Iamblichus: On the Mysteries · 158 of 218 · tr. Thomas Taylor
Chapter V
But why am I prolix about these particulars? For I have abundantly shown, in what has been before said, the transcendency of divine above human divination. It is better, therefore, in compliance with your request, “ to point out to you the way to felicity, and show you in what the essence of it is placed .” For from this the truth will be discovered, and at the same time all the doubts may be easily dissolved. I say, therefore, that the more divine intelligible man, who was formerly united to the Gods by the vision of them, afterwards entered into another soul, which is coadapted to the human form, and through this became fettered with the bonds of necessity and fate. Hence it is requisite to consider how he may be liberated from these bonds. There is, therefore, no other dissolution of them than the knowledge of the Gods. For to know scientifically the good is the idea of felicity; just as the oblivion of good, and deception about evil, happen to be the idea of evil. The former, therefore, is present with divinity; but the latter, which is an inferior destiny, is inseparable from the mortal nature. 333 And the former, indeed, measures the essences of intelligibles by sacred ways; but the latter, abandoning principles, gives itself up to the measurement of the idea of body. The former is a knowledge of the father; but the latter is a departure from him, and an oblivion of the God who is a superessential father, and sufficient to himself. The former, likewise, preserves the true life of the soul, and leads it back to its father; but the latter draws down the generation-ruling man, as far as to that which is never permanent, but is always flowing. You must understand, therefore, that this is the first path to felicity, affording to souls an intellectual plenitude of divine union. But the sacerdotal and theurgic gift of felicity is called, indeed, the gate to the Demiurgus of wholes, or the seat, or palace, of the good . In the first place, likewise, it possesses a power of purifying the soul, much more perfect than the power which purifies the body; afterwards it causes a coaptation of the reasoning power to the participation and vision of the 334 good , and a liberation from every thing of a contrary nature; and, in the last place, produces a union with the Gods, who are the givers of every good.
Platonic recollection: knowledge as the soul's recovery of what it knew before birth, with learning as remembering rather than acquisition.
The soul was 'formerly united to the Gods by the vision of them' and has since fallen into 'oblivion of the God who is a superessential father'—knowledge as recovery of what was previously known.
A secondary creator deity—often ignorant or malevolent—responsible for fashioning the material world, distinct from the supreme transcendent God.
The passage explicitly names 'the Demiurgus of wholes' as a distinct divine figure to whom the theurgic gift serves as a gate, though here in a positive rather than malevolent sense.
The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.
The God described as 'a superessential father, and sufficient to himself' has no parts or divisions, being pure undivided being beyond all composition.
Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source.
The 'more divine intelligible man' trapped in a soul 'coadapted to the human form' and fettered by necessity is a fragment of divine spirit awaiting liberation and return.
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.
A distinction is made between divine intelligible man and mortal nature, implying a hierarchical structure.
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.
Evil is defined as the oblivion of good and deception about evil, lacking positive being.
The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.
The passage describes a directional descent of the divine intelligible man into a soul coadapted to the human form, becoming fettered by necessity and fate—a staged process of spirit descending into matter complemented by the return.
Diotima's staged ascent from love of beautiful bodies → beautiful souls → beautiful pursuits → beautiful knowledge → Beauty itself; the canonical scala amoris that grounds Plotinus's On the Beautiful and Bruno's Eroici Furori — distinct from generic spiritual_ascent in that eros is the specific motive force.
The path to felicity involves a progression from knowledge of the father to union with Gods.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The 'God who is a superessential father, and sufficient to himself' describes an absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all else flows.
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.
The soul's 'oblivion of the God who is a superessential father' and being 'fettered with the bonds of necessity and fate' describes the felt condition of exile from divine origin.
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 soul's 'coaptation of the reasoning power to the participation and vision of the good' and final 'union with the Gods' describes progressive transformation into a partaker of the divine nature.
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 names 'the sacerdotal and theurgic gift of felicity' as the means by which the soul is purified, coaptated to the good, and united with the Gods.