Astronoesis "Master" draft

by Anthony J. Damiani

–typed 1988, original files converted, concatenated, slightly reformatted so more readable.

V09

Notes from JF: Jan. 2023: What this is. This Astronoesis Master Draft was originally in 3 dusty-rose-pink plastic ring binders that were in the WG library, and placed there after Anthony's death in 1984. The Ring binders correspond to the sections in the Astronoesis book—and are also referred to as "Notes and Papers." Series Notes and Papers O (which corresponds to the first ring binder, pp. O1-O207) consists of Astronoesis typed files on the Invocatory Prelude, the One, Number, and Intellectual-Principle. Notes and Papers Series S (Soul section) is from the second ring binder, pp. S1-S168. And series N is the third ring binder, Nature and Quotes, pp. 1-46.

This document is Not intended as a clean-verbatim .DOC file; it is primarily for searching and archival purposes. It mostly reflects (with some converting and a minimal amount of cleanup) the Astronoesis Master document as it existed back in 1988, and corresponds (with few additions and subtractions) to the version scanned as a PDF in 2017. (Q: indicates typists' queries in the 1988 format.) One should consult the ASTRONOESIS MASTER PDF – SCAN ASN MASTER (directory under SCANS NOT ENTERED) scan files for a facsimile original—for handwritten editing, diagrams, tables, etc., not shown here. I (JF) still have backups of the original FW files, as well as some of the 1990s Astronoesis working draft files.

In 1988, after a small amount of rearrangement and the addition of page numbers, Anthony's Astronoesis draft was photocopied for editing, and then typed and proofread. The Astronoesis files were typed in Final Word, an earlier word processing software.

The originally typed Final Word codings in this document have been kept, as well as the original file name in square brackets, the page numbers as typed, the original format place markers for diagrams, and the (Q: queries). Note: the original FW suffix files were all basically plain .TXT files, can be renamed as such, and openable in Notepad. In any case, I have left much of the Final Word computer-code formatting that was used at the time. One example is @u<The Republic> = underlined The Republic. Another example is @verbatim< >, which indicates that either special formatting was to be applied to the text inside the brackets or a diagram was to be inserted. It was not possible to insert facsimile diagrams into the 1988 manuscript but sometimes some of the key words for the diagram were typed in. These words may not display properly in the online version and may look run together.

A number of people at Wisdom's Goldenrod and also people associated with Wisdom's Goldenrod in Ohio were involved in the process of typing and proofreading. After there was a complete typed manuscript, there was still much to do. This was a slow process of manuscript discussion and selection, by individuals and small workgroups, as well as writing margin notes, endnotes, and other commentary, which continued until publication. The editors also began to work with Larson Publications and Phil Wilson, the book designer, artists, and others.

Indeed, many people helped with Astronoesis, too many to be listed. Phil Wilson Design provided the beautiful layout for the book (with assistance from P. Anne Kilgore, Ithaca; paperwrk@twcny.rr.com) – he also designed the astrological fonts used in the print version of the book. Digital diagrams of the manuscript versions were re-created by AS and others. Editors were primarily AS with others in workgroups at Wisdom's Goldenrod.

An agreement was drafted between Ella May Damiani, Anthony Damiani's widow, and Wisdom's Goldenrod. It was a given that Larson Publications of Burdett, NY, be the publisher.

Astronoesis was finally published in 2000. The printed Astronoesis as well as a digital edition (2023) are available from Larson Publications, Burdett, NY.

ASTRONOESIS "MASTER" DRAFT (typed 1988)

[INVOCATORY PRELUDE, ONE, NUMBER, INTELLECTUAL-PRINCIPLE NOTEBOOK]

[ONE1.FW]

Astronoesis

Chapter 1a

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The sublime majesty of Truth's presence in the sacred sermons of so many wise men. men of good will, ultimately guide us to the ways of peace and wisdom, the lovely, the holy. And so our troubled hearts are reassured and we can read and reread about God's word in many scriptures.

However incomprehensible, a faith settles in our hearts that awakens the desire to understand infinity and forever. The dedication is eternal and to the Eternal. For the Word becomes flesh--and this is an eternal utterance, an act that includes the heart of man mounted on a towering aspiration. Yet even this pyramiding love is without effect unless winged with His Grace. So we shall let fly our supplication, enfolded in holy silence on wings of veneration to the throne of our most Sovereign Good with the request to guide the spirit of our understanding, wherein we stand within His Light, in order to see the pouring out of the Sacred Word made manifest!

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@center<INVOCATORY PRELUDE>

May the sublime majesty of Truth's presence in the sacred sermons of wise men, so many men of such good will, ultimately guide us to the ways of peace and wisdom, the lovely, the holy! May our troubled hearts again be reassured that we may read, and read again, about the Sacred Word as it appears in many scriptures.

However incomprehensible this faith that settles in our hearts, may it awaken the desire to understand Him infinitely and forever; may it eternally dedicate our hearts to the Eternal. For the Word becoming flesh is an eternal utterance, an act that includes the heart of man and evokes a towering aspiration. Yet even this, this pyramiding Love, is without effect unless it be winged with Grace.

Let us, then, enfold in holy silence all our supplications, and let fly on wings of veneration to the throne of our most sovereign Good this ultimate request: that the spirit of our understanding may be led to stand within His light and see the glorious outpouring of the sacred Word made manifest!

We read, in Eckhart's seventeenth sermon:

"In principio erat verbum (John, 1.1)." Theologians talk of the eternal Word. God never spoke but one word, and that is still unspoken. The explanation is this. The eternal Word is the logos of the Father which is his only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ. In Him He pronounces all creatures without beginning and without end. This accounts for the Word remaining unborn, for it never came out of the Father.

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Deepening the same idea and perhaps stated more profoundly, in sermon #35:

"Dominus dicit: sta in porta domus domini et praedica verbum istud (Jer., 7.2). The Lord says"Stand in the gate of God's house and proclaim his word, extol his word." The heavenly Father speaks one Word and that He speaks eternally, and in this Word expends He all His might: His entire God-nature He utters in this Word and the whole of creatures. This Word lies hidden the soul unnoticed and beyond our ken, and were it not for rumors in the ground of hearing we should never heed it; but all sounds and voices have to cease and silence, perfect stillness reign. This is a meaning I will not pursue.

In this relatively short compass, Eckhart indicates an overwhelmingly vast revelation which has preoccupied the intellect of man, despite all the historical differences in the spirit of any age--one to which any number of sacred discourses can testify. Among its many formulations we find Plato's "Idea of the Good," John's "the Word made flesh," "the conceptions of the Father" in the Chaldean sacred oracles, and the sacred syllable "Pranava Aum" of the Hindus.

(unclear para) We intend to pursue the variety of meanings that Eckhart did not elaborate. We pursue a vision, for in that vision all of it lies.

What is this vision? Is it granted to all? Yes, but the degree of penetration into it varies. The Heavens are spread out before us in this vast placelessness and it is directly perceived.(?) Within it lies the key to the infinite treasure, the holiest temple of wisdom and abode of our Sun of Glory, manifesting the unfathomable Word of God, the primal scripture, expertly revealed by the nineteenth Psalm:

@verbatim< "The heavens tell out the glory of God

the vault of heaven reveals his handiwork.

One day speaks to another, night with night shares its knowledge,

and this without speech or language or sound of any voice.

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Their music goes out through all the earth

In them a tent is fixed for the sun,

who comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy,

rejoicing like a strong man to run his race.

His rising is at one of the heavens,

his circuit touches their farthest ends;

and nothing is hidden from his heat."

>

To explore this vision, this contemplation, the utmost stillness of mind and all its faculties is required, Too few of us today have even any idea of what such a requirement means: for the extreme difficulty of attaining the stage of introversion that is beyond and more fundamental than even the archetypal imaginal reality has not yet even dawned on the horizon of our contemporary mentality. Only a sage--one who has accomplished such a state and can abide in or re-enter it at will--can guide us. For even when we get a glimpse, our murky reflection of consciousness--infested as it is with the potentialities and traces of other experiences--reasserts itself and distorts our understanding of what we in that moment produced.

The sage to whom we turn our sextant minds as to a radiant star in navigating through these troubled seas of mental imperfection is Plotinus, mystical philosopher par excellence. Despite the lack of recognition of his deserved status by this irreverent and secular age, we see the uncanny precision and skillful dialectic of his creative exposition of the perennial doctrine as a result of the final stages of ultimate human intelligence. We have gathered and will comment upon a garland of quotations from his work. Its unifying thread bespeaks that breathless intimacy with the grace of divine understanding which any encompassing philosophy of truth requires. We incline in the main toward MacKenna's quasi-poetical and inspiring translation of The Enneads and will, when necessary, supplement it with other translations. Throughout, however, we are face-to-face with an extreme difficulty: for Plotinus is poised as a knower within the Divine Mind, and we are but humble students.

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(margin comment: rewrite) There is a contemporary need to organize our understanding of the fundamental metaphysical principles that we are discussing. (Q: typist's comment: see top of page 6 for possible phrase to be added handwritten by AD: "by the use of a symbolism grounded...sensible appearances".) The Astrological Mandala is an open-ended schemata which not only exposes and organizes our understanding, but reciprocally guides and directs it. Otherwise the web of interrelationships would overwhelm us. So difficult is this knowledge that Hegel was forced to say (quote para 377: Phenomenology of Spirit--on next p.)

So in the beginning, we restrict ourselves to the scale of perception provided by this sensible universe. (insertion not readable) More precisely, we restrict ourselves to the particular world revealed by our egos, for in this empirical world the transcendental understanding we seek has its humble origins. Here we find the only phenomenon adequate to serve us in the task our aspiration has been assigned. This symbolism is sufficiently vast to provide the polyvalent systems of conception and logic that will be necessary to help us to synthesize the many faceted aspects of man's perpetual quest and to reconcile the seeming contradictions among the various philosophic and religious traditions. The sensible world is sufficiently determined in its parts both to keep our understanding under rein and to spur it beyond its limits.

Not to initially restrict ourselves in this manner is to risk having our understanding completely relativized prematurely (underline last word) by the immensities of universal manifestation. Grounding ourselves, therefore, in the experience that we human beings on this earth have of the unique integrity of our own world, that is the solar system, we take as our model the geocentric world view that has been made familiar through the diagrams of Ptolemaic astronomy. We will tentatively accept and inquire into the nature and structure of the cosmos

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as it was conceived by the ancient cosmologists and astrologers who claimed that its principles are gods (unreadable insert) whose activity is connascent with the being, knowledge, and experience of this very

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world. Our hope is that we will be led to a superior understanding, or, rather, to a qualitatively different kind of understanding or our Being here--an understanding that does not sidestep or deny the anomaly of sense perception, but, instead, reveals something of the meaning which is implicit in the orderly and evolving transformation that our minds and bodies undergo. In short, we are going to enter sympathetically into an analysis of experience as conceived by @u<some> of the ancient philosophers--to try to understand and appreciate the philosophic insight which they summarized in the dictum: "The world is full of Gods."

The astrological mandala provides us with the multiple levels of symbolism that will help to make explicit the many meanings that are hidden in the Neo-Platonic tradition as a whole, most specifically in the @u<Enneads> of Plotinus. This diagram will allow us to juxtapose philosophy and astrology in such a way as to reveal that the sensible universe and its starry host @u<is> the primordial living scripture that embodies the wisdom of primal principles--principles that are as far beyond it as the heavens are beyond the earth--and that the basis of astrology is an acquaintance with the wisdom-knowledge that sustains the cosmos.

In the course of this juxtaposition, we will distinguish philosophy and astrology from one another, define the terms of each, and illustrate how they combine in manifestation as mutually-implicating elements of a single whole. This method allows us to develop a sharp contrast, to conceptually bifurcate the Indivisible in such a way that the understanding, in a broad sense of meaning, which can operate only in the realm of dualities may see how it itself is manifested within the cosmic harmony that is evolving it.

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We will speak, on the one hand, of immaterial knowledge and being: the pure Hypostases or principles in themselves. These principles or wisdom-emanations constitute a spiritual hierarchy that is broader and more inclusive than can ever be adequately @u<suggested> by any verbal schema that may be employed to represent or define them. Their self-sufficing and eternally pure natures and the grandeur of their authenticity are not available to our undisciplined, undeveloped, and unillumined intellects. Their own proper subsistence constitutes a realm that is beyond the reach of @u<any> imaginative activity, heights which are @u<literally> unimaginable. Nonetheless, they are precisely what constitutes the content of philosophic wisdom. Though an encounter with these supernals may occur to someone who is not yet prepared to comprehend the experience, we are concerned primarily with that which illumines and permanently enlightens the proficient, the adept, he who understands these principles. The experiences that occur among the unprepared must be discussed separately and must not be confused with the achievements of the philosophic sage.

It would be premature, at this point, to introduce much detail concerning the levels of reality and knowledge discussed by the Platonists. But it can be confidently asserted that these philosophers did not restrict reality to the imagination---not even to imagination in its most comprehensive sense, as defined and used (?) by Plotinus in the @u<Enneads>: ie earth's memories(?)

Concomitant with the analysis of these principles, we look to their immanence in the realm of manifestation--as deciphered by means of the astrological symbolism that we will employ. The use of this symbolism allows us to considerably amplify and objectify our internal and abstract verbal understanding. It also allows us to bring that understanding to the natal chart and the horoscope of an individual, a vital and spiritual fulfillment, for the elements of this symbolic language participate in

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deific power, as Plotinus seems to suggest in V.8,6:

@quotation<Similarly, as it seems to me, the wise of Egypt--whether in precise knowledge or by native intuition--indicated the truth where, in their effort toward philosophic statement, they left aside the writing-forms that take in the detail of words and sentences--those characters that represent sounds and convey the propositions of reasoning--and drew pictures instead, engraving in the temple-inscriptions a separate image for every separate item: thus they exhibited the absence of discursiveness in the Intellectual Realm.

For each manifestation of knowledge and wisdom is a distinct image, an object in itself, an immediate unity, not an aggregate of discursive reasoning and detailed willing.>

So, also among the disciplines that were to be included in the education of a sage-king was the study of astrology. An abundance of evidence to be found throughout the writings of the Neo-Platonists indicates that this study is a task of the first magnitude. Two of the many primary sources of evidence are the @u<Theology of Plato>, by Proclus, and @u<On the Mysteries>, by Iamblichus. Plato himself, though through a veil, reveals something about the mystery of astrology in books VI and VII and IX of @u<The Republic>.

(Insert quote - p. 373 Republic)

Of course there existed then, as now, those for whom there simply are no mysteries, and Plato refers to them sarcastically in this quote. Whether lying on their backs on land or at sea (and, we would add, with or without telescopes), they could have no access to astrology in its truest sense, for their souls were bound to earth-images. His remarks apply not only to modern astrologers whose preoccupation is with the flow of sensible events and materialistic concerns (with their "cookbook" approach to deriving the meaning of an individual's horoscope), but also to those other investigators of reality who fail to perceive the intelligible significance of the appearances that they are trying to explain. We see a situation today where the @u<intelligibility> of scientific laws is subsumed under and reduced to

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the same level as the material phenomena that those laws are meant to explain. Astrologers and astronomers of today--both alike, Plato would say--are incapable of using their understanding as a springboard into the higher realms of being. (i.e. is Langer a contemporary example--ironically the title is @u<Philosophy in a New Key.>)

Much of the Platonic opus remains a closed book to anyone who insists on ignoring evidence that indicates that Plato had a thorough comprehension of astrological first principles. His reference to the sensible appearance of the heavens themselves as the model on which our learning is based is a direct reference to astrology, and we intend to demonstrate that the cosmic soul in the Timaeus and the "divided line" for example, cannot be thoroughly appreciated without explicit recognition of the type of astrology that will be explored in the course of this exposition.

The perennially-living philosophy of the Neo-Platonist has a vital meaning for us: it can be unfolded and made to apply to the contemporary situation. These teachings are not merely relics from the past, fit only for respectable entombment in libraries; they are the sculptured breath of living Wisdom. They teach us how to live life, here and now--whether as a clerk, a secretary, a farmer; or whatever. While we should not let the past mesmerized us, we should not hesitate to go forward with its findings. We should amplify the meanings in the writings of those whom the earth and heavens have made wise before us, and we should put our understanding of their teachings to the test of living and understanding life itself.

So let us reconsider our attitude toward one of the means that the ancients employed in their investigation of reality. At present, our modern superficial acquaintance

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with astrology--i.e. lack of the comprehensive philosophic principles presupposed--prevents us from reaching the core of meaning buried in the individuals horoscope and the frame work of principles or the context within which they are significant.

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Connecting paragraph to Langer Quote.

Thomas Taylor claims to be expounding the Orphic theology as revealed through the neo-Platonic tradition, and especially Proclus. With considerable comprehension he unfolds with depth and detail the vast panorama of Greek mystical philosophy. Under this vast panoply of gods and goddesses the attempt is made to explain, to gain insight into, the generation of the gods. Then from this view at the top of Mt. Olympus a further effort is required to mythologically symbolize the origin and genesis of the world through the activity of the gods and goddesses. (The above para has a around it saying it is the meaning of Saturn-Jupiter.)

In contrast, the contemporary inability to sacralize knowledge can perhaps best be portrayed by these remarks @quotation< "... but I cannot see that @u<any> access to the source or"principle" of man's being is presupposed in the logical and psychological study of symbolism itself. We need not assume the presence of a transcendental "human spirit," if we recognize, for instance, the function of @u<symbolic transformation> as a natural (?) activity, a high form of nervous response, characteristic of man among the animals. The study of symbol and meaning is a starting point of philosophy, not a derivative from Cartesian, Humean, or Kantian premises; and the recognition of its fecundity and depth may be reached from various positions, though it is a historical fact that the idealists reached it first, and have given us the most illuminating literature on non-discursive symbolisms--myth, ritual, and art. Their studies, however, are so intimately linked with their metaphysical speculations that the new key they have struck in philosophy impresses one, at first, as a mere modulation within the old strain. Its real vitality is most evident>

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@quotation< when one realizes that even studies like the present essay, springing from logical rather than from ethical or metaphysical interests, may be actuated by the same generative idea, the essentially @u<transformational> nature of human understanding." (from Susanne Langer's @u<Philosophy in a New Key>, preface.>

That ? is knowledge and therefore transformational was pointed out long ago by Plato...but ? thing is knowledge--this mystery remains.

That an unfailing and never diminishing supply of energy intellectualized to produce animals and men whose functioning is transformative as well as revealing of origin is unavailable to our contemporary authoress. She has accepted the working hypothesis of a 19th century materialistic science as the boundaries of her mind, and these self-imposed mental limitations will not permit the vision suggested by philosophical mythology, [which will not exclude the findings of natural science and produce a renaissance in the understanding and a spiritual fecundity]?

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p. 373, @u<The Republic>, Plato. @quotation< "We establish, said I, astronomia as the fourth discipline...For it is evident, I conceive, to every one, that this discipline compels the soul to look to that which is above, and from the things here conducts it thither. It is probable, said I, that it is evident to every one but to me. For to me it does not appear so. You seem to me, said I, to have formed with yourself no ignoble opinion of the discipline respecting things above, what it is: for you seem to think, that if any one contemplates the various bodies in the firmament, and, by earnestly looking up, apprehends every thing, you think he has intelligence of these things; and does not merely see them with his eyes; and perhaps you judge rightly and I foolishly. For I, on the other hand, am not able to conceive, that any other discipline can make the soul look upwards, but that which respects being, and that which is invisible, and if a man undertakes to learn any thing of sensible objects, whether he gape upwards or below downwards, never shall I say he learns; for I aver he had no science of these things; nor shall I say that his soul looks upwards, but downwards, even though he should learn lying on his back, either at land or at sea.…But what was the proper way, said you, of learning astronomy? ..In this manner, said I, that these variegated bodies in the heavens, as they are varied in a visible subject, be deemed the most beautiful and most accurate of the kind, but far inferior to real beings, according to those orbits in which real velocity and real slowness, in true number, and in all true figures, are carried with respect to one another, and carry all things that are within them. Which things are to be comprehended by reason and the>

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@quotation< dianoetic power, but not by sight. Is not then, said I, the variety in the heavens to be made use of as a paradigm for learning those real things...Let us dismiss the heavenly bodies, if we intend truly to apprehend astronomy, and render profitable instead of unprofitable, that part of the soul which is naturally wise.">

[ONE2.FW]

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But this is the realm beyond the constellations, that the ancients spoke of as the World of Ideas. These ideas or universal substances are not in any place, but were mythologically represented by the constellations. To try to pictorialize this realm we can imagine the stars as statues of the gods, or the Ideas, that radiate a guiding influence throughout boundless space. The energy of this intelligence laid down the basic pattern within which our world, among others, would develop and unfold. (note in margin: Equate universal Soul and inerratic?) The idea of the cosmos...the World Idea...and its inhabitants, evolving and manifesting, can be traced ultimately to this circle of Ideas. The world or cosmos that evolves with the creatures in it is therefore a manifestation of this Nous in the heavens. Our sensible sun took its place within this order and through its powers, the cosmocrators, articulated and manifested the predetermined order contained in this incomprehensible intelligence, which was symbolized by the various animals. An individual soul in its own right, our sun comprehends the nature of these intelligences through its intellect and proceeds to unfold the prodigality of this intelligence or as they called it Nous. Each part of the whole--that is, each planet or rational power--may be considered in its own right, or it may be considered as part of the whole. When conceived of as part of the whole, each cosmocrator is a functioning power of the Rational Soul of the sensible Sun.

Our earth is included within the functioning of this rational soul, and the geocentric view comes into being when we localize or identify consciousness within one or all of the creatures inhabiting the planet.

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For the earth is also a recipient of the Ideas and through the intermediary of the rational powers of the Sun gradually there is organized and manifested on earth a variety of species that will partially and imperfectly reflect the Ideas or animal intelligences. The traces of life left behind by these creatures are retained by the Soul of our earth as the content of its memory, and this is often referred to in the literature of the ancients as the "dragon." (This dragon must be kept distinct from the celestial dragon or the constellations previously referred to as the encircling ideas represented by the stars.) The dragon is the end product of all the life lived on the earth, the storehouse of all the images and the intelligence behind the functioning of animal bodies. This is what the degree symbolism of the chart refers to. (Note: quote Harris) The organization of these tropes into animal bodies is our inherited modes of functioning. The instant an individual is born the distribution of planets in signs and houses shows a selection from within the Earth's memory of the tendencies most closely identified with previously. This predetermination on the part of the Soul as to which elements will constitute its psycho-somatic organism will shape the postnatal...(illegible) or Karma of the individual. In essence it will be the vasanas or memory traces that will blossom forth as his life. The psychologists refer to this intelligence as the subconscious...an intelligence so vast that it would dwarf the conscious mind. Consequently, these inherited modes of functioning constitute a system of beliefs for the Soul that inhabits ...(illegible) body. We conceive of this as the psyche of the individual and as the basic presuppositions or attitudes that organize his perceptions and understanding of the world in which he lives. The incarnation

Note: quote from @u<Studies in Jacob Boehme>

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of these tropes as an organized psycho-somatic organism is the vehicle through which the Soul lives and learns or, when its learning is completed, from which it liberates itself by transcending it.

@verbatim< Diagram 1. Fludd diagram 2. Heliocentric

>

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Footnote

@u<Studies in Jacob Boehme>, A.J. Penny (p. 162)

Quote from Mr. T. Lake Harris's @u<Arcana of Christianity>

"Every sun has a solar spirit." ... "Every planetary orb of a terrestrial sort of spirit. The spirit of every orb is diffused into, and lives throughout, its mineral, vegetable, animal, and human kingdoms, and is an immortal entity, a living, indivisible, and instinctively conscious existence, but is without human personality, and so abstractly conscious of pleasure or pain, but without power to determine its own sensations. Insphered in every solar, aromal, or terrestrial planetary world, is an appropriate World-Soul, living in the life of all its distinct creations, and permeating alike its atmospheres, its waters, its material crust, and its electroigneous centre. These World-Souls comprise the first family of God, and their number is as that of the stars." ... "They are absorptive organs for the Divine Spirit; and pervading each its own world, and living in all its parts, they distribute throughout matter the Divine vitality."

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One of the most original contributions to the meaning of the Ideas was made by T. Subba Row in a short, obscure essay included in his book, @u<Esoteric Writings>. We strongly recommend to our readers an acquaintance with this essay. Some indication of the meaning of the mythological zodiac emerges in his attempt to interpret the idea underlying each of the signs. Through a semantic analysis of their names and by using a sort of prescribed kabalistic procedure with the old Arian myths, he intuited the meaning of the Idea embodied in each zodiacal sign. Of course, the presupposition would be that the mystical experiences of certain exalted beings were deposited in these myths. If we conceive of the universe as an Idea within the Self, we may be able to comprehend how various portions of that Idea were explored and described by these ancient seers, who then associated these specific types of primal intelligence with the zodiacal signs. Each type of intelligence was pictorialized as an animal--as intelligence personified--which would ultimately be traced back to an Idea. In this sense the stars are a theophany of radiating intelligences, distributing their presence and informing the universe through patterns of intellectual energy. Each of these intelligences is a universal substance correlated to a sign, and these reason principles--the signs--are the paradigms of all living forms or species symbolized by the archetypal zodiac or inerratic sphere, which represents the immutability of the Ideas. So the stars, which are the bodies of the Gods, sensibly represent Ideas which are being transmitted from the Universal Soul to the cosmos. It is not possible for the profane mind of man to acquiesce to these truths, but knowledge and devotion may bring him to that realization wherein the rising and setting of worlds is a terrestrial incident in his eternal consciousness.

(Note: Quote Book IX of The Republic)

(diagram of Ideas)

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@u<Republic>, Book IX p. 848 Jowett)

@quotation< Let us make an image of the soul...An ideal image of the soul, like the composite creations of ancient mythology, such as the Chimera or Scylla or Cerberus, and there are many others in which two or more different natures are said to grow into one.

There are said to have been such unions.

Then do you now model the form of a multitudinous, many-headed monster, having a ring of heads of all manner of beasts, tame and wild, which he is able to generate and metamorphose at will.

You suppose marvelous powers in the artist; but , as language is more pliable than wax or any similar substance, let there be such a model as you propose.

Suppose now that you make a second form as of a lion, and a third of a man, the second smaller than the first, and the third smaller than the second.

That, he said, is an easier task; and I have made them as you say.

And now join them, and let the three grow into one.

That has been accomplished.

Next, fashion the outside of them into a single image, as of a man, so that he who is not able to look within, and sees only the outer hull, may believe (note: fix quote) and beast to be a single human creature.>

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The ancients spoke of the Divine Intelligence--the immaterial immutable Ideas beyond the heavens whose immanence in the sensible world have as their representation the inerratic sphere, and which are mythologically symbolized by the constellations of the Zodiac. One of the most original contributions to the meaning of the zodiacal signs was made by T. Subba Row in a short, obscure essay included in his book, @u<Esoteric Writings>. We strongly recommend to our readers an acquaintance with this essay. Some indication of the meaning of the mythological zodiac emerges in his attempt to interpret the idea underlying each of the signs. He unfolded through a semantic analyses of their names and by using a sort of prescribed Kabalistic procedure into the ancient Arian myths, his intuition of the meaning of the Idea embodied in each zodiacal sign.

Our presupposition is that these myths are the wisdom-deposit left to mankind by the mystical experience of certain exalted beings. Conceiving of the Universe as an Idea within the Self, we may be able to comprehend how various portions of that Idea of the World were explored and described by these ancient seers, who then associated specific forms of the primal intelligence or Universal substance with a zodiacal sign. Each type of intelligence was personified and pictorialized as an Animal.

(note: need elaboration)

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So as the paradigm of all living forms or species, the Ideas are ...(illegible) represented by the (illegible) archetypal zodiac. (Q: from typist: check crossed out line in orig.) The stars are the statues or bodies of the gods--each an Ishvara or Cosmic Soul--radiating a guiding influence throughout boundless space, a theophany of radiating intelligences, distributing their presence and informing the universe through patterns of intellectual energy. It is not possible for the profane mind of man to acquiesce to these truths, but knowledge and devotion may bring him to that realization wherein the rising and setting of Worlds is a terrestrial incident in his Eternal consciousness.

(quote @u<Republic>, book 9 , p?

Our Sun or Solar Logos, an individual Cosmic Soul, has its place within this universal pattern of intellectual Energy and its comprehension of the nature of these intelligences is the Idea of the World for our Solar System. It proceeds to unfold the prodigality of this intelligence and in that process it articulates and manifests that predetermined order as our sensible world--its own becoming--with its rational powers, the cosmocrators. Thus the World Idea--its unfolding and evolution of and as the Cosmos and all the inhabitants within it--can be traced ultimately to the Circle of Ideas.

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Each planet or rational power of the Solar Logos may be considered as a specific rational power integral in the functioning of the cosmos, as a whole--or each planet may be (illegible) considered in its own right. Included in the functioning of the rational Soul is our Earth, and the geocentric view comes into being when we localize or identify consciousness within one or all of the inhabitants thereon.

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For the earth is also a recipient of the Ideas and through the intermediary of the rational powers of the Sun gradually there is organized and manifested on earth a variety of species that will partially and imperfectly reflect the Ideas or animal intelligences. The traces of life left behind by these creatures are retained by the Soul of our earth as the content of its memory, and this is often referred to in the literature of the ancients as the "dragon." (This dragon must be kept distinct from the celestial dragon or the constellations previously referred to as the encircling ideas represented by the stars.) The dragon is the end product of all the life lived on earth, the storehouse of all the images and the intelligence left behind the functioning of animal bodies. (note: Quote Harris) This is what the degree symbolism of the natal chart refers to. The organization of these tropes into animal bodies is our inherited modes of functioning. The instant an individual is born the distribution of planets in signs and houses shows a selection from within the Earth's memory of the previous tendencies most closely identified with. This predetermination on the part of the Soul as to which elements will constitute its psycho-somatic organism will shape the postnatal history or karma of the individual. In essence it will be these vasanas or memory traces that will blossom forth as his life.

The psychologists refer to this intelligence as the subconscious--an intelligence so vast that it would dwarf the conscious mind. Consequently , these inherited modes of functioning constitute a system of beliefs for the Soul that inhabits that body. We conceive of this as the psyche of the individual and as the basic presuppositions or attitudes that organize his perceptions and understanding of the world in which he lives. The incarnation of these tropes as an organized psycho-somatic organism is the vehicle through which the Soul lives and learns or, when its learning is completed, from which it liberates itself by transcending it.

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(Notes: possible conclusion for Introduction--)

-reverse order of these two paras (p7)

-include [ ] para 2 and 3 of notes

-follow with 2nd para on p2 of text: "The philosopher sage..."

-Then follow with 'outline' "Our guide..." p1+2

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The thesis proposed here is that the sensible universe, more precisely the world which is revealed through our mind, to our body and mind, will be our starting point. We must ground ourselves in the empirical. Transcendental understanding has its humble origins in the empirical and for us the sensible world is the only phenomena at once vast enough to provide the symbolism necessary to synthesize the seeming contradictions of the various philosophic and religious traditions and sufficiently determined in its parts to guide and or restrain our understanding, developing it to its limits. Thus our version of the sensible--the geocentric view of the world made popular in the many diagrams of the Ptolemaic astronomy--is our model. It is this image of the geocentric world view which is comprehensive enough in the beginning of our analysis to provide us with all the necessary symbolism to make explicit the meanings that are hidden in the Enneads, and for that matter, the neo-Platonic tradition. (note: attach) ----This, the sensible universe, is the primordial scripture, the vision that was previously referred to, and as such it embodies the wisdom of the primal principles which are beyond it. Who has not thrilled to the excitement of the starry skies---the silent unanswered questions.

To repeat, the method here followed is the juxtaposition of philosophy and astrology...to distinguish and define each from the other in order to illustrate how they reciprocally implicate one another into a whole and are combined in manifestation. Allowing ourselves the liberty to sharply contrast, conceptually bifurcate this indivisible so that our intellect which can only operate in the realm of dualities follows logically how it is included or subsumed in the cosmic

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(note: reality wider than being)

harmony.

Therefore we shall on the one hand speak of this immaterial knowledge or pure hypostases in themselves. The spiritual reality --the hierarchy of wisdom emanations existing in a distinctionless mode within this reality, their self-sufficing and eternally august nature, the grandeur of authenticity: An inscrutable abyss--a blinding darkness to our intellect, a radiance and joy that can suffocate the unprepared but illuminate and enlighten permanently the proficient...adept. These principles are discussed separately, from heights beyond the imagination--literally.

Concomitantly and paralleled to the above discussion, these principles are applied throughout the realm of manifestation, or rather are portrayed by the use of the astrological symbolism to our world so that our internal and abstract understanding can be further objectified and applied to the level of analytical and empirical psychology, epistemology, to the problems of everyday living.

(note: ? of the r.p. directly, w/o the aid of the imagination.)

In this attempt to communicate something about the untouchable marvel of the reason principle directly, w/o the aid of the imagination, to express in word and metaphor the mystery that silently embraces our everyday existence--to single out the intelligence that is the underlying ground of the experience of cosmic consciousness is beyond our power. Nonetheless the illuminaries of mankind--whose noble generosity and compassion have guided us so far, will not fail us in our present need to sacralize the world, ourselves, and restore unity to thought and becoming,

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the conscious re-instatement of purposive evolution into the divine scheme must be available to us at the most practical level whether through the philosophically oriented astrologer, psychologist, educator or whoever. It is our intention to help reveal the verities we embody, and that actualize life with the divine fragrance. A philosophy that enhances existence with wonder and meaning, may easily encompass an indefinite number of schools of thought, supposedly contradicting one another. It may make available to the subtle thinker unlimited vistas of conception regarding the depth of man's being.

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We repeat, there is a need for a thorough exposition and understanding of the fundamental metaphysical principles that underlie a spiritual knowledge of astrology. That astrology can be redirected or reoriented to its spiritual significance is a prerequisite to its transvaluation. All this groundwork, however is only a preliminary way by which man can know himself and will result in the perception that man's being or rather his manifestation is rooted in the justice of the cosmos.

From the point of view of the ancient, philosophically oriented cosmologist, the chart is a wisdom-example of the intellectual imagination--a symbolic reflex portraying how the Gods or Principles are involved in the fabrication of the vehicles that the individual Soul employs for its manifestation. The mandala is accepted as exemplifying and embodying the knowledge of superior beings--seers--who were capable of functioning with intuition and transmitting their knowledge of how these fundamental principles are operative in the individual and can be understood from his natal chart.

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Out of the ocean of infinite possibilities present in the ineffable undifferenced intelligence of the One, there pours forth a radiant display of glorious revelations--the Divine Mind and its Ideas. These luminous existences, emanating on the surface of its voidness, exhibit the inner nature, the inherent perfection of the unique and unknowable God. The power of the One is so great that this Divine Mind, though an "image One," is itself authentic reality. This "All," as the "outward" expression of the One, paradoxically stands as a distinct hypostasis midst the One without a second.

The outpouring of power at once takes on determinations and expression as the Intellectual Principle, referred to as a One-Many or a unity in duality, for within it arises the first distinctions of knowledge and its objects (Being). The indefinite multiplicity of its contents and powers are coordinated and ordered specifically through the principle of Number, a principle which has its highest subsistence transcendentally in the One. It will be this principle of Number that will guide us in understanding how the supreme form, the Idea of the Good, arises from its formless source. We will comment on pertinent passages in VI-6-9 and 10 where Plotinus examines the principle of Number and its relationship to Being. But, let us first review the formalism of the chart which can help us to understand how Being is structured, the unfathomable Principle.

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(notes: Formalism of chart Unity in Duality -intellection? and Being Unity and Multiplicity Emanation versus self-determination -(in one?) (Previous Chapter) Circle of Ideas is plan of all universes

(shows contrast of unmanifest being versus universes and manifestation) Any World Idea must be structured according to ideas

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VI-6, 9, 10(?)

"But if Number thus preceded the Beings, then it is not included among them? The truth is that it existed within 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..."

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In the symbolism of the Triad, the Head ( ) symbolizes the principle of Number and to it we turn to understand how when Being takes lot with multiplicity it is awakened to manifoldness.

@verbatim< meta-ontic infinity:

TRIAD

ONE BEING SOUL BODY (Life)

>

As "within" the One, these unities exist in a relationless and modeless homogeneity--for this is the Solitary. Here, as Plotinus says, Number cannot be applied, for in so doing it would give rise to the essential distinctions inherent in the Intellectual Principle. As previously explained, Transcendental Unities inbound with Unities, each within all and all within each, without any distinctions, does not give a participated unity. That is, the addition of transcendental unities does not give rise to Unity. It is simply a way of presenting the One in a variety of ways. For example, the Sun in Aries, referred to as the Intellect of the Transcendent One and author of all Being, is a peerless paradigm "within" the One and is unavailable for itemization and numeration apart from unity. Here Being is unparted. Similarly, the Head representing the principle of Number is non-distinct from the other Transcendental Unities; is not available (to itself?) for inspection as are the forms within the Intellectual Principle. And so too for each of the other Transcendental Unities. And we can refer to them as unities for anyone of them is Unity.

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Later on in this passage Plotinus writes: @quotation< When it takes a 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 offering a stay for what was to be based upon them.>

II-6-9,10(?)

illegible note in right margin

All the Numbers are in unproceeding union in Authentic Being, along with all the other partless parts of the One. (note: The infinite wisdom and complexity of One is unfolded as IP but @u<in> one, number does not apply. Principle of number trying to fathom the nature of the one converge (illegible) with Being.) Speaking incorrectly, this total of Unities has been referred to as the undifferenced infinity. These aspects of the One are the transcendent paradigms from which are suspended the ineffable henads: Being--Life--Intellect--Soul--Nature--Body, the ontological principles and fundamental powers of Being.

In speaking of Number we are telling of an inconceivable intrinsic order of the One's complex internality, a partless aspect of it and consequently the source of all the subsequent ordered multiplicity in Being. Intellectual Principle in knowing its very essence cannot grasp this unity in its entirety and thus goes forth "amassing successive impressions, so that to it the object (One) becomes multiple", i.e. Ideas. Prior to this, Intellect is a foreseeing, an indeterminate power. Through the activity of Number the indeterminate power is awakened and organized into a specific manifoldness by being variously characterized. The Head, therefore, symbolizes the unity of Number and the principle of Intellection in the One (its determinate power of vision (that is the sense?) of that incomprehensible order within the One.)

(note: number @u<determines> the @u<being>. Ego example: determine by rel of planets, signs etc.--back of p 4)

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VI-6-9

Hence it is that the Forms (Ideas) have been described as Henads and Numbers. This is the authentic Number; the monadic is its image. The authentic is that made manifest in the Forms and helping to bring them to be; primally 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 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; and so with the dekad before possessing dekahood.

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(Note: The chart should be an excellent example of how number rules. If we consider a natal chart and the exactitude with which events and transits are synchronized, how the unfolding of events and the accompanying meaning is fixed by number we can easily deduce the role number plays in Being by transposing its activity to a higher realm.

Head: image of God within a person. Every instant head tries to grasp the undivided mind of Earth--head keeps making an impression gives rise to all egos, etc..)

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Number is referred to by the Platonists in qualitatively different ways depending upon the level of reality under consideration. Number at the level of Unity is principle or Transcendental; at the level of Being, Archetypal; at the level of Soul, Essential; and at the level of Body, monadic. Transcendental Number is primally the fount of Being, for it is Number which structures and organizes the properties which are found in that indeterminate Power which radiates out from the One, and correlates the Ideas and their powers with each other, for it itself is a substance with gnostic powers. Another passage in this section emphasizes that the unfolding of superessential Number differentiates Beings from the One and from each other. An important point brought to our attention here is that Number structures the eternal motion of Intellect:

@quotation< Number must be either the substance of Being (and) or its Activity.

Clearly Being (Authentic) 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. (VI-6-9)>

#, Substance of Being = ideas or universal substances...

Its (#) activity = the dignities through whose power and activity the ideas are manifested; the totality of interrelated combinations is the act of the I.P. This is exemplified by looking at the chart.

The interesting statement made by Plotinus in V-3-II that the I.P. "knows the Transcendent (One) in very essence," and that this knowing constituted its essence, can be perceived and understood in terms of the earlier remark that the Head in the Triad stands for the transcendent model of the order found in the One. The essence of intellection, the Intellectual-Principle is therefore rooted in the Head.

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(Note: That the Head is the "impression of unity" is not real clear and is confusing when emanation diagram shows the simultaneous emanation of all the unities in the Triad as the I.P. It is "impression" insofar as Number determines I.P. as a multiplicity and in knowing itself thus, it knows the Head? (The knowing of the One is the essence of the I.P. and this knowing is in terms of the Head.)

(Note: Or is the Head--as undifferenced unity of Intellect in the One--the I.P.'s "previous" impression of unity--and the knowing of the One--in itself as undifferenced super-intellection, and this is the essence of the I.P.)

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As an aspect of the Universal Being, the Head or Number is in fact the "impression of unity" which the Intellectual Principle or the Second hypostasis has as its source or essence. The Head organizes the order of unfoldment and emanation of the Beings which in their totality take shape as the reflex image of the One, the Intellectual Principle. Divine Numbers are also the very 'means' by which the One's power operates in unfolding and regulating the outflow of the Infinite's unlimited possibilities, and a certain series of these possibilities take shape as the determined content of and as the Divine Mind. It is the principle of Number that determines the relationship between both Ideas or Substance which are modes of a unitary foundational Consciousness, and the activity of the Intelligibles or the gnostic power of the Ideas. (note: Find the quote from Pl.)

As we attempt to itemize the main constituents of the Intellectual Principle, the properties of Number prove an invaluable tool, for they reveal to the philosophic seeker the rationale behind the order of Ideas suggested in astrological symbolism. The next diagram focuses our attention on the Divine Mind's ordered complexity , a complexity of Ideas and their powers prearranged by the inherent quality of each unific Number. The vision of the One that the essence or paradigm of the Intellectual Principle (Head) possesses, now emanates the Idea of the Good; determined as the whole Intellectual Principle. (note: Include emanation diagram)

[ONE3.FW]

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@verbatim<

>

The Divine Numbers I through XII are placed around the circumference of the circle to indicate the manner in which they coordinate the unmanifest intelligible substances (signs) with their predominant expressive activities (as symbolized by the Dignities). The Ideas and the first two rings represent the Intellectual Principle, the third ring is soul and the fourth is body. This explicit display of the Divine Mind's internal structure is prefigured in the third House of the meta-ontic chart where:

Mercurius prefigures Ideas

Head = Numbers which coordinate Ideas and Intelligibles

Jupiter = Intelligible Powers

(Note: amplify 3rd House meaning)

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The concentrated unity of the One's intelligence is reflected in the Intellectual-Principle which Plotinus characterizes as no longer a unity but rather a one-many. "In virtue of this intellection, the Intellectual Principle...holds the character of essential existence and intellective act" (V-3-11). In the Divine Mind there is a vision of Ideas: subjective and objective as intelligible powers and ideal substances are only logically distinguished as the knowing and the known.

"When a thing is a Being, it is also an Intellectual Principle: when it is an Intellectual Principle, it is a Being; intellection and Being are co-existents...Thus all is dual (within the Intellectual Principle): the unit is a duality and yet again the dual reverts to unity." (V-6-6)

In V-1-4, V-3-5 and VI-7-14, Plotinus also expresses the notion that intellection and being are complementary realities in the Intellectual Principle, each constitutive of the other, both rising from their common source, which we can suppose to be none other than the One as Plato in

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(Note: the Shaivite "Idea" of 36 Principles is a special and unique version of the I.P. and so is (illegible) of the others it is quite possible to see them combining operation towards an inconceivable total (illegible?))

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the Republic supports by saying that the Good imparts the power to be and the power to know. What the Divine Mind knows, it also is, and it knows all that it is entirely, nothing remaining of any Idea outside its vision. "If this identity does not exist, neither does Truth," for the principle which knows the truth of a being must be that being, otherwise what it holds is only an image of the Truth, "something different from the realities." So Ideas are the essential core of the gnostic powers which know them. On the other hand, intellective powers establish through their own intellection the Ideas as distinct self-gnostic beings, and the coordination of the two and the participation in each other is ordered by Number.

(Note: simplistic interpretation

right margin note: rewrite--say it is part of Divine Mind as a whole

If knowing all the ideas.)

To illustrate with the most simple example the way that the Intellectual-Principle is a duality of knowing and being, the substance -Idea Libra can be taken as an example together with its power "Venus" which manifests the idea Libra. This universal substance Libra represents the 36 tattvas; it is real being--universal possibility--and Venus as the gnostic power of this Idea cannot be separate from Libra. (Note: Rewrite: Say it is part of Divine Mind as a whole. IP having all the Ideas) The principle of Venus as its knowing function has for its content (Libra) which it knows, and Libra as a substance must have a knowing function (Venus) by which it knows itself. When a thing is a being it is a knowing, and when a being knows, it is the being known, the two are inseparable. The identity of Venus as a knowing power is essentialized or revealed through its functioning to manifest Libra, and the unity of Libra as the 7th Idea is essentialized or vitalized by the functioning of Venus. Only through their mutual interaction do both Venus and Libra as function and substance constitute a determined Intellectual-Principle.

Page 45--insert

These 12 Ideas will be expressed by humanity and each expression being the basis of a philosophical or religious tradition.

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Saturn in Libra, as part of the separative intellect, has the power to distinguish this Idea from the monad of all Ideas as a self-abiding, immutable and unique version of the whole Intellectual Principle and thus referred to by Plotinus as separative intellect. Mars, the principle of separation and individuation, separates the tattvas one from another and

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inserts a number of them into the matter of individual centres (Sun in Libra). these four activities function simultaneously for their order is logical and not temporal.

(Note: Rewrite?)

Considering the whole chart, could we not say that the Wisdom-Insight which has assigned to each sign of traditional astrology its corresponding dignities is the same as that which is expressed by Plotinus when he says that when a thing is an intellect, it is also a being, the two are never apart? The Ideas which are the Intellectual Principle's substance, and the intelligibles which are the Ideas' very activity, could be symbolized as the twelve signs around the wheel with their rulers. Both are grounded in the unitary consciousness, Turiya. We could then see that the totality of the signs and rulers are the collectively Intellectual-Principle, and that each sign is a particular facet of Divine Wisdom, a particular Intellectual-Principle or Idea. Each Idea has a certain power, for this is the mark of real being, a power primarily to be, which forms an inseparable unity in duality --the rulerships in their totality being the collective power of the Intellectual-Principle as a one-many of essentially self-gnostic Ideas. If we follow this suggestion through, then any of the Ideas can be placed around the circle from houses I to XII, for each is a special version of the whole. Any one of 10 ideas could be regarded as an absolute or leading Idea for a particular philosophic tradition and would be that version of the Divine Mind most suited to fill the spiritual needs of the people served by that tradition (note: previous remark)

@quotation< "Thus the Life in the Supreme was the collectivity of power; the vision taking place there was the potentiality of all; Intellectual-Principle, thus arising is manifested as this universe of Being." (VI-7-17)> The Divine Mind, unimaginably great as it is, is yet a trace of the One. its Ideas are the expressions of what it has contemplated in the One, and

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(Note: refer to upper section of divided line--i.e. -Being and the power to know Being)

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its powers are the distinct acts which unfold its contents. The Intellectual-Principle in its unity is also a multiplicity, an atemporal ordered "succession of impressions" of substantial Ideas revealed by a hierarchical succession of deific intelligible powers: Being, Life, Intellect, Soul, Nature and Body. "Each of these beings is a distinct power which, however, the Intellectual-Principle includes as the species in a genus." (Plotinus) As we consider the multiplicity of Ideas and powers in the Divine Mind we should not forget that primarily it is "the monad of Ideas." In this next passage from VI-7-17, Plotinus elaborates the meaning of multiplicity in the Divine Mind by distinguishing for us the plurality of Ideas as inherent in the Intellectual-Principle and this multiplicity as Intellectual-Principle.

@quotation< And the multiplicity?

As the multiplicity of Intellectual-Principles: all its multiplicity resolves itself into Intellectual-Principle--on the one hand the collective principle, on the other the particular Principles.

But does this collective Intellectual-Principle include each of the particular Principles as identical with each other?

No: It would be thus the container of only the one thing; since there are many Intellectual-Principles within the collective, there must be differentiation.

Once more, how does the particular Intellect come to this differentiation.

It takes its characteristic difference by becoming entirely a unity within the collective whose totality could not be identical with any particular.> Again, in V-9-8 Plotinus clearly expresses this point:

@quotation< An Intellectual-Principle and an intellective essence, no Idea distinguishable from the Intellectual-Principle each actually being that principle. The Intellectual-Principle entire is the total of the Ideas and each of them is the entire in a special form.>

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The unitary foundational Consciousness as strung around the circle is unrecognizable unless the gnostic powers of each idea, which distinguishes one idea from another, makes available the aggregate of Ideas (Forms).

(Reference here to Chart of Being) @verbatim<

>

First we must conceive of the encircling Consciousness as Intellect as a whole. Only after this conception can we see that each Idea (House) is included within and supported by that whole. Therefore the prior provides the nutriment for each Idea and consequently is the commonality of Substance for all of them. But insofar that each individual existent Idea is different one from another and has its own being, we can see that the I.P. is a One-Many. In effect, we are saying that each existent, although it is rooted in the same common substance, and therefore involves the universality of intellection in its specificity is also at the same time a distinct existent.

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(VI-2-20)

Intellect as a whole must be thought of as prior to the intellects actualized as individuals; on the other hand, each particular intellect is sustained from the totality. The universal Intellect is a provider for the particular intellects, is the potentiality of them: it involves them as members of its universality, while they in turn involve the universal Intellect in their particularity, just as the particular science involves science the total.

(note: illustrate)

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The mutual and reciprocal interpenetration represents a continuous totality--the encircling intelligence is analogous to Science and the many divisions within the Intelligence--the Ideas- analogously represents the many divisions or departments within Science, each one of the latter representing the whole in a special way.

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To diagrammatically review this section on the one-manyness of the Intellectual-Principle we will begin by reminding the reader that the Ideas, Numbers and intelligibles are superessentially prefigured in the third House Idea. If we now list the unitary Consciousness (Intelligence) as the substantial side of the Intellectual-Principle, and the corresponding dignities as the self-gnostic power of being and life and Intellect, we can coordinate this totality as a One-Many which is presided over by number.

@verbatim<

>

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The importance of Number as the structuring principle of ontology should not be underestimated. It figures into the internal structure of every essence as well as every thing in so far as material objects are capable of reflecting the order inherent in Ideas. Our diagrams have hinted that a unique quality belongs to each Number. Understanding these Divine "qualities" is a prerequisite to comprehending the rationale behind the particular ordering of Ideas in the Intellectual-Principle, Soul, and the system of Nature. The three pure hypostases and the system of Nature suggest the 4 corresponding levels of Number, our Prior definitions were transcendental, archetypal, essential and monadic, respectively designated by others as divine, ideal, essential and monadic. The Pythagoreans considered the monadic numbers to be quantitative and nothing more than the image of essential number. Monadic numbers are composed from a certain number of units irrespective of their nature. For example, five is a name assigned to a collection of any five things. There is nothing in the five sensible objects which demands that we consider their "fiveness" as essential to their existence. Taking one away only affects their quantity and not their quality. Monadic number is employed in enumeration and in the calculation of mathematical theorems.

@quotation< The number affirmed (monadic) is not a Reality, even as a Reality goes in the sphere of sense, but is pure quantity.>

note: quote from Plotinus

Essential Number structures and harmonizes the soul's multitude of reason principles. Number in soul is purely qualitative. It is integral to the definition of a reason principle as, for example, two is integral to the power of an essence. Power both remains with the essence as its power to be what it is and it extends "from" the essence when power essentially produces. This is its twoness, but universal Soul is the entire outpouring of Life from the Intellectual-Principle and Number in Soul orders this Life and its contents, an ordering which becomes evident in the unfolding of universal manifestation.

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Plotinus and Plato in the Timaeus spoke of the Soul as the melodic principle in the following manner: the entirety of universal manifestation is eternally held in the Divine Mind's intellection, and soul is that hypostasis which introduces time, and through Essential Number orderly unfolds the unity of the universal composition in terms of melodies, periods, rhythms, etc. which represent a precise arrangement of the activities of reason principles.

At a lower level, for an individual Soul, Number is that power which orders the lifetime's sequence of events for the development of its vehicles. This ordering, revealed by the structure of the chart of the heavens cast at birth and by the angular motions thereafter, can again be likened to the melodic principle as applied to the individual Soul's expression of life and each Soul's unique experience of meaning (note: expression of Ideas).

Archetypal Numbers are the structural determinants in the Divine Mind. According to Syrianus, Pythagoras in the "Sacred Discourse" states that "Number is the ruler of types and ideas and the cause of the divine and angelic progressions." The specific quality of an Archetypal number, its just-so-ness can be correlated with an idea and it is this correlation that determines the arrangement found in the circle. Archetypal Number also orders the eternal activity (double act) of the Intellectual-Principle. With reference to Soul, Archetypal number prefigures the arrangement of reason principles that constitute one soul as distinct from another.

Transcendental Numbers are superessential unities symbolized in their Unity by the Head in the Triad. Each is an infinite aspect of the Infinite; each a unique way of viewing the absolute totality of possibilities as has been described in Chapter one.

@quotation< @u<Divine Number>. The Monad of Monads is God as the One. In Him all Ideal Numbers subsist superessentially. They are Infinite and Divine because they symbolize the Powers and Attributes of the Infinite One.>

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@quotation< Although each superessential Number is infinite this does not imply duplication or triplication of infinite for the Infinite One is transcendentally beyond all ideas of increase or multiplication.

But even as Archetypes are Divine Thoughts of Ideal Perfections, so Divine Numbers are expressive of the Divine Infinite Powers according to which all things abide in, proceed from, and return to the Superessential Absolute One. (Shrine of Wisdom)>

This quote supports our thesis that the Individual properties of Number, the Divine structuring principles, are derived from the One itself.

The Kabbalists also regard the ten primal Numbers as a fundamental approach to understanding the One. Dr. Franz refers to the authority of Dr. Hurwitz (p. 83, @u<Number and Time>:

@quotation< It is common knowledge that in the Cabala the ten primal numbers, the sephiroth, are considered to be emanations of Divine immaterial origin in the sense that the original One remains far removed from all things and only manifests in each single sephira. The cabalistic doctrine of numbers is in itself a revival of ancient Gnostic ideas about numbers. In the latter doctrine, numbers are archons, or divine powers, continually stream forth from the unknowable arche of the One. All are manifestations of single aspects of the primal one. For this reason the first ten numbers of the Sephiroth system are designated by the word sephira instead of the ordinary word for numbers (mispar). They are "spheres" and "totalities" of the unknowable primal One.>

This statement by contemporaries is no recent discovery for in V-5-5 we find reference to the same notion.

@quotation< And just as there is, primarily or secondarily, some form or idea from the monad, in each of the successive numbers--the latter still participating, though unequally, in the unit--so the series of Beings following upon The First each bear some form or idea derived from that source.>

There is a clear parallel here to our discussion of the way that the power of the One imparts to each unity its peculiar super-essence. Each Number has a peculiar just-so-ness which we have isolated as representative of its unity, and this unique aseity of the Number is a peculiar differentiation derived from the One that reveals the One in a special way. Later on, the same analogy will be applied to show

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that each Idea in the Intellectual-Principle is a special and unique version of the whole. But before we apply these principles to the structure of Intellectual-Principle or to any "one", we will concentrate on the meta-ontic properties of Number. Since these properties of Divine Number derive from or mirror certain facets of the One, understanding them is a means of opening our gnostic eye to the immense complexity of the I.P. (Note: Divine # in chapter 1?)

In the Pythagorean system, Number was the result of the One and Dyad combining, as the principle of definition and order, both Unity and a certain indefinite power. Consequently, three has often been considered to be the first number. In our diagram too, the third House represents the universal modes of the One's activity which are derived from the One's absolute unity and absolute power. These modes have been referred to as Number, the principles of ontology (Authentic Being), Bound, and as the unmanifested Sephiroth. It is from this third _______ that we can, by extending our intellect beyond its natural domain, attempt to derive the meta-ontic Numbers from the One itself. (Note: leave out)

The sequence of the Divine numbers is a succession of ways of seeing the complexity of the One. Each Number is an impression of Unity and orders our understanding of the One and its power in a unique way. Following the hint of the Kabbalists we can correlate each of the Divine Numbers also with the Spheres of totality or Sephira in our version of the Triad. This will give us a horizontal view, as it were, in the One, which is reflected in the Intellection symbolized by the Head, which we can later expand and apply to the emanations of the One - to any Idea, being or soul, and primarily to the succession in the Intellectual Principle itself.

@verbatim<

>

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In the same way that we treat unity as having aspects and each of these aspects represents the indivisible Unity in a certain way, so must we try with Number as principle. What we are saying in other words is that all the Numbers up to 10, each and every one represents a certain way of viewing the Number 1 itself. It would not be correct to conceive the operation as a factoring out of the possibilities contained within the One. Again, we are simply seeing the One in a variety of ways, and it should not surprise us that we cannot perceive the totality of all the aspects of a thing at a first glance. By definition the contents of perception are determined by the selectivity of attention. The meaning of Number at the highest level would be that it contains an impression of unity.

The totality of all the branches of mathematics, the laws of its operation, and the methods or procedure for application, the various levels it is applicable to --all this and more must be seen as the principle of Number. The fundamental laws of mathematics, insofar that they reveal an implacable orderedness and validity are grounded in the very nature of this reality itself.

page 58--diagram

@verbatim<

>

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(Section on Archetypal #

First--apply metaphys. ordering principles to I.P. as a whole, then to any Idea (later)

note: each idea in first house spread around circle simultaneously--

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IDEAS AND NUMBERS

We described the 10 metaontic structuring Principles--the Divine Numbers--as unique ways of viewing the One itself, wherein all 10 dissolved again as illusory distinctions within the impartible Infinite. Each of the numbers showed us a different way of seeing the organization of the One or Triad, and at the same time we could correlate each number with an aspect of the Triad. (Note: How these indivisible aspects are reflected as the structure of the I.P.)

As we go deeper into the I.P. we will see how the Plotinian analysis of Unity and the Progression of Divine Numbers, provides a basis by which we can understand the organization of the entire I.P., and also anything which is a "One"---any Idea, Being, or Soul in other words a correct theory of participation.

We can apply the 10 Number principles to the intelligible realm as a whole, diagramming it as a full circle of unified Intelligence, making definite and distinct the infinite possibilities in its prior. Each successive application of number determining the I.P. will correlate with an Idea, associated with one of the 4 infinite grades of substantial Intelligence (the Quadrants), and established as I.P. through its coordinate Intelligible Act.

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@verbatim<One as four-fold

One as seven-fold

>

(Note: superimpose on above--showing the power of the One included the I.P.

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@quotation< Thus we come to see Intellectual Principle (note: intellect) almost as an object of sense: it is perceptible as standing above soul, father to soul and it is one with the Intellectual cosmos; we must think of it as a quiet unwavering motion; containing all things and being all things, it is a multiple but at once indivisible and comporting difference. It is not discriminate as are the reason-principles, which can in fact be known one by one: yet its content is not a confusion; every item stands forth distinctly, just as in a science the entire content holds an indivisible and yet each item is a self standing verity. VI-9-5>

(Note: Other quotes on Ideas?)

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In their totality the Ideas are the multiplicity pouring forth from the Power of the One, determined as I.P., which Plotinus pictures for us in VI-7-15:

@quotation< From that Unity came multiplicity to I.P.; it could not sustain that power poured upon it and therefore broke it up; it turned that one power into variety so as to carry it piecemeal.

All its production...>

We have attempted to penetrate into this incandescent intelligence by using our analysis of the One (which is a paradigm for any unity) as applied here to the primary image of the One--the I.P. We found the Divine Mind to be a unity, and also a multiplicity of Ideas, each of which is itself an infinite potentiality to which we can apply the principles of unity, power, etc. Our ordered investigation and symbolic interpretation of the unfathomable wisdom must of necessity fall short of the Truth which is that realm, but may yet guide us in our reasoned progress toward that Holy seat. The sages who have plumbed the depths of that source of Wisdom which lies within their souls and ours if we could attain the vision, have told us, as Plotinus tells, of the blinding beauty of the Ideas, their living Power, and yet the essential mystery which is their core.

@quotation< (Perfect Wisdom), for all the Principles of this order, dwelling There, are as it were visible images projected from themselves, so that all becomes "an object of contemplation to contemplators immeasurably blessed." The greatness and power of the wisdom There we may know from this, that it embraces all the real Beings, and has made all and all follows it, and yet that it is itself those beings which sprang into being with it, so that all is one and the essence There is wisdom. V-8-4>

We can at best attempt to point to this wisdom through our understanding and symbols what is in itself unfathomable to our minds as Plato too affirms, unless by the grace and light of intellect our intuition should be set aglow and in a marvelous sympathy with the inner Deity envision those Splendors in the Night. (Note: TT p. 176, Insert)

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We affirm again, with Plotinus, that the radiant mind of the World, and of all worlds, is not a blank homogeneity, but is itself the source of the precise wisdom knowledge of the Sage, and according to the Sri-Mala Buddhist text the abode of Buddha characteristics inconceivable and more numerous than the sands of the Ganges. Yet these Ideas are not discursive conglomerates. This, writes Plotinus, the wise of Egypt indicated by their use of picture symbols to represent truth and thus they exhibited the absence of discursiveness in the Intellectual Realm. (Note: insert, misquote)

"For each manifestation of knowledge and wisdom is a distinct image, an object in itself...(whole para)" V-8-6 (Note: quoted in introduction)

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After the discussion of the relation of the One to the levels of Authentic existence which emanate from it--the realities of Nous or Soul, we may now examine the relation of Being to the sensible appearance--which we symbolically placed in the 12th house. Plotinus speaks of all the three primals being applied to the system of nature, or universal manifestation. We would disagree with those who maintain that the appearances of the Universe are illusory. For Plotinus says: "Since we hold the eternal existence of the Universe, the utter absence of a beginning to it...the Divine intelligence...is its cause as being the Archetype and Model which it merely images, the primal by which, from all eternity, it has its existence and subsistence."

This has happened because "The I.P.…in its unperturbed serenity has brought the universe into being, by communicating from its own store to matter; and this gift is the Reason Form flowing from it. For the emanation of the I.P. is reason, an emanation unfailing as long as the I.P. continues to have a place among beings." The transmitter and harmonizer of this reason is the Soul, as he tells us later on, and the Primals are "contemplating" the universe into existence eternally.

As an image of the intelligible, an image which has taken form in time (the motion of the Soul) it is a perpetual image, and an emanation of the authentic realities. The image may have as its base the principle of Matter or space or non-being, and may be filtered and altered through our own individual cognitional apparatus, but in the sense that it images form, our experience is of the Ideas, or the emanation of Ideas, and anything that is so cannot be illusory, although it may be involved with non being. How could real being ever become anything that is not real?

IV-3-11 "Every R.P..."

Plotinus goes further when he tells us that every Idea is cause in a true sense- it contains within it every form of the particular manifestations of itself. Thus every entity in the empirical world partakes of the Idea to the extent it is able. It is the reason principle that creates the partial, and through this reason principle is linked to its prior. We must therefore be careful to apply "illusory" only to the spurious being of matter in our experience but not to the experience as a reflection of Reason.

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Returning now to the nature of ideas, Thomas Taylor says in his introduction to the Parmenides:

@quotation<Every form is a multitude, subsists according to a peculiar number and is filled with its proper numbers, and that on this account a different Form is referred to a different divine order to us unknown and ineffable.>

We have seen that each of our 12 Ideas is determined in its unique character, and assigned a particular hierarchy of Divine intelligible activities according to its particular Number paradigm. We can also now consider each Idea separately as a self-existent principle by placing its unity in the first house of a twelve fold chart, and then applying each of the number principles to the Idea to factor out all its aspects which must pre-exist in its essential unity, just as we applied all the principles to the Intellectual Principle as a whole to factor out the Ideas. This will give us a graphic representation of what Plotinus means when he says in V.9.8. that each Idea is the Intellectual Principle entire but in a special form. We have already seen that this can simply mean that each Idea is a unity in duality of substantial being and intelligent function. However, we also wish to show how the sequence of the 12 Ideas applies to each Idea in a unique way; that any Idea has 1) a unity 2) a dyadic power 3) a defined intellectual structure 4) a four fold subsistence, etc. Through this analysis we can obtain a more penetrating insight into a particular Idea, and we are at the same time led to a further understanding of the Ideas in general. We will use the 7th Idea (the 36 Tattvas as discussed in Saivism) to illustrate this principle.

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SAIVITE VIEW -- 36 TATTVAS

G = Garland of Letters

K = Kasmir Saivism

1. (96 G) Corresponding to the self-existent, Parasamvit "is the coalescence into one undivided unity of the"I" and the "This," that is of Siva and the supreme unmanifest Sakti." The former is the knowing aspect, the latter ... "the known." But here the two are undistinguishably one."

Here we have a view of the Transcendent One which has both Siva (Transcendental Repose) and Sakti (Transcendental Act or Power) inherently united in it. It is said to be beyond all the Tattvas, i.e., beyond all limitation or differentiation.

The two following Tattvas are not really separate from Parasamvit, but are described as respectively "I" and "This":

2. & 3. "Siva has 2 aspects--in one of which He is transcendent (as Parasamvit) and in the other, creative and immanent." The latter is Siva-Tattva, which represents the Bisexual Adam Kadmon. (K 64) ... Parasamvit "brings into operation that aspect of this Sakti (i.e., Pranava Aum) which manifests as the principle of negation and allows himself to @u<feel>, as it were, the want of the Universe." "It is pure"I" without even the thought of I Am..."

G 97--"Siva Tattva is called the very Void."

K 65--"This Universe negating aspect of Divine Power is the Sakti Tattva."

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Again, Woodroffe makes clear "how these two are the same as the (infinite symbol) or Power and Bound or Pure Cit aspects of the Dyad which is not really other than the One. In fact, although Siva is described always before Sakti, it is clear that it is the Sakti (of the Absolute) which allows the Distinction of the Siva Tattva from Parasamvit by interposing a"veil" as it were, on the Absolute, so that its aspect as Bound or Adam Kadmon (Siva) can arise. Siva-Sakti are inseparable as the Indeterminate Dyad.

G 97--"This account of Sakti's operation is extraordinarily subtle, explaining as it does how the supreme unitary experience is also the first source of dual experience... In Parasamvit, the"I" and the "This" existed as one indistinguishable unity. In Siva, through the operation of associated Sakti Tattva, the "This" is withdrawn so only the "I-experience" alone remains."

Finally, "The Siva-Sakti Tattva is @u<not> an emanation because it ever remains the same..." (with Parasamvit)

4. The Fourth Idea of Tetradic Being is here described as Sadakhya Tattva which Kasmir Saivism calls the "the principle of Pure Being." (p. 71) It is also known as the manifestation of the Icca or will aspect of Sakti. Each of the next three tattvas (4, 5, 6 houses) are aspects of Power which included a dual @u<I-This>.

K 77--"in these pure orders the things are realized as they @u<truly> are ... the experiencing entities are Universal Beings who realize themselves actually as such and have for their experience the whole of the Universe." These three houses correspond with the Intelligible Realm, Being or Knowledge-Beings in which there is the duality in unity of Knowledge and Being. The emphasis in this quadrant shifts from "I" to "This" to the relation of these two or "@u<I-This>."

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G 98--"The first emanation or manifestation of and by consciousness is called Sadakhya or Sadasiva Tattva." --he notes that the cause (Siva-Sakti) remains ever what it is even while it appears differently through emanation or Abhasa. Here, though the effect @u<is real,> not illusory as in Vedanta. Here is the "first subjective foundation of the Ideas." It is the "first step in evolution, and last in evolution." Here is Being entire, but not as differentiated or involved in a center. It is called Unmesa or closing of eyes.

5. The next tattva is Aisvarya, "the state of the Self as Being." It is equated in K. with the Jnana Sakti or Power of Being Conscious. G 99--"Consciousness here completely identifies itself with the Universe as unmanifested Idam (@u<this>), and thus subjectifies it and becomes with it a Point (Bindu) of Consciousness.

6. Suddhavidya. G 100--"The region of pure spiritual Ideation, said to be the nature of @u<Mantra>." "It is the experience of difference because the I-This are separate. It is non-difference because they are still part of One Self."It is compared with the Isvara of the Dvaitvadins ... "all this is @u<my> manifestation." This seems equivalent to the Inner view of Demiurges as having the 6 Forces as @u<Pure> Powers--spiritual Ideation. The 5 Pure Powers and their Unity as the 6th or Suddhavidya--are described in (K 79). They refer to the "universal experiencer" before it is delineated through Maya. These 5 seem to correlate to the powers of the 5 Dyan Buddhas as follows: a) all authorship (Kala = little doer) = (W) all accomplishing wisdom, b) all knowledge = (vidya = little knower) discriminative wisdom (K), c) all interestedness, or equal interest or fullness = Wisdom of Equality (Raga = desire) (F), d) all pervasiveness,

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unrestrictedness = mirror like Wisdom (Niyata = space), e) Alwaysness of presence of the All-This = Dharmadat (Kala = time). 7. Now, when these 6 are in their @u<unique> aspects we have the Tattvas called Maya and the 5 Kancukas. The All-knowing Self is restricted to a little knower and etc. and these 6 forces restrict the Self to many Purusas, binding each to certain aspects of the Tattvas or Prakriti. Instead of the Unity of I-This or Knowledge-Being in the 2nd quadrant, we now have the Separation of Purusas-Prakriti, starting in the 7th house, which is effected by the 6 forces as restrictive and "binding" the Self to certain restricted vehicles. G 101--"Purusa, in Saiva-Sakti philosophy is the Atma or Self subject to Maya and the Kancukas which are the limiting forces whereby the Self as Pure Consciousness loses its natural perfections." Again, 6 Forces from the view of Atma in the 5th house are its pure power of knowledge, etc., but, looked at as producing the dichotomies which begin in the 7th, the 6 Forces restrict and bind the Self. K 93--Prakriti is called the "generally experienced."

8. "The Universe Subjectively Conceived in the Mind of God." Here, this applies to the Universal or impersonal state of consciousness in which the Ideas are contained in @u<Buddhi>. K 110--speaks of Buddhi as "something of the memory of Suddha-Vidya experience" or "something of the Prakriti to which that @u<pure> experience has been reduced." Thus the Universe no longer is in Phanes or in Pure Knowledge, but in a subjectivized or Taijasa state--which, however, is not individual here.

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9. Nine prajapatis here are the Ahamkara principle which fabricates, or is a @u<will> toward manifesting but is not yet that manifestation. "Ahamkara is not mere abstract I but I am so and so identified with so and so." A particular section of Buddhi is appropriated--assimilated.

Ahamkara is the maker of wholes, literally the I-maker, which has assimilated the conception of the universe and wills its existence.

10. In the 10th house we put the tanmatras---the seven universal states of matter, or the substantial or feeling evolute of Ahamkara. Tanmatra is the substratum for any mental body--for any mind--and is thus the principle of existence and basis for manifestation. In the cosmological scheme of Samkhya, the highest three levels of this cosmic substance would reflect the three prior principles. The first images Prakriti, followed by the evolutes Buddhi, Ahamkara and then the four tanmatras, totaling then the seven prakritis.

11. The other evolute of Ahamkara is manas--the knowing activity described as the state of activity, the kinetic and synthesizing factor. The synthesis of this form with the matter of the 10th gives all the hylomorphic entities in the 12th--the sensible appearance.

12. This is the 5 mahabhutas, and here in the Savite school we place the five bhutas or elements as well as the five senses. The five elements are determinators of the tanmatras, the five senses determinators of manas, and together these give a material based experiencing entity.

(note: make chart for Shaivite School)

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In unfolding to us the remarkable interpenetration of the real beings that constitute the Intelligible world, Plotinus, as Plato, makes use of the analysis of Being through the 5 (or 6) categories. It is clear that these apply to Real Being, the Intelligible or Intellectual Principle, while to the realm of becoming an entirely different analysis is necessary. As in the @u<Sophistes>, to be is not to be a One-Only, but a One-Many. The Manyness is not fortuitous--it is intrinsic to the essence of Intellectual Principle and is even derived from the One, itself, though there is none of this in the One.

We discussed previously how the Intellectual Principle is a Unity in Duality of Intellect and Being. Intellect by its act establishing being, being constituting intellection. In this simultaneity of vision, the Intellectual Principle is a multiplicity as well. Being is Universal--it includes an infinity of Beings, of Ideas and Powers. But it is not a homogeneous mass--it is self-distinguishing, and does not annul the multiplicity of Beings. [This multiplicity is not a quantitious (?) numericity]--for these Beings subsist in the very @u<Void> of Intellect--the Sunyata of Buddhism. In VI-7-14 he speaks of the interpenetration in the Intellectual Principle or Real Being.

[ONE5.FW]

One Chapter

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@quotation< (VI-7-14) "There is infinity in Intellectual-Principle since, of its very nature, it is a multiple unity, not with the unity of a mass but with that of a Reason-Principle, multiple in itself: in the one Intellectual design it includes within itself, as it were in outline, all the outlines, all the patterns. All is within it, all the powers and intellections; the division is not determined by a boundary but goes ever inward; this content is held as the living universe holds the natural forms of the living creatures in it from the greatest to the least, down even to the minutest powers where there is a halt at the individual form. The discrimination is not of items huddled within a sort of unity; this is what is known as the universal 'Friendship,' not, of course, the friendship known here which is a copy and prevails amongst beings in separation; that authentic Friendship consists in all being a unity and never discriminate. Discrimination, we read, is the mode of the physical universe.">

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(V.9.5, 6) @quotation< (V.9.5) "The Intellectual-Principle, therefore, is itself, the authentic existences, not a knower knowing them in some sphere foreign to it. The Authentic Beings, thus, exist neither before nor after it: it is the primal legislator to Being or, rather, is itself the law of Being. Thus it is true that 'Intellection and Being are identical'; in the immaterial the knowledge of the thing is the thing. And this is the meaning of the dictum 'I sought myself,' namely, as one of the Beings: it also bears on reminiscence."

(V.9.6) "We take it, then, that the Intellectual-Principle is the authentic existences and contains them all--not as in a place but possessing itself and being one thing with this its content.…

It is after this way, though in a closer unity, that the Intellectual Principle is all Being in one total--and yet not in one, since each of these beings is a distinct power which, however, the total Intellectual-Principle includes as the species in a genus, as the parts in a whole. This relation may be illustrated by the powers in seed; all lies undistinguished in the unity, the formative ideas gathered as in one kernel; yet in that unit there is eye-principle, and there is hand-principle, each of which is revealed as a separate power by its distinct material product.">

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4-I.P.

Each Being or Idea in this Intellectual Principle is also a Unity in Duality, each participates in Real Being and Intellection, "each actuality @u<is> the Intellectual Principle." Yet each Idea is distinct from every other, and is different from Intellectual Principle entire. So we have Universal Sameness and Difference involved in the constitution of Being. These he discusses in VI.7.13.

@quotation< (VI.7.13) "A simplex moving retains its character; either there is no change, movement has been null, or if there has been advance it still remains a simplex and at once there is a permanent duality; if the one member of this duality is identical with the other, then it is still as it was, there has been no advance; if one member differs from the other, it has advanced with differentiation, and, out of a certain identity and difference, it has produced a third unity. This production, based on Identity and Difference, must be in its nature identical and different; it will be not some particular different thing but Collective Difference, as its Identity is Collective Identity.

Being thus at once Collective Identity and Collective Difference, Intellectual-Principle must reach over all different things; its very nature then is to modify itself into a universe. If the realm of different things existed before it, these different things must have modified it from the beginning; if they did not, this Intellectual-Principle produced all, or rather was all.">

note: no 76 or 77

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5-I.P.

All the Ideas, moreover, interpenetrate in the motion of eternity--"a life instantaneously infinite." This is the motion of the Intellective Act, all simultaneously involved in the others, and yet each retains its permanent position in the eternal order of Being, and is a unique form of the Whole.

This gives us a picture of Plotinus' "Logic" of Being. It is quite a different logic from A-and-not-A. It is the tool whereby the Adept can exercise Dialectic--the distinguishing of the Ideas in Real Being.

(I.3.4) next page.

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6-I.P.

@quotation< (I.3.4.) "But this science, this Dialectic essential to all the three classes alike, what, in sum is it?

It is the Method, or Discipline, that brings with it the power of pronouncing with final truth upon the nature and relation of things--what each is, how it differs from others, what common quality all have, to what Kind each belongs and in what rank each stands in its King and whether its Being is Real-Being, and how many Beings there are, and how many non-Beings to be distinguished from Beings.

Dialectic treats also of the Good and the not-Good, and of the particulars that fall under each, and of what is the Eternal and what the not-Eternal--and of these, it must be understood, not by seeming-knowledge (opinion) but with authentic science.

All this accomplished, it gives up its touring of the realm of sense and settles down in the Intellectual Cosmos and there plies its own peculiar Act: it has abandoned all the realm of deceit and falsity, and pastures the Soul in the 'Meadows of Truth': it employs the Platonic division of the First-Kinds (or categories of Being): it establishes, in the light of Intellection, the affiliations of all that issues from these Firsts, until it has traversed the entire Intellectual Realm: then, by means of analysis, it takes the opposite path and returns once more to the First Principle.">

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7-I.P.

These Categories or genera are the criterion by which a Real Being is characterized. They are not posterior to Being, but constitute Being. It is not that Being first is, then these; but that these are the very structure of Being. These principles may even be derived from Unity--as he says:

@quotation< "We affirm that Being is not a Unity--We assert then a plurality of existents, but a plurality, not fortuitous--so derived from a unity..." We must be careful to note that these Genera do not impart the essence or @u<aseity> of a Being or Idea. This derives from its Unity. But it is so far as that aseity has Being--and this means a multiplicity and power and interrelation--that we can characterize it by the Genera.>

This can be made more clear if we examine our diagram of the monads emanated from the Unities in the One.

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8-I.P.

The One is said to be the transcendental source to the produced genera. In our diagram each series of monads has its source in the One. Within each series, each intelligible function is associated with a particular substance or Idea, for being and intellection are never apart here. As Plotinus states, the genera are also unific principles as well, i.e., the principle of being is not in being, the principle of motion or life is above motion. As principles, they are inseparable from the Super-Intelligence of Unity, but as genera they are inseparable constituents of the Intellectual Principle. So the superessential unities are in themselves the principles or paradigms of being, while their emanations are the series of powers which are the very constituents of being. There is no being prior to the genera, for this determinate emanation (together with the Ideas so constituted) is the Intellectual Principle or real being. For Plato, being must be characterized by Power, it is not passive. It is the various series of Gods, which Proclus especially delivers to us, that are the Powers which manifest the divine intelligence of the Intellectual Principle. These powers are in imitation and reflex of that One Power of the Unity, ordered in its very outflow through these various principles, and by the operation of Number, as previously discussed.

The undifferenced complexity of the One is made explicit in the interrelation of the various Intelligible Gods, which represent the inseparable manifesting powers of Ideas. "True intelligence or Intellection is being, taken with all its concomitants."

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The Primals, or first categories are said to be, in V.1.4., Intellectual Principle, Existence or Isness, Difference, Identity, Motion and Rest (or Permanence). Of these, we may take Intellectual Principle to be the Ideas or forms themselves, and the rest are then the 5 genera which he describes most fully in Ennead VI.2. Here he makes clear that being is not first and then followed by the others which act upon it or determine it. It is not that being first is and then takes motion, and so on, rather he states that being or isness is one of the five, and constitutes Reality or ousia along with the others. We can take ousia or intelligent substance here in the sense we have been using it, and so the functioning of the generic powers of intelligence must be concomitant with the substantial side of the Ideas.

@quotation< (II.6.1) Are not Being and Reality distinct; must we not envisage Being as the substance stripped of all else, while Reality is this same thing accompanied by the others...The universal fabric, then, is Reality in which Being, movement, and so on, are separate constituents.>

The fabric of the levels of reality below the One is the simultaneous operation of the genera. In their interpenetration they retain their functional distinctness and are at the same time unified and inseparable as the constituents of the Divine Ideation.

As an analogy on a lower level which perhaps can illustrate the point, we can use the mind thinking thoughts. Analogously to the genera we have the activity of thinking, and to the Ideas we have the actualized thought. The activity of thinking is concomitant with the expression of the thought. Inherent in the very thinking are the motion of time, spreading out the thoughts, the locus and fixity of a place, the difference of one thought from another, and the relative identity of the thought as an object to awareness, all of which must operate as an integral whole, in order for there to be any presentation of a thought. The particular categories we consider as required for the thinking act are not important here. What is important is that those activities @u<are> simultaneously operative with the manifestation of the thought. The thought is not manifest first, and then determined by the categories, but rather it takes its birth in time and space form through the inseparable activity of thinking

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"In contributing to form substance the genera must not destroy itself"

Similarly with the Intellectual Principle the Divine activities of the Gods are inseparable from the Ideas eternally established, and, therefore, the Intellectual Principle itself. Mind thinks, which is an eternal act. This is Divine Ideation. Through our diagram we can illustrate the main principles of the functioning. Each of the Unities in the Triad is a unique Principle, and its characteristic nature is present as a genera providing the series of monads or Gods which are expressing it as species within "Being." So, for example, we find within the series under the principle of Being, the Sun in Aries, the Moon in Cancer as the Being of the Second Quadrant or Intelligible Realm and Jupiter as the Being of the Universal Soul. There are also various distinctions within Being, as with (note: ?) motion and so on. There is a complex combined functioning of the Genera interweaving the fabric of Being as a whole, and also combining and interrelating to constitute each distinct level of existence and each Idea. We see also woven into this array the inner nature of the Unities themselves, expressed as various levels of Gods manifesting within the Divine Mind. For example, the Saturn in Aries, the principle of difference, is instantiated in Being as the Saturn in Capricorn or the being of non-being. and is also instantiated as an aspect of Soul as the Saturn in Cancer, the Activity distinguishing the four states of any entity, and so on. Each of the unities is manifested in Being as a series of Gods which are functioning to reveal the contents of the Divine Mind--the Ideas. Each God may be traced back to its Unity in the One through a generic series, (note: manifesting a peculiar function of one of the genera, while internally maintaining its own characteristic trait.)

The Intelligence in each quadrant itself can be seen to have these genera if we follow across the dignities in the diagram of the Monads. From this we can trace the hierarchy of the Gods which Orpheus and the neo-Platonists, most especially Proclus, have handed down to us. The Intelligible, Intelligible-Intellectual Gods, and the Intellectual Gods can be placed in the first three levels of the second quadrant, the supermundane Gods

(note: How does the correlation go? All you do is list the Proclus chart twice. This chapter needs a summarizing paragraph.)

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in the third, and the Liberated and Mundane Gods in the fourth quadrant.

@verbatim<

>

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1. The First Principle applied to Being gives us the Unity of the Intellectual Realm--the One Being. This is the (Moon in Cancer,) called aether, chaos and egg, and determining that any Real Being is a 4-fold. Essence

Life (includes 2 and 3)

2.(Power) The One being has an aspect as a unity of intelligence,

and

3. multiplicity. The Unity or Unities are symbolized by the Sun ( ), and this is called the Triple Dragon Wisdom.

(Intelligence)

The multiplicity is the actuality of the Intellect of the Intelligible Realm or Phanes--the manifestor. Mercury in Gemini ruler.

These three are all "Intelligible" and represent a Triad which is really above any determinate knowing, as the direct outflow of the One.

The next three are Intelligible-Intellectual, meaning that these are properly participable by a knowing entity.

4. (Jupiter) The place (note: unintelligible) of Truth = all the knowledge contents of the Intellectual Realm organized on 4 levels. (Jupiter in Cancer)

(Four-Fold)

5. Heaven (Uranus) is the vision of all souls and incarnates the Nous or Idea of Man into soul's indeterminacy.

(Unique Unities)

6. (Mercury) Gaia is the particularization of Phanes--the Idea of Cosmos in the Nous

(Number)

XXXXX

The next three are called Intellects (7 fold)

7. Saturn = Chronos--the 4-fold contents of all Souls-which will be the basis for the outflowing of Soul. (Basis for 7 fold function of Soul?)

(Outward Hypost.)

8. Saturn = Rhea (Unity) Soul--indicates also the indeterminacy of soul and its tendency to division.

(Most Divisible)

9. (Jupiter) Zeus--inner nature of Demiurge and principle of all Powers of Soul--circulates all within itself.

(Circulates all in itself)

10. (Mars) = separative matter of intellectual realm.

11. (Note: penciled insertions and symbols)

= the accomplishment of Soul's vision is built up in the 11th as an "empty" body.

12. (Venus) = dissolves the activity of Beings

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@u<The Intellectual Principle>

1. The One as source of all contains transcendentally, in its inner nature, all the principles which are to be distinguished from it. (V.5-)

In the undifferenced knowledge of the One are prefigured the Intellectual Principle and Being, the Ideas and Numbers, so, in essence, the unity of the Intellectual Principle is to be found in Universal Being in the One. (VI.8.18, VI.9.9, V.1-)

2. When we conceive of the essential simplicity of the One, i.e., its transcendental aspect, we are considering it as partless and indivisible. Even knowledge of it is excluded. When considered as the principle of all principles it is immanent. Both views are necessary to understand it rightly. This follows the paradigm of the double act. (V.1.7, V.3-, III.8-, VI.7.40, VI.7-)

3. The radiant emanations or the divine outflowing is now unfolded. Within Being arise the first distinctions, knowledge and its objects, the one-many.

The Power of the One, the indeterminate dyad is so great that the Intellectual Principle, although an image One, stands as authentic reality (in eternal actuality); distinct in the One yet expressive of the One's own nature. (V.6.6 one & many, V.1.4, VI.7.40, V.4.2, V.3.12, VI.9.9)

4. Number, which is also transcendentally in the One presides over the unfolding of the Intellectual Principle, arranging and coordinating the Ideas and their Intelligible powers, or substance and function. In our diagram we symbolize the unity of Divine number as the head. (VI.6.9, VI.6.15)

5. We will attempt to show that the derivation of the 10 metaphysical structuring principles--the Divine Numbers--is from the One itself. These are the Primal properties of Number. (VI.6, V.5)

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Intellectual Principle @u<VI.9.5>

6. These properties will form the basis and archetypes for the ordering of the Ideas in the Divine Mind. This principle of Number will coordinate the specific relations of the Ideas with the appropriate powers or dignities which essentialize (ruler) and singularize (exaltation) the Ideas.

(Note: para deleted)

7. The Intellectual Principle of Self-thinking Thought knows the One in essence. (V.5.2, V.3.11) The inability to grasp the Infinite One in its totality even by the Intellectual Principle and its repeated attempts to do so, accounts for the innumerable successive impressions of that One as universe after universe is unfolded and the planned evolution or idea of manifestation progresses. (III.8.8) (V.3.1.) (V.3.10) (VI.7.17)

8. In the Intellectual Principle the unities of the Ideas and their Power are made explicit. They are its own divine content which is itself self-gnostic. It is that which it knows. (V.1.4, V.9.8, 6, 5, IV.8, V.3.5, V.8.4, 5)

Each idea is an Intellectual Principle entire, a special and unique form of it. The same as Intellectual Principle entire is a duality and unity with a specific internal structure of its own determined by Number, and similarly self-gnostic and self-distinguishing (note: unintelligible) which gives rise to the notion of the separative intellect rooted in the one unified Divine Intellect. (V.9.8, VI.9.6)

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9. (note: section deleted)

10. There is no notion of becoming or potential in the Intellectual Principle; all is actualized, and all is one eternal life. (III.7.4, V.1.4, V.8.2, VI.7.4)

11. Plotinus attempts to reveal something of the essence of the Divine Mind by a discussion of the categories or the constitutive principles of Being: isness, motion, permanence, difference, identity and (note: blank space) Sometimes he speaks of five and sometimes of six. The nature of these principles is the cause of some ambiguity. Nonetheless, these are not parts of Being but Being itself. Mind thinks, which is an eternal act, this is divine ideation. It is a permanent reality and has Power or motion and is stable essence. (Mind equals Isness, thinks(ing ?) equals power or motion, its thoughts are self-identical, and different from one another, their permanence is their stable essence.) In their totality they are identical with Being or Intellectual Principle. (VI.2, V.1.6)

12. Any real Being or Idea will also be similarly constituted. (Note unreadable: Plotinus references blurred)

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AN OUTLINE

The One...Absolutely without any other. The Viewing Itself, Transcendent and beyond...Alone.

The proficient's glimpse re-organizes the structure and meaning of our understanding accordingly...and is the offering of Wisdom-Knowledge by the sage to humanity. This again is refracted into diverging streams of philosophy.

Our guide stands pre-eminently poised and expertly skilled in the art of transmitting this precious primeval--the touch of the untouchable--to us.

He speaks of the One--the supreme reality--as without any aspects... totally homogeneous, indivisible and partless--inviolate--the utmost that words can express are used to impress upon our mind the existence of one thing our philosopher is surest of, and then something of its nature is provoked in our innermost being. To describe or reveal anything about this (universal) being, the arrangement or combination of the Transcendent unities that (constituted it,) regardless of the internal schema--the unfathomable depths--and abyss of power which characterize it and suggest its completeness, the distinctionless mode of their relationship--all this faultlessly conceived and executed by sounds, transforms our exegesis of what this nature of the One might be into a hymn of adoration. At any rate, with an impeccable scrutiny of the range of human reason he formulates within these series of quotes a paradigm for our mind

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of the causeless cause, Nirguna Brahman of the Hindus, (their undifferenced knowledge), the idea of Metaphysical infinity or the Absolute of certain Westerners. There is no hierarchy within that we can point to, but it will be the model for the two later hypostases as the 'aspects' of the One. That is the Intellectual Principle will be teleology for the One and Soul its life, but this differentiation will be to accommodate the mind's mode of ascension... in its silent journey to paradise garden. Once there, who can distinguish the what from the who, except the godly...here only verbally.

He includes within this "pure awakening without an awakener" a prefiguration of the Intellectual Principle--a transcendental version of the second hypostasis, which suggest that the latter cannot exhaust the potentiality there. There are divine number which correlates the Ideas with Beings and the order of their procession, all of this is implicit until our illustration by use of the cosmic mandala renders it more visible and concrete. A dazzling application and vindication of Plato's 8 Hypotheses--not by a reborn Plato or Hellenized copy...but pure knowledge manifesting through a veritable sage. Of the heavenly identity only less than human could doubt...

Briefly tabulated: We have the One--Absolutely Transcendent--without qualities, the Vedantist would say...

But unity may be so complex even in its undifferentiated simplicity or as pure intelligence (turiya) as to suggest immense mysteries...tracings in the dark--of which Plotinus delineates--

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so then we have first this very specific statement that the One or unity is absolutely transcendent, utterly itself.

Then power, intrinsic and non-different, characterizes it, is its matter = dyad--preontological henads discern as partless parts of its being regardless of their arrangement and/or combination (i.e., internal schema). No heterogeneity arises but all is self-identical.

Included is the prefiguration of the Intellectual Principle; divine number and the unities that include One-many. Here too, the many essential numbers are derived from divine number

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(Numbers and Ideas)

The Absolute Mind or meta-ontological infinity, the One, is complete perfection itself. (and)

@u<One> ( ) Aries First House

When Plotinus presents us with the self-sufficient Unity, the transcendent Simplex and One-Only, we have the paradigm for the meaning of the Number 1. One cannot be thought of in the quantitative way as the first in a series, or in relation to others, for it is from the One that all the others will arise.

@quotation< The One does not bear to be numbered in with anything else, with a one or a two or any such quantity; it refuses to take number because it is measure and not the measured; it is no peer of other entities to be bound among them. (V.5.4)>

The Oneness is not quantitative, or a point, as we have previously remarked, for it is infinite perfection and

@quotation< ...remains intact even when other entities spring from it. In the case of numbers the unit remains intact while something else (the dyad) produces, and thus number arises in dependence on the unit: much more then does the unit, the One remain intact in the principle which is before all beings. (V.5.5)>

In illustrating the identity of the Absolute mathematically, the choice has been with the Symbol 1, and not the 0, for that was not available when the Greeks were discussing these Ideas. For the Absolute, the One, is conceived as a fullness, and each number will derive from the One a unique intact aseity, will be some one thing. The meaning of 1 as used by the Neo-Platonists is equivalent to that which the Easterns assign to zero. In the case of the One, we have an affirmative theology and the other provides us with a negative theology. Both would insist that all things arise from the One (in Platonism) or the zero, and both would insist that if you take fullness from the full, the full would remain. Plotinus' remarks are very much to the point when he says that the many arise

[ONE6.FW]

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from the One but the One remains intact. And similarly, the Easterners would say everything arises from the Void (0) and is Void: Plotinus would consider this a confusion of the levels of Reality; that which arises from the Void is not the Void. (Within universal relativity only a fool--or a Sage--could make that remark.) (note: * Rewrite)

So we have the l, which is, strictly speaking, the principle of oneness, in that it is a necessary prerequisite that for anything to be at all, it must first be a one.

The principle of the number 1 will bear the same connotations or, at least, reflect the same remarks that will be made about the One-Only. The individuality and uniqueness of the self-sufficient transcendent, the infinite unity and simplex, are all synonyms for the meaning of 1. This correlates with the view of the One as the first house, and in the Triad sequence, with the Mars in Aries as the principle of oneness.

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In its widest application the two represent all the remarks we will make about the Double Act of the One. (Characterized by infinite Power, which exhibits two aspects--active and passive perfection or substance and function, the One reveals something of itself through this paradoxical nature but it, itself, remains inscrutable. Also, the "interrelationship" of this power with the One, a completing complete power is included in its total perfection. It is the infinite indeterminate Power, inseparable from the One, and also exhibiting its inner nature, through the dual modes of repose and act, which are inherent in it. This power of the One, the 2 is the symmetrical relation of the One as remaining intact, and the One exhibited in its completeness as the source of all, or the Triad. Each of the indivisible unities and, ultimately all being, will participate in this power, or in some imitation of it. The Dyad is the paradigm for the complementarity of the powers of substance and function, or yin and yang, which are revealed in the levels of reality from the Triad down to the sensible world.

@quotation< If the first is perfect, utterly perfect above all, and is the beginning of all power then it must be the most powerful of all that is and all other powers must act in some partial imitation of it. (V.4.1)>

To complete our discussion of the indeterminate dyad, we can list many ways of seeing the power of the dyad, all of which present the double act so simply put by the mathematicians as 2 = 1 + 1.

1. The 2 is the One plus its infinite power.

2. The 2 is the Repose and Act remaining in the One as identical with it.

3. The 2 is the repose and act or infinity and bound, exhibited as Houses 2 and 3.

4. The 2 is the indeterminacy and symmetry of the One as transcendent and as immanent.

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The principle of the number two is the double act of the One, the infinite and sheer indeterminacy of power. Power is identical with the One, and power also issues forth or exhibits the One through the dual modes of repose and act which are non-dualistically inherent in it. The dyad is the paradigm for all the complementary modes of the expression of reality--active and passive, function and substance, 7-fold and 4-fold, and so on. The two correlates with the second unity (Note: ?) the Venus in Taurus.

(" Perfection and Act")

(An excursis into the distinction between the theory of Emanation and Vivarta of the Vedantins)

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@u<Three>

The number three reflects the description of the One as the Triad. Here we see the One, not as the Intact simplex, but as the source of all, the total indeterminate aspects or Universal Being prefiguring in itself in an unmanifest and undifferenced way, all the principles. Here we have the internal completion in the One, symbolized as the interaction of the One and the Dyad. Neither the One nor Dyad is strictly a Number principle, for, as we have said, the One is measureless and without relation and the 2 is indefinite. The three is the principle of bound and determination and suggests the superessential principle of Universal Mind, the Mercury in Gemini, in our sequential order. Three is the stable and unchanging product of the One and Dyad, and is inclusive of the two priors and non-different.

This perfection can be conceived of as having indivisible aspects or illusorily divided. Each of these indivisible aspects or quotients may be conceived of as the One in its entirety in a certain mode and each and every mode will be a transcendent paradigm for the unities that exist in Being, Soul, etc. The above considerations result in the notion or concept of the Triad.

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#4-Divine

The Number 4 is prefigured in the Absolute and it suggests that, in its own mysterious manner, the One includes the superior version of the quaternity in its utter perfection--quaternity here referring to the 3 Hypostases and their immanence in Soul (or the System of Nature). Also, it is the total synthesis of what we understand as the separative states of consciousness, and here referred to as the 4th State or Turiya. Incidentally, it serves as a model for any 'one' which will extend through all the levels of Reality, so that we would be allowed to speak of a 'one' as having Unity, Being, Soul and Body. Within the Triad it (4) can be seen as the passive aspect of the Double Act, that is, the Substance which is ground, or the passive perfection of the Double Act.

The 4-fold nature of the One.

The 3 Hypostases, as applied to the System of Nature.

How all that is duplicated in the sensible world.

The quaternity as symbolizing the Absolute with its 4-fold division of consciousness. Again, an excursis into the Gita's conception of the 4-fold as compared with Plotinus.

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(5 and 8 refer to the Principle of Participation)

5 represents the principle of "incarnation" of the One, that is, its presence in anyone. 8 is the principle of infinite divisibility which makes available those ones within which the One is totally present. In principle we have here the paradigm for the theory of participation, for, in effect, we are saying that, regardless of the diverse and infinite divisibility of any one, its uniqueness is not sundered and the complexity of a "one's" diversification is tethered or held together by the presence.

Mars in Taurus represents a possibility which conjoined to a portion of the One's infinite nature is the prerequisite required in order to speak of infinite divisibility. Venus in Aries provides us with that portion of the One's infinite nature to which it is conjoined. This combination permits us to speak of the Absolute Soul as the fountain of all Souls. (also keep in mind Mars is subsumed under the principle of Oneness--Mars in Aries

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#6 Divine @u<Six> or the Head in the Triad

(Note: #5-10 are in more detail later in chapter)

The Divine Hexad refers to the totality of all the permutations and combinations of possibilities --"Ideas"--by the power inherent in them...non-finality, infinitude. (This is symbolized by the #6 and this principle is the very essence or eternal schemata of the Intellectual. Therefore Number within Pure Being is the very substance and the force of activity found within it.)

(the completed completion)

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@verbatim<

>

When we speak of the intact perfection of the One we are referring to the completed and lawful order of the One's power evenly distributed (page 100 insert) throughout the totality of actualized possibilities it contains, and which we must consider as non-final or endless. This is the transcendent principle of number within the One which is, of course, reflected in the eternal ordering of the Supernals in Being.

Within the 1st q. itself there is already exhibited the unmultiplied and evenly distributed power of the One expressed by the view that the addition of One, Infinity and Bound speaks to us of its unlimited function.

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#7--Divine

@u<Seven>

(that aspect of the indivisible unity which we can refer to as its functioning or outward facing power but within itself)

Seven is an exemplification of the principle of essential production or the outward-facing hypostasis by and through which the One exhibits everything which is in itself to itself (without introducing duality.) The 7 reveals the functional aspect of the One, just as the 4 is its substantial expression. This functional aspect is unbegotten and unbegetting, virginal in its indivisibility. The colors of the spectrum reveal the properties of pure light and can be distinguished, yet you cannot take away any one of them and still have pure light. And again, the 7 notes of the musical scale objectify and unfold the content of the key note--for they are indissolubly linked with one another (and are manifesting it.) Perhaps the best example is the 7 Chaldean planets as the outermost and utmost expression of the Rational Soul

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The entirety of the required number of formless principles is signified by the Number 8 or Divine Ogdoad. --It indicates the activity of the superknowledge which perfects its source not by producing anything but by being the completing power within itself.

The fictional divisibility or illusory modifications within the One which permits us to speak of the indivisible aspects or partless parts of the One.

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@u<Nine>

#9--Divine

The 3 Hypostases and their immanence in the lower phase of Soul, that is the circulation of all the principles of reality within the Universal Constructor, are prefigured in the Triad.

The pre-ontic or pre-ideational completed actualization of all the possibilities.

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@u<Ten>

#19 --Divine

While the 9 is a principle of completion which retains all within the source, ten presents to us the presence of a second or "otherness" within the One without a second. The emanations of all the prior formless principles are reflected in the mirror of non-being, and appear as other, yet while allowing the omnipresence of the One and its identity or sameness with the appearance.

@quotation< No doubt it is wonderful that the First should thus be present without any coming, and that while it is nowhere, nowhere is it not...Holding all (though) itself nowhere held--it is omnipresent, for where its presence failed something would elude its hold. At the same time, in the sense that it is nowhere held, it is not present. (V.5.9)>

This then is the Transcendent principle from which is derived the principle of difference by which the existence of universal manifestation is possible, and is the basis for the entire fourth quadrant or body of the One.

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The specific sequence of quotes recited in the course of this discussion is meant to accomplish a dual purpose. On the one hand it should reveal something about the mysterious and infinite complexity of the One, and simultaneously it should organize and order for our understanding the formless grades within the unshaped, the unfigured, which we will refer to as its indivisible aspects. The inquiry aims to reveal both the meta-ontological source of Plotinus' revelations, (the Soul which is rooted in the One), and the reasoning that is based on and flows from the Soul as an authentic existent in the Intellectual Principle, i.e., this is inspired Truth. The first priority is to arrive at some understanding of the complete perfection of the One itself. Secondarily and concomitantly will be the discovery of a paradigmatic thought-model that will indicate how any "one"--whether Idea, God, Number, or Being--is necessarily constituted. This developing insight may then become a key that will unlock some of the mysteries in his teachings and disclose for the spiritual aspirant the inner significance of the theory of participation.

It is important to continually bear in mind that our thought must always keep the One intact while we develop our understanding of it as a paradigm for other referents or principles. Thus, though we necessarily employ an incorrect mode of thinking in the effort to glimpse realities that are beyond thought, we will never fragment the unity of the One. When we speak, for example, of the "partless aspects" of the indivisible unity, we cannot help but recognize and try to account for the

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fact that we are employing and addressing an intellect that operates in dualities. We cannot do otherwise. But this very problem, strangely enough, precisely indicates that we are not to abolish the plurality of frameworks that are available to us and which are applicable to the universal relativity that is both suspended from the One and included within it. We must explain how universal relativity is included within the One in a special way. This interpretation will attempt to portray and to account for that possibility and will permit us to expound the two views of truth--the practical and the ultimate. These two views are the ultimate truth that is both the substratum of the appearance and the truths within the appearance--truths that are not reduced to nor resolved into that Ultimate.

The philosopher-sage enunciates the Logos (the Word), and the knowledge he communicates is primarily Wisdom. He is required to be precise within the given structures, the cultural mores, and the needs of his era, yet his stance is also outside of and beyond these forms. Hence it is only natural that first in the order of importance should be statements about the existence of God, the One-Only--for, following upon this certitude that is the very core of all that he will say he also transmits for our benefit, a wisdom-knowledge or @u<prima philosophia> connascent with the foundations of our world and our being.

The One is absolute positivity: pure universal existence inbound with the totality of possibilities and infinity of power. Perhaps it might be more meaningful and

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provocative to say that it is intelligence--or, better still, pure intelligence. Sufficient and complete in itself, @u<only perfection> is without peer and is beyond any limitation, dependence, need, or multiplicity of any kind. This affirmation of its transcendence does not imply that the One is a blank homogeneity or a zero, but, rather, that it is unlimited fullness. To aim the understanding "beyond being" does not mean that it must at some point fall into an abyss of nothingness. On the contrary, whatever aseity characterizes any principle or idea is removed and the infinity of the transcendent is then conceptually available. We hope to be able to unfold the peculiar way in which the transcendent One is inclusive of all and the cause of all and everything that is, explaining as we proceed, @u<how> and why it is properly described as a non-dual fullness rather then as a nothingness. (or Monism)

In several tractates of the Enneads, Plotinus describes the essential characteristics of the One-Only. Our ensuing statements will try to explicate them in detail, yet we must follow his example and take great care in discussing these characteristics, for it is misleading and incorrect to speak of such "attributes" except in a most precise way, albeit a somewhat strange and mysterious way. In tractate V.4.2., Plotinus refers to that which is above the Intellectual Principle as "self-distinguishing throughout...that self-intellection which, stemming from an inner consciousness, takes place...in a mode other than that of the Intellectual Principle." Again, in VI.8.16 (Deck translation), he calls it an eternal "wakefulness" (or a consciousness) that cannot be separated from the totality of

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its indeterminate contents--contents that are not other than or different from the container.

One page 19 of @u<Nature, Contemplation, and the One>, John Deck asserts that "the One is called an eternal super-knowledge." He is referring to his translation of tractate VI.8-16, 31-36:

@quotation< If, now, its (the One's) act does not become but is always, and @u<is> a kind of wakefulness which is not other than the one who is awake, being a wakefulness and an eternal super-knowledge, it will @u<be> in the way it is awake. The wakefulness is beyond being and Nous and intelligent life; the wakefulness is itself.>

Deck asks, is this "a wakefulness which is a @u<super>-knowledge, or a wakefulness which is @u<above> knowledge?" Bearing in mind that there are other interpretations, Mr. Deck, a sincere and discriminating devotee of the sage, tends to identify the One's wakefulness with its superknowledge. "Plotinus goes on to say," he says, "that the One is

@quotation< not, so to speak, imperceptive, but everything of it is in it and with it (i.e., it is entirely self-contained); it is entirely self-discerning; life is in it and all things are in it; and its self-knowledge is itself, a self-knowledge by a kind of @u<synthesis> being in eternal stasis and in a knowledge otherwise than knowledge according to the Nous. V.4.2.,16-20. Deck translation>

"Thus knowledge," Deck concludes, "which appears in a way in nature, more fully in soul, perfectly in the Nous, is not absent from the highest 'nature,' the One: the continuity of knowledge is not abruptly broken in the ascent from the Nous to the One."

(note: question mark here on first draft)

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Deck's concentration here is intensely and sharply focused on the true meaning of the One. His is a magnificent exposition in positive terms of the master's teaching on the One. He has seized the jugular vein of the doctrine when, a few lines later (page 21), he states further that "the self-identical @u<synthesis> of the One can be a super-knowledge in a positive sense."

The statement that the One "will @u<be> in the way it is @u<awake>" is a particularly emphatic assertion of the identity of wakefulness (consciousness) with existence. Now we are not discussing the identity of being and knowledge, such as is found in the Intellectual Principle, but the true identity and intact perfection of the One. As our discussion develops, we will perceive how all the so-called contents of this super-intelligence are--as it (the One). But first, we must fully encounter the uniqueness of this conception of the Absolute: our minds should be brought to a halt by what we are being asked to consider. Pure unconditioned being in all its universality is being conceived here as identity with intrinsically appropriate super-intelligence: eternal stasis reigns. We are presented with a Supreme Intelligence that does not loosen, dwindle, or divide itself, nor is it modified or spread out among the lower orders of reality. This is the initial premise. Appreciating this intact perfection is a necessary and absolute prerequisite (so) to arrive at a proper understanding of emanation.

A pause is required here so that we may intently examine this nugget of gold, for it is a capital point, and we must insistently push our minds in this direction. First, what is the

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nature of the utter simplicity and complete perfection of the One? Only after we have firmly grasped this nature can the second question arise: how can this unique and unknowable Absolute be brought into relationship with anything else? The question may become meaningless if there isn't anything else, that is, if there are only illusory modifications of itself. But assuming that there are other principles--not necessarily outside the One--the question will naturally arise as to the nature of the relationship between the One and the others, and it is to this issue that we will direct our attention.

Plotinus clearly states that the One's simplicity is not that of a spatial point or a quantitative unit to be enumerated with others, "nor is its impartibility that of extreme minuteness; on the contrary, it is great beyond anything, great not in extension but in power." (VI.9.6) In a preliminary fashion he dismisses the elementary association that the word 'One' may have. (We will find, as we go along, more and more of what he does mean by the One, and then we can compose the meaning of the word according to his statements about it. We are not to bring @u<our> definition of the One, and the psychological associations it may have for us, to his term.) Now this very positive description of the Unity's power as beyond any determination or limitation means that unlimited power should be understood as an indivisible aspect that is identical with Unity. In this sense, it is beyond God, Divine Mind, or Being. Such a total affirmation is not only beyond any combination of the possibilities or determinations

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in the Intellectual Principle, which includes the totality of all essences and Ideas, but points beyond to an ultimateless Ultimate "utterly a self-existent, with no concomitant whatever. This self-sufficing is the essence of its unity.…supremely adequate, autonomous, all-transcending, most utterly without need." (VI.9.6.). It is the Alone. This One is not, therefore, an abstraction from other principles. On the contrary, all other principles are @u<literally> divine outflowings from the superabundance of its Perfection. The later principles are all dependent on It; but the One depends on none. For any principle or being to be at all, it must first be a unity: the first principle of all principles is Unity itself, the principle of all principles. A similar definition of this simplex is provided by Rene Guenon in @u<The Reign of Quantity.>

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"If true unity is also to be described as"simple," that word must be understood in quite a different sense, so that it conveys only the essential indivisibility of true unity, and so as to exclude the idea that unity is in any way "composite," and this implies that it cannot rightly be conceived as made up of parts of any kind... On the other hand, although the principial unity is absolutely indivisible, it can nevertheless be said to be of an extreme complexity, (since it contains "eminently" all that constitutes the essence or qualitative side of manifested beings, when considered from the point of view of a "descent" into lower degrees.")

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from Guenon, @u<Multiple States of Being>

@quotation< ...for when we say that Universal Possibility is infinite or unlimited, it must be understood that we speak of nothing less than the Infinite itself, envisaged under a certain aspect, yet only in so far as one may say that there are aspects to the Infinite. For the Infinite is truly "without parts," and there can thus be no question of a multiplicity of aspects existing "distinctively" within it: it is we who do, so to speak, conceive of the Infinite under this aspect or that, since we can do no other.>

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Similarly, the Plotinian affirmation and commentaries on the nature of the One do not preclude the possibility that the unity of every principle, every principle such as Number, Being, Life, Intellect, is paradigmatically included in the One's superknowledge. The precise way in which these beings or unities are unoriginatedly and indivisibly actual within the One is the thread theme that we hope to develop as we proceed. However, let us continue into the nature of this "wakefulness which is not other than the one who is awake"; pure being--consciousness.

Obviously, no symbol is adequate to this Absolute. But we are preoccupied with an understanding of our understanding of it, and Plotinus assures us that "there is a certain rough fitness in designating it as unity." (VI.9.5) We are articulating in words and symbols our conception of it, but must keep in mind that, although we are trying to make sense or meaning of his remarks, nonetheless, we are still confined within the sensible and should not assume this understanding to be an intimate acquaintance with the Reality that is beyond it. There are many who assume that the correctness of conceptual schematas within their imagination is a certification and domination by the Reality, and there are even others who go further and insist that imagination is that reality. In confronting such obstacles, the sage may more easily dissolve the difficulties with pregnant silence than with words. And this eloquent silence should not be taken as agnostic or as an indication of a lack on his part, for he will speak or hold his peace according to the needs of his era and the status of the individual(s) questioning him. Not all

[ONE7.FW]

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knowledge is appropriate for all persons, or at any time. In times and circumstances such as our own, however, more harm may be done by @u<refusing> to speak of the Unity or Absolute God: such refusal may too easily invite intellectual skeptics to assert that even the sage cannot go beyond the imagination, cannot know Truth or directly "experience" it, that it does not exist, and so forth.

(note: P.B. Quote on Buddha Red XVI?)

(note: Synesius quote)

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We cannot in fact approach analytically the perfection, the self-sufficing completion of the One: the nature of Unity precludes any such possibility. In the strict sense, then, our approach is incorrect, but, based on Plotinus' reasoned revelations, we will conceive of the One as having indivisible aspects that we can examine one at a time in an effort to make them at least vaguely accessible to our understanding. We must learn to accommodate our mental processes to this expanding vision. So we will proceed in the unorthodox fashion of subjecting each of these indivisible "aspects" to itemization and description and will try to understand each and every one of them in a certain relative manner. Then we may take either of two approaches to begin adjusting for our initial error. We may, on the one hand, speak of how these various aspects of reality fuse and interpenetrate one another. (note: ?) Or, through a second approach, we may try to think of each mode or aspect of the Unity as the entirety itself and then see how they @u<must> necessarily merge as undifferenced Unity. Once we have done all this, and @u<only> after we have done all this, we cancel out the whole process of reasoning that has brought us this far and seek to plunge beyond our own rationality: by a leap of the creative imagination, through inspiration from the life of the knowing principle, we are to immerse ourselves intently and silently in this notion of an infinite life that is eternally and intrinsically complete and perfect.

Any description of this perfect One is, admittedly, "as if"--to accommodate that level of mind that is constantly in the process of instantiation and transformation. The net result, however, of this

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exercise in ingenuity, this attempt to see the complete perfection from various angles, is an approach to one of the most mysterious, difficult, and yet absolutely pivotal ideas in the Plotinian teaching--that is, Power or the Dyad. Plotinus characterizes the infinite and indeterminate Power of the One as both identical with the pure undifferenced knowledge of the One and radiating from it. On the one hand the Power and the undifferenced knowledge are synonymous, the One remains a simplex. On the other hand, the One is the source of all distinctions and substance found in the All. Any approach to defining the One and explaining how it produces the all (the many arise) must call upon its power to simultaneously fulfill and sustain this double view, the ultimate paradox, which is the non-dual (Absolute). The way in which it is able to do so becomes available through a proper (understanding of this Power.)

(note: must understand this is terms of One itself.)

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(one typist's comment: unclear what, if anything, should be saved)

(marginal notes from top of page: follows @u<later> 2 alternatives)

In tractate V.1,5 (MacKenna translation, first edition), Plotinus says that "the Dyad as regards that sphere is undetermined, representing the underlie or matter of the One." The power which goes forth or emanates from the One, ie, the I.P. undetermined, is the matter which will be shaped by the invisible aspects or the transcendent models which are found in the One. The sequential order that follows thus, we have the Power which is emanated from the One and which is the potentiality for I.P. This potentiality gets determined by the transcendent paradigms within the One, so that at one and the same time this power becomes the subject and its determination, the object. Consequently, all our discussion of "aspects" of the One refers to an internal distribution of that Power, a Power which is conceived as not other than the One.

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Our first approach to an understanding of the fathomless depths of power within the One led us to the notion of the Dyad or power, which is the "matter" that the One uses or "moulds" into a desired shape. Crucial at that point was an appreciation of the fact that the One's power is not other than the One; to speak of the One and its power is to speak of its own motionless activity or realized identity. Now, in an effort to render a more precise and comprehensive portrayal of the internal self-distribution of power within the One itself, we must differentiate the concept of the double act from the issuing act or its outward-facing hypostasis. The act native to this realized identity of the One and its power is the double act. (Double Act already introduced on page 30.) In contrast to the issuing act, it is the power remaining with the One.

Platonism speaks of Power as the "matter" of the One, and the aspects of the One are conceived to "arise" from an "interaction" of the One and this "matter" or power. The result of this interaction, which the Platonists call the Triad, is conceived of as a completed completing power within the fullness of the One's infinite being. We must make sure that the words do not deceive us; they should not be allowed to suggest temporality, causality, or change, for we are speaking about the One as a totally accomplished and complete perfection. When we distinguish its Active and its Passive perfection, we are still speaking of Absolute Mind itself: a no-thingness, paradoxically a plenum, self-contained. There never could have been a beginning, nor will there ever be a lapse from this fullness that is the immaculate, inviolable virginity of the Idea of the Ideas. Universal possibility ever remains meta-ontically achieved.

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Within this infinite and undefiled continuum we conceived of an ever- accomplished Act. Its outward facing hypostasis or radiation is power, the Void-mind's utterance, within which the Good imparts to itself (that is, its power) this shoreless ocean of wisdom-the "Idea-of-the-Good" which reflects something of the interior thrice-unknown darkness. Insofar as the Intellectual Principle is a multiplicity itself, these many parts of the Intellectual Principle suggest the indivisible or partless parts of the One. It is to these unfathomable glimmerings that we now address ourselves so that we may speak of the paradigms or transcendent models found in the One. We will call this the Triad. Each partless part of the One is conceived of in turn as the totality of the One, and the Triad is in a sense the illusory divisions of this Unity. This amplification permits us to conceive of the facets of the One as a prefiguration of the Intellectual Principle. Or, conversely, the aggregate of Ideas and powers, which in their totality constitute the Intellectual Principle, may be seen as a reflex of the excellencies found in the One's effulgence.

(marginal comment for second paragraph: insert somewhere ,17)

The implications of this view can be easily illustrated through recourse to a practical and commonsense application and later on will be compared with other possible views. If, on the one hand, the world exists, if it is the result of a real power, and if this power is other than the One, then there will be an ultimate metaphysical dualism between the One, and the products of that power. If, on the other hand, the power is illusory then any products of this power--from our universe to all the various levels of reality, including even the Divine Mind (Intellectual Principle)--will be illusory. Neither of these two alternatives--that of either metaphysical duality or of illusory being--is acceptable for Plotinus.

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(The similarity to Plato's discussion [508e @u<Republic>])

@verbatim< diagram

>

(nonduality in its most inclusive (illegible) does not exclude the Being of the 2nd & 3rd Hypostases & even more important the truth of the application of these principles to Universal Manifestation)

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(After Examples!)

Power, as spoken of here, has this twofold meaning: when Plotinus refers to it as a completing power which produces no new thing within the One, it coincides with and is (indistinguishable from) the One; secondly, that same power flows forth or emanates from the One. Excluded from the Godhead is any personal volition; the process is completely impersonal. Now the power that goes forth from the One is the 'matter' that is being shaped, and that means that this emanating power contains and reflectively includes the transcendent models or paradigms and the ideas. Therefore, we may speak of this power as an externalization (or efflux) of the complex interiority of the indivisible aspects of the Supreme Perfection. (This outflow of power thus includes self determination that is, it is the Intellectual Principle, stamped from within and in this manner may be said to be molded or be the "matter" of the One.)* (*Insert from 121) The One imparts Being & Essence and the power to know--to whom does it impart it? Is this a disguised way of saying that the Power already contains within itself Being and the Power to know?

(note: Hindus also speak of Brahman as the One-only and then Brahman and its Prakriti as everything else)

Consequently, the Intellectual Principle, in its entirety, will exhibit the transcendental paradigms or indivisible aspects of the superknowledge from which all the unities within Being are suspended.

We are tentatively establishing this verbal distinction between the One and its issuing act for the sake of clarification, for these higher principles will be majestically duplicated within the realm of universal manifestation and then again within its parts. Consequently, this distinction will ultimately give rise to the practical truth alongside the Only-Truth, and this will be the cause of much confusion and semantic obscurity in the relative sphere (if it is not made available to us now.) For the problem of understanding the very nature of these principles and their precise application to the practical questions (of philosophy is necessary in order to answer them.)

page 121 (see *Insert, p. 120)

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For Plotinus, then, the One and @u<its> Power stands first and foremost above all and simultaneously sustains and includes lesser levels of reality which are neither self-sufficient nor illusory. Through an understanding of this principle of Power, we can first make available to our minds what we refer to as the double truth--that is, the non-dual reality does not exclude the dualistic but includes and supports this value which is not annihilated by a blind and omnivorous, affectively supported intellect.

In tractate V.4.1 Plotinus tells us that

@quotation< If the First is perfect, utterly perfect above all, and is the beginning of all power, it must be the most powerful of all that is, and all other powers must act in some partial imitation of it...the First Good, the Power towards all, how could it grudge or be powerless to give of itself, and how at that would it still be the Source?>

In tractate V.5.11 he says that "this unseen First is the source and principle of Being and sovereign over Reality." And in VI.9.1 he begins a discussion of the One with the statement that "it is in virtue of unity that beings are beings."

We can see from these passages (chosen from among many others on the same theme) that, for Plotinus, perfection and self-sufficiency imply an inconceivable vast abundance of power. When its concentrated fullness is described as an utter stillness, that stillness is not meant to imply any sort of corpse-like passivity or immobility, nor is it to be thought of as a luminously quiescent matrix of mere potentialities that must be brought to actuality by another agent. The One is fully actual. Inwardly pregnant with

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all that is ultimately true, it "produces" by its very perfection and infinite power, not through any need for a completion to be attained beyond or outside itself. It does not "need" creation; "creation" is the inevitable result of its superabundance. Not only has it no need of its products, it has no "need" even of @u<producing.> Throughout all the production that inevitably ensues, the One remains unmoved; all possible production is already transcendentally actual and accomplished within its own infinite power. This is Truth. (of any principle) The truth of Intellectual Principle is in the One, the truth of Soul is in the One.

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In considering this Power which we conceive as identical with the One's own nature, a two-fold character of the One is observable. (described by Plotinus) The utter stillness or passive perfection of the Transcendent and its infinite Act, its sheer indeterminacy, and the profundity of its infinitely unlimited activity as a self-tendence eternally achieved.

@quotation<That his being is constituted by this self-originating self-tendence--at once Act and Repose--becomes clear if we imagine the contrary; inclining towards something outside of Himself, He would destroy the identity of his being. This self-directed Act is therefore his peculiar being, one with Himself. Thus, he created Himself because his Act was inseparable from Himself. VI.8.16, 25-30>

Here we find a presentation of these two ultimate principles, act and repose, within the self-nature of the One. Unavoidably polarized by our own thought to make them available to our understanding, these two ultimate complementaries must nonetheless be recognized as @u<coinciding> within the One's absolute completion. This paradoxical theme is an exquisite mystical vagary, one that is universally diffused in statements of the perennial philosophy. Our appreciation of it can be broadened or deepened by correlating it with similar views such as active and passive perfection, yin and yang, substance and function, and so on. The words of Lao Tzu also have a similar flavor:

@quotation<How unfathomable is Tao. An infinite depth, the Source of all that is--the Ancient Progenitor, before all things. Yet how pure and still is Tao.>

When Plotinus attempts to describe the eternal status and completeness of the "interiority" of the Simplex, his speech accommodates our limited mode of understanding. That which is eternally achieved is expressed in terms of temporality and causality. But these terms must cancel themselves out

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if we are to be graced with some intuition into the timelessly fixed, perfect, and complete interiority of the One. If we do not keep this in mind, we will arrive at the mistaken notion that the Eternal One is in the process of evolving and improving along with the development of the World Idea. In seeking, by means of these passages, a glimpse of the incomprehensible nature of the One, the intellect must be like a bird which leaves no trace in flying through the air: the intellect's own operations must dissolve back into the stillness into which it is advancing.

It is axiomatic, then, that the One-Only and the totally complete (Non-Dual!) perfection must be taken as literally synonymous. Within the One itself there can be no changes or processes, no operation, arrangements, or combinations of any sort--not even the universal relativity of Forms found in the Intellectual Principle. Bearing all this in mind, we must hold firmly that the One is in no way becoming anything. Therefore, when Plotinus speaks of the perfection of the One and the Act included within it, we are not to conceive that "first" stillness reigns and "then" it is rearranged, as though a fixed number of blocks in a container are shuffled about until the contents are perfectly ordered according to some plan that involves time. Such thinking is inadequate to the notion of the One's perfection and the Act that is indivisibly included within it.

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The standard Vedanta analogy is that of water with its waves, spraying foam, and so on, which are said to be none other than water. Its monism reduces all forms, attributes, appearances and so on-even of Ishvara-to illusory modifications of the pure undifferenced substance-Brahman Consciousness. (the water) In our deeper use of the analogy we find an illustration of non-duality. Following modern science, the waves, spray, etc., are only one level of experience. There are three other distinct levels of analysis which we can apply without reducing one to another-Biology, Chemistry, Physics. All four aspects are intrinsic to water-water is H2O, as atomic, as waves. The description of H2O doesn't explain any tasting of H2O, nor does my tasting it find Hydrogen and Oxygen. These are multiple distinct intrinsic aspects of water, all of which @u<are> water, or non-different from water. Using the analogy in this manner, we can describe the absolute as non-dual without reducing Reality to a monolithic block. The One is Absolute intact simplex beyond all distinctions, but is also the infinite Source and Superabundant Power. The self-sufficing One includes in its Super Knowledge the infinite completion which prefigures all that will arise from it, in a mode above any duality of Knower-Known.

By holding these two juxtaposed views together we get a model for the Non-dual Absolute. Cutting away everything we arrive at an austere, inviolable, indescribable unific Repose. Imagining that prior to all Knowledge, Life, Int., and so on, there is infinite Super-knowledge, unified life, indeterminate intelligence, fountain of Soul, we arrive at the One as an infinite fullness and power. Seeing that these are not different, we have the Non-Dual.

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In our symbology, the One as 1st House and the One as first Quadrant or Triad are complementary positions, which are not two, but are the One intelligence. Each aspect of unity could itself be described in a non-dual way as intact identity and infinite internal complexity. Repose and Act are the two modes under which we are compelled to see the One. For a monistic Vedantist, Maya is illusory, and so is its product. For Plotinus, the Power is assimilated to the Absolute, and thus will explain how from One the multiplicity arose.

Juxtaposing One as Absolute with the aspects, the Absolute intact Repose is not other to One as power, One as Triad, One as the Four-Fold. Each distinct Number gives us a perspective of unity. Later on, this will provide the model for the Intellectual Principle and a basis for the paradoxical emanation of Reality while leaving the One intact.

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It may be possible to supply our demanding, egotistical intellect with a description or definition of the One that will swallow up the intellect. Let us consider an example. (example is water) If we could take the totality of all ideas, for instance 10 or 100 and permutate and combine them so that each and every possibility is actualized and fully exploited, we would arrive at a sum total that represents in essence their final product. Further, if we could then think of this final product as the undifferentiated, homogeneous unity of the substance of these ideas, we would have produced in our thought an inconceivable, unthinkable, ungraspable, indescribable intelligence that would repudiate all its prior elements, including the power necessarily involved. In this coinciding of unlimited function and infinite substance, active and passive perfection are identical and we now have a view that permits us to conceive of nirguna Brahman or the mystery of the One. But let us reverse the position; let us assume, or rather reaffirm with the philosophic mystics, that the First--pure intelligence--is, in other words, that the Idea of Ideas @u<is.> What consequences would follow? Would the other aspects of Brahman be transformations of the first, or would these lesser principles be part of the first, thus making of the One a thing of parts, or would the lesser principles be illusory manifestations of it?

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To try to illustrate this theory more clearly before going on with our discussion, we will use two examples as possible ways of understanding how Absolute Mind can give rise to a many. The first is the much used example of pure gold being made into various trinkets. In this example, Mind itself has the power to modify or transform itself into these various forms, and Pure Mind, or gold, through its own functioning, has a continuous identity in the various appearances or aspects of itself. Its being or substance (gold) and its function or production (the forms) are only nominally distinct. All the trinkets are actually the gold-which stands here for the Absolute-and there has never been anything but the gold, the forms being illusory modifications of the gold. As a second physical example, we can consider a very hot semi-transparent body and think of the glow or radiation of that body as its emanation. We must imagine that the body has its source of energy internal to and inseparable from it, heating it to the point of incandescence and causing it to emit a light. Even though it is inadmissible physically, we must imagine that the power source of this body is infinite and unfailing. Now the emitted light, an offspring of this body, will disclose a great deal of information about the structure of the glowing body. The spectrum or precise amount of light emitted at each frequency can be analyzed, and the spectral structure will depend only on the nature of the glowing body. (note: ?) The modern description of the emission would be in

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terms of quantum mechanics, which, with its very Pythagorean use of numbers, would characterize in precise terms the structure of the glowing body. We can quite accurately say then that the emitted light is a direct emanation of the structure of the glowing body, which is revealed through spectral analysis of the light, and, at the same time, we can see the emission is quite clearly distinct from the original.

In the example, the glowing body is the analog to the One, with the infinite energy representing its inherent, inseparable Power. The glowing body itself--for example, a star--is unavailable in itself for analysis, although it has a complex internal structure. The radiating glow is analogous to the emanation of the One--the Intellectual Principle--which, as in the example, includes a structure that is coordinated by Number. In the example, the emanation is distinct from the original, and this is the first point. Secondly, the structured spectrum of the emanated light does reveal to us something of the inner nature of the glowing body, representing the One, which was otherwise unavailable. Just as the physicists study the emitted light to investigate the nature of the radiating body, that nature being internal and homogeneous with the body, so the philosopher contemplates the Intellectual Principle, the emanation of the One, to obtain some insight into the inaccessible interiority of the One.

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In these examples we find models for two views of how the many arise from the One. The first example, in which the modifications of gold are only illusorily distinct from the gold substance, would seem to relate to one of the primary Vedantic theories--that Brahman remains intact while the illusory forms present Brahman in apparently distinct guises. This example, however, properly seems to apply to the One itself, as remaining in itself. The inner nature of the One is such that, in spite of its immense complexity, it is like the gold taking on an infinity of apparent completions (conditions?) or aspects, (shapes?), but remaining always itself. There are no other principles available in this view, for the One is self-constitutive. The second example illustrates the view of emanation: the glow of the hot body (?) is distinct from the original, (the glowing light issuing forth is distinct from its Source) and yet it is exhibiting the very formal characteristics that are united but hidden in the nature of the original. In this theory we can consider other levels of reality as distinct emanation from the One, as traces of the One, and this does not in any way diminish or detract from the One's intact identity.

In trying to understand the inner intelligence of the One as remaining the One itself, we can resort to the example of the gold, for there is nothing that the One could become regardless of whatever forms the gold assumes, it is always the gold, and its forms are illusory. A consequence of this would be that any appearance--including the ego--is the illusory modification (of the) One.

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A delicate balance is required here, for thought is walking a razor's edge, for our understanding may miss the mark and fall on either side. We can introduce a hiatus that leads to metaphysical dualism--which is proper and appropriate for the intellectual understanding, for the double standpoint demands recognition. On the other hand, thought must confront monolithic monism, a unique and unknowable all encompassing mind from which everything arises, the causeless cause, a view which is appropriate to the absolute stillness of the advanced contemplator--the initiate--that state of mind without thought. The unique contribution of the philosopher-sage is the simultaneous grasp of these two views that exemplify the paradoxical nature of reality--the One and universal relativity. Adopting the poise of his understanding will supply our own with completion and balance. To understand that perfection engenders, that the eternally perfect emanates and engenders eternally which in their totality constitute manifestations at all levels from Being onwards will satisfy the most encompassing and demanding intellects.

(note: challenge? is a challenge that will satisfy?)

That from and within the unlimited view of the Ultimate Reality itself there is no other. However, from the point of view of the others, which may or may not be an identity with that ultimate viewpoint, there is the absolutely relative viewpoint that must be considered alongside the non-dual. The truth of mind, the non-dual, and the truth of its expressions is the paradoxical view of Reality, either universal or relative.

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from @u<The Philosophy of Advaita>, by T.M.P. Mahadevan (1969. Ganesh & Co. Madras.) (check quote) 24 pp. 193-4.

"The Sankhyas and those who are in sympathy with their view of transformation characterize the world as a transformation of Primal Nature, as curd is of milk. When a thing attains a state which is different from its present one, it is called transformation; when a thing, while not abandoning its prior state, @u<appears> to be of a different state, it is known as illusory manifestation."That change, which is of the same grade of reality as the thing, is transformation; what is not of the same grade of reality is illusory manifestation; or, change, which is of the same nature as the cause, is transformation; the effect, which even without being non-different from that (cause) is yet difficult to state apart from that, is an illusory manifestation; such is the distinction between transformation and illusory manifestation." Brahman can be neither the 'originating cause' nor the transformed cause. What is partless by nature cannot originate something @u<de novo>; nor can it get itself transformed into something else. If Brahman were to abandon the earlier form and get transformed into another form, then, subsequent to creation, there would be destruction of Brahman of the form of knowledge and bliss. If, again, at the stage of dissolution, that Brahman, which is devoid of the form of knowledge and bliss, be transformed into Brahman that is knowledge and bliss, even thus, since at any moment that Brahman might transform its nature, there is the contingence of non-release. Nor is there any evidence in respect of transformation. Scripture in the text, "The unborn self, the great, the firm" predicates immutability of the self as opposed to transformation. And Brahman is immutable because it is partless."

[ONE8.FW]

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check quote 25

The skillfully persistent hammering away at this one-sided point of view-that of passive perfection-is represented by these two quotes, among many others, that we could furnish at random. Our purpose is not so much criticism as to indicate the partiality exhibited and the lack of ultimate discrimination.

from @u<Man and His Becoming According to the Vedanta>, by Rene Guenon.

(1945. Luzac & Co., London.) p. 83.

@quotation< "...@u<Brahma> modifies Itself in diverse ways (in the indefinite multiplicity of universal manifestation), without the aid (and without Its unity and identity being affected thereby, without it being possible to say, therefore, that It is modified in reality, although all things only exist in effect as Its modifications). Thus the spider spins its web out of its own substance, subtle beings take diverse (incorporeal) forms, and the lotus grows from marsh to marsh without organs of locomotion. That @u<Brahma> is indivisible and without parts (as It is), is no objection (to this conception of universal multiplicity in Its unity, or rather in Its"non-duality"); it is not Its totality (eternally immutable) which is modified in the appearances of the World (nor any of Its parts, since it has none), but it is Itself viewed under the special aspect of distinction or of differentiation, that is, as @u<saguna> or @u<savishesha>: and, if It can be viewed thus, that is because It comprises all possibilities within Itself, without their being in any sense parts of Itself.">

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The unyielding and intrinsic integrality of the One--which we have conceived as a timelessly achieved accomplishment--"the originating self tendence" when an entity in the fullness of his being."

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These quotations from two well-known Vedanta interpreters present an explanation and application of the @u<vivarta> theory, or the theory of illusory manifestation, to which we take exception. Let us put our doctrinal understanding of this philosophy in words along with the admonition of Plato that "above all we do not become misologs," for although reason cannot take us to the Absolute, neither will it mislead us. We cannot in all honesty offend the principle of non-contradiction and assume that we have properly interpreted these "sacred texts." To go beyond reason does not mean that we have to deny reason.

When we base our reasoning on Plotinus' understanding of the nature of the One, it becomes clear the vivarta theory is properly applied the One itself. In his description of the Intellectual Principle and its relation to the One, it is not an illusory manifestation but rather a transformation of the power of the One, a distinct emanation-that affirms the miracle or gift of real being.

In the higher philosophic wisdom revealed to the individual intellectual Soul of Plotinus there is knowledge of the realm of the three primals, and knowledge (a revelation of?) the holy stillness of the One. This ultimateless no-thingness, the only instance of perfection is beyond the authenticity of the principle of being. This One-without-a-second, which in its simplicity is synonymous with an ocean of possibilities timelessly, integrally perfect, is spoken of by Plotinus from many different points of view, but he always emphasizes that those indivisible aspects of the Absolute are in reality illusory only in the One itself. It seems that something about the interiority of this Simplex is revealed to Plotinus, for he speaks of the One's inner perfection and defines and separates it in thought from the Intellectual Principle and Soul.

In the first standpoint, then, the One is perfect and is the simplicity of infinite "knowledge," which is identical with the transcendent paradigms of Nous, Being, Life, and so on.

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These paradigms may also be considered as indivisible and unconditioned aspects of unity-or the viewing of unity in a unique way, in a certain individual aspect, such as its infinite being, or the infinity of its intellect or its life. (Each modality or aspect of this unity includes all the others, (note: fi. when we think of the One as infinite Life, then, infinite Being, infinite Intellect, is subsumed under the Infinite Life) but secondarily, because the angle from which we view it has already predetermined in what way we shall perceive the One.) Regardless of how these aspects of the One are combined and arranged and rearranged, in the end these views amount to an illusory modification or division of the One's innate perfection. Here, @u<and only here>,-in the utter simplicity of the innately perfect-is the application of the vivarta theory or illusory manifestation fully justified. Only the One bears the full weight of the implications in this theory. We cannot, in all sincerity, apply the theory of vivarta to the relation that exists between universal manifestation and the One, for Mind and its expressions requires that we maintain the distinction or lose our balance; it does not assume that there is anything else besides Mind. The Intellectual Principle is not only nominally different from the One. Still less can we declare the Intellectual Principle and Divine Ideas to be an illusory manifestation of the One, unless, through semantic obscurity and existential legerdemain, we insist on denying the experienced world which is there for the Sage to see along with Brahman.

Previously we pointed out that the preference for an exclusive viewpoint would lead us into indeterminable conflicts which become various schools of thought. In the quotation from Guenon we have presented that point of view which reduced everything to Absolute Mind or its passive perfection; even its ability or power to modify itself was subsumed under its passive perfection. In the quotation by Mahadevan, the distinction between the theory of vivarta or

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illusory modification and the transformation (Parinama) theory is made more explicit and this difference has been expanded into two conflicting theories; that is, the Vedanta and Samkhya respectively. If we attempt to resolve this conflict from the viewpoint of Plotinus' double act we would say that Absolute Mind or the One itself always remains Self-intact, indivisible--@u<this is its passive> ? perfection. Its issuing act or power is the emanation that gets transformed into the Intellectual Principle, etc. Both these points of view, as we have previously tried to point out, must be held in balance. The intact perfection of the One always remains what it is. It is this which was referred to as its @u<passive perfection> and within this intact perfection is that complexity of the interiority of the One, and regardless of how we conceive of it, any sort of arrangement or rearrangement of the transcendental paradigms, it will always remain indivisible in its unity. It is only here that the vivarta theory is applicable. Then Plotinus speaks of the issuing Act (i.e., @u<its active perfection> ? which goes forth; and reflected within this power are those indivisible aspects of the One which now becomes Intellectual Principle. This emanation can be conceived as the One transforming and diversifying itself. These two viewpoints, that of the absolutely Absolute and the absolutely relative are an expression of its double Act.

If we now take the standpoint of the three primal hypostases--the One, the Intellectual Principle, and Soul--in terms of the definitive descriptions that have been given, we have to consider them as distinct realities of different degrees. Plotinus' principle of emanation must be applied and must be understood to mean that the eternally achieved gives rise eternally to an eternal emanation. The Divine Mind is a reflex, but in striking contrast to the vivarta theory, it is an image of an infinite original of such power and

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perfection that the very copy, so-called, stands a reality. The Intellectual and its emanation, Soul, are not illusory in any sense; they are also eternal, and they are not annulled or cancelled out. Even if we view the three primals as forming an integral whole, which is often referred to as the Absolute when considered from the side of manifestation, still, in a sense, the distinctions cannot be dissolved so that the Nous and Soul, so carefully defined, become illusory principles. In our understanding of the metaphysical infinite, we retain the view of the One as the pure and only perfect reality, as well as the view of real and distinct emanations from it. We do not violate the One's sovereignty by granting to each of the other levels of reality their proper status; they do not become nil and void in the face of the One which they eternally contemplate.

It is true that these distinctions of the 3 Hypostases are given to the novice as a help in understanding--and which later on, when the intuitive life is practiced, may be disregarded--and all three may be considered as God or the Absolute. But this is not the issue here. What is important to remember is that these distinctions are going to provide us with the necessary foundational principles that must be applied to universal manifestation and then again applied to that portion of universal manifestation referred to as Body-thus providing us with the necessary means by which we can understand that the cosmic circuit can announce or reflect back to us the meanings that are in the intelligible world. Furthermore, the logical deduction that follows from the original premises permits us to point out the non-difference between the unity of a god and the body that represents it. There is no hiatus between the immediate efficacy of its will and its execution, even though we have established a hierarchy of causation and cognition.

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@u<The Bhagavad Gita> propounds a view of Brahman as having four aspects, the first three of which are transcendent and which correlate to the One, Intellectual Principle, and Soul. This teaching corroborates the Plotinian doctrine in that these three are defined and distinguished one from the other prior to their immanence in Visvasrit, or the fourth aspect of Brahman, which Plotinus calls Zeus, the Demiurge. Neither in the @u<Enneads> nor in the @u<Gita> are these three confounded with each other or reduced to one homogeneous simplicity to which the vivarta theory could be applied.

In brief, Plotinus' position is that it is because the One remains itself, perfect, that its emanants are guaranteed to stand as eternal realities. We cannot say that because the emanants are real, the unity of the One is shattered, nor that because the One must remain intact the emanants must be illusory. Thus, Vedanta may interpret the "One without a second" to mean that there is only Brahman and that all else is illusory manifestation; they may even say that there is nothing else. But we will say instead that there is nothing else @u<like> Brahman, for it is the only perfection and all the others its expression.

To go further, we cannot apply the principle of vivarta, as we have understood it, within any of the levels below the One. The eternal ordering and interrelation of the aggregate of beings in the Intellectual Principle does not permit us to say that each Idea of the total of Ideas is an illusory modification or manifestation of the Intellectual Principle, for the Intellectual Principle @u<is> the totality of these eternal, distinct, real Ideas. Similarly, in the level of Soul where there is a multiplicity of unit souls, their characteristically defined powers and reason principles

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distinguish each soul from the others, although they also each include one another. Nor can the principle of manifestness-Asmita-(the Overself) be submerged and dissolved for this would leave the individuality unexplainable. We come then to universal manifestation, and perhaps here, more than anywhere else, to insist that the universe and the things within it are illusory manifestations or modifications of Brahman rather than expressions of Brahman is to reduce to rubble and chaos the Divine and spiritually ordered relativity of existence. (note: sentence unclear) In other words, we are not being offered an explanation and some understanding of the Divine Theophany--but a partial and incomplete expression of its Truth. Emanation properly understood will provide us this ultimate Truth in its fullness. The erasure of all frameworks would result in the meaningless assertion that the ego does not exist, or, that it is absolute. As expressing in image or imitation being its prior principles, the universe is not an illusion, but is the perpetually becoming body of the Divine, without beginning or end. Within any of the levels of manifestation the presence of the living forms or reason principles, the outward functioning of wisdom intelligence, prevent us from speaking of these as illusion. And these principles provide us with emanated levels of reality that are frameworks within which truthful statements can be made. Consequently, it is meaningless to say "nirvana is samsara."

Perfection has no tenses, nor is it even the timeless, ordered simultaneity of the eternals as found in the Intellectual Principle. It is pure, unconditioned positivity, uncomposite fullness, beyond the isness or the characterization of any particular form or idea. Yet it contains in a transcendental mode, that is, in a mode other than that of the Intellectual Principle, all that is ultimately true. How

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@quotation< "In this way: the intellectual object is self-gathered (self-compact) and is not deficient as the seeing and knowing principle must be-deficient, I mean, as needing an object--it is therefore no unconscious thing: all its content and accompaniment are its possession; it is self-distinguishing throughout; it is the seat of life as of all things; it is, itself, that self-intellection which, stemming from an inner consciousness, takes place in eternal repose, that is to say, in a mode other than that of the Intellectual Principle." (V.4.2)>

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Note: In emanation view--the Intellectual Principle and the Soul are simultaneous--to say the second Act is the Intellectual Principle is the sequential view--but this is not really clear here.

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This self-contained Mind-in-Itself is the source from which arises what Plotinus refers to as the second Act. The earlier form of the double act is the realized identity of the One itself, that is, active and passive perfection, as identical, is the nature of the One, and this is the first Act. "The second Act is...an emanation distinct from the thing (the One) itself," (V.4.2) Plotinus says, and he refers to this as "the output of a mighty power, the mightiest there is." This second Act is the Intellectual Principle, (see Note) and it may be conceived of as the outgoing efflux or emanant, which is distinct but not separated from its all-mighty prior. In quote V.1.6 he refers to this as its outward-facing hypostasis...The path from metalogical infinity to Being is established in this peculiar way, and there is no hiatus between them.

The ultimate truth of the lesser levels of reality is to be found in the One itself, but through the process of emanation there is a transmission so that traces of this truth are revealed in the lesser principles. The similarity between this Absolute Mind or Superknowledge and the Parabrahman of the Vedantins can hardly be overlooked. Yet it cannot be said that this production of eternal being is an illusory modification of the Principle of all principles, suggesting impotence of this mighty power to engender eternal realities that in their turn produce the whole System of Nature in which they are immanent. The perpetual validity of the two views of truth is based on this production which includes within itself the ground for a variety of ontologies and epistemologies. Nor is it possible to conceive the unoriginated as "the only transmigrant,"

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buttressing its perfection by creating illusory manifestations that it then must reabsorb, as if it were incapable of producing eternal offspring. The One is immune to such solicitations of official orthodoxy.

If the Absolute knowledge and the absolutely relative knowledge persist side by side, paradoxically and perpetually, then the application of this truth to the realm of contingency provides the answers to certain "unaskable questions"--answers that are in direct confrontation with the official religious dogmas. For example: if the Absolute can grant the eternal gift of Being to the Soul, Soul in turn will manifest eternally. As authentic essence the Soul includes a principle of manifestation, and to claim that Soul is reabsorbed when it achieves recognition of its true Being is to deny its status as an authentic essence capable of engendering perpetually a reflex of itself. Consequently, self-realization does not necessarily entail the cessation of its manifestation. The Buddha or a sage will continue to reappear periodically, for it is in the very nature of Soul--that it be represented by an ego. It is the very nature of Soul as an authentic essence to be a metaphysical wanderer in the infinitude of God's Being. When the consequences of a true comprehension of these metaphysical principles are applied, such problems receive an unequivocal answer, official dogmas notwithstanding.

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Our first approach to an understanding of the fathomless depths of power within the One led us to the notion of the Dyad or power, which is the "matter" that the One uses or "moulds" into a desired shape. Crucial at that point was an appreciation of the fact that the One's power is not other than the One; to speak of the One and its power is to speak of its own motionless activity or realized identity. Now, in an effort to render a more precise and comprehensive portrayal of the internal self-distribution of power within the One itself, we must differentiate the concept of the double act from the issuing act or its outward-facing hypostasis. The act native to this realized identity of the One and its power is the double act. (Double Act already introduced on page 30.) In contrast to the issuing act, it is the power remaining with the One.

Platonism speaks of Power as the "matter" of the One, and the aspects of the One are conceived to "arise" from an "interaction" of the One and this "matter" or power. The result of this interaction, which the Platonists call the Triad, is conceived of as a completed completing power within the fullness of the One's infinite being. We must make sure that the words do not deceive us; they should not be allowed to suggest temporality, causality, or change, for we are speaking about the One as a totally accomplished and complete perfection. When we distinguish its Active and its Passive perfection, we are still speaking of Absolute Mind itself: a no-thingness, paradoxically a plenum, self-contained. There never could have been a beginning, nor will there ever be a lapse from this fullness that is the immaculate, inviolable virginity of the Idea of the Ideas. Universal possibility ever remains meta-ontically achieved.

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Within this infinite and undefiled continuum we conceived of an ever- accomplished Act. Its outward facing hypostasis or radiation is power, the Void-mind's utterance, within which the Good imparts to itself (that is, its power) this shoreless ocean of wisdom-the "Idea-of-the-Good" which reflects something of the interior thrice-unknown darkness. Insofar as the Intellectual Principle is a multiplicity itself, these many parts of the Intellectual Principle suggest the indivisible or partless parts of the One. It is to these unfathomable glimmerings that we now address ourselves so that we may speak of the paradigms or transcendent models found in the One. We will call this the Triad. Each partless part of the One is conceived of in turn as the totality of the One, and the Triad is in a sense the illusory divisions of this Unity. This amplification permits us to conceive of the facets of the One as a prefiguration of the Intellectual Principle. Or, conversely, the aggregate of Ideas and powers, which in their totality constitute the Intellectual Principle, may be seen as a reflex of the excellencies found in the One's effulgence.

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With these verbal distinctions now available we may now try to deepen and expand our clarification by the use of the diagram. For instance, when Plotinus speaks of a principle which transcends Being (quote V.1.l0) we can readily translate these remarks into a pictorial form. - (insert p. A)

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@quotation< V.1.10

"There exists a Principle which transcends Being; this is The One, whose nature we have sought to establish, in so far as such matters lend themselves to proof. Upon the One follows immediately the Principle which is at once Being and the Intellectual-Principle. Third comes the Principle, Soul.

Now just as these three exist for the system of Nature, so, we must hold, they exist for ourselves. I am not speaking of the material order-all that is separable-but of what lies beyond the sense realm in the same way as the Primals are beyond all the heavens; I mean the corresponding aspect of man, what Plato calls the Interior Man.">

(The diagram will aptly illustrate our two-fold viewpoint. We may look upon the circle as a symbol of the One itself-all and everything is included.

Again, we can look at the divisions within the One as those principles that emanate from the One.

These two points of view are simultaneous in the chart.

The One as utterly transcendent is symbolized by the 1st House, distinct from all other houses. The One as immanent is the presence of the circle of the One in each of the houses.

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These 4 principles can be diagramed as a circle divided into 4 quadrants. a simple static representation of his meaning. The 1st Quadrant represents the Unity; the 2nd Intellectual Principle; the 3rd symbolizes Soul; and the 4th, the entire System of Nature or Universal Manifestation in its totality; that is, the Body of God, with a Unity, Being, Soul and the Visible Cosmos.

Again, the illustration might be duplicated in a much more dynamic fashion. The unknown center radiating four concentric circles, the first two innermost circles representing the Intellectual Principle, then following, Soul and lastly, Body. This diagram visually suggests the paradoxical Nature of Reality: intelligence and its activity, or substance and function simultaneously--which is a prerequisite for metaphysical understanding. (use quote IV.3.17)

The ring view in its dynamism connects or relates the substance--it offers an approximation to the dynamism which connects together the quadrants or intelligences.

Again in V.1.8, he speaks of the Primal dignities which surround or adorn each principle:

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@quotation< (V.1.8)

"This is the explanation of Plato's Triplicity, in the passage where he names as the Primals the Beings gathered about the King of All and establishes a Secondary containing the Secondaries and a Third containing the Tertiaries.

He teaches, also, that there is an author of the Cause, that is of the Intellectual-Principle, which to him is the Creator who made the Soul, as he tells us, in the famous mixing bowl. This author of the causing principle, of the divine mind, is to him the Good, that which transcends the Intellectual-Principle and transcends Being: often, too, he uses the term "The Idea" to indicate Being and the Divine Mind. Thus Plato knows the order of generation-from the Good, the Intellectual-Principle; from the Intellectual-Principle, the Soul.">

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We can symbolize the primals as and by the dignities as we find them in the astrological mandala with the following results:

@verbatim<

>

Plotinus' initial premises, that is the simultaneity of the double act, is already available in this bare sketch. We can further enrich our diagram by associating the Primals with the 1st Quadrant, "gathered around the King of All" which obviously situates Him in the same locus. Similarly, the secondaries are in the 2nd Quadrant, and so on.

If we allow ourselves the freedom to correlate the dignities that we find in the astrological mandala, the innermost circle would be filled in by all the rulerships, the second circle by the exaltations, the next by the detriments, and the outermost with the falls. We now have at our disposal a chart that diagrams the All and its Source.

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With this mandala at our disposal we have available a device by which we can investigate and illustrate all the subtle intricacies of the neo-Platonic Tradition. And like a general with his maps planning for battle we can pinpoint with little flags our understanding of the chief ideas, their interrelationship with one another and the tremendous complexity that ensues, especially if we try to grasp it all at once. As we pick up one quotation and attempt to define our understanding pinpointed in the diagram, we can then put it down again within the matrix of this web of relationships without fear of it slipping away.

Starting with our opening quotation, V.4.1, we will identify this Absolutely Transcendent with the first mansion, the Idea of the Ideas, or Absolute Mind. All the references made above regarding its utter simplicity and inviolable transcendency will apply to the 1st house. This is the intact super-knowledge, which cannot even be spoken of, as suggestive of the identity of passive and active perfection.

@verbatim<

The One-Only

>

This figure suggests that the first house or the passive perfection of the One and its unfathomable depths of power as identical with it-symbolized by the four principles-is purely One. This precisely illustrates "his meaning in VI.8.16 that 'the self originating self tendence of the One is at once Act and Repose'" (use whole quote) In VI.9.6 he goes on to remind us that absolute self-sufficiency characterizes it. Essentially beyond statement this most positive affirmation brings language to a breaking point. In summarily fashion we are simply reviewing what we have previously said regarding the simplicity of the One, but it is essential that this point be emphasized and attached to the proffered symbolism.

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In VI.7.40 Plotinus refers to this illusory division within the One's interiority and he points out that the operation of its power produces no new thing within the One, and distinguishes that power, which is identical with the One, from the emanating or issuing power which comes to be the Intellectual Principle. Now it is with the power which is identical with its source, which is a completing completed power within that source, that our difficulties will arise. For we are being asked to incorrectly conceive this power which is indistinguishable from the One spread out among or within its infinite complexity and totally present within each of its indivisible aspects. It is the same power which simultaneously exhibits Infinity and Bound. In other words, the passive and active aspect of the One are being distinguished by the 2nd and 3rd houses with their respective powers, that is, in "factoring" out the illusory components of this indivisible One, we get an expanded version of its interiority. If we think of the second house as unlimited substance, and the third house as infinite function, these two are not different from the first house for in dividing the One by itself it remains unalterably itself. We now need to apply this understanding directly to the diagram so that we could properly achieve an appreciation of the first quadrant as the Unity.

@verbatim<

>

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(inserted on page l56)

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The One as Triadic

@verbatim<

>

The second and third houses show the Double Act distinguished within the One. The One divided by itself is still itself.

@verbatim<

>

The One or the coincidence of the double act in its realized self-identity distinguished within the distinctionless whole-or the Power as identical with the indivisible infinite complexity of the One-is here shown by the diagram. As we said, the triad is an expanded version of the One, revealing the indivisibility of its aspects and the supposed interaction that could take place among them. The juxtaposition of the views of the One as the 1st House and as the 1st Quadrant is an example of the Double Act as remaining in the One.

Through a simultaneous combination of both these points of view, we may glimpse the Triad as the meta-ontic, a-temporal "completion" or the "interaction" of the One's Active and Passive Perfection. There has been no change; no "creation" has taken place: the One's own essence stands ineffably "completed," its unfailing self-tendence was and will be abidingly self-fulfilled. This essence, which is the very being of the One's absolute positivity, is both passive @u<and> active. From the sheer intensity of this perfection, there emanates, as a distinct and lower existent, the Intellectual Principle, the aggregate of eternally-existing Ideas and Beings. In the Intellectual Principle we find the eternal ordering of the essential forms and their gnostic powers. But beyond and above even the eternal self-ordering of the Knowing Principle itself, we find the utterly undifferenced prefiguration

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of all that lesser principle's activity in the supremely encompassing self-fulfilled super-intelligence of the One. In contrast, Intellectual Principle contains all the compossibilities (?) of Being. The One's own essence, however, must carefully be distinguished from all these real distinctions and may strictly be called universal being, pure positivity, beyond the authentic forms of any and all determined being. The paradigms of all facets of being infinitely coincide in the Perfection of the One. The visualization of this example can be used to exemplify the prior example used, i.e., of combining and permutating the totality of Ideas.

We can now rearrange the variety of indivisible aspects within the One to suit our purposes. @verbatim<

>

Or we can rearrange the Triad in this fashion:

@verbatim<

>

The employment of this diagram will allow us to more easily perceive the transcendental paradigms of Nous, Idea, etc., which Plotinus refers to in VI.8.18. (?) So perhaps it will be wise for us to examine the actualized possibilities which are in the Triad, remembering always that these remain in the realm of the unmanifest or, more precisely, pre-ontological.

@verbatim<

>

page 158 inserted in page 156

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Mars in the first house in Aries represents the Power and Principle of Individuality manifesting, as it must, its infinite fullness, this necessarily reveals the double act: Venus in the second house (Taurus) represents the totality of essences-the Being of infinite possibilities-as the objective aspect of this infinite fullness; Mercury in the third house (Gemini) is the pure Being or Subjective Wisdom Consciousness. Thus, Mars, in manifesting the double act within the Transcendent, reveals the paradoxical coincidence of the opposites which constitute it, or may be conceived as an illusory division of itself. Described in Orphic Theology as Universal Being or Goodness, Universal Soul and Universal Mind. In this way we can see how @verbatim< > can symbolize the One.

The Sun in the first house in Aries represents the Intellect of the Transcendent One, the author and paradigm of all determined being (refer to chart) which we will find in the Intellectual Principle and it also exposes a version of the double act within the Transcendent. Two complementary aspects of the Unity's undifferenced super-intellection are revealed. On the side of Repose, we see the Moon in Taurus, which represents the @u<act> of the infinite possibilities; on the side of Active Perfection, we see the Head of the Dragon in Gemini, representing the eternal order which reigns among the two foregoing possibilities: this latter is equivalent to the principle of intellectual "numbering" which represents Order within the One. Thus, the Sun here manifests or includes in its act the totality of the intelligence of these essences and the perfection inherent in their mutual reciprocity. This is equivalent to the Intellect of the One and the author of all Being.

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Finally, Venus in Aries here represents the Infinite Nature, the uncircumscribed operational activity of the One, the unlived and unpolluted fountain of Life. It is projected into "view" by the totality of power inherent in the nature of these infinite possibilities-Mars in Taurus-conjoined with the undivided demiurgic power of the Subjective Wisdom Consciousness, or Jupiter in Gemini or we may say Venus in Aries is the units of the power of the distinct essences combined with the Demiurgic Activity, the One's infinite formative power. These three, in their totality, are what may be referred to as the infinite operation of the One.

Throughout this internal self-distribution of its own power, the One remains intact, stable in its unchanging identity. The reciprocal and mutually interpenetrating aspects of this undifferenced continuum we are incorrectly expressing as the identity and indivisibility of the One. One multiplied by One infinitely equals One. This inner completion is the Act of the One remaining in itself. Stillness reigns.

Saturn in Aries, the fourth of the dignities in the first house, represents the principle that is perhaps the most mysterious of all. The Mysterium Magnum (of Paracelsus), the Mulaprakriti of the Vedantins and also the Principle of Difference of the Platonists, which "throws a veil" over the Transcendent and is this principle of matter the mulaprakriti of the Samkhyans? something of the One is revealed through its emanation; the "body" of the Lord, pure Space. Is this the matter that is co-eternal with God? The clues offered on the nature of this principle are scanty and meager and we will follow this up later.

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In summarizing this analysis of the One as constituted of the double act we have tried to tentatively understand each of these principles within this distinctionless whole, allowing us to assign certain notions to each principle. So that the Mars Venus Mercury represents the One, the Sun Moon Head the Infinite Being of the One. Further analysis allows us to distinguish within the Being of the One, the Sun as the paradigm of Being, the Moon its actionless activity or Power, and the Head as the numbering principle within it which assigns specific Ideas their powers. If we continue in the same vein the Venus Mars Jupiter would be the Life or Absolute Soul of the One, but this principle is also the hyparxis of Individual Souls and Universal Soul-that is, an individual Soul is constituted of a portion or spark of the One's infinite nature combined with certain super-essential possibilities, just as Universal Soul has for its a priori the Infinite Nature of the One and certain superessential possibilities.

So finally it comes to this: that the Pure Intelligence as a unity paradoxically reveals itself to our understanding as the measureless power that supplies actualization to the infinity of possibilities; or the reverse view, which is just as inconceivable, that the possibilities in their totality through their inherent self-knowing is that same indescribable power. This is basically the concept of the Triad.

[ONE9.FW]

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These primitive and fugitive sketches of the Unities may allow us to grasp something of what Plotinus refers to as the Transcendental paradigms of Being, Life, Nous, Number, etc. having their Source in the One-Only. Only here is it applicable to speak of each in all and all in each. (note: amplify with diagram) The fertility of this idea should unfold as our analysis of the One proceeds. Plotinus was obviously communicating a philosophic wisdom within which the reconciliation of the "Who Am I" and the "What Am I" could take place.

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Note how views of Triad unfolded [put with 5?!] @verbatim<

>

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insofar as each unit includes within it a principle of Body, e.g., and the @u<unity> of Body is Saturn in Aries--this shows how each are in all and all are in each at the level of the Triad. We have unity running through unities--each principle is in all the principles and all the principles are in each. This is available @u<only> at the level of the Triad.

4) as - Sun in the 5th House is included in Sun in Aries--see Sun in Libra--tattvas implanted.

Unity of Sun

Unity of Sun in Aries, also including these 4 Ideas

Aries--father of Idea of Man

Leo--Son

Libra--provides implementation with Idea of Man in Substance

Aquarius--any unity or anything that has existence in 4th quadrant will have implanted in the Sun in Aquarius-each soul has participation in tattvas for its portrayal of universe.

(note: a true unity?)

V. (as combination of III & IV)

Whether Unity resides in intelligible powers or whether it is the unity of the Ideas which provide the unity to the Intelligibles (?) or is this mutually reciprocal--i.e. both?

Note: Dragon's Head as Unity of Ideas and Numbers has to be worked out in the same way as other Unities--(in its outward facing hypostasis--the Ideas)

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Examining our diagram of the First House, we notice the four dignities--these indicate or suggest that the Absolute has, in a mode peculiar to itself, a 4-fold Nature. Riding on the formalism of the chart we conclude that 4 is the symbol of manifestation par excellence, and that its applicability to every level may be noticed by the following considerations.

The four-fold nature of the One has been somewhat anticipated in our previous discussion of the Three Primal Hypostases and their embodiment in the System of Nature. This was symbolized as a circle divided into four quadrants. The first quadrant refers to the Unity of the One, the second quadrant to Its Being, the third to Its Soul, and the fourth quadrant to Its Body. Continuing the application of the principle of the quaternity, it must also be applied to universal manifestation, and here again we can say that the latter has a Unity, Being, Soul and Body. Within the totality of universal manifestation there will be reduplicated the infinite variety and complexity of the 3 Primal Hypostases. There is the implication that the entirety is the Sacred Body of God and His abode, which is fraught with Divine significance; a theophany of lustre and light--Intelligence--radiating His presence throughout and invisibly describing Himself with various living qualities in patterns made by the clusters and galaxies of starlight. And the breath of vital wisdom speaks to the archetypal imagination and its powers resulting in the form of the Cosmos.

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Further, the four-fold Idea is again applied to the sensible portion of universal manifestation and thus we may speak of it having a unity provided by the Life of Universal Soul which manifests itself or is veiled behind the 5 great Elements; has an Intellect which we can correlate with the inerratic spheres, within which we can situate an individual Cosmic Soul which manifests its vision of that Intellect; and finally, the corporeal world.

Again, this 4-fold Idea can be applied to Mind's Absoluteness or its integrity of perfection (Turiya) from which emanates the other three states of consciousness, each one of which has a four-fold nature. For example, Vaishvanara or wakeful consciousness has a four-fold nature; that is, we can refer to wakeful-wakeful consciousness, wakeful-dream, wakeful-sleep, and awakened-wakefulness or that 4th state of wakefulness which is identical with the Demiurgic Life and Turiya Consciousness.

(As the Demiurgic life is the 4th State the reference must be to 12th House-yet this is unclear and thus paragraph seems disjointed.)

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The following diagram compares the Plotinian and Vedantic classification of principles

The double standpoint required by philosophy

@u<3 Pure Hypostases> @u<these 3 principles as they are applied and exist in nature>

@u<The One>

@u<Intellectual Principle> the @u<Unity of Universal Manifestation>

@u<Soul> its @u<Ordered Intelligence or Being> the @u<Life or Activity within the>

@u<Body of Universal Manifestation> within which will be included:

1. Unity of sensible or corporeal

2. Intellect

3. Soul &

4. Body

These 3 principles are enumerated by Plotinus, and in their totality can be referred to as the Divine Hypostases. From this side of manifestation all 3 together can be conceived of as the Absolute. (note: "These 3 principles" is entirely on the left side of the page.)

(from Sharma, p. 90)

The Vedas, which include the Brahmanic and the Upanisadic literature, propound the fourfold aspects of Brahman:

1. Avyaya Brahman-Infinite Beyond, Beyond Being, without any qualifications, not even, One (because One is a limitation);

2. Aksara Brahman-Indestructible One, the Ultimate Cause, not yet differentiated from Pure Existence;

3. Atmaksara Brahman-The Cosmic Self with the potentialities of creation, preservation, and destruction, not yet manifested in Cosmic Creation; as such Brahman is the Creator is the same sense Nous is;

4. Visvasrit Brahman--the projection of the Atmaksara into the entire creation of time, space, causality. As such, Brahman is the Cosmic Form-the World Soul. This fourth is also called Virat Purusa.

(Consequently Universal Manifestation will have immanent in it

a) Unity

b) Being

c) Life or Soul (Unity)

d) Body

(note: points 1-3 above are on left side of page; point 4 on the right. See original)

page 168

When we apply the Idea of the 4-fold to the One as represented by the Triad, we are, of course, trying to understand the One as a quaternity. This does not exclude applying the other numbers to it.

@verbatim<

emanation >

In the above diagram we can say of this Universal Being that it is the self-sufficing pure intelligence eternally self-causing itself intrinsic perfection without any intermediary, and is its own material, instrumental, efficient and final cause.

page 169

@quotation< "Therefore it is the existence of a 'second' in the midst of the 'One without a second' which makes the only reality mysterious; in the end, all spiritual search comes to the question: by virtue of 'what' (@u<mah>) does cosmic existence become concrete? The Kabbalah answers: this 'what', (@u<mah>), is divine immanence, the last @u<Sefirah, malkhuth>, the 'kingdom' of God, which produces, encircles and penetrates the whole of creation. @u<Malkhuth,> situated at the lower extremity of the 'middle pillar', is not only the 'recipient' of all the emanations of the @u<Sefiroth> on the luminous or intelligible 'right side', and on the dark or unintelligible 'left side', but also of the central @u<Sefiroth>, the highest of which is @u<kether>, the superintelligible principle. In other words, @u<malkhuth> is the>

page 170

@quotation< 'descent', the @u<shekhinah> or omnipresence of the supreme, which is manifested on the one side by intelligible emanations united in the universal spirit and, on the other, by unintelligible emanations, the darkness of which becomes concrete in creative substance. So, @u<malkhuth> has an essential aspect, a spiritual aspect, and a substantial aspect; in its essence it is super intelligible and identical with the 'who?' (@u<mi>); it is the 'end which comes to join the beginning' and, through that, the 'cause of causes,' which is unknowable; in its spirituality it is intelligible: it is the 'light of the world,' called 'that' (@u<eleh>); and in its substantiality it is unintelligible: it is the 'firmament which has no light from itself,' the 'what?' (@u<mah>) of all substance.">

We can easily transpose the Kabalistic tree into a more suitable framework for ourselves by diagramming the ten intelligibles (dignities) of the first quadrant into the form of the Kabalistic tree, as illustrated below.

This second which is in the midst of the "One without a Second," this 'what,' Malkhuth, which produces, encircles and penetrates the whole of creation can easily accommodate that mysterious sentence from V.5.8, wherein Plotinus says:

@quotation<No doubt it is wonderful that The First should thus be present without any coming, and that, while it is nowhere, nowhere is it not: but wonderful though this be in itself, the contrary would be more wonderful to those who know. Of course neither this contrary nor the wonder at it can be entertained.>

page 171

In V.5.9, he continues in the same theme:

@quotation<That Source, having no prior, cannot be contained: uncontained by any of those other forms of being, each held within the series of priors, it is orbed round all, but so as not to be pointed off to hold them part for part; it possesses but is not possessed. Holding all-though itself nowhere held-it is omnipresent, for where its presence failed, something would elude its hold. At the same time, in the sense that it is nowhere held it is not present: thus it is both present and not present, not present as not being circumscribed by anything; yet, as being utterly unattached, not inhibited from presence at any point. That inhibition would mean that the First was determined by some other being; the later series, then, would be without part in the Supreme; God has His limit-and is no longer self-governed but mastered by inferiors.>

page 172

Although the One in itself is not in space, and in this sense it is nowhere-for we described it as being supremely self-adequate; thus there is for it neither coming nor going-it is also present everywhere because that everywhere is the 'place' wherein actuality (or the emanations) will occur. This principle-the "ground" for the emanation from the Unity is referred to by Schaya as "not a distinct substance, but rather the undifferentiated, uncreated principle of all substance which in no way emerges from the infinite and indivisible unity of the created causes; this principle envelopes (sic) them and is yet hidden within them..." This is the paradigm of that principle Plotinus refers to as "authentic non-existence," the principle of difference; he refers to it as the base of the intellectual realm (and all the other levels as well.) In II.4.5, he speaks of this principle as a "cleavage," distinguishing itself from the First by a motion that results in sheer indeterminacy or matter, and requiring the Unity to give it determination.

page 173

This determination, which we have referred to as the (Body) of the One, has space as its closest analogue. To conceive of this space as the Body of the Lord is certainly to dematerialize whatever associations the word "body" may suggest. A closer equivalence would be "the formlessness of emptiness," its ungraspability, the dimensionlessness. As Plato at one time pointed out, the receptacle is available only to a kind of spurious reasoning. At any rate, confrontation with it is not possible; always receding and elusive, it may be referred to as an authentic principle which has the "Being of Non-being." It is this principle, which is an aspect of the One itself, in and through which the emanation will appear. The Mulaprakriti of the Samkhyans, the root through which and in which emanation occurs, therefore has already implicit all the (?) intelligibles: it is not the nothingness (?) of matter. The uttermost outward-facing aspect of metaphysical infinity, it is the veil of unintelligibility thrown by the Transcendent over itself. It is the inner and the outer, without any in-between; that is, if one conceives of inner and outer as opposites, one misses the mark. We can say the same of infinite space that we say of the Absolute and apply to it the same epithets-unseizable, ungraspable, etc. Perhaps more than any other aspect of metaphysical infinity, this principle illustrates the distinctionlessness of the Transcendent's Double Act. Nonetheless, however incomprehensible our survey has been, there have been schools of thought which insist upon the possibility of its differentiation into various grades of matter, each grade being a distinct stadia of this principle of authentic non-Being. For example in the case of the Samkhya, Prakriti is potential being and actual substance, which seems to suggest that in the realm of the unmanifest (space), the first

page 174

emanation will occur... the Intellectual Principle.

It seems clear now why Malkhuth, or the principle of non-existence, is referred to as the "foundation" of the (intellectual) worlds. Space which cannot be located is the "place" which permits the One to be everywhere, without itself being anywhere. From here, the outflow or emanations of the One can proceed.

page 175

Perhaps the rest--5 to 9--can be prefaced by indicating that they are only briefly discussed here--but from a different point of view, they are discussed implicitly:

5 - when the distinct Unities Mars in Aries & Venus in Taurus, etc., are discussed 6 - is really the approach through the Intellectual Principle.

8 - approach through Unit Souls as authentic existence 9 - approach through universal manifestation

(this is note to page 149. Vol. 1)

no page 176, 177 page l78

#5-Divine

According to the editors of the @u<Shrine of Wisdom>, the Pentad is the "Number of Divine Incarnation, of the infinite monad (or One) manifesting in the finitude of the Tetrad." We endorse and fully accept this at the level of Being, for if our understanding is correct, they refer here to the presence of the One in the Intellectual Principle or Being; even further, in any Idea within Being. In other words, the One is immutably present in each Idea. However, our interest is in pointing out that this principle is already prefigured in the One itself when we say "indivisible aspects" of the One. We are saying that the One is present in any 'aspect' of itself; it is its presence in all aspects of itself that gives rise to the notion of the Divine Pentad--and thus we can refer to each aspect of the One as a pure indistinguishable one. The Perfection of any one is due to this Transcendent Principle, that the One has the power to reproduce itself entire in any unity--each unity inheriting the total interior complexity of the One. Since each of the l0 Unities is an indivisible aspect, and the One can be totally present in each, the 5 represents the indivisibility of the One's "aspects," and each aspect is a unique formless form. . . We are in effect tracing the principle of the Divine Pentad to its Source.

@verbatim<

>

*(Also--5 is the principle behind the statement that there is the One, and then the one with otherness.) page 179

6 & 7

The totality of possible combinations and permutations of the Unities within the One according to the Ideas and Numbers is represented by the principle of 6. Thus 6 can symbolize for us the view of the One as the Idea of Ideas, or Mind. From this standpoint, all the unities are in each and each is in all-interpenetrating. In the linear progression of the Triad, the Head is the 6th principle, representing the arranging of the Sun and Moon correspondences, the correlation of substance and function, (or) the uniform or equal distribution of the ideas through all the unities.

Applying the ordering of the Ideas and Numbers to the interior structure of the Unities, we can correlate the number principles horizontally with the l0 unities, and can examine the interior nature of each of the unities corresponding with the paradigms of the Ideas found in the One, leading to the meaning of the 7.

Every authentic One contains or exhibits an outward facing hypostasis, which is represented by the number 7. Out of the non-finality of the ordering power of the 6 arises a kind of monolithic view of the 7 unific aspects of the One, each with a sevenfold internal structure. Placing the Head back in a position above as the union of the (Sun and Moon,) and the nature aspects of Mars and Venus also above, we get a 7 by 7 picture of the unbegotten and unbegetting stasis of the One. This provides also the paradigm within the One of the 7 fold function of the various levels of reality, i.e., it represents the Nature of the One (Venus in Aries)

(Diagram to Follow - 7X7)

page 180

@verbatim<

>

page 181

8 The 8 represents the infinity of possibilities actualized-contained in the indeterminacy of the One. Therefore, eight is said to be the most divisible, and signifies the infinity of attributes of the One, the variation of which is utterly indeterminate. (A) binary tree diagram is sometimes used to indicate an infinity of possible paths which seem, if one were located along one, to involve infinite choice, but as all paths are simultaneously actualized in the One, any "choice" is already in conformity to the One. All is accomplished, yet its infinite indeterminacy implies an absolute freedom.

@verbatim<

>

There is also a sense that the 8 implies a three dimensional continuum extending from our view of the One as 7.

@verbatim<

>

(8 is the first cube may imply this picture)

In the sequential view, (Mars in Taurus) represents the nature of the infinite separability of the Samskaras of God, the principle infinitely dividing unity indivisibly to the utmost divisible degree. Through this principle are also suspended the many authentic unit Souls, and a line which he uses to describe the Authentic in VI.5 is very apt for the number 8: "Though you divide it...it is infinite to the core" (p. 540 bottom)

page 182

#9-Divine

The Ninth principle is said to return all things to itself. "All things" refers to the infinity of attributes which a Transcendent One must include-the unfailing divisibility of its infinite principles according to the view of 8. The 9 indicates the completed-completion, the One's Double Act within itself. The 9 is said to circulate all things in itself, which is an artificial attempt to conceive the boundlessness and infinity of the One as having boundary-it bounds without limiting. So, the view of infinite divisibility and infinity is not left unbounded or unordered. We may conceive of the 8 as a line or infinite continuum, the 9 as a circle which bends upon itself-which is a different notion of infinity. Bonaventure's description of God as "a circle whose circumference is nowhere and whose center is everywhere" is appropriate.

In linguistic terms, we may say it is a definition without a negation, or a definition defined, in which the infinity of attributes are returned each to themselves-to the One (Since 3 refers to definition, and 9 = 3X3 or 3 "applied to itself.")

@verbatim< >

Nothing can be added to, or go outside of the One or Authentic Existence.

In the third House, (Jupiter in Gemini) represents the conception of the perfect completion of everything pre-ontologically. Later, we will see that the Demiurge (Jupiter in Sagittarius) circulates all of generation within itself.

(10 @verbatim<

Presence of otherness with One 1 <- 0 Presence of One with otherness 1 -> 0>

(Proceeds to Discussion of Saturn in Aries)

page 183

From our discussion of the innate perfection of the One there has been evolving concomitantly with our understanding of this Ideas of the Ideas, the paradigm of all paradigms, a model which can be used to understand the nature of any 'one.' Even though ultimately the nature of any 'one' is already included in a transcendental mode in the One itself, this does not exclude the possibility of considering the nature of a 'one' that is not beyond Being, (i.e., in Being). In other words, the various levels of Reality which are included in the Ultimate Truth can and do maintain a distinct degree of Being because they are 'ones' in their own right. Therefore, insofar as anything is a 'one' or a unity, it has a principle that is indivisible and without parts, a self-identity which does not enter into relationship with anything else, a pure indivisible. This is the fundamental key that analysis of the One has uncovered for us.

The Intellectual Principle is such a 'one.' It is Intellection pure and simple, the ecstatic activity of Ideation, the thoughts that it thinks are the many membered parts of itself. This activity of Ideation does not cancel out that uniqueness, its indivisible self identity; it does not introduce any element of duality or predication into itself, but it does have many thoughts (parts) and these two together constitute a whole. This oneness is both the same as and different from the sum of its parts. So the consequence is that a 'one' is in fact and in actuality a whole composed of unity and multiplicity. Of the whole we may itemize or list a series of motions, some of which are seemingly contrary to others. (These notions) can be traced back to the fundamental two-fold nature, that is, its oneness and multiplicity.

page 184

If we apply the preceding analysis to our diagram we would point out that the foundational consciousness which encircles the 12 houses or Ideas is that unique oneness. The many ideas each with their own self-gnostic powers, the rulers and exaltations, would represent the Intellectual Principle as a One-Many. These two together constitute a whole of parts, some of which are contrary to others. Furthermore, this element of oneness which gives to each and every one of its parts (Ideas) their Existence and characteristic aseity must be considered together with this whole, although it can be equally said that these Eternals are the cause of the Mind's (thinking or) Act; (these as a whole) nonetheless Intellectual Principle (as a one?) remains dominant.

@quotation<and does not philosophy itself relate the births of the unbegotten and discriminate where all is one substance?>

(III.6.9)

@verbatim<

> Rulers and Exaltations

page 185

At this point we can analyze the nature of the member parts of the whole. Insofar that this element of unique oneness gives to each and every idea its characteristic idiom and existence, each stands distinct and cannot be identified with other units within the whole. Plotinus goes on to say that each and every idea is a special and unique version of the Intellectual Principle. Each and every Idea will reflect and duplicate the organization and structure of the Intellectual Principle--or again, the Intellectual Principle exhausts itself in the indefinite variations upon itself. This means that any one idea can be considered as a unity of Being and situated in the 1st house, and can be unfolded by applying the archetypal meanings revealed by the Intellectual Principle or the chart of Being.

We can now literally apply and illustrate this statement. Insofar that the totality of the Ideas which constitute the Intellectual Principle are archetypal wholenesses, any one of them can represent the unity of the Intellectual Principle or Intellection; and all the Ideas, insofar as they are archetypal wholenesses, can unfold the profound depths of its possibilities. So that, in a sense, each Idea is a miniature Intellectual Principle. In other words, we are now applying the same analysis which we have applied to the Intellectual Principle, to one of its parts. Shall we consider the Idea of Man as one of the Unities of Being that we shall put in the 1st house?

Perhaps here more than in the preceding example we will be able to clarify and illuminate our above remarks. If the Idea of Man is a permanent possibility within the Divine Mind, it is an indivisible principle, self-identical and without parts. This is the key. This Idea has the power to determine itself and this self-determination will introduce the element of multiplicity or

[ONE10.FW]

page 186

otherness. These two constitute a whole of parts which is both the same as and different than the sum of its parts as we found previously with the Intellectual Principle. It will include all that is necessary for its manifestation and actualization. Within this universal man the confusing variety or contrary elements that are included within the idea stand out much more sharply against each other so much so that some schools of thought do not recognize physical man (ego) as included within that Idea.

(Apply this to a unity in Triad? i.e. Body Monad)

(look through rejected notes)

page l87

The tremendous and diverse complexity of what the Idea of Man entails is subsumed under its self-determining providential wisdom. It is this Idea of Man, a variation of the Intellectual Principle itself or a special version of the Intellectual Principle imprinted upon or within the unit soul that determines it as human. This is the higher knower within us that Plotinus refers to and which stretches all the way "down" to include the sensible man. We have here the fundamental conception--Mentalism--that the Mind of God or the Intellectual Principle is present within the macrocosm, i.e., soul, the whole of the Intelligible world is within the soul.

page l88

Insofar as our analysis has shown the unity of each and every Idea, that unique and indivisible element, is not cancelled out by the contraries that are included within it--that is its active and passive aspects, we therefore assert that in any entity there is only one one, a single source of predicability. Now these other members of the Idea are not in themselves separate identifiable units but rather that they participate in the specificity of its one without which they would remain an indefinite multiplicity of unidentifiable parts.

(note: * in margin here)

If we return to the Idea of Man as found in the Intellectual Principle we are able to distinguish it from other Ideas (within the Intellectual Principle) and this distinguishing or relative non-being, if combined with the Idea of Man, this pair of contraries cannot characterize the Idea of Man. (note: end bracket beside *) Of course an unphilosophic mind would be unable to simultaneously grasp that element of unity, which runs through all its parts and all the parts, without that recognizable element of unity, into a whole. For without this element of unity all the parts would be unrecognizable for it is the source of their specificity and Being. We will find as we proceed in this detailed exposition of Plotinus, especially in his exposition of the Idea of Man, the application of the Eight Hypothesis of Parmenides being worked out in considerable detail, using the classical tripartite division of the Soul.

(*necessary to establish the uniqueness of the Idea of Man from all the other ideas--or universal relativity collapses.)

(See XI.7.2 or 3 "Idea is Cause.")

(pages 188A, 188B, 188C not typed here [per jf (2023) in 1988--they are key phrase meanings for the dignities in the Idea of Man mandalas-- see Astronoesis Endnote 31, pp. 327-29].

page 189

A series of quotes relating to the specific meanings of the l0 Unities.

(Saturn) This self-sufficing is the essence of its unity. VI.9.6

He is as he waked himself to be, as he acted himself into being, an awakeness without an awakener. VI.8.16

His Being is constituted by self-orig., self-tendence, at once Act and Repose.

(Venus) The One is the measure but not the measured.

The One is infinite in fathomless depths of Power. VI.9.6, V.4.2 - one (unintelligible)

(Mercury) All its content and accompaniment are its possession--it is self-distinguishing throughout in a mode above that of Intellectual Principle. V.4.2

(Sun) There is the Intellection remaining in the source as a kind of completion. VI.7.40 The One is cause of the cause... Wellspring of Being, Life, Intellect and Soul, Contains the Paradigm of Nous and Being. VI.8.18, VI.9.9

(Moon) The first must transcend this principle of life and intellect which directs thither both the life in itself, a copy of the life-giving principle in the First, and the intellection in itself which is again a copy, though of what original there we cannot know. V.3.16

Life in the Supreme is the collectivity of Power. VI.7.17

(power of the One confers the essential reality and knowing to each being.)

(Head) The Intellectual Principle knows the Transcendent in very essence...possessed a previous impression of the Transcendent. V.3.11

The truth is that Number existed within authentic Being, but not as applying to it.

(Venus) The Primal Beauty must be without form--it is simply the Nature of the Good. VI.7.33

(note: line through first part of quote) their essence some outward facing hypostasis continuously attached to them. V.1.6

(Mars) Anything coming from the Good carries the image and type belonging to that original, as anything going back to warmth or sweetness carries the memory of these originals. VI.7.18

Every particular thing has a One of its own to which it may be traced.

(Jupiter) The Supreme is the Term of all. VI.8.15

The Good gives union with itself in the measure of their ability to cling to it. V.6.6 The vision of the Intellectual Principle demands for its completion the Good. III.8.11

Intellection is the working of the imaged Good within them; the Intellectual Principle recognizes the likeness, sees the Good as a good to itself, an object of attraction: it sees itself in its contemplation of the Good, and in all that exists the act is toward the Good. V.6.5

(Saturn) While it is nowhere, nowhere is it not. Holding all, though itself nowhere held--it is omnipresent. V.5.8-9

The cleavage away from the First is Matter, an alienism. Veritable Non-Being III.6.7, II.4.5

page 190

@verbatim< >

page 191

@verbatim< >

page 192

@u<One> (Aries, 1st House)

The Absolute Mind or meta-ontological infinity, the One, is complete perfection itself. When Plotinus presents us with the self-sufficient Unity, the transcendent Simplex and One-Only, we have the paradigm for the meaning of the Number 1. One cannot be thought of in the quantitative way as the first in a series, or in relation to others, for it is from the One that all the others will arise.

@quotation<"The One does not bear to be numbered in with anything else, with a one or a two or any such quantity; it refuses to take number because it is measure and not the measured; it is no peer of other entities to be bound among them." (V.5.4)>

The Oneness is not quantitative, or a point, as we have previously remarked, for it is infinite perfection, and @quotation<

"...remains intact even when other entities spring from it. In the case of numbers the unit remains intact while something else (the dyad) produces, and thus number arises in dependence on the unit: much more then does the unit, the One, remain intact in the principle which is before all things." (V.5.5)>

In illustrating the identity of the Absolute mathematically, the choice has been with the symbol 1, and not the 0 (for that was not available when the Greeks were discussing these Ideas.) For the Absolute, the One, is conceived as a fullness, and each number will derive from the One a unique intact aseity, will be some one thing. (aspect of the infinite) The meaning of 1 as used by the Neo-Platonists is equivalent to that which the Easterners assign to zero. In the case of the one we have an affirmative theology and the other provides us with a negative theology. Both would insist that all things arise from the one (in Platonism) or the zero, and both would insist that if you take fullness

page 193

@center<EXTRAS

(Other Version of Divine Numbers) (starts p. 76)>

from the full, the full would remain. Plotinus' remarks are very much to this point when he says that the many arise from the One but the One remains intact. And, similarly, the Easterners would say everything arises from the Void (0) and is Void. Plotinus would consider this a confusion of the levels of Reality--that that which arises from the Void or universal relativity should not be considered monistically but rather from the aspect of simultaneous emanation.

So we have the 1, which is, strictly speaking, the principle of oneness in that it is a necessary prerequisite that for anything to be at all it must first be a one.

The principle of the number 1 will bear the same connotations or at least reflect the same remarks that will be made about the One-Only. The uniqueness of the self-sufficient transcendent, the infinite unity and simplex are all synonyms for the meaning of 1. (Symbolically) this correlates with the view of the One as the Transcendent Idea of Ideas or the first house in comparison to the One as immanent throughout.

page 194

note: repeat of p. 193

@u<Two>

In its widest application the two represents all the remarks we will make about the Double Act of the One. It is characterized by infinite power which exhibits 2 aspects--active and passive perfection--or substance and function. The One reveals something of itself through this paradoxical nature. But it itself remains inscrutable. Also, the 'interrelationship' of the power with the One, a completing completed power, is included in its total perfection. It is the infinite indeterminate Power, inseparable from the One, and also exhibiting its inner nature, through the dual modes of repose and act which are inherent in it. This power of the One, the 2, is the symmetrical relation of the One as remaining intact, and the One exhibited in its completeness as the source of all or the Triad. Each of the indivisible unities and ultimately all Being will participate in this power or in some imitation of it. The Dyad is the paradigm for the complementarity of the powers of substance and function or yin and yang which are revealed in the levels of reality from the Triad down to the sensible world. @quotation<

"If the first is perfect, utterly perfect above all, and is the beginning of all power then it must be the most powerful of all that is and all other powers must act in some partial imitation of it." (V.4.1)>

In our discussion of the indeterminate dyad we can list many ways of seeing the power of the dyad, all of which present the Double Act so simply put by the mathematicians as 2 = 1 + 1.

page 196

1. The 2 is the One plus its infinite power.

2. The 2 is the Repose and Act remaining in the One as identical with it.

3. The 2 is the Repose and Act or Infinity and Bound exhibited as houses 2 and 3.

4. The 2 is the indeterminacy and symmetry of the One as transcendent and as immanent.

The principle of the number two is the Double Act of the One, the infinite and sheer indeterminacy of power. Power is identical with the One, and power also issues forth or exhibits the One through the dual modes of repose and act which are non-dualistically inherent in it. The Dyad is the paradigm for all the complementary modes of the expression of reality--active and passive, function and substance, 7-fold and 4-fold, and so on. The two correlates with the second house idea, (also with the 2nd and 3rd house idea.)

@u<Three>

The number 3 reflects the description of the One as the Triad. Here we see the One not as the Intact simplex, but as the source of all, the total of indeterminate possibilities and power, prefiguring in itself in an unmanifest and undifferenced way all the principles. Here we have the internal completion in the One symbolized as the interaction of the One and the Dyad. Neither the One nor Dyad is strictly a Number principle, for as we have said, the One is measureless and without relation, and the 2 is infinite power and substance. The 3 is this principle of boundless indetermination, and suggests the superessential principle of the Void, the third house in our sequential order. Three is the stable and unchanging product of the One and Dyad, and is inclusive of the two priors and non-different (from them.)

Again, this perfection can be conceived as having indivisible aspects or as illusorily divided. <Each of these indivisible aspects or quotients may be conceived of as the One in its entirety in a certain mode and each and every mode will be a transcendent paradigm for the unities that exist in Being, Soul, etc. The above considerations result in the notion or concept of the Triad.> (x)

(note: brackets & "x" in original

page 198 (note: repeat of p. 197)

page 199

@u<Four>

The Number 4 is prefigured in the Absolute and it suggests that in its own mysterious manner the One includes the superior version of the quaternity in its utter perfection--quaternity here referring to the 3 Hypostases and their immanence in the System of Nature. Also, it is the total synthesis of what we understand as the separative states of consciousness, and here referred to as the 4th state or Turiya and it serves as a model for any 'one,' which will extend through all the levels of Reality, so that we would be allowed to speak of a 'one' as having Unity, Being, Soul and Body. Within the Triad, 4 can be seen as the passive aspect of the Double Act, that is, the Substance, which is ground, or the passive perfection of the Double Act.

page 200

@u<Five> (5 & 8 refer to the principle of participation)

5 represents the principle of "incarnation" of the One--that is its presence throughout--or the principle of infinite divisibility which makes it totally available to any and every part of itself. Therefore in principle we have here the paradigms for the theory of participation; for in effect we are saying that regardless of the diverse and infinite divisibility of any one, its uniqueness and aseity is not sundered and the complexity of a one's diversification is tethered or held together by that presence.

Mars in Taurus represents a possibility which conjoined to a portion of the One's infinite nature is the prerequisite required in order to speak of infinite divisibility. Venus in Aries provides us with that portion of the One's infinite nature to which it is conjoined. This combination permits us to speak of the Absolute Soul as the fountain of all Souls (also keep in mind Mars is subsumed under the principle of Oneness--Mars in Aries.)

page 201 Repeat of p. 200

page 202

@u<Six> as the Head in the Triad

The Divine Hexad refers to the actualized totality of all the permutations and combinations of possibilities--"Ideas"--by the power inherent in the One...non-finality, infinitude. This is symbolized by the number 6 and this is the principle or the very essence of order in the One. Therefore, Number within Pure Being is the completed ordered Act and very substance of activity found within it--the completed completion.

page 203 Repeat of page 202

page 204

@u<Seven>

This is that aspect of the indivisible unity which we can refer to as its functioning or outward-facing power but resident within itself. Seven is an exemplification of the principle of essential production or the outward-facing hypostasis by and through which the One exhibits everything which is in itself to itself without introducing duality. The 7 reveals the functional aspect of the One, just as the 4 is its substantial expression. This functional aspect is unbegotten and unbegetting, virginal in its indivisibility. The colors of the spectrum reveal the properties of pure light and can be distinguished, yet you cannot take away any one of them and still have pure light. And again, the 7 notes of the musical scale objectify and unfold the content of the key note--for they are indissolubly linked with one another and are manifesting it. Perhaps the best example is the 7 Chaldean planets as the outermost and utmost expression of the rational Soul.

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@u<Eight>

The entirety of the required number of formless principles is signified by the Number 8 or Divine Ogdoad. It indicates the activity of the superknowledge which perfects its source not by producing anything but by being the completing power within itself. The fictional divisibility or illusory modifications within the One which permits us to speak of the indivisible aspects or partless parts of the One.

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@u<Nine>

The 3 Hypostases and their immanence in the lower phase of Soul, that is the circulation of all the principles of reality within the Universal Constructor, are prefigured in the Triad. The pre-ontical or pre-ideational completed actualization of all the possibilities.

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@u<Ten>

While the 9 is a principle of completion which retains all within the source, ten presents to us the presence of a second or "otherness" within the One without a second. The emanations of all the prior formless principles are reflected in the mirror of non-being, and appear as other, yet while allowing the omnipresence of the One and its identity or sameness with the appearance. @quotation<

No doubt it is wonderful that the First should thus be present without any coming, and that while it is nowhere, nowhere is it not...Holding all--though itself nowhere held--it is omnipresent, for where its presence failed something would elude its hold. At the same time, in the sense that it is nowhere held, it is not present.

(V.5.9)

>

This then is the Transcendent principle from which is derived the principle of difference by which the existence of universal manifestation is possible, and is the basis for the entire fourth quadrant or body of the One.

[END INVOCATORY PRELUDE, ONE, NUMBER, I.P. NOTEBOOK]

[SOUL NOTEBOOK]

[SOUL1.FW]

page 1

@u<SOUL CHAPTER>--suggestive order of papers that seem to flow reasonably well:

I. Outline

II. Universal Soul (Intro)

III. Cosmic Soul (IV-3-11)

IV. Essence--one & many (IV-1 and IV-2)

V. Omnipresence (VI-4 and VI-5)

VI. Double Knower (V-3) and *addendum I have

VII. Third phase--combines 2 previous papers on (a) Third phase (5/27/83) and (b) Stages or levels available to our development (7/15/83)

VIII. Powers

IX. Epistemology

*2 other additions (which might go elsewhere?)

A) Paper on Time III-7 (based on Callahan)

B) Interpretation of Soul as a One in light of Parmenides

The divisible and nondivisible aspects of Soul are both of @u<one> essence Intellectuality of your being.

page 2

Read (1/27/84) Read (1/13/84)

Our venerable guide reveals that he has penetrated into the mysteries of the soul, its greatness and wonder, a unity-being integrally present in all its graded powers. And this knowledge is not by acquaintance, that is the ego's capacity for creating concepts from the remembrance of previous bodily modifications and manipulating them to our heart's desire. No, this is a knowledge that goes beyond such formulation--for this is that principle which illuminates the thoughts and is itself not one of the thoughts. This unobjectifiable and immaterial principle which is illuminating the ego's functioning is to be differentiated from it and isolated in the meditational practises. After that is done can begin the investigation or inquiry into the nature of the Soul of this Principle, and we are now speaking of Plotinus' intimacy with this innermost core of his being which is an offspring from the Absolute Soul. In general Plotinus is very guarded in his mystical utterances, and it will require a very careful reading of the text, even by those who have some proficiency in these matters. Nor can the reading of mystical literature be a substitute for such inner experience. We must make this clear to ourselves. The functioning of the psychosomatic organism is accompanied by bodily modifications and these appearances, duly noted, registered, classified and stored away in the memory, are the means whereby the individual ego is creating its own world, subject and object. In its conjectures as to the meaning of these appearances it is dominated by the instinct for survival and biological adaptation. Now this realm of existence must be sharply distinguished from the immaterial principle of illumination to which we have referred and is altogether on a different plane. We cannot unreservedly apply the logic of the sensible to this immaterial principle.

page 3

What is required is an intimacy and the recognition of this principle as our "Isness" in contradistinction to its identification with the psychosomatic in order for us to have accurate knowledge about it. If we allow ourselves to disregard those persons who have had intimate glimpses of this higher self, but rather deal with that rare person who has profoundly established his residence in egoless being, in other words, with those who @u<know>, we may be able to reorganize our conceptual understanding so as to evoke the intuition within ourselves. In IV-1-1 Plotinus points out that Soul is a content of the Divine Mind, included with other divine beings permanently stationed and resident there. Here Soul or Mind is included in an undifferentiated unity, and he goes on to point out that it has a tendency or desire towards cessation. We may also rephrase this in accordance with many previous statements, that what is authentically real has an outward-facing hypostasis, for what is perfect engenders, and the eternally perfect engenders eternally. We may take this to mean that Absolute Soul eternally engenders Souls. Each and every Soul, offspring of the Absolute Soul, is similar to but not identical with, its prior, and it is this emanation, this thought of the Mind of God our Absolute Self that must be investigated for this is the key to the mysteries. This Unit of Being-Life-Consciousness goes forth, "formed from the undivided essence and the essence divided among bodies," and we may refer to this as the individual soul or mind, and it is this which is the combination of mind with the World Idea, our absolute individuality or Overself. That is our concern here. We must try now to understand something about the nature of this individual mind or soul, and this will require that we review certain passages from Plotinus and in great detail itemize our understanding of his statements.

page 4

p. 256-257, bot. 258,

In IV-2-1 he speaks of this offspring as characterized by unity, which it derived from its prior, and each soul distinct from every other, and that it is an intermediate between Absolute Soul and the Cosmic Circuit or the World Idea. Furthermore, regardless with what it is occupied--the idea of the universe or a body within it--it gives itself to either or both without abdicating its unity. What in effect he is saying is that if the mind thinks the thought of a pinhead or of the continent of Australia, it is totally present to each of the items without its unity being sundered. In other words, its omnipresence does not fragment its identity, for it is at once both divisible and indivisible. "Its divisibility lies in its presence at every point of the recipient, but it is indivisible as dwelling entire in the total and entire in any part." The recitation of these words is not a guarantee that meaning accompanies their repetition. Plotinus is referring here to the mystical experience of this illuminating principle as egoless Being-Consciousness. In other passages he even refers to it as "the All." We must bear in mind the ego's intellect cannot, by the very nature of its own makeup, understand, let alone feel, the reality of such a principle (which is illuminating its activities) and in all honesty cannot accept such a position. If we examine these passages with the attention they deserve--and deduce the staggering implications that arise--as to what man is--a shift in the orientation of a whole culture may take place. However there is no cause for undue alarm--philosophy of truth will not become a popular "ism" in the near future... The inner erudition and outer perspicuity required is a call to heroic souls reclaiming their own.

page 5

1/27/84 SUMMARY OF SOUL AS @u<I-AM> (for comparison pp. 5-9) (later draft of pages 2-4--elaine)

Our Venerable Guide reveals that he has penetrated into the mysteries of the Soul, its greatness and wonder, a Unity Being integrally present in all its graded powers. And this knowledge is not by acquaintance, i.e., the Ego's capacity for creating concepts from the remembrance of previous bodily modifications. No, this is a knowledge that goes beyond such formulation. This is that principle which illuminates the thoughts and is itself not one of the thoughts. This unobjectifiable and immaterial principle which is illuminating the ego's functioning is to be differentiated from it and isolated in the meditational practices. After that is done we can begin the investigation or inquiry into the nature of the Soul of this Principle.

We are now speaking of Plotinus' intimacy with this innermost core of his being which is an offspring from the Absolute Soul. In general, Plotinus is very guarded in his mystical utterances, and it will require a very careful reading of the text, even by those who have some proficiency in this matters. Nor can the reading of mystical literature be accepted as a substitute for such inner experience; we must make this clear to ourselves. The functioning of the psychosomatic organism is accompanied by bodily modifications, and it is these appearances, duly noted, registered, classified, stored away in the memory that are the means whereby the individual ego is creating its world, subject and object. In its conjectures as to the meanings of these appearances it is dominated by the instinct for survival and biological adaptation. This realm of existence must be sharply distinguished from the immaterial Principle of Illumination to which we have referred and it is altogether on a different plane. We cannot unreservedly apply the logic of the sensible to this immaterial Principle. What is required is an intimacy and a recognition of this Pure Principle as our Isness in contradistinction to its identification with a psychosomatic organism in order for us to have accurate knowledge about the principle. If we allow ourselves to disregard those persons who have had intimate glimpses of this higher Self, but rather deal with that rare person who has profoundly established his residence in egoless Being, in other words, with those who know, we may be able to reorganize our conceptual understanding so as to evoke the intuition within ourselves.

In IV.1.1 Plotinus points out that the Soul is a content of the Divine Mind included with other Divine Beings, permanently stationed and resident there. Here, Soul or Mind is included in an undifferentiated Unity and he goes on to point out that it has a tendency or desire towards secession. We may also rephrase this in accordance with many previous statements--that what is authentically real has an outwardly facing hypostasis, but what is perfect engenders and the eternally perfect engenders eternally. We may take this to mean that Absolute Soul eternally engenders Souls. Each and every Soul, offspring of the Absolute Soul, is similar to but not identical with its Prior. It is the emanation, this thought

page 6

of the Mind of God or of our Absolute Self that we have to investigate. This is the key to the mysteries. This unit of Being Life Consciousness goes forth, "formed from the undivided essence and the essence divided among bodies." We may refer to this as the Individual Soul or Mind. It is this point which is a combination of the Mind with the World Idea which is our Absolute Individuality or Overself and which is our concern here. We now must try to understand something of the nature of this Individual Mind or Soul and this will require that we review some passages from Plotinus and in great detail itemize our understanding of our statements.

In IV.2.1, he speaks of this offspring as characterized by Unity which it derived from its Prior. Each Soul, distinct from every other and that is it is an intermediate between the Absolute Soul and the Cosmic Circuit or World Idea. Furthermore, regardless with what it is occupied, the Idea of the Universe or a body within it, it gives itself to either or both without abdicating its Unity. What, in effect, he is saying is that if the Mind thinks the thought of a pinhead or of the continent of Australia, it is totally present in each of the items without its Unity being sundered. In other words, its Omnipresence does not fragment its identity for it is at once both divisible and indivisible. "Its divisibility lies in its presence at every point of the recipient but it is indivisible as dwelling entire in the total and entire in any part." The recitation of these words is not a guarantee that the meaning accompanies their repetition. Plotinus is referring here to the mystical experience of this illuminating Principle as egoless Being Consciousness. In other passages he even refers to it as the "All." We must bear in mind the ego's intellect cannot by the very nature understand, let alone feel the reality of such a Principle which is illuminating its activities and, in all honesty, cannot accept such a position.

If we examine these passages with the attention it deserves and deduce the staggering implications that arise as to what man is, a shift in the orientation of a culture may take place; however, there is no cause for undue alarm. Philosophy of Truth will not become a popular ism in the near future. The inner erudition and outer perspicuity required is a call to heroic souls to reclaim their own.

In their inner union with the Soul of the Sun or the "All Soul" all the Overselves are interpenetrating or associated as one Soul, yet each soul remains a distinct Unit. This necessarily follows from our definition of Soul essence as a One and Many. Again, as Souls are intelligently omnipresent and their power infinite to the core, what could distinguish them? The term, All, could refer to the Overself as well as to the Cosmic Soul. As they are unique Logoi or expressions of the Supreme, Souls remain with the Cosmic Soul not produced by it and yet not set apart from it. They are conjoined as whole Soul to whole or Beings by the side of Being. Identification with this immaterial presence which is within as an

page 7

Infinite Light, everywhere present but contained in no place. This is the mystery of our Being, wherein is lodged the glory of the archetypal cosmos. And thus he says, "Our Souls are receptacles of Divine Beings."

The third phase of our Sun, which we are speaking of itself as an emanation of the Intellect is what is being referred to as interpenetrating with our innermost essence. (This needs explanation) If we include the Unity and the Intellect, the Saturn/Jupiter phase of the Sun, then we find that the Sun, too, has a tripartite division, and the Asmita principle of the Sun is its third Aspect. Behind this visible sun is the principle we are calling the Soul of the Sun, an inconceivable and immaterial life and light, the substratum of the entire universe. This infinite light is the principle of manifestness, consciousness, and intelligence. Associated with this immaterial light or consciousness of the Sun by the Individual Souls and in this undivided awareness, the Souls hold together, not separated by any boundaries and indifferently referred to as One and as Many. In an analogy, the Overselves are like radii of a circle, attached at the center in inseparable union with the All Soul, but manifesting their distinct worlds at the circumference. As abiding in the Center they are inseparable and yet the center remains the endpoint of all the distinct radiations. (only as they are active and manifesting can these radii be distinguished from their union at the center) Within this formless Light, the Soul of the Sun, is hidden the potentiality of the Universe to be, the unmanifested Idea or archetype of the world.

The principle remains the same regardless of the appearances for it is a substance. This is never used by Plotinus as matter but as Being, Life, Consciousness. When this light is focused we can speak of the body of the Sun. Ultimately, everything in our Solar System comes from this principle, every body is an appearance within that principle. The entire Solar System can be spoken of as the body of our Sun. More precisely, we could say, with Julian, that this Asmita principle of the Sun is the source of the accretion of forms and of the concretion of matter, i.e., the cosmos precipitates out of its form bearing Light. Even physically, science tells us that 98 percent of the elements in our Solar System are derived from our Sun, but it is the Sun behind the Sun, the Infinite power which has no location, that we are referring to as present to the entire cosmic thought and present entire to each Overself. Only as embraced by the mind's presence does a thought have existence, only as present within the Solar Light is the cosmic manifested. Here to be existent means to be thought by the Cosmic Soul. This Soul is the first condition of existence. Soul is omnipresent to the World Idea or the All because it thinks that Idea. As a consequence, manifestation is the unfolding of the Soul's Light and is not an illusion. The presence of Soul is not like some quality plastered onto the world, neither is it spatially distributed, nor a container of Ideas, as in a box. At this level, the Intelligence of all the Overself being inseparable from that of the Cosmic Soul. They, too,

page 8

are pervasive of the entire cosmic thought, of Buddhi, just as in Mind is present entire with its imaginations. There is no separating Soul and its content or the cosmos, nor does its presence to the whole cosmic thought or any part of it sunder the unmanifestable Being Consciousness of the Soul. It is real Being or infinite Power which sustains the Cosmos. It is important that we emphasize this relation.

The Cosmos is contiguous with the Soul, there is no separation of the Soul and the Cosmos, just as there is none between the Mind and its dreams. But this existence of the World Idea or Cosmos sustained by Soul does not, in any way, part the Soul. Its power to think the universe leaves it undisturbed by the multiplicity of thought forms. Again, as in the dream example, it is not that necessary for Soul to spread itself out to accommodate the Universe because it is not limited by the cosmos or by space, for the space, too, is a part of that thought. It can be present entirely for the whole of the cosmos and it can be existent here. The meaning includes this notion that the Mind or Soul does not become "other." Whatever can become "other" does not remain itself, and so is inauthentic. It is the World Idea which is becoming the cosmos. The Soul does not become the cosmic appearance which yet is appearing to it and, in some sense, within it. The placelessness of Soul insures that everything within it will have a place in its presence without fragmenting it. Here it is important that we are concerned with preserving the Unity of the Soul, bearing constantly in mind the thread theme of its sublime comprehensiveness. This will be the foundation for the theory of the Soul's knowledge of Multiple States of Existence which will become available to it.

Because its essential nature is as we have described it, Soul is both still and active, both Unity and Multiplicity. What touches the Soul in its still ground is only the Intelligence of the Nous radiating into it the mystery of creation. On the other hand, Soul, as a principle of Mind, is also characterized by unlimited power. When its attention is upon the World Idea present to it, then the Soul and the Ideas form a Union through this power. We have a unique Logos, expressing the intelligence of the Divine Mind. Each Soul is an incarnation of the Divine.

As we spoke of the Sun Soul interpreting this in terms of its own World Idea, all of the Unit Souls which are conjoined with the Sun Soul are also, simultaneously, present to the World Idea and all its levels. The Soul's power is spread out into the World Idea and yet is such that, though you divide it mentally forever, you still have the same power, infinite to the core. When the Overself remains identified with the Cosmic Soul's thought, the power emanant in it is pervasive of the entire archetypal thought form of the Sun Soul held by the Cosmic Soul. This is equivalent to the Sidereal Zodiac. When the Soul projects itself into the psychical, the planet's belt of Reason Principles, then the Soul's power is assimilated to the understanding of those Reason Principles. Here

page 9

the experience of the Soul is contracted to the living activity of the Planetary Soul and, further, because of its desire for an embodiment and experience, the complete differentiation of thought, the Soul presides over particular embodiments on this planet, shining its light and power into the psychosomatic. There emerges an ego subjectivity. The power of the Overself or Mind is thus modalized by the World Idea into various powers of Reasoning, Memory, Perception, etc., and we can distinguish three broad grades of subjectivity which correspond to the levels of the World Idea. If we include this first stage, we can set out our understanding of the Soul's presence in four stages.

1. The I AM of the Individual and the I AM of the Cosmic Soul are conjoined in the Pure Essence, Pure Consciousness (the blackboard). A description as either One or Many is not adequate. All Souls are One Soul. We can call this our own Selfhood--what the Hindus call Atma.

2. The Sun Soul in trying to grasp the total presence of the Nous manifests to itself the World Idea within it through its own Intellectuality. The Intellect of the Individual Soul has for its object then the Universal Reason Principles (Sidereal Zodiac) which constitute the World Idea that the Soul has brought into manifestation. This formless, universal reasoning of the Cosmic Soul is participated by the highest aspect of our Individual Soul's understanding. This is our Intellection or Buddhi. This is equivalent to spiritual subjectivity.

3. At the next stage we can speak of the Soul as having a power of Immediate Projection able to be present at any location. This associates with the Planetary Reasoning--the Witness I or Ahamkara--our rationality. This corresponds to the second level or psychical subjectivity where the Soul is contracted to Planetary Reasoning. This we spoke of as undifferenced Self or Witness I, which includes within itself Differenced Self. This is the level of the reasoning.

4. The Body of Mentality within the Planetary Aura corresponding to this is Sensible Subjectivity or the power of Soul functioning through this mentality or organism corresponds to the Ego or the Animate.

[SOUL2.FW]

Soul Chapter

page 10

@center<OMNIPRESENCE>

In their inner union with the Soul of the Sun, or the All-Soul, all Overselves are interpenetrating or associated as one soul, yet each soul remains a distinct unit. This necessarily follows from our definition of soul essence as a one and many. As souls are integrally omnipresent, and their power is infinite to the core, what could distinguish them? The term "the All" can thus refer to the Overself (Unit Soul) as well as to the Cosmic Soul or both together as one. As unique logoi or expressions of the Supreme, souls remain with the Cosmic Soul--not produced by it, and not set apart from it. They are conjoined as whole soul to whole, or "beings by the side of being." In an analogy, the Overselves are like radii of a circle, attached at the center in inseparable union with the All-Soul, but each manifesting their distinct worlds at the circumference. If we consider only the center point, souls are indistinguishable from the Cosmic Soul. Considering the radii, they are distinct, when considered from the side of manifestation. If we again consider the center now as a superimposition of endpoints of infinitely many radii, the center point itself is one and if we look upon the circle as a whole we have one and many.

That phase of our Sun we are calling the Soul of the Sun, itself an emanant of an Intellectual, is what is being referred to as interpenetrating with our innermost essence. If we divide its Being--Saturn in Leo--and knowing--Jupiter in Capricorn--we find that the Sun too has a tripart division with this principle of manifestness as its third aspect. Let us explain. Behind the visible sun is this cosmic soul--an inconceivable immaterial boundless light and life, the substratum of the cosmos. This infinite light is a principle of consciousness and intelligence which will think a world into existence.

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Associated with that light of the sun are individual souls, and in this undivided awareness the souls hold together, not separated by any boundaries, and indifferently may be referred to as one or many. Identification with this immaterial presence which is within as an infinite light, every where present but contained in no place is the mystery of our being wherein is lodged the glory of the archetypal cosmos. More of that elsewhere.

As we ascend to consider the inner intelligence of the Sun Soul, the immense vision of Plotinus begins to appear to our receptive minds. The Star Souls (Cosmic Souls) are emanations of the Nous, the infinite life-intelligence of the Sun Soul is interpenetrating with All the other souls. Through their mutual omnipresence, each cosmic soul's intellection or contemplating constitutes its World Idea. In its inward ground each soul is the receptacle of divine beings (Ideas)--for these logoi are the divine radiations of Nous. Each (Unit Soul) Overself, conjoined with the Sun Soul, may also enter into the intrinsic knowing-by-being, and find this divine aura as its innermost essence. There the Soul finds itself to be consubstantial with (the Radiation) the All-Soul--Brahman. What touches the Soul in its still ground is only the intelligence of the Nous (God) radiating into it the mystery of Creation.

When the Sun Soul interprets to itself its infinite inner vision, through its own universal reasoning, it brings about within itself the archetypal form of the World Idea--a unique form of those intelligences among the infinite outpouring of Nous--with which it has a particular affinity. This celestial wisdom is symbolized by the Sun's sidereal zodiac and constitutes its intellectuality. Symbolically, the Sun's travel through

page 12

the cosmos represents to us the universal reasoning through which our Sun too is assimilating facets of the unfathomable diversity of Nous. Within its principle of manifestness--boundless light--arises the formless intellection of the World Idea.

insert A from page 13

Because of its essential nature as we have described it our Soul too is both still and active. As a principle of mind, Soul is characterized by unlimited power. When its attention is upon the world idea present to it, then Soul and idea form a union, a unique logos expressing the intelligence of the divine mind, i.e., each soul is an incarnation of the divine nous. Thus, as concerned with manifestation, Soul is simultaneously present to all levels of the World Idea. The soul's power is spread out into the world idea, yet is "such that though you divide it mentally forever you still have the same power, infinite to the core." When the Overself remains at the level identified with the cosmic soul's thought, then the power immanent in it is pervasive of the entire archetypal thought-form of the solar system held by the cosmic soul. This is referred to as its intellection or Buddhi.

Thus, also within the formless light--the Soul of the Sun--is hidden the potentiality of the universe to be; the unmanifested idea of the world. This principle of consciousness is a substance remaining the same regardless of the appearances; substance is never used by Plotinus as matter, but as being-life-consciousness. When this light is focused at a certain point we can speak of the body of the sun. Now since everything in our solar system comes from this principle, every body, insofar as it is a body, is an appearance within that principle of manifestness. More precisely, we can say with Julian that the principle of manifestation in the Sun is the source of the secretion of forms and the concretion of matter--the cosmos precipitates out of its form-bearing light. Even physically, science tells us that 98 percent of the elements of the solar system are derived from our sun. But it is the Sun behind the sun, the infinite power without location, that we are referring to as present to the entire cosmos, and present entire to each Overself is symbolized by the Chaldean planets...also souls in their own right.

Each planetary Soul is in turn assimilating to itself, through its own reasoning, the form of the World Idea. Our Earth is evolving its belt of reason principles which have evolving form, in comparison with the formless intelligence of the Cosmic Soul. Within this planetary sphere are constituted the bodies and mentalities of innumerable individual entities. When it projects its power of understanding

page 13 (after insert A)

into the psychical, the planet Earth's sphere of reason principles, then our soul's power is assimilated to the understanding of those reason principles. Here the experience of the soul is contracted to the living activity of the planetary soul. Further, because of its desire for embodiment and experience--complete differentiation of thought--soul presides over particular embodiments on this planet, shining its light and power into the psychosomatic, and there emerges ego subjectivity. The power of the Overself--Mind--is thus modalized by the world idea into various powers of reasoning, memory, perception, and three broad grades of subjectivity corresponding to the levels of the world idea can be distinguished from the pure insight:

page 14

*) Pure Being-Consciousness-Life of Soul as eternal emanant of Nous. In its intrinsic self-cognition it knows its essence to be of same nature as reality. This knowledge is Insight. Soul is called Atma.

a) Spiritual subjectivity or intellection when the Overself is considered as conjoined to the undivided soul of the Sun and the archetypal form of the cosmos (Buddhi).

b) psychical subjectivity or reason when the soul is contracted to a planetary reasoning, i.e., Witness I (Ahamkara).

c) sensible subjectivity or ego when the soul's power is functioning through the ego mentality or animate (Manas).

Thus we find Plotinus speaks of the "We," not "I," for it is this union of soul and ideas within us which is properly a "reasoning soul," which leads him to remark that each grade of life is also a grade of thought. The highest grade of life is intellection, and all the grades are a conjoint of life-power and thought. The point we must bear in mind here is that the unity of the soul is present entire and undivided to all the various powers of reasoning, memory and so on, and simultaneously the total mind or soul is present in its essence to all the grades. The presence of the world idea to the soul will evoke and differentiate its undifferenced infinite power without sundered (sundering?) the soul essence being, and the power actualizes the world thought for its self. Without the power of the soul we could not have the appearance of the various aspects of the world idea in perception, reason and so on. Without the presence of the idea, the soul's power remains infinite, but undifferentiated and ineffective. In an illustration we could think of the energy of the sun (representing in our analogy, the power of Soul) being turned by the plant into chlorophyll, heating up the earth, and giving the power of sight to our vision. Distinguished into these various powers--life, light, heat--the power of sunlight in itself, derived from the sun, is unfailing and undifferenced. Through these various forms its power is getting actualized.

page 15

In summary:

a) The power which is projected by soul into the cosmic circuit activity does not sunder the identity of the soul's essence.

b) The soul's power, conjoined with the activity of the circuit, is given determination as/by/through perception, memory, etc.

The infinite power of the Overself is active as the principle of manifestness. Present entire where its power is operative, soul is "parted without partibility"--and has the power of immediate projection any whither--this is the Witness.

Only as embraced by the mind's presence does a thought have existence, only as present in the solar light is the cosmos manifested. To be existent means to be thought by the cosmic soul, for this is, as Plotinus says, the "first condition of existence." Soul is omnipresent to the world idea because it thinks that idea. As a consequence, manifestation is the unfolding of the Soul's life, and not an illusion. The presence of Soul is not like some quality plastered onto the world. Neither is it spatially distributed nor a container of ideas as in a box. At this level, the intelligence of the unit souls being inseparable from the cosmic soul, they are pervasive of the entire cosmic thought, just as a mind is present entire with its imagination. As a principle of manifestness, soul is itself not manifest. It is real being, infinite power which sustains the cosmos, but it is important to understand the relation. The cosmos is contiguous with

page 16

soul--there is no separation of soul and cosmos in any way, as there is none between mind and its dreams. But the existence of the world idea or cosmos, sustained by soul, does not in any way part the soul. Its power to think the universe into existence leaves it essentially undisturbed by the multiplicity of thought forms, as a dreamer's mind is unparted by a dream. The soul does not need to spread itself out to accommodate the entire universe. Because it is not limited by the cosmos or space it can be present entirely to the whole of the cosmos and present entire through any of its powers.

The meaning of authentic existent here includes that the mind or soul does not become other, for whatever can become other does not remain itself--and so is inauthentic. It is the Ideas within soul which are @u<becoming> the cosmos. The soul does not become the cosmic appearance which yet is appearing to it and within it. The placelessness of it insures that everything within it will have a place in its presence without fragmenting soul. Right here we are concerned with preserving the unity of soul. Bearing constantly in mind the thread theme of its sublime comprehensiveness it will be the foundation for the theory of the soul's knowledge of multiple states of existence--which will become available at various levels of the world idea.

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We have now to understand why all "beings" are not equally possessed of a true understanding of the world idea (what Vedanta calls the contingency of omniscience)--why there are grades of participants. One and the same world idea presents itself to various beings, but they will understand it more or less completely due to the "fitness" or ripeness of the soul. The world idea is given to the soul but is not given with an explanation. The understanding of the world idea by each soul will depend on the ability of the soul to penetrate the idea, and in this process its power gets effectively differentiated. This does not cancel the fact that the essence of soul is present entire. Each soul is a distinct logos--an indeterminate life hermetically wedded to the World Idea, and evolving through it. The differences in their knowledge are due to the differences in the grade of thought in the soul or life of each--all of which are included as a multiplicity in the All-Soul as well. Thus, the World Idea elicits the soul's potential--differentiating and developing its faculty of understanding to the point of self-cognition. Flowing into the world idea, the power of soul gets modalized, by effectively understanding the reason principles. The World Idea in all its depth and complexity, is differentiating the understanding of the soul, and the soul's understanding then can better understand that idea. This understanding itself is what will canalize further assimilation of meaning. The organ is itself determining the agent. The example of the sunlight structuring the building of an eye organ for the human race, and which will in turn enable the beings to distinguish more of the forms within that sunlight, illustrates how the fitness of the recipient is included in the world idea, develops out of the All, and determines the further participation in that world idea. As he

page 18

points out in IV.3.8, the soul has the power of immediate projection--which can be conjoined with the reason principles of this earth, or anywhere in the cosmos. The assimilation of the reason principles by this Witness I is effectively differentiating it--and this is retained by the soul as its own understanding. An astrological example provides an important instance in our lives: a function manifests an idea, and the idea differentiates the function. To the extent that the soul understands, it assimilates and penetrates the world idea.

If we think that this essence, soul, remains aloof while sending its powers forth, then this teaching of the soul or growth of understanding, would remain unavailable. But if they remain attached we are again forced to the conclusion that the entire life essence is present with any of the soul's powers. Each of its unique powers can transmit its life without breaking apart the unity of soul. As a consequence, the whole series of divisible lives which live by this power of soul can never exhaust it. The ego draws its own finite life from soul but never can lessen it. The development of the personality goes on almost indefinitely, differentiating itself, supported by the soul's omnipresent life.

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Plotinus tells us that the soul has a power of immediate projection which can be present at any location, associating itself immediately with the reasoning of a planetary soul and more specifically, with a psychosomatic organism. Using this idea we can explain Plotinus's remarks on the Alien. He says we are not outside of the cosmos, because the authentic is not in or out of any place, but it is conjoined with the World Idea and the cosmic soul in the sense we have spoken of. Within the cosmos--the vast thought-form in the Cosmic Soul--a particular psychosomatic organism comes to existence, and seeks for soul. A body and mentality organized by the cosmic circuit, composed of the life traces, reason principles, and elements of the earth, draws to itself this projecting ray of soul. It seeks to perpetuate itself, to appropriate what it can of Soul's life. The Unit Soul in its true nature is impartible, but what this intruder receives is this phase, a divisible life or ray which is some form of communion with Soul. Reciprocally, the nature of the understanding phase of the soul has an affinity for the forms of experience which can be gotten through this particular body. The natural reason principles which constitute the organism, and the reason principles which the understanding of the soul has made its own, have an inherent linkage within the intelligence of the World Idea. In this union of the souls' projected powers--that phase which is becoming divisible--with the organization of a body, we have the coming to birth of the living animate, or what we term the "coagulated ego complex." When this phase of soul has been associated with a body, the two are so

page 20

intertwined as to be almost indistinguishable, and we are said to have become the dual thing--organism and light. We have to keep in mind that at @u<no> time has the Authentic We--the Soul--come down to a partial existence, it is the power in which desire for separative existence is vested. (The entity draws on the power of Soul through the reproductive life within it, but the pure Soul or Mind remains self-gathered.) The projected phase of soul, when identified with body can descend all the way down. The desire on the part of the soul to reembody can be have [sic] in coincidence with the reproductive phase of body itself given by nature. As part of the constantly reconstructed world idea or world image, the body/mentality is a receptor for the world image, while the light of understanding projected into the entity interprets the meaning, i.e. reason--which is inherent in that manifestation. Through this constant transformation of the understanding the understanding is itself evolved, and is "withdrawn" to the higher soul when the body/mentality has run its course.

As a further consequence of the Soul's omnipresence we have to realize that even now "we are not apart." The sense in which we cannot become the authentic mind is that we are always that mind and no addition can make Mind more authentic. The infinite and unfailing power of Soul is ever-present, but the compulsion which focuses our attention on the image keeps us ignorant of what we truly are. What is called Non-Being is the appearance of the World Image which includes the ego, which is always becoming, never truly Being. The compulsive tendency

page 21

of the appearance--a thought construct--to appropriate some image of the soul's awareness, to live and call itself "I," is coupled with the corresponding desire for a separate existence which is lodged in the Soul's divisible phase. The identification of these two form the ego, results in the alienation from the True Soul, and thenceforth the We includes not only the higher, but this other. We must make a clear distinction here, that the divisible tendencies and manifesting faculties of Soul @u<cannot> be destroyed, for they are intrinsic to the nature of the I AM, but the compulsive desire within it to separate from the Real, i.e. egoism, can and eventually must be destroyed. The desire in the reproductive soul, and the corresponding compulsive, attractive habit energies which are lodged in the organized body have to be "put aside." When this is achieved, appearance of the Cosmos is not thus annulled, but the relation to it changes, and as Plotinus points out, for the Sage, side by side with the Authentic Intellection can occur the image of that. Lessening of the alienation, the separative egoity in us, is a primary means to realize the God within us--the I AM--and the Reality of Mind. "By lessening of the alien in you, you increase, engaged in the alien (the Ego) you will not find the All."

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This brings us to an understanding of the Soul--which is not the logic of mathematics. Discursive reasoning, dealing with becoming and based on appearance, tends to analyze the problems of omnipresence through the categories of the appearance or corporeality, but we must rise to the use of true reason or dialectic to understand the nature of Soul. This is what Plotinus calls the essential reason, based on the essence itself. Keeping our reasoning fixed upon the essential nature--mind--and making this the object (subject) of our contemplation, the truth of that mind begins to well up in us and guide our understanding. It is closer to the paradoxical logic of Reality, used for example by Lao Tzu: "How still is the Tao. Yet, how active, producing all things." The Soul, too, is the still principle of the cosmos, and yet is active. The Soul or mind remains intact even when it is participated. This is another example of the logic of the soul. Indeed, it is because it remains intact that it can be participated.

Participation in Soul is a knowing of soul in its essence. If the participation in Soul altered the soul, then it would not be possible to participate in it. If knowing alters what you want to know, you cannot know it as it is, you would never attain the reality that you seek. Soul must remain itself, entire, and the consequence is that participation in real being is entire.

[SOUL3.FW]

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We have to become the soul. This participation in the ground awareness of our being, is the obverse side of the principle of Omnipresence. Soul is omnipresent without losing its unity, and participation in the essence of Soul does not draw soul out from its essential stillness. In consequence, we can distinguish two ways to know. At the highest level there is mind knowing itself, intrinsic self-constituted self-cognition. This consubstantiality of Nous (present in the ground of the soul) and the Soul is Insight. This first way is true participation, an inner knowing by its being--intrinsic to the essence of Soul. The second kind of knowing, the lower, is not a participation directly in the Source, but a manifestation of content. Now we have the operation of understanding, of mind producing thoughts. This is inauthentic knowing. For the Sage, these two kinds of knowing are not two; the mind can think its thoughts and cognize its own essence. There are not two minds, and thought contents are not known as something other than the mind.

We therefore need not remain content with an agnostic position, an image of reality, for Soul knows reality directly. Because its essence is Authentic Being, and "Being is present to beings," Soul has direct in-seeing into reality. This does not mean it becomes the I.P., but remaining Soul, it knows that it has the nature of a knowing reality, and knows its essence and Nous to be non-different. "Of what is there we have knowledge..., the divine attributes of Beauty, Wisdom and Reality are present directly, and not in copy, but in the mode of Soul."

(Quote from III.9.6)

(page 23a) very hard to read—elaine [TABLE BELOW-JF 2023]

@verbatim<

Soul of sun is your self-hood

@u<I Am of Solar logos>

Atma Atma

All souls

_______________________________________________

@u<Formless Universal Being> needed to -----?

Buddhi @u<intellection>

Reason(?) of Solar Logos

_______________________________________________ projecting phase identifies with archetypal -----?

@u<Reasoning with form>

Ahamkara @u<Ahamkara>

Witness I

Manas @u<mentality> >

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@u<Preamble> to Authentic Existence (based on III.9.5, 6)

An Authentic existence is a principle of Awareness--or Mind. What is authentic remains itself--cannot become other or be objectified. What can be objectified, can become other and so is inauthentic. To be permanently itself, indivisible, is to be authentic.

Any Principle of Awareness is traced directly to the One. The One is in the way it is awake. It is Pure Awareness of All-Awareness. Intellectual Principle and Soul are secondary and tertiary modes of awareness. Intellectual Principle is a self-knowing, intellective Awareness. Soul is an active, living or productive Awareness, and aware of other.

The Soul's own Awareness conjoined to the Intellectual Awareness makes soul "intellective." The common thread is Awareness--which is pervasive. In this Contemplation, Plotinus says, "We know, and it is ourselves that we know. Therefore we know the reality of a knowing nature..."

Inwardly the soul is intent upon the Intellective Act of the Intellectual Principle. This we have called in-sight, the conjunction of the Soul's inherent receptivity "tendence" or seeing power with the intellection of the Nous. In this seeing "we know the reality of a knowing nature." Here, Soul and intellect are unified, yet are distinct. Soul is self-intent, at rest, and its life power is intent upon the receptivity to the intellective light which is its (soul's) in-forming principle.

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Soul is a principle of Awareness, but not self-awareness. Nous is intelligible and is self-Aware. Soul, in knowing Nous, is knowing at once, itself as well, for it is the Nous' presence in Soul that makes Soul self-aware. Each Unit Soul is of such a nature--a permanent, indivisible Mind, a living Awareness. In this way also, Soul participates in the omnipresence of the Intellectual Realm.

In this inner tendence toward Nous, Soul is also receiving the imprint of the Intelligible Cosmos--which is its World Idea, its Logos. Because Nous is a self-knowing awareness, which knows itself as intelligible or Idea, when the Soul contemplates Nous it too is possessed of the intelligible and knows it within itself as its guiding Idea. "...since then, the activities of self-intellection are intellective Forms, We, the authentic We, are the intelligibles and self-intellection conveys the image of the Intellectual sphere." (III.9.6)

The contemplation of Nous is the Source of Soul's knowing itself, and is source of the World Idea it will manifest. The Intellectual Cosmos is the original of the World Idea. In Soul's self-seeing or in-seeing into Nous, Soul knows or receives a vision or imprint of the Intellectual Cosmos. This is an eternal grasp of the World Idea--this is its Logos. This is direct knowing by being--without image or Reasoning. The life activity inherent in Soul becomes Active in virtue of this intelligible presence within it.

Pages 26-40 are omitted here. They are a slightly older version of pages 10-23 on omnipresence.

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paper read 12-16-83

We may refer to the three Primal Hypostases as the Absolute in order to emphasize the transcendent aspect as well as their remoteness and inconceivability. If we do so then the third degree of this mysterious Void Plotinus refers to as Soul. In some regards this is the most complex and difficult of all notions to articulate, because of its scope and diversity of application. So we are required at the very outset to try and organize our understanding of the manifold of meanings it is invested with so that whenever the term is used the appropriate referent is brought into view and the proper context of connotations applied. Hopefully the passage in question can become meaningful in terms of the intelligible vision which Plotinus is revealing.

Now throughout the text there are found statements about the Soul articulated with a planned obscurity. We must remember that these were esoteric teachings and not intended for public or mass consumption. The Enneads are formulations of Plotinus' intuitive realizations of ultimate truths to which only our inner being may respond. We must let the Logos in our Soul absorb the impact and assimilate the meaning of his intuitions prior to allowing our critical and egotistical intellect pounce upon them. In other words our mental activity must be stilled so that the Silence within can receive the passage in question without coloration and this may help us to understand the ordered classifications of the various levels of Soul and how they fit in with the overall scheme of reality that is implied. The issue is crucial for its ramifications extend from the unitary life of the universe to the least of creatures within it. For within the universe there are to be found all these various grades of life or Soul, suspended from above

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each fixed at that grade of reality appropriate to it, and there cannot be any ambiguity in our understanding if we are to properly appreciate this wisdom-knowledge that he is delivering. The profundity of his understanding makes it possible for us to distinguish the definition of Soul and the differentia that exist among souls and the consequent levels of reality that they are being co-ordinated with. This complex of problems associated with Soul must be comprehended and not explained away by reducing the many souls to one soul, or confusing them with one another.

We will attempt a brief resume or outline of the (term Soul and try to reveal the) hierarchy implicit in his exposition. If we start at the highest level we must understand it as an indivisible aspect of the One itself. Here the formless form of the unsullied Life may be recognized as the transcendent paradigm or immaculate version of this principle from which flows a whole hierarchy. From Its perfection there radiates the life of the Intellectual Principle or Absolute Soul which is the recipient of all the Ideas, and just as the life of the Intellectual Principle is determined by all the ideas, so reciprocally are all the Ideas made living and permanent possibilities or presences within the Intellectual by Soul. The next hierarchical level of Soul, and not to be confused with Absolute Soul, is the Soul of the Universe or the Demiurge--Zeus. Here Soul is the principle of Universal manifestation, and it is referred to as two-fold, on the one hand eternally contemplating the Ideas or the wisdom of God, a timeless and abiding wisdom. And on the other hand organizing the samskaras or past traces of universal manifestation (energy=matter) into a basic or primitive plan of the universe to be. This vast and cosmic sweep of its intellectual fabrication is referred to as the tentative illumination of matter,

page 43 (difficult to make out many handwritten changes)

or the groundplan of the universe to be. After this there follows that order of Souls which we may for convenience call Star Souls. Each Sun is such a soul (we are ignoring for the moment its intellect and unity that resides in the Intellectual Principle). Each of these Star Souls is a part of universal manifestation and their totality constitutes the inerratic or immutable sphere of ideas. Also each sun or star is unfolding or manifesting within itself through its own powers the content of its own Logos, i.e., a world or a cosmos of its own. So for instance our Sun, unfolding or manifesting its own world, and through its own powers symbolically represented by the planets which are both the agents and the vehicles that are manifesting that Sun's intellectuality. Each of those planets is also a god manifesting or unfolding the masterplan inherent in the Sun's intellectuality, providing in their respective spheres habitations for the next degree or level of Soul. [The vehicles or sheaths that are provided by the planetary gods to individual souls which will then experience that particular world by the bodies thus supplied.] Thus our earth, a god, but also included within our Sun's manifestation, has a body, Soul, intellect, and unity. The grossest aspect corresponds to the elements, and this is equivalent to the body of the earth. The traces of life that have been left behind in the elements may be referred to as its soul. These memories retained by the planetary mind constitutes our subconscious and corresponds to the ancient notion of the dragon. (?) a third level the degrees of the zodiac around the Earth which constitutes its intellectuality and often referred to in astrological literature as the differentiation of the earth's aura. And lastly the unity of each of the mundane gods is a participation in the Sun Soul's unitary functioning. There is no contradiction in referring to the unity aspect of each of the mundane gods to be the same as the wisdom knowledge functioning of the (Sun) Soul's powers.

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Let us reverse the procedure and consider the earth's unity as identical with or coinciding with the unitary functioning of the Sun's powers. This will be equivalent to referring to the unitary aspect of the earth as the undivided or infinite mind of the Earth. Then follows the 360 degrees that are distributed around the Earth may be considered as its intellectuality. And the traces of life left behind may be considered as its soul, and finally the gross elements as its body.

Ignoring for the present the herd or tribe of daimons (angels) associated with each mundane god introduced by later Neo-Platonists we come to human souls. Here we must remind ourselves that Plotinus points out that there is a part of the soul that remains in the Nous, but it emanates a reflex of itself, a principle of intellectual being that is similar to itself. It is this unit soul, the God within us that may be referred to as our Soul, our ultimate individuality and the true knower within us. It is man made in the image of God. Now how this formless and infinite consciousness gets contracted and starts on a journey of self-realization we hope to explain later on. In order not to lose the thread of continuity, we will remark that this soul or mind is "reduced" and will ultimately become identified with bodily vehicles that are being fabricated for its use in order to experience the sensible, i.e., complete its contemplation. Now this contracted consciousness we may refer to as impersonal or witnessing consciousness and is associated with the planetary mind from which it receives the image of the world idea. At this level the world image is in a pristine and subtle form, an alogical unity that includes all the features that will be found later on in the reflective consciousness. Included in this world image is the particular body which is being evolved, with which the human soul identifies.

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The entrance of the soul into the world, to associate with a particular body, is determined by the root tendencies inherent in the soul which compels it to identify with a body with a certain p & o(?) history produced at a certain moment of time which is indicated by aspectual relationship among the planets. The human soul is now a fated member of the Circuit. Here the experiences provided through the body will develop its faculty of understanding and reason through an indefinite series of incarnations. Soul incarnates or participates in the ideas of the planetary mind by perceiving the world and experiencing through a body what the gods think. Thus Earth--footstool(?) of the Gods--nurses our soul to heavenly maturity and manhood.

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(paper read 1-6-84)

Deliberate repetition and further amplification is necessary to emphasize the intertwining of cosmology and epistemology which Plotinus has as a backdrop for the acquisition of knowledge by the human soul in the sensible world. The manifestation of the world idea is the object of knowledge to the inhabitants of that world and the interlocking of the various levels of reality within the structure of that manifestation is an infinitely complex situation that requires to be mentioned here. For the human soul which identifyingly inhabits a body fabricated by the planetary mind which is manifesting its world according to the solar logos, which in turn is one of those principles of intellectuality among many others, and situated within the groundplan or sketch of the universe which is provided by the Universal Soul is the context within which we must place the object of knowledge. Now at this point we place the human soul which seeks to gain experience of this sensible world or the sublunary sphere.

It was a tradition among the Platonists that the birth or generation of souls took place in a star (such as our own). The powers of a cosmic Soul instigated the unit of being-consciousness to develop its faculty of understanding by providing the necessary environment within which its potential powers were evolved. For Plotinus the unit soul or mind was a double knower, that is, it had self-cognition, undifferentiated being-consciousness, which included cognition of its source or origin. The lower knower or secondary phase that is the faculty of understanding and reasoning would evolve by its journey through the cosmic circuit which provided the circumstances, situations, and events that would educe its potential and make it actual through experience.

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In other words the evolving world idea of our solar logos, our Sun, in its totality, is the stage upon which the soul's unfoldment occurred, the womb within which the gestation and birth of the sage is finalized. Now the selfhood of individual soul is similar to and conjoined to the soul of our Sun, its "elder sister," is the principle of our being--an eternal authentic existence--which manifests the world idea and simultaneously includes the knowledge coordinate with the various levels of being contained in that world idea. To the contemporary mentality this is a superstitious myth invented by the overactive and heated imagination of our frightened forefathers. For the achieved sage these silent and detached intuitions are self-validating and authentic instances of a growing body of knowledge which has been deposited as an esoteric tradition or a "metaphysics of truth."

We must return to the specifics involved in order to complete our short synopsis of heavenly wisdom. Neither allusions or innuendoes can be substituted for definitive working principles. The sly remarks and one-liners by many of our contemporaries that imply a greater hidden knowledge on their part has been frustrating and found wanting. We for our part must be bold and make explicit these principles necessary for spiritual growth and deny the hostility and negation inherent in their attitude.

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The object of knowledge for the soul incarnating @u<here> is the world ideogram which is given to an individual mind. This original world-thought is transparently lucid and subtle and a constantly metamorphizing logical unity or whole of its own intellectuality or the ideas which are the same as the 360 degrees. It is these ideas or gods of the planetary mind that are the very substance or stuff included in the organization of the psychosomatic organism and the vehicles used by souls to understand the world idea. Thus the soul is a receptacle of the gods. Now the powers of the undivided mind of the earth which is symbolized by the Chaldean planets and represented by our instinctual functioning organize those ideas into specific and adventitious unities--i.e., P-S organisms. This combination of function and substance is an ever-ongoing process that results in the creation of the World Idea includes entities that we may refer to as an organization of the earth's memories into the imagination. Now it is through this very medium, the organization of the earth's memories into a functioning entity, is imparted a ray of light or mind by the individual soul, or we may say that this entity or intruder captures that light from a soul and appropriates it as its own. This partial consciousness streaming out through the organism gives rise to an appearance, the image of the world, within which it finds itself situated and it is these images in their totality that will constitute the lowest level of knowledge as for instance in Plato's divided line. So we must bear in mind that these bodies are the medium through which a soul becomes sensitive to the sensible world--but these bodies are at the same time agents of the powers that are continuously being organized by the planetary powers.

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Thus the entire Cosmos provided by the Cosmic Soul, in cooperation with the Universal Soul may be referred to as the Womb of the Buddha--that which will develop to perfection the many individual Unit Souls. The immense framework which we are presented with here is necessary as a background for our discussion of this our most intimate nature which is what We are--an indivisible unit of Life or I Am.

page 50

@verbatim<

diagram

>

(some notes about the diagram--elaine) at this point introduce thru graphic analysis the possibility of uncon ? the Soul's insight can penetrate into soul of sun (mercury) 1st Int

further into its intellectual phase (Jupiter Saturn) 2nd Int.

and finally union with the One 3rd

page 50a

@verbatim<

diagram

>

page 51

@u<EXTRAS> Powers of Soul

The scope and amplitude of the powers of the Soul are so immense that they are overwhelming when we begin to get an insight into them. Those only are the true soul powers which have the intellective nature (V.1.3), but these will be imparted to the mercurial phase of an individual soul concomitant with the Cosmic Soul's manifesting of the cosmos.

All the powers of the reasoning soul are prefigured in the Jupiter principle in Virgo. The reason embodies in and through the soul's life essence the six forces of nature, and through these powers can develop the pure thought of the highest phase into sensible image or imitation Being. These powers of the soul with their content of living reason essences are operative as the six forces mentioned by T.S. Row in his article: Para Sakti, the highest and unifying power; Kriya Sakti, the power of action and will; Iccha Sakti, the power of devotion, feeling and desire; Jnana Sakti, the power of knowledge and thinking; Kundalini Sakti, the power of the continuity of life and embodiment; and Mantra Sakti, the power of the word, or manas, and productive imagination. The Reasoning phase of the Sun-Soul through these powers combines the forms according to the Soul's vision in the Nous. It must produce a world according to the ground plan of the Universe.

[SOUL4.FW]

Soul chapter

page 52

The state of thought has passed to that of image. All the prior principles are imaged in the emanated light of the Sun as the manifest Cosmos. The Ideas and Rational Soul Powers are imaged in this imaginative projection. This means that within the Cosmos of the Sun we find an image of the Intellect, an image of its Rational Powers as the Chaldean planetary spheres, and its body as the elements composing the bodies of the planets and all the creatures on these.

The Rational Soul Powers of the Cosmic Soul, Plotinus goes on to say, are imaged as the planetary spheres. These are the instantiation of the activity of the six Saktis or forces of Nature. The Jupiter in Virgo--reasoning phase of the Sun Soul--is imaged in the planetary spheres. The activity of these Powers will translate and combine the reason principles to produce all the manifest creatures and their psychosomatic existences. We have to conceive of this picture as the subtle topography of both the Cosmic or Sun Soul, and all the individual souls in the Solar System that will evolve within it. These powers are working to fabricate bodies, and the light of the Sun, of which 99 percent of the Solar System is composed, is the lowest bodily phase of our Sun Soul. What we see as its light emission is an image of its own bodily phase.

So in a sense the Jupiter in Virgo is symbolic of the unity of the six forces employed by the Ideas to express the Soul's vision. Hence Jupiter often appears as the Hierophant, the guide, which is our reason, but in the lower organism becomes the wisdom or the correctness or the incorrectness of the instinctual functioning. At the highest soul level too we may suppose that reason is similar--it is according to essence, and does not go by the way of deliberations. At the highest level, available only to the sage, there is the analysis and synthesis by which the dialectic power take apart the ideas in their multiplicity and complexity and interrelatedness, and again can integrate them all again for the soul's understanding.

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insert A, p. 69 (previous page is numbered 69 in upper right corner)

The Saturn as operative is the presence of the self-apperceptive power of Soul--the lower self-knower, as facing toward the reasoning activity. Plotinus has mentioned (in III.8.5) that the highest phase of soul contemplates the Nous, but has also a secondary phase--that of reason--going forth ceaselessly from the Nous. Plotinus also distinguishes two self-knowers. The higher, that by which the soul can itself be properly known is the light of the Nous in us, the lower is the soul's own power, "taking cognizance of the principle in virtue of which understanding occurs." (V.3.4) Through the lower there is a reflective awareness that there is a subject, one who is reasoning, which can accompany the functioning of the other powers of reason. This power is psychologically manifest as the function of self-apperception and forms the imaginal category of the senex--the wise old man. This power is invested in the cosmokrator Saturn.

The force of Kriya or activity is formulated in association with the Activity of Mars. This is both incorporating the objective principles (tattvas) into the life of the individual soul for its use in the Cosmos, and is the power through which the soul may purify what it experiences imaginally to bring it into conformity with the objective principles. All of this is an aspect of the Will, and desire is an unknown motivating form of the will. The will is going to accomplish itself, and actualize the forms which the soul has already chosen as necessary for it.

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At its highest level, of pure soul power, the Mars principle for an individual would represent the courage and fortitude needed by the soul in its journey. It is a particular requirement to bring about the purification and separation of the soul essences from their association with impure images. The ancients speak about the Mars amputating base matter--the base matter being the appearances taking place in the dragon. It requires fortitude to bring a halt to the compulsion of the phantasy, or to put it conversely for you to choose which essences you are going to experience, and will yourself not to be overcome by. Empirically this power is imaged as our empirical "will," which is really the libidinal energy operating through our organism. The soul has become a "little doer," and in shining into the body, casts a shadow of its light activity--what Jung has called the shadow imaginal archetype.

In brief, the four levels of Mars are:

a) Universal Soul = Mars in Libra.

b) Cosmic Soul = Kriya Sakti.

c) Individual Rational Soul = fortitude, courage, separation, purity.

d) Ego function = will, shadow.

(We may refer here to quotes also in III.6.5 and I.2.7, I.6.6.)

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The force referred to as Iccha, or Ishtar, is one of devotion and feeling and is expressed in the Cosmos as the Venus principle. The universal soul power is symbolically associated with the Venus in Scorpio, which participates in the Idea of the subjective conception of the Universe in the Mind of God, the eighth house. Venus therefore would have the aesthetic sensibility to know what belongs properly to the soul's inner Idea, and what does not, thus giving a sense of values. The various feeling states which accompany the seeing of what in the world is akin to the ideal forms, are included in Soul, whereas the Mars is distinguishing the Soul from everything which is foreign to it.

Venus then is the power to see beauty, and at its lower phase it is feeling, an evaluation of a particular kind, or in other words the subjective feeling states needed to accompany the objective principles in the soul. In terms of the categories of the Imagination we have in Venus the basis for the functioning of the Anima archetype. This archetype binds you through feeling to a certain kind of experience, and the soul operating in the psycho-somatic organism has become a limited feeler.

a) Universal Soul, Venus in Scorpio = incorporates subjective states.

b) Cosmic Soul = Iccha Sakti.

c) Rational Soul = Aesthetic perception.

d) Ego function = feeling, anima.

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In the ninth house Idea--the Universal Soul powers of the prajapatis are symbolized in the soul ring as the Mercury. The force of Mantra is the activity of Mercury in the Cosmos. Mercury expressing the Soul's power of communication, making available to our experience the reason principles, the meanings through which we can interpret our experience, and communicate our inner understanding outwardly. At a higher level it is an intuitive knowing through which is communicated the soul's thought. It is the psychopomp--guiding souls and leading them to the higher, away from the Cosmic Circuit. In the imagination, it acts upon the representations of sense perception, judging, combining and distinguishing them, and where it is able to recognize the inner form, adapting the sense to these inner ideas. Where it cannot do this, it operates as discursive thinking. This function is called the Trickster, and through operating in the Imagination the Soul becomes a limited knower, bound by the images which obscure its pure idea-knowledge.

a) Universal Soul, Mercury in Sagittarius = prajapatis.

b) Cosmic Soul = Mantra Sakti, protect manas.

c) Rational Soul power = communication and dialectical reason

d) Ego function = Trickster, thinking and communication.

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Memory is the fifth power of the soul. Plotinus speaks of two levels of memory--that belonging to the higher soul, and the lower belonging to the embodied personality. This is important because he stresses in several places that memory is primarily a power, and not passivity (IV.6.1, IV.3.26), and memory is even impeded by the body.

@quotation<We are forced to recognize two orders of fact, and order in which the body is a means but all culminates in soul, and an order which is of the soul alone. This being admitted aspiration will belong to soul, and so as a consequence will that memory of the aspiration and of its attainment or frustration, without which the soul's nature would fall into the category of the unstable. Deny this character of the soul and at once we refuse it perception, consciousness any power of comparison, almost any understanding. ...it possesses certain activities to be expressed in various functions whose accomplishment demands bodily organs; at its entry it brings with it...the powers necessary for some of these functions while in the case of others it brings the very activities themselves. IV.3.26>

And following, where he states that in each of the two souls "that which we envisage as the more divine, by which we are human beings, or the other which springs from the All. Memory must be admitted in both of these...and when the two souls are together, the memories are also one."

The higher soul's memory is the substance of the lower individual mind. The lower memory is that associated with the psycho-somatic organism, the convolutions or engrams left in the brain; mythologically Minerva's snakes. These traces are the very basis of the lower thinking, and of brain consciousness. As an act, memory is linked to the force of nature called jnana? which is closely tied in also to perception. As psychologically operative this is the imaginal structure of the Mother archetype, for it is these memories which are nourishing and feeding its everyday assimilation of experience. Through this the soul is bound by the limitations of time and the sequence of events.

a) Universal Soul, Moon in Capricorn = shape of individual substantial mind.

b) Cosmic Soul = Jnana Sakti.

c) Rational Soul Power = Memory - higher.

d) Ego function = Mother archetype, assimilation and body consciousness.

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The Sun in Aquarius is the Universal Soul's power of productive imagination. When this power operates it takes a certain form and produces the world. The retention of that production is the memory. In its act it is retaining something. The passivity part of memory would be the brain. It passively retains something in the structure of the physical organism. Memory as active is a power of the immaterial Soul.

So the Moon in Capricorn represents the portion of matter which is ascribed to the Soul as a principle. There is some aspect of the Fourth Quadrant matter which will belong to the Soul. Here substance will be a very difficult term. It would be closer to what they refer to as hyle. The basic matter the Soul is given in the operation of its powers.

Taking the Sun for instance, that is the faculty of representation. But it is in the fourth Quadrant, so it must be associated with manifestation. But one can distinguish, so to speak, the act of imagining from the material that it has to use to imagine with. The act of imagining is a Soul power, but the material it uses is part of the fourth Quadrant.

This power of imagination is similarly twofold, corresponding also to the pure and embodied soul. "If each of the two phases of the Soul, as we have said possesses memory, and memory is vested in the imaging faculty, there must be two such faculties...when the two souls chime each with each, the two imaging faculties no longer stand apart; the union is dominated by the imaging faculty of the higher soul, and thus the image perceived is as one; the less powerful is like a shadow attending upon the dominant." IV.3.29, 31

The Sun in the solar system is the central Force and individuality of the Cosmos. Likewise, the Sun as the central Unity is present in the individual as the central point of his ego.

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*We find this paradox of the principle of division on the part of the Soul in its highest phase in the nous. The Soul's tendency towards division in bodies is first indicated in the extraordinary revelatory passage of VI.2.6 (quote-last para). When speaking of the soul as self-contemplative we find that this is the root cause and principle that gives rise to the desire of the Soul to become divisible among bodies (which we find seated in its Asmita phase). This principle is a primitive and fundamental urge which is concerned only with its endless self-duplication. As it exists in the Nous it gives rise to the many I Am's, and as it exists in the I Am it gives rise again to many expressions of itself. One might even say this is the tendency to reincarnate and is imaged again in each incarnation as the procreative desire, the passions of the psychosomatic entity. It is the Soul which imparts to the body through its power, the latent tendencies, dispositions, etc. that it is the bearer thereof.

Note--this is included in paper on Soul essence

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@u<Intro> Avery

The third of the primal principles or immaterial authentic essences is Soul. Soul is, in some regards, the most complex and difficult of all notions to fathom because of its scope and the diversity of applications possible. It will be required at the very outset to organize our understanding of this manifold of meanings, so that whenever the term soul is used, it can be placed in proper context with the connotations that must adhere to it--so that the passage in question be made intelligible. (insert p. 6)*

Soul must first be understood as an aspect of the indivisible; as one of the forms of the formless first then as Absolute, i.e. as having an intellect of its own; Hypostasis or as principle in its own right. And finally we must see Soul's relation to the effects it produces through its own activity. That is, we have to understand that Soul is an eternal principle sui generis in juxtaposition to its temporal activity, which is not properly speaking Hypostasis. A summary with accompanying diagrams may help us to make clear the variety of contexts in which the term Soul is used by Plotinus, and we will then proceed to apply our understanding to a series of quotes from the @u<Enneads>.

insert diagrams

The meaning of Soul must first be understood in the context of the One. Insofar as each of the indivisible aspects of the One serves as a transcendent paradigm for any principle following upon the One, we conceive of that aspect of Its Infinite Life, this unpolluted fountain of all animation the rootless root,--the source from which flows forth Absolute Soul. Thus, where Plotinus indicates that "It has its source in the First and thence, along an unhindered path, it flows into a total of things, conferring grace,"

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we point to this indivisible aspect of the One, the unvarying fountain of life excluding all process and change. (VI.6.9 inc. sentence). There All is One and One is All, and consequently we recognize the mutual simultaneity and co-presence of all the indivisible aspects of the One as they emanate. Yet the fundamental factor involved in emanation is this Infinite Life of the Transcendent; it is that power which abides unparted with the One and at the same time "extends" outwardly. That is, it is to be conceived of as the double act itself, and the principle of divisibility which remains indivisible regardless of its station.

VI.7.17 "The Life was a vestige...determined by taking bound"determined Life is? I.P."

"Thus the Life in the Supreme was the collectivity of power; the vision taking place There was the potentiality of all, Intellectual-Principle, thus arising, is manifested as this universe of Being."

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Flowing from the Life Supreme--the Source and Principle--is Absolute Soul; life emanated and simultaneously determined by and as Intellectual Principle. We have this important distinction to consider at the onset--the soul as an aspect of the transcendent Nature of the One, and soul as the Absolute Life of the Intellectual Principle.* *Life essence is thus required by the One and goes forth from it just as the Intellectual Principle. There is a reciprocal and mutual determination on the point part of each. In treating soul as essence, that is, isolating its definition from the Ideas, we do so in order to conceive its Being as other than the Being of the Nous--so that we could trace it from its origin as it winds its way through the various levels of Reality, carrying with it the paradigm of the double act which we will find operative at each level. Of course this cannot in fact be achieved because of the eternal interrelationship between the Nous and Soul. For in the Nous, soul essence is the recipient of the eternal Ideas and is the Life Absolute of the divine mind. Considered most precisely as the Intellect of the Soul, Absolute Soul is an eternal Presence--totally and unextendedly present in the Now; "Life instantaneously(?) infinite"; Soul as passive perfection. It does not descend, for as descending it would annul its own Perfection. Yet the super-abundance of Soul gives of itself ceaselessly, it is "the entire stream of life sent forth by that Principle." (V.1.3) Intellectual Principle remains abiding as the Kingdom of Being; Soul proceeds.

This perfection inherent in Absolute Soul--Soul in Intellect--has

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as its out-going act the Universal Soul, or the Demiurge. The more revealing appellation of two-fold Zeus refers again to a version of the double act at a lower level of reality. It must be clearly stated that the term "two-fold Zeus" does not apply to a combination of Absolute Soul and Universal Soul. Rather the term applies to the double Nature of Soul as Hypostases, that is both to its inner contemplation of the Ideas--intellect in Soul--(third quadrant) and its perpetual creativity, the Royal Intellect productive of the ground plan of Universal Manifestation (fourth quadrant). These two aspects are the Demiurge, Soul considered as a distinct Hypostasis.

The Principle of Life or Soul is self-motive; that is, of itself it springs into activity. And when speaking of the Soul as one, Plotinus is referring to Soul thus defined. The paradox is that this essence is the one principle of divisibility--a single essence, a self-identical nature, even though it divides itself endlessly. This brief amplification of Plotinus' terse definition of the Soul as One and Many can be contrasted to his reference to Intellectual Principle as a One-Many.

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The Ideas remain indivisible, eternally abiding and immutable. They are participated entire and cannot be divided without losing their proper aseity. Self-identical in each manifestation, the Intellectual Principle contains all possible manifestations of itself within itself. Soul is the very means by which the Ideas in the Mind of God, which are permanent possibilities, become actualized and expressed. Consequently, Soul or Life divides or duplicates itself endlessly, remaining one-Self-identical essence, a principle sui generis in each of its offspring.

This Soul Essence is the thread then upon which we must focus--which flows unhindered from the Infinite Nature of the One, through Absolute Soul, Universal Soul, Cosmic Souls and individual human Souls--remaining self-identical, imparting Grace upon all.

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This principle, Life Essence--@u<is>--eternally self-begotten. Its determination by Intellectual Principle is to be kept distinct from it in order for us to understand this essence in itself. Being is not added to it to comprise it as Life Essence. Being, so fundamentally comprehensive and all-encompassing, prevents the necessary refinement required to distinguish its complementary--Life--so that we are always mistakenly reducing soul's distinctive aseity to this type of isness. Nevertheless, Plotinus clearly indicates the distinction between Soul Being and Intellectual Being. This essence, he states, is constituted by the five genera and is Being, peculiar to Soul.

As the principle of Emanation, Soul is the issuing forth of unfathomable power, yet as an emanant is not to be thought of as in a vacuum, but is eternally begotten simultaneous with Being. A direct emanation of the One, it retains its characteristic isness through all the levels of Reality. Yet bearing in mind the simultaneity of these emanants, there is the determination of Soul by the Intellectual Principle. Just as Life--looking to the One itself--determines Intellectual Principle as (word?) being. For only in analysis can we logically evaluate and isolate one Hypostasis from another. In actuality the view of simultaneity will prevail, for from our view within manifestation, the three Hypostases can be considered together as Absolute. Nonetheless, it is not the Absolutely Absolute, which only the Sage can authentically distinguish and thus be our guide in this analysis.

[SOUL5.FW]

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(insert p. 1) Throughout the text are found statements about the Soul articulated with an extreme precision. They are formulations in words of Plotinus' intuitive realization to which only our inner being can properly respond. We must absorb the impact and assimilate its meaning before we let our egoistical intellect pounce upon it. The issue is crucial for its ramifications extend to the Life of the Universe as a unity and to the least of creatures within it. So, we must define how the term Soul is applied to each level of reality. There cannot be any ambiguity here, for without an articulate understanding of the definition of soul and the differential that exists among souls, it would be impossible to distinguish the components required in order for an individual to understand the nature and abysmal profundity of his experience. This complex of problems associated with soul must be understood and not explained away by reducing the many souls to one soul or confusing them with one another.

V.1.3 As we have already stated, Soul in the Nous is Life Universal, recipient of all the Ideas simultaneously, so that the whole of its life is totally present and complete in the Now. It is here that the highest phase of the Individual Soul has its eternal residence in and vision of the Divine Mind. The paradigm or principle of division as the very nature of Soul essence is again found as the Act of individual souls. From that indivisible Soul remaining in the Nous is emanated an eternal offspring. This, its issuing phase, is the mercurial or Asmita Aspect of Individual Soul, whether

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Cosmic, planetary, or human. Thus, as this principle exists in the Nous, it gives rise to the many I AM's and which, as being of the essence of Soul, retains eternally its aseity as an indivisible and individual emanant which includes the principle of divisibility. This individual unit of life is the Principle of Manifestation for every individual Soul.

@quotation<Let every soul recall then at the outset that soul is the author of all living things...but soul, since it can never abandon itself is of eternal being.… Each separate life lives by soul entire. (V.1.)>

The difficulty of comprehending the profundity of these thoughts is for the intellect; for no matter how trite the saying that life is precious may sound, its unfathomable depth can only be experienced by this very life within us. Feelings too sublime and immediate to be grasped by any imagery and even the perfect functioning of the imaginative faculty itself cannot give the proper weight to these words Plotinus is uttering. We are required to get underneath our intellect and feel for ourselves Life's universality. Passages such as quoted are not only for reading, but the experience of the advanced philosophic mystic. Each separate life is referring to what we called the lower phase of Absolute soul, our celestial Overself. This latter derives its life from that indivisible principle or the Absolute Soul itself, and it lives by that Soul entire. It cannot--if it is to be soul essence--be divided or fragmented in any manner whatsoever. The "I AM" principle--unit of life--is not in any way quantitative. That which makes it to be what it is is not essentially different from that Absolute Soul.

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Even at this level of the celestial Overself Plotinus refers to the soul's tendency to be divisible about body, while retaining its individual essence, first indicated in the extraordinary revelatory passage of VI.2.6.

@quotation<VI.2.6 "Soul, then, is one and many--as many as are manifested in that oneness--one in its nature, many in those other things. A single Existent, it makes itself many by what we may call its motion: it is one entire, but by its striving, so to speak, to contemplate itself, it is a plurality; for we may imagine that it cannot bear to be a single Existent, when it has the power to be all that it in fact is. The cause of its appearing as many is this contemplation, and its purpose is the Act of the Intellect; if it were manifested as a bare unity, it could have no intellection, since in that simplicity it would already be identical with the object of its thought.">

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(following VI.2.6)

Plotinus is here referring to individual Soul, which as an eternal offspring of the Absolute Soul, has a two-fold nature parallel to that of the Demiurge. Whether we consider Cosmic Soul or Individual human Souls, the I AM principle--remaining an indivisible unit of soul essence--is in inward contemplation of the Ideas, the Logos principle within it, as the principle of Manifestation, its outward Act is the projection and production of its universe.

As we have said, the Universal Soul has a higher phase which is a stable and abiding contemplation; the intellect of this soul articulates the ground plan of the universe to be. The higher phase of individual Cosmic Souls remains in the Nous, but their I AM Principle is situated within that universal plan. Therein they elaborate, with the restriction imposed upon them, their own version of the Intellectual Cosmos. Following upon that we have individual human souls and again, their higher phase remains in the Nous and their I AM phase is conjoined to a Cosmic Soul, their God or One, and presides over some portion of its world. We can now speak of the outgoing act of this I AM principle of individual human Souls--the manifestation of each of their version of the World Idea which includes the ego.

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In the case of Cosmic Soul the hiatus between the higher phase in the Nous and its I AM Principle is not appreciable, that is, it doesn't identify with the World it manifests, but in the case of most human souls the distinction is painfully evident. For this lower phase of the human soul, which has the function of manifesting the World Idea, goes through an indeterminable evolution along with the World Idea that knows no finality. Nonetheless, this consciousness is the source from which the ego derives whatever identity it claims, for it too lives by the grace conferred upon it by this great principle--"I Am."

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Again(?) within manifestation--within its life in body, Soul's tendency toward division is expressed. In III.4.6 Plotinus alludes to the proficient's mastery of this phase of the Soul.

III.4.6

Emancipated souls, for the whole period of their sojourn there above, have transcended the Spirit-nature and the entire fatality of birth and all that belongs to this visible world, for they have taken up with them that phase of the Soul's existence in which the desire of earthly life is vested. This phase may be described as "that which becomes divisible among bodies," for it is what enters bodily forms and multiplies itself by this division among them. But its distribution is not (arithmetical, not) a matter of magnitudes; wherever it is present, there is the same thing present entire; its unity can always be reconstructed...

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This principle is a primeval and fundamental urge which is concerned with its endless self-duplication; as it exists in the mercurial phase of the individual Soul, it gives rise to many expressions of itself. One might even say this is the tendency to reincarnate and is imaged again in each incarnation as the procreative desire of the psychosomatic entity.

As soul essence retains an identity of meaning throughout, what is it then that differentiates soul one from another? What has come into view is that life itself, that is this self-motion, is the substratum in which the Ideas are Being realized, the organ through which the Ideas are apprehended. The manifesting of the Ideas is the very activity of life and this is what is meant by apprehension. If we could be (but?) realize that it is our "I AM" that, in the process of manifesting takes itself to be the Idea that it has received into itself, we would see our most immediate experience is of this vast intelligence. As individual souls we can only assimilate that Idea by becoming it. This must first be understood so that the referent term Soul is not lost sight of. We now can appreciate each life as a distinctive manifestation of the Ideas; that the logos principle within the soul is that which distinguishes one soul from another.

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COSMIC SOUL (IV.3.11)

For this quote it is necessary to preface our commentary by indicating the immense framework that Plotinus is operating with. A himalayan panorama is brought into view, which must be made explicit in order to properly understand the quotation. IV.3.11 is an example of such a quote that must be put in perspective using the primeval wisdom of the perennial philosophy.

Plotinus is discussing what in Western terminology may properly be called God, in Hinduism Ishvara, and in Buddhism the World Constructor. Within the framework of Plotinus this is One or God, but within this view is really a Cosmic Soul (or the lowest phase of an Intellectual Principle) (Cosmic Soul refers to the fact that each is the author of a cosmos), and within the infinitude of universal manifestation each star is such a "One." Thus there are many such unities, or Cosmic souls, each of which includes individual souls for whom that star soul is their God--the Ishvara of their world.

A star soul or cosmic soul is thus to be conceived of as a unity--and has a four-fold nature imitative of the transcendent One itself. In V.1.10 Plotinus indicated that the three primal principles exist for the system of Nature, as well as for the Interior Man--the inner Soul which is beyond the material realm. Each Star--Ishvara or Cosmic Soul--will have such an inner tripartite nature: its unity and intellect are eternally conjoined with the Nous. (The two phases we have symbolized as Saturn in Leo, Jupiter in Virgo would bear correspondence to the Unity and Intellect of the transcendent One

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(Mars in Aries and Sun in Aries).) The soul of this Cosmic Soul, referred to as its principle of manifestation, Mercury in Pisces, corresponds to the third division of the tripartite soul and is imitative of the third primal principle--the Infinite life or nature of the Transcendent--Venus in Aries. (The correlation of these three phases of Soul to the Atma, Buddhi, and Manas of Theosophical thought is also evident.)

To further our explanation of the four-fold nature of a Cosmic Soul we must bring into consideration the manifested Cosmos itself, which is indeed the fourth aspect or "body" of God. The Cosmic Soul has projected this vast and varied Thought form, portions of which are organized from reason principles as suitable vehicles for use by secondary and tertiary souls. The appearance of reason principles in souls as an apparitional being or sensible world is the consequent result for the individual, who thereby participates in the Cosmic Soul's thinking of its universe. This point is critical, for the so-called "illusory" world that is being produced is the result of a highly organized efficiency and wisdom of our Ishvara, or the imagining which will then be reproduced by the individual mind. Prior to its reproduction in the imaginations of all creatures therein, the manifested Cosmos which our Cosmic Soul's "body" is a world of light, or the World Idea.

To more fully understand the complexity of this manifest Cosmos we must plumb to the depths of the wisdom that has generated the Seats of the Gods, and we must keep in mind that there are seven levels or degrees of existence within which are provided by the Demiurgic Intellect or Universal Soul. We recall that in the prior discussion

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of the Universal Soul we recognized that prior to the manifesting activity of the Cosmic Souls, the Demiurgic Intellect organized the disordered motion, the Samskaras of God, as an immaterial or bodily essence, with its attendant functioning. This illumined matter is received by Cosmic Souls as their seat in the firmament, and is manifested and qualified according to each Cosmic Soul's peculiar individuality and characteristics. The totality of these manifestations is equivalent to the starry host, representing in Image the Intellectual Cosmos. Each Star is the body of a unique Cosmic Soul, and manifested within its light-emanation is own cosmos. This gives us only some small feeling for the immensity of the inerratic sphere, which symbolizes the Ideas that in their totality constitute universal manifestation.

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IV.8.3

@quotation< No doubt the task of the Soul, in its more emphatically reasoning phase, is intellection: but it must have another as well, or it would be undistinguishable from the Intellectual-Principle. To its quality of being intellective it adds the quality by which it attains its particular manner of being: it ceases to be an Intellectual-Principle, and has thenceforth its own task, as everything must that exists in the Intellectual Realm.>

This quotation refers to the Mercury phase of any Cosmic Soul.

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The more emphatically reasoning phase of Cosmic soul is its inner intellectual essence--the Intellectual and Dianoetic phases or pure cognitive isness and its power of intellectual act. But to this we must add, that soul has also a principle of manifestness, and through this principle it has the quality by which it attains a peculiar manner of being. It has a tendency toward cessation and this is equivalent to its outward facing hypostasis--it is not pure Intellectual Principle, but exercises its various powers in and through the Cosmic manifestation. Soul's asmita function, with an inherent logos or unique version of the Ideas is like a Celestial ray, a principle of manifestness within which a Cosmos will appear.

Cosmic Soul and All Soul is able to maintain the Double Vision--the state of being in continuous contemplation of the Intellectual while it is manifesting the lower through its rational energy. The lower phase of the Cosmic Soul thus does not descend to identification with any partial body. It remains resting in the Void of intellect even while it produces. It has the vision--the continuous establishment in Reality while it produces the appearance.

Thus for Ishvara (our God the Sun) there is no identification with its body, no brooding over it. Ishvara knows it as an apparent manifestation of these reason principles which it knows in very essence, i.e., as Idea. Whereas the individual human soul becomes identified with a body which it takes to be matter, something other than the Cosmic Soul's idea, and in so doing it flounders about in that awareness. Yet the mystery of Ishvara's universe--the World Idea--is duplicated within each human body as a microcosm though it requires the individual soul's intelligence in order to penetrate and comprehend the mysteries locked up in its vehicles.

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In summary, our background in Plotinus reveals to us the existence of primary, secondary and tertiary soul. The significance of these distinctions can be highlighted by referring them to their respective roles in the universe. Primary is the Universal Soul, for its outgoing act is fundamentally concerned with the primary organization of the disordered motion by the reason principles, and this becomes the groundplan for the universe. He then points out that the secondary soul--the asmita phase of any Cosmic Soul--through its contemplation, interprets the World Idea for Itself. This elaboration, i.e., the Cosmos, then becomes a habitation, for the tertiary or partial souls, including human souls, to gain experience.

Proceeding then with IV.3.11 we find an application and example of the distinctions he makes concerning soul in an instance of philosophic astrology. "The Sun of that sphere" refers to the intellect of this particular sensible sun (our star soul), its highest phase, which we represented by Saturn in Leo.

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It would be correct to refer to it as an Intellectual Principle, for as he pointed out, it is only logically distinct from the Nous. Suspended from this is the rational soul, the abiding reason of this Intellectual Principle, represented by the Jupiter in Virgo phase of the tripart division of soul. This reasoning phase of cosmic soul borders on the sensible and is the life streaming into that cosmos through the intermediary of the Asmita principle. This continuity of reason links the sensible Sun to its highest phase in the Nous through its intermediary. The reasoning phase (Jupiter) translates and transposes the intellectual vision (Saturn in Leo) and spreads it out in living forms by means of and through the intermediary--the Asmita (Mercury).

(r.e. IV.3.30)

The I AM principle of the Cosmic Soul includes the reason principles as the logos within it, the light that is bearing the images of the world to be, and results in the production of the world. This lowest phase of the Soul, the Asmita principle of the Intellectual Sun, is being referred to as the producing soul, for within this principle manifestation occurs. This power of the Cosmic Soul, which is linked to its highest phase through the reason principles it contains, interprets and elaborates the universal reason principles which went into constituting its body, into a Cosmos. This World Idea or Cosmic Thought Form has grades or divisions within it, reaching from the heavens down to the sublunary realm, and which in their totality are the manifested world for the partial souls that inhabit bodies therein.

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Thus the light of the Sun is truly representative of the principle of Manifestness. Its interior intellectual essence pours forth a representation of the Ideas through its light and appearing as this world thought.

In the sentence following this passage Plotinus dismisses the notion of interval or distance between any parts of soul, for within the unity of cosmic soul all these distinctions can and do exist. And finally to the dismay of our modern contemporaries, he refers to these heavenly bodies as divine beings whose perpetual motion and groupings announce to the discerning the meanings buried in the indivisible whole. (IV.3.12)

More quote on Star Souls--i.e., IV.4.9

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(Wed. 1/4 PB, def. Philosophy)

Implicit in the description of philosophy as "the wisdom of the undivided Mind (cosmic circuit)" is the prerequisite for the philosopher to be in a state of repose--the mind quiet (not necessarily meditating) in order to be aware of this wisdom. Our ordinary assumptions about the nature of philosophic wisdom would reduce it to the acquisition of a storehouse of truths or a collection of correct concepts about reality. The view of philosophy as the wisdom of the cosmic circuit on the other hand, coincides perfectly with the now-ness, the immediacy, or presence of truth stressed by PB or other ancient sages. Our habitual way of thinking about these matters serves the ego in maintaining the belief that wisdom is something to be "got"--something I don't have, that is unreachable and unavailable unless I @u<do> a lot of things first, think a lot of thoughts, or change myself a lot (i.e., perpetuate the activity of the lower mind).

As Plotinus says in IV.4.12, "Wisdom is a condition in a Being that possesses repose." If in fact wisdom is coincident with the motion of the planetary spheres, and this cosmic circuit constitutes my very life itself, then somehow my very own life itself is the wisdom I am looking for. In fact, in some mysterious way I @u<am> that very wisdom. Perhaps the reason it is concealed from me is due to the continual interference of thought (ego) which pulls my attention constantly to the past and the future, a being not in repose but in a constant state of restless seeking outside itself.

This view of philosophy is radically different than what you would find in a book or what our unreflective interpretations of PB would have us believe. This philosophy is immediately and intensely dynamic--it is @u<alive> even more than we can say @u<we> are alive! We have been @u<burdened> with a heavy, stale, thoroughly dead notion of philosophic wisdom which has been shaped and nurtured by the tendencies of our lower nature.

[SOUL6.FW]

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many similarities here to beginning of soul chapter--elaine

(edited to page 3)

@center(@u<Soul Essence> One and Many)

IV.1.1

IV.2.1, 2, 3 (? with arrow pointing to 3)

Our venerable friend and guide reveals that he has penetrated into the mysteries of soul, its greatness and wonder, its graded powers and divinity. This is not a knowledge by acquaintance--the intellect's capacity for remembering (word ?) creating concepts--but a knowledge that goes beyond the imagination's formulation of thoughts, beyond even the categories of thought. For the capacity of the lower mind to formulate thoughts and concepts is objective to the experience of the sage. We are now speaking of the sage's intimacy with the innermost recesses of his being and of his identity with this offspring of Absolute Soul. Although, in general, Plotinus is very guarded in his mystical utterances, careful reading of the text will reveal to those who have gone beyond an adolescent mysticism, a rare profundity of experience, a high tide in the intelligence of man which places him among "those who know."

In IV.1.1 he points out that soul is a content of the Divine Mind, included with other Divine Beings permanently stationed and resident there where all souls include one another and where soul is One and Many. He goes on to say that there is yet something in soul--an inherent tendency to imitate the double act of the higher prior--that may be interpreted as audacity. It may also be it is a thought of its outward facing hypostasis of power. While soul as Absolute remains permanently stationed in Nous, many parts or units of life emanate from it, and the unit of life or soul that goes forth, "formed from the undivided essence and the essence divided among bodies," can be referred to as the individual soul. This celestial that descends and experiences embodiment upon entering into the cosmic circuit becomes divisible among bodies and yet remains self-identical. So the father of all celestials, the utterly indivisible principle of Being-Consciousness that remains imperturbable, is contrasted with the soul embodied, the consciousness that pervades the

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matrix of thoughts constituting the ego, which claims this consciousness as its own. And between these two extremes is posited the celestial, that unit of life which still has inherent within it the vision of the higher.

In IV.2.2 the canons of a higher logic of soul are being established. Plotinus has already pointed out what is required in order to understand soul, and it will appear paradoxical if we have decided beforehand that soul cannot be both a one or unity and "multipresent" in its graded powers. This descriptive definition of soul is an absolute prerequisite to his theory of knowledge.

In the last sentence of IV.3.5, Plotinus reiterates very clearly that this One Soul or this Being-Consciousness is the father of all the individual units of life. This universality of the "I" is qualified by an immaterial "AM," and each one of these "I Am's" is linked to a reason principle in the Intellectual which they will manifest.

The quality and the grandeur of each individual unit of life is specifically related in V.1.2 when he points out that it lives its own separate life by soul entire. And exceeding the bounds of belief, he describes each individual "I Am" as omnipresent, indivisible in its unity; and as indivisible, it manifests the entire heavenly system as a unit within itself. If this point is not seized, any interpretation of his epistemology will go astray. The life of each unit soul is the medium in which reality is being manifested. The grandeur and sublimity of this principle cannot be retold but must be experienced.

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When an individual "I Am" or unit of life manifests a world for itself, included within this manifestation is the link to the reason principle or the logos, ultimately traceable to the soul in the Intellectual Principle. And the individual soul unfolds this logos, its World Idea. This manifestation also includes the cosmic soul's functioning, which is an elaboration of the Universal Soul's sketch of the universe to be. Both are included in the manifestation by this unit of life, and within manifestation it is difficult to distinguish these various components. But the Sage has penetrated into the mystery of the World Idea. The World Idea is manifested within the life of each individual and within that world idea it is hardly feasible to distinguish the soul which organizes the bodily life (the sensible sun) and the soul which is divisible in that body imparting life and consciousness to that body. So that organic life and structure of the body which is part of the cosmic circuit must be distinguished from the life of the individual soul that inhabits it. It is fact known among practitioners that withdrawal from the body can result in the experience of life as boundless.

It then comes to this--that these levels of reality are included within the experience or manifestation of any individual soul. There is first the body which is provided by the cosmic soul as part of the world it is elaborating and this consists of two factors: the reason principles from within itself and the divine powers that accompany it. And then there is the sketch of the world to be by the Universal Soul which guides the cosmic soul's productions as part of the All. This is all prior to the actual manifestation that takes place within the life of the individual soul.

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At this point in the discussion we can show that within the cosmological premises of Plotinus exists the possibility of reconciling the crisis that has occurred not only between the two great schools of thought in the East. We have the theory of instantaneous being and non-Atma in Buddhism in opposition to the notion of a permanent self-identical consciousness in Vedanta. It would first have to be agreed upon that the Nirvana of the Buddhists is a negative description of what the Vedantists refer to as Being-Consciousness-Bliss. Both of these are equivalent to Plotinus' description of the Soul in the Nous, an Authentic Essence, the universal and undifferentiated Being. From this source came individual souls. Each individual soul whose quality and grandeur can hardly be appraised, is of a self-identical nature and a modalization or individualization of Universal Consciousness from which it sprung, and will be the basis for the Vedantic conception of the Witness I. We said it was this principle which manifests the world for an individual and it received the world idea from the higher priors, that is from the combined functioning of the Universal and Cosmic Souls. This world idea is received literally moment by moment as indicated by the planetary motions, and this is the basis for the theory of instantaneous being. At this stage we may say that the individual consciousness or mind has an immediate and direct knowledge of a level of reality beyond the ego's functioning, for it does not include the functioning of the psychosomatic organism. That is, by holding in abeyance the formulation of the lower mind's symbolific activity or functioning, the stillness permits the reception of a guiding influence, an intuitive realization of the world idea before it is organized and represented by sensations in the imagination. Nonetheless, the activity of reproducing the world idea in the imaginal essence continues as this is an ongoing process, a ceaseless flux within which is situated the ego. The individual

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consciousness is now within the functioning of the ego, and as we have pointed out elsewhere, this ego is an organization of the earth's memories into an adventitious unity. This individual consciousness is now divisible among the components that constitute the ego; in other words, this individual consciousness is now confused and suffused with the matrix of thoughts referred to as the ego. We have the appearance of a pseudo-identity--non-Atma.* *The significances that we have spoken of as attached to the tropes and which can be combined in an innumerable variety of ways, brings the faculty of understanding into play--which then creates concepts with which it attempts to interpret or understand reality. But the very nature of these concepts, their psychical constitution, can only give us an image or indirect knowledge of reality.

This individual unit of life or consciousness which can be directly identified with the Vedantic conception of the Witness I, that is, the permanent knower within us that manifests the world idea moment by moment, is in theory held distinct from the world idea which it is manifesting. The idea that is being manifested contains the ego, which by definition cannot have any identity, along with its world. One would surmise that these two contradictory points of view which are absolutely necessary to each other would yield to a greater truth in their unity than in their bifurcation.

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handwritten note--The rest of these papers were not in the loose-leaf as it was left by Anthony--they were added from other stores. (except the outline at the end)

"Double Knower" and "Epistemology" are older papers which had been in the Soul Chapter at one time.

"Third Phase" and "Levels of Understanding" are from 5/83 and 7/83.

Also--The paper on p. 60-72 is an older paper previously in the Soul Chapter.

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@center<DOUBLE KNOWER older paper> VII

V.3.1,8

Once we have understood the Soul as being of a two-fold nature or of a tripartite division, we can attempt to explain to ourselves what Plotinus means by referring to the self-knower as a double person. The highest phase of soul in the Nous--and the same as the Nous--is illuminated by the Intellectual Principle which Plotinus refers to "our King." This is Soul as Absolute. Then follows the engendered essence, a sequent emanated from it, a self-identical, undivided individual mind without beginning or end. This is what is referred to as the "lower" Soul. However although this Godlike entity is similar in nature to the Absolute Soul, it is not identical with it. Nonetheless it is an intellectual reality integrally omnipresent in everything that it will manifest. It may be called the lower phase of the Soul but it is our highest individuality and for the unphilosophic mystic is even thought of as God. It imparts something of itself to that which it manifests, so that it may also be considered as divisible among that which it manifests.

This principle, which he refers to as Reasoning Soul, he says, cannot be conceived as being unaware of its own understanding and that it bears within itself the Intellectual Cosmos as the imprint of the Intellectual Principle.

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This principle has two aspects; it is the faculty of understanding, that is, it can reason upon that which is manifested within it and also it is aware that its own selfhood is derived from a higher source. He refers to this intellectual reality as a double person. We must explain to ourselves very clearly the implications thereof.

@verbatim<

inerratic

insight planetary

Absolute Soul Lower phase of Soul sublunary

>

The Saturn Jupiter refers to the Soul as Absolute and this is the same as Intellectual Principle. This is God or the Void. From this principle emanates the many Souls (Mercury) each an intellectual reality, boundless, timeless and eternal in its immutability. Nonetheless, he refers to this as the lower phase of the Soul, the principle of reasoning and discursive thought. This is not to be identified with a personality but more closely resembles the Vedantic notion of the Witness or let us say, an impersonal consciousness. It manifests the World Idea which includes the starry host, the planetary spheres and the sublunary realm.

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We have to explain more fully the meaning of the starry host. Each star represents the lower phase of a Cosmic which is manifesting it. The highest phase is a principle of intellectuality which is manifested by its lowest phase, that which is divisible among bodies. For the Cosmic Souls, the distinction between its phases is more verbal than actual; the lowest phase of its Soul is transmitting and radiating this intellectuality within the Cosmos, through its body, the actual star. The totality of these stars or Souls constitutes a representation of the Nous as the inerratic sphere and this is included within the confines of the manifested universe of every individual Soul or mind. Thus our God or Ishvara is one of those stars, an Intellectual Principle in its own right, its highest phase in the Nous, the lower phase a principle of manifestation immediately transmitting the will of its higher phase producing and articulating its World Idea. Individual (human?) Souls are situated within that Cosmic Soul's manifested World Idea and what they will know of the entirety will be according to the way this Cosmic Soul elaborated its World Idea. We must remember that this is an elaboration of the inner realms of Being, that will be manifested by each individual Soul for itself and not a discussion of the appearance of the sensible world.

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To continue, within the World Idea elaborated by a Cosmic Soul there is a representation of its reasoning phase by the planetary spheres. This, properly speaking, is the rational aspect of that Soul and its functioning is two-fold. As an agent it symbolizes the reasoning in the higher phase that unfolds the intellectuality of the higher phase but as a medium it provides the Reason-forms that will organize the elements into material species which are the bodies that the individual Souls will inhabit. Through that body will @u<appear> a World.

We can now speak of the lowest phase of the reasoning Soul of an individual human soul, that is, its faculty of perception imparted to the body and perceiving through the immoveable spectacles an apparent world with the planetary and inerratic spheres surrounding the sublunary realm.

(and its reasoning and intellection)

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Again, we repeat:

The vision proceeds to describe this cluster of stars we call the Milky Way; situated within that galaxy is our Sun. Surrounding our Sun are the planetary spheres which are representative of its rational understanding. The Sun's intellectuality is indicated by its relationship to the universe as a whole, whereas the rational powers are concerned with the relationship of all the parts within the solar system to one another and as a whole. It is at this level that individual human Souls are conjoined to their "elder sister soul." These powers of the Sun are evolving and unfolding the reason principles that result in the organization of the living organisms that will be inhabited by individual human Souls and through which they will gain experience of that world. So long as Souls are conjoined with the Rational phase all is well, Plotinus says, but if they descend further and inhabit body their preoccupation will be with that body and no longer with the whole.

The highest phase of the lower Soul--the Augoeides or Star-like body--retains its Absoluteness, its intellectual reality as a unique undivided mind. Nonetheless it sends forth from itself that phase which is divisible about bodies. It is this principle which evolves through the experiences and finally succeeds in surrendering itself to its Source.

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In this preface we have included all the necessary ingredients to understand Plotinus' statement that "the self knower is a double person."

In V.3.2 Plotinus points out that the sense-principle in the Soul perceives the external which obviously includes the body and its modifications, i.e., an appearance. This faculty perceives the presentation which has been organized by its prior, but it is the reasoning phase of the Soul which takes cognizance of them. If we identify the reasoning Soul in our diagram with the planetary spheres, i.e., the actual transits, it is this principle which will pass judgment upon the perceptions of the sense faculty, that is, on the organized pictures that constitute the sense world. Only insofar as the reasoning Soul has gained experience and has become filled with reason (and this is the evolution of the ego), it has now gained a rationalized individual nature, and it can ascend and develop that wisdom. Plotinus goes on to say that the reasoning soul will develop to wisdom when it correlates the reasoning to the prototype or archetypal Ideas that it holds within itself.

This leads to the recognition of the presence of the Ideas or the Nous within itself. Repetitive and constant identification with these Ideas culminates in the appropriation and use of the Intellectual Principle within itself. This is its true Selfhood, i.e., that the I AM principle is an intellectual reality or a Logos. And this entails the necessary knowledge of its Source. It must be made clear that the similarity is not identity. This is the mystery of man made in the image of God, with its own unity, intellectuality and Soul.

page 94 (handwritten--poor legibility--check against original)

@verbatim<

>

The Cosmic Souls are ????? in the intellectuality of Nous in a particular way.

The self Knower is a double person.

There is the lower taking cognizance of the I AM or the Mind in virtue of which anything is known. To pursue this is to know that I Am to understand who I am.

As he says, we can scarcely suppose this lower phase of soul to be unaware of its awareness, to realize that it has its source in a higher and that it is the image of its higher. It affirms that is springs from the Nous but this it does still by a distinct power--by the very power through which it manifests and witnesses the world.

But this lower soul also can "know" himself by means of the Intellectual Principle. The Intellectual Principle shining in the I Am--radiating the I Am is its vision of the Ideas become one with it. The Intellectual phase of soul knowing itself in and through the I Am is the highest insight. This is knowledge by identity--an identity with @u<what> the I Am is. The I Am thus knows the irradiating aura of the Nous or that aura is revealing itself in the Soul.

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Read 5-27-83

Combined with next paper on Levels!

@center<Third Phase of Soul Comment on P.B. Quote>

This third phase of the soul, which we may call Overself or celestial Mercurius, needs to be thoroughly understood and explained, and its functioning amplified by illustrating its relation to a body which is part of the cosmos and, therefore, the World Idea. It is a spark from that soul in the Nous, an individual unit of life and consciousness and a perpetually evolving offspring, which receives or manifests the World Idea and projects it forth as its pure idea. This evolving World Idea that it unfolds leads it through an indefinite development and ultimately forces the vehicles it operates through to qualitatively resemble its highest phase through the practice of the "imitation of God" or the philosophic disciplines, including yoga. (I.6.9, V.3.9)

Without understanding the fundamental nature of this eternal twin, the theories of reincarnation and karma become hopelessly muddled. Some contemporary writers' precise understanding of the philosophic doctrines falters here. Their criticism of a misunderstood theory of reincarnation is not of service to philosophic students, and may even have serious consequences for themselves and their followers. Their intense and overwhelming aspiration to explain everything by reducing it to the non-dual is an admirable display of devotion, but it is not the balanced view required by philosophy, for it leaves certain very important and practical matters unexplained and unexplainable. The fact remains--and no words can abolish the situation--that our identification with our ego includes a meaning that cannot be whisked away at the stroke of a pen. Yet, they have not properly inquired into the value and significance of the ego.

[SOUL7.FW]

Soul Chapter

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Obviously, the interval between the Self or Atma (Soul) and its representative, the ego, is a no-man's land, and it is very noticeably left unexplained in many texts. Why contemplative "Nature" put so much travail into producing the necessary vehicles by which the Mercurial phase may evolve, is one of those questions which, if left unanswered, will forever rankle in our mind. It must be squarely faced. There are various views on this subject scattered throughout the ancient and modern writings, and we have attempted to bring them together in a coherent and organized fashion to help us in our understanding of reincarnation, metempsychosis, the meaning and value of the ego, and how these fit into the metaphysical scheme.

As we previously pointed out, the ancients conceived the Soul as tripartite, but it can just as easily be conceived of as dual. The higher Cognitive Isness or Principle of Awareness and its intelligence (cit-sakti) cannot directly experience the sensible world, and therefore acts through the lower phase, or Mercurius, within which the manifestation of the World Idea will take place. This lower phase may be referred to as the function of manifestness, or asmita (I-ness) in Yoga terminology, which "descends" completely into the realms of manifestation (by a process that will be described later), into the womb of the world, called by the Buddhists the Tathagatagarbha where Buddhas are born.

This germ from the higher soul will evolve or gestate through indeterminable time concomitantly with the Idea of the World. This World Idea is fabricated and organized

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by the Universal Soul and Cosmic Soul, and projected by and through the individual Soul as its thought. The perpetual unfoldment and development of the World Idea is irreversible in its direction and therefore guarantees the evolution of that individual Soul. The evolving "double" of the soul, which is included as part of the World Idea, is often spoken of as the "second soul." Through its function of manifestness, this soul projects its image of the Intellectual Cosmos, which is given to it from within. Its experience of that Cosmos is the modification of its own functioning, referred to as the World Idea, or the world as thought, or in Hinduism as Citta Vrittis. This projection encompasses the entire manifest universe for an individual soul, [The Archetypal or Intellectual Idea of the Universe is manifested through the secondary phase of the Soul,] which will project it within itself by continuously transforming itself. This projected universe will include the necessary sheaths with which the soul will identify and through which it will operate.

The very function of manifestness or asmita is also the means by which the individual soul takes itself, at any level, to be part of the cosmos. These mental modes are instantiating or imaging the Ideas as various grades of thought, and all these are manifest to, and appear within, the Mercurial phase of soul. In the Vedantic classification these grades are called the Annomaya, Pranomaya, Manomaya, Vijnanamaya, and Anandamaya Kosas. The Platonic equivalents are the Shelly, Moonlike, Sunlike, Noeron and Augoeides (??unreadable insert). The imaged cosmos itself provides a framework within which we can locate these vehicles. We have tabulated and correlated these classifications within the chart in an attempt to pictorialize somewhat the concept of man as the ancients conceived him.

@verbatim<

unnumbered page with diagram

>

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(1st line is repetition of last line on page 97)

The Mercurius phase of soul as the pure form of manifestness, that is, Universal Consciousness as our "I AM," is first identified with the highest reaches of heaven. There resides the intelligence of the cosmos in its pure (sattvic) aspect, called the Reason Principles or Ideas variously combined to form the universe. Here the Mercurius assumes substantiality as the pure joy of existence called the Anandamaya Kosa, or the Robe of Glory. However, the principle of pure light can also be considered @u<a priori), that is, before it manifests a cosmos. Through the function of manifesting the soul takes itself to be embodied in the reason principles. The I takes itself to be this mind, the self-affirming certitude of "I am the World Idea." At this level, the I or asmita is the substratum or basis for the differentiation of the appearances within itself, @u<i.e.>, the lower principles which evolve from Reason. The soul that still has its wings is associated with a vestment of luminous reason principles that form the "Robe of Glory" or augoeides, the radiant body, and may truthfully say, "The World is my Idea." For here, the intelligence of the stars is the locus for the soul's first association with the cosmos, and it is infused there with the intelligible form of the cosmos, or World Idea. Within the realm of manifestation, this Universal Consciousness is the higher knower in us.

At the station of Reason and its act, that is, the clear shining of the intelligence which contains the Ideas for the

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formation of the world, the highest phase of the Mercurial soul is in harmony with the operation of the Cosmic Soul and Universal Soul in unfolding the World Idea for itself. The ray of soul in its universality, dressed with its robe of reason principles, participates in the spiritual powers of absolute knowing, willing, and feeling, through which it modalizes or particularizes itself as this individual soul at the level of Vijnanamaya Kosa or the Noeron body. This nous or intelligence of the cosmos as manifested through an individual soul includes that particular soul's role in the World Idea, and constitutes its spiritual knowledge. Consequently, the soul functioning at this level of intelligence is a spiritual gnosis that includes the spontaneous knowledge and activity of the next level, the planetary spheres or the Manomaya Kosa. This self-knowing within the soul through the modes of knowing, willing and feeling is symbolized in the cosmology/astrology by the three trans-Saturnian functions of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, the absolute powers of knowing, feeling and willing, respectively.

As we have said, the "I principle" or Asmita identified with the Vijnanamaya Kosa includes the knowledge of the lower realms. It is that power to know by which the Ideas are variously combined to form the World Idea for an individual soul. This latter is received by the functioning of the Manomaya Kosa or the mind. This is the realm of the Cosmokrators, being the powers of the Cosmic Soul, symbolized by the sensible sun and the planets, (insert--looks like "?WM") elaborating the sublunary worlds. The individual soul conjoined to the Cosmic Soul participates in the

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functioning of its powers. The soul or mind receives the World Idea, or rather, intuits it and at the level of vijnana makes a representation of it for itself. Inherent in this production is the intellectual nature of mind, including the fabricative and gnostic powers of the Soul that simultaneously imbues its representations with significance.

@verbatim< insert diagram

>

In order to understand the soul's manifesting the world idea, it is necessary to describe the activity of the Cosmic Soul at this level. The mind of the Cosmic Soul is receiving the World Idea, and with its powers or representative faculty organizes the earth's memory accordingly. This organization is the given content of the world of sense or the subtle image of the world, which is still prior to our reflective consciousness. This imaginal essence or the earth's memory then becomes the medium through which that prior mind can become reflectively aware of its prior unconscious activity. At this level of our unconscious mental functioning, the World Idea is being incessantly instantiated and transmitted. That is, the soul's image-making faculty is constantly recreating the World Idea. This subtle recreated image of the World Idea is not optical, but rather an abstract schema or synthesis, and is prior to our an alogical whole which nonetheless contains all the features that will later on become available to us through our murky reflective self-consciousness. The mind's prior activity of organizing the "matter," or more precisely, the earth's memory or the elements, into clusters of sensations which constitute the functional images that become the phenomenal subject and object of our knowledge, @u<is> our actual empirical experience. These clusters of sensations or the organization of

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the earth's memories into a functional image, is the medium through which the Soul or mind incarnates and therein ultimately becomes self-reflectively aware of its prior activity.

The functioning of the psychosomatic organism, which is, as we have said, an organization of the earth's imagination, may be referred to as imitative being. Here are located the presuppositions or basic attitudes that will be included in the manifesting of an individual's mental powers. Here and only here, within the organization of the memory or imaginal essence which is the depositing of mankind's life, may we speak of Jung's archetypes as the pre-condition for an individual psychological experience, and say that philosophy is but a mouthing of these archetypes.

The sublunary system of tropes or life traces has been organized by the planetary spheres have organized into a variety of species and their environment, in conformity to the World Idea, as far as this is possible. This imaginal realm of the earth's dragonic belt constitutes the Moonlike and Shelly bodies, the lowest vehicles of the soul's experience. That our mind is really cosmic in extent is obscured in this final identification with the lowest (imaginal) sheath(s?), and the apparent bifurcation of the soul into an empirical subject and a phenomenal object occurs here. A simplified picture of the vast cosmological presuppositions must be delineated in order for us to be able to understand our sensible experience. It is approximately in this way that the ancients conceived what conditions were necessary for the arisal of knowledge. The entire panorama of the sensible world which was fabricated by the Gods was a necessary prerequisite--the stage upon which the actors made their entrances and exits.

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(difficult to read handwritten changes on xerox--check originals)

Thus, the entire manifested world can be conceived of as a huge thought projected forth from each individual soul. Within this whole we may conceive of a hierarchy of levels, each level distinguished from the whole and from one another. The highest level is Life Intellectual, or the Soul as embodying Reason Principles. Among the lowest is the vegetative life, a life dim and obscure, that is, the Soul manifesting through the Kingdom of Nature. The laws that apply to one level are different from those of another, and all the various levels can be considered as compressed and operatively represented within a single entity, the microcosm, which is a miniature cosmos. (IV-3-17) Thus, we are to remember that all of these levels, (word?) included, we are situated within thought--mind's functioning. The Mercurial phase of individual soul may be thought of as associated or identified with the lowest of Nature's kingdom and gradually rising through the hierarchy, consequently assimilating a knowledge of the reason principles from each level. We can also start at the other pole, much more in line with our contemporary modes of thinking. (check to see if next sentence is deleted on original--it appears to be)

When this I-ness is inserted into an animal body which has gone through a phylogenetic and ontogenetic development, the inherent functioning and vitality of the organism is initially (unreadable phrase--check original). This state corresponds to the man of flesh and blood, the separative ego that regards the world as completely other and which must be the source of satisfaction to its own desires, a whirlwind of never-ending

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activity. This egoistic position gives rise to a realistic epistemology and a geocentric world view. However, constantly intruding into the natural man is the functioning of the Cosmic and higher individual mind, indicated by the motion of the Chaldean planets--altering, modifying, transforming that matrix of tendencies despite the claims of inertia due to the psychosomatic organism. Ultimately, a sufficient deposit of the higher mind's functioning orientates that individual soul towards a more rational or heliocentric position. Thus, we are retelling an ancient view about the mystery of man, which started with Orpheus and continued through philosophic mythology that culminated in the Enneads.

If we conceive of the Mother Earth as a goddess within whose domain has transpired the manifestation of innumerable species of life, their immediate origin would be her body itself. This body will contain the necessary ingredients for the building up of the two lowest sheaths, what are referred to as the Shelly and Moonlike bodies. This "material" has been recycled innumerable times; it therefore has certain tendencies or proclivities which are indications of past functioning and which may be referred to as the tropes. The combination of the Great Elements into organized living bodies includes these selected responses or tendencies that manifest themselves in the body's functioning. Or, in other words, within this mysterious imaginal essence is retained traces of its functioning after the dissolution

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of the entity, and the totality of these traces constitutes the memory of the earth. This beginningless ontogenetic and phylogenetic development is the source from which and within which the bodies of all living creatures are produced and live.

This indefinite and indeterminable storehouse of images, this seething cauldron of innumerable disembodied functionings, is the material of the soul's fabricative activity and is suggestive of the nature of the Dragon. The Moonlike and Shelly bodies of living creatures are an embodiment of it, and their activity is refunded into this "subconscious." The Dragon lives and breathes through the individual organisms, and not only is it constitutive of the physiological functioning of the organisms, but also of the significance attributed to that functioning which is understood later on when the reasoning of the soul judges it. This is the lowest vehicle which is supplied to a soul with which it will acquire a rudimentary understanding of the sensible world. The soul as an inhabitant of such a body is becoming acquainted with the traces of the intelligence of the Ideas which have been left behind as part of the earth's memory. It is these traces (of the Ideas) which give rise to images, each (non-optical) image (unreadable insert?) constitutes a matrix of disembodied tendencies that have been misnamed "archetypes." (question mark in right margin) Imperceptible in themselves, these traces can nevertheless be inferred through reflection on their activity by the soul's gnostic powers when it reaches the level of reflective conscious judgement. These contents have become the environment or the idea of the world for that

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individual soul inhabiting that individual body, and within it the presence of the soul within the World Idea is indicated as well. What we witness here is the presence in the imaginal essence of the intelligence of the Ideas as tropes (samskaras) and the powers of the soul or the functioning of the soul as represented by the categories of the imagination. Under these conditions, the soul perceives images in water--the shadows or phantoms in the cave. The soul as wrapped in a cocoon of oblivion, i.e., the body, is as yet unable and unwilling to investigate into the mystery of the nature of man.

A selection or specific combination of the totality of the Zodiacal(?) degrees and their portrayal by the functioning of the categories of the imagination will constitute a specific psychosomatic individuality, which will provide the soul with a body to which its karma entitles it. Only after this acquisition by the soul, which can then operate through this body, can we speak of the phenomenalization of the primary image; that is, the operation of reflective judgement on and through the functioning of this entity. This entity is mortal; there is no reincarnation for it. This point must be understood in order to prevent an animistic conception of reincarnation. The ongoing continuity of the individual soul's karma, that is, its next psychosomatic organism, is provided by the cosmic circuit. However the continuity of karma, which a succession of bodies provides, refers to the self-identical "I AM" or individual

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consciousness.

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A thoughtful consideration of the natal horoscope--our cosmic identity--suggests the particularity of the individual soul's status, which is a description rather than an explanation. At the moment of birth, all the geometrical and arithmetical relationships are precisely indicated, and announce the nature of this imitative being which participates in the functioning of these soul powers. Insofar as the functioning of the Cosmic Soul, to which is conjoined the individual soul, is operative, it will create the necessary organs in the imaginal essence to manifest that function. Thus, something of the intellectual nature of the soul's powers is transmitted or left behind as a trace in that entity or adventitious unity. The reduplication of these soul powers within the organized imaginal essence serves as the ground of our psychological experience. We will try to illustrate this description a little further on.

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A preliminary inquiry into the nature of the all-encircling Zodiacal degrees will require extended investigation and research. For now, we are simply suggesting that they represent an intrusion of the intellectual, of the Ideas flowing into our world in the peculiar way described previously. Each of these degrees is often symbolized by an image of multivalent significances, which includes the formative sources of Archetypal Ideas and the presuppositions of the genera and species of all life. Thus, we have the intellectual mind of the Cosmic Soul or its power to know the Ideas in the Archetypal realm. Through its functioning, which is both gnostic and fabricative, it organizes the earth's memories into a world picture, which is an alogical whole that includes adventitious unities whose very organization brings about the experience of a phenomenal subject and object.

We are gradually approaching an understanding of how the ego is a thought made of memories, the stuff of dreams, yet nonetheless reflects macrocosmic principles. The totality of the memories of the earth may be referred to as our subconscious, which is a vast intelligence. The specificity of the individual ego refers to the significances attached to the functioning of its tropes. This ego will be used as a vehicle by an individual soul, whose knowledge and consciousness, or in other words, its "I AM," will be unfolded through the resulting interaction.

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The individual soul as embodied becomes more conscious by and through the process of combining in innumerable ways the significances or meanings attached to the tropes. It thereby creates the necessary concepts by which it can understand or reflectively judge that which the intellectual part of his mind has created. The soul's knowledge becomes scientific when there is a conformity of these concepts with the prior activity of the intuitive mind. Thus, the mind is trying to understand through the psychosomatic organism that its prior activity has created.

What must be recognized is that this activity of reflective thought is within the Dragon. We combine the meanings and significances which are attached to the tropes and manipulate them, creating concepts of understanding to grasp the object. The compulsiveness of these significances can and does predetermine our understanding to such an extent that the meanings are actually the presuppositions of our psychological experience and understanding. Insofar as the ego is constituted by these presuppositions and its life is a gesture or manifestation of them, it is difficult to see how we can arrive at the formulation of a doctrine of Truth.

It is at this point that the full import of being in a cul-de-sac arises. The way out is shown to us in the Platonic teachings that attempt to disentangle the reason principles or ideas which the images embody. This process requires that the soul purify itself through isolation. The great philosophic thinkers pierce through the images to the reason principles directly. This is intelligible

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intuition without the use of any intermediaries. This intuition is not of a conceptual nature and does not rely on the language of the Dragon. Those who are not free from the compulsive intensity of the images do not have access to intelligible truth.

The rich storehouse of information that the horoscope contains can be a source of spiritual and metaphysical knowledge that could inspire and enrich our lives, for in this mysterious way the transcendental is included or is immanent in the empirical (and not embodied in footnotes). Perhaps in delineating the charts of well-known writers whose lives are well-documented, we could, through a @u<postmortem> astrological analysis, illustrate something of what is meant by the famous dictums that, "We do not have ideas, rather they have us"--or--"What superior beings think, we must perceive."

To recapitulate: in the degree symbolism there is inextricably buried a hierarchy of meanings, that is, significances that are attached to the functioning of the tropes. At the moment of birth, the planets are conjunct with certain degrees, and an aspectual relationship arises between all the planets and the degrees they conjunct. Thus, at the very origin at birth, the entity is already endowed with meanings that will be manifest in the course of the person's life. The cosmokrators, powers of the Cosmic Soul to which our mind is conjoined, have organized the tropes

[SOUL8.FW]

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into a body of imagination. The psychosomatic entity has seven ways of functioning and four ways of knowing. Within the Dragon, each category of the imagination bears the impress of the corresponding cosmokrator which results in the different ways this entity of imagination can function and know. By "body" we mean the grouping together of these tropes, and by "psyche" we mean the functioning of the categories of the imagination. This is the psychosomatic organism that is imitative being and includes within itself traces of the Ideas. In the chart, a planet conjunct a degree indicates, on the one hand, how that function which is represented by the organ or category of imagination is influenced by the trope, and on the other hand, how that planet will manifest the significances within the trope.

It can be shown that the understanding of a given entity, in all cases except the man liberated from his ego, can be traced back to these ideas which the categories of the imagination have manifested. It can also be shown that a deeper understanding accrues when the natal chart makes certain aspects with the planets by transit. It can further be demonstrated that a vastly superior and universal consciousness is transmitted through an individual soul that has particularized itself within the system of tropes that represents an individual entity.

As we continue retracing our steps on the upward path of that part of the Soul which is said to be divisible among bodies, we can further our understanding by pointing out the relationship that exists between the transiting Chaldean planets and the natal chart. This relationship indicates how that individual's greater mind is attempting to

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become aware of itself in the reflecting medium that the psychosomatic organism supplies. The Soul must come to an understanding of itself through this organism with its phylogenetic and ontogenetic background, but nonetheless to which it is heir. The Soul's task in each incarnation is to erase the interferences and distortions that intervene between the subtle image produced by the greater mind's functioning and its reflection in that empirical subject which is its vehicle, until finally the ego is subservient to the God within.

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(Red Ideas, XIII, p. 11 & 12)

What is the use, ask many questioners, of first, an evolution of the human soul which merely brings it back to the same point where it started; and second, of developing a selfhood through the long cycles of evolution only to have it merged or dissolved in the end into the unselfed Absolute? Is not the whole scheme absurdly useless? The answer is that if this were really the case, the criticism passed would be quite a fair one. But it is not the case. The unit of life emanated from the Overself begins with the merest glimmer of consciousness, appearing on our plane as the protozoic cell. It evolves eventually into the fullest human consciousness, including the intellectual and spiritual. It does not finish as it began but, on the contrary, there is a grand purpose behind all its travail. There is thus a wide gulf between its original state and its final one. The second point is more difficult to clear up but it may be plainly affirmed that man's individuality survives even in the divinest state accessible to him. There, it becomes the same in quality but not identical in essence. The most intimate mental and physical experiences of human love cast a little light for our comprehension of this mystery. The misunderstanding which leads to these questions arises chiefly because of the error which believes that it is the divine soul which goes through all this pilgrimage by reincarnating in a series of earthly forms. The true teaching about reincarnation is not that the divine soul enters into the captivity and ignorance of the flesh again and again, but that something emanated from the soul, that is, a unit of life that eventually develops into the

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personal ego, does so. The Overself contains this reincarnating ego within itself but it does not itself reincarnate. It is the parent; the ego is only its offspring. The long and tremendous evolution in? which the unit of life passes from its primitive cellular existence to its matured human one, is a genuine evolution of its consciousness. Whoever believes that the process first plunges a soul down from the heights into a body or forces Spirit to lose itself in Matter, and then leaves them no alternative but to climb all the way back to the lost summit again, believes wrongly. The Overself never descends or climbs, never loses its own sublime consciousness. What really does this is something that emanates from it and that consequently holds its capacity and power in latency, something which is finited out of the Overself's infinitude and becomes first, the simple unit of life and later, the complex human ego. It is not the Overself that suffers and struggles during this long unfoldment but its child, the ego. It is not the Overself that slowly expands its intelligence and consciousness, but the ego. It is not the Overself that gets deluded by ignorance and passion, by selfishness and extroversion, but the ego.

The belief in the merger of the ego held by some Hindu Sects or in its annihilation held by some Buddhist ones, is unphilosophical. The "I" differentiated itself out of the infinite ocean of Mind into a distinct individuality after a long development through the diverse kingdoms of Nature. Having thus arrived at consciousness of what it is, having travelled the spiral of growth from germ to man, all this effort is certainly not gained only to be thrown away.

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Were this to happen then the entire history of the human race would be a meaningless one, its entire travail a resultless one, its entire aspiration a valueless one. If evolution were merely the complementary return journey of an involutionary process, if the evolving entity arrived only at its starting point for all its pains, then the whole plan would be a senseless one. If the journey of man consisted of nothing more than treading a circle from the time of his emergence from the Divine Essence to the time of his mergence back into it, it would be a vain and useless activity. It would be a stupendous adventure but also a stupid one. There is something more than that in his movement. Except in the speculations of certain theorists, it simply does not happen.

The self-consciousness thus developed will not be dissolved, extinguished or re-absorbed into the Whole again, leaving not a trace behind. Rather will it begin a new spiral of evolution towards higher altitudes of consciousness and diviner levels of being, in which it will co-operate as harmoniously with the universal existence as formerly it collided against it. It will not separate its own good from the general good. Here is part of the answer to this question: What are the ultimate reasons for human wanderings through the world-process? That life matters, that the universe possesses meaning and that the evolutionary agonies are leading to something worthwhile--these are beliefs we are entitled to hold. If the cosmos is a wheel which turns and turns endlessly, it does not turn aimlessly. Evolution does not return us to the starting point as we were. The ascent is not a circle but a spiral.

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Evolution presupposes that its own possibility has always been latent within the evolving entities. Hence the highest form is hidden away in the lowest one. There is development from the blindly instinctive life of animals to the consciously thinking life of man. The blind instinctive struggles of the plant to sustain itself are displaced in the evolutionary process by the intelligent self-conscious efforts of the man. Nor does this ascent end in the Vedantic merger or the Buddhistic annihilation. It could not, for it is a development of the individuality. Everywhere we find that evolution produces variety. There are myriads of individual entities but each possesses some quality of uniqueness which distinguishes it from all others. Life may be one but its multitudinous expressions do differ, as though difference were inherent in such expression.

Evolution as mentalistically defined by philosophy, is not quite the same as evolution as materialistically defined by Darwin. With us it is simply an ever fuller expansion of the individual unit's consciousness. However, the ego already possesses all such possibilities latently. Consequently the whole process, although apparently an ascending one, is really an unfolding one.

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III.8.6 [Read on 7/15/83]

Levels of Understanding traversed by I Am, known to Sage

The purpose of life, according to Plotinus, is the acquisition of true knowledge and the individual's life in the sensible world is for that purpose. The astrological chart can and does reveal the specific ideas being manifested by that life and assimilated by the individual mind towards that goal. This is the fundamental spiritual nature of astrology. There are many levels of meaning from the ideas hidden in the symbolism of the degrees, which we have referred to as the basic presuppositions and attitudes that are the person. These basic ideas orientate a person towards certain goals in his life and this activity furthers the contemplation carried on by the mind. This contemplation or "in-seeing" is the silent assimilation of those reasons which the second soul is garnering from the experiences in the sensible, because it could not achieve it directly in the Intellectual realm. Plotinus goes on to say that the purpose of the journey through the cosmic circuit is to acquire some good. What possible good could this be? It is the acquisition of those ideas by the mind--the second soul--to complete the vision resident in the logos. So it is rather a straightforward affair to discern that the purpose of all this activity is to ultimately possess the object of contemplation, the ideas or reason principles that are being manifested by life. This understanding will eventuate in the fulfillment, the peaceful smile of a Buddha.

But now we must consider the more immediate consequences involved in acquiring this knowledge. The knowledge must be applied to the facts of experience and to the yet unresolved picture of the world. The mind must make its own that which it knows. Knowledge must be lived or it becomes a source of infection and these ideas must therefore be applied in their place in the lower world, that is, by being translated into ethics, morality and the virtues, otherwise it is not yet knowledge actualized.

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III.8.6.

The briefness of this explanation should not delude us into conceiving that this is a process that can be accomplished within the mortality of the ego. It is a process spread over an indeterminable amount of time and involves the assumption of many bodies to secure the necessary observations. To grasp the meaning of this process, assume the existence of a secondary soul that has set out to fulfill its vision. Through its own activity it descends into the lower world and procures the body necessary in order to understand certain reason principles which sensible experience can provide. The accompanying natal chart would indicate those reason principles that will sensibly manifest as this entity and its experiences from which the second soul extracts the essence. The repetition of an indefinite number of such bodies will provide the second soul with all the reason principles necessary to achieve its vision. Many lives in the body are needed by the evolving understanding to achieve maturity in the philosophic life. Only in this very wide context can the last paragraph of this tractate of Plotinus be understood.

@quotation< The Sage, then, has gone through a process of reasoning...when he expounds his act to others; but in relation to himself he is Vision: such a man is already set, not merely in regard to exterior things but also within himself, towards what is one and at rest: all his faculty and life are inward bent.>

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The evolution of the individual mind is taking place through the World Idea that is being manifested by our Ishvara. The intricacies of this process we hope to indicate, nonetheless it will be quite fragmentary, a mere shadow of an outline. It was previously pointed out that our Solar Logos has an intellectual and reasoning phase in the Nous but its so-called lower phase is manifesting its idea of the entirety. Insofar as the Cosmic Soul participates in the idea of the six holy forces it will have these powers at its disposal in order to bring about a manifestation of its own Idea of the World. These powers are sensibly represented by the Chaldean planets (and our attempt to correlate and itemize these powers with the planets is tentative) and mainly provocative. The perpetual spontaneity of their ordered functioning--and our childish attempts to discover something about this abiding wisdom...

This cosmic activity is received by the individual mind and translated into space-time perceptions--on the one hand a sensible presentation and on the other a perception of the sensible prior to the bifurcation into an empirical subject-object. This is a view that belongs to the "Witness I." But being here implies the identification of that unknown witness with a body or psycho-somatic organism through which it can intensely experience its own functioning. What is becoming explicit in this exegesis is a theory of the endless evolution of the content of an individual's soul awareness. Through reasoning on the content of the World Idea which it is manifesting, the soul evolves its understanding until intellection becomes predominant, and this is brought to bear on its own self-nature. If the inquiry is pursued, this process will result in intrinsic self-awareness.

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If we retrace our steps and consider Plotinus' remarks about the second soul--that part which is said to be divisible among bodies, (IV.2.1,2) then starting at the lowest we may understand how this germ now reascends through the various levels of the environment which is provided by the Cosmic Soul.

number 4 in left hand margin

Our mind, or the lowest phase of our Soul, is conjoined to the lowest phase of the Cosmic Soul.

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number 7 in left hand margin

Insofar as the animal body is composed of the traces of prior activity of Cosmic Soul, inherent in it are the impulses, desires, etc. which we refer to as the subconscious and this is the life that the ordinary man lives. We may refer to this as the descending spiral where the Soul of man identifies more and more with the not-I. It has its joys and sorrows but finally leads to satiety--this is the samsaric life, the endless round of birth and death which finally leads to the question "Why?" and the dawning of reflective consciousness.

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note: (8 is on next page)

number 9 in left hand margin

It is important at this junction to point out that the moment-by-moment manifestation of the World Idea includes these bodies which individual Souls will inhabit in order to experience a world appearance. It is not to be forgotten that those bodies are being produced and manifested moment-by-moment and have a sort of continuity which is provided by the World-Idea. The individual Soul imparts to that body a subjectivity or consciousness which is characteristically self-identical. The combination of these two distinct levels gives rise to the personal ego, a spurious entity that is constituted by a self-identical Consciousness and a body being instantiated. So within this same entity there is an image or traces of the Cosmic soul powers which fabricated it as well as traces of an individual soul consciousness and its evolutionary status. It should be noticed that the basis of the ego, its body or psycho-somatic organism, has no self-identity from one moment to the next for it is part of the vibrating World Idea, but the feeling of there being a self-identity comes from a completely different level of reality, that is, it appropriates this consciousness of the lower phase of the Soul as its very own.

number 10 in left margin

This confluence between two separate items...the body or psycho-somatic organism--which is part of the World Idea that is being instantiated and the consciousness that identifies itself with the body are intermingled so that what arises--ego--must be accepted and denied accordingly. That is, it must be developed so that it can become a medium for the Soul's experience and has its place as part of the World Idea. But it must be emphatically denied the status of an "I." Plotinus reminds us in II-3-17 that the nature of the matter which constitutes our body insists on making the past present--a combustion process that is objectifying and actualizing its illusory self-identity and the bitter consequences of identifying with that process.

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P.B. IDEAS ORANGE, XIII, p. 27 #19

(quote last para of IV.8.5) (page 8)

number 8 in left margin

The Soul by inhabiting a body prepared for it by the World Idea is forced into a development and actualization of its powers. But it is the peculiar way in which this is done that has baffled investigators and questers, and of course is completely unavailable to the uninstructed, unillumined astrologers.

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IV-8-5

Thus, in sum, the Soul, a divine being and a dweller in the loftier realms, has entered body: it is a god, a later phase of the divine; but, under stress of its powers and of its tendency to bring order to its next lower, it penetrates to this sphere in a voluntary plunge: if it turns back quickly all is well; it will have taken no hurt by acquiring the knowledge of evil and coming to understand what sin is, by bringing its forces into manifest play, by exhibiting those activities and productions which, remaining merely potential in the unembodied, might as well never have been even there, if destined never to come into actuality, so that the Soul itself would never have known that suppressed and inhibited total.

The act reveals the power, a power hidden, and we might almost say obliterated or non-existent, unless at some moment it became effective in the world as it is, the richness of the outer stirs us all to the wonder of the inner whose greatness is displayed in acts so splendid.

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How does the Soul participate in the wisdom of the Cosmic Circuit and how is it instructed by it? Insofar as the ego is part of the World Idea, it evolves within that World Idea; secondly, the Soul as identified with the ego as part of the World process is forced to attend to the body and its experiences and must absorb, even if unconsciously, the ideas inherent in it. But there reaches a point when the development of ethics and understanding will lead to an evolution occurring at the higher level or the reasoning soul--the phase of the individual Soul conjoined with the transiting Chaldean planets.

notes in left margin: later 9B & to p. 12

(insert left here because it was indicated that it should be moved both to page 10 and 12--elaine)

The growth of this understanding in the process of individuation, necessitates the notion that one's evolution and spiritual growth require his conscious participation; or that one must take a hand in the game of life. We must begin to choose--and it is our choice--to live by the higher, the ideas, or to continue to be led by the compulsions inherent in the animal body. Especially valuable at this time would be the acquaintance with any doctrine that is conducive toward that goal. We are reminded here of Plotinus' remark in V.3.6 that "our way is to teach our soul..."

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There can be many causes or reasons which bring the ego to a temporary standstill and when the mind ceases to be preoccupied with living out the animal compulsions--even temporarily--it can become a medium or apparatus wherein the rational process can be reflected. Even more precisely, instances can be shown within a natal chart when such a crisis is reached and the normal functioning is inhibited so that reflection on that life can proceed. We can speak of this as an intrusion of a higher level of understanding or the presence of the rational mind mingling with and illuminating the instinctual life and evaluating it.

quote KCB

Thus it is inevitable that a moral conflict ensues, demanding a growth of ethics and understanding that is spread over an indeterminable amount of time.

(9B -> put here)

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K.C.B. @u<Studies in Samkhya>, p. 143, para 17.

Reflection is at all stages a freeing process, the mind freeing itself from the body or from itself as a subtle body of the self. The process is spiritual in the sense that it is as much conative as intellectual, a detaching activity which may be indifferently called the will to deny will (will to nivrtti) or the knowing function. It is in reflection that the self-assertive will (will to pravrtti) is known to have been one with the body that is sought to be freed from; and it is in reflection that the given object is negatively willed to be detachedly known. In Samkhya there is really no will to deny will as in Yoga: it is just the knowing process, knowledge as mental being a process. In Samkhya the consummation of this reversion of the will, which is the knowing process, is conceived as viveka which is not eternal quiescent knowledge which would be the self but the mind distinguishing, defining or detaching itself from the self and thereby losing itself in unknown or unmanifest Prakrti, the self consequently standing in its eternally manifest solitariness.

[SOUL9.FW]

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9b-> put here

number 14 in left margin

If we use picture language, mind which is formless can be conceived of as coextensive with the planetary spheres. Its entrance into a body is indicated at the moment of birth and the first breath imprints the quality of the rational Soul on the organism. At this moment that aspect of the Soul which is divisible about bodies is identified with the organized body, forming the animate or ego, the rational remaining above.

number 16 in left margin

A moment of that spontaneous activity of the undivided mind contains the peculiar characteristics or traces of that Soul--this coincides with the peculiar evolutionary status of the individual incarnating Soul. The individual Soul at that moment brings with it into the body those peculiar compulsions, fixed ideas, etc. and it will be the Source of life and consciousness for that individual entity. This ray of individual soul will be the source of the subjectivity, the individual I-ness which tethers together all the instinctual functioning of that entity. The Sun symbolizes this life principle; and one way of viewing the natal chart is to see the Sun on a certain degree symbolizing that life circumscribed by the purpose indicated and the other Chaldeans as manifesting that central purpose. (insert example from Steiner)

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number 17 in left margin

The Sun degree in the chart may be used to symbolize the individuating quality of that life, being brought to self-reflective awareness through the function of the other six powers within the organism. The resulting functioning of this psycho-somatic organism brings about the appearance which is the field upon which the reasoning Soul passes judgement. From this complex interaction the result is the building up of the manomaya or sunlike body. This sheath is provided by and is concomitant with the functioning of the Cosmic Soul--the Sun and its rational powers--and so may be aligned with the sun-centered view of the cosmos, i.e., rational mind. We find that this deeper level of our mind, the subtler vestment which the light of soul has put on its descent, is participating in the Cosmic Soul's intelligent functions without deliberation or reflection, and so above our ego awareness.

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number 20 in left margin

In order to become aware of our higher nature, various systems have been devised. For example in the Yoga system the transition to the Sunlike body which they refer to as the manomayakosa and the subsequent subtler levels as a conscious attainment cannot be accomplished without the technique of meditation. They speak of it having a threefold aspect--there is concentration on the thought resulting in the stilling of the empirical mind which leads to an inwardization of consciousness and then silence. This technique is called Samayana [sic; Samyama] in yoga terminology. This meditation leads us out of the empirical mind into the mind of light, the first of a series that lead finally to the formless contemplation of the pure soul and Nous. The first level of meditation, if successful, would lead to the disidentification with the phenomenal or lowest sheath, to the viewpoint of the sunlike body. The successive application of the threefold technique on this and the following levels leads to a series of transitions through the sheaths or forms of thought, leading up to the I AM or Overself. Apparently, although the transition between levels does involve a cessation of thought at each level, the pure light of the soul, or the I AM principle, does not become immediately available in normal practice, because of the immediate appropriation by the next subtler level of thought with which it becomes identified. We may represent this process by using our pictorial representation of the sensible world.

@verbatim<

>

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The two lowest sheaths--manas and the combined prano/anno--can be portrayed as the sensible world of Plato's divided line whose author is our sun. Once the awareness of the sunlike is realized and actualized, which may be spoken of as living the rational life, freed from the overwhelming compulsion of the memories and habits, there is the further need to participate and evolve within us the clearer intuitive vision and efficacy of the ideas through the triple modes of super-reflective willing, knowing and feeling. That each individual human soul must apply these powers to the understanding of the World Idea and their role within it is to understand at the same time the universal reason principles that are manifesting themselves or working themselves out through and within the world Idea. Here we must think not only in terms of developing the rational soul powers, but must align these to the intelligence of the ideas which are manifesting themselves. At this level we make available the spiritual function of Reason, or the Noeron, which informs the functioning of the rational mind, and recognizes the higher or universal knowing principles, those principles which are the higher knower or the intelligence of the sphere of the inerratic Ideas. These spiritual Presences are brought into manifesting by the functioning of Uranus Neptune Pluto in relation to our natal chart. Similarly the transits of the Chaldean planets can be used to illustrate the intrusion into the ego of the rational mind. (see VI.7.6)

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The intellectuality within us (that is represented by the inerratic spheres), particularizes itself (becomes available to each individual Soul) through its un-unifiable triple function of Knowing, Willing and Feeling. This could be conceived of as an image of the multiple organ of Intellect's self-vision in the Nous. The Soul through these transcendent functions is the recipient of the Ideas--a spiritual gnosis often referred to as the vijnanamaya kosa--that includes the rational Soul's content. After the full development of Knowing Willing Feeling and their being brought into coalescence arises the possibility of insight or true self-cognition of the Overself. The reason principles that robe the pure I--or light of the Soul--are referred to as the anandamaya kosa, the joy of existence and the inherent Intellectuality of the Ideas available to the I AM or Overself.

handwritten note: If ananda = presence of Nous (@u<not image>) then it is higher Knower. If not, Ananda is highest level of World Idea.

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@center<Epistemology of Soul unfinished>

In III.4.6 is described the immense scope Plotinus ascribes to the individual Soul or Mind. This tractate is again one of such magnitude we can hardly envisage its implications, and if grasped will reverse drastically the understanding we have of who and what we are. Even as a concept it is too vast to be assimilated by the modern mentality and incorporated into a theory of knowledge.

There is a luciferian perversity and arrogant pride of the intellect with which the ego operates that prevents many modern commentators from an inquiry into the fundamental nature of Soul as Plotinus describes it. (insert--placement unclear: and explaining it to their readers) If anything can assure us of their lack of experience and irreverence towards the teaching, one or two quotes would be more than sufficient. (quote Finley & Dodds)

III.4.6

"We must understand that, while our souls do contain an Intellectual Cosmos, they also contain a subordination of various forms like that of the Cosmic Soul. The World Soul is distributed so as to produce the fixed sphere and the planetary circuits corresponding to its graded powers: so with our souls; they must have their provinces according to their different powers, parallel to those of the World Soul..."

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By means of the Ideal Forms--the reason principles in Soul--the "I Am" has lordship over the ego. The higher brings the discursive reason of understanding sense and intellection. (order of last five words unclear--elaine) For the lower man there is compulsion and suffering which only the light of understanding can overcome. From the moment of the operation of the rational phase or Sunlike vehicle there is the authentic We--the psycho-somatic is an ours, because it is a possession, it is @u<mine> but not I.

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This conception of Soul or Mind may be likened to a transparent crystalline sphere of life-radiating consciousness, which is a reflex or emanation from the Absolute Soul. The vision of the pure Soul in the Nous is held within the boundless consciousness and this is represented by the inerratic sphere. The planetary spheres represent our rational soul, the discursive form of the abiding wisdom of the Soul in the Nous. And finally, the individual mind contains within it the sublunary realm, the medium in which the two priors are expressed and which provides the means that the Soul may come to know the reason principles through its experience of the sensible world.

@verbatim<

A diagram of this view can be pictured as follows:

Augoeides Augoeides represented by entire sphere

inerratic sphere--the Nous within ind. Soul or Mind

planetary spheres--the reasoning Soul

sublunary--the @u<Animate>, @u<the ego> and @u<its World Idea>.>

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Any of these three phases can be the dominant principle in the Life; it is the uniqueness of the @u<Sage that he operates with all three simultaneously if he so desires>, that there is no hiatus in his experience between the intellectual and the sensible. Because the Sage has a complete and direct understanding of the nature of man he can delineate the necessary factors involved in knowledge. In I.4.10. with considerable kindness Plotinus takes us through a step-by-step description of how the sensible arises.

I.4.10.

"Let us explain the conditions under which we become conscious of this Intellective-Act:

The thought-object is deflected and the Intellectual-Principle which is active in the life of the Soul (i.e. the Rational Principle) is, so to speak, thrust back, as an image might be reflected in the smooth and shining and untroubled surface of a mirror; in this illustration, when the mirror is in place the image appears but, though the mirror be absent or out of gear, all that would have acted and produced an image still exists; so in the case of the Soul; when there is peace in that within us which is capable of reflecting the images of the Rational and Intellectual-Principles these images appear. Then, side by side with the primal knowledge of the activity of the Rational and the Intellectual-Principles, we have also as it were a sense-perception of their operation."

add to this V.1.12 and IV.8.8

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We must take as our example not the "ordinary man who drinks and dances, but the mystic who thinks and trances," that is, the Sage who is present at inception of knowledge as well as at its end result.

For knowledge has its origin at the @u<highest level of the Augoeides>, (? in right margin) where this universal consciousness formulates its World Idea through its (? in margin) @u<absolute Knowing, Willing and Feeling. This is the indivisible whole that must ultimately become reflected as and in the sensible world (an image). But it is the @u<reasoning phase of the Soul> that transmits this, moment by moment, and spreads it out in the realm of the earth's memories which becomes our sensible world. These three phases of the Soul's Act are required in order for knowledge to arise. The Sage has in actuality all three at his disposal--this constitutes his happiness, which cannot be taken from him by the "blows of fortune" (? in margin) and the "nursery of terrors." The natural man has knowledge only of the sense world with an intermittent mild infusion of rationality. The level of knowledge available to him depends upon the dominant phase of the Soul operative, though each man has all three in potential.

(note IV.3.17, Soul's descent into heavens.)

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Although this is beyond the powers of our apprehension nonetheless, regardless of our limitations, we must proceed and try to understand Plotinus' definition of happiness and what it entails. To begin with it is truly a royal "we"--the Divine Mind operating through Plotinus that is explaining the nature of true happiness.

Plotinus' theory of knowledge is based on Self-realization--of who and what we are. Let us make clear to ourselves his initial premises regarding the indivisible whole of knowledge and the soul's relation to the Intellectual Principle. He is not referring here (quote I.1.8, first two paras. in Armstrong) to what we have stated as the knowledge of the inerratic sphere within the emanant Soul, but rather the Divine Mind itself. This, which he says, we possess as common to all, even though it is transcendent to the lower phase of the Soul that emanates from it. We possess it in common insofar as the source of the Second Soul is the Intellectual Principle itself--One Entire. And we possess it particularly as the inerratic sphere (Ideas) within each individual emanant Soul--"in the Soul as it were unrolled and separate"--that is, the whole of the firmament representing the Ideas. In the Nous they are experienced as unified, the sheer presence of mighty powers indistinguishable one from another.

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Following the implications of the above remarks a two-fold order in knowledge is presented. The highest is the primary identity of Being and Knowledge in the Nous. The second order of knowledge has to now be considered distinguished from this. The Nous as unfolded in the Soul we said was represented by the inerratic, that is, the eternal and immutable Ideas--as symbolized by the stars. More precisely, it has been explained elsewhere that the immaterial body which is given to the various souls as their seat in the firmament are each illuminated by an individual Cosmic Soul, each an Intellectual Principle in its own right. So the entirety of the firmament is an unfolding of the Ideas, a revelation of the Nous in the heavens. This is all manifested within the infinity of the Asmita principle and makes possible the two-fold division of knowledge which is properly knowledge of the Nous.

(see quote III.4.6) p. 1

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At this point we re-introduce the symbolism of the chart in order to explain the more spiritual part of our nature, represented by the trans-saturnian planets--Uranus Neptune Pluto--which are particularizing the World Idea for an individual I AM. The trans-saturnians, in the process of evolving the World Idea which includes the ego, gradually deposit traces of spiritual meaning in that image the soul has made for itself. This was the application we made in regard to the meaning of the astrological chart. We must now add to this from our understanding of the previous quote the meaning Uranus Neptune Pluto have for Plotinus' theory of knowledge. (? in right margin) This is the @u<Soul's intellection> which, taking place at the @u<highest phase of the Asmita principle>, is equivalent to the Soul's direct apprehension of the intelligibles, the Ideal Forms. This, Plotinus says, is @u<possessed potentially by each personality>, but effectively possessed by the Sage is this realm of Authentic Intellection. And he says that "to possess it effectively is what we mean by happiness.…

....….

the man already in possession of true felicity, who is this perfection realized, who has passed over into actual identification with it."

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It is made transparently clear by this master of introversion that the Sage sees differently than the ordinary man; that the @u<experience of the Nous within us is not a psychological state and it will not be discovered through the analysis of thought by more thought>. This is the state "earlier-than-perception" not to be found in the ordinary mind. Then follows his description of the reasoning activity which is still prior to the empirical awareness of the personality. When authentic intellection is to be reflected (not all intellection is made sensible) the reasoning soul organizes the images into a sensible world that will reflect the prior intellection.

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We have previously discussed the conception of the ancient cosmologists concerning the earthly life of all living creatures being a participation in the one life of the Dragon. To amplify this view we continue in III.4.6 where Plotinus speaks of that phase of the soul divisible among bodies as that faculty where the soul's desire for earthly life resides. This is the light (referred to in I.1.7) that the Asmita phase of Soul gives forth from itself to the organized body and which we may refer to as the reproductive power of Soul. When entering the earth's sphere, and conjoined with a body thereof, the desire of the individual human Soul to be divisible among bodies is conjoined to the same faculty which we find in the Dragon--two instances of the same power which brings with it in its entrance into body the latent tendencies, dispositions, etc. that it is the bearer of.

We have referred to this dragonic life--the traces of the functioning of the Ideas left behind in the imaginal essence--as the 360 degrees of the zodiac. The desire of the Soul to participate in earthly life is represented by its selection and organization of a certain number of these degrees determined by the position of the planets at birth. This is the organized (Animate?) (? in right margin) body of which Plotinus speaks in I-1-7: the ego as representative of the soul in the dragon, in which is "vested sense perception and all the other experiences found to belong to the Animate."

Note: To be included with essence of soul (type back of this page separately ???????????? with essence of Soul)

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handwritten--xerox hard to read so check against original

We find this ______________ or _______________ on the part of the Soul in its highest phase in the Nous. The Soul's tendency towards division in bodies first indicated in the extraordinary(?) revelatory passage of VI-2-6 (quote-last paragraph). When speaking of the Soul as self-contemplative we find that this is the root cause and principle that gives rise to the desire of the Soul to become divisible among bodies (which we find seated in its Asmita phase). This principle--a primeval(?) and fundamental urge which is concerned only with its endless self duplication. As it exists in the Nous it gives rise to the many I Am's, and as it exists in the I Am it gives rise again to many expressions of itself. One might even say this is the tendency to reincarnate and is imaged again in each incarnation as the procreative desire, the passions, of the psychosomatic entity. It is this Soul which imparts to the body through its power, the latent tendencies, dispositions, etc. that it is the bearer thereof.

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Again in I-1-7 Plotinus makes a distinction between the organized body which he terms "the 'ours'"--in which is vested sense perception and the "We"--the authentic human principle, the rational Soul that precedes and passes judgement upon the animate. The planetary spheres or the rational soul is in constant interaction with its representation, the ego, revealing itself in the empirical subject as discursive reasoning and intellection. He states that "the faculty of perception cannot act by the immediate grasping of sensible objects..." and it is to amplify this point that we will for a moment proceed to another tractate. For to understand Plotinus' theory of knowledge a pivotal issue must now be dealt with and which we will find expounded in IV-4-23.

Beginning with the perception of a sense object, he says that first the pure form is seized, i.e., the object as intelligible without discerned parts. This first, albeit unknown and unconscious step in the process of knowledge, is a direct intuition by the Soul of the World Idea--the Thing-In-Itself--within itself. In the end, he says, it will exhibit all the details of the sensible object--and it is the problem of the intermediary steps involved in this transition from Idea to sense object that we shall now try to articulate.

[SOUL10.FW]

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Plotinus rules out in the beginning that the Soul assimilates itself directly to the sensible object but instead offers the alternative that the Soul must "enter into relation with something that has been so assimilated." That is, in order to experience the Ideas as sensible it must first create for itself a vehicle through which it can operate, and a medium in which the immaterial reason principles can be represented. What, we must inquire, is this intermediary? What is this "one elemental Stuff," that which is the link of the two extremes? The imaginal essence--the dragonic belt of (? in right margin) the Mother Goddess' memories is this medium or essence within which the Soul makes an image of itself within which a psychosomatic organism can be formed. This representation--the Animate--contains the functioning image of the Soul's powers which become the categories of the imagination and the immaterial reason principles as the degrees which are organized to provide for the multitudinous variety of experiences, circumstances, and events which represent the basic tendencies latent in the lower soul. This imaginal essence is of such plasticity that when the world image is projected--i.e. the organized body and the World Idea, it appears to this knower--the I Am identified with the functioning of the rational soul. It is now possible to conceive the situation as follows.

First, the subject-object relationship as a totality is the object of this impersonal consciousness. Secondly, this knower takes itself to be the empirical subject within the sensible world. These two are operative simultaneously. You are at one and the same time this impersonal consciousness and the empirical person perceiving the sense object.

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The rational mind organizes the earth's memories and this inner knowledge is quasi-intelligible--as organized by the reason principles in Soul. The outer impression--that representation which is perceived as @u<other> to the ego--is a mere phantom. The reason form received within is projected outward as the world to which this person seems separate. But the "I Am" working through the ego, has a perception of the ideal form of the object, the meaning and reason which accompanies the sense picture as well as the sensations. The ideal form or reason essence of the sensible thing is perceived by the rational mind working through the animate, and its perception is closer to the intelligibles. As for example when we see a circle in the jar top--the inner form of circle is available to the reason, but only the sense form is available to the animal.

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Note: Ennead numbers are printed in right hand margin next to entries--they are being typed here before each entry. Many numbers are cut off in xerox--check original

@center<OLD SOUL OUTLINE>

v-1-?, VI-2-?, V-1-?

1. The third hypostasis is also an authentic essence, real being, and similarly constituted by the five genera peculiar to Soul, that is, characterized primarily by life.

VI-2-5,6, IV-2-1

2. It is said to be both a one and many.

3. In Plotinus Soul as a generic term is regarded in three distinct ways. Nonetheless in all three its essence or principle is said to be Life. self-motion

4. He distinguishes: a) Absolute Soul or the principle of life in the One.

5. b) Universal Soul as an (twofold) outraying of the Absolute Soul & as two fold. The higher phase contemplative; the lower phase fabricative.

6. c) The Individual souls which also are rooted in Absolute Soul, in the One but reach down to association with bodies.

7. d) In this last category he places planetary souls, star souls, and cosmic soul, and individual human souls.

IV.3.?, V.2.1, V.1.3

a) Absolute Soul is the unity of soul in the One, and in this are rooted both Universal and Individual Soul. Within the Intellectual Principle it is the living matter which simultaneously reflects all the forms.

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b) The Universal Soul is spoken of as two-fold. It is the Abiding Wisdom in eternal contemplation and secondarily the illuminated matter of the Reason Principles of the Universe. This illuminating Principle is the illumined matter and the one life of the universe and this is its outer aspect. Thus Plotinus tells of the Royal Soul which contemplates the Ideas and Royal Intellect (the Reason Principle of the Universe) which belong to Zeus.

c) Because of the prior activity of Universal Soul, the groundplan, it now becomes possible for an Individual Soul which can be cosmic in its sweep, to elaborate what is to become the objective manifestation, and for the Individual Souls that are conjoined with various bodies within that cosmos to participate and evolve therein.

IV.3.4, 5,?, V.1.2 (text with these references is deleted)

III.8.5

And the indeterminate life of Soul is eternally conjoined with a vision of the Idea of Man.

VI.7.6, VI.7.5, (III.5.7)

This is the Authentic Man, a true essence, a permanent possibility in the Intellectual Principle.

IV.1.1

The tendency of souls toward secession must be with a desire toward a fuller self-realizing vision of this idea.

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(V.3.?, V.3.6

Through their association with bodies, they are individuated; and eventually taught to be self-conscious of their divine origin in the Nous.

IV.3.5, IV.1.1

Each soul is aprioristically a unity

II.9.?, III.4.3

It is also an outflow of graded powers and life, to unfold what it contemplates in the Intellectual Principle.

IV.3.5

It is a logos or transmitter of the ideas to the cosmos through its multiple powers.

IV.2.1, 2, IV.3.19, IV.3.?, IV.3.?, IV.3.7, V.1.2, IV.8.8

Summing up, for Plotinus, individual soul must be of such a nature--a unity and a multiplicity, divisible and indivisible. At its highest--in Divine Mind--it is a unity but it has phases and powers which unfold through various levels down to the sensible world. But even in its associations with body, with the universe which has been illumined by Universal Soul and elaborated by an individual Cosmic Soul it remains impassive. Soul is entire and indivisible even where its distinct powers are operative.

Soul is One and Many.

I.1.7

It gives from itself a light to the formation of living entities when conjoined to body, and thus produces living images of its powers.

I.1.9

These images are seated in the animate (dragon) principle, and are what we refer to as body--or appearance.

[SOUL11.FW]

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Our Venerable Guide reveals that he has penetrated into the mysteries of the Soul, its greatness and wonder, a Unity Being integrally present in all its graded powers. And this knowledge is not by acquaintance, i.e., the Ego's capacity for creating concepts from the remembrance of previous bodily modifications. No, this is a knowledge that goes beyond such formulation. This is that principle which illuminates the thoughts and is itself not one of the thoughts. This unobjectifiable and immaterial principle which is illuminating the ego's functioning is to be differentiated from it and isolated in the meditational practises. After that is done we can begin the investigation or inquiry into the nature of the Soul of this Principle.

We are now speaking of Plotinus' intimacy with this innermost core of his being which is an offspring from the Absolute Soul. In general, Plotinus is very guarded in his mystical utterances, and it will require a very careful reading of the text, even by those who have some proficiency in this matters. Nor can the reading of mystical literature be accepted as a substitute for such inner experience; we must make this clear to ourselves. The functioning of the psychosomatic organism is accompanied by bodily modifications, and it is these appearances, duly noted, registered, classified, stored away in the memory that are the means whereby the individual ego is creating its world, subject and object. In its conjectures as to the meanings of these appearances it is dominated by the instinct for survival and biological adaptation. This realm of existence must be sharply distinguished from the Immaterial Principle of Illumination to which we have referred and it is altogether on a different plane. We cannot unreservedly apply the logic of the sensible to this immaterial Principle. What is required is an intimacy and a recognition of this Pure Principle as our Isness in contradistinction to its identification with a psychosomatic organism in order for us to have accurate knowledge about the principle. If we allow ourselves to disregard those persons who have had intimate glimpses of this higher Self, but rather deal with that rare person who has profoundly established his residence in egoless Being, in other words, with those who know, we may be able to reorganize our conceptual understanding so as to evoke the intuition with ourselves.

In IV.1.1 Plotinus points out that the Soul is a content of the Divine Mind included with other Divine Beings, permanently stationed and resident there. Here, Soul or Mind is included in an undifferentiated Unity and he goes on to point out that it has a tendency or desire towards secession. We may also rephrase this in accordance with many previous statements--that what is authentically real has an outwardly facing hypostasis, but what is perfect engenders and the eternally perfect engenders eternally. We may take this to mean that Absolute Soul eternally engenders Souls. Each and @u<every> Soul, offspring of the @u<Absolute Soul>, is similar to but not indentical with its Prior. It is the emanation, this thought

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of the Mind of God or of our Absolute Self that we have to investigate. This is the key to the mysteries. This unit of Being Life Consciousness goes forth, "formed from the undivided essence and the essence divided among bodies," We may refer to this as the Individual Soul or Mind. It is this point which is a combination of the Mind with the World Idea which is our Absolute Individuality or Overself and which is our concern here. We now must try to understand something of the nature of this Individual Mind or Soul and this will require that we review some passages from Plotinus and in great detail itemize our understanding of our statements.

In IV.2.1, he speaks of this offspring as characterized by Unity which it derived from its Prior. Each Soul, distinct from every other and that is it is an intermediate between the Absolute Soul and the Cosmic Circuit or World Idea. Furthermore, regardless with what it is occupied, the Idea of the Universe or a body within it, it gives itself to either or both without abdicating its Unity. What, in effect, he is saying is that if the Mind thinks the thought of a pinhead or of the continent of Australia, it is totally present in each of the items without its Unity being sundered. In other words, its Omnipresence does not fragment its identity for it is at once both divisible and indivisible. "Its divisibility lies in its presence at every point of the recipient but it is indivisible as dwelling entire in the total and entire in any part." The recitation of these words is not a guarantee that the meaning accompanies their repetition. Plotinus is referring here to the mystical experience of this illuminating Principle as egoless Being Consciousness. In other passages he even refers to it as the "All." We must bear in mind the ego's intellect cannot by the very nature understand, let alone feel the reality of such a Principle which is illuminating its activities and, in all honesty, cannot accept such a position.

If we examine these passages with the attention it deserves and deduce the staggering implications that arise as to what men is, a shift in the orientation of a culture may take place; however, there is no cause for undue alarm. Philosophy of Truth will not become a popular ism in the near future. The inner erudition and outer perspicuity required is a call to heroic souls to reclaim their own.

In their inner union with the Soul of the Sun or the "All Soul" all the Overselves are interpenetrating or associated as one Soul, yet each soul remains a distinct Unit. This necessarily follows from our definition of Soul essence as a One and Many. Again, as Souls are intelligently omnipresent and their power infinite to the core, what could distinguish them? The term, All, could refer to the Overself as well as to the Cosmic Soul. As they are unique Logoi or expressions of the Supreme, Souls remain with the Cosmic Soul not produced by it and yet not set apart from it. They are conjoined as whole Soul to whole or Beings by the side of Being. Identification with this immaterial presence which is within as an

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Infinite Light, everywhere present but contained in no place. This is the mystery of our Being, wherein is lodged the glory of the archetypal cosmos. And thus he says, "Our Souls are receptacles of Divine Beings."

The 3rd phase of our Sun, which we are speaking of itself as an emanation of the Intellect is what is being referred to as interpenetrating with our innermost essence. (This needs explanation) If we include the Unity and the Intellect, the Saturn/Jupiter phase of the Sun, then we find that the Sun, too, has a tripartite division, and the Asmita principle of the Sun is its 3rd Aspect. Behind this visible sun is the principle we are calling the Soul of the Sun, an inconceivable and immaterial life and light, the substratum of the entire universe. This infinite light is the principle of manifestness, consciousness, and intelligence. Associated with this immaterial light or consciousness of the Sun by the Individual Souls and in this undivided awareness, the Souls hold together, not separated by any boundaries and indifferently referred to as One and as Many. In an analogy, the Overselves are like radii of a circle, attached at the center in inseparable union with the All soul, but manifesting their distinct worlds at the circumference. As abiding in the Center they are inseparable and yet the center remains the endpoint of all the distinct radiations. (only as they are active and manifesting can these radii be distinguished from their union at the center) Within this formless Light, the Soul of the Sun, is hidden the potentiality of the Universe to be, the unmanifested Idea or archetype of the world.

The principle remains the same regardless of the appearances for it is a substance. This is never used by Plotinus as matter but as Being, Life, Consciousness. When this light is focused we can speak of the body of the Sun. Ultimately, everything in our Solar System comes from this principle, every body is an appearance within that principle. The entire Solar System can be spoken of as the body of our Sun. More precisely, we could say, with Julian, that this Asmita principle of the Sun is the source of the accretion of forms and of the concretion of matter, i.e., the cosmos precipitates out of its form bearing Light. Even physically, science tells us that 98% of the elements in our Solar System are derived from our Sun, but it is the Sun behind the Sun, the Infinite power which has no location, that we are referring to as present to the entire cosmic thought and present entire to each Overself. @u<Only> as embraced by the mind's presence does a thought have existence, only as present within the Solar Light is the cosmic manifested. Here to be existent means to be thought by the Cosmic Soul. This Soul is the first condition of existence. Soul is omnipresent to the World Idea or the All because it thinks that Idea. As a consequence, manifestation is the unfolding of the Soul's Light and is not an illusion. The presence of Soul is not like some quality plastered onto the world, neither is it spatially distributed, nor a container of Ideas, as in a box. At this level, the Intelligence of all the Overself being inseparable from that of the Cosmic Soul. They, too,

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are pervasive of the entire cosmic thought, of Buddhi, just as in Mind is present entire with its imaginations. There is no separating Soul and its content or the cosmos, nor does its presence to the whole cosmic thought or any part of it sunder the unmanifestable Being Consciousness of the Soul. It is real Being or infinite Power which sustains the Cosmos. It is important that we emphasize this relation.

The Cosmos is contiguous with the Soul, there is no separation of the Soul and the Cosmos, just as there is none between the Mind and its dreams. But this existence of the World Idea or Cosmos sustained by Soul does not, in any way, part the Soul. Its power to think the universe leaves it undisturbed by the multiplicity of thought forms. Again, as in the dream example, it is not that necessary for Soul to spread itself out to accommodate the Universe because it is not limited by the cosmos or by space, for the space, too, is a part of that thought. It can be present entirely for the whole of the cosmos and it can be existent here. The meaning includes this notion that the Mind or Soul does not become "other." Whatever can become "other" does not remain itself, and so is inauthentic. It is the World Idea which is becoming the cosmos. The Soul does not become the cosmic appearance which yet is appearing to it and, in some sense, within it. The placelessness of Soul insures that everything within it will have a place in its presence without fragmenting it. Here it is important that we are concerned with preserving the Unity of the Soul, bearing constantly in mind the thread theme of its sublime comprehensiveness. This will be the foundation for the theory of the Soul's knowledge of Multiple States of Existence which will become available to it.

Because its essential nature is as we have described it, Soul is both still and active, both Unity and Multiplicity. What touches the Soul in its still ground is only the Intelligence of the Nous radiating into it the mystery of creation. On the other hand, Soul, as a principle of Mind, is also characterized by unlimited power. When its attention is upon the World Idea present to it, then the Soul and the Ideas form a Union through this power. We have a unique Logos, expressing the intelligence of the Divine Mind. Each Soul is an incarnation of the Divine.

As we spoke of the Sun Soul interpreting this in terms of its own World Idea, all of the Unit Souls which are conjoined with the Sun Soul are also, simultaneously, present to the World Idea and all its levels. The Soul's power is spread out into the World Idea and yet is such that, though you divide it mentally forever, you still have the same power, infinite to the core. When the Overself remains identified with the Cosmic Soul's thought, the power emanant in it is pervasive of the entire archetypal thought form of the Sun Soul held by the Cosmic Soul. This is equivalent to the Sidereal Zodiac. When the Soul projects itself into the psychical, the planet's belt of Reason Principles, then the soul's power is assimilated to the understanding of those Reason Principles. Here

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the experience of the Soul is contracted to the living activity of the Planetary Soul and, further, because of its desire for an embodiment and experience, the complete differentiation of thought, the Soul presides over particular embodiments on this planet, shining its light and power into the psychosomatic. There emerges an ego subjectivity. The power of the Overself or Mind is thus modalized by the World Idea into various powers of Reasoning, Memory, Perception, etc., and we can distinguish three broad grades of subjectivity which correspond to the levels of the World Idea. If we include this first stage, we can set out our understanding of the Soul's presence in 4 stages.

@Begin(enumerate)

1. The I AM of the Individual and the I AM of the Cosmic soul are conjoined in the Pure Essence, Pure Consciousness (the blackboard). A description as either One or Many is not adequate. All Souls are One Soul. We can call this our own Selfhood--what the Hindus call Atman.

2. The Sun Soul in trying to grasp the total presence of the Nous manifests to itself the World Idea within it through its own Intellectuality. The intellect of the Individual Soul has for its object then the Universal Reason Principles (Sidereal Zodiac) which constitute the World Idea that the Soul has brought into manifestation. This formless, universal reasoning of the Cosmic Soul is participated by the highest aspect of our Individual Soul's understanding. This is our Intellection or Buddhi. This is equivalent to spiritual subjectivity.

3. At the next stage we can speak of the Soul as having a power of Immediate Projection able to be present at any location. This associates with the Planetary Reasoning--the Witness I or Ahamkara--our rationality. This corresponds to the 2nd level of psychical subjectivity where the Soul is contracted to Planetary Reasoning. This we spoke of as undifferenced Self or Witness I, which includes within itself Differenced Self. This is the level of the reasoning.

4. The body of Mentality with the Planetary Aura corresponding to this is Sensible Subjectivity or the power of Soul functioning through this mentality or organism corresponds to the Ego or the Animate.

@End(enumerate)

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Universal soul lead in

Flowing from the Life Supreme--the Source and Principle--is Absolute Soul; life emanated and simultaneously determined by and as Intellectual Principle. WE have this important distinction to consider at the outset--the soul as an aspect of the transcendent Nature of the One, and soul as the Absolute Life of the Intellectual Principle. Life essence is thus defined by the One and flows forth from it just as the Intellectual Principle. There is a reciprocal and mutual determination on the part of each. In treating soul as essence, that is, isolating its definition from the Ideas, we do so in order to conceive its Being as other than the Being of the Nous--so that we could trace it from its origin as it winds its way through the various levels of Reality, carrying with it the paradigm of the Double Act which we will find operative at each level. Of course this cannot in fact be achieved because of the eternal interrelationship between the Nous and Soul. For in the Nous, soul essence is the recipient of the eternal Ideas and is the Life Absolute of the divine mind. Considered most precisely as the Intellect of Soul, Absolute Soul is an eternal presence--totally and unextendedly present in the Now; "Life instantaneously infinite"; Soul as passive perfection. It does not descend, for as descending it would annul its own Perfection. Yet the super-abundance of Soul gives of itself ceaselessly, it is "the entire stream of life sent forth by that Principle." (V-3-3) Intellectual Principle and Absolute Soul remain abiding as the Kingdom of Being, but from it there emanates eternal offspring, Universal Soul and all or individual units.

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This perfection inherent in Absolute Soul--Soul in Intellect--has as its out-going act the Universal Soul, or the Demiurge. The more revealing appellation of two-fold Zeus refers again to a version of the double act at a lower level of reality. It must be clearly stated that the term 'two-fold Zeus' does not apply to a combination of Absolute Soul and Universal Soul. Rather the term applies to the double Nature of Universal Soul, that is both to its inner contemplation of the Ideas--intellect in Soul--(3rd Q.) and its perpetual creativity, the Royal Intellect productive of the ground plan of Universal Manifestation (4th Q.). These two aspects are the Demiurge, distinct from Absolute Soul as a Hypostasis.

The Logos of the Universe or World Idea is an emanant from the Intellectual Principle and Absolute Soul. It is (unreadable) but a combination. It is an emanation and can be spoken of as the Universal Soul in a very particular way. (Note: This was handwritten over:) The Logos of the Universe or the World Idea, that is the plan for universal manifestation is a combinationed emanation from the I.P. and the Absolute soul.

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(Diagram)

Universal Soul IV-4-9,10

VI-7-7

IV-3-9 Diagram to insert p.

One Being Life Intellect

Conceiving of the One as having a 4-fold nature, (of course this is obviously an incorrect usage of words, for there is no heterogeneity in the One), its infinite and operational nature was referred to as its Soul, which is Absolute--the root principle. The continuing identity of this essence can be identified regardless of the usage the term is put to. In the Intellectual Principle this essence receives into itself the Ideas which makes of it a living and abiding wisdom. The entire ring suspended from the Absolute Life of the One represents one view of this multiple-unity:

(Diagram)

Unity

The Nature of Soul's Being or the Being of Soul

Soul

Body

Nature or Body of the Being of Soul

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Let us return to our illustration or symbol of the original ultimate. This diagram illustrates our foregoing remarks on the Essence of Soul as it traverses the hierarchy of Being and thus provides for the possibility of conceiving the Supreme Identity. That is, the life of any individual creature is ultimately rooted in the One.

In the 4-fold Quadrant diagram, the 3rd Quadrant represents a second view--the Demiurgic Royal Intellect or Universal Soul as a self-subsisting Hypostasis (which we can also say of the ring view).

(Diagram)

Being

Life

Intellect

Soul

Body

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The Universal Soul is the Providence presiding over the universe, the principle of Universal Manifestation. It is the one life of the cosmos, the logos or transmitter of Forms to the universe. The name Zeus, used in Greek theology, signifies "that though which life is imparted." Zeus is linked in his inner vision to an unchangeably abiding wisdom. Zeus inwardly contemplates the Ideas, which he assimilates from the Nous, and vitally manifests them through (a series of?) (Diagram in margin) living powers-- or Intellect. So Zeus is spoken of as two-fold--having a kingly Soul and Royal Intellect.

This two-fold Zeus is spoken of in Plotinus.

(IV.4.9) (prior part of quote) "The answer is that he will know all to be one thing existing in virtue of one life for ever; it is in this sense that the All is unlimited, and thus Zeus' knowledge of it will not be as of something seen from outside but as of something embraced in true knowledge, for this unlimited thing is an eternal indweller within himself--or, to be more accurate, eternally follows upon him--and is seen by an indwelling knowledge; Zeus knows his own unlimited life and in that knowledge knows the activity that flows from him to the cosmos; but he knows it in its unity not in its process."

(Diagram)

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(IV.4.10) "The ordering principle is twofold; there is the principle known to us as the Demiurge and there is the Soul of the All; (Universal Manifestation); we apply the appellation"Zeus" sometimes to the Demiurge and sometimes to the principle conducting the universe.

When under the name of Zeus we are considering the Demiurge we must leave out all notions of stage and progress, and recognize one unchanging and timeless life.

But the life of the cosmos, the life which carries the leading principle of the universe, still needs elucidation; does it operate without calculation, without searching into what ought to be done?

Yes: for what must be stands shaped before the cosmos, and is ordered without any setting in order: the ordered things are merely the things that come to be; and the principle that brings them into being is Order itself; this production is an act of a soul linked with an unchangeable established wisdom whose reflection in that soul is Order. It is an unchanging wisdom, and there can therefore be no changing in the soul which mirrors it, not sometimes turned towards it, and sometimes away from it--and in doubt because it has turned away--but an unremitting soul performing an unvarying task."

[SOUL12.FW]

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These are two aspects of Demiurgic activity that have to be considered in producing the ground plan or the sketch of Universal Manifestation: the Ideas and the power necessary to actualize them. The former are associated with the 3rd Q, the ideas which will be developed and evolved into the system of Nature or the 4th Q associated with the 3rd ring or dynamic aspect of Soul.

The Royal Intellect of the 2-fold Zeus will be considered as the 4th Quadrant, which we will identify as the outward-facing creatrix which is to preside over Universal Manifestation. The Being of the Demiurgic Intellect is symbolized by Jupiter in Sagittarius (Sagittarius or 9th H. Idea--the 9 Prajapatis or the Supermundane Gods that assist Zeus). Included in the Intellect of Zeus, in its unchanging and timeless life, are all the reason principles with which in its aspect as the Soul of Universal Manifestation it will in-form the Universe. The double role of Jupiter in Sagittarius indicates to us that it is on the one hand the Being of the 3rd Q.--containing all the principles and ideas with it--and on the other the unity and leader of the last 4 houses which represent the 4-fold aspect of Universal Manifestation. Jupiter in Sagittarius--the Being of Soul--will provide the locus for the Shape of the "material" Universe--Saturn in Capricorn. The super-subtle "matter" which is provided by the One is illuminated by the Ideas of the 7th and 8th houses, that is, the 36 principles or tattvas that can be ultimately factored out in the analysis of any living entity, and the subjective states to accompany these principles. This total would be the World Idea in its immensity. These 2 Ideas are represented by Mars in Scorpio and Venus in Libra. The functioning of Mars in Scorpio and Venus in Libra produces a specific world view that would correspond to the Samkhya notion of Buddhi Linga or the substantial bases of any functioning intelligence = Mars in Capricorn.

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The tail in Sagittarius speaks to us of the past residual functioning left behind and constitutive of the present state of the given "matter" which is now the organizing principle of individuality = Moon in Capricorn, the Ahamkara principle. Saturn in Libra correlates the corresponding tattvas with the tanmatric elements which is represented by the Jupiter in Capricorn.

@verbatim<diagram of 3rd and 4th quad>

All of this is in reference to Plotinus' terse statement in V1.7.7 concerning the tentative illumination of "matter" as the sketch of the universe to be--"the first state of the World Mind" or the organization of mind's energy as the substratum for Universal Manifestation. This is the 10th house Idea or shape of the Material Universe (=Thought) in the Mind of the Demiurge. The illumination of matter or the darkness of the Abyss is the realm where the actualization of the reason principles occurs--their stratification into 4 levels--which will correspond to the 4 levels of the 4-fold nature of Being. The complementary Idea--the 4 levels of sound, of consciousness, etc., are the governing Idea for the organization of the 'material' substrate illumined by the Demiurge.

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In IV.3.9, Plotinus speaks of the reason principle of the Universe proceeding from Zeus Soul that are variously combined and superimposed on primal "matter", Space, the material substratum which Plato says the Demiurge receives directly from the One. This pure potential or receptivity is illuminated by the power of the combined reason principles and will evolve into the Noeron Body of the Cosmos; that is, the underlying intelligence functioning through matter. In some way this illumined "matter" is the same as Samkhya's Prakriti, from which everything can and does evolve. We may refer to this principle as the Being of Non-Being, or unmanifested Prakriti. From the point of view of the Ancient Platonists much of philosophic materialism is due to the inability and failure to grasp this principle--that "matter" in its primary or primitive condition is the organization of intelligence in an undifferentiated substratum. --@u<MORE>

This illumined "matter" or streams of living energy is conceived of as the Absolute Mind of the World. In Samkhya terminology this is hypostatized into a self-subsisting principle=prakriti and for example, by Santayana, 19th Century science, etc. But according to the Ancients, if Mind is the ultimate principle, any expression of Mind would ultimately have to be reducible to energy, an attribute of Mind and not "matter".

The ideas actualized in the receptacle is that stream of life bringing about existence or the principle of non-being for the manifested universe. Soul will actualize thought in a sensible way what is in the Intellectual world. (III.2.2). This tentative illumination--or stratification of reason principles following the 4-fold plan of Being will be distributed in each plane of existence of which ... symbolized in the 11th house.

use other diagram

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This is summed up in II.3.17:

(NOTE: this is elaborated in @u(Nature Section)

@Begin(Quotation) "In sum, then, the Intellectual-Principle gives from itself to the Soul of the All which follows immediately upon it: this again gives forth from itself to its next, illuminated and imprinted by it; and that secondary Soul at once begins to create, as under order, unhindered in some of its creations, striving in others against the repugnance of Matter.

It has a creative power, derived; it is stored with Reason-Principles not the very originals: therefore it creates, but not in full accordance with the Principles from which it has been endowed: something enters from itself; and, plainly this is inferior. The issue then is something living, yes; but imperfect, hindering its own life, something very poor and reluctant and crude, formed in a Matter that is the fall sediment of the Higher Order, bitter and embittering. This is the Soul's contribution to the All." @End(Quotation)

Comment on this passage

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Within the context of the Universal Soul's manifestation (the ground plan as well as the ordering of matter) we place Individual Cosmic Souls, each a God or a World Constructor.

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If our understanding is aright, II.3.1 indicates that the I.P. which includes the Absolute Soul projects from itself to the Universal Soul the Logos. Within the context provided by the Universal Soul, there enters individual Star Souls, and these secondary souls at once begin to unfold or manifest each its own world, that is, each star soul, such as for instance our own Sun, proceeds to bring forth its own intellectuality which it will superimpose within the framework provided by Zeus. Then he goes on to say that each one of these star souls (its lowest phase) includes the Ideas or reason principles for its own world and these are not the original archetypes contained in the Nous. Working with these derived reason principles it produces, but this production is qualified by its own inherent limitations. These secondary reason principles that it superimposes upon the originals creates, but its creation or the manifestation of its own world idea, is already a deviation from the original plan... Each Sun Soul is therefore contributing its share within the context of universal manifestation. When our Sun produces its world, the grand framework within which it operates, it is provided, as we have said, by the Universal Soul, but the contents of that world it provides from within itself, and this is a recycling of its previously memorized existence spiralling towards fulfillment of its own intellectuality, (and of course this refers to its "embittered and embittering" part.)

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@u<Preamble> to authentic existence

based on III.9.5, 6

An authentic existence is a principle of Awareness--or Mind. What is authentic remains itself--cannot become other or be objectified. What can be objectified, can become other and so is inauthentic. To be permanently itself, indivisible, is to be authentic.

Any Principle of Awareness is traced directly to the One. The One is in the way it is awake. It is Pure Awareness or All-Awareness. Int. Pr. and Soul are secondary and tertiary "modes" of awareness. Int. Pr. is a self-knowing, intellective Awareness. Soul is an active, living or productive Awareness, and aware of other.

The Soul's own Awareness conjoined to the Intellectual Awareness makes soul "intellective". The common thread is Awareness--which is pervasive. In this Contemplation, Plotinus says, "We Know, and it is ourselves that we know. Therefore we know the reality of a knowing nature..."

Inwardly the soul is intent upon the Intellective Act of the Intellectual Principle. This we have called in-sight, the conjunction of the Soul's inherent receptivity "tendence" or seeing power with the intellection of the Nous. In this seeing "we know the reality of a knowing nature." Here, Soul and intellect are unified, yet are distinct. Soul is self-intent, at rest, and its life power is intent upon the receptivity to the intellective light which is its (soul's) in-forming principle.

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Soul is a principle of Awareness, but not self-awareness. Nous is intelligible and is self-Aware. Soul, in knowing Nous, is knowing at once, itself as well, for it is the Nous' presence in Soul that makes Soul self-aware. Each Unit Soul is of such a nature--a permanent, indivisible Mind, a living Awareness. In this way also, Soul participates in the omnipresence of the Intellectual Realm.

In this inner tendence toward Nous, Soul is also receiving the imprint of the Intelligible Cosmos--which is its World Idea--its Logos. Because Nous is a self-knowing awareness, which knows itself as intelligible or Idea, when the Soul contemplates Nous it too is possessed of the intelligible and knows it within itself as its guiding Idea. "... since then, the activities of self-intellection are intellective Forms, We, the authentic We, are the intelligibles and self-intellection conveys the image of the Intellectual sphere." (III.9.6)

The contemplation of Nous is the Source of Soul's knowing itself, and is source of the World Idea it will manifest. The Intellectual Cosmos is the original of the World Idea. In Soul's self-seeing or in-seeing into Nous, Soul knows or receives a vision or imprint of the Int. Cosmos. This is an eternal grasp of the World Idea--this is its Logos. This is direct knowing by being--without image or Reasoning,. The life activity inherent in Soul becomes Active in virtue of this intelligible presence within it.

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(from files-@u(not) the same as "Deliberate Repetition" of 1-6-84)

Deliberate repetition is necessary in order to emphasize that intertwining of cosmology and epistemology, which is necessary to understand what the conditions of knowledge may be for PL [?]. We begin by pointing out that the World Image is the object in any subject and thus it includes the fabricated bodies of which it will identify with one. In other words the individual Soul conjoined with the planetary mind is productive of the psychosomatic organism, so that on the one hand the soul is with planetary mind the agents of construction and on the other hand, the soul is experiencing through that vehicle which organized it. To know the World Idea sensibly the mind has to become part of it, (and through that part the organization of the P.S. organism, a cluster of instincts, that are manifesting ideas). This P.S.O. there is the field within which willing, feeling and knowing takes place represented by the natal chart, wherein the root tendencies and the patterns of attachment to the memories of past experiences is revealed in a relatively fixed and congealed as a psychosomatic organism. The psychosomatic organism itself is a resultant combination of a variety of ideas brought together in an adventitious unity by Sun to provide the media through which the Human Soul can experience the sensible world through the faculties of K, W, F. What must be borne in mind is that this medium or vehicle which functioning is concomitant with the appearance of a world, is the intermediate or the field of action around which has already congealed certain fixed attitudes of K, W, F. In the analysis of the chart the houses would represent the image of the world, circumstances, etc. within which are situated the PS being. Through this being the Soul contacts that world. If we think of an awareness captured within that being and operating through it, we must always keep in mind that its inherent structure considerably qualifies the comprehension of the nature of its experience.

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The mind operating through the fixed categories of the imagination (natal chart) is predetermined or includes these presuppositions in its apprehension of the world by means of and through the categories of the imagination. The soul's contemplation of the ideas is actualized in the living. We have said the 12 houses represent the World Idea and that the Soul operating through the fixed chart is predetermined. We must now be more precise and point out how that happens. The mind streaming through the PS organism ise. [?] the organization of instinctual functioning is represented by a planet on a degree. The manifestation of that degree is experienced as one's subjective functioning and outwardly projected as the means of apprehending external circumstances or the World Idea. This is complicated because it must be applied to all the planets and the aspects they have to one another. When we try to explain what we mean by saying that the PS organism is the qualifying medium through which the World Idea is apprehended.

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[from files]

If then we proceed to consider that each of its powers is also a unity in its own right, then each of the mundane gods must be thought of as imitating the paradigm from above. In other words, each planet will also have a 4-fold nature, a unity, intellectual being, soul and life. But these must be placed within the framework or context of the Soul of the Sun, i.e., its manifesting principle. So the situation appears somewhat like this: the planet earth has a body which correspond to the gross elements, a soul which are the traces of life left behind, i.e. memorized images, it has an intellectuality--its interpretation of the archetypal idea, and its unity is to be identified with the powers of the Sun Soul. Or again we may say that the undivided mind of the earth or its unity coincides with the functioning of the powers of the Sun Soul, its intellectuality the archetypal degrees or ideas, and a life principle which extends and permeates its gross body, the elements. With this as a background we are now in a position to find habitations for souls whose desire for re-embodiment can be fulfilled. Souls descending from their identification with the manifesting principle of the Sun are provided with the possibility for experiencing the sensible world by inhabiting or associating with such vehicles that are fabricated by the mundane gods. The totality of bodies or vehicles that are fabricated by the mundane gods is an intrinsic part of the image of the world organized by the undivided mind. We must keep this point alive in our memory that these bodies are integral parts of the world image. They cannot be considered subjects of knowledge unless a soul has identified with them. Now that part of the human soul which seeks reembodiment is given the image of the world which includes

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the body which it will identify with, and become the pseudo-subject. At this point in our analysis we must bear in mind that the psychosomatic organism produced by the World Mind has onto-genetic and phylo-genetic background of its own, that is it is part and parcel of the evolutionary transformation of the World Idea. Connected with such a body is a particular soul with its own psycho-genetic history. The identification with the latter with the former results in the compound referred to as the 'living animate'. Although the world image is one, it is simultaneously given to the perceptive faculty of each individual soul, thus making the experience of the world its own from within. Plotinus is absolutely insistent on this point, that perception does not occur by the 'imprinting' of the outer world on the individual soul or mind. Both the empirical subject and object are grasped in the immediacy of perception, and can only artificially be separated from one another.

This is a brief sketch or resume of the procession of souls starting at the highest level of the hierarchy of being descending into the realm on non-being, always keeping in mind that non-being is within being.

[SOUL26-40.FW: OMITTED FROM EDIT DRAFT BUT TYPED, slightly older alternative version of "Parmenides and Authentic Existents"]

(old paper, not xeroxed with "canonical" Astronoesis in 1988, and which is pp. 26-40 in EMD Soul notebook, typed in 1996)

OMNIPRESENCE OF AUTHENTIC EXISTENTS VI-4 & VI-5

[26.I] Your mind is in essence a unit soul, absolute self, or Overself. When Plotinus speaks of an Authentic Existent, or the Authentic All, we may understand it as referring to this mind. Mind or awareness is an immaterial, omnipresent, non-objectifiable, sui-generis principle, and this mind, your Mind--the Authentic Mind--is contained in nothing else. Rather, the entire cosmos is present to it, for "side by side exist the Authentic All and this sensible cosmos." Mind or Soul is pervasive of all, not as being spread over or parceled out to all the parts of the World, but as being beyond the appearance, and present entire to the entire Cosmos and any part of it. Mind can have no spatial extent, for it exists prior to space. But just as the entirety of your mind is present whether thinking of a pin or of the tower of London, yet not thus becoming smaller or larger, so also is Soul present to each of its manifestations.

[26.II] Plato and Plotinus do not speak of Soul as @u<in> bodies, but rather of bodies as within Soul. Soul is real Being and cannot lodge in Non-Being--which is the appearance of a cosmos. Rather, the appearance, the sensible manifestation, is within Soul, just as thoughts are manifested within awareness, not, however, as an object is within a box. Authentic existence is that which remains in itself and does not become an other, for what does become other does not remain itself and is therefore inauthentic. Mind or Soul is never objective, never appears as other, never goes outside of itself, but the entire World Idea is manifested @u<to> it.

[27] Next, Plotinus describes the omnipresence of Being to all Being. We may interpret this in two senses:

a) The Mind or Unit Soul is present to all the parts of the World Idea as @u<entire>--it is not cut off or partitioned by its contents.

b) The Reality of Soul is identically in each Unit soul. Each Soul is soul entire, is real being, and does not become more of Soul. It @u<is> the All. Each soul is distinct, yet all are present to each--"utterly free of boundary". Again, we can view our Soul as self-abiding and as universal in two ways. It remains in itself, intact, even when universally present to the World Idea. And, it is a unit principle, remaining itself, and also is intrinsically or essentially the universal principle of Soul. In other words, our mind is an absolute individual.

[28.I] Are we to conceive that the omnipresence of the Soul is the presence of soul's powers which enter everywhere in the cosmos, while the Soul remains self abiding? And further, is this the correct analogy for individual souls--that they are partial emanations of absolute soul?

[28.II] In entities that can admit only partial powers, such as sensation, the limitation is not due to the soul, but to the inability of the vehicle or body to accept more of the power of soul. In each single power, nonetheless, the whole life of the soul must be transmitted, for the power is not separated from soul entire, and soul does not become partial because of the functioning of only certain powers through a body. Even if we consider a human being in whom all the powers of soul are actualized, the soul has not been appropriated or made a servant to the particular being. The vehicle has drawn near to soul, and the particular entity can be said to be using the various powers, but the unity of the soul is not thus sundered. Soul entire is present to body entire, but in essence, is never appropriated by body, nor split up by the partial acceptance by the body of the powers of soul.

[29.I] The theory of one Absolute Soul remaining itself while partial souls go forth from it to conjoin to separate bodies, as for example in Proclus, is similarly rejected. The multiplicity of Souls are each @u<entire>. They are all-being, all-life, all-intelligence. Each authentic Soul is not a @u<part> of Soul, but is Soul entire, and therefore cannot become more authentic. Similarly, it cannot in itself @u<become> partial, even where bodies of whatever grade draw from it their own borrowed sustenance.

[29.II] Now, given that we can understand the entire identity of Mind or Soul where it is present to all, how do we explain the distinction of many Authentic Unit Consciousnesses? "How explain beings by the Side of Being"--the presence of many contiguous Selves? Souls are not qualitatively different, yet they are distinct, or numerically different. The only thing that separates them is that they are not the same. The principle of multiplicity or difference is inherent in the Authentic essence of Soul, and we must not look elsewhere for an adventitious or superimposed multiplicity. Soul as a principle is One and Many, not a homogeneous block. It is a multiplicity as well as one--and @u<each> member of the multiplicity is yet the All, entire Soul, and not part. Plotinus speaks in a similar way of the Intellectual Principle, when he says that each Idea is a unique version of the entire I.P. No authentic Being can be a piece of reality, for each is Reality. Thus each soul is reality, self-contained awareness.

[30.I] The integral participation of all beings in Being, or the Presence entire of reality in each unit Soul, still allows for essential distinctions. Mind is omnipresent, but there are degrees of power, and within the Authentic All there is differentiation and a hierarchy of participants. So we may speak of Cosmic Soul, Divine Souls, human souls--all are in essence Soul. Even among the rare race of sages we may say one is 100 lb. gold, and another 10 lb. gold, but all are pure gold. All the distinctions are included within being, and to the advanced philosophic insight the distinctions of beings and Ideas within Being may be available. The Intellectual Principle itself is a Multiple-Unity.

[30.II] Can we use the example of various grades of empirical entities--from vegetal to the Sage to understand the rankings of Souls? No, Soul is present to body, but remains separate, and the distinctions of levels of living entities is based upon their fitness to receive more or less of the emanation of Soul's Powers. On the other hand, each Unit Soul is soul essence and the differentiation of power and reason-principles [note: "reason-principles" written over crossed-out "scope" with "?" in margin] do not make one soul more or less Real. In this case the participation is entire. Clearly bodies of differing grades are present to soul in a different manner than Soul's presence to Soul, or Unit Souls to the Absolute Soul and Nous. The Overself is real being, and the Intellectual principles are real being; all the various rankings do not abrogate the simultaneous presence of Intelligence to all beings, and all parts of the cosmos. So the many distinctions within authentic essence allow each distinct being to be the All. But the varieties of bodies, which are inauthentic becomings cannot partition Soul, nor can they possess the Soul.

[31.I] This brings us to the necessary logic of the Soul--which is not the logic of mathematics. It is more the paradoxical logic of Reality, as in Lao Tse "How still is the Tao. Yet, how active, producing all things." The Soul, too, is the still principle of the cosmos, and yet is active. The Soul or mind remains intact that it can be participated. If Soul did not remain itself when participated, then insight into its reality would alter it and insight would never attain the reality it sought. Soul must therefore remain itself, and the consequence is that any participation is participation @u<entire>. Insight into Mind is possible, but it is not insight into only a piece of Soul's reality. This participation in the Ground Awareness of our being is the observe side of the principle of Omnipresence of Soul. Soul is omnipresent without abdicating its unific essence, and participation in the essence of Soul does not draw soul out from its essential stillness.

[31.II = earlier draft of part of 33.II. "Discursive reasoning . . . guide our understanding."]

[32] In brief, we have Unit Soul--our Overself--which participates entire of the essence of Soul. It is an All, an entirety, not a part, an absolute or Universal Individual. It is omnipresent to the other authentic existences--knowing its essence to be reality it knows the essence of all selves to be that same Reality. It is omnipresent also to the entire World Idea which it is manifesting. No part of the manifested Cosmos is apart from Soul--Soul entire--and yet this in no way destroys the intrinsic self-contained nature of Soul. Were manifestation to cease or continue it would in no way affect Soul. The appearance is present to Soul, but Soul is not present @u<in> the appearances--the bodies--even though these appearances are permeated through and through by Soul. Each Self is also a multiple in itself, for it has a multiplicity of powers which @u<can> operate through the various parts of the Cosmos or be present to bodies. These powers, even where incompletely present, are not cut off from the essence of the Soul. The incompleteness is the inaptitude of body--or whatever part of the World Idea is in question--to receive Soul @u<entire>. That the light or image of Soul, and whatever powers are present, is appropriated, does not affect the integrity of the Awareness which is the Soul principle.

[33.I] Plotinus re-emphasizes for us in VI-5-1 to 6 his answer to the difficult questions of the previous Ennead.

[33.II] Self-contained and yet omnipresent in every experience, the Unity of our Mind or Awareness is indivisible. Each individual has within him the source--which is Being. All minds are of the nature of Mind. We are in Reality, and reality is not separated from us--when "we" consider ourselves as Mind. Discursive reasoning, dealing with becoming and based upon appearance, tends to analyze the problem of omnipresence through the categories of the appearance or corporeality, but we must rise to the use of true reason or Dialectic to understand the nature of soul. Keeping our reasoning fixed upon the essential nature, the Mind, and making this mind the object (or subject) of our contemplation, the truth of that mind begins to well up in us and guide our understanding. The understanding or intuition into the nature of Mind thus arising is above opinion.

[33.III] There is an identical Unity, "which yet stands remote from nothing that exists by its side." To be present, it is not necessary that mind partition itself, or that it project separated images from itself. Indeed, it @u<does> have an inherent infinite power which can be present, and it does project from itself this power. But consider its essential unity, and it remains intact while it is present entire in its individual nature. The god in man is the Overself--the World Soul [note: "World Soul" written in over crossed-out "Authentic Soul"]. Incorporeal, infinite, unfailing in power and wisdom, this better part of ourselves, our divine essence or Soul, is our real identity, reaching to every partial aspect of ourselves, pervasive entire of all the dependent levels. It is our own Soul, or Mind, which is our link to Reality. Using his analogy of a Circle with Centers, we are as separate radii, which in their essence--at the Center--are coincident with one center--the World Soul. [notes: "the World Soul" handwritten in. Cf. p. 10 version where it's "All Soul" or "Cosmic Soul." Diagram at bottom of p. 33: reason <--> insight.]

[34] Considering next the Soul's omnipresence to Real Being, we find a profound consequence of its Authentic essence is that each unit Soul has access to the faculty of insight. We need not remain content with an agnostic position, an image of reality, for Soul knows reality directly. Because its essence is Authentic Being, and "Being is present to beings", Soul has direct in-seeing into reality. This does not mean it becomes the I.P., but remaining Soul, it knows that it has the nature of a knowing reality, and knows its essence and Nous to be non-different. "Of what is there we have direct knowledge . . .", the divine attributes of Beauty, Wisdom and Reality are shining into the ground of Soul directly, and not in copy, but in the mode of Soul.

[35] Because we are essentially of the nature of Mind or Soul, we have a direct knowledge of Real Being. We are, in fact, always that Soul, but the force of appearance or the imposition of egoity keeps us ignorant of that. The direct knowledge of our soul and of Reality which is attained through the essence of Soul that we are, is insight. Because of the omnipresence of our Mind to all Minds, and Mind's participation in Divine Mind, or the "presence of Being to Beings", the knowledge we partake of in this deepest part of our Mind is a seeing-into Reality, a knowing identical with Being. There we are knowing at once "God and himself and the All", we are one with the Nous, and yet distinct. In this contemplation without limits we know the reality of our own essence, and we know the prior--Intellectual Principle and the Ideas. Our discussion of omnipresence emphasizes, that once we are situated in the Authentic, the Soul, we are no longer set apart from the Intellectual Cosmos, and Absolute Soul, and our Insights are not of images or copies, but "actually are those very originals in a mode peculiar to this sphere." We do not, thereby, become the Divine Mind itself, but remaining Soul we find that Nous is directly present to the ground of Soul. Thus, all Souls are said to possess the Nous in common, as the summit or essence of their Being, and in this voidness it is an indivisible omni-presence.

[36.I] What further consequences can we now draw from the paradoxical nature of our Soul that his insight has revealed to us? The Sage, all wisdom within himself, can also express his vision in reasoned form when he expounds it to us, yet here, we are at the limits of what a logic-bound intellect can apprehend--and beyond!

[36.II] In virtue of its infinite nature, the Unity of our Soul or Mind is also a multiplicity, including all powers, lives, reason principles inherent in it. Soul, he says, is "infinite to the core," an ever-fresh and inexhaustible source of life-it gives forever because it is infinite in power. Since it is the All, Soul is absorbed by no part, remaining unpartitioned by the divisible Cosmos it manifests; and since it is contained by no part, Soul is present entire to all, giving itself entire and remaining self-abiding. Each of its unique powers can carry its life as a whole and not break the essence of Soul apart. As a consequence of this, the whole series of divisible lives which live by the power of Soul can never exhaust it. The ego or finite entity can draw its life from Soul, but it never can lessen it. The development of the personality and the individual lives can go on indefinitely, supported by the Soul's omnipresent life, for the eternal indivisible nature of Soul still finds a place for the divisible within it, "an ever active mind within an ever still mind."

[36.III/handwritten] Further, it is always present but not as the particular where our attention is focused. "The mind is here, now. But as soon as any thought arises you miss it. It is like space--unthinkable." --Huang Po

[37.I] If Mind or soul is an All, yet does not enter the Cosmos, or become partitioned, then what is meant when Soul is said to animate or inhabit a particular body? How is an omnipresent principle said to "incarnate"? Body must participate somehow in the indivisible soul entire and yet receive a separative life. What then are We--body or omnipresent Soul? What Plotinus calls the Authentic We is the living Mind, the Self or mind that I AM, integral to all other selves and the intellectual cosmos . . . "pure souls, Intelligence inbound with the entire of Reality . . . not fenced off, not cut away, integral to that All." The We is the Overself. But this one principle--Mind--"contains all souls and all intelligences." In that intellectual order, all is included in the World Idea in Soul, but there is no particular person--each unit soul is eternal, and includes in itself the reason principles of all that could be manifested. Within the cosmos--the vast thought-form in the Cosmic Soul--a particular psycho-somatic organism comes to existence, and seeks for soul. This organized body is already a living, seething form--not dead or unanimated, but produced within the Cosmos. It seeks to perpetuate itself, to appropriate what it can of Soul. Since the Unit Soul, in its true nature is impartible, what this intruder receives is an image, a divisible life or ray which is some form of communion with Soul. The man of birth arises as this conjunction of an organization of astral matter or life forces with that phase of soul becoming divisible in bodies.

[37.II] The higher soul, containing the reason principles of All, contains too an image of the life that is to be lived. [38] The Unit Soul itself includes in its definition a principle desirous of separative existence, a tendence toward the lower divisible life. A spark from this divisible nature and the organism to which it is conjoined have a mutual affinity and are so intertwined as to be almost indistinguishable. Our attention riveted upon the lower, we are said to have become a dual thing, though we must keep in mind that at @u<no> time has the Authentic We--the Soul--come down to a partial existence, it is the desire for (separative existence.) [note: hard to read] The natal chart indicates to us the animated organism formed from the image of Soul and the body, and includes all the circumstances of that divisible nature. The entity draws on the power of Soul through the reproductive life within it, and with its development may draw upon the higher faculties, but the pure Soul or Mind remains self-gathered. Awareness or I AM has been appropriated as a finite "I." Body is within Soul entire, while a light or spark of Soul also lives within each entity.

[38.I] The various grades of vehicles within the Cosmos illumined by this ray of soul which the Greeks refer to as shelly, moonlike, etc., determine the degrees of the power of soul communicated. If the entity lives by the higher and includes the higher faculties as operative, we may say it is a "good" soul, if by the lower then a "bad" soul. But Soul entire, authentic, in itself neither good nor bad, is what we essentially are, and what the Sage self-consciously is.

[39] The Authentic Awareness loses nothing by shining this ray or image in which the reproductive desire is vested into body, but as explained elsewhere, a fuller self-knowledge for the individual is gained through this projection and development. When the higher lets go of the lower image, it remains poised in itself, "neither acting now nor extinct." Having withdrawn that which is divisible in it, the higher individual, the true Self, remains in itself. (see IV-4-8, re: we and ours]

[40] As a further consequence of the Soul's omnipresence we have to realize that, even now "we are not apart." The sense in which we cannot become the authentic mind is that we are always that mind, and no addition can make Mind more authentic. The infinite and unfailing power of Soul is ever-present, but the compulsion which focuses our attention on the image keeps us ignorant of what we truly are. What is called Non-Being is the appearance of the World Idea which includes ego, is always becoming, never truly Being, manifested by the principle of divisibility intrinsic to our I AM. The partial soul "willing towards itself produces its lower, an image of itself--a non-Bring--" (III.9.3) The compulsive tendency of the appearance--a thought construct--to appropriate some image of the soul's awareness, to live and call itself "I", is coupled with the corresponding desire for a separate existence which is lodged in, and an extension of the Soul's divisible phase. The identification of these two form the ego, results in the alienation from the True Soul, and thenceforth the We includes not only the higher, but this other. We must make a clear distinction here, that the divisible tendencies and manifesting faculties of Soul @u<cannot> be destroyed, for they are intrinsic to the nature of the I AM, but the compulsive desire within it to separate from the Real, i.e., egoism, can and eventually must be destroyed. The desire in the reproductive soul, and the corresponding compulsive, attractive habit energies which are lodged in the organized body have to be "put aside." When this is achieved, appearance of the Cosmos is not thus annulled, but the relation to it changes, and as Plotinus points out, for the Sage, side by side with the Authentic Intellection can occur the image of that. Lessening of the alienation, the separative egoity in us, is a primary means to realize the God within us--the I AM--and the Reality of Mind. "By lessening of the alien within you, you increase, engaged in the alien [the Ego] you will not find the All."

[END SOUL NOTEBOOK]

[NATURE NOTEBOOK FILES]

[NATURE1.FW]

@center<NATURE>

Following the discussion of the three primal hypostases, we 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, Soul and Body. V.1.10

2. The Unity of universal manifestation is found in the Logos principle within the Universal Soul or Demiurge. Universal Soul contemplates the ideas in the Nous, and the assimilation of these ideas by soul is an abiding wisdom. The reflex of this abiding wisdom is the logos, the reason principle of the universe. III.3.5, III.2.16

3. The "in-forming of matter" by these reason principles, or more precisely their instantiation in the mirror of non-being results in their stratification into the so-called various grades of matter. He refers to this as the "tentative illumining of matter," the tracing in matter of the idea of the cosmos. This corresponds to the second hypostasis. It is the organization of these ideas in the realm of non-being and this is the Being of Universal Manifestation. VI.7.7

4. The soul is the universal principle of animation and it presides over and functions therein the 7 levels or degrees of existence. This corresponds to the third hypostasis. This vital functioning reflects the immutable ideas. The last of the powers of the Universal Soul (Sun in Aquarius) illuminates the 7 levels or degrees of existence and is the means through which individual sun souls superimpose on the universal primitive sketch of the universe and elaborate it into particular worlds. III.3.13, III.3.1

page 1a

5. Now in the fourth aspect or body of universal manifestation, we will also find a reflection of the three prior principles. Its unity is then eternal life of the Demiurge (Turiya Consc.). The intellect is the inerratic sphere, its Soul the Planetary spheres, and its Body the sublunary realm.

6. The one life of the Demiurgic soul is the unity aspect of the universal body and sustains and pervades the entire corporeal manifestation and is referred to as the paternal Jupiter; Ether. ÿ

IV.4.10, VI.5.8

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7. These five great elements when multiplied by the seventy-two powers of God (informed by R.P.) become the 360 degrees of the Zodiac or the Ideas which are then sensibly represented by the intellectuality of each individual Cosmic Soul. The inerratic sphere represents our Ishvara's grasp of those Ideas.

8. The Individual Cosmic Soul or our Ishvara is situated within this scheme of things and is going to manifest its own world according to the universal reason plan, by projecting from within of its own store of R.P. and articulating more precisely and completely its own world.

9. The World Soul with its graded powers, Cosmocrator and the planetary spheres, is the Soul aspect of our world and its powers extend into the vegetable and mineral kingdoms and up to the physical body of Man.

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The functioning of the planetary spheres is Nature or the Soul of our World and which also can be referred to as the Infinite Mind of our World--the last of the Reason Principles.

(insert from page 3) Nature is the medium through which our soul, or rather a light from it, is associated with various vehicles in the cosmos, principally the astral body. Our personalities are thus bound up with the cosmocrators.

10. The cosmocrators in the system of Nature are vehicles of the higher soul's will and are the agents in the fabrication of the phenomenal subject and object, and provide it with the necessary knowledge for their continuing functioning.

11. Nature would refer to all possible combinations of R.P. into various immaterial forms of species which is then the organizing principle of the Earth's memory or imagined essence which then becomes an entity constantly renewed or always in flux, but nonetheless, through which these R.P. are manifesting themselves and become the experienced World; that is, the bifurcation that takes place when it brings about self-reflection and awareness of an empirical subject and object or the ego and its world.

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@center<NATURE>

Following the discussion of the three primal hypostases, we find that these also exist in and for the System of Nature. This "fourth principle" is the Body of the One--which is equivalent to the entirety of Universal Manifestation. In V.1.10 Plotinus has referred to the System of Nature as itself having a Unity, Intellect or Being, and Soul. Together with its own fourth aspect, Nature itself or the Sensible Cosmos, we have a four-fold division of Universal Manifestation which is contained entirely within the Universal Soul. If we place the Unity of the Universal Manifestation in the logos principle within the Demiurge or Universal Soul, symbolized as residing in the 9th house of our chart, then the next three houses correspond to the Intellect or Being, Soul, and Sensible Manifestation of the Cosmos. Together, these four are the macrocosmic Principles of the Universal Man--and are an image of the Idea (of Man) in Nous. These four are imaged and unfolded as the sensible Cosmos, and within the sensible Cosmos is reduplicated the principles of Universal Manifestation (Jupiter in Pisces) which refers to the Unity, etc...

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@verbatim<

> Note: recall here the relation to 2 fold Zeus, Jupiter in Sagittarius as Being of 3rd Q., Jupiter in Sagittarius as leader of last 4 houses

Note here that the 4 levels of Un. Man. correlate also to the 4 worlds of the Kabbalah-Emanation, Creation Formation, Effect; which follow their three primals = Ain (One), Ain Soph (I.P.), Ain Soph Ai (Soul)

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We are making a distinction here between two levels of cosmology, in the first of which we are discussing the principles of Universal Manifestation--the 4-fold organization of the entirety of cosmos. Using the symbol of the third quadrant as the Intellect of Zeus or Soul of the One, we can see the dependence of the Body of the One as eternally illumined by and rooted in the @u<Soul> of the One. This entire System of Nature is contained in the Demiurge of wholes. Only the @u<4th> aspect of this System of Nature is the sensible Universe or Nature proper. Within this sensible Universe we find a reduplication of the prior--Unity, Intellect, Soul, and Body of the manifested Cosmic Principles. For this second level of cosmology, or the actual sensible body of Universal Manifestation, we will find it more useful to combine the two new points, the dynamic and the static. This second view will be nested within the first, and prior, that of the eternity of the World Idea in the Universal Soul.

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The assimilation of the Ideas which the Universal Soul has contemplated in the Nous is an abiding wisdom, which gives rise to the logos or unified reason principle of the Universe. The Unity of the Universal manifestation, the first world or the Celestial Grand Man, is found within the Universal Soul. In Proclus' Commentaries on the Timaeus, and in the introduction to the Parmenides, he speaks of the Demiurgus of wholes who has swallowed the Phanes or intelligible plan of the Universe, said to be four-fold--corresponding to the divine plan of Unity, Intellect, Soul, and Body. This is the inner vision of the Demiurge, Zeus, and his vision is the basis of Universal Manifestation which we have translated as the last four houses, and is thus within the soul's contemplation: "in Jove's wide belly contained all."

@verbatim<

>

The Being of Universal Manifestation is the projective expansion of this logos, the informing of matter by these reason principles, or more precisely their growth in the mirror of non-being is what he means by the illumination of matter. This results in the stratification into various grades, which we have referred to as the "tentative illumining of matter" and described in previous chapters. T.S. Row calls it the Shape of the Material Universe in the Mind in the Demiurge, which must be a thought, and it is this thought which has shape. (check original for last sentence) This is the substratum of universal manifestation, or Absolute Mind, the structure of these reason principles in the realm of non-being. We can also equate this with the Prakriti of the Samkhya system and the seven grades of matter evolving from it, with the exception that here in the Plotinian system, all the differentiations which evolve out of Prakriti are or were originally informed by the soul, for the whole world is convolved in and by the soul. Therefore, strata of illumined matter are the image of the four states of Being found in the Intelligible world. And this is what he means by the Universal Soul's illumination of Matter.

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The Soul of the System of Nature is the third world, the Aerial Man, or the 11th house Idea. This is seven levels of objective existence and their corresponding subjective states, and this is what we have referred to as degrees of existence with their corresponding epistemologies. These lokas and talas symbolize the prefiguration of what can be manifested, all the planes of existence, and contain the vital and separable forms within any of 7 levels of any manifestation (?) can appear.

The fourth world, the Aquatic or the living body of the Universal Manifestation is the appearance of the Combined Reason Principles. Within this imaginal manifestation which is completely contained within the Light of Universal Soul, we will find the prior principles i.e. the 10th, 11th and 12th (house?) Ideas reflected as the three material worlds. The appearance of the inerratic, planetary and sublunary spheres corresponds to the intellect, soul and body of sensible manifestation.

(1V.3.9) "The Cosmos is like a net which takes all its life, as far as ever it stretches from being wet in the water... the Soul is of so far reaching a nature--a thing unbounded--as to embrace the entire body of the all in one extension... The universe spreads as broad as the presence of soul... a shadow as broad as the reason principle proceeding from soul."

This fourth or Aquatic World, as an efflux of the Universal Soul is Nature. This is the entirety of the illumined or intelligized space--the ordered motion--which the Demiurge provides for all the individual Cosmic Souls--and within which they will manifest and elaborate their worlds. Whatever the Universal Soul, or Demiurge, produces is eternal, but the manifesting activity of the Cosmic Souls and their powers completes the fabrication of all the beings within their sensible world, in conjunction with this principle of Nature. The combined view gives us a picture of this last Realm of Cosmic Manifestation as an efflux of the Sun in Aquarius or the intellectual imagination of Universal Soul, whose light radiates our Cosmos from beyond the Starry Sphere.

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(II.1.7) "And it is that loftier light--falling variously upon the stars, to each in a certain proportion--that gives them their characteristic differences, as well in magnitude as in colour; just such light constitutes also the still higher heavenly bodies which, however, like clear air, are invisible because of the subtle texture and unresisting transparency of their material substance and also by their very distance."

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The outer radiation of the Universal Soul's lowest power is Nature. Nature is referred to in III.8.3 as the last of the reason principles or lower logos, and distinguished from the higher logos or Universal Soul. The All Soul or Universal Soul has a higher phase--its contemplation of the Ideas--and a second or active phase which is the life of the Cosmos and illumines Matter. These two phases correspond to the 2-fold Zeus--the inner and outer. If we use the Ring Diagram of the Universal Soul, its active or outer production is the activity of the Intellectual Imagination the Sun in Aquarius illumining the last Idea--the five Mahabhutas or Force Fields. The Manifesting activity of the Universal Soul is organizing and ordering the disordered motion into intelligized Space--the Field within which all the Celestial Ideas are inserted. This field of Reason Principles, or illumined product of Universal Soul, is Nature. Conceived of as the locus for the elaborating activity of any Cosmic or individual Soul, this field is prior even to the Starry heavens. It is the perpetual illumination by the Soul of the One of the "matter" of the One.

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The intelligence of Universal Soul, operative as the seventy-two powers of God -- the Demiurge -- informing the five Mahabhutas which are the 12th house Idea, results in the illumined space -- the underlying force field pervading the Cosmos. This is the Universal Alchemist and Ether of the Alchemists, the primal life Substance. This is the Ether, the disorganized motion that has been provided with reason principles by the Demiurge. Within this, the Star Souls (Sun Souls, Cosmic Souls) will manifest the Sensible World, or as he says, "elaborate the tentative illumination." There is a summary in II.3.17:

(II.3.17) "In sum, then, the Intellectual-Principle gives from itself to the Soul of the All which follows immediately upon it: this again gives forth from itself to its next, illuminated and imprinted by it; and that secondary Soul at once begins to create, as under order, unhindered in some of its creations, striving in others against the repugnance of Matter.

It has a creative power, derived; it is stored with Reason-Principles not the very originals: therefore it creates, but not in full accordance with the Principles from which it has been endowed: something enters from itself; and, plainly, this is inferior. The issue then is something living, yes; but imperfect, hindering its own life, something very poor and reluctant and crude, formed in a Matter that is the fallen sediment of the Higher Order, bitter and embittering. This is the Soul's contribution to the All."

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Let us take our solar system, our world, and place it or situate it in a prefigured environment provided by the Universal Soul--a directionalized space which already contains the primary reason principles that are a preliminary sketch of the world to be within which an individual soul or sun is located. An individual sun or soul is determined by the Intellectual Principle; as a recipient of the Ideas it contains its own store of forms with which it will use to elaborate or articulate its own cosmos. The sensible sun, "our sister soul," has therefore the necessary forms by which it can manifest a world following the sketch laid down by the Universal Soul. The central sun, Sun in Aquarius, which has projected forth the blueprint for the universe, has for its substratum the Universal Life of the five great elements. Plotinus makes explicit what is slyly hinted at in Plato, where this Universal Life is called Pater Jupiter. What has to be noted is that the forms (numbers) within the Universal Soul combine the Five Mahabhutas and organize the elemental life into the immutable Ideas. These bodies of the stars would be the sensible representation of the Ideas.

The object of reason or scientific knowledge in the Platonic sense, is in the realm of the stars; and the object of intellectual intuition (insight) would be this Universal Life, or this Universal Life realizing itself in individual soul.

(note on above paragraph: which of these 360 degrees of Idea of Man? 1st or 2nd?)

We think of the vast expanse as the Universal Aether--an indepth

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emptiness. The central sun has the power to know and organize that elemental (mental) substance into the Idea of Man, the inerratic spheres. (note: I.M. = inerratic) Then we have located an individual sun soul within that realm and from its own storehouse of forms elaborates it into a solar system or cosmos through the use of its rational powers resulting in the organization of species based upon the models provided by the prior. (note: Zodiac)

Within the unific principle of the Five Mahabhutas are the forms necessary for the Universal Soul to draw upon in order to bring about the Idea of Man. Insofar that the central sun contains within itself the Five Wisdoms of the Dhyani Buddhas, with that paradigm it can extrapolate from the Five Great Tattvas the Idea of the Zodiacal Man. The seventy-two powers of the central sun combined with the wisdom of the Five Dhyani Buddhas is the form of the Universal Zodiacal Man within the soul, but when the seventy-two powers are combined with the Five Tattvas, we have a sensible representation of the Zodiacal Man in the starry spheres. This may offer us a slight hint as to the objective counterpart of that the soul knows through intuition and reason. Reason here would be the application of numbers to the Great Tattvas and intuition would be concerned with the knowledge of the Ideas or the principles of the Great Mahabhutas.

(note: Great Tattvas & Great Mahabhutas?)

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Thus, the principle of Universal Manifestation will be the basis for Cosmic Soul's activity, and the three aspects immanent in it will be reduplicated in the levels of the Cosmos. Each level of the manifestation, symbolized by one of the dignities in the 12th house, represents a level of the universal reason principle elaborated or interpreted by one of the faculties of a cosmic soul's own I Am or manifesting phase. In the symbolism, Jupiter in Pisces refers to the universal light and life of the cosmos as a whole--which contains the seats of the souls--their perpetual vehicle or Augoeides interpreted according to each star soul's intelligence.

(III.4.6) "We must understand that, while our Souls do contain an Intellectual Cosmos they also contain a subordination of various forms like that of the Cosmic Soul. The world Soul is distributed so as to produce the fixed sphere and the planetary circuits corresponding to its graded powers:"

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The formless light intelligence of the Sun contains a subordination of its own Ideas and of the reason powers it contains. The Sun's intellectuality is represented in the way @u<it> interprets the starry system. Each Sun's vision of the Intellect is peculiar to it--includes all the Gods in a unique way, and so its participation in the Intelligence of the Universe is a Unique Zodiac. Its intellectual vision is represented sensibly by its singular motion about its axis--the Pole of Vesta, and the Augoeides is the sphere resulting from the interaction of the Universal Reason Principles with the Soul's own intellectual vision.

The inerratic sphere--the ordered materiality of the Cosmos = the Noeron body of the Cosmos based on empyrean.

@verbatim<

Universal Principle Cosmic Vehicle Faculty of Soul Conjoined

Aerial ----------- sun like (Belief - 7 Aquatic ---------- moon like powers of Terrestrial ------ shelly manifesting phase)

>

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The rational powers--the activity of the planets--are both projecting the inner vision in an orderly sequence, and are fabricating the vehicles for the individual souls to occupy. All the individual souls in the solar system will participate in the intellectuality and rationality of the Cosmic Soul, just as it is participating in the Universal Soul's illumination.

The motion of the planets around the Sun is an image of the rational activity of the Sun Soul. The motion is circular--but not fixed. Here there is no retrograde motion--the activity of the Rational powers of the Sun Soul is organizing and fabricating the third level--the bodies of the planets, and of all the creatures on these. Only from the standpoint of one of these bodies--the third level of Cosmic Soul's activity--is there the irrational activity and the lower or "animal soul," and retrograde motion of the relative position of the planets.

@quotation< (II.3.9) "To the remoter Soul, the pure, sun and stars communicate no baseness. In their efficacy upon the (material) All, they act as parts of it, as ensouled bodies within it; and they act only upon what is partial; body is the agent while, at the same time, it becomes the vehicle through which is transmitted something of the star's will and of that authentic Soul in it which is steadfastly in contemplation of the Highest.">

The agency extends only to the animal life and sensible appearance in the Cosmos. The higher is the gnostic power of the reasoning Soul--which is participated only by such rational beings as are in the Cosmos.

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Following the Fixed Sphere or Intellect of the Cosmos, and the Planetary (spheres) or Rational Soul, we have the third material realm--the sublunar--the realm of being and assimilation.

The last realm of the Cosmos comprises the elemental bodies of the particular worlds, our earth for example and therefore all the creatures on it as well. Within the Elements are contained in a subtle way the traces of all the previous living activity of the creatures on the earth, and it is these which the cosmocrators will mold and remold into the psycho-somatic bodies for the individual soul's purposes of experience. In the earth's aura we find the last of the reason principles--the realm of Tartarus and ultimate images. "Thus the body will be Matter associated with an indwelling Reason-Principle which will be in itself immaterial, pure Form, even though irremovably attached to the body." (II.7.3) These traces or tropes are also called vasanas--the ultimate material habit energies which we inherit with our bodies, and which have a compulsive nature ordered by the cosmic circuit.

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For the individual, the cosmos defines four levels of understanding.

@u<Insight>--Individual Soul's descent into the cosmos seems to indicate that its first participation--the Augoeides--is with the Universal Soul. Here it is granted the immortal or celestial body by Jupiter himself, for Jupiter cannot grant anything except that it is eternal.--(soul faculty conjoined here is Saturn in Leo)

@u<Reason>--Noeron Body--Individual Soul's contact with Individual Star, a reason principle of Universal Soul. This begins the process of individualization of the human Soul. (W K F)

@u<Belief>--Further descent into Rational Soul of Individual Cosmic Soul and here it participates or is given a Sun-like body--participation with Rational Soul of the World (Belief).

@u<Conj.>--Descending further it is given a pneumatic and Shelly vehicle and is now in the world of images.

[NATURE2.FW]

Nature

page 18 (cont.)

@u<Ascending>:

Conjecturing upon the realm of shadows, the individual soul ultimately participates in true belief as to the nature of those images. Here the soul is participating in a body formulated or fabricated according to the sensible Sun's understanding of the reason principles, that is, its version of the Ideas contained in the inerratic sphere. The individual soul can directly intuit those reason principles for itself--here we are speaking of knowledge in the Platonic technical sense--the Noeron body. We are no longer on the lower part of the divided line--that is, in the realm of the Sunlike and Moonlike bodies. And here the individual soul is participating or intuiting the efflux of reason principles emanated from the Universal Soul, and finally there is the Soul's ultimate ascent to the Augoeides or the recognition of its own essence as identical with the Soul in the intellect.

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10: The diagrams follow @verbatim<

>

page 20

@verbatim<

>

page 21

These five vehicles line up with the Vedantic and Buddhist terms, with the levels of the Cosmic manifestation, and with the Divided Line. They are @u<all> conceived as in the context of the light of Soul--the third phase of Mercury in Pisces, the efflux of the Soul.

@verbatim<

>

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@verbatim< The entirety of knowledge

>

note:

Where is @u<Zodiac> on here?

Where are 360 degrees of Sidereal Zodiac?

Where is inerratic sphere?

Are these the same?

Are they the same as the Universal life of Demiurge?

Are they the same as the illumined Bhutas?

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Our preceding remarks can be applied to this diagram. (divided line) If we start with the Universal Consciousness--Intelligence--(A) as symbolic of the Idea of Man. This potentiality of all men seeks to actualize itself in the particular man. Essential Man "exhausts" itself in the infinite variety... which is a variation upon itself. The Universal Consciousness must modalize or individualize itself through the indefinite number of men it produces in order to realize its inexhaustible potentiality. (note: an image of Saturn in Leo)

(B) would represent how the Universal Intelligence or the Idea of Man which as a special and unique version of the I.P. has three aspects (Abiding, Proceeding, Returning) Being, Life, and Intellect. The Idea of Man is True Being--a true idea--and that is the thing itself. Its very activity is its life and the understanding of the activity is its intellect. This ununifiable Tripart division of the power to know is participated in by individual souls within which it becomes distinct knowing, willing, and feeling. But we must return to the original problem of Nature and the Cosmic Soul.

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The stage is now set for the individual actor--our human Soul.

Within the Cosmos--the combined effect of Universal Soul's intellectual illumination or blueprint of the Universe, and a Sun Soul's rational elaboration of its portion within which we place the operation of the individual Soul which is "becoming divisible." The individual Human Soul, itself having phases of Intellectual Vision--Saturn in Leo--and Rational Powers--Jupiter in Virgo--puts a part of itself into the realm of manifestation.

The third or the divisible phase of Soul, which we might also refer to as its principle of manifestation, is the emanation of a subtle light which is the link of the higher phase of individual soul with its lower phase. The cosmos or the World Idea which is pictured without is a reflex of that which is received within, i.e., Nature. Nature is the medium through which our soul, or rather the light from it is associated with various vehicles in the cosmos, and our personalities are bound up with the will of cosmocrators. In the threefold phases of the individual soul we symbolized this light of the soul, whether pertaining to a cosmic or individual soul as the Mercury in Pisces. The Mercury in Pisces phase of an individual soul is a dual product of the Cosmic Circuit and also evoked from the inner nature of the individual Soul. This lower soul is provided with various sheaths, i.e. moonlike, etc., and are developed in and by the Cosmic Soul's activity. This light must be conceived in a way as the permanent emanation of the higher soul with a reflex of its pure reasoning and intellective phases, and also as evolving through a vast series of lives to a state where it is a perfected image of its prior, endowed with all the excellent qualities of the Ideas--and finally actualized as a sage. This is the imitation of God spoken of by Plato.

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This individual Soul--in its third or divisible phase or aspect may extend as far down as the association with an animated body and vitality in this sublunar sphere. The higher phases Saturn in Leo and Jupiter in Virgo remain in union with the lower phase of the Cosmic Soul or its principle of manifestation which is only distinguishable from its higher phase, and it is to this that the intellectual phase of our Soul is conjoined; the lower then will be bound to the organized body which the Cosmos, (sentence is incomplete) In this association the Soul becomes like a dreamer. He has himself produced the dream, but in the fascination with the dream character he subsequently identifies with, he is forgetful of his higher nature. He must work then, to turn his vision around to the higher.

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From its first association with the heavens, the soul descends to more and more gross vehicles--or, rather, contracts its light in its association with grosser and grosser vehicles. Or, we may say that the vehicles are the participation in the various levels of the Cosmos @u<by> the light of Soul.

(IV.3.15) "The souls peering forth from the Intellectual Realm descend first to the heavens and there put on a body; this becomes at once the medium by which as they reach out more and more towards magnitude (physical extension) they proceed to bodies progressively more earthy. Some even plunge from heaven to the very lowest corporeal forms; others pass, stage by stage, too feeble to lift towards the higher burden they carry, weighed down by their heaviness and forgetfulness."

(IV.3.17) "Various considerations explain why the souls going forth from the Intellectual proceed first to the heavenly regions. The heavens, as the noblest portion of sensible space, would border with the least exalted of the Intellectual, and will, therefore, be first ensouled, first to participate as most apt; while what is of earth is at the very extremity of progression, least endowed towards participation, remotest from the unembodied.

All the souls, then, shine down upon the heavens and spend there the main of themselves and the best; only their lower phases illuminate the lower realms; and those souls which descend deepest show their light furthest down--not themselves the better for the depth to which they have penetrated."

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(IV.8.4) "So it is with the individual souls; the appetite for the divine Intellect urges them to return to their source, but they have too, a power apt to administration in this lower sphere; they may be compared to the light attached upwards to the sun, but not grudging its bounty to what lies beneath it. In the Intellectual, then, they remain with the All-Soul, and are immune from care and trouble; in the heavenly sphere, inseparable from the All-Soul, they are administrators with it, just as kings, associated with the supreme ruler and governing with him, do not descend from their kingly stations: the Souls indeed are thus far in the one place, but here comes a stage at which they descend from the universal to become partial and self-centred; in a weary desire of standing apart they find their way, each to a place of its very own. This state long maintained, the Soul is a deserter from the totality; its differentiation has severed it; its vision is no longer set in the Intellectual; it is a partial thing, isolated, weakened, full of care, intent upon the fragment; severed from the whole, it nestles in one form of being; for this it abandons all else, entering into and caring for only the one, for a thing buffeted about by a worldful of things: ..."

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The first vehicle needs to be explained in more detail. Here we are speaking of a soul associated with a particular Star or group of Stars. From above, we are speaking of the intellectuality of the Star. Each Star, as a part of the Universal Reason Principles, represents the immutability of a particular version of the Idea of Man. The intellectuality of each star is peculiar to it, but in their totality these Stars = the Archetypal illumination of the Cosmos, the reason principles of the Universe emitted by Universal Soul, or the 360 degrees of existence. This is the sensible analog to the I.P. per se--in which each idea is a unique form of the whole. These stars are the intelligences that govern the world. Each star is itself a Soul, the Soul of a God. Its body is the body of a Supercelestial God without any hiatus or separation. When our soul returns to its star, it participates again in the intellectual Godhead of that star. The peculiar Star which the ray of our soul associates with must be in accord with the peculiar vision of Nous which our Soul has in its highest phase. (note: The image to which it tended.) There are some finite number of these versions of the I.M. The light of the individual soul associated with that version of the Idea of Man represented by the reason principles of that Star, becomes the authentic essence of the Second Soul called the Celestial or Augoeides. So the ray of our Soul first finds its place within the Universal logos, and then, at the second level, with the fixed sphere of this Sun or Solar logos. This is spoken of as the descent of the spark or light through the various spheres. The participation in each successive sphere is denser and denser, and will constitute the various vehicles of the Soul. These levels of vehicles correlate to the five aspects of Universal Manifestation.

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As the Ray of Soul descends, its participation in the various levels of the Cosmos give it these denser and denser mediums of experience. So this Second "Soul" is formed in part from an impartible essence--the light of higher Soul--and that which is becoming divisible in the "sheaths" or vehicles. This, we feel, is the real reference of the famous passage in the Timaeus where the soul is fabricated of the impartible and partible essence, sameness, difference. The impartible = Pure Soul. The becoming divisible is the cosmic circuit's imaginal production. The participation and blending of the one with the other is the second soul--that which is evolving @u<in> the Cosmos.

note: @u<INTRO ASTRO>

@u<Discussion of W.I.>

@u<Time>

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(IV.4.31, 32, 39):

The part of the Soul associated as effect with the Cosmic Circuit is the psycho-somatic, which consists of two bodies--the shelly and pneumatic.

The lower is completely under the influence of the Cosmic Circuit. This will give us the bodily man, the affects, emotions, and all that belongs properly to the Couplement--the psycho-somatic. In many passages, this is called the lower soul, the irrational, our personality, which is bound up with the Stars. It is this which is under the strict law of Fate, and so long as we are only This--as an animal or plant--we are entirely subject to the powers of the Cosmos--we are one with the Cosmic life and body. Here, the Cosmic Circuit, the planets are actual agents, and they patently affect the production and modification of psyches.

But insofar as man has also a rational principle, to the extent he uses it, he is free. This rational soul proceeds directly from the Demiurge--the Jupiter in Virgo phase--the reason. This is no small thing. This Plotinus speaks of as Virtue the Unconquerable--It is the presence of the rational which can govern the body and passions--but it is a deliberate choice which we must make--to use it. This rational is immune from the effect of the Cosmic Circuit. It is conjoined to the rational soul of the World, and were we consciously free of the lower we would remain with the Cosmic Soul in governing the Cosmos peaceably. Even while a part of us in incased in the lower, the We includes the higher as well. The stars, with respect to the rational soul, are not actual causes, affecting the rational, but are significators, indicating to us meanings, which if rightly understood, would indicate the disposition of the Rational Soul itself. However, this is no

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substitute for true rational gnosis of the immaterial reason principles themselves which are being manifested in the lower, and present there--in imagination--only an image. In short, it is we, the rational, which can choose to identify with the lower, and be led by it, or can exercise its persuasion in freeing itself from the ego--the affects--and be led by the higher--the Reason Principles.

(III.1.9) Soul is free when it holds to its guide -the reason principles. But when it is guided by the lower, then it is bound to the Cosmos.

The more it exercises its virtue and persuasion, the more it is able to further gain the higher intuition, the peaceable life, and right action, freed from the interference of the "Rabble." The Rational light of Soul has produced this lower--the images are a result of its Causal efflux, but it then loves itself in its productions. It is Philosophy's task to throw off these images which beset it, and claim it for their own, and so to turn the attention to the higher.

(II.3.9) Plotinus shows that there is no question of how knowledge could arise, for the lower is a pendant (?) @u<of> knowledge. The Nous is primarily knowledge, and its divine context is communicated (?) here perceived through the medium of Soul. (IV.3.12)

Through the natural link of reason principle to reason principle, this sensible world is produced. But making sense of the sensible can only be done by the rational--that which produced the sensible.

It is reason which can understand the linking and reconcile the outer sensations to the inner ideas.

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(II.9.18) Our soul, of the same essence as the world soul, is enjoined to the Cosmic Soul in its various phases. We have put ourselves into a relation with certain parts of the cosmos--entering into the inerratic, there conjoined with a celestial vehicle of light, and then enters into the Realm of the Cosmic Soul to its ultimate association with a sensible organism.

In the midst of our embodiment, God has given us "virtue the unconquerable," Reason. Through a process of purification or through a series of lives detaching us from the ego, this becomes more and more available, and the virtues of the soul fully developed are the soul come into likeness to its divine model--which itself has no need of the virtues. At the lowest level we find the civic virtues, the psychological good-doing of a man. But the virtues of the Rational soul are the contemplative, aesthetic and conative powers of the purified soul. Parallel to the actualization of the Idea of Man in it, is this development of the particular soul powers and their virtues, which begins right at the level of the imaginal experience. The continuous manifestation of Pure Thought as our experienced world, through the mediation of the reason, constitutes the basis of the true evolutionary process which this life demands of us. The freer our imagination is of the compulsions and discrepancies of the irrational animal based life, the more clearly our soul faculties can manifest the Ideas or Reason Principles to us without distortion, and the more fully the ideas in us, governing our life are revealed, the more the soul can be brought into alignment with that intelligence. And this is primarily his meaning of virtue--the soul brought into conformity with the Nous. All this seems to imply the presence of the Nous transmitted in us by the medium of the light of Soul, and molding that very transmitter in its operation to portray that intelligible cosmos as this world.

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We have recognized that in Plotinus the We--the individual--is not the psychosomatic organism alone, what he calls the animate, but includes the rational and intellectual phases of soul as well. Although the higher two are not always available to the lower man's awareness in his experience, they must all be taken to constitute the many sided man in his totality, and to be operative in us when we, by deliberate choice, make use of them. We hope to establish a basis for distinguishing these three levels of subject--imaginal or irrational, rational, and intellectual--in the working of astrology, as well as gaining some insight into their interaction.

The chart as a whole (including transits etc.) can be interpreted on the lowest level as a symbolic image only, representing the appearance of the empirical man and his experience. But beyond this symbolic copy we can investigate the higher principles which are structuring the appearance of this entity--the primal image containing the archetypes or categories of the imagination, beyond this the rational soul which is the witness of the empirical, and beyond that the intellectual soul. Using our Ptolemaic model of the cosmos the earth with its store of images or tropes which we have termed the dragon, is the locus for the sensible experience indicated by the houses, and for the imaginal basis of this experience--the seven archetypes and their tropical contents in the four elements which the native chaldean planets indicate. The natal chart is a fixed image of the higher soul phases imprinted on and organizing the imagination to constitute the psycho-somatic organism. The sensible man and his empirical experience, and the organization of the tropes and complexes in his psyche correspond to the two lowest divisions of the divided line--placed under the sensible sun--and these form the third or empirical man.

Outside of this, but also represented by the natal chaldean positions, organizing the psycho-somatic and working through it, we find the second man--the rational soul--coinciding with the seven chaldean planets or cosmocrators of our cosmos. The rational soul has within it the immaterial living essences--life forms, geometric forms, felt meaning forms--which are the content of the soul powers, free of the dragon. Beyond this we find the presence of the intellectual soul as Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, through which we have access to the Nous, the World Idea. The three transaturnians represent the modalization of the higher knower, the highest phase of the soul which is illumined by the Intellect, and these have as their content the purer Thought of the inerratic.

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is continually illumined by the Nous, and these have as their content pure thought, a particular vision of the Ideas.

Through the various transits to the natal chart--of the chaldeans and the transaturnians to the natal planets we will begin to see something of the process of the soul making involving the complex interaction of these three levels of subject. The transits by the chaldeans indicate the functioning of the rational soul: a) instantiating fresh essences into the psycho-somatic person; adjusting, purifying, and transforming it, b) experiencing its own content of essences either directly through its own powers, or indirectly through the medium of the empirical person and circumstances; and c) penetrating, at times--perhaps indicated by the transits to the transaturnians, into the pure thought held continually in soul's highest phase. The transits by the transaturnians would show us something of the influx, even inundation, of the empirical man by the light of the higher knower--the trans-rational knowing, willing, and feeling which have access to the Nous, and are regulating and infusing the lower understanding, and the wisdom stored in the lower.

It is here that we can effectively use several quotes from Plotinus to pinpoint the distinctions which we wish to find in the workings of astrology itself. The first and most lucid of all of these is the IV.3.30.

"Perhaps reason, whose actualization always accompanies thought, has the function of receiving thought and transmitting it to the imagination." Here reason is the activity of the seven chaldeans, the power of the rational soul. As we have pointed out these contain all the necessary essences, the living forms needed to transmit the thought they receive. "Thought" is the content of the intellectual soul, which was symbolized in the Cosmos as Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. The imagination is the realm of the primal imagination in the Dragon. Thought, the higher soul's vision of the Ideas, is accessible by the intelligence of the transaturnians, but can only be evoked by the living essences which the soul powers use to portray the indivisible thought. So he says: "Indeed, thought is indivisible, and so long as it is not evoked from the depths of intelligence, it remains as it were, hidden within it. Reason develops it, and making it pass from the state of thought to that of image spreads it out, as it were, in a mirror, for our imagination."

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Reason, the seven soul powers and the essences they contain, develop the thought. Various essences are needed to be organized by the soul powers in such a way as to then mold the imagination to portray the ideas, to "spread them out as in a mirror," so that they may be experienced by our imagination--that is in our empirical experience. "That is why we grasp (the thought) only when the Soul, which always desires rational thought, has achieved a thought." The achieved thought is the actual psycho-somatic entity. He is the portrayal and result of the essences in the rational soul, which have taken the pure thought and transformed it into the imaginal realm. The we, as including the lowest or sensible counterpart, only grasps the thought when it has been manifested in our experience.

"There is a difference between thought and the perception of thought. We are always thinking but we do not always perceive our thought." Again, the thought, or thinking that is continual is of the intellectual soul, but the perception of the thought referred to here must be the result of the rational operation just referred to. And since the rational powers are attending to the sensible as well, when they do this there is generally not a perception of the thought. The principle that perceives the thoughts, the rational, must occupy itself with the pure thought, and portray it, transmit it to the empirical. The empirical man's perception of meaning is dependent on the rational soul portraying it to him.

We can thus restate the train of Thought in cosmological terms: the soul's vision of the Nous (inerratic) is a kind of pure thought = Prajna (the Uranus, Neptune, Pluto), which is transformed by the reasoning = Taijasa (seven Chaldeans), into the state of a primordial Image which is based on the elements and life traces of our earth planet (and so our particular organism which is part of it as well). Thus spread out in Image, the reproductive personality (which is part of the image) can have sensations, thoughts, feelings--in short, empirical experience (Vaisvanara).

[NATURE3.FW]

Nature

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In a second and third passage we see also a further direction of the operation of reason. (I.1.9), (V.3.2) "The reasoning principle in the soul acts upon the representations standing before it as the result of sense-perception; these it judges, combining, distinguishing." This activity of the reason is to make some sense of the representations, the presented circumstances of the empirical experience. Or, it may also, as in the previous quote, "observe the impressions, so to speak, rising from the Int. Pr., and has the same power of handling these". The impressions rising from the I.P. are the thought which is the content of the Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and which the Chaldeans can handle and distinguish, combine and express. Further, we have a third function whereby "reasoning will develop to wisdom where it recognizes the new and late-coming impressions (those of sense) and adapts them, so to speak, to those it holds from long before--the act which may be described as the Soul's Reminiscence." Here we see that reason, the soul powers, may take the very sense experience and find in it that which can be developed to wisdom, it finds the very essences that have gone into the organization and form of the experience, and links the understanding of it back to the essences it holds within itself--the Reminiscence. In other words we could perhaps say that the reason has the power to extract from the experience the essence, or quintessence of it, and thereby crystallize something of its own inherent store of essences.

This he says also in (VI.7.6): "Man as sense percipient becomes aware of these correspondences and accommodates the sense realm to the lowest extremity of its counterpart There (in the intellectual) proceeding from the fire here to the fire Intellectual which was perceptible to the higher soul in a manner corresponding to its own nature as Intellectual fire."

We find in these quotes a suggestion of how to interpret the various transits in astrology. The impression rising from the Intellectual soul, the Thought, is accessible to Saturn, which transits over a natal Uranus. If the rational soul power of Saturn is properly prepared to handle it then the thought can be transmitted all the way to my experience and is made available to me. If my natal Saturn is in dignity and well aspected perhaps there can be a perception of the thought at the rational level itself. If Saturn, as rational soul power, is transiting my natal Uranus, perhaps I can get some

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insight into the realm of thought, through my rational soul adjusting its perceptions to the Reminiscences, the essences which it holds from before. In all the cases there seems to be some effect felt in the psycho-somatic organism or tertiary man, and whether the meaning of the effect will be available to him, or whether he can get a vision of the essence (rational) itself, or even a glimpse of the truth knowledge of the Nous are possibilities which the chart may indicate, and indeed must indicate if it is to really enable us to see and consciously participate in the process of soul-learning.

We have to keep in mind here an important point, that the entire series of thought is contained already in the idea--even the particular modes of its sensible expression are included in the intellectual vision. It is important to try to see the continuity, and the illuminating of the lower by the higher:

"The Man of the realm of birth has sense-perception: the higher soul enters to bestow a brighter life, or rather does not so much enter as simply impart itself; for soul does not leave the intellectual but maintaining that contact holds the lower life as pendant from it, blending with it by the natural link of reason principle to Reason Principle; and man, the dimmer, brightens under that illumination.

...This is how the secondary Man, copy of the man in the intellectual, contains the Reason principles in copy; and Man in the I.P. contained the Man that existed before any man, the diviner shines out upon the secondary and the secondary upon the tertiary; and even the latest possesses them all--not in the sense of identifying itself with them all, but as standing in under-parallel to them."

The illumination of the lower, the sensible man of the natal chart, by the various and continual transits, is made possible by the continuous link of the higher reason principles and essences to the lower--the images. The diviner, the transaturnians shine out, and if some link through a transit or good aspect can be made then a transmission of some light and understanding can come all the way to the empirical life. The chart "contains them all (i.e., higher) in under parallel." The Saturn on a degree is the senex with a primal image or trope structuring it, but is also the soul power containing immaterial essences indicated again by the degree it is on, and perhaps others given by its parts. The natural link of

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the lower, the imaginal categories to the pure powers, and of the tropical images to the living essences in the rational soul, and the ideas in the intellectual is that the lower are the very expression of the higher, and the higher have the power to illumine and to pervade the lower. The providence of the higher, and the unfoldment of the Ideas in the highest phase of the soul through the operation of the reasoning soul insures to us that astrology "works," for ultimately it is not chance which establishes this sensible cosmos and its creatures, but an all pervasive divine Wisdom and soul.

"Every particular thing is the image within matter of a Reason Principle which itself images a prematerial Reason Principle: thus every particular entity is linked to that Divine Being in whose likeness it is made, the divine principle which the soul contemplated and contained in the act of each creation. Such mediation and representation there must have been since it was equally impossible for the created to be without share in the Supreme and for the Supreme to descend into the created." (IV.3.11)

In the animate principle we find the images of the seven prior soul powers operating as the categories of our imagination. These all form the psyche side of the psycho-somatic organism. They have as their constituents the biotic force, the traces of life activity, the shadow which Plotinus calls the Intruder. This karmic force draws itself about the higher. This lower is the "man born from the stars" of Iamblichus and Plotinus.

The higher man is the Rational and Intellectual.

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@center<@u<NATURE QUOTES>>

Nature can thus be conceived as emanated light of the Demiurge, analogous to individual Soul's light. Nature may be referred to as an imaginal essence, or an image-bearing light, containing the seminal essences or reason principles from Universal Soul.

@u<T. Taylor, Platonist>, notes, pp. 221-223.

(p. 221) "Nature, according to the theologists, as related by Proclus in Tim. p. iv, is the last of the demiurgic causes of this sensible world, and the boundary of the latitude of incorporeal essences: and is full of reasons and powers, by which she governs the universe, every where connecting parts with their wholes. Hence Nature is represented in this Hymn as turning the still traces of her feet with a swift whirling. For since she is the last of the demiurgic causes, her operations aptly symbolize with the traces of feet.… Nature, therefore, from her connecting, and unifying power, and from her plenitude of seminal reasons, has an evident agreement with Minerva...

(p. 222) "Hence Nature, though the last of the demiurgic causes, is with perfect conformity to this symbolical Theology, said to be both communicable and incommunicable; without a father and at the same time the father of her own being. For considered as full of operative reasons, she is communicable to every sensible nature: but considered as the representative of divine unity, she is incommunicable. And in like manner as symbolizing with the first cause, she is both without any origin, and at the same time the source of her own essence."

(p. 223) "But since, from its material imperfection, it cannot receive the whole of divine infinity at once, but in a manner accommodated to its temporal nature: it can only derive it gradually and partially, as it were by drops, in a momentary succession. So that the corporeal world is in a continual state of flowing and formation, but never possesses real being

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and is like the image of a lofty tree seen in a rapid torrent, which has the appearance of a tree without the reality; and which seems to endure perpetually the same, yet is continually renewed by the continual renovation of the stream."

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(IV.4.13) "But what is the difference between the Wisdom thus conducting the universe and the principle known as Nature?"

...

Nature, being thus a mere communicator, does not possess even the imaging act. There is (within the Soul) intellection, superior to imagination; and there is imagination standing midway between that intellection and the impression of which Nature alone is capable. For Nature has no perception or consciousness of anything; imagination (the imaging faculty) has consciousness of the external, for it enables that which entertains the image to have knowledge of the experience encountered, while Nature's function is to engender--of itself though in an act derived from the active principle (of the soul).

Thus the Intellectual-Principle possesses: the Soul of the All eternally receives from it; this is the soul's life; its consciousness is its intellection of what is thus eternally present to it; what proceeds from it into Matter and is manifested there is Nature, with which--or even a little before it--the series of real being comes to an end, for all in this order are the ultimates of the intellectual order and the beginnings of the imitative.

There is also the decided difference that Nature operates toward soul, and receives from it: soul, near to Nature but superior, operates towards Nature but without receiving in turn; and there is the still higher phase (the purely Intellectual) with no action whatever upon body or upon Matter.

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FROM HAVELI--ADAM AND THE KABBALISTIC TREE

p. 15. According to Kabbalist tradition God generates, out of the Void of Non Existence, wherein He is All and Nothing, the first state of Unmanifest Existence. From this World without End, crystallizes a realm of Limitless Light, in the midst of which, there emerges a point of no dimensions, called the First Crown. These three states of Unmanifest Existence become the negative background to the positive universe that streams through the primal point of the First Crown to evolve into the archetypal world of Emanations. This manifestation on its completion is known as Adam Kadmon, that is, the Primeval and Universal Man. Although composed of the ten aspects of the Creator, Adam is the symbol of a unified working whole, the first man being a living image of the relative universe.

note (*This quote for 3 primals then 9, 10, 11, 12)

p. 21. Adam Kadmon is the Universe. He contains the whole of manifest creation. Stretching between Heaven and Earth his head touches the ultimate crown of spirit, and his feet the densest of matters. Made in the image of God, Adam Kadmon expresses the ten prime attributes of the Creator and the four major laws which govern the Universe. The first of these laws is that All is One, the second, the action of the supernal trinity, the third, the law of sequence as defined by the Great Octave reaching from the head to the toe of the universal man, and the fourth, that between the top Do of the Crown and the bottom Do of the Kingdom are four worlds, each a realm containing a secondary Tree in its own right.

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p. 33. "In the beginning," that is, when Adam Kadmon had been emanated into existence, God created heaven and earth, time, the firmament, and the elements. He also brought forth planets and living creatures. On the sixth day of Creation God said, "Let us make (a) man in our image," and so a second Adam came into existence who was the perfection of Beriah, and its steward. Later, in Genesis 2:7, "The Lord God formed man," and this third Adam became the synthesis of the World of Formations. When the yeziratic Adam fell with his Eve, he descended into Asiyyah, the world we live in. These four Adams are an expression of the four levels within the azilutic Tree of Adam Kadmon.

(note: This, plus p. 15, give schema)

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@verbatim< II.3.9 II.3.13 II.3.18 Absolute Soul--projects the all & stars II.3.17 III.3.3

III.2.2 III.2.16 U.R.P. logos III.2.11

IV.4.21 Combine both above-- IV.4.31 >

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@center<ASTROLOGY QUOTES circled = not typed>

@verbatim< @u<Universal R.P. and U. Soul> II.9.8, 17 IV.4.11, 12 II.2.1, 2, 3, 10, 12, 14, 16

3 levels: III.8.3

@u<Cosmic Soul Relation to R.P. & Transmission> IV.4.16 II.3.5, 17, 18 is earlier (in Chapter) III.4.6 IV.7.13 levels of Soul relation II.2.3, III.4.3 = IV.8.7 = II.9.2

@u<Cosmic Circuit--Announcing(?) vs. Symbol> II.3.7, 8 IV.4.35, 37, 39 II.2.1, 2, 3

@u<Earth Soul & Mind> IV.4.27, 22

@u<Star Souls> II.1.7 IV.4.8, 24 IV.3.11

@u<Association Individual Soul--what part related to Cosmos, what not> (2 fold--what is under fate, what free) II.1.5 II.3.9, 10, 12, 13 III.1.5, 8 IV.3.7-end IV.3.12 III.3.1, 3, 4, 5 IV.4.32-35, 45 II.9.18

@u<Souls descent to body & birth> IV.2.17 IV.8.4 I.1.12 (birth) *IV-4-18 @u<we & ours>

@u<What reaches to Sense> IV.8.8 V.1.12 IV.4.10 VI.7.?, 6

@u<Soul of Elements> *VI.7.11 VI.5.8, 9 >

@verbatim<

>

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@center<LIST OF QUOTES AT END OF NATURE CHAPTER (We didn't xerox these 40 pages)>

@verbatim< III.9.8 II.9.17 III.2.1 III.2.2 III.2.3 III.2.16 III.2.14 III.4.6 II.3.7 IV.3.12 IV.4.39 IV.4.8 II.1.5 II.3.9, 10, 11 III.3.3, 4 IV.3.7 IV.3.12, 13 IV.4.31, 32, 33 IV.3.15 IV.4.35 III.1.8, 9, 10 II.9.18 IV.8.2 V.8.3>

[END]