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Select Works of Plotinus · 632 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Select Works, Section 604

Section 14 14. But, admitting this one soul at every point, how is there a particular soul of the individual and how the good soul and the bad? The one soul reaches to the individual but nonetheless contains all souls and all intelligences; this, because it is at once a unity and an infinity; it holds all its content as one yet with each item distinct, though not to the point of separation. Except by thus holding all its content as one-life entire, soul entire, all intelligence- it could not be infinite; since the individualities are not fenced off from each other, it remains still one thing. It was to hold life not single but infinite and yet one life, one in the sense not of an aggregate built up but of the retention of the unity in which all rose. Strictly, of course, it is a matter not of the rising of the individuals but of their being eternally what they are; in that order, as there is no beginning, so there is no apportioning except as an interpretation by the recipient. What is of that realm is the ancient and primal; the relation to it of the thing of process must be that of approach and apparent merging with always dependence. But we ourselves, what are We? Are we that higher or the participant newcomer, the thing of beginnings in time? Before we had our becoming Here we existed There, men other than now, some of us gods: we were pure souls, Intelligence inbound with the entire of reality, members of the Intellectual, not fenced off, not cut away, integral to that All. Even now, it is true, we are not put apart; but upon that primal Man there has intruded another, a man seeking to come into being and finding us there, for we were not outside of the universe. This other has wound himself about us, foisting himself upon the Man that each of us was at first. Then it was as if one voice sounded, one word was uttered, and from every side an ear attended and received and there was an effective hearing, possessed through and through of what was present and active upon it: now we have lost that first simplicity; we are become the dual thing, sometimes indeed no more than that later foisting, with the primal nature dormant and in a sense no longer present.
Themes
◆Apophatic Theologytheology

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

It acknowledges the mental reluctance and logical difficulty in conceiving of unity identically omnipresent, hinting at transcendence beyond ordinary logic.

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◆Cosmic Sympathycosmology

The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.

The statement that 'all holds together' suggests a metaphysical interconnectedness of parts.

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◆Kingdom Withinanthropology

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

It states the animating force is recognized at every point within the corporeal discrimination.

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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.

The 'Intellectual-Principle' is identified as Being and the Beings, acting as an ordering principle.

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◆Opposites Transcendedanthropology

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

The passage asserts that 'multiplicity does not conflict with unity' and variety does not abrogate unity.

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◆Paradox As Teachingethics

Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.

The text resolves the paradox of how many souls can exist without partition or spatial separation.

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◆Tripartite Soulanthropology

Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma).

The text distinguishes between Intellect, Soul, and the corporeal masses they inhabit.

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◇Divine Simplicitytheology

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

[auto] It argues for the Authentic Being remaining self-gathered and undiminished without partition, emphasizing its lack of composite parts.

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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 text describes souls coming into being through an engendering from the All rather than a partition of the original source.

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◇Monadcosmology

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

[auto] The Authentic Being is described as having a unity of omnipresent identity, acting as the singular source from which multiplicity flows.

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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 passage centrally debates the unity of Being versus the multiplicity of souls and intelligences, asserting that intellect and soul are numerically one.

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Related passages · 6 parallels
◆christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names|Chapter 4, Section 1i
“an introversion 288 288 ἡ εἰς ἑαυτὴν εἴσοδος. from things without and the unified concentration 289 289 In souls being unified and simplified. See Intr., p. 25. of its spiritual powers—which gives it a kind of fixed revolution, and, tur…”
Both passages discuss the nature of the soul and its relationship to a higher, unified reality. They explore the concepts of unity, individuality, and the soul's connection to a transcendent, eternal realm, reflecting genuine conceptual parallels across different mystical traditions.
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 9 (part 11)
“Unless this distinction of the various aspects of man is kept in mind, we are always exposed to mistaking the leaves of the tree of life for the branches, and the branches for the trunk, and the trunk for the roots. 197:1 Each soul constit…”
Both passages discuss the nature of the soul and its relationship to a higher unity. They explore the concepts of individual souls being part of a greater whole while maintaining their distinct identities, and the idea of unity within multiplicity.
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 11 (part 7)
“48.) "The soul and the Word are not one or one being. The soul is born from the centre of nature, from the essences, and belongs to the body, for she issues from the essences of the body, and attracts to herself the body; but the Word is f…”
Both passages discuss the nature of the soul and its relationship to a higher principle (Being in Plotinus, the Word in Jakob Böhme). They explore the concepts of unity and multiplicity, and the omnipresence of the soul or the Word within the material universe.
◆greek_mystery|Orphic Hymns|Front Matter, p. 4 (part 4)
“Hence according to his theology there are two worlds, the intelligible and the sensible. Hence too his three demiurgic principles: Jovial, Dionysiacal, and Adonical, Δΐι#, ( ) Διονυσιακὴ, Αδωναϊκὴ, from whence many orders and differences o…”
Both passages discuss the nature of the soul, intellect, and their relationship to the divine and the material world. They explore the concepts of unity and multiplicity in the context of divine and cosmic principles, and both emphasize the omnipresence and partlessness of the soul and intellect.
◆hermeticism|Corpus Hermeticum 10: The Sermon on the Mount|Section 1d
“Spirit pervading [body] by means of veins and arteries and blood, bestows upon the living creature motion, and as it were doth bear it in a way. For this cause some do think the soul is blood, in that they do mistake its nature, not knowin…”
Both passages discuss the nature of the soul and its relationship to the divine and the individual. They explore the idea of a universal soul that encompasses all individual souls, and the concept of a higher, divine state from which individual souls originate.
◆western_esoteric|Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky)|Chapter XXII (part 3)
“These Eleatic ideas—namely that there is and there can be only One Absolute Being, infinite., unchangeable, without a second, without parts and passions—are the same ideas which underlie the Upanishads and have been fully worked out in the…”
Both passages discuss the unity and infinity of the soul and its relationship to a higher, divine reality. They explore the concept of the individual soul as part of a greater whole, with Plotinus discussing the primal Man and the Vedânta-Sutras discussing Brahman and Atman.