Spiritual Ascent

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 V-a

“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 VIII-a

“But neither must we admit that cause of the distinction of these genera which you subjoin, viz. “ that it is an arrangement with reference to different bodies; as, for instance, 39 of Gods to etherial bodies, but of dæmons to aerial bodies…”

Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter X-a

“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 XI-b

“Things of this kind, therefore, are introduced for the sake of our soul, and of the diminution of the evils which adhere to it 55 through generation, and of a solution and liberation from its bonds. On this account, also, they are very pro…”

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 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 XIX-a

“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 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 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 of the Gods, indeed, imparts to us health of body, virtue of soul, purity of intellect, and in one word elevates every…”

Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VII

“Moreover, in the manifestations there is an indication of the order which the powers that are seen possess. For the Gods are surrounded by either Gods or angels; but archangels have angels either preceding or coarranged with them, or follow…”

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 III

“The wise, 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 body, e…”

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 XVII-b

“For, as he sometimes makes some stupid man to speak wisely, through which it becomes manifest to every one, that this is not a certain human but a divine work; thus, also, he reveals through things which are deprived of knowledge, conceptio…”

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 XXXI-b

“Hence this genus of divination is undefiled and sacerdotal, and is truly divine. This, also, does not, as you say it does, require me, or any other as an arbiter, in order that I may prefer it to a multitude of other things; but it is itse…”

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 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 XIV

“We shall begin, however, the elucidation of this subject in the best possible manner, if we demonstrate that the sacred law of sacrifices is connected with the order of the Gods. In the first place, therefore, we say, that of the Gods some…”

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 XX

“Being impelled, therefore, from another principle, viz. from the world and the mundane Gods, from the arrangement of the four elements in the world, and the association of the elements according to [appropriate] measures, and also 259 from…”

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 XXVI-a

“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 IV

“It is necessary, however, to think that the soul which uses divination of this kind, not only becomes an auditor of the prediction, but also contributes in no small degree from itself to the consummation of it, and of what pertains to its o…”

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 IV

“These things, therefore, having been accurately discussed, the solution of the doubts which you have met with in certain books will be manifest. For the books which are circulated under the name of Hermes contain Hermaic opinions, though th…”

Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter V

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

Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VI

“You say, therefore, “ that according to many of the Egyptians, that which is in our power depends on the motion of the stars .” What the truth, however, is respecting this, it is necessary to unfold to you from the Hermaic conceptions. For…”

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 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 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 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 VIII-b

“Or we say that the good which subsists in us may be considered as a habit, in consequence of subsisting in a subject; the next to this ranks as essence, and a part of essence, I mean the good which ranks among forms; and the good which is b…”

Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-c

“The fifth according to body, which is called corporeal-formed. And the sixth according to matter, and this is denominated material.” Olympiodorus adds, “or after another manner it may be said, that some of these are celestial, others ether…”

Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-h

“Hence the ancient priests, by the mutual relation and sympathy of things to each other, collected their virtues into one, but expelled them by repugnancy and antipathy; purifying when it was requisite with sulphur and bitumen, and sprinklin…”

Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-k

“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 VIII-l

“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 of h…”

Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-m

“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 VIII-n

“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 VIII-o

“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 VIII-p

“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 VIII-q

“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 VIII-r

“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 VIII-u

“ελευθεροι δε οντες υπερανω παντων, ωσπερ φυλακες και επισκοποι ακριβεις του παντος, περιεχονται τῳ νυχθημερῳ το παν.——εχουσι προς ημας την μεγιστην δυναμιν. i. e. “We say, O son, that the body [of the universe] is comprehensive of all th…”

Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-v

“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-w

“Cathartic virtue, therefore, alone must be called the salvation of souls; since this cuts off, and vehemently obliterates, material natures, and the passions which adhere to us from generation; separates the soul and leads it to intellect;…”

Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-y

“Lond. 1676. p. 211. 7 . Arrian. de Exped. Alex. l. iv. et Curt. lib. viii. 8 . Vit. Artaxerx. Ælian. Var. Hist. lib. i. c. 21. 9 . Justin. lib. vi. 10 . Panegyr. 11 . Lib. vii. 12 . Lib. vi. cap. iii. 13…”

Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-ar

“It must also be observed, that this MS. of Psellus On Dæmons forms no part of his treatise On the Energy of Dæmons , published by Gaulminus; for it never was published. 94 . Hence Iamblichus (apud Stob. Eclog. Phys. p. 114), says, Ου…”

Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-ba

“of my translation of Plato, where many of these names are beautifully unfolded from the MS. Scholia of Proclus on the Cratylus. 127 . See the additional notes at the end of vol. v. of my translation of Plato, and also the notes to my t…”

Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII-bc

“De Abstinentia, “to be a lover of truth, an accurate writer, and very conversant with the Stoic philosophy.” Τοιαυτα μεν τα κατ’ Αιγυπτιους υπ’ ανδρος φιλαληθους τε και ακριβους, εντε τοις Στωϊκοις πραγματικωτατα φιλοσοφησαντος μεμαρτυρημεν…”

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 15

“Section 11 11. In childhood the main activity is in the Couplement and there is but little irradiation from the higher principles of our being: but when these higher principles act but feebly or rarely upon us their action is directed towar…”

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 29

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

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 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 32

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

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 35 (part 1)

“Section 2 2. Those that deny the happy life to the plants on the ground that they lack sensation are really denying it to all living things. By sensation can be meant only perception of state, and the state of well-being must be Good in i…”

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 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 47

“Section 14 14. For man, and especially the Sage, is not the Couplement of soul and body: the proof is that man can be disengaged from the body and disdain its nominal goods. It would be absurd to think that happiness begins and ends with th…”

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 56

“Section 6 6. Well, but take the unhappy man: must not increase of time bring an increase of his unhappiness? Do not all troubles- long-lasting pains, sorrows, and everything of that type- yield a greater sum of misery in the longer time? An…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 62 (part 1)

“Section 1 1. Beauty addresses itself chiefly to sight; but there is a beauty for the hearing too, as in certain combinations of words and in all kinds of music, for melodies and cadences are beautiful; and minds that lift themselves above…”

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 65

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

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

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

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 67

“Section 6 6. For, as the ancient teaching was, moral-discipline and courage and every virtue, not even excepting Wisdom itself, all is purification. Hence the Mysteries with good reason adumbrate the immersion of the unpurified in filth, ev…”

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 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 78

“Section 3 3. If such be the Nature of Beings and of That which transcends all the realm of Being, Evil cannot have place among Beings or in the Beyond-Being; these are good. There remains, only, if Evil exist at all, that it be situate in t…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 81 (part 2)

“In the case of fire and water we would admit contrariety if it were not for their common element, the Matter, about which are gathered the warmth and dryness of one and the dampness and cold of the other: if there were only present what con…”

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 86

“Section 11 11. It may be suggested that Vice is feebleness in the Soul. We shall be reminded that the Vicious Soul is unstable, swept along from every ill to every other, quickly stirred by appetites, headlong to anger, as hasty to compromi…”

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 1)

“Section 9 9. This brings us to the Spindle-destiny, spun according to the ancients by the Fates. To Plato the Spindle represents the co-operation of the moving and the stable elements of the kosmic circuit: the Fates with Necessity, Mothe…”

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 114

“Section 11 11. And we must remember that what comes from the supernals does not enter into the recipients as it left the source; fire, for instance, will be duller; the loving instinct will degenerate and issue in ugly forms of the passion;…”

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 127

“Section 5 5. It may be objected that the Intellectual-Principle possesses its content in an eternal conjunction so that the two make a perfect unity, and that thus there is no Matter there. But that argument would equally cancel the Matter…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 162 (part 1)

“Section 6 6. And, what are we to think of the new forms of being they introduce- their "Exiles" and "Impressions" and "Repentings"? If all comes to states of the Soul- "Repentance" when it has undergone a change of purpose; "Impressions"…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 162 (part 2)

“As a matter of fact the ancient doctrine of the Divine Essences was far the sounder and more instructed, and must be accepted by all not caught in the delusions that beset humanity: it is easy also to identify what has been conveyed in thes…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 163

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

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 166

“Section 10 10. Under detailed investigation, many other tenets of this school- indeed we might say all- could be corrected with an abundance of proof. But I am withheld by regard for some of our own friends who fell in with this doctrine be…”

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 169

“Section 13 13. Those, then, that censure the constitution of the Kosmos do not understand what they are doing or where this audacity leads them. They do not understand that there is a successive order of Primals, Secondaries, Tertiaries and…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 171

“Section 15 15. There is, however, one matter which we must on no account overlook- the effect of these teachings upon the hearers led by them into despising the world and all that is in it. There are two theories as to the attainment of the…”

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

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

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 174

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

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 180

“Section 4 4. Another theory: The Universe is permeated by one Soul, Cause of all things and events; every separate phenomenon as a member of a whole moves in its place with the general movement; all the various causes spring into action fro…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 192

“Section 5 5. Now, once Happiness is possible at all to Souls in this Universe, if some fail of it, the blame must fall not upon the place but upon the feebleness insufficient to the staunch combat in the one arena where the rewards of excel…”

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 194

“Section 7 7. A preliminary observation: in looking for excellence in this thing of mixture, the Kosmos, we cannot require all that is implied in the excellence of the unmingled; it is folly to ask for Firsts in the Secondary, and since this…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 196

“Section 9 9. It would not be just, because Providence cannot be a something reducing us to nothingness: to think of Providence as everything, with no other thing in existence, is to annihilate the Universe; such a providence could have no f…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 198

“Section 11 11. Are we, then, to conclude that particular things are determined by Necessities rooted in Nature and by the sequence of causes, and that everything is as good as anything can be? No: the Reason-Principle is the sovereign, maki…”

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 209

“Section 3 3. For, even though the I is sovereign in choosing, yet by the fact of the choice the thing done takes its place in the ordered total. Your personality does not come from outside into the universal scheme; you are a part of it, yo…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 210 (part 2)

“The Reason-Principle of an ox does not occur except in connection with the Matter appropriate to the ox-Kind. It must be by such a process that the transmigration, of which we read takes place; the Soul must lose its nature, the Reason-Pri…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 218

“Section 4 4. But is this lower extremity of our intellective phase fettered to body for ever? No: if we turn, this turns by the same act. And the Soul of the All- are we to think that when it turns from this sphere its lower phase similarly…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 219

“Section 5 5. But if the presiding Spirit and the conditions of life are chosen by the Soul in the overworld, how can anything be left to our independent action here? The answer is that very choice in the over-world is merely an allegorical…”

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 222 (part 1)

“Section 1 1. What is Love? A God, a Celestial Spirit, a state of mind? Or is it, perhaps, sometimes to be thought of as a God or Spirit and sometimes merely as an experience? And what is it essentially in each of these respects? These…”

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 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 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 228 (part 1)

“Section 7 7. This is the significance of Plato's account of the birth of Love. The drunkenness of the father Poros or Possession is caused by Nectar, "wine yet not existing"; Love is born before the realm of sense has come into being: Pen…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 229

“Section 8 8. But what are we to understand by this Zeus with the garden into which, we are told, Poros or Wealth entered? And what is the garden? We have seen that the Aphrodite of the Myth is the Soul and that Poros, Wealth, is the Reason-…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 230

“Section 9 9. This Poros, Possession, then, is the Reason-Principle of all that exists in the Intellectual Realm and in the supreme Intellect; but being more diffused, kneaded out as it were, it must touch Soul, be in Soul, [as the next lowe…”

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

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

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 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 255

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

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 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 260 (part 2)

“That definite Quantity is merely something occurring within Time, for, otherwise Time is not everywhere but is something belonging to Movement which thus would be its substratum or basic-stuff: once more, then, we would be making Time ident…”

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 264 (part 2)

“This brings us to the fact that, in a certain sense, the Movement, the orbit of the universe, may legitimately be said to measure Time- in so far as that is possible at all- since any definite stretch of that circuit occupies a certain quan…”

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 272

“Section 6 6. Action, thus, is set towards contemplation and an object of contemplation, so that even those whose life is in doing have seeing as their object; what they have not been able to achieve by the direct path, they hope to come at…”

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 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 276 (part 1)

“Section 10 10. And what will such a Principle essentially be? The potentiality of the Universe: the potentiality whose non-existence would mean the non-existence of all the Universe and even of the Intellectual-Principle which is the prim…”

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 294

“Section 7 7. So far, so good: but what of the passage in the Philebus taken to imply that the other souls are parts of the All-Soul? The statement there made does not bear the meaning read into it; it expresses only, what the author was the…”

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 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 304

“Section 17 17. Various considerations explain why the Souls going forth from the Intellectual proceed first to the heavenly regions. The heavens, as the noblest portion of sensible space, would border with the least exalted of the Intellect…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 305

“Section 18 18. There remains still something to be said on the question whether the soul uses deliberate reason before its descent and again when it has left the body. Reasoning is for this sphere; it is the act of the soul fallen into perp…”

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 316

“Section 29 29. Are we, then, to refer memory to the perceptive faculty and so make one principle of our nature the seat of both awareness and remembrance? Now supposing the very Shade, as we were saying in the case of Hercules, has memory,…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 317

“Section 30 30. But what of the memory of mental acts: do these also fall under the imaging faculty? If every mental act is accompanied by an image we may well believe that this image, fixed and like a picture of the thought, would explain h…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 322

“Section 2 2. Enough on that point: we come now to the question of memory of the personality? There will not even be memory of the personality; no thought that the contemplator is the self- Socrates, for example- or that it is Intellect or S…”

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 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 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 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 368 (part 1)

“Section 2 2. If sight depends upon the linking of the light of vision with the light leading progressively to the illumined object, then, by the very hypothesis, one intervening substance, the light, is indispensable: but if the illuminate…”

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 398

“Section 14 14. (19) As for the souls of the other living beings, fallen to the degree of entering brute bodies, these too must be immortal. And if there is in the animal world any other phase of soul, its only possible origin, since it is t…”

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 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 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 407

“Section 7 7. The Kind, then, with which we are dealing is twofold, the Intellectual against the sensible: better for the soul to dwell in the Intellectual, but, given its proper nature, it is under compulsion to participate in the sense-rea…”

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 411

“Section 2 2. Now to begin with, the unity of soul, mine and another's, is not enough to make the two totals of soul and body identical. An identical thing in different recipients will have different experiences; the identity Man, in me as I…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 413

“Section 4 4. These reflections should show that there is nothing strange in that reduction of all souls to one. But it is still necessary to enquire into the mode and conditions of the unity. Is it the unity of origin in a unity? And if so,…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 417

“Section 1 1. What can it be that has brought the souls to forget the father, God, and, though members of the Divine and entirely of that world, to ignore at once themselves and It? The evil that has overtaken them has its source in self-wil…”

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 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 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 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 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 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 469

“Section 2 2. Thus there is the primally intellective and there is that in which intellection has taken another mode; but this indicates that what transcends the primarily intellective has no intellection; for, to have intellection, it must…”

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 472

“Section 5 5. And again: the multiple must be always seeking its identity, desiring self-accord and self-awareness: but what scope is there within what is an absolute unity in which to move towards its identity or at what term may it hope fo…”

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 487

“Section 9 9. Let us, then, make a mental picture of our universe: each member shall remain what it is, distinctly apart; yet all is to form, as far as possible, a complete unity so that whatever comes into view shall show as if it were the…”

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 493

“Section 1 1. All human beings from birth onward live to the realm of sense more than to the Intellectual. Forced of necessity to attend first to the material, some of them elect to abide by that order and, their life throughout, make its co…”

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 497 (part 2)

“This universe, characteristically participant in images, shows how the image differs from the authentic beings: against the variability of the one order, there stands the unchanging quality of the other, self-situate, not needing space beca…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 499

“Section 7 7. Knowledge in the reasoning soul is on the one side concerned with objects of sense, though indeed this can scarcely be called knowledge and is better indicated as opinion or surface-knowing; it is of later origin than the objec…”

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 502

“Section 10 10. All, then, that is present in the sense realm as Idea comes from the Supreme. But what is not present as Idea, does not. Thus of things conflicting with nature, none is There: the inartistic is not contained in the arts; lame…”

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 549 (part 1)

“Section 11 11. We are bound however to enquire under what mode unity is contained in Being. How is what is termed the "dividing" effected- especially the dividing of the genera Being and unity? Is it the same division, or is it different…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 564

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

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 585

“Section 24 24. With regard to locomotion: if ascending is to be held contrary to descending, and circular motion different [in kind] from motion in a straight line, we may ask how this difference is to be defined- the difference, for exampl…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 586

“Section 25 25. The nature of integration and disintegrations calls for scrutiny. Are they different from the motions above mentioned, from coming-to-be and passing-away, from growth and decay, from change of place and from alteration? or mu…”

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 616

“Section 9 9. The elements in their totality, as they stand produced, may be thought of as one spheric figure; this cannot be the piecemeal product of many makers each working from some one point on some one portion. There must be one cause;…”

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 619

“Section 12 12. To return: How is that Power present to the universe? As a One Life. Consider the life in any living thing; it does not reach only to some fixed point, unable to permeate the entire being; it is omnipresent. If on this again…”

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 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 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 652 (part 1)

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

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 653

“Section 14 14. On the nature of the Intellectual-Principle we get light from its manifestations; they show that it demands such diversity as is compatible with its being a monad. Take what principle you will, that of plant or animal: if thi…”

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 665

“Section 26 26. Any conscious being, if the good come to him, will know the good and affirm his possession of it. But what if one be deceived? In that case there must be some resemblance to account for the error: the good will be the origina…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 668

“Section 29 29. Suppose, however, that pleasure did not result from the good but there were something preceding pleasure and accounting for it, would not this be a thing to be embraced? But when we say "to be embraced" we say "pleasure." But…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 669

“Section 30 30. Whether pleasure must enter into the good, so that life in the contemplation of the divine things and especially of their source remains still imperfect, is a question not to be ignored in any enquiry into the nature of the g…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 670

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

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 674

“Section 35 35. Such in this union is the soul's temper that even the act of Intellect, once so intimately loved, she now dismisses; Intellection is movement and she has no wish to move; she has nothing to say of this very Intellectual-Princ…”

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 676

“Section 37 37. Those ascribing Intellection to the First have not supposed him to know the lesser, the emanant- though, indeed, some have thought it impossible that he should not know everything. But those denying his knowing of the lesser…”

Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 677

“Section 38 38. And yet this "He Is" does not truly apply: the Supreme has no need of Being: even "He is good" does not apply since it indicates Being: the "is" should not suggest something predicated of another thing; it is to state identit…”

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 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 690

“Section 8 8. But it is not, in our view, as an attribute that this freedom is present in the First. In the light of free acts, from which we eliminate the contraries, we recognise There self-determination, self-directed and, failing more su…”

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 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 700 (part 1)

“Section 18 18. Seeking Him, seek nothing of Him outside; within is to be sought what follows upon Him; Himself do not attempt. He is, Himself, that outer, He the encompassment and measure of all things; or rather He is within, at the inne…”

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 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 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 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…”

The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 4 (part 3)

“The second respect in which the interests of the occult student have been considered is, however, of much more importance, though he may not be as ready to admit the suggestion, having regard to all that it implies. Robert Turner, the Engl…”

The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 5 (part 1)

“Click to view THE TEMPTATION OF EVIL From Cædmon. INTRODUCTION THE mystic tradition in Christian Times is preserved, apart from all questions and traces of Instituted Mysteries, in the literature of Christian Mystical Theology; it is a lar…”

The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 5 (part 5)

“The technicalities of the occult sciences may seem hard to the beginner, and they are actually hard like the wilderness, because they are barren wastes, but they are in words of one syllable if compared with the little catechisms of eternal…”

The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 5 (part 6)

“It is the calculus of probabilities on the basis of experience in respect of empirical things. Putting it aside, on the fringe of the whole circle there are further a few score of follies which one would not term the grades of preparation…”

The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 5 (part 7)

“I should imagine that the Lords of its Convention are to be feared in a certain manner, like the Red and the Black Death. But the versicles and aspirations and formulæ which must be strong enough at any moment to undo all the gates of hell…”

The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 6 (part 5)

“There is no extant Ritual, as there is no doctrine, which contains, or can possibly contain, the real secret of magical procedure or the essence of occult doctrine. The reason--whatever may be said in the excess of some self-constituted ex…”

The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite) | Page 9 (part 4)

“The sources of occult wisdom, it proceeds, are, firstly, in God; secondly, in spiritual essences--that is to say, the Angelical Hierarchy; thirdly, in corporeal creatures, the reference being probably to the signatura rerum of Paracelsus; f…”

The Kybalion (Three Initiates) | Chapter I (part 3)

“The legends of the "Philosopher's Stone" which would turn base metal into Gold, was an allegory relating to Hermetic Philosophy, readily understood by all students of true Hermeticism. In this little book, of which this is the First Lesson…”

The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 4 (part 3)

“The earliest inscribed monuments and human remains found in Egypt prove that the ancient Egyptians took the utmost care to preserve the bodies of their dead by various processes of embalming. The deposit of the body in the tomb was accompa…”

The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 4 (part 24)

“A Hymn of praise to Ra when he setteth in the land of life. Vignette: The deceased adoring Ra. Chapter XV B . 2. A Hymn of praise to Ra-Harmachis when he setteth in the western horizon of heaven. Vignette: The deceased adoring Ra. Cha…”

The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 4 (part 25)

“Vignette: The deceased being weighed against his heart in the balance in the presence of Osiris, "the great god, the prince of eternity." Chapter XXXI. The Chapter of repulsing the crocodile which cometh to carry the magical words ### from…”

The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 4 (part 26)

“The Chapter of not going in to the divine block a second time. Vignette: A man standing with his back to the block. Chapter LI. The Chapter of not walking upside down in the underworld. Vignette: A man standing. Chapter LII.* The Chapte…”

The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 4 (part 27)

“For the variant vignettes see Naville, Todtenbuch , Bd. L, Bl. 8o. 2. One of the two variant vignettes shows the deceased in the act of adoring Ra, and in the other the deceased kneels before Ra, Thoth, and Osiris; see Naville, Todtenbu…”

The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 4 (part 28)

“The Chapter of bringing a boat in the underworld. Vignette: A boat. Chapter C. The Chapter of making perfect the khu , and of making it to enter into the boat of Ra, together with his divine followers. Vignette: A boat containing a comp…”

The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 4 (part 30)

“It shall be recited on the ninth day of the festival. Vignette: The deceased making offerings before a god. Chapter CXLIV. The Chapter of going in. Vignette: Seven pylons. Chapter CXLV A . [Without title.] This Chapter has no vignette…”

The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 4 (part 31)

“Chapter CLXV.* The Chapter of arriving in port, of not becoming unseen, and of making the body to germinate, and of satisfying it with the water of heaven. Vignette: The god Min or Amsu with beetle's body, etc. Chapter CLXVI. The Chapter…”

The Secret Writing According to John (Apocryphon of John), Codex II, 1 | The Savior Enters the Realm of Darkness

“Therefore, I, the perfect Providence of the all, transformed myself into my (own) seed, because I was the first to exist, traveling all paths, because I am the wealth of the light. [IV, 47] I am the remembrance of the Fullness, but I enter…”

Gospel of Judas | Jesus and Judas

“And when Jesus [said] these things, he left, [taking] Judas Iscariot with him. He said to him, "The water on the exalted mountain is [from] 43 […] it didn't come to [water … the well] of the tree of [the fruit …] of this realm […] after a t…”

Gospel of Judas | The Betrayal

“Jesus said, "Truly I say [to you], this baptism 56 [which they've received in] my name […] will destroy the whole generation of the earthly Adam. Tomorrow they'll torture the one who bears me. Truly I [say] to you, no hand of a mortal human…”

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 1b

“TRUTH MADE NAMES Truth made names in the world, and without them we can’t think. Truth is one and is many, teaching one thing through the many. RULERS The rulers wanted to fool us, since they saw we were connected with the good. They too…”

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 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…”

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

“For where Scripture speaks of things as “eternal” it doth not always mean things that are absolutely Uncreated or verily Everlasting, Incorruptible, 171 Immortal, Invariable, and Immutable ( e.g. “Be ye lift up, ye eternal doors,” 461 461…”

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 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 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…”

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

“But if It is greater than all Reason and all knowledge, and hath Its firm abode altogether beyond Mind and Being, and circumscribes, compacts, embraces and anticipates all things 87 87 παντῶν . . . προληπτική—i.e. contains them eternall…”

Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter I — How Magicians Collect Virtues from the Three-Fold World is Declared in these Three Books | Chapter I, Section 1

“CHAPTER I. How Magicians Collect Virtues from the Three-Fold World is Declared in these Three Books . Seeing there is a Three-fold World—Elementary, Celestial and Intellectual—and every inferior is governed by its superior, and receiveth th…”

Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter LX — Of Madness, and Divinations which are made when men are awake, and of the Power of a Melancholy Humor, by which Spirits are sometimes induced into Men's Bodies | Chapter LX, Section 1b

“And this thing, they think, happens under a three-fold difference, according to a three-fold apprehension of the soul, viz., imaginative, rational, and mental; they say, therefore, that when the mind is forced with a melancholy humor, nothi…”

The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | INTRODUCTION-h

“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) | INTRODUCTION-i

“The life of man is more than an experience or trial; it is an effort, a struggle to reproduce and represent upon earth some of that goodness, beauty, and truth which are diffused over the universe and constitute its harmony. Long, slow, an…”

The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | INTRODUCTION-j

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

The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | First Dialogue-a

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

The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | First Dialogue-c

“Hence he cries: "O mountain of Parnassus, where I abide! Muses, with whom I converse! Fountain of Helicon, where I am nourished. Mountain, that affordest me a quiet dwelling-place! Muses, that inspire me with pro found doctrines. Fount…”

The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | First Dialogue-d

“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…”

Plato: Phaedo | Section 1b

“I thought that in going to the other world he could not be without a divine call, and that he would be happy, if any man ever was, when he arrived there, and therefore I did not pity him as might seem natural at such a time. But neither co…”

Plato: Phaedo | Section 1d

“Socrates replied: And have you, Cebes and Simmias, who are acquainted with Philolaus, never heard him speak of this? I never understood him, Socrates. My words, too, are only an echo; but I am very willing to say what I have heard: and in…”

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 1h

“And now that the hour of departure is appointed to me, this is the hope with which I depart, and not I only, but every man who believes that he has his mind purified. Certainly, replied Simmias. And what is purification but the separation…”

Plato: Phaedo | Section 1i

“They are temperate because they are intemperate-which may seem to be a contradiction, but is nevertheless the sort of thing which happens with this foolish temperance. For there are pleasures which they must have, and are afraid of losing;…”

Plato: Phaedo | Section 1k

“That is clear, he replied. Then the inference is, that our souls are in the world below? That is true. And one of the two processes or generations is visible-for surely the act of dying is visible? Surely, he said. And may not the othe…”

The Book of Concealed Mystery (Siphra Dtzenioutha) | 1g

“The four wheels are their correlatives under the second Sephira, on their four sides--namely, the four elements of the air, fire, water, and earth, which are the abodes of the spirits of the elements, the sylphs, salamanders, undines, and g…”

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

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

The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Page 3 (part 7)

“xix as Burkitt says, "most of the most convincing proofs that the Greek text of Enoch is a translation from a Semitic language fit equally well with a Hebrew or an Aramaic original"; his opinion is that Aramaic was the original language, "b…”

The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter XIV (part 1)

“CHAPTER XIV. 1. The book of the words of righteousness, and of the reprimand of the eternal Watchers in accordance with the command of the Holy Great One in that vision. 2. I saw in my sleep what I will now say with a tongue of flesh an…”

The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter XIV (part 2)

“None of the angels could enter and could behold His face by reason of the magnificence and glory and no flesh could behold Him. 22. The flaming fire was round about Him, and a great fire stood before Him, and none around could draw nigh H…”

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

“XX. Name and Functions of the Seven Archangels . CHAPTER XX. 1. And these are the names of the holy angels who watch. 2. Uriel, one of the holy angels, who is over the world and over Tartarus. 3. Raphael, one of the holy angels, who is over…”

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

“XXI. Preliminary and final place of punishment of the fallen angels (stars) . CHAPTER XXI. 1. And I proceeded to where things were chaotic. 2. And I saw there something horrible: I saw neither a heaven above nor a firmly founded earth, but…”

The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter XXII (part 1)

“XXII. Sheol, or the Underworld . CHAPTER XXII. 1. And thence I went to another place, and he showed me in the west ⌈ another ⌉ great and high mountain [ and ] of hard rock. E 2 And there was in it †four† hollow places, deep and wide an…”

Orphic Hymns | Hymn I. THE GODDESS PROTHYRÆA

“I. TO THE GODDESS PROTHYRÆA * . The FUMIGATION from STORAX. O venerable goddess, hear my pray'r, For labour pains are thy peculiar care; in thee, when stretch'd upon the bed of grief, The sex as in a mirror view relief. Guard of the race, e…”

Orphic Hymns | Hymn XXXVII. THE CURETES +

“XXXVII. TO THE CURETES + . The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE. Brass-beating Salians, ministers of Mars, Who guard his arms the instruments of wars p. 168 Whose blessed frames, heav'n, earth, and sea compose, And from whose breath all animals…”

Orphic Hymns | Hymn LXXV. THE MUSES

“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 desire:…”

Orphic Hymns | Hymn LXXVI. MNEMOSYNE, or the GODDESS of MEMORY

“LXXVI. To MNEMOSYNE, or the GODDESS of MEMORY * . The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE. THE consort I invoke of Jove divine, Source of the holy, sweetly-speaking Nine; p. 215 Free from th' oblivion of the fallen mind, By whom the soul with inte…”

Orphic Hymns | Hymn LXXVII. AURORA

“LXXVII. TO AURORA. The FUMIGATION from MANNA. HEAR me, O Goddess! whose emerging ray Leads on the broad refulgence of the day; Blushing Aurora, whose celestial light Beams on the world with red'ning splendours bright: Angel of Titan, whom w…”

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 1)

“p. 9 NOTES ON THE GOLDEN VERSES OF PYTHAGORAS FROM THE COMMENTARIES OF HIEROCLES. The Golden Verses may be divided into two parts, the first treating of the Practical or Human Virtues, whose aim is the making of Good Men; and the second,…”

The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 5 (part 2)

“The mortal Oath--that used amongst men--has to be reverenced as an image of the other, and as leading to the greatest strength and stability of character. And if man would reverence the Oath, then must he do all in his power to understand…”

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book I | Sutra 6

“These activities are: Sound intellection, unsound intellection, predication, sleep, memory. We have here a list of mental and emotional powers; of powers that picture and observe, and of powers that picture and feel. But the power to know a…”

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book I | Sutra 20

“For the others, there is spiritual consciousness, led up to by faith, valour right mindfulness, one-pointedness, perception. It is well to keep in mind these steps on the path to illumination: faith, velour, right mindfulness, one-pointedne…”

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book I | Sutra 22

“The will may be weak, or of middle strength, or intense. Therefore there is a spiritual consciousness higher than this. For those of weak will, there is this counsel: to be faithful in obedience, to live the life, and thus to strengthen the…”

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book I | Sutra 28

“Let there be soundless repetition of OM and meditation thereon. This has many meanings, in ascending degrees. There is, first, the potency of the word itself, as of all words. Then there is the manifold significance of the symbol, as sugges…”

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book I | Sutra 29

“Thence come the awakening of interior consciousness, and the removal of barriers. Here again faith must be supplemented by works, the life must be led as well as studied, before the full meaning can be understood. The awakening of spiritual…”

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book I | Sutra 37

“Or the purging of self-indulgence from the psychic nature. We must recognize that the fall of man is a reality, exemplified in our own persons. We have quite other sins than the animals, and far more deleterious; and they have all come thro…”

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book I | Sutra 45

“Subtle substance rises in ascending degrees, to that pure nature which has no distinguishing mark. As we ascend from outer material things which are permeated by separateness, and whose chief characteristic is to be separate, just as so man…”

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book II | Sutra 27

“His illuminations is sevenfold, rising in successive stages. Patanjali's text does not tell us what the seven stages of this illumination are. The commentator thus describes them; First, the danger to be escaped is recognized; it need not b…”

Corpus Hermeticum 1: Poimandres | Section 1a

“Poemandres, the Shepherd of Men <This is the most famous of the Hermetic documents, a revelation account describing a vision of the creation of the universe and the nature and fate of humanity. Authors from the Renaissance onward have been…”

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 4: The Epistles | Section 1b

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

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

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

Corpus Hermeticum 5: The Discourse of Hermes to Asclepius | Section 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…”

Gnostic John the Baptizer — Portents at John's Birth | Section 3

“Then all of the priests arose and said to Old Father Zakhriā, [they said] in reproach: "Be at rest and keep thy seat, Old Father, and let the calm of the Good (pl.) rest upon thee. Old p. 39 Father, if there were no dreams in Judća, then wo…”

Gnostic John the Baptizer — Portents at John's Birth | Section 4

“Yahyā proclaims in the nights, Yōhānā on the Night's evenings. 4 YAHYĀ proclaims in the nights and says: "Through my Father's discourses I give light and through the praise of the Man, my creator, I have freed my soul from the world and fr…”

Gnostic John the Baptizer — Portents at John's Birth | Section 9

“JOHN AND THE BAPTISM OF JESUS (§ 30). Yahyā proclaims in the nights, Yōhānā on the Night's evenings. YAHYĀ proclaims in the nights.—Glory rises over the worlds. Who told Yeshu (Eshu)? Who told Yeshu Messiah, son of Miryam, who told Yeshu…”

Gnostic John the Baptizer — Portents at John's Birth | Section 10

“"A blind man who writes a letter: a villain who has become virtuous. He abandoned wantonness and abandoned theft and reached unto faith in almighty Life. "A desolate house who ascends again to the height: one of position who has become hum…”

Gnostic John the Baptizer — Portents at John's Birth | Section 12

“Thereon they 3 fashioned for Yahyā a wife out of thee, thou Region of the Faithful. 4 From the first conception were Handan and Sharrath born. From the middle conception were Birhām and R'himath-Haiyē born. From the last conception were Nṣa…”

Gnostic John the Baptizer — Portents at John's Birth | Section 16

“When Messiah said this, Yahyā cries aloud; tears come to him without ceasing, and he speaks: "[God] forbid that the high King of Light should look for lot in deceivers. The soul is not like the blood, that it should become heated in the bod…”

Gnostic John the Baptizer — The Story of the Breach with Judaism | Section 6

“"Go, go," says she unto them, "ye fools, ye abortions, 4 ye who were not of the world. 5 I am no woman who is stripped for wantoning; and it is not that I have fallen in love with a man. Stripped am I not for returning to you and for again…”

Gnostic John the Baptizer — Some Typical Extracts | Section 4

“But I made answer unto them: "O ye fishers, who lap up your filth, no fisher am I who fishes for fish, and I was not formed for an eater of filth. A Fisher am I of souls who bear witness to Life. A Poor Fisher am I who calls to the souls, c…”

The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | PROLOGUE-a

“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) | PROLOGUE-b

“Knowest thou why thy mirror reflects not? Because the rust has not been scoured from its face. If it were purified from all rust and defilement, It would reflect the shining of the SUN Of GOD.6 O friends, ye have now heard this tale, Whic…”

The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY I-a

“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 II

“The Oilman and his Parrot. An oilman possessed a parrot which used to amuse him with its agreeable prattle, and to watch his shop when he went out. One day, when the parrot was alone in the shop, a cat upset one of the oil-jars. When the oi…”

The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY III-a

“The Jewish King, his Vazir, and the Christians. A certain Jewish king used to persecute the Christians, desiring to exterminate their faith. His Vazir persuaded him to try a stratagem, namely, to mutilate the Vazir himself, and expel him…”

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 V-b

“Again, know that self-exertion springs from weakness; Relying on other means is a blot upon perfect trust. Self-exertion is not more noble than trust in God. What is more lovely than committing oneself to God? Many there are who flee fro…”

The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY V-c

“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 Secret Doctrine | Page 2 (part 2)

“"When Buddhi absorbs our E GOtism (destroys it) with all its Vikaras, Avalokiteshvara becomes manifested to us, and Nirvana, or Mukti, is reached," "Mukti" being the same as Nirvana, i.e. , freedom from the trammels of "Maya" or illusion.…”

The Secret Doctrine | Page 3 (part 8)

“Moreover, the Secret Doctrine teaches: -- ( c ) The fundamental identity of all Souls with the Universal Over-Soul, the latter being itself an aspect of the Unknown Root; and the obligatory pilgrimage for every Soul -- a spark of the former…”

The Secret Doctrine | Page 4 (part 3)

“T HEY MAKE OF HIM THE MESSENGER OF THEIR WILL. T HE D ZYU BECOMES F OHAT, THE SWIFT SON OF THE D IVINE SONS WHOSE SONS ARE THE L IPIKA, RUNS CIRCULAR ERRANDS. F OHAT IS THE STEED AND THE THOUGHT IS THE RIDER. H E PASSES LIKE LIGHTNING TH…”

The Secret Doctrine | Page 5 (part 2)

“Even so of persons and things, which, dropping out of the to-be into the has-been, out of the future into the past -- present momentarily to our senses a cross-section, as it were, of their total selves, as they pass through time and space…”

The Secret Doctrine | Page 9 (part 11)

“They circumscribe the manifested world of matter within the R ING "Pass-Not." This world is the symbol (objective) of the O NE divided into the many, on the planes of Illusion, of Adi (the "First") or of Eka (the "One"); and this One is the…”

The Secret Doctrine | Page 13 (part 7)

“Three further higher grades have to be conquered by the Arhan who would reach the apex of the ladder of Arhatship. There are those who have reached it even in this fifth race of ours, but the faculties necessary for the attainment of these…”

The Secret Doctrine | Page 14 (part 4)

“I am merged in Sekten." This last sentence gives the corroboration of, and repeats the doctrine of, esoteric Buddhism, for it alludes directly to the fifth principle (Manas), or the most spiritual part of its essence rather, which merges in…”

The Secret Doctrine | Page 15 (part 1)

“The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1 [[Vol. 1, Page]] 238 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. STANZA VII. -- Continued. (5) T HE SPARK HANGS FROM THE FLAME BY THE FINEST THREAD OF F OHAT. I T JOURNEYS THROUGH THE S EVEN W ORLDS OF M AY…”

Tao Te Ching | Chapter 16

“The (state of) vacancy should be brought to the utmost degree, and that of stillness guarded with unwearying vigour. All things alike go through their processes of activity, and (then) we see them return (to their original state). When thin…”

Tao Te Ching | Chapter 33

“He who knows other men is discerning; he who knows himself is intelligent. He who overcomes others is strong; he who overcomes himself is mighty. He who is satisfied with his lot is rich; he who goes on acting with energy has a (firm) will.…”

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

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

The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book II (part 7)

“How do you know that when I say "I know it," I really (am showing that) I do not know it, and that when I say "I do not know it," I really am showing that I do know it 1 .' And let me ask you some questions:--'If a man sleep in a damp place…”

The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book IV (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 VI (part 4)

“245 got It, and by It dwelt in the Dark Palace. Yü-khiang 1 got It, and by It was set on the North Pole. Hsî Wang-mû 2 got It, and by It had her seat in (the palace of) Shâo-kwang. No one knows Its beginning; no one knows Its end. Phäng…”

The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book VI (part 9)

“257 [paragraph continues] 'I have lost all thought of ceremonies and music.' 'Very well, but that is not enough., A third day, Hui again saw (the Master), and said, 'I am making progress.' 'What do you mean?' 'I sit and forget everything 1…”

The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book VI (part 10)

“The Shwo Wän dictionary defines the name by , 'a recluse of the mountain, whose bodily form has been changed, and who ascends to heaven;' but when this account was made, Tâoism had entered into a new phase, different from what it had in the…”

The Dhammapada | Chapter II, Section 1a

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

The Dhammapada | Chapter IX, Section 1

“p. 34 Chapter IX. Evil. 116. If a man would hasten towards the good, he should keep his thought away from evil; if a man does what is good slothfully, his mind delights in evil. 117. If a man commits a sin, let him not do it again; let him…”

The Dhammapada | Chapter XIII, Section 1a

“p. 47 CHAPTER XIII. THE WORLD. 167. Do not follow the evil law! Do not live on in thoughtlessness! Do not follow false doctrine! Be not a friend of the world. 168. Rouse thyself! do not be idle! Follow the law of virtue! The vir…”

The Dhammapada | Chapter XVI, Section 1

“p. 56 CHAPTER XVI. PLEASURE. 209. He who gives himself to vanity, and does not give himself to meditation, forgetting the real aim (of life) and grasping at pleasure, will in time envy him who has exerted himself in meditation. 210. Let no…”

The Dhammapada | Chapter XVII, Section 1a

“p. 58 CHAPTER XVII. ANGER. 221. Let a man leave anger, let him forsake pride, let him overcome all bondage! No sufferings befall the man who is not attached to name and form, and who calls nothing his own. 222. He who holds back risi…”

The Dhammapada | Chapter XVIII, Section 1a

“p. 60 CHAPTER XVIII. IMPURITY. 235. Thou art now like a sear leaf, the messengers of death (Yama) have come near to thee; thou standest at the door of thy departure, and thou hast no provision for thy journey. 236. Make thyself an isl…”

Adapa and the Food of Life | Section 1a

“ADAPA AND THE FOOD OF LIFE . TABLET NO.1 He possessed intelligence . . . , His command like the command of Anu ... He (Ea) granted him a wide ear to reveal the destiny of the land, He granted him wisdom, but he did not grant him eterna…”

Adapa and the Food of Life | Section 1b

“Adapa, For whom art thou clad in a mourning garment?" In the country two gods have vanished; therefore am I clad In mourning garments." "Who are the two gods, who have vanished from the land?" "Tammuz and Gishzida." They looked at one anoth…”

The Descent of the Goddess Ishtar into the Lower World | Section 1c

“Sprinkle Ishtar with the waters of life and take her out of my presence. Namtar went, knocked at the strong palace, Tapped on the threshold of precious stones. He brought out the Anunnaki and placed them on golden thrones, He sprinkled Is…”

The Soul of the Indian | Chapter I-a

“THE GREAT MYSTERY Solitary Worship. The Savage Philosopher. The Dual Mind. Spiritual Gifts versus Material Progress. The Paradox of “Christian Civilization.” The original attitude of the American Indian toward the Eternal, the “Great My…”

Myths of the Cherokee | Myth 10

“ORIGIN OF THE PLEIADES AND THE PINE Long ago, when the world was new, there were seven boys who used to spend all their time down by the townhouse playing the gatayû′stĭ game, rolling a stone wheel along the ground and sliding a curved stic…”

The Revelation of John (American Standard Version, 1901) | 10:6-11:12

“[10:6] and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created the heaven and the things that are therein, and the earth and the things that are therein, and the sea and the things that are therein, that there shall be delay no longer:…”

The Kalevala | Rune XV-g

“God anoints his faithful children, With the honey of his wisdom, When they feel the pangs of sorrow, When they meet the powers of evil. Dip thy winglets in this honey, Steep thy plumage in His sweetness, Hither bring the all-sufficient Bal…”

The Poetic Edda: Hovamol | Section 1m

“I ween that I hung | on the windy tree, Hung there for nights full nine; With the spear I was wounded, | and offered I was To Othin, myself to myself, On the tree that none | may ever know What root beneath it runs. [138. In the manuscrip…”