Select Works, Section 636 (part 2)

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

[auto] The practice described involves reflecting within oneself on life and intellect as a form of meditation.

Divine archetypal beings or eternal attributes dwelling within the Pleroma, often arranged in male-female syzygies.

The text lists 'Absolute Man, Absolute Number, Absolute Justice' as distinct entities within the Intellectual-Principle.

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

[auto] The passage commands to 'lay aside all sense-perception' and describes the divine as 'not in extension but as power without magnitude'.

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

[auto] The instruction to 'lay aside all sense-perception' implies that sensory experience hinders the knowledge of Intellectual-Principle.

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 describes effects produced 'in the ratio of the contact, closely to the close, more remotely to the remote.'

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 production of effect by contact implies a resonance or affinity between levels of being.

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

The Intellectual-Principle is described as 'power without magnitude' and 'self-existing', implying non-composite nature.

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 the 'Life-Form primal', 'Intellectual-Principle', and 'Authentic Being', outlining levels of reality.

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

[auto] The text states 'by Intellectual-Principle we know Intellectual-Principle', emphasizing direct noetic knowledge over sensory perception.

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

[auto] The text suggests that life and intellect are found within the self ('reflect within ourselves'), indicating an internal divine presence.

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

[auto] The divine Intellect and Authentic Being are accessed by reflecting within oneself rather than looking outward.

The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.

The text describes the Intellectual-Principle as a 'thing most living and intellective'.

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 functions as the ordering principle containing all forms and numbers.

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

The text references 'unity' existing before the Living-Form and Authentic Being as power self-existing.

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

Knowledge is described as occurring through 'contact' between the knower and the Intellectual-Principle.

Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.

[auto] The text explicitly mentions that the higher realm contains 'all Number' and ascribes existence to 'Absolute Number'.

The divine fullness or totality of the highest realm, populated by aeons and divine attributes, contrasted with the deficient material world.

The Intellectual-Principle is described as containing all living things, Number, Justice, and Beauty, resembling the divine fullness.

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

[auto] The author instructs to 'reflect within ourselves there is life, there is intellect', linking self-reflection to divine knowledge.

A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source.

The passage suggests seeking 'Being at its intensest', implying a movement toward higher reality.

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

The text describes 'Authentic Being' as containing all living things and numbers, suggesting a unified source of existence.