Front Matter, p. 4 (part 11)

A form of meditation that uses imagery, imagination, or symbolic thought rather than purely empty stillness.

The text promotes 'speculation of their essences' and feeding the intellectual part as a form of sacrifice.

The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.

Pythagoreans mapped numbers and geometrical figures to specific divine names and attributes.

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

The First God is described as transcending being, place, and time, suggesting radical concealment.

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

The text mentions divinities 'shining upon us with divine splendours' and appearing to mental sight.

Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.

The soul of the world agitates the corporeal fabric according to 'most excellent and harmonious reasons'.

The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.

The First God is characterized as indivisible and not circumscribed by any external nature.

A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.

The text outlines a hierarchy from the First God to the soul of the world and finally the corporeal fabric.

Ascetic disciplines that prepare the body and mind for spiritual receptivity or purification.

The passage discusses sacred rites and sacrifices as a form of religious discipline.

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

Salvation is linked to obtaining 'a knowledge of divinity' through contemplation rather than mere ritual.

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

The divinities are described as conversing with humans and appearing to their mental sight.

Disciplined inward attention — sitting, focused, or open-awareness practice — as a stand-alone term that umbrellas active_contemplation, inner_silence, and dhyana-style sitting.

Contemplation and speculation on divine essences are central practices described for salvation.

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

The First God is described as 'incorporeal, immoveable, and indivisible', aligning with the concept of a simple first principle.

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

The text emphasizes striving for 'an union with these exalted natures' and conversing with divinities.

Direct address to the divine, whether petitionary, contemplative, or liturgical; speech and silence offered upward.

The text describes thanking divinities and offering sacrifices of thoughts as a form of address.

Critique of outward religious observance that lacks inner transformation; form without substance.

The author criticizes those who cultivate fame and focus on statues rather than true piety and knowledge.

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

The goal is described as obtaining knowledge of divinity and union with exalted natures for salvation.

Fire as medium of divine presence.

Fire is mentioned in the context of Pythagorean sacrifices and its alliance with celestial gods.

Divine names or formulas that carry ontological power, used in prayer, liturgy, or magical practice.

Pythagoreans are described as calling divinities by their proper names to obtain particular requests.

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

The passage advocates striving after union with exalted natures and sacrificing contemplation for salvation.

The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.

Practitioners become 'partakers of real salvation' through union with divine natures.

Iamblichean ritual practice that engages the gods directly through consecrated material symbols and actions, on the premise that divine power descends into properly prepared matter — distinct from philosophical contemplation alone.

The passage discusses sacrifices, invocations, and divination practices intended to engage with divine powers.

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

[auto] The passage explicitly describes the First God using negation, stating He is 'neither existing, in any being, place, or time'.

Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.

[auto] The text details how Pythagoreans sacrificed numbers and lines to the Gods, naming them after divine attributes.