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Iamblichus: On the Mysteries · 19 of 218 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Chapter XIII

Moreover, “ the pacifications of anger ” will become manifest, if we understand what the anger of the Gods is. This, therefore, is not, as it appears to be to some, a certain ancient and inveterate rage, but an abandonment of the beneficent care of the Gods, from which we turn ourselves away, withdrawing, as it were, 58 from meridian light, hiding ourselves in darkness, and depriving ourselves of the beneficent gift of the Gods. Hence pacification is able to convert us to the participation of divinity and the providential care of the Gods, from which we were divulsed, and to bind together, commensurately, participants and the participated natures. So far, therefore, is pacification from accomplishing its work through passion, that it separates us from the passive and tumultuous abandonment of the Gods. But “ the oblation of victims ,” when some evil is present in places about the earth, procures a remedy for the evil, and secures us from the incursion of any mutation or passion. Hence, whether a thing of this kind is effected through Gods or dæmons, it invokes these as the expellers of evil, and [our true] saviours, and through them exterminates all the injury which may accede from the calamities. Those powers, also, who avert genesiurgic and physical punishments, do not expel them through passions. And if some one should think that the suppression of the guardian care of the Gods, introduces a certain spontaneous injury, in this case the persuasion arising from pacification 59 recalls the benevolence of the more excellent genera, to a providential attention to our affairs, and takes away our privation of good, being itself perfectly pure and immutable.
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Themes
Divine Providencetheology

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 passage explicitly discusses the 'providential care of the Gods' and how pacification restores this active ordering to human affairs.

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Evil As Privationtheology

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.

Evil is defined as a 'privation of good' resulting from turning away from meridian light rather than a positive ontological force.

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Inner Lightanthropology

The divine spark or luminous quality residing within the human person, potentially recognisable through introspection.

The passage contrasts 'meridian light' with 'darkness,' implying a divine luminous quality residing within the human person that must be restored.

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Living Godtheology

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

The Gods are described as actively caring beneficently and possessing the power to expel evil, portraying them as dynamic and responsive.

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Mystical Unionsoteriology

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

Pacification is described as converting humans to the 'participation of divinity,' merging them with the divine nature.

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Return To Sourcesoteriology

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

The text describes a movement from 'darkness' back to the 'meridian light' and the 'beneficent care of the Gods'.

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Ritual Puritypraxis

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

The passage emphasizes that pacification and oblation restore the human state to a 'perfectly pure' condition.

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Separation From Sourcesoteriology

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.

The text centrally describes the human condition as being 'divulsed' from the divine providential care and turning away from meridian light into darkness.

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Theosis Deificationsoteriology

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.

Pacification enables humans to become 'participants' in divinity and participate in the divine nature through binding together.

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Unity Of Beingtheology

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

The text mentions binding together 'participants and the participated natures,' suggesting a restoration of ontological unity.

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