Iamblichus: On the Mysteries · 175 of 218 · tr. Thomas Taylor
Chapter VIII-o
In the next place, departing from intellect, and descending into reasoning and dianoia, it no longer apprehended real beings by simple intuitions, but syllogistically and transitively, proceeding from one thing to another, from propositions to conclusions.
Afterwards, abandoning true reasoning, and the dissolving peculiarity, it descended into generation, and became filled with much irrationality and perturbation.
It is necessary, therefore, that it should recur 356 to its proper principles and again return to the place from whence it came.
To this ascent and apocatastasis, however, these four manias contribute.
And the musical mania, indeed, leads to symphony and harmony, the agitated and disturbed nature of the parts of the soul, which were hurried away to indefiniteness and inaptitude, and were filled with abundant tumult.
But the telestic mania causes the soul to be perfect and entire, and prepares it to energize intellectually.
For the musical mania alone harmonizes and represses the parts of the soul; but the telestic causes the whole of it to energize, and prepares it to become entire, so that the intellectual part of it may energize.
For the soul, by descending into the realms of generation, resembles a thing broken and relaxed.
And the circle of the same , or the intellectual part of it, is fettered; but the circle of the different , or the doxastic part, sustains many fractures and turnings.
Hence, the soul energizes partially, and not according to the whole of itself.
The Dionysiacal inspiration, therefore, after the parts of the soul are coharmonized, renders it perfect, and causes it to energize according to the whole of itself, and to live intellectually.
But the Apolloniacal mania converts and coexcites all the multiplied powers, and the whole of the soul, to the one of it.
Hence Apollo is denominated as elevating the soul from multitude to the one .
And the remaining mania, the amatory, receiving the soul united, conjoins this one of the soul to the Gods, and to intelligible beauty.
As the givers, therefore, of these manias are transcendently united, and are in each other, the gifts also on this account participate of, and communicate with, each other, and the recipient, which is the soul, possesses an adaptation to all the gifts.
This, therefore, is the order, and these are the energies and powers within the soul itself, of these four manias.
“But let us also consider their external energies on man, and what they outwardly effect about us.
The musical mania, therefore, causes us to speak in verse, and to act and be moved rythmically, and to sing in metre, the splendid deeds of divine men, and their virtues and pursuits; and, through these, to discipline our life, in the same manner as the inward manias coharmonize our soul.
But the telestic mania, expelling every thing foreign, contaminating, and noxious, preserves our life perfect and innoxious, and banishing an insane and diabolical phantasy, causes us to be sane, entire, and perfect, just as the internal telestic mania makes the soul to be perfect and entire.
Again, the prophetic 357 mania contracts into one the extension and infinity of time, and sees, as in one present now, all things, the past, the future, and the existing time.
Hence it predicts what will be, which it sees as present to itself.
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 text describes how the givers of the manias are 'transcendently united' and their gifts participate in each other.
Ecstatic irrational rapture — Plato's mania, Bruno's furore — by which the soul transcends ordinary reason and attains direct contact with divine reality; madness reframed as higher knowledge.
The passage centrally defines 'manias' as ecstatic states that harmonize the soul and enable intellectual energization.
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 descent from intellect to reasoning to generation, implying a hierarchical flow of being.
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 soul is described as resembling a thing broken and relaxed due to its descent into generation.
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 amatory mania is associated with conjoining the soul to Gods and intelligible beauty.
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 internal energies of the soul to external effects on human life and speech.