Iamblichus: On the Mysteries · 21 of 218 · tr. Thomas Taylor
Chapter XV-a
After this, you pass on to another division into contraries, viz.
the division of Gods with reference to dæmons.
For you say, “ that the Gods are pure intellects ;” but you propose this opinion as an hypothesis, or you narrate it as a dogma adopted by certain persons.
And you infer, “ that dæmons are psychical essences participating of intellect .” Neither, therefore, am I ignorant that this is the opinion of many philosophers; but to you, I do not think it is proper to conceal what appears to me to be the truth.
For all such opinions are full of confusion; since they wander from dæmons to souls, which also participate of intellect; and from the Gods to an immaterial intellect in energy, which the Gods entirely excel by a priority of nature.
Why, therefore, is it requisite 61 to attribute to them these peculiarities, which are by no means appropriate?
And thus much concerning this division, for it would be superfluous to make any further mention of it.
But it is requisite that your doubts respecting this distinction should be properly considered, as the discussion of them pertains to the sacerdotal province.
Farther still, having said “ that pure intellects are inflexible , [i.
e.
not to be changed or altered ] and unmingled with sensibles ,” you doubt, “ whether it is requisite to pray to them .” But I think it is necessary to pray to no others than these.
For that in us which is divine, intellectual, and one, or intelligible, if you are willing so to call it, is most clearly excited in prayer; and, when excited, vehemently seeks that which is similar to itself, and becomes copulated to perfection itself.
But if it should appear to you to be incredible, that an incorporeal nature can be capable of hearing sounds, and it should be urged by you, that for this purpose the sense of hearing is requisite, that it may apprehend what is said by us in prayer; you willingly forget the excellency of primary causes, which consists in both knowing and 62 comprehending in themselves at once the whole of things.
The Gods, therefore, do not receive prayers in themselves, through any corporeal powers or organs, but rather contain in themselves the energies of pious invocations; and especially of such as, through sacred ceremonies, are established in, and united to, the Gods.
For then, in reality, a divine nature is present with itself, and does not communicate with the intellectual conceptions in prayer, as different from its own.
“ Supplications, however ,” you say, “ are too foreign to the purity of intellect to be offered to the Gods .” But this is by no means the case.
For on this very account, because we fall short of the Gods in power, purity, and every thing else, we shall act in the most opportune manner, by invoking them with the most vehement supplications.
For the consciousness of our own nothingness, when we compare ourselves, with the Gods, causes us to betake ourselves spontaneously to suppliant prayer.
But from supplication, we are in a short time led to the object of supplication, acquire its similitude from intimate converse, and gradually obtain divine perfection, instead of our own imbecility and imperfection.
If, indeed, it is considered that sacred prayers 63 are sent to men from the Gods themselves, that they are certain symbols of the divinities, and that they are only known to the Gods, with whom, in a certain respect, they possess the same power,—how can it any longer be justly apprehended, that a supplication of this kind is sensible, and not divine and intellectual?
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 passage outlines a hierarchy of beings (Gods > dæmons > human souls) differing in their participation of intellect and perfection.
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 explicitly states that through intimate converse and supplication, we acquire similitude from the Gods and gradually obtain divine perfection instead of our own imbecility.
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 text emphasizes sacred ceremonies and invocations that establish a connection with the Gods through which divine nature is present.