Iamblichus: On the Mysteries · 183 of 218 · tr. Thomas Taylor
Chapter VIII-w
Cathartic virtue, therefore, alone must be called the salvation of souls; since this cuts off, and vehemently obliterates, material natures, and the passions which adhere to us from generation; separates the soul and leads it to intellect; and causes it to leave on earth the vehicles with which it is invested.
For souls in descending receive from the elements different vehicles, aerial, aquatic, and terrestrial; and thus at last enter into this gross bulk.
For how, without a medium, could they proceed into this body from immaterial spirits?” THE END.
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Edinburgh and London 1 .
According to this theology, as I have elsewhere shown, in every order of things, a triad is the immediate progeny of a monad.
Hence the intelligible triad proceeds immediately from the ineffable principle of things.
Phanes, or intelligible intellect, who is the last of the intelligible order, is the monad, leader, and producing cause of a triad, which is denominated νοητος και νοερος , i.
e.
intelligible, and at the same time intellectual .
In like manner the extremity of this order produces immediately from itself the intellectual triad, Saturn, Rhea, and Jupiter.
Again, Jupiter, who is also the Demiurgus, is the monad of the supermundane triad.
Apollo, who subsists at the extremity of the supermundane order, produces a triad of liberated Gods.
( Θεοι απολυτοι.
) And the extremity of the liberated order becomes the monad of a triad of mundane Gods.
This theory, too, which is the progeny of the most consummate science, is in perfect conformity with the Chaldean theology.
And hence it is said in one of the Chaldean oracles, “ In every world a triad shines forth, of which a monad is the ruling principle .” ( Παντι γαρ εν κοσμῳ λαμπει τριας ης μονας αρχει ).
I refer the reader, who is desirous of being fully convinced of all this, to my translation of Proclus on the Theology of Plato.
2 .
Viz.
The Philosophical Works of Proclus, together with those of Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Syrianus, Ammonius, Damascius, Olympiodorus, and Simplicius.
3 .
Ενα ιδοις αν εν πασα γῃ ομοφωνον νομον και λογον, οτι θεος εις παντων βασιλευς και πατηρ, και θεοι πολλοι, θεου παιδες, συναρχοντες θεῳ.
ταυτα και ο ελλην λεγει, και ο βαρβαρος λεγει, και ο ηπειρωτης και ο θαλαττιος, και ο σοφος και ο ασοφος.
The transformation of base substance — outer matter or the inner soul — into a purified, perfected, or 'gold' state; the magnum opus as both laboratory practice and spiritual allegory.
The passage describes a purification process that transforms the soul from material natures into intellect, mirroring alchemical purification.
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 passage explicitly outlines a descending chain from the ineffable principle through intelligible and supermundane triads to mundane Gods.
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.
Passions and material natures are described as obstructions that must be obliterated rather than positive entities.
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.
Souls descend and enter gross bodies from immaterial spirits, implying an ontological separation that must be reversed.