Chapter XVIIIb

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

The passage contrasts the perfection of inherent things with the 'partible privation of symmetry' in parts, implying material corruption hinders cosmic harmony.

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.

The text explicitly discusses how motions and circulations preserve the whole world while parts injure each other through privation of symmetry.

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

The celestial Gods are described as not being effective of evil, suggesting their nature is concealed from mundane influence.

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.

The passage defines corruptibility and mutability as passions arising from 'partible privation of symmetry' rather than positive being.

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

Celestial Gods are described as active agents whose gifts are not effective of evil, indicating a dynamic divine presence.

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

The text references 'symmetry' and 'circulations,' implying underlying mathematical order in the cosmos.