Select Works of Plotinus · 314 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Select Works, Section 300

Section 13 13. The Ineluctable, the Kosmic Law is, thus, rooted in a natural principle under which each several entity is overruled to go, duly and in order, towards that place and Kind to which it characteristically tends, that is towards the image of its primal choice and constitution. In that archetypal world every form of soul is near to the image [the thing in the world of copy] to which its individual constitution inclines it; there is therefore no need of a sender or leader acting at the right moment to bring it at the right moment whether into body or into a definitely appropriate body: of its own motion it descends at the precisely true time and enters where it must. To every Soul its own hour; when that strikes it descends and enters the body suitable to it as at the cry of a herald; thus all is set stirring and advancing as by a magician's power or by some mighty traction; it is much as, in any living thing, the soul itself effects the fulfillment of the natural career, stirring and bringing forth, in due season, every element- beard, horn, and all the successive stages of tendency and of output- or, as it leads a tree through its normal course within set periods. The Souls go forth neither under compulsion nor of freewill; or, at least, freedom, here, is not to be regarded as action upon preference; it is more like such a leap of the nature as moves men to the instinctive desire of sexual union, or, in the case of some, to fine conduct; the motive lies elsewhere than in the reason: like is destined unfailingly to like, and each moves hither or thither at its fixed moment. Even the Intellectual-Principle, which is before all the kosmos, has, it also, its destiny, that of abiding intact above, and of giving downwards: what it sends down is the particular whose existence is implied in the law of the universal; for the universal broods closely over the particular; it is not from without that the law derives the power by which it is executed; on the contrary the law is given in the entities upon whom it falls; these bear it about with them. Let but the moment arrive, and what it decrees will be brought to act by those beings in whom it resides; they fulfil it because they contain it; it prevails because it is within them; it becomes like a heavy burden, and sets up in them a painful longing to enter the realm to which they are bidden from within.

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Themes

Active Contemplationpraxis

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

[auto] Involves working back, ascending, and surveying the scheme of reason actively.

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Divine Lighttheology

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

[auto] Describes the material world receiving a share of 'general light' and being a 'shadow cast by the fire'.

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Divine Simplicitytheology

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

[auto] Describes the Kosmic Soul as 'always the one undiscriminated entity' without parts.

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Divine Sparkscosmology

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

Matter receives a 'share of the general light' from the Forming-Idea.

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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 explicitly describes a hierarchy of degrees (primary, secondary, tertiary) flowing from the unit down to the material world as the last effect.

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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.

[auto] References 'Reason-Principles' and the 'scheme of reason' that fashion living beings and order matter.

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Monadcosmology

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

[auto] Refers to the 'unit' and the Soul as 'one undiscriminated entity' from which the scheme flows.

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Mystical Unionsoteriology

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

[auto] Implied by the ascent to the 'one undiscriminated entity' where distinctions dissolve.

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Opposites Transcendedanthropology

The dissolution of binary oppositions (male/female, inner/outer, above/below) as a mark of spiritual completion.

[auto] The goal is reaching a state that is 'undiscriminated' beyond the degrees of the lower world.

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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 text instructs the reader to 'work back from the items to the unit' and ascend through the levels of being.

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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 passage details a staged journey ascending from air and light through degrees to the Kosmic Soul and over-world.

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Unity Of Beingtheology

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

[auto] Considers the entire scheme as 'one enduring thing' and the Soul as an undiscriminated entity.

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Related passages · 13 parallels

christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names|Chapter 5, Section 1a

“131 CHAPTER V Concerning ” Existence “ and also concerning ” Exemplars .” I. Now must we proceed to the Name of “Being” which is truly applied by the Divine Science to Him that truly Is. But this much we must say, that it is not the purpo…”

Shared concept: Mystical Union — The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity. (derived)

christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names|Chapter 5, Section 1i

“364 The ultimate Godhead is reached only by the Negative Path, and known only by Unknowing. The Affirmative Path of philosophical knowledge leads only to the differentiated manifestations of the Godhead: e.g. the Trinity, in Its creative…”

Shared concept: Mystical Union — The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity. (derived)

christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 7 (part 4)

“28.) "In Paradise the substance of the divine world penetrated the substance belonging to time, comparable to the power of the sun penetrating a fruit growing on a tree, and endowing it with such qualities as render it lovely to the sight a…”

Shared concept: Logos — The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world. (derived)

theosophy|The Secret Doctrine|Page 19 (part 1)

“The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1 [[Vol. 1, Page]] 325 THE IMPARTIALITY OF SCIENTIFIC DENIALS. [[This page continued from previous section ]] § III. PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE AND DIVINE THOUGHT. "As it would seem irrational…”

Shared concept: Unity Of Being — The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim. (derived)

theosophy|The Secret Doctrine|Page 3 (part 7)

“Herbert Spencer has of late so far modified his Agnosticism, as to assert that the nature of the "First Cause,"* which the Occultist more logically derives from the "Causeless Cause," the "Eternal," and the "Unknowable," may be essentially…”

Shared concept: Unity Of Being — The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim. (derived)

christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Mystical Theology|Chapter I-b

“They are useful and necessary up to a point, but the Truth lies beyond them and is to be apprehended to a supernatural manner by what later writers call “infused” contemplation. The sum of the whole matter is that God is incomprehensible.…”

Shared concept: Return To Source — The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination. (derived)

western_esoteric|Transcendental Magic I: The Doctrine (Éliphas Lévi)|3. The Triangle Of Solomon-c

“These shells, envelopes petrified or carnified, were such an expression possible, are the source of errors or of evil, which connects with the heaviness and hardness of animal envelopes. In the book Zohar , and in that of the Revolution of…”

Shared concept: Divine Sparks — Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source. (derived)

renaissance_hermeticism|The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori)|First Dialogue-m

“Thus everything has an impetus towards its beginning retrogressively, and progressively towards its end and perfection, as Empedocles well said, and from which sentence I think may be inferred that which the Nolan said in this octave: The s…”

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

hinduism|Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book III|Sutra 47

“Mastery over the powers of perception and action comes through perfectly concentrated Meditation on their fivefold forms; namely, their power to grasp their distinctive nature, the element of self-consciousness in them, their inherence, and…”

Shared concept: Active Contemplation — A form of meditation that uses imagery, imagination, or symbolic thought rather than purely empty stillness. (derived)

western_esoteric|Psychic Self-Defence (Dion Fortune)|18. Methods Of Defence II-a

“THERE are two types of practical psychic work which may be used separately or in combination, the latter method, in my opinion, giving by far the best results, though the exponents of each are apt to decry the other. The method which we wi…”

Shared concept: Active Contemplation — A form of meditation that uses imagery, imagination, or symbolic thought rather than purely empty stillness. (derived)

western_esoteric|The Tarot of the Bohemians (Papus)|Page 34

“THE MOON. THE MOON. 18. צ 18th Hebrew letter (Tzaddi). ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOLISM OF THE EIGHTEENTH CARD OF THE TAROT. The hieroglyphic idea connected with the Tzaddi is the same as that of the Teth (9th card); but it chiefly signifies a term…”

Shared concept: Divine Sparks — Fragments of divine light or spirit trapped inside material bodies, awaiting liberation and return to their source. (derived)

western_esoteric|The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall)|Atlantis and the Gods of Antiquity-g

“At the first gate the great crown is removed from her head, at the second gate the earrings from her ears, at the third gate the necklace from her neck, at the fourth gate the ornaments from her breast, at the fifth gate the girdle from her…”

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

renaissance_hermeticism|The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori)|INTRODUCTION-i

“The life of man is more than an experience or trial; it is an effort, a struggle to reproduce and represent upon earth some of that goodness, beauty, and truth which are diffused over the universe and constitute its harmony. Long, slow, an…”

Shared concept: Opposites Transcended — The dissolution of binary oppositions (male/female, inner/outer, above/below) as a mark of spiritual completion. (derived)