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Select Works of Plotinus · 518 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Select Works, Section 496

Section 4 4. But, soul reached, why need we look higher; why not make this The First? A main reason is that the Intellectual-Principle is at once something other and something more powerful than Soul and that the more powerful is in the nature of things the prior. For it is certainly not true, as people imagine, that the soul, brought to perfection, produces Intellect. How could that potentiality come to actuality unless there be, first, an effective principle to induce the actualization which, left to chance, might never occur? The Firsts must be supposed to exist in actuality, looking to nothing else, self-complete. Anything incomplete must be sequent upon these, and take its completion from the principles engendering it which, like fathers, labour in the improvement of an offspring born imperfect: the produced is a Matter to the producing principle and is worked over by it into a shapely perfection. And if, further, soul is passible while something impassible there must be or by the mere passage of time all wears away, here too we are led to something above soul. Again there must be something prior to Soul because Soul is in the world and there must be something outside a world in which, all being corporeal and material, nothing has enduring reality: failing such a prior, neither man nor the Ideas would be eternal or have true identity. These and many other considerations establish the necessary existence of an Intellectual-Principle prior to Soul.
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Themes
Active Contemplationpraxis

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

[auto] The novice is instructed to hold himself under an image of the Divine Being as a practice.

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Apophatic Theologytheology

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

[auto] The practitioner must ignore the lovely image to sink into identity beyond separation.

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Divine Lighttheology

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

[auto] The seeker is told to seek in the light of a clear conception and penetrates sublimity.

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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] Salvation is framed through deep conviction and knowing whither one is going into sublimity.

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Inner Lightanthropology

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

[auto] The text instructs bringing the divine-within before consciousness to see an image of oneself.

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Kingdom Withinanthropology

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

[auto] The Divine is described as possessed within and present silently inside the individual.

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Monadcosmology

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

The God silently present implies the simple first principle from which unity flows.

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Mystical Unionsoteriology

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

[auto] The passage centrally describes the soul forming a multiple unity with God where the two become one.

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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 to sink into perfect self-identity with no separation remaining between self and God.

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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 passage details retreating inwards to become one in the Divine, reversing separation.

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Self Knowledgesoteriology

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

[auto] The text emphasizes seeing oneself and sinking into perfect self-identity as the path to the Divine.

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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 describes retreating inwards and penetrating into a sublimity beyond separation.

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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 asserts that in the degree of power and will, the soul and God become one.

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Related passages · 8 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)
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“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)
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“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)
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“Let them, therefore, again go out with their will from their wilful ignorance or malignity and enter again into the will of God." ( Menschwerdung , 3, 5.) All this goes to show that it is useless and vain to seek for divine wisdom, meaning…”
Shared concept: Self Knowledge — The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology. (derived)
christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 1 (part 6)
“The human selfhood will then follow in its perceptions the Spirit of God, tremblingly and in the joy of humility, and become able to see what is contained in time and in eternity. Everything is near to a soul in that state, for the soul is…”
Shared concept: Kingdom Within — The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation. (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)
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)