Iamblichus: On the Mysteries · 105 of 218 · tr. Thomas Taylor
Chapter Xa
We, however, admit all these assertions; physical essences, indeed, being coexcited as in one animal, according to aptitude or sympathy, as in another respect being subjects, and following and being subservient to the cause of the efficacy of sacrifices; but dæmons, and terrene or mundane divine powers, being primarily familiarized to our order; nevertheless, we must say, that the most perfect and leading cause of the efficacy of sacrifices is to be conjoined to demiurgic and the most perfect powers.
But since these comprehend in themselves all the causes of sacrifice, we say that all the effective causes of it are at once coexcited together with these.
And from all these a common utility is imparted to the whole of generation; sometimes through cities and people, or all various nations, or circumscriptions more or less extended than these; but at other times through houses, or an individual, these causes impart good with an unenvying and exuberant will, unaccompanied with passion; conferring their benefits with an impassive intellect, according to adaptation and alliance; one friendship at the same time which connectedly contains all 243 things, producing this bond through a certain ineffable communion.
For these assertions are much more true, and more characteristic of the essence and power of the Gods, than what you suspect to be the case, viz.
“ that the Gods are especially allured by the vapours produced in the sacrifices of animals .” For if dæmons are invested with a certain body, which some think is nourished by sacrifices, yet this body is immutable and impassive, luciform and unindigent; so that neither does any thing flow from it, nor is it in want of any influx externally introduced.
And if some one should admit that there is this influx, yet since the world and the air contained in it have a never failing abundance of exhalations from terrene places, an efflux of this kind being equally diffused on all sides, what use can there be of sacrifices to dæmons?
But neither do the influxions equally and commensurately fill the place of the effluxions, so as that neither excess should at any time predominate, nor deficiency be produced, but that there should be a perfect equality and similitude of the bodies of dæmons, and this invariably the same.
For the Demiurgus of the universe has not provided abundant nutriment, and which may be easily obtained, for all the animals in the earth and the sea, but has made 244 the beings superior to us to be in want of it; nor has he imparted to other animals a native abundance of what is daily requisite, but given to dæmons nutriment which is adscititious and procured by us men; so that if we through indolence, or some other pretext, should neglect an offering of this kind, the bodies of dæmons would be in want of food, and would participate of incommensuration and disorder.
Why, therefore, do not the authors of these assertions subvert the whole order of things, so as to make us to be in a better and more powerful class of beings?
For if we supply dæmons with nutriment, we shall much more be the causes of their existence.
For every thing receives nutriment and perfection from that by which it was generated.
And this, indeed, may be seen in the visible generations of things; but it may also be surveyed in the heavens and the earth.
For terrestrial are nourished by celestial natures.
But this becomes most eminently manifest in invisible causes.
For soul indeed, is perfected by intellect; but nature by soul.
And other things are in a similar manner nourished by their causes.
Themes
◆Anthropomorphismtheology
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
The text describes dæmons as having a body that is nourished by sacrifices and possesses an impassive intellect.
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 passage explicitly states that physical essences are 'coexcited' and that a 'common utility is imparted to the whole of generation' through sympathy.
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 demiurgic powers and the universe's Demiurgus in relation to dæmons and human beings.
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 author argues that dæmons are not deficient but superior beings whose need for human offerings reveals a lack of native abundance.
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 text links the utility of sacrifice to both cities/nations and individual houses, reflecting cosmic order in human scales.
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 asserts that humans are superior to animals in supplying dæmons with nutriment, implying a higher ontological status for human beings.
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 explicitly discusses the efficacy of sacrifices and the engagement of divine powers through ritual offerings as a means of imparting utility.