Select Works, Section 490

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

The passage defines the primal wisdom negatively by stating what it is not, such as 'not a wisdom built up of theorems'.

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 relationship between the artist's wisdom, Nature's wisdom, and the Intellectual-Principle suggests a structural reflection across levels.

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.

The passage states that 'everywhere a wisdom presides at a making,' indicating an active divine ordering of the cosmos.

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

[auto] The text describes the primal wisdom as 'one totality' and a 'unity working out into detail' rather than a composite of manifold parts.

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 traces a chain of derivation from the artist to Nature, and potentially to the Intellectual-Principle, outlining a hierarchy of principles.

Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.

The passage contrasts the 'apparatus of science' with the authentic existence and wisdom found in the Intellectual-Principle.

The divine spark or luminous quality residing within the human person, potentially recognisable through introspection.

The text notes that the wisdom in Nature is 'embodied in himself' (the artist), suggesting a divine quality residing within the human person.

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

The text notes that divine images lie 'within the soul of the wise' as authentic existence rather than mere inscriptions.

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 explicitly discusses the 'Reason-Principle' as the ordering wisdom presiding over nature and craft, mediating between higher principles and material work.

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

[auto] The search for a 'primal wisdom' that is neither derivative nor a stranger aligns with the concept of an undivided first principle.

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

[auto] The passage emphasizes that all creation stems from a single wisdom or unity that presides everywhere, suggesting an underlying oneness of existence.