Iamblichus: On the Mysteries · 192 of 218 · tr. Thomas Taylor
Chapter VIII-af
But, in consequence of her alliance to this order, she produces twofold guardian triads, one in conjunction with her father, but the other herself by and from herself, imitating in this respect the whole vivific Goddess [Rhea] who constitutes the first Curetes.” 54 .
These Gods are called unpolluted , because they are the causes of purity .
For every God begins his own energy from himself, and is that primarily which his effects are secondarily.
55 .
For περιοδοις here, it is necessary to read προοδοις .
56 .
Servius, in commenting on the “Mystica vannus Iacchi” of Virgil, observes, that the sacred rites of Bacchus pertained to the purification of souls, “Liberi patris sacra ad purgationem animarum pertinebant.” And elsewhere he says, “Animæ aere ventilantur, quod erat in sacris Liberi purgationis genus.” Euripides also, in Bacchis, exclaims, Ω μακαρ οστις ευδαιμων τελετας Θεων Ειδως, βιοταν αγιστευει, Και θιασευεται ψυχαν, Εν ορεσι βακχευων Οσιοισι καθαρμοις.
i.
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“O blessed and happy he, who knowing the mysteries of the Gods, sanctifies his life, and purifies his soul, celebrating orgies in the mountains, with holy purifications.” 57 .
“In the greatest diseases and labours (says Plato in the Phædrus) to which certain persons are sometimes subject through the ancient indignation of the Gods, in consequence of former guilt , mania when it takes place, predicting what they stand in need of, discovers a liberation from such evils by flying to prayer and the worship of the Gods.
Hence, obtaining by this means purifications and the advantages of initiation, it renders him who possesses it free from disasters both for the present and future time, by discovering to him who is properly insane, and possessed by divinity, a solution of the present evils.” And the Platonic Hermias beautifully unfolds the meaning of this ancient indignation of the Gods, through former guilt, as follows: “Offences which have been committed for a great length of a time, are more difficult to be washed away, and a liberation from them can alone be effected by the telestic art; but those that have been committed for a shorter time are more easily cured.
Thus, also, we see in the medical art, that maladies which have existed but for a little time, if they are paid attention to at their commencement, are easily remedied, but that when they are of long standing, they are more difficultly healed.
For the evil in this case becomes as it were natural and confirmed by habit, and resembles an indurated ulcer.
A similar thing to this, therefore, takes place in guilty conduct.
Hence, if he who has committed an injury, immediately repents, and acknowledges his guilt to him whom he has injured, he dissolves the injury, and renders himself no longer obnoxious to justice.
But when some one dissolves an injury committed by his father, by restoring, for instance, land which he had unjustly taken, he then makes himself to be unobnoxious to justice, and lightens and benefits the soul of his father.
These things, however, the telestic art more swiftly remedies.
Penitential sorrow for sin as the first movement of the soul's healing — Julian's first of three medicines ('by contrition we are made clean'), the Christian compunction tradition, Sufi tawba, Greek metanoia, Hebrew teshuvah; the wound of sorrow that turns bitterness into hope of mercy. Distinct from self_examination (the diagnostic practice), rejection_of_hypocrisy (critique of others' form), and dark_night (imposed aridity): contrition is the soul's own penitent turning.
The passage explicitly describes repentance and acknowledgment of guilt as the means by which injury is 'dissolved' and the soul made 'no longer obnoxious to justice,' presenting penitential turning as the first movement of spiritual healing.
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 quotes Plato's Phaedrus on mania as divine possession that 'discovers a liberation from such evils by flying to prayer and the worship of the Gods,' framing ecstatic irrationality as the vehicle of higher divine knowledge and salvation.
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 describes a goddess producing 'twofold guardian triads' in a hierarchical divine structure, and states that 'every God begins his own energy from himself, and is that primarily which his effects are secondarily,' expressing a cascading emanation from higher to lower divine beings.
The ritual admission of an individual into esoteric knowledge or a sacred order through a formal rite of passage — testing, ordeal, or ceremony — marking a definite before/after threshold in the initiate's status and access. Distinct from hidden_sayings (the doctrine being concealed, not the rite of admission to it) and esoteric_lineage (the historical chain of transmission across generations, not a single individual's admission).
The passage discusses 'the advantages of initiation' and the 'telestic art' (mystery rites) as the means by which guilt is remedied and liberation from divine indignation is obtained, framing formal ritual admission as soteriologically necessary.
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 describes the 'telestic art' (mysteries) as a ritual practice that engages divine power to effect purification and liberation, consistent with Iamblichean theurgy's premise that divine power descends through properly prepared ritual.