Friday, March 19th, 1982

Nature Outline

by Anthony J. Damiani

Paper V09M

3-LETTER CODE: ASN

TOPIC: Astronoesis

SUBJECT: Nature

ORIGINAL LOCATION & FILE NAME (of PDF used for typing): 1982 0319a V11ap. Plotinus - Soul - Nature.DOC & PDF

BOOKS QUOTED FROM OR REFERENCED:

• Plotinus, The Enneads (MacKenna translation, 4th ed.)

PLOTINUS QUOTES REFERENCED: See Nature Outline in Astronoesis, pp. 226-229, for Plotinus references.

AD HANDWRITING: This retyped version only exists as embedded in the verbatim class transcript; three of the alternate versions listed below have AD and student edits

COMPLETENESS: Full Paper

PUBLISHABILITY: No, already published in Astronoesis in a different form

ALTERNATE VERSIONS: ASN MASTER NATURE 1-25.PDF (pp. 1-5) (partly typewriter typed and partly handwritten by a student (dictated by AD), has extensive AD and some student edits); ASN ALT The One Outline AD Hand.PDF (pp. 8-10) (typewriter typed with AD and student edits); AD SUPPG 1-10.PDF (pp. 8-10) (typewriter typed with student edits); Nature Outline as read in WG Classes 1982 0326a and 1982 0402a; 1982 0326PC-16R15.PDF (pp. 9-10) (typewriter typed, no edits)

DATES ASSOCIATED WITH THIS PAPER: 1982 0319, 0326, 0402

VERSION OF PAPER IN ASTRONOESIS: This is an early draft which is published in a different form in Astronoesis, Chapter 4, The System of Nature, Nature Outline, pp. 226-229

RETYPED AND REFORMATTED by IT 2022

NOTES:

• RETYPED AD PAPER presented in class (V09M).

• This is 1982 03/19c, Nature Outline, and the third entry associated with this date. 1982 03/19a = Plotinus: Soul & Nature Class. 1982 03/19b = Soul Outline.

NATURE OUTLINE

[Paper as read by AS in WG Class 1982 0319a Begins]

1. The entirety of universal manifestation is under the providence of Universal Soul. The Universal Soul is an eternal contemplation of the Ideas. This is an abiding wisdom which is translated into the Logos or Unitary Reason-Principle of the universe.

2. The unity of the Logos principle within the Demiurge has also a Being or Intellect, a Soul, and a Body.

3. The impression of the Ideas upon the principle of non-Being or formless matter by the Demiurge constitutes the Material Intellect, or Being, of universal manifestation.

4. The form or soul of universal manifestation is the entire system of living images of reason-principles. These are the outward-facing system of the Ideas that Universal Soul has contemplated.

5. The living images of reason-principles, combined with the matter which has been informed by the Demiurge, are the conditions imposed on the World-Soul.

6. As associated with the Demiurge, the World-Soul's imagination is stored with these living forms. As a subjective soul rooted in the Nous, it also has a series of unembodied powers, the last of which is the productive imagination in which the others are embedded.

7. The outflow of this productive imagination of Soul toward the manifestation of the sensible cosmos is Nature.

8. This essence or image-bearing light, Mercurius, is an image of Soul. It is organized by the soul powers and contains a compound of the reason-principles and illumined matter.

9. This imaginal essence projected by Soul extends downwards as far as the vegetable kingdom.

10. We must remember that this Nature has the spark or fragment of the Divine within it, which is the organizing or individuating principle of any body, star, planet, or so on.

11. It is this light that is projected by the sensible Sun to the circumference of its being and which combines the elements or bhutas into bodies.

12. Functionally we may say that Nature is the whole system of the cosmocrators. Again these are the vehicles of the higher soul powers and are the agents in the fabricating of bodies.

13. Nature itself becomes the medium through which our soul, or rather a light from our soul, is associated with the various vehicles in the cosmos. Our personalities are thus bound up with the stars.

14. Nature is the totality of all combinations of reason-principles and matter, containing everything in a seminal form, and operates even below our conscious knowledge.

[Paper as read by AS in WG Class 1982 0319a Ends]