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Select Works of Plotinus · 93 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Select Works, Section 100 (part 2)

Such motion alone can constitute its impulse towards its centre: it cannot coincide with the centre, for then there would be no circle; since this may not be, it whirls about it; so only can it indulge its tendence. If, on the other hand, the Kosmic circuit is due to the Soul, we are not to think of a painful driving [wearing it down at last]; the soul does not use violence or in any way thwart nature, for "Nature" is no other than the custom the All-Soul has established. Omnipresent in its entirety, incapable of division, the Soul of the universe communicates that quality of universal presence to the heavens, too, in their degree, the degree, that is, of pursuing universality and advancing towards it. If the Soul halted anywhere, there the Kosmos, too, brought so far, would halt: but the Soul encompasses all, and so the Kosmos moves, seeking everything. Yet never to attain? On the contrary this very motion is its eternal attainment. Or, better; the Soul is ceaselessly leading the Kosmos towards itself: the continuous attraction communicates a continuous movement- not to some outside space but towards the Soul and in the one sphere with it, not in the straight line [which would ultimately bring the moving body outside and below the Soul], but in the curving course in which the moving body at every stage possesses the Soul that is attracting it and bestowing itself upon it. If the soul were stationary, that is if [instead of presiding over a Kosmos] it dwelt wholly and solely in the realm in which every member is at rest, motion would be unknown; but, since the Soul is not fixed in some one station There, the Kosmos must travel to every point in quest of it, and never outside it: in a circle, therefore.
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Themes
Active Contemplationpraxis

A form of meditation that uses imagery, imagination, or symbolic thought rather than purely empty stillness.

[auto] The 'movement of self-aware' describes an active intellectual contemplation rather than purely empty stillness.

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Divine Providencetheology

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.

[auto] The passage explicitly discusses whether cosmic motion implies providence, concluding it is an act under providence driven by indwelling nature.

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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 text describes the Soul moving in imitation of the higher Intellectual-Principle, indicating a hierarchical flow of being.

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Inner Silencepraxis

The practice of stilling the mind and speech to open receptivity to divine knowledge or presence.

[auto] The passage states that the Soul must be in repose and cannot have spatial movement, emphasizing stillness.

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Kingdom Withinanthropology

The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.

[auto] The text asserts that the Soul has itself at once for centre, locating the divine principle internally.

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Logoscosmology

The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.

The Intellectual-Principle functions here as the divine ordering principle that the Soul imitates.

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Mystical Unionsoteriology

The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.

[auto] The goal of the Soul's movement is described as a self-centered revolution that implies unification with its source.

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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] The Soul's movement is described as having itself and the Intellectual-Principle as its goal, implying a return to origin.

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Self Knowledgesoteriology

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

[auto] The passage explicitly identifies the essential movement of the kosmic soul as a movement towards itself, defined as self-awareness.

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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 discussion of the Soul moving towards the Intellectual-Principle reflects an upward journey through levels of reality.

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Related passages · 9 parallels
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Shared concept: Spiritual Ascent — A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source. (derived)
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Shared concept: Spiritual Ascent — A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source. (derived)
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