Passages similar to: The Six Enneads — Problems of the Soul (1)
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Neoplatonic
The Six Enneads
Problems of the Soul (1) (7)
So far, so good: but what of the passage in the Philebus taken to imply that the other souls are parts of the All-Soul? The statement there made does not bear the meaning read into it; it expresses only, what the author was then concerned with, that the heavens are ensouled- a teaching which he maintains in the observation that it is preposterous to make the heavens soulless when we, who contain a part of the body of the All, have a soul; how, he asks, could there be soul in the part and none in the total. He makes his teaching quite clear in the Timaeus, where he shows us the other souls brought into existence after the All-Soul, but compounded from the same mixing bowl"; secondary and tertiary are duly marked off from the primal but every form of soul is presented as being of identical ideal-nature with the All-Soul. As for saying of the Phaedrus. "All that is soul cares for all that is soulless," this simply tells us that the corporeal kind cannot be controlled- fashioned, set in place or brought into being- by anything but the Soul. And we cannot think that there is one soul whose nature includes this power and another without it. "The perfect soul, that of the All," we read, "going its lofty journey, operates upon the kosmos not by sinking into it, but, as it were, by brooding over it"; and "every perfect soul exercises this governance"; he distinguishes the other, the soul in this sphere as "the soul when its wing is broken." As for our souls being entrained in the kosmic circuit, and taking character and condition thence; this is no indication that they are parts: soul-nature may very well take some tincture from even the qualities of place, from water and from air; residence in this city or in that, and the varying make-up of the body may have their influence . We have always admitted that as members of the universe we take over something from the All-Soul; we do not deny the influence of the Kosmic Circuit; but against all this we oppose another soul in us proven to be distinct by that power of opposition. As for our being begotten children of the kosmos, we answer that in motherhood the entrant soul is distinct, is not the mother's.
[Trismegistus] The soul of every man, O [my] Asclepius, is deathless; yet not all in like fashion, but some in one way or [one] time, some in...
(1) [Trismegistus] The soul of every man, O [my] Asclepius, is deathless; yet not all in like fashion, but some in one way or [one] time, some in another.
[Asclepius] Is not, then, O Thrice-greatest one, each soul of one [and the same] quality?
[Trismegistus] How quickly hast thou fallen, O Asclepius, from reason’s true sobriety! Did not I say that “All” is “One,” and “One” is “All,” in as much as all things have been in the Creator before they were created. Nor is He called unfitly “All,” in that His members are the “All.” Therefore, in all this argument, see that thou keep in mind Him who is “One”-“All,” or who Himself is maker of the “All.”
Timaeus: which was one day to be existent, whereby He made it smooth and even and equal on all sides from the center, a whole and perfect body...
(34) Timaeus: which was one day to be existent, whereby He made it smooth and even and equal on all sides from the center, a whole and perfect body compounded of perfect bodies, And in the midst thereof He set Soul, which He stretched throughout the whole of it, and therewith He enveloped also the exterior of its body; and as a Circle revolving in a circle He established one sole and solitary Heaven, able of itself because of its excellence to company with itself and needing none other beside, sufficing unto itself as acquaintance and friend. And because of all this He generated it to be a blessed God. Now as regards the Soul, although we are essaying to describe it after the body,
It is necessary, therefore, to admit a thing of this kind in partial souls. For such as is the life which the soul received, prior to its insertion...
(3) It is necessary, therefore, to admit a thing of this kind in partial souls. For such as is the life which the soul received, prior to its insertion in a human body, and such as the form which it readily exerted; such also is the organical body which it has suspended from itself, and such the consequent corresponding nature, which receives the more perfect life of the soul. But with respect to more excellent natures, and which, as wholes, comprehend the principle [of parts] in these, inferior are produced in superior natures; bodies, in incorporeal essences; things fabricated, in the fabricators; and, being circularly comprehended in, are directed and governed by, them. Hence, the circulations of the celestial bodies, being primarily inserted in the celestial circulations of the etherial soul, are perpetually inherent in them; and the souls of the worlds [ i. e. of the spheres], being extended to their intellect, are perfectly comprehended by it, and are primarily generated in it. Intellect, also, both that which is partial and that which is universal, is in a similar manner comprehended in the genera that are more excellent than intellect. Since, therefore, second are always converted to first natures, and superior are the leaders of inferior essences, as being the paradigms of them, hence essence and form accede to subordinate from superior natures, and things posterior are primarily produced in such as are more excellent; so that order and measure are derived from primary to secondary beings, and the latter possess that which they are from the former. But the contrary must not be admitted, viz. that peculiarities emanate from things less excellent to the natures which precede them.
Chapter 10: Of the Creation of Man, and of his Soul, also of God's breathing in. The pleasant Gate. (12)
Now that this is demonstratively and certainly thus, [appears] in that it is written; And God breathed into him the a living Breath, whereby Man...
(12) Now that this is demonstratively and certainly thus, [appears] in that it is written; And God breathed into him the a living Breath, whereby Man became a living Soul. All other Creatures which were produced out of the corruptible Limbus by the Fiat, in all those the Will in the Fiat had awakened the Spirit in their Center, and every Creature's Spirit went forth out of the Essence and Property of its own self, and mixed afterwards with the Spirit of the great World, of the Stars and Elements, and that ought not to have been in Man, his Spirit ought not to have mixed itself [or been united] with the Spirit of the Stars and Elements. The two Principles (viz. the Darkness and the Spirit of the Air) ought to have stood still in such a Substance [as should be the Image of God;] and therefore he breathed into him the diving Breath; understand God's Breath, that is, the paradisical Breath or Spirit, [viz.] the Holy Spirit; that should be the Breath of the Soul, in the Center of the Soul. And the Spirit which went forth out of the Limbus, or out of the Quinta Essentia (which is of the a Condition of the Stars) that was to have Power over the fifth Essence of this World. For Man was in one only Essence [or Substance,] and there was also but one only Man that God thus created, and he could have lived for ever. And although God had brought the Stars again into their Ether, and also had withdrawn the Matrix of the Elements, and the Elements also back into nothing, yet Man would have continued still. Besides, he had the paradisical Center in him, and he could have generated again out of himself, out of his Will, and have awakened the Center; and so should have been able in Paradise to generate an angelical Host, without Misery or Anguish, also without tearing [rending or dividing in himself;] and such a Man he ought to have been, if he must continue in Paradise, and be eternal without Decay; for Paradise is holy, and in that Respect Man also ought to have been holy, for the Virtue [and Power] of God and Paradise consists in Holiness. The deep Gate of the Soul.
Chapter 10: Of the Creation of Man, and of his Soul, also of God's breathing in. The pleasant Gate. (14)
Now therefore the Soul stands in two Gates, and touches the two Principles, viz. the eternal Darkness, and the eternal Light of the Son of God, as...
(14) Now therefore the Soul stands in two Gates, and touches the two Principles, viz. the eternal Darkness, and the eternal Light of the Son of God, as God the Father himself does. Now as God the Father holds his unchangeable eternal Will to generate his Heart and Son, so the Angels and Souls keep their unchangeable Will in the Heart of God. Thus it [the Soul] is in Heaven and in Paradise, and enjoys the unutterable Joy of God the Father which he has in the Son, and it hears the inexpressible Words of the Heart of God, and rejoices at the eternal, and also at the created Images, which are not in Essence [or Substance,] but in Figure.
Chapter 131 (Jesus promiseth to reveal all in detail)
"And so I will tell you at the expansion of the universe all these words concerning the power and also concerning the soul, after what type they are...
(5) "And so I will tell you at the expansion of the universe all these words concerning the power and also concerning the soul, after what type they are fashioned, or what ruler fashioneth them, or what are the different species of the souls. And so will I tell you at the expansion of the universe how many fashion the soul. And I will tell you the name of all of them who fashion the soul. And I will tell you the type, how the counterfeiting spirit and the destiny have been prepared. And I will tell you the name of the soul before it is purged, and moreover its name when it hath been purged and become pure. And I will tell you the name of the counterfeiting spirit; and I will tell you the name of the destiny. And I will tell you the name of all the bonds with which the rulers bind the counterfeiting spirit to the soul. And I will tell you the name of all the decans who fashion the soul in the bodies of the soul in the world; and I will tell you in what manner the souls are fashioned. And I will tell you the type of every one of the souls; and I will tell you the type of the souls of the men and of those of the birds and of those of the wild beasts and of those of the reptiles. And. I will tell you the type of all the souls and of those of all the rulers which are sent into the world, in order that ye may be completed in all gnosis. All this will I tell you at the expansion of the universe. And after all this I will tell you wherefor all this hath come to pass.
Chapter 25: The Suffering, Dying, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God: Also of his Ascension into Heaven, and sitting at the Right-hand of God his Father. The Gate of our Misery; and also the strong Gate of the Divine Power in his Love. (9)
But because the Soul stood with its most inward Root in the Abyss of Hell, and according to the Kingdom of this World in the hard [frozen] Death, so t...
(9) But because the Soul stood with its most inward Root in the Abyss of Hell, and according to the Kingdom of this World in the hard [frozen] Death, so that (if the Flesh and Blood, as also the Dominion of the Stars, should leave it) then it would continue inwardly in a Hardness, wherein there is no Source [or active Property,] and itself, in its own Property, would be but in the Fierceness of the Originality, in great Misery; therefore it was necessary, not only for God to come into the Soul, and generate it to the Light, (for there was Danger, that the Soul with its Imagination might go forth out of the Light again,) but also for God to assume a human Soul, from our Soul, and a new heavenly Body, out of the first glorious Body before the Fall, and put it on to the Soul, with the old earthly Body hanging on it, not only as a Garment, but really [united as one] in the Essences; so that it must be a Creature, that is, the whole God, with all the three Principles.
That which Timaeus argues of the soul Doth not resemble that which here is seen, Because it seems that as he speaks he thinks. He says the soul unto...
(3) That which Timaeus argues of the soul Doth not resemble that which here is seen, Because it seems that as he speaks he thinks. He says the soul unto its star returns, Believing it to have been severed thence Whenever nature gave it as a form. Perhaps his doctrine is of other guise Than the words sound, and possibly may be With meaning that is not to be derided. If he doth mean that to these wheels return The honour of their influence and the blame, Perhaps his bow doth hit upon some truth. This principle ill understood once warped The whole world nearly, till it went astray Invoking Jove and Mercury and Mars. The other doubt which doth disquiet thee Less venom has, for its malevolence Could never lead thee otherwhere from me. That as unjust our justice should appear In eyes of mortals, is an argument Of faith, and not of sin heretical. But still, that your perception may be able To thoroughly penetrate this verity, As thou desirest, I will satisfy thee.
Chapter 11: Of the Seventh Qualifying or Fountain Spirit in the Divine Power. (137)
For the holy soul is one spirit with God; though indeed it is a creature, yet it is like to the angels: Also the soul of man seeth much deeper than th...
(137) For the holy soul is one spirit with God; though indeed it is a creature, yet it is like to the angels: Also the soul of man seeth much deeper than the angels; for the angels see only to the heavenly pomp, but the soul seeth both the heavenly and the hellish, for it liveth between both.
The hostile opposition, therefore, in the things that are now proposed, may be easily dissolved by demonstrating the dignity of wholes with respect...
(1) The hostile opposition, therefore, in the things that are now proposed, may be easily dissolved by demonstrating the dignity of wholes with respect to parts, and by recalling to your recollection the exempt transcendency of the Gods above men. But what I mean is this, that the soul, which ranks as a whole, presides over all the mundane body, and that the celestial Gods ascend, as into a vehicle, into a celestial body, neither receiving any injury from thence, nor any impediment in their intellections. But to a partial soul, the communion with body is noxious in both these respects. If, therefore, some one perceiving this, should nevertheless introduce such a doubt as the following, that if the body is a bond to our soul, it will also be a bond to the soul of the universe, and that if a partial soul is converted to the body on account of generation, in a similar manner the power of the Gods is converted to generation; in answer to this every one may reply, that he who thus doubts does not know how much superior beings transcend men, and wholes parts. Since, therefore, the objections pertain to things different from each other, they do not produce any ambiguity.
But my meaning is, that it peculiarly connects the soul with the self begotten and self-moved God, and with the all-sustaining, intellectual, and all-...
(1) Moreover, after it has conjoined the soul to the several parts of the universe, and to the total divine powers which pass through it; then it leads the soul to, and deposits it in, the whole Demiurgus, and causes it to be independent of all matter, and to be counited with the eternal reason alone. But my meaning is, that it peculiarly connects the soul with the self begotten and self-moved God, and with the all-sustaining, intellectual, and all-adorning powers of the God, and likewise with that power of him which elevates to truth, and with his self-perfect, effective, and other demiurgic powers; so that the theurgic soul becomes perfectly established in the energies and demiurgic intellections of these powers. Then, also, it inserts the soul in the whole demiurgic God. And this is the end with the Egyptians of the sacerdotal elevation of the soul to divinity.
Chapter 131 (Of the light-power and the counterfeiting spirit)
"Hearken, therefore, that I may discourse with you concerning the soul according as I have said: The five great rulers of the great Fate of the æons...
(6) "Hearken, therefore, that I may discourse with you concerning the soul according as I have said: The five great rulers of the great Fate of the æons and the rulers of the disk of the sun and the rulers of the disk of the moon breathe into that soul, and there cometh out of them a portion of my power, as I have just said. And the portion of that power remaineth within the soul, so that the soul can stand. And they put the counterfeiting spirit outside the soul, watching it and assigned to it; and the rulers bind it to the soul with their seals and their bonds and seal it to it, that it may compel it always, so that it continually doeth its mischiefs and all its iniquities, in order that it may be their slave always and remain under their sway always in the changes of the body; and they seal it to it that it may be in all the sin and all the desires of the world.
Hence, through these things such a corporeal-formed division as you introduce, is demonstrated to be false. It is, indeed, especially necessary not...
(4) Hence, through these things such a corporeal-formed division as you introduce, is demonstrated to be false. It is, indeed, especially necessary not to propose any thing of this kind; but if this should appear to you to be requisite, yet you must not think, that what is false deserves to be discussed. For such a discussion does not exhibit a copiousness of arguments; but he wearies himself in vain, who, proposing things that are false, endeavours afterwards to subvert them, as things that are not true. For how is it possible that an essence, which is of itself incorporeal, and which has nothing in common with the bodies that participate of it, should be distinguished from other things by corporeal qualities? How can that which is not locally present with bodies, be separated by corporeal places? And how can that which is not inclosed by the partible circumscriptions of subjects, be partibly detained by the parts of the world? What, also, is that which can prevent the Gods from being every where? And what can restrain their power from extending as far as to the celestial arch? For to effect this, must be the work of a more powerful cause, which is able to inclose and circumscribe them in certain parts.
It likewise possesses the eternity of a similar life and energy in a less degree than dæmons and heroes; yet, through the beneficent will of the...
(2) It likewise possesses the eternity of a similar life and energy in a less degree than dæmons and heroes; yet, through the beneficent will of the Gods, and the illumination imparted by them, it frequently proceeds higher, and is elevated to a greater, i. e. to the angelic, order; when it no longer remains in the boundaries of soul, but the whole of it is perfected into an angelic soul and an undefiled life. Hence, also, soul appears to comprehend in itself all-various essences and reasons, and forms or species of every kind. If, however, it be requisite to speak the truth, soul is always defined according to one certain thing, but adapting itself to precedaneous causes, it is at different times conjoined to different causes.
Chapter 19: Of the Entering of the Souls to God, and of the wicked Souls Entering into Perdition. Of the Gate of the Body's Breaking off [or Parting] from the Soul. (67)
God and the Devil is there, yet each of them in his own Kingdom. The Paradise is also there; and the Soul needs only to enter through the deep Door in...
(67) Therefore the Soul (when it departs from the Body) needs not to go far; for at that Place where the Body dies, there is Heaven and Hell; and the Man Christ dwells every where. God and the Devil is there, yet each of them in his own Kingdom. The Paradise is also there; and the Soul needs only to enter through the deep Door in the Center. Is the Soul holy? Then it stands in the Gate of Heaven, and the earthly Body has but kept it out of Heaven; and now when the Body comes to be broken, then the Soul is already in the Heaven; it needs no going out or in, Christ has it in his Arms, for where the four Elements break, there the Root of them remains, which is the holy Element, and therein the Body of Christ stands, and also Paradise, which stands in the springing Source of Joy; and that Element is the soft still Habitation.
Chapter 23: Of the highly precious Testaments of Christ, viz. Baptism and his last Supper, which he held in the Evening of Maundy- Thursday with his Disciples; which he left us for his Last [Will,] as a Farewell for a Remembrance. The most noble Gate of Christianity. (11)
Now the Father is greater than all, and the Son in him is greater than all, and his Mercifulness is also greater than all; and the [one pure] Element...
(11) Now the Father is greater than all, and the Son in him is greater than all, and his Mercifulness is also greater than all; and the [one pure] Element consists in his Mercifulness, and is as great as God; only, it is generated of God, and is substantial, and it is under [or inferior to] God, and so there is the Ternarius Sanctus, with the Wisdom of God in the Wonders; for all Wonders are manifested therein, and that is the heavenly Body of Christ, with our (here assumed) Soul in it, and the whole Fulness of the Deity is in the Center therein; and thus the Soul is environed with the Deity, and eats of God, for it is the Spirit. Thus, my beloved Soul, if thou art regenerated in Christ, then thou puttest on the Body of Christ, [which is] out of the holy Element, and that gives thy new Body Food and Drink; and the Spirit of this World in the four Elements gives our old earthly [Body earthly Meat and Drink that is earthly and elementary.] 12. Thus understand and know this precious Depth; as Christ made a Covenant with us, in the Garden of Eden, that he (as above-mentioned) would thus become Man, so also after he had laid off that which was earthly, he made a Covenant with us, and has appointed his Body for Food, and his Blood for Drink; and the Water of the eternal Life (in the Originality of the Deity) for a holy Baptism, and commanded that we should use it till he comes again.
That which came into being in the image of the light, it too is perfect, inasmuch as it is an image of the one existing light, which is the...
(8) That which came into being in the image of the light, it too is perfect, inasmuch as it is an image of the one existing light, which is the Totalities. Even if it was inferior to the one of whom it is an image, nevertheless it has its indivisibility, because it is a countenance of the indivisible light. Those, however, who came into being in the image of each one of the aeons, they in essence are in the one whom we previously mentioned, but in power they are not equal, because it (the power) is in each of them. In this mingling with one another they have equality, but each one has not cast off what is peculiar to itself. Therefore, they are passions, for passion is sickness, since they are productions not of the agreement of the Pleroma, but of this one, prematurely, before he received the Father. Hence, the agreement with his Totality and will was something beneficial for the organization which was to come. It was granted them to pass through the places which are below, since the places are unable to accommodate their sudden, hasty coming, unless (they come) individually, one by one. Their coming is necessary, since by them will everything be perfected.
Chapter 25: The Suffering, Dying, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God: Also of his Ascension into Heaven, and sitting at the Right-hand of God his Father. The Gate of our Misery; and also the strong Gate of the Divine Power in his Love. (44)
And here we should have remained in the Anger, in the dark Hell, but the bright Father in his Glory took the Soul to him, into the Trinity. Now the So...
(44) And now there was nothing more on the Soul, but only that which itself is (in its own eternal Root) in the Father. And here we should have remained in the Anger, in the dark Hell, but the bright Father in his Glory took the Soul to him, into the Trinity. Now the Soul was clothed with the Love in the Word, which made the angry Father (in the innermost Source of the Soul) pleasant, and reconcilable, and so in this Moment (in the Essences of the Soul) the lost Paradise sprung up again; whereupon the Earth trembled, [viz. the Out-Birth out of the Element,] and the Sun, the King of the Life of the third Principle, lost its Light; for there rose up another Sun in Death; understand, in the Anger of the Father the Love was shining like a bright Morning-Star.
Chapter 10: Of the Creation of Man, and of his Soul, also of God's breathing in. The pleasant Gate. (5)
For the old belongs only to the Corruptibility, and goes into its Ether, and the new remains for ever. But how this came to pass, you have the followi...
(5) And if the Soul had not been within it, then Adam should have continued to be an unreasonable Beast; but seeing the Soul out of the Limbus had been breathed into Adam by the Holy Ghost, therefore now the Mercifulness (viz. the Heart of God) must do its best again, and bring again the Center out of the heavenly Limbus, and himself become Flesh, and by the Fiat generate the new Man in the Soul, which is hidden in the old. For the old belongs only to the Corruptibility, and goes into its Ether, and the new remains for ever. But how this came to pass, you have the following fundamental Information of it, wherein if you be regenerated from God, you may see the old and new Man into the very Heart, because you have the Pearl; but if not, then you shall scarce see here the old Adam, and you shall not so much as look upon the new.
Chapter 13: Of the Creating of Woman out of Adam. The fleshly, miserable, and dark Gate. (30)
And now if we will speak of the Soul, and of its Substance and Essences, we must say that it is the roughest [Thing] in Man; for it is the Originality...
(30) And now if we will speak of the Soul, and of its Substance and Essences, we must say that it is the roughest [Thing] in Man; for it is the Originality of the other Substances [or Things.] It is fiery, harsh, bitter, and strong, and it resembles a great [and] mighty Power, its Essences are like Brimstone: Its Gate or Seat out of the eternal Originality is between the fourth and the fifth Form in the eternal Birth, and in the unbeginning Band, of the strong Might of God the Father, where the eternal Light of his Heart (which makes the second Principle) generates itself, and if it wholly loses the bestowed Virgin of the divine Virtue [or Power] (out of which the Light of God generates itself, which is given to the Soul to be its Pearl, as is mentioned above) then it becomes, and is a Devil, like all other [Devils] in Essences, Form, and in Quality also.