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Select Works of Plotinus · 333 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Select Works, Section 317

Section 30 30. But what of the memory of mental acts: do these also fall under the imaging faculty? If every mental act is accompanied by an image we may well believe that this image, fixed and like a picture of the thought, would explain how we remember the object of knowledge once entertained. But if there is no such necessary image, another solution must be sought. Perhaps memory would be the reception, into the image-taking faculty, of the Reason-Principle which accompanies the mental conception: this mental conception- an indivisible thing, and one that never rises to the exterior of the consciousness- lies unknown below; the Reason-Principle the revealer, the bridge between the concept and the image-taking faculty exhibits the concept as in a mirror; the apprehension by the image-taking faculty would thus constitute the enduring presence of the concept, would be our memory of it. This explains, also, another fact: the soul is unfailingly intent upon intellection; only when it acts upon this image-taking faculty does its intellection become a human perception: intellection is one thing, the perception of an intellection is another: we are continuously intuitive but we are not unbrokenly aware: the reason is that the recipient in us receives from both sides, absorbing not merely intellections but also sense-perceptions.
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Themes
Anamnesissoteriology

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

The passage discusses reviving things forgotten in the corporeal state and remembering events from former existences.

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Body As Obstacleanthropology

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

[auto] The soul is described as a 'dragged captive,' implying that the human condition or material existence hinders its freedom.

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Divine Sparkscosmology

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

[auto] The text identifies a 'more divine' aspect within human beings that distinguishes them from the soul springing from the All.

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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 distinguishes between a 'more divine' soul and another that 'springs from the All,' reflecting a hierarchical structure of spiritual principles.

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Funerary Navigationpraxis

Texts and rituals guiding the soul through death.

The passage discusses the 'Shade of Hercules in the lower regions,' referencing the state of the soul after death.

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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 inquiry into what the 'freed and isolated' soul would recount implies a state of separation from earthly life and return to its origin.

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Separation From Sourcesoteriology

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.

It contrasts the dragged captive soul with the freed and isolated soul, highlighting the condition of exile from the divine.

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Soul Migrationcosmology

The transmigration of the soul across lives.

[auto] The passage explicitly describes the soul passing in and out of one body after another and recounting events of discarded lives.

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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 contrast between the 'dragged captive' soul and the 'freed and isolated' soul suggests a movement toward liberation or ascent.

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Related passages · 9 parallels
platonism|Plato: Phaedo|Section 1n
“For this is clear, that when we perceived something, either by the help of sight or hearing, or some other sense, there was no difficulty in receiving from this a conception of some other thing like or unlike which had been forgotten and wh…”
Shared concept: Anamnesis — Platonic recollection: knowledge as the soul's recovery of what it knew before birth, with learning as remembering rather than acquisition. (derived)
egyptian|The Egyptian Heaven and Hell|Chapter 2 (part 1)
“p. vi PREFACE THE present work is the outcome of two lectures on the Books of the Tuat, i.e., the Egyptian Underworld, or "Other World," which I had the honour to deliver at the Royal Institution in the spring of 1904, and it has been prep…”
Shared concept: Funerary Navigation — Texts and rituals guiding the soul through death. (derived)
egyptian|The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani)|Chapter 43 (part 23)
“41-43.] Selection and arrangement of chapters. The sections or chapters of the Theban version are a series of separate and distinct compositions, which, like the sections of the pyramid texts, had no fixed order either on coffins or in pap…”
Shared concept: Funerary Navigation — Texts and rituals guiding the soul through death. (derived)
platonism|Plato: Phaedo|Section 1l
“But if, said Socrates, you are still incredulous, Simmias, I would ask you whether you may not agree with me when you look at the matter in another way; I mean, if you are still incredulous as to whether knowledge is recollection. Incredul…”
Shared concept: Anamnesis — Platonic recollection: knowledge as the soul's recovery of what it knew before birth, with learning as remembering rather than acquisition. (derived)
western_esoteric|The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall)|The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolism-g
“In the present world, said they, Good and Evil are so exactly balanced that man has the utmost freedom and is able to choose or reject either. The Welsh Triads tell us there are three objects of metempsychosis: to collect into the soul the…”
Shared concept: Soul Migration — The transmigration of the soul across lives. (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)
christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 12 (part 12)
“255:1 However gratifying it may be for the curious seeker in history to know whether or when such an event has actually occurred in the history of the Jewish nation, such a historical belief would be of little benefit to him if he could not…”
Shared concept: Body As Obstacle — The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return. (derived)
sufism|The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi)|PROLOGUE-a
“HEARKEN to the reed-flute, how it complains, Lamenting its banishment from its home: "Ever since they tore me from my osier bed, My plaintive notes have moved men and women to tears. I burst my breast, striving to give vent to sighs, And t…”
Shared concept: Separation From Source — 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. (derived)