Iamblichus: On the Mysteries · 163 of 218 · tr. Thomas Taylor
Chapter VIII-c
The fifth according to body, which is called corporeal-formed.
And the sixth according to matter, and this is denominated material.” Olympiodorus adds, “or after another manner it may be said, that some of these are celestial, others etherial, others aerial, others aquatic, others terrestrial, and others subterranean.
With respect to this division also, it is evident that it is derived from the parts of the universe.
But irrational dæmons originate from the aerial governors, whence, also, the Chaldean Oracle says, Ηεριων ελατηρα κυνων χθονιων τε και υγρων.
340 i.
e.
being the charioteer of the aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic dogs.” Our guardian dæmons, however, belong to that order of dæmons which is arranged under the Gods that preside over the ascent and descent of souls.
For a more copious account of dæmons see the notes on the First Alcibiades in vol.
i.
of my translation of Plato.
P.
22 .
One and the best solution will be obtained by surveying the mode of divine allotment.
The manner in which divine allotments subsist is admirably unfolded by Proclus in Tim.
p.
43 , as follows: “Since, according to a division of the universe into two parts, we have distributed allotments into the celestial and sublunary, there can be no doubt what the former are, and whether they possess an invariable sameness of subsistence.
But the sublunary allotments are deservedly a subject of admiration, whether they are said to be perpetual or not.
For since all things in generation are continually changing and flowing, how can the allotments of the providential rulers of them be said to be perpetual?
For things in generation are not perpetual.
But if their allotments are not perpetual, how is it possible to suppose that divine government can subsist differently at different times?
For an allotment is neither a certain separate energy of the Gods, so that sublunary natures changing, we might say that it is exempt, and remains immutable, nor is it that which is governed alone, so that no absurdity would follow from admitting that an allotment is in a flowing condition, and is conversant with all-various mutations; but it is a providential inspection, and unrestrained government of divinity over sublunary concerns.
Such being the doubts with which this subject is attended, the following appears to be a solution of the difficulty.
“We must say, then, that it is not proper to consider all the natures that are in generation, and generation itself, as alone consisting of things mutable and flowing, but that there is also something immutable in these, and which is naturally adapted to remain perpetually the same.
For the interval which receives and comprehends in itself all the parts of the world, and which has an arrangement through all bodies, is immoveable, lest, being moved, it should require another place, and thus should proceed from one receptacle to another, ad infinitum .
The etherial vehicles, also, of divine souls, with which they are circularly invested, and which imitate the lives in the heavens, have a perpetual 341 essence, and are eternally suspended from these divine souls themselves, being full of prolific powers, and performing a circular motion, according to a certain secondary revolution of the celestial orbs.
And, in the third place, the wholeness ( ολοτης ) of the elements has a permanent subsistence, though the parts are all-variously corrupted.
The doctrine and worldview that natural phenomena, places, and objects possess inherent spirit, soul, or personality — and that the cosmos is populated by countless local, plural, embodied divine agents: kami in mountain and tree, sidhe in cairn and well, landwights in field and stone, nymphs in spring and grove, haltija in forest and lake, lares and penates in household and threshold, Iamblichean daemons in element and place. Distinct from monotheism (single transcendent God), pantheism (one underlying substance), and emanation_hierarchy (cascading single source); animism's signature is the plurality, locality, and embodied-in-landscape character of the divine.
The passage's central subject is the classification of daimons by their elemental and local associations (aerial, terrestrial, aquatic, subterranean, celestial, etherial), exemplifying the plurality, locality, and embodied-in-landscape character of the divine.
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 explicitly states that the division of daimons 'is derived from the parts of the universe,' establishing a structural correspondence between the daimonic hierarchy and the cosmic order.
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.
The passage centrally discusses divine allotments, providential inspection, and unrestrained government over sublunary concerns.
Naturally-existing, non-human intelligences native to a single element — earth, air, fire, or water — rather than the fourfold-composite human nature: Paracelsus's gnomes, sylphs, salamanders, and undines; the Deva Kingdom or fairy kingdom of Western occultism, forming their own parallel kingdom capable of incarnating in or forming relationships with humans. Distinct from artificial_elemental (a manufactured thought-entity deliberately created by a single operator, not a naturally-occurring species) and animism (the general doctrine that nature-places host indwelling spirits, of which this is one specific taxonomic system organised around the four elements rather than locality).
The passage explicitly organizes daimons into a taxonomic system around the elements (aerial, terrestrial, aquatic, subterranean, celestial, etherial), describing naturally-existing non-human intelligences native to specific elemental realms.
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 structured order of dæmons arranged under Gods that preside over the ascent and descent of souls.
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 distinction between immutable essence and mutable parts implies a view where evil or imperfection is a lack of permanence.
A non-physical dimension of reality, interpenetrating the physical world, populated by forces, beings, and forms ordinarily imperceptible to physical senses and instruments, that can affect embodied life without being seen — Dion Fortune's 'mind-side of nature,' the astral plane of Western esotericism broadly construed. Distinct from astral_light (a specific transmitting medium or fluid operating within this realm, not the realm itself), pleroma (the divine fullness at the summit of a cosmic hierarchy, not a parallel plane coextensive with ordinary life), and animism (particular indwelling spirits bound to specific natural objects, not the general unseen dimension itself).
The passage describes a non-physical dimension populated by daimons in celestial, etherial, aerial, aquatic, terrestrial, and subterranean realms that interpenetrate the physical world and affect embodied life.
Guided passage of the soul through afterlife realms.
The passage identifies guardian daimons as belonging to the order arranged under 'the Gods that preside over the ascent and descent of souls,' directly naming the psychopomp function.