Friday, March 26th, 1982

Nature Outline

by Anthony J. Damiani

Paper V09MP

3-LETTER CODE: ASN

TOPIC: Astronoesis

SUBJECT: Nature

ORIGINAL LOCATION & FILE NAME (of PDF used for typing): 1982 0326a 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 is more or less the same (with some minor variations and prior to the edits) as ASN MASTER NATURE 1-25.PDF (pp. 1-5), which is partly typewriter typed and partly handwritten by a student (dictated by AD) and has extensive AD and some student edits

COMPLETENESS: Full Paper

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

ALTERNATE VERSIONS: Nature Outline as read in WG Classes 1982 0319a 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 (V09MP).

• This is 1982 03/26d, Nature Outline, and the fourth entry associated with this date. 1982 03/26a = Plotinus; Nature Class. 1982 03/26b = "Consciousness in Plotinus" Book Notes. 1982 03/26c = Six Levels of Awareness Paper. 1982 03/26e = Astronoesis Introduction Paper. 1982 03/26f = Astrology, Classifying the Types, for which there is no audio or notes — might refer to something misdated.

NATURE OUTLINE

[Paper as read by AS in WG Class 1982 0326a Begins]

1. Following the discussion of the three primal Hypostases, we will find that these also exist in and for the system of Nature. Plotinus is speaking here of the entirety of universal manifestation to which he applies the principles of Unity, Intellect or Being, and Soul.

2. The unity of universal manifestation is found in the Logos principle within the Universal Soul or Demiurge. The Universal Soul contemplates the Ideas in the Nous, and the assimilation of these Ideas by Soul is an abiding wisdom. This is the Logos, the Unified Reason-Principle of the universe.

3. The "in-forming of matter" by these reason-principles, or more precisely their reflection in the mirror of non-being results in the stratification of matter into various grades. Plotinus refers to this as the "tentative illumining of matter," the tracing in matter of the Idea of the cosmos. This corresponds for the universe to the second Hypostasis. It is the Intellect of Universal Manifestation, the Being of Non-Being.

4. The soul or principle of animation of the universe is the system of living images of reason-principles. These living images in the soul reflect the immutable Ideas in Intellect. The graded powers of Soul combine these forms within the appropriate grades of illumined matter to produce various hylomorphic entities.

5. The living images and the informed matter are combined by and in the intellectual imagination of the World-Soul, and this elaborates the work of the Universal Soul or Demiurge and images forth the corporeal world.

6. Now in this Body of universal manifestation, we will also find a reflection of the three prior principles. This material world is divided into the inerratic, planetary, and sublunary spheres, corresponding to its intellect, soul, and body.

7. It is the life of the Demiurgic Soul which is the unity of the Body of the universe. The abiding life of the Demiurge provides the unified life-fields of the cosmos on which the material worlds are manifested.

8. The cosmic soul, through the last of its series of graded powers, the intellective imagination, projects forth from itself into these life-fields the inerratic sphere which is a subordinate image of the living form or Idea of Man within soul. The inerratic sphere is the Intellect of our sensible cosmos.

9. The imaginal essence projected forth by the World-Soul containing an image of its powers is the Soul of the sensible cosmos.

10. This living system is Nature, the last of the creative powers above the sensible cosmos, reaching down to the vegetable kingdom.

11. Nature, offspring of Soul, is in contemplation of Soul, and this contemplation is a production.

12. The cosmocrators in the system of Nature are the vehicles for the higher soul powers, and are the agents in the fabrication of bodies. They organize the elements or bhutas into bodies, the last effects.

13. Thus Nature can be conceived as an intermediary between the lowest phase of Soul, the intellectual imagination, and the corporeal sensible world. It may be referred to as an imaginal essence, or image-bearing light, as it receives the seminal essences made of the substance of the imagination. It is this spark or fragment of the divine in Nature which is the organizing and individuating logos of any body--star, planet, and so on.

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

[Paper as read by AS in WG Class 1982 0326a Ends]