Select Works, Section 169

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

The Supreme is described as beyond the capacity of an Image to fully conceive or create.

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

It mentions the process of outshining upon the darkness and the Soul illuminating existent Darkness.

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.

It argues that creation follows a universal law and order of Nature rather than arbitrary artistic steps.

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

The distinction between Soul-Images and veritable Souls suggests fragments of higher reality in the lower world.

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 text debates whether evil antedates the world or if the Supreme is implicated, touching on the ontological status of evil.

The Gnostic myth of Wisdom's prolapse from the Pleroma — her unilateral desire or error producing the Demiurge and the entrapment of divine sparks in matter.

The passage analyzes a myth where the Soul declined and illuminated pre-existing Darkness, mirroring the Sophia narrative.

The void or emptiness outside the pleroma; the realm of matter, ignorance, and deficiency.

Darkness and Matter are discussed as realms of deficiency where the Soul declines.

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

The 'Supreme' is referenced as the ultimate source from which the plan is adopted.

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

The text notes that only 'one or two' are able to stir beyond the limits of the world.

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

Reminiscence implies a recognition of one's true origin and nature from the Sphere.

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.

The text discusses the Soul's decline into Matter and the resulting state of being on earth.

Platonic recollection: knowledge as the soul's recovery of what it knew before birth, with learning as remembering rather than acquisition.

[auto] The text explicitly discusses souls attaining Reminiscence and carrying slight recollection of the celestial Sphere they once knew.

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

[auto] Matter is contrasted with the Supreme, and the Image is described as stamped in Matter implying deficiency.

Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.

[auto] The text establishes a distinction between the Supreme/celestial world and the deficient material realm.

A secondary creator deity—often ignorant or malevolent—responsible for fashioning the material world, distinct from the supreme transcendent God.

[auto] The passage centrally critiques the concept of an 'Image' or secondary creator that fashions the material world distinct from the Supreme.

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 outlines a descent from the Supreme through a Mother to an Image stamped in Matter.

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

[auto] The passage questions the reasoning process ('thinking of fire') used by the creator Image to fashion the universe.

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

[auto] The author uses rhetorical questions to expose contradictions in the theory of the creator Image.

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

[auto] The text mentions souls striving to stir beyond the limits of the world to attain Reminiscence of their origin.

The transmigration of the soul across lives.

[auto] It describes souls coming upon earth and retaining reminiscence of a Sphere they once knew.

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

[auto] The passage describes the effort required for souls to stir beyond the limits of the world.