Friday, May 7th, 1982

The Intellectual-Principle

by Anthony J. Damiani

Paper V09M

3-LETTER CODE: ASN

TOPIC: Astronoesis

SUBJECT: Intellectual-Principle

SUBSUBJECT: Number

ORIGINAL LOCATION & FILE NAME (of PDF used for typing): 1982 0507c V11ap. Plotinus - Intellectual-Principle & One.DOC & PDF

CONTENTS:

Intellectual-Principle as manifestation of the One's power; stands as an authentic reality

One-Many; first distinction of knowledge and its objects

Principle of Number; role in coordinating and ordering the Intellectual-Principle's contents

Plotinus on Number and Being (VI.6.9-10)

Ineffable monads suspended from transcendent paradigms in Authentic Being

Triad as visual aid

BOOKS QUOTED FROM OR REFERENCED:

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

PLOTINUS QUOTES REFERENCED: VI.6.9-10

AD HANDWRITING: Alternate version is typewriter typed, no AD or student edits; the version retyped below only exists as embedded in the verbatim class transcript

COMPLETENESS: Fragmentary Paper, whole paper not read in class

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

ALTERNATE VERSIONS: AD SUPP 916-935 ASN Originals.PDF, pp. 917-921; has diagram of Triad on p. 918, says "Jeff's revision" in student handwriting in upper right-hand corner

DATE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS PAPER: 1982 0507

VERSION OF PAPER IN ASTRONOESIS: This is an early draft which is published in a different form in Astronoesis in the chapter on The Intellectual-Principle, p. 101 ff.

RETYPED AND REFORMATTED by IT 2022

NOTES:

• RETYPED AD PAPER presented in class (V09M).

• This is 1982 05/07d, The Intellectual-Principle Paper, and the fourth entry associated with this date. 1982 05/07a = Astrology; Theory Seminar. 1982 05/07b = "Columbus"; there appears to be or have been an audio cassette tape, but there is no more information on it — might refer to something misdated. 1982 05/07c = Plotinus: Intellectual-Principle & One Class.

[Paper as read by AS in WG Class 1982 0507c Begins]

The Intellectual-Principle

Out of the ocean of infinite possibilities in the ineffable undifferenced intelligence of the One, the unique and unknowable God, is poured a radiant display of glorious revelations and divine Ideas. In other tradition, the Divine Names. The double Act inherent in the One exhibits its inner nature, manifesting luminous existences on the surface of its voidness. The Power of the One is so great that the Divine Mind, though an "image One," stands as an authentic reality, the All. This "outward" expression of the One, which is to stand as a distinct reality, though, in the midst of the One, must do so as (another/an other) or second to the One.

At once then the outpouring of Power takes on determinations and limitations as the Intellectual-Principle. Within this arise the first distinctions of knowledge and its objects, the One-Many.

The indefinite multiplicity of its contents will be coordinated and ordered specifically through the principle of Number, which is also found transcendentally in the One.

It will be this principle of Number that will provide some guidance in understanding how the form, the Idea of the Good, arises from its formless source and within it.

We lead into this discussion with a passage from VI.6.9 where Plotinus examines the principle of Number and its relation to Being.

"[But] if Number thus preceded the Beings, then it is not included among them?

"The truth is that it existed within the Authentic Being but not as applying to it, for Being was still unparted; the potentiality of Number existed and so produced the division within Being, put in travail with multiplicity; Number must be either the substance of Being or its Activity; the Life-Form as such and the Intellectual-Principle must be Number. [AS adds: Now] Clearly Being is to be thought of as Number collective, while the Beings are number unfolded: the Intellectual-Principle is Number moving within itself, while the Living-Form is Number container of the universe. Even Being is the outcome of the Unity and since the prior is unity the secondary must be Number.

"Hence it is that the Forms [AS adds: or] (Ideas) have been described as Henads and Numbers. This is the authentic [(essential)] Number; the other, the 'monadic', is its image. The Authentic is that made manifest in the Forms and helping to bring them to be; primarily it is the Number in the Authentic Being, inherent to it and preceding the Beings, serving [to] them as root, fount, first principle.

"For the Unity is [AS adds: the] source to Being; Being's Being is stayed upon the Unity as its safeguard from dissolution; the Unity cannot rest upon Being which at that would be a unity before possessing unity…

"10. When it takes lot with multiplicity, Being becomes Number by the fact of awakening to manifoldness; before, it was a preparation, so to speak, of the Beings, their fore-promise, a total of henads [AS: We showed.] offering a stay for what was to be based upon them." (Plotinus, VI.6.9-10)

All the numbers are in unproceeding union in Authentic Being, along with all the other unities and henads. In speaking incorrectly, this total of unities has been referred to as the undifferenced. These are the transcendent paradigms from which will be suspended the ineffable monads, Being, Life, Intellect, Soul, Nature, Body, which are the principle and basis for any ontology. We use the Triad as a visual aid, as speaking without vigor, each and every symbol represents a unity, and they all exist in a relationless and modeless homogeneity.

[Paper as read by AS in WG Class 1982 0507c Ends]