Select Works, Section 640 (part 2)

Platonic recollection: knowledge as the soul's recovery of what it knew before birth, with learning as remembering rather than acquisition.

The mind possesses 'prior knowledge' that allows it to recognize Being and Unity in particular beings before reasoning.

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

The passage negates the physical origin of unity, stating it cannot be derived from objects like man or stone.

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

Physical objects are contrasted with the Intellectual order, implying the material presentation is inferior to true Unity.

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 notes that unity observed in sense things remains 'Intellectual' by participation, linking the sensible to the higher order.

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

Unity is described as 'Intellectual' and not directly presented in physical objects, requiring an intellectual act to grasp.

The doctrine that the divine is present within all things and the universe itself, pervading creation rather than remaining solely transcendent above it. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about whether that substance indwells its parts) and from kingdom_within (the divine present specifically IN THE INDIVIDUAL human, accessible without mediation) — divine_immanence is the general pervading-presence claim applied to all of creation, not a human-specific indwelling.

The All is not merely transcendent above but contains the cause of all as inherent to itself, making the divine present within and as the ground of all things rather than solely above them.

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

[auto] Unity is contrasted with physical objects like man or stone, implying it is an undivided Intellectual reality rather than a composite.

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.

The text distinguishes between the Intellectual order of Unity and the physical order of objects, implying a hierarchical distinction.

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

Unity is described as being 'grasped by an Intellectual Act' through prior knowledge rather than sensory observation.

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

The text suggests the mind asserting unity must itself be a unity, implying an internal principle of truth.

The doctrine that the cosmos unfolds as a structured descent of spirit into matter — a directional process traced stage by stage from an unconditioned principle down through successive planes to full materialization — complemented by its own eventual return ('evolution'). Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (the static structure of the resulting levels of the cascade) and cosmogony (a single originating event rather than an ongoing staged process) in naming the directional cosmic PROCESS of descent itself, paired with its own complementary ascent.

The passage explicitly describes the directional process by which the All 'in its extension and so to speak unfolding' presents temporal succession from a simultaneous divine state, naming the staged descent from unity to multiplicity.

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

[auto] The text treats Unity as the first principle that must be presupposed before Otherness or Difference can be affirmed.

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

The text posits that Otherness and Difference are later than Unity, which must be presupposed before any distinction can be affirmed.

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

The 'divine stage' where 'it lacks nothing and therefore can never lack' and 'all existed, eternally' directly describes the fullness and totality of the highest realm.

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

The passage argues that 'that in us which asserts unity... is first a unity, itself,' requiring self-recognition to affirm external unity.

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

[auto] The passage centrally argues for the primacy and reality of Unity over physical multiplicity and difference.