Section 4 (part 2)

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

The practitioner is told to examine actions by reason and meditate thoroughly on these things.

The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.

Immortality is achieved only after divesting oneself of the mortal body.

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.

Knowing the constitution of gods and men implies a structural link between human and divine realms.

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.

Practitioners are instructed to pray the gods to accomplish what they are going to begin.

Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source.

The text states that the race of man is divine and sacred nature reveals mysteries to them.

Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.

Misfortunes are drawn upon voluntarily by free choice rather than being an external ontological force.

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

The text mandates abstaining from certain meats and praying to the gods before beginning any work.

Texts and rituals guiding the soul through death.

The text describes the state of the soul after death when it arrives at the pure Æther.

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

Salvation comes through knowing the constitution of gods and men and receiving secrets from sacred nature.

Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.

Sacred nature reveals the most hidden mysteries to those who receive her secrets.

The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.

The text states that good is near men, though they do not see or understand it.

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

Jupiter is addressed as 'our Father' who can deliver men from evils.

Gurdjieff and Ouspensky's claim that ordinary human beings live in a state of waking sleep, reacting mechanically without unified will or consciousness, and that the spiritual path begins with recognising this condition.

Men are described as rolling like huge cylinders, oppressed with ills and not perceiving their condition.

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

The text explicitly instructs to meditate well on the ordained things.

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 practitioner is told to know the constitution of gods and men, noting the nature of the universe is alike in all things.

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

The ultimate goal described is becoming a God where death has no dominion, implying union with the divine nature.

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

The text invokes the 'Sacred Quaternion' as the source of nature and eternal cause.

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

Direct address to Jupiter and prayer to the gods for accomplishment of work are central instructions.

Guided passage of the soul through afterlife realms.

The text outlines the soul's passage to the pure Æther after death.

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

The soul is delivered from evils and arrives at the pure Æther to become divine, reversing its mortal condition.

The maintenance of a state of cleanliness—physical, moral, or spiritual—required for encounter with the divine.

The text commands abstention from forbidden meats in the purifications and deliverance of the soul.

Daily review of thought and action as spiritual practice.

The passage explicitly commands daily review of actions by reason to identify errors and omissions.

The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.

Mankind is described as blind and oppressed by ills, unaware that their good is near them.

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

The soul ascends to the most pure Æther after divesting itself of the mortal body.

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.

The text promises that upon leaving the mortal body, the practitioner shall become a God, immortal and incorruptible.

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.

Prayer is used as a ritual action to engage the gods to accomplish human work.

Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma).

The text distinguishes between the mortal body, the soul to be healed, and the understanding from above.

The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.

The text states that according to Law, the nature of the universe is in all things alike.