Nature Outline

by Anthony J. Damiani

Paper V09MP

3-LETTER CODE: ASN

TOPIC: Astronoesis

SUBJECT: Nature

ORIGINAL LOCATION & FILE NAME (of PDF used for typing): ASN MASTER NATURE 1-25.PDF (pp. 1-5)

BOOKS QUOTED FROM OR REFERENCED:

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

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

AD HANDWRITING: Partly typewriter typed and partly handwritten by a student (dictated by AD), has extensive AD and some student edits

COMPLETENESS: Fragmentary Paper, looks like there was more to come

PUBLISHABILITY: No, already published in Astronoesis in an expanded form

ALTERNATE VERSIONS: Nature Outline as read in WG Classes 1982 0319a, 0326a, 0402a; 1982 0326PC-16R15.PDF (pp. 9-10) (typewriter typed, no edits)

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

VERSION OF PAPER IN ASTRONOESIS: Published in a slightly expanded form in Astronoesis in Chapter 4, The System of Nature, Nature Outline, pp. 226-229

RETYPED AND REFORMATTED by IT 2022

NOTES:

• RETYPED AD PAPER presented in class (V09M).

• Due to poor scanning or xeroxing, parts of the Scan File are cut off and Astronoesis is used to fill in the missing words.

• All spelling corrected, abbreviations spelled out.

NATURE OUTLINE

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Nature

1. 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 [sic] 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 illuminates the 7 levels or degrees of existence [Note: Rest of sentence cut off due to poor scanning or xeroxing, I fill in from Astronoesis.] and is the means through which individual Sun souls superimpose on the universal primitive sketch of the universe and elaborate it into particular worlds. (II.3.13, III.3.1)

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 the eternal life of the Demiurge (Turiya Consciousness). 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. (IV.4.10, VI.5.8)

7. These 5 great elements when multiplied by the 72 powers of God (informed by Reason Principles) 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[,] is going to manifest its own world according to the universal reason plan, by projecting from within of its own store of Reason Principles and articulating more precisely and completely its own world.

9. The World Soul with its graded powers (cosmocrators) and the planetary spheres is the Soul aspect of our world and its powers extend into the vegetable and mineral kingdoms [Note: Rest of sentence cut off due to poor scanning or xeroxing, I fill in from Astronoesis.] and up to the physical body of Man. The functioning of the planetary spheres is Nature or the Soul of our World, and which can also be referred to as the infinite mind of our world -- the last of the Reason Principles.

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. (I.1.7, IV.3.12)

10. The cosmocrators in the system of Nature are the 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. (II.3.9, IV.3.9, (IV.4.20))

11. Nature would refer to all possible combinations of Reason Principles into various immaterial forms of species which is then the organizing principle of the earth's memory or imaginal essence which then becomes an entity constantly renewed or always in flux -- but nonetheless, through which these Reason Principles are manifesting themselves and become the experienced world; that is, the bifurcation that takes place within it brings about self-reflection and awareness of an empirical subject and object or the ego and its world.

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