Chapter VIII

Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.

The passage explicitly states that Pythagoreans adorned numbers and figures with the appellations of the Gods, attributing divine names to mathematical forms.

Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.

The text notes that Apollo signifies a privation of multitude, using negation to define the divine nature.

The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.

The author argues that inanimate beings are more excellent than dead bodies and that divinity is not ingenerated in colors or figures.

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 text links divine attributes to numbers and figures, suggesting a structural mapping between the abstract divine and material forms.

A state of awareness transcending ordinary human consciousness, often involving unity with the universe or higher dimensions.

The passage describes animals as having a 'principle of motion from itself' and knowledge of things appropriate to their being.

The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.

The text emphasizes that occult significations are perceived in things which are inanimate and incorporeal, indicating a hidden divine presence.

The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.

The author references Heraclitus' statement that wisdom considers how the universe is governed by light-like principles.

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 cites Heraclitus that wisdom considers how both itself and the universe is governed, indicating divine ordering of existence.

The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.

The text highlights the simplicity of the monad as a reason for calling it Apollo and contrasts it with the duad's strife.

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 passage defines justice through equality in the middle of two extremes (injury and being injured), aligning with the doctrine that evil is a lack of good.

Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.

The text emphasizes perceiving occult significations in inanimate things and venerating peculiarities depending on manners that have sense and soul.

Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.

The passage discusses occult significations perceived even in inanimate things, implying esoteric knowledge reserved for those who perceive it.

The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.

The text contrasts the divinity with insensible beings and emphasizes that living natures have a portion of wisdom governing them.

Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.

The passage centrally discusses Pythagorean numerology, attributing divine names and significance to numbers like the monad, duad, triad, and tetractys.

The dissolution of binary oppositions (male/female, inner/outer, above/below) as a mark of spiritual completion.

Justice is described as occupying a middle position between two extremes of excess and defect.

Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.

The definition of Apollo as a privation of multitude uses contradiction to convey divine meaning.

A spiritual elite who possess the divine spark and are predestined for salvation, contrasted with psychic (faithful) and hylic (material) persons.

The text distinguishes those who honour peculiarities depending on manners from others, implying a spiritual elite capable of perceiving divine natures.

Direct address to the divine, whether petitionary, contemplative, or liturgical; speech and silence offered upward.

The passage mentions adoration and reverence for divinity through these peculiarities as a form of worship.

The maintenance of a state of cleanliness—physical, moral, or spiritual—required for encounter with the divine.

The author defends the Egyptian adoration of animals as a veneration of divinity through natural natures rather than ritual impurity.

Divine names or formulas that carry ontological power, used in prayer, liturgy, or magical practice.

The passage explicitly states that Pythagoreans adorned numbers and figures with the appellations of the Gods, using divine names to describe mathematical forms.

The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.

The text suggests that perceiving peculiarities depending on manners leads to a deeper understanding of divinity.

The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.

Animals are described as instruments or art of the God by whom all things are perpetually adorned, implying a divine participation in them.