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Select Works of Plotinus · 514 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Select Works, Section 491

Section 13 13. The God fettered [as in the Kronos Myth] to an unchanging identity leaves the ordering of this universe to his son (to Zeus), for it could not be in his character to neglect his rule within the divine sphere, and, as though sated with the Authentic-Beauty, seek a lordship too recent and too poor for his might. Ignoring this lower world, Kronos [Intellectual-Principle] claims for his own father [Ouranoo, the Absolute, or One] with all the upward-tending between them: and he counts all that tends to the inferior, beginning from his son [Zeus, the All-Soul], as ranking beneath him. Thus he holds a mid position determined on the one side by the differentiation implied in the severance from the very highest and, on the other, by that which keeps him apart from the link between himself and the lower: he stands between a greater father and an inferior son. But since that father is too lofty to be thought of under the name of Beauty, the second God remains the primally beautiful. Soul also has beauty, but is less beautiful than Intellect as being its image and therefore, though beautiful in nature, taking increase of beauty by looking to that original. Since then the All-Soul- to use the more familiar term- since Aphrodite herself is so beautiful, what name can we give to that other? If Soul is so lovely in its own right, of what quality must that prior be? And since its being is derived, what must that power be from which the Soul takes the double beauty, the borrowed and the inherent? We ourselves possess beauty when we are true to our own being; our ugliness is in going over to another order; our self-knowledge, that is to say, is our beauty; in self-ignorance we are ugly. Thus beauty is of the Divine and comes Thence only. Do these considerations suffice to a clear understanding of the Intellectual Sphere, or must we make yet another attempt by another road?
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Themes
Active Contemplationpraxis

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

Philosophical statement is achieved through images and pictures rather than discursive words, aligning with imagery-based understanding.

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Apophatic Theologytheology

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

[auto] The passage suggests the Supreme's mode cannot be captured by writing-forms or propositions of reasoning, implying ineffability.

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Correspondencecosmology

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 posits that understanding one chief thing allows application to all entities, reflecting the axiom that cosmic structures are legible maps of one another.

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Divine Hiddennesstheology

The supreme God's radical concealment beyond ordinary knowledge or perception; the Hidden Father.

The original wisdom is announced in an outward stage by a less compact image, implying the source remains concealed behind its manifestation.

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Divine Simplicitytheology

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

[auto] Wisdom is characterized as an immediate unity that is not an aggregate of discursive reasoning or detailed willing.

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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 the Supreme going forth and wisdom appearing in subsequent forms of being, outlining a hierarchical flow from unity to multiplicity.

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Gnosis Direct Knowledgesoteriology

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

[auto] Knowledge is defined as a distinct image and immediate unity rather than an aggregate of discursive reasoning or propositions.

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Hidden Sayingssoteriology

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

[auto] The wise of Egypt used pictures instead of writing-forms to indicate truth, suggesting an esoteric mode of conveying meaning.

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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.

Wisdom is described as imparting causes to produced entities, functioning as a mediating principle between the Supreme and generated things.

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Monadcosmology

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

[auto] The Supreme is presented as a singular source of unity from which other forms of being flow.

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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] The text emphasizes wisdom existing in unity as the source from which other manifestations appear.

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Related passages · 10 parallels
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