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Select Works of Plotinus · 11 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Select Works, Section 15

Section 11 11. In childhood the main activity is in the Couplement and there is but little irradiation from the higher principles of our being: but when these higher principles act but feebly or rarely upon us their action is directed towards the Supreme; they work upon us only when they stand at the mid-point. But does not the include that phase of our being which stands above the mid-point? It does, but on condition that we lay hold of it: our entire nature is not ours at all times but only as we direct the mid-point upwards or downwards, or lead some particular phase of our nature from potentiality or native character into act. And the animals, in what way or degree do they possess the Animate? If there be in them, as the opinion goes, human Souls that have sinned, then the Animating-Principle in its separable phase does not enter directly into the brute; it is there but not there to them; they are aware only of the image of the Soul [only of the lower Soul] and of that only by being aware of the body organised and determined by that image. If there be no human Soul in them, the Animate is constituted for them by a radiation from the All-Soul.
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Themes
Body As Obstacleanthropology

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

[auto] Animals are described as aware only of the body organized by the image of the Soul, implying the body limits spiritual awareness.

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Divine Lighttheology

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

[auto] Terms such as 'irradiation' and 'radiation from the All' describe the luminous flow of divine power into lower levels.

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Divine Sparkscosmology

Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source.

[auto] The discussion of human souls residing in brutes suggests fragments of spirit existing within material forms.

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Emanation Hierarchycosmology

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.

[auto] The passage describes a vertical structure where higher principles irradiate downwards to the mid-point and body, establishing a clear chain of being.

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Inner Lightanthropology

The divine spark or luminous quality residing within the human person, potentially recognisable through introspection.

[auto] The passage speaks of irradiation from the higher principles of our own being, suggesting an internal divine source.

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Monadcosmology

The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.

[auto] References to the 'Supreme' and 'All' indicate the singular source from which radiation flows, consistent with the concept of the One.

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Return To Sourcesoteriology

The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.

[auto] Directing the mid-point upwards signifies the soul's movement back toward its higher origin and the Supreme.

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Soul Migrationcosmology

The transmigration of the soul across lives.

[auto] The passage hypothesizes that human souls which have sinned may inhabit animal bodies as a form of transmigration.

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Spiritual Ascentpraxis

A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source.

[auto] The text explicitly instructs the reader to direct the mid-point upwards to access higher phases of nature and the Supreme.

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Tripartite Soulanthropology

Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma).

[auto] Distinctions are made between higher principles, the mid-point, and the lower Soul or body, reflecting a layered anthropology.

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Related passages · 10 parallels
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