Iamblichus: On the Mysteries · 181 of 218 · tr. Thomas Taylor
Chapter VIII-u
ελευθεροι δε οντες υπερανω παντων, ωσπερ φυλακες και επισκοποι ακριβεις του παντος, περιεχονται τῳ νυχθημερῳ το παν.——εχουσι προς ημας την μεγιστην δυναμιν.
i.
e.
“We say, O son, that the body [of the universe] is comprehensive of all things.
Conceive, therefore, this to be as it were of a circular form.——But under the circle of this body the thirty-six decans are arranged, as the media of the whole circle of the zodiac.——These, likewise, must be understood to preside as guardians over every thing in the world, connecting and containing all things——and preserving the established order of all things.——Farther still, understand, O Tat, that these decans are impassive to the things which the other stars suffer.
For neither being detained, do they stop their course, nor being impeded do they recede, nor are they, like the other stars, concealed as with a veil by the light of the sun.
But being liberated above all things, they comprehend the universe as the guardians and accurate inspectors of it, in the Nycthemeron [or the space of night and day].——They also possess, with respect to us, the greatest power.” P.
125 .
So that what you add from Homer, “that the Gods are flexible,” it is not holy to assert.
The words of Homer are στρεπτοι δε τε και θεοι αυτοι , and are to be found in Iliad ix.
v.
493.
But when Iamblichus says, it is not holy to assert the Gods are flexible, he means that it is not holy according to the literal signification of the words; divine flexibility indicating nothing more than this, that those who through depravity were before unadapted to receive the illuminations of the Gods, and in consequence of this were subject to the power of avenging dæmons; when afterwards they obtain pardon of their guilt through prayers and sacrifices, and through methods of this kind apply a remedy to their vices, again become partakers of the goodness of the Gods.
So that divine flexibility is a resumption of the participation of divine light and goodness by those who through inaptitude were before deprived of it.
364 P.
130 .
Dæmons preside over the parts of our body.
Proclus in the fragments of his Ten Doubts concerning Providence, preserved by Fabricius in the eighth vol.
of his Bibliotheca Græca, observes, “That the Gods, with an exempt transcendency, extend their providence to all things, but that dæmons, dividing their superessential subsistence, receive the guardianship of different herds of animals, distributing the providence of the Gods, as Plato says, as far as to the most ultimate division.
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.
Dæmons are said to distribute the Gods' providence as far as to the most ultimate division of parts.
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 text extensively describes dæmons receiving guardianship over parts of our body and distributing the Gods' providence.
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.
Depravity is described as a state that deprives one of the ability to receive divine illuminations.
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.
Before pardon, those are deprived of the ability to receive divine illuminations due to their unadaptability.