For the generative causes of things, are contained by similitude in their effects; and in causes themselves their progeny subsist, comprehended in perfect union and consent.
Hence the celestial orbs impart a copious defluxion of good to this terrestrial region; while sublunary parts, assimilated in a certain respect to p.
73 the heavens, participate a perfection convenient to their nature.
Hence too, from the progressions of similitude, there are various leaders in the universe.
And many orders of angels dancing harmoniously round their ruling deities; together with a multitude of dæmons, heroes, and particular souls.
There are besides multiform kinds of mortal animals, and various powers of plants.
So that all things tend to their respective leaders, and are as it were stamped with one sign of domestic unity; which is in form more evident., and in others more obscure.
For indeed similitude in first productions subsists more apparently; but in those of the middle and extreme orders is obscured in consequence of the gradations of progression.
Hence images and exemplars derive their hypostasis from p.
74 conciliating similitude; and every thing through this is familiar to itself, and to its kindred natures.
But it is time to return from this digression to the business of sacrifice and prayer.
That we may therefore have a clearer view of the nature and efficacy of each, let us hear the elegant and subtle Proclus x , upon sacrifice and magic, of which the following is a paraphrase.
"In the same manner as lovers gradually advance from that beauty which is apparent in sensible forms, to that which is divine; so the ancient priests, when they considered that there was a certain alliance and sympathy in natural things to each p.
75 other, and of things manifest to occult powers, and by this means discovered that all things subsist in all, they fabricated a sacred science, from this mutual sympathy and similarity.
Thus they recognized things supreme, in such as are subordinate, and the subordinate in the supreme: in the celestial regions terrene properties subsisting in a causal and celestial manner; and in earth celestial properties, but according to a terrene condition.
For how shall we account for those plants called heliotropes, that is attendants on the sun, moving in correspondence with the revolution of its orb; but selenitropes, or attendants on the moon, turning in exact conformity with her motion?
it is because all things pray, and compose hymns to the leaders of their respective orders; but some intellectually, and others p.
76 rationally; some in a natural, and others after a sensible manner.
Hence the sunflower, as far as it is able, moves in a circular dance towards the sun; so that if any one could hear the pulsation made by its circuit in the air, he would perceive something composed by a sound of this kind, in honour of its king such as a plant is capable of framing.
Hence we may behold the sun and moon in the earth, but according to a terrene quality.
But in the celestial regions, all plants, and stones, and animals, possessing an intellectual life according to a celestial nature.
Now the ancients having contemplated this mutual sympathy of things, applied for occult purposes both celestial and terrene natures, by means of which through a certain similitude they deduced divine virtues into this inferior abode.
For indeed p.
77 similitude itself is a sufficient cause of binding things together in union and consent.
Thus if a piece of paper is heated, and afterwards placed near a lamp, though it does not touch the fire, the paper will be suddenly inflamed, and the flame will descend from the superior to the inferior parts.
Themes
◆Active Contemplationpraxis
A form of meditation that uses imagery, imagination, or symbolic thought rather than purely empty stillness.
Mentions the ancients having 'contemplated this mutual sympathy of things' to apply occult purposes.
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.
Describes celestial orbs imparting good and leaders governing the universe.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
The text asserts that all things subsist in all and that terrestrial parts are assimilated to the heavens.
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.
Describes how things participate in perfection and divine virtues are deduced into the inferior abode.
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.
[auto] The core argument relies on similitude between causes and effects, stating celestial properties subsist in earth and vice versa.
The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.
[auto] Explicitly discusses 'alliance and sympathy in natural things' as the basis for sacred science and magic.
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.
[auto] The passage describes universal good as the cause of individual good through participation, indicating a hierarchical flow of divinity.
Diotima's staged ascent from love of beautiful bodies → beautiful souls → beautiful pursuits → beautiful knowledge → Beauty itself; the canonical scala amoris that grounds Plotinus's On the Beautiful and Bruno's Eroici Furori — distinct from generic spiritual_ascent in that eros is the specific motive force.
[auto] Explicitly paraphrases the ascent of lovers from sensible beauty to divine beauty.
The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.
[auto] The passage centrally argues that prayer prevents souls from being united with the divinities and that conversion to the universe procures safety through this union.
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.
[auto] Cites Proclus on sacrifice and magic to deduce divine virtues into the inferior abode through similitude.