Chapter XXI

Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.

The divine cause is described as so separated from passions that reason cannot come into contact with it.

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

Human passions and corporeal-formed actions are contrasted against the impassive divine nature.

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.

The passage states that sacred institutions imitate the intelligible and celestial order of the Gods.

A state of awareness transcending ordinary human consciousness, often involving unity with the universe or higher dimensions.

The text describes a divine cause that unfolds things into light through arcane symbols beyond ordinary reason.

A secondary creator deity—often ignorant or malevolent—responsible for fashioning the material world, distinct from the supreme transcendent God.

The text explicitly mentions the Demiurgus and father of wholes as the source from which things are unfolded into light through arcane symbols.

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

The divine cause is described as separated from passions such that reason cannot come into contact with it.

The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.

Things are unfolded into light through arcane symbols and formless things are vanquished by forms.

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 text references the Demiurgus and father of wholes as a source from which beings unfold.

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.

Passions are described as aberrations that frustrate divine natures rather than positive ontological states.

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

The passage emphasizes the inability to apprehend reasons of sacred institutions through human passions and the necessity of establishing the one apart from the other.

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

Sacred concerns are unfolded into light through arcane symbols rather than direct reason.

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

Things are unfolded into light through arcane symbols, implying an internal illumination process.

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

The Gods are described as actively legislating and unfolding things from their own nature.

Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.

The passage uses the contradiction between human passions and divine impassibility to destabilize ordinary understanding.

A spiritual elite who possess the divine spark and are predestined for salvation, contrasted with psychic (faithful) and hylic (material) persons.

A distinction is drawn between those who perform actions to Gods versus those who perform them to men.

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

The passage discusses genuflexions, adorations, and gifts as performed to Gods and men.

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

Sacred institutions are described as conformable to sacerdotal laws and performed with reverence.

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.

Men fall from divine natures and are frustrated of them when they draw them down to human passions.

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 speaks of imitating the intelligible and celestial order of the Gods.

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 passage critiques religious ceremonies performed through passion as not conformable to sacerdotal laws and divine causes.