Select Works, Section 220 (part 2)

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

The passage mentions the Soul's quality existing before bodily life based on a previous history.

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 describes a presiding Spirit that orders conditions and saves the individual from falling deeper into evil.

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 argues that the body is acquitted of bad influence and moral quality stems from the Soul's prior choice rather than material nature.

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

The passage describes the choice in the overworld as an 'allegorical statement' of the Soul's tendency, suggesting a deeper truth behind mythic narratives.

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

It states that the guiding Spirit belongs to the individual as belonging to their Soul rather than being entirely external.

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

The text references the Soul's origin in the overworld prior to bodily life, implying a connection to a higher source.

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

Understanding one's inherent temperament and tendency is presented as key to determining action and character.

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

The passage distinguishes between the Body, the Soul, and the presiding Spirit as distinct operative principles within the human.

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

[auto] The text debates whether the body exerts a 'bad influence' or is 'disordered,' highlighting the tension between the Soul's quality and material conditions.

The transmigration of the soul across lives.

[auto] The passage explicitly references the Soul's choice in the 'overworld' and its 'previous history' before bodily life, implying pre-existence and transmigration.