Select Works, Section 217

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

Matter and later production are described as 'lifeless' and 'utter Indetermination,' reflecting a view of the material realm as deficient.

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 notes that the boundaries of Higher Existents run into the boundary of the Lower, implying a structural connection.

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.

Matter is characterized as 'utter Indetermination' and lifeless, representing a lack of the form and life found in higher existents.

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 as the divine reason or ordering principle mediating between the Unity and the Soul.

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

The text notes that engendered things take form by 'orientation towards its author,' implying a dynamic of return or dependence on the source.

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

[auto] The description of the 'Absolute Unity' remaining at rest implies an undivided, simple first principle distinct from generated multiplicity.

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 explicitly outlines a downward flow from Absolute Unity and Intellectual-Principle through Soul to Nature and lifeless matter.

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

[auto] The text identifies 'Absolute Unity' as the resting source from which other existents and hypostases come into being.

The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.

[auto] All existence described is oriented towards a single author and supporter, implying an ultimate unity of origin.