Chapter XXVIa

Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.

The text describes Gods as imparting gifts and possessing power and authority.

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

The passage refers to 'ineffable union' and 'divine measures' that transcend ordinary categories.

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.

Prayer establishes a bond of concordant communion with Gods prior to speech.

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

The text mentions 'ineffable union' and the Gods' port as a never-failing shelter.

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

The passage explicitly describes receiving divine fire, supernal light, and illumination as fruits of prayer.

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.

Prayer is described as a mediator that accomplishes the end of sacrificing and effects divine operations.

The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.

The Gods are described as possessing unity and indivisible power in their authority.

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 describes a hierarchy of prayer species flowing from collective to perfect union with divinities.

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

Prayer is described as rendering the science concerning the Gods more perfect and establishing direct contact with them.

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

The text refers to 'ineffable union' and 'secrets of the Gods' that require specific knowledge.

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

The soul is described as receiving divine fire and supernal light through prayer.

The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.

The soul is said to repose in the Gods as if in a port, implying the divine realm is accessible internally.

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

The Gods are portrayed as active agents who impart gifts and respond to prayer.

Disciplined inward attention — sitting, focused, or open-awareness practice — as a stand-alone term that umbrellas active_contemplation, inner_silence, and dhyana-style sitting.

Prayer is described as an exercise that nourishes the vigour of intellect and opens penetralia.

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

The passage repeatedly emphasizes 'ineffable union' and the soul's repose in the Gods as a never-failing port.

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

The passage is structured around defining and discussing the three species of prayer extensively.

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

Prayer draws upward the manners of the soul toward its divine origin and makes it a familiar of the Gods.

Fire as medium of divine presence.

Divine fire is mentioned as a fruit received through prayer.

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

Prayer purifies the soul by expiating contrary natures and foreign attachments.

The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.

The text states that prayer renders the science concerning the Gods more perfect through knowledge of divinity.

A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source.

Prayer is described as gradually drawing upward the manners of the soul and raising it to the summit of all.

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 describes the soul being clothed with the perfections of the Gods through prayer.

Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma).

The passage distinguishes between the etherial spirit and the dregs of mortality in the soul.