Opuscula psychologica, theologica, daemonologica
After the judgment of the thoughts, an exact discernment of how the thoughts happen to be, whether they are good or otherwise but imagination is the
to divide for us, by the established terms, the sesquitertian ratios into both the sesquioctave ratios and the leimmata, we would have stopped at thes
having split it, he bent each one into a circle, bringing them together middle to middle with each other like a chi, having joined 7 them both to them
left, or rather the one is an image of mind, the other of soul. And in the soul itself, the right is that which is turned toward the intelligible thin
regarding the explanation of the Platonic psychogony, this we now discharge for you as a kind of debt. For Plato's statement that the division of thes
and of exegesis. And there is a letter of mine placed among my books that has traced out and carefully examined the meaning in the sayings. But it is
a ruler drives a team of two then of the 14 horses, one of them is noble and good and of such stock, but the other is from opposite stock and is oppo
a body from one of the seeing things, such that it is able to be extended as far as the stars. But it was better, he says, than to say that the extern
through which it is not swept into material disorder, but is joined to the divine light, holds it in its own place and makes it unmixed with matter, l
of knowledge. For there is something intelligible, which you must understand with the flower of the intellect. And he says that the one in us is twofo
agrees, but among them the salty is more than the drinkable. They say, for example, that every soul is either divine or changing from intellect to min
to be deemed worthy of pardon in repenting. If the soul is a body according to some of the ancients, what is it that contains it? every body is three-
distinction. Two kinds of air according to Aristotle, the vaporous from the exhalation of water and the smoky from the extinguishing of fire. The latt
Plato. Pleasure is not a coming-to-be for coming-to-be is of things that are not, while pleasure is of things that are. And coming-to-be is swift and
is natural, while habit is acquired and taught. Providence is the care for existing things that comes from God. Epicurus says: the blessed and incorr
but such powers are simply and imperceptibly desired. What then? Do we have three souls? Solution: just as the soul, when united to the body, seems to
When this is dimmed they also are dimmed the soul flourishes when this 34 withers. Further, everything desires to preserve its own substrate. If the
actuality, as physicians, others in relation to something, others a double or one-and-a-half ratio. Potentiality is found in substance, as a man in th
concerning form, matter and cause, for example the matter of the celestial bodies is not the four elements, but a certain fifth, spherical one, as be
as knowledge (for knowledge is a transition from defined things to defined things for this reason it is also knowledge, as leading the mind to a stat
this, for indeed the flesh also moves downwards and is none of the elements. Aporia: but matter, that is the element, is not soul, but the form that c
definitions have as their beginning the most general things, as their end the most specific things. If, then, these are finite, so are the definitions
and it acts according to one part and another. It seems to act in these ways as being one. For if it is divided, it is necessary for the parts to be e
the rest, but this is about hot and soft, heavy and light, rare and dense, and many opposites. In humans, the cause of local motion is intellect, in i
is nourished {which} is twofold: either as Matter or as an instrument. And the instrument is twofold: either moving and being moved, like the innate h
is equal in distance to the zodiac signs. Light is not a body. for if it were a body, how would it be possible for it to have instantaneous movement,
we see the introduction of the forms of things seen entering the sight, but how do we see the interval of the air in between? Solution: It is not that
with a violent collision. In soft things no sound is produced, because the air is broken up in their pores and dispersed as in sponges. In things that
a buzzing which is conveyed back to the sense of hearing. Others say that the sound occurring in the ears after the blockage is of the external air th
For instance, fish, not having this, are cooled through their gills. Those that have a windpipe also have a lung. Fish have neither these nor a heart.
the sense organs of touch, it is clear for every sense organ is both separated and known. Aristotle speaks of the senses both as one each and as many
Aristotle in On the Soul : if sensation ceased, the sense-organ would also cease. But if the second is not, neither is the first. Sensation and sense-
Some add also a sixth, the attentive [faculty], as when a man says, I perceived, I thought, I opined. To this part they also add the activities of t
We can say ten, but not indeed opine it, so that opinion is not up to us. But neither do we imagine what we wish for we see at night what we do not w
in the case of children, the one according to state, and the one in act, as the one governing all things or the one entering from without. Plato says
theoretical versus the practical. The theoretical corresponds to a vision discerning of forms, while the practical corresponds to a vision not only kn
organs. Moreover, at night the nutritive faculty is more active, but the locomotive faculty is not at all. A difficulty: the vegetative faculty produc
simpler, or rather the things inherent in the matter, into which the matter is also divided, which are also prop[erly] called its elements. I say then
he hints that it is not completed from both of the things mixed, but is produced in the union of the soul and the body, not by the soul itself giving
closing the senses, so as to know unknowingly the transcendent substance of that which is. For according to their own opinions, the philosopher who ha
he himself will also pardon his own student for the apparent 78 opposition to him and others will come here again to bear witness for us, the philoso
it grows and is naturally constituted to decay, must in every way grow along with and decay along with the other in a connate manner for that by whic
a demonstration, so also the soul in an infant's body and a more imperfect one, if it were in another, perfect body, would immediately have shown its
I shall use the argument. In what do you say virtue is inherent? or again, is it superimposed on the formless and incorporeal and uncompounded nature,
Porphyry has philosophized in harmony with this. For in discussing the soul, he says: “Just as insomniacs, by the very act of wanting to sleep and wat
have they cast off? Perhaps those who hold the contrary opinion will vex us with these things. But their objection is like a spider's web, which will
to have received watchwords from the first father, nor that they possess the fullness of many bosoms, nor would I accept that they stand before the bo
both the Sibylline and the Orphic ones, and those according to which the Berytian Bulls came to be and Amous the Egyptian, and Socrates and Plato (for
of the bonds by which they were bound, and after this, turning their minds upward, they will approach God. And if the account told about the Sibyl wer
has the front part? What then do you think? a mind scattered in so great a size is from this cause for him both slack and weak, and the soul is simply
would remember any of the things here. But as many of the souls as were allotted to more humble portions and their whole mind has not been snatched aw
Let us not altogether reject the analogy of the eye in the case of the soul, let it be and be called a more precise substance of the soul but if some
The manner of the entry of souls, and likewise of their release or separation from hence, both are most difficult or hard to explain for of the first
but by such powers the soul is led like some kind of thing moved by another, being drawn towards whatever the leaders happen to lead it, but then rath
For that which is according to reason, knowledge is readily at hand, but that which is contrary to reason, is so because it has received such a nature
of beasts, but perhaps the matter which reason has shown not to exist. Therefore our bodies will be resurrected, and there will be nothing to prevent
fitting and gluing it to that by means of a suitable analogy, not placing the rational and intellectual substance into any of the animals for this is
are generated from these powers alone, for this reason, having abandoned the others, they divided the substance of the soul into these alone. But if y
it is in fourths, when one might contemplate these both in the third order of the intellectual virtues and in the fourth of the paradigmatic virtues,
and so interpreting the Platonic opinion, but they do not seem to me to have grasped the precise meaning of his doctrine. But if I shall clarify for y
and with nothing separating them, it is necessary for the one to be ordered, and the other to order and the one which is ordered has its form divided
what is hard and resistant in them has been smoothed out by me. But what follows from this must be attributed to them alone for, proposing to speak a
proceeds from it and returns to it.” Then indeed he works out the point by division. For if it only remained, it would in no way differ from its cause
in our sacred writings, neither a whole soul nor any whole nature, apart from the partial ones, has been dogmatically established1. I for my part reje
by the energy, then also the substance is perfected according to it, and these things stand in each other according to one energy. For he who does not
having a life activated according to intellect and reason the psychic is defined according to reason 124 and takes care of divisible souls the physi
tormenting them. But there are, they say, both on earth divine daimons and in the air, guardians of the animals there, and <in> the water, extending t
make it superior to the confusion of life, but, if possible, may you not even leave behind in the terrestrial world the very body which you have put o
cast under your mind: for there is no plant of truth on earth» that is: do not busy your mind with the great measures of the earth, as the geographer
Gregory by reason and contemplation leads the soul up to the more divine things by reason that is according to us, the more intellectual and better,
such a lion-bearing fount of heaven and the stars, but the ruling part of its own existence conceals the vision of them. Chaldaean Oracle. From all si
often appearing, they feign the semblance of some goodness towards the one being initiated. Chaldean Oracle. The soul of mortals will draw God into it
they can. Whence everything they say and show is false and insubstantial for they know existing things through forms but that which knows future thi
and fear is the holding back of his goodness towards us for the sake of the economy. Chaldean Oracle. The Father snatched himself away, not even enclo
they are possessed by passions. Therefore, it is necessary for these also to receive their part of the whole judgment and, having been filled up with
for it is higher than being venerated, than being uttered, and than being conceived. A Chaldean Oracle. The Iynges, being conceived by the Father, the
an unknown password, spoken and unspoken. And they often bring the soul down 148 into the world for many reasons, either through the shedding of its w
of truth and of love. After which are the demiurgic fountains, such as that of the ideas, according to which the cosmos and the things in it have shap
enclosing the triad towards itself and they call these also intelligible. After these, another order of the intelligible and at the same time intelle
to the setting [sun], and the pit to the one just at mid-heaven. And thus, gently separating the membrane of the liver, [which is placed] upon the org
parts of philosophy is necessary. For according to moral philosophy it is necessary to assume that not all things are and come to be by necessity, but
knowledge and sees not only the essences themselves, but also their powers and their activities, both those according to nature and those contrary to
he acquired. For even before the birth of both, God knew that the one would be good, and the other would turn out bad and this knowledge is an unchan
from the one who knows, and it revolves around the thing known and is made like the one who knows. I mean something like this: the knowledge of the so
they fabricate. For I too had a certain little man, ignoble in soul, but by no means the least of storytellers to him, at any rate, such phantoms pre
having split it, he bent each one into a circle, bringing them together middle to middle with each other like a chi, having joined 7 them both to themselves and to each other at the point opposite their meeting, and he encompassed them with the motion that is borne in the same way and in the same place, and he made one circle the outer, the other the inner. So he declared the outer motion to be of the nature of the Same, and the inner of the nature of the Other. He led the revolution of the Same to the right along the side, and that of the Other to the left along the diameter, and he gave supremacy to the revolution of the Same and the Similar; for he left this one undivided, but the inner one he split six times into seven unequal circles, according to the intervals of the double and the triple, there being three of each, and he commanded the circles to go in opposite directions to one another, but in speed, three alike, and the other four unlike one another and the three, though moving in proportion.” This is the Platonic text. And the explanation: Let straight lines be bent in such a way, that they are joined again at their ends. Thus two circles are formed, and of these let one be inner and the other outer, oblique to one another. So one is called the circle of the Same, the other of the Other. And the circle of the Same is around the equator, while that of the Other is around the zodiac; for the equator does not cut the zodiac at right angles. So the mathematical account, to speak briefly, about the shape of the soul is of this sort. But bringing the argument back to the substance of the soul, we say that the soul has essentially comprehended all sciences beforehand: geometry according to its totality, according to shape, according to lines; arithmetic according to multitude, according to the essential units within it; harmonics according to the ratios of numbers; and spherics according to the two revolutions. Therefore, the division of the soul lengthwise reveals the procession descending from the creator above, from whom two souls are begotten after the one, each of which has the same principles, and they are joined to one another, and divided from one another, and are united at their own centers. For this is what ‘middle to middle’ means. And the creator bent them into a circle and encompassed them with the motion that is in the same way and in the same place, having made them intelligent and having imparted to them a divine mind and having placed the dyad of souls into an intelligent dyad that surpasses their own substance. Or that since the 8 life of the soul is twofold, the one discursive, the other opinative, two straight lines proceed and are bent into two circles. And perhaps ‘middle to middle’ means that the conjunction of the soul has happened at what are properly the middles; for the extremity of the discursive and the summit of the opinative are the middles of the whole constitution of the soul. And the very shape that resulted from the joining, I mean the chi, as Porphyry relates, has much affinity with the soul: “for,” he says, “among the Egyptians such a character existed, bearing a symbol of the cosmic soul, encircled by a circle; for by the straight lines was signified the dual power of the soul, and by the circle the singular life and the intellectual reversion in a circle.” And the motion that is borne in the same way and in the same place is the intellectual revolution; for this encompasses the soul. And one is singular, the other is dual. And the outer of the circles is the discursive, the inner is the opinative. And as for ‘to declare,’ do not suppose it to mean the mere assigning of a name, but the imparting of a power; for to the discursive he assigned the power of making same, and to the opinative the power of making other. And in addition to these things, the creator assigns the better and more divine things to the better powers, to the Same, that which is on the right, and to the Other, that which is on the left; and to the one, the lateral, to the other, the diametrical. Just as also in the universe, the sphere of the fixed stars is the cause of all things being the same, while the wandering spheres are the cause of their being different at different times. The right and the left are essential properties and images of the soul, the fixed on the right, the wandering on the
σχίσας, μέσην πρὸς μέσην ἑκατέραν ἀλλήλαις οἷον χῖ προσβαλὼν κατέκαμψεν εἰς κύκλον, συνάψας 7 αὐταῖς τε καὶ ἀλλήλαις ἐν τῷ
καταντικρὺ τῆς προσβολῆς, καὶ τῇ κατὰ ταὐτὰ καὶ ἐν ταὐτῷ περιαγομένῃ κινήσει πέριξ αὐτὰς ἔλαβε, καὶ τὸν μὲν ἔξω, τὸν δ' ἐντὸς
ἐποιεῖτο τὸν κύκλον. τὴν μὲν οὖν ἔξω φορὰν ἐπεφήμισεν εἶναι τῆς ταὐτοῦ φύσεως, τὴν δ' ἐντὸς τῆς θατέρου. τὴν μὲν δὴ ταὐτοῦ
πλευρὰν ἐπὶ δεξιὰ περιήγαγε, τὴν δὲ θατέρου κατὰ διάμετρον ἐπ' ἀριστερά, κράτος δ' ἔδωκε τῇ ταὐτοῦ καὶ ὁμοίου περιφορᾷ· μίαν
γὰρ αὐτὴν ἄσχιστον εἴασεν, τὴν δ' ἐντὸς σχίσας ἑξαχῇ ἑπτὰ κύκλους ἀνίσους κατὰ τὴν τοῦ διπλασίου καὶ τριπλασίου διάστασιν
ἑκάστην, οὐσῶν ἑκατέρων τριῶν, κατὰ τἀναντία μὲν ἀλλήλοις προσέταξεν ἰέναι τοὺς κύκλους, τάχει δὲ τρεῖς μὲν ὁμοίως, τοὺς δὲ
τέτταρας ἀλλήλοις καὶ τοῖς τρισὶν ἀνομοίως, ἐν λόγῳ δὲ φερομένους.» Αὕτη μὲν ἡ Πλατωνικὴ λέξις. ἡ δὲ ἐξήγησις· κατακεκάμφθωσαν
εὐθεῖαι οὕτως, ὥστε κατὰ τὰ ἄκρα πάλιν συνάπτεσθαι. γίνονται δὴ δύο κύκλοι, καὶ τούτων γεγονέτωσαν ὁ μὲν ἐντός, ὁ δὲ ἐκτός,
λοξοὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλους. καλεῖται τοίνυν ὁ μὲν ταὐτοῦ κύκλος, ὁ δὲ θατέρου. καὶ ἔστι περὶ μὲν τὸν ἰσημερινὸν ὁ ταὐτοῦ, περὶ δὲ
τὸν ζῳδιακὸν ὁ θατέρου· οὐ γὰρ ἰσημερινὸς πρὸς ὀρθὰς τέμνει τὸν ζῳδιακόν. τὸ μὲν οὖν μαθηματικόν, ὡς συντόμως εἰπεῖν, περὶ
τοῦ σχήματος τῆς ψυχῆς τοιοῦτόν ἐστι. Πρὸς δὲ τὴν ψυχικὴν οὐσίαν τὸν λόγον ἐπανάγοντές φαμεν, ὡς πάσας τὰς ἐπιστήμας οὐσιωδῶς
ἡ ψυχὴ προείληφε· τὴν γεωμετρίαν κατὰ τὴν ὁλότητα, κατὰ τὸ σχῆμα, κατὰ τὰς γραμμάς· τὴν ἀριθμητικὴν κατὰ τὸ πλῆθος, κατὰ τὰς
οὐσιώδεις ἐν αὐτῇ μονάδας· τὴν ἁρμονικὴν κατὰ τοὺς λόγους τῶν ἀριθμῶν· τὴν δὲ σφαιρικὴν κατὰ τὰς διττὰς περιφοράς. ἡ τοίνυν
κατὰ μῆκος διαίρεσις τῆς ψυχῆς τὴν ἄνωθεν ἀπὸ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ καθήκουσαν ἐμφαίνει πρόοδον, ἀφ' οὗ ἀπογεννῶνται ψυχαὶ δύο μετὰ
τὴν μίαν, ὧν ἑκατέρα τοὺς αὐτοὺς ἔχει λόγους, καὶ συνάπτονται ἀλλήλαις, καὶ διῄρηνται ἀπ' ἀλλήλων, καὶ ἥνωνται τοῖς ἑαυτῶν
κέντροις. τοῦτο γάρ ἐστι τὸ «μέσην πρὸς μέσην». καὶ κατέκαμψεν αὐτὰς ὁ δημιουργὸς εἰς κύκλον καὶ τῇ κατὰ ταὐτὰ καὶ ἐν ταὐτῷ
κινήσει περιέλαβεν, αὐτάς τε νοερὰς ποιήσας καὶ νοῦ μεταδοὺς αὐταῖς θείου καὶ ἐνθεὶς τὴν δυάδα τῶν ψυχῶν εἰς δυάδα νοερὰν
κατ' οὐσίαν αὐτῶν ὑπερέχουσαν. ἢ ὅτι διττῆς οὔσης τῆς 8 ψυχικῆς ζωῆς, τῆς μὲν διανοητικῆς, τῆς δὲ δοξαστικῆς, δύο εὐθεῖαι
προέρχονται καὶ εἰς δύο κατακάμπτονται κύκλους. τὸ δὲ «μέσην πρὸς μέσην» τάχα ὅτι κατὰ τὰ κυρίως μέσα γέγονεν ἡ συναφὴ τῆς
ψυχῆς· ἔστι γὰρ τὸ ἔσχατον τοῦ διανοητικοῦ καὶ τὸ ἀκρότατον τοῦ δοξαστικοῦ μέσα πάσης τῆς ψυχικῆς συστάσεως. αὐτὸ δὲ τὸ ἐκ
τῆς προσβολῆς γενόμενον σχῆμα, φημὶ δὴ τὸ χῖ, ὡς ὅ γε Πορφύριος ἱστορεῖ, πολλὴν οἰκειότητα ἔχει πρὸς τὴν ψυχήν· «ἐτύγχανε
γάρ» φησί «παρὰ τοῖς Αἰγυπτίοις τοιοῦτος χαρακτήρ, σύμβολον φέρων τῆς κοσμικῆς ψυχῆς, κύκλον περιβεβλημένος· ἐσημαίνετο γὰρ
διὰ μὲν τῶν εὐθειῶν ἡ δυοειδὴς δύναμις τῆς ψυχῆς, διὰ δὲ τοῦ κύκλου ἡ μονοειδὴς ζωὴ καὶ ἡ κατὰ κύκλον νοερὰ ἐπιστροφή.» ἡ
δὲ κατὰ ταὐτὰ καὶ ἐν ταὐτῷ περιαγομένη κίνησις ἡ νοερά ἐστι περιφορά· αὕτη γὰρ περιέχει τὴν ψυχήν. καὶ ὁ μὲν μονοειδής ἐστιν,
ἡ δὲ δυοειδής. καὶ ὁ μὲν ἔξω τῶν κύκλων ὁ διανοητικός ἐστιν, ὁ δὲ ἐντὸς ὁ δοξαστικός. τὸ δὲ «ἐπιφημίσαι» φάναι μὴ θέσιν ὀνόματος
ψιλὴν ὑπολάβῃς, ἀλλὰ μετάδοσιν δυνάμεως· τῷ μὲν γὰρ διανοητικῷ τὸ ταυτοποιόν, τῷ δὲ δοξαστικῷ τὸ ἑτεροποιὸν ἀπένειμε. καὶ
ἐπὶ τούτοις τὰ μὲν κρείττω καὶ θειότερα ταῖς κρείττοσιν ἀπονέμει δυνάμεσιν ὁ δημιουργός, τῇ μὲν ταὐτοῦ τὸ ἐπὶ δεξιά, τῇ δὲ
θατέρου τὸ ἐπ' ἀριστερά, καὶ τῇ μὲν τὸ πλευρικόν, τῇ δὲ τὸ διαμετρικόν. ὁποῖον καὶ ἐν τῷ παντὶ ἡ μὲν ἀπλανὴς τοῦ ὡσαύτως εἶναι
πᾶσιν αἰτία, αἱ δὲ πλανώμεναι τοῦ ἄλλοτε ἄλλως. τὸ δὲ δεξιὸν καὶ τὸ ἀριστερὸν ἐπὶ ψυχῆς ἰδιότητές εἰσιν οὐσιώδεις καὶ εἰκόνες
ταύτης, τὸ μὲν ἀπλανὲς ἐπὶ δεξιά, τὸ δὲ πλανώμενον ἐπ'
