature; she is wa…”

◆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: Phaedo | Section 1„

“No other proof is needed, he said; for if the immortal, being eternal, is liable to perish, then nothing is imperishable. Yes, replied Socrates, all men will agree that God, and the essential form of life, and the immortal in general, will…”

◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | PROLOGUEa

“HEARKEN to the reed-flute, how it complains, Lamenting its banishment from its home: "Ever since they tore me from my osier bed, My plaintive notes have moved men and women to tears. I burst my breast, striving to give vent to sighs, And t…”

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

“The Prince and the Handmaid. A prince, while engaged on a hunting excursion, espied a fair maiden, and by promises of gold induced her to accompany him. After a time she fell sick, and the prince had her tended by divers physicians. As,…”

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

“Another Tyrannical Jewish King. A certain Jewish king, the same who is referred to in the Sura "Signs of the Zodiac," I made up his mind to utterly exterminate the Christian faith, and with that view he set up a huge idol, and issued comman…”

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

“The skill taught by God to the silkworm Is a learning beyond the reach of the elephant. The earthly Adam was taught of God names, 4 So that his glory reached the seventh heaven. He laid low the name and fame of the angels, 5 Yet blind ind…”

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

“But the light that lights the heart is the Light of God, Which is distinct from the light of reason and sense. At night there is no light, and colors are not seen; Hence we know what light is by its opposite, darkness. At night no colors…”

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

“Omar and the Ambassador. The hare, having delivered his companions from the tyranny of the lion, in the manner just described, proceeds to improve the occasion by exhorting them to engage in a greater and more arduous warfare, viz., the st…”

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

“They possess freewill and compulsion besides, 4 As in oyster-shells raindrops are pearls. Outside the shell they are raindrops, great and small; Inside they are precious pearls, big and little. These men also resemble the musk deer's bag;…”

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

“The Merchant and his Clever Parrot. There was a certain merchant who kept a parrot in a cage. Being about to travel to Hindustan on business, he asked the parrot if he had any message to send to his kinsmen in that country, and the parrot…”

◆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 | Hymn X (part 1)

“X. TO PAN * The FUMIGATION from VARIOUS ODORS I Call strong Pan, the substance of the whole, Etherial, marine, earthly, general soul, Immortal fire; for all the world is thine, And all are parts of thee, O pow'r divine. p. 131 Come, bles…”

◆Orphic Hymns | Hymn LXXV. THE MUSES (part 1)

“LXXV. TO THE MUSES. The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE. Daughters of Jove, dire-sounding and divine, 1 Renown'd Pierian, sweetly speaking Nine; p. 206 To those whose breasts your sacred furies fire Much-form'd, the objects of supreme desi…”

◆Orphic Hymns | Hymn LXXV. THE MUSES (part 2)

“207 fury arises from truth, and the amatorial from beauty; so the poetic proceeds from divine symmetry, by means of which it most intimately unites the poets with the Gods. Plato, in the Phædrus, speaking of this Fury, says that it is an o…”

◆The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 4 (part 2)

“Wherein have I done amiss? What have I done? What have I omitted that I ought to have done? 43. If in this examination thou find that thou hast done amiss, reprimand thyself severely for it; 44. And if thou hast done any good, rejoice.…”

◆The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 5 (part 3)

“"Thou shalt not hope what thou ought'st not to hope," knowing the nature of all things, and what is possible. 55. The Gods near at hand are virtue and truth. p. 17 59, 60. The fatal strife is caused by our inclination "madly to run cou…”

◆The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 7 (part 1)

“p. 29 THE PYTHAGOREAN SENTENCES OF DEMOPHILUS 1. Request not of Divinity such things as, when obtained, you cannot preserve; for no gift of Divinity can ever be taken away; and on this account he does not confer that which you are unable…”

◆The Dhammapada | Chapter II, Section 1b

“A Bhikshu (mendicant) who delights in earnestness, who looks with fear on thoughtlessness, [25. Childers explains this island again as the state of an Arhat (arahatta-phalam). 28. Cf. Childers, Dictionary, Preface, p. xiv. See Vinaya,…”

◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XI, Section 1c

“I had formerly translated anibbisan, as not resting (anirvi s an), but the commentator seems to authorise the meaning of not finding (avindanto, alabhanto), and in that case all the material difficulties of the verse seem to me to disappear…”

◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XIII, Section 1b

“(4) Arhat, the venerable, the perfect, who has reached the highest stage that can be reached, and from which Nirvâ n a is perceived (sukkhavipassanâ, Lotus, p. 849). See Hardy, Eastern Monachism, p. 280; Burnouf, Introduction, p. 209; K…”

◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XV, Section 1a

“p. 53 CHAPTER XV. HAPPINESS. 197. Let us live happily then, not hating those who hate us! among men who hate us let us dwell free from hatred! 198. Let us live happily then, free from ailments among the ailing! among men who are ail…”

◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XX, Section 1b

“Weber renders it by 'Gedeihen,' but the commentator distinctly explains it as 'vast knowledge,' and in the technical sense the word occurs after vidyâ and before medhâ, in the Lalita-vistara, p. 541. 283. A pun, vana meaning both 'lust'…”

◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XXV, Section 1a

“p. 85 CHAPTER XXV. THE BHIKSHU (MENDICANT). 360. Restraint in the eye is good, good is restraint in the ear, in the nose restraint is good, good is restraint in the tongue. 361. In the body restraint is good, good is restraint in spee…”

◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XXV, Section 1b

“Nâmarûpa is here used again in its technical sense of mind and body, neither of which, however, is with the Buddhists âtman, or 'self.' Asat, 'what is not,' may therefore mean the same as nâmarûpa, or we may take it in the sense of what is…”

◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XXVI, Section 1c

“405. Him I call indeed a Brâhma n a who finds no fault with other beings, whether feeble or strong, and does not kill nor cause slaughter. 406. Him I call indeed a Brâhma n a who is tolerant with the intolerant, mild with fault-finders,…”

◆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…”

◆Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Formation) | Section 1f

“The Third Path is the Sanctifying Intelligence, and is the basis of foundation of Primordial Wisdom, which is called the Former of faith, and its roots, Amen; and it is the parent of Faith, from which virtues doth Faith emanate. The Fourth…”

◇The Kabbalah Unveiled | Introduction, Section 1j

“(Here a reason is adduced from the proposed text itself, showing how the last letter of this form of the Tetragrammaton, namely, I, Yod , may be said to symbolize the bride, since p. 57 [paragraph continues] God himself might behold in tha…”

◆The Mabinogion | Tale TALIESINh

“I have been with my Lord in the manger of the ass: I strengthened Moses through the water of Jordan; I have been in the firmament with Mary Magdalene; I have obtained the muse from the cauldron of Caridwen; I have been bard of the harp to L…”

◆Îsâ-Upanishad | Îsâ, Section 1a

“p. 308 p. 309 VÂ G ASANEYI-SA M HITÂ-UPANISHAD, SOMETIMES CALLED Î S ÂVÂSYA OR Î S Â-UPANISHAD p. 310 p. 311 VÂ G ASANEYI-SA M HITÂ-UPANISHAD. 1. ALL this, whatsoever moves on earth, is to be hidden in the Lord (the Self). When thou…”