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
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 geographers do, measuring the earth; for the seed of truth is not in the earth. «Do not measure,» he says, «the measure of the sun, having gathered the rules; it is borne by the eternal will of the father, not for your sake»; that is: do not occupy yourself with astronomy nor measure the course of the sun by astronomical rules; for it does not make its course for the sake of your life, but it is moved timelessly according to the will of God. «Leave be the rush of the moon; it always runs by the work of necessity»; that is: do not meddle with the swift motion of the moon; for it runs not because of you, but being led by a stronger necessity. «The stellar procession was not set in motion for your sake»; that is: the precursors of the fixed stars or of the wandering ones did not receive their substance for your sake. «The broad, airy wing of birds is never true»; that is: the art through flying birds in the air, which they indeed call augury, is not true, meddling with their flights and cries and roostings. and by "broad tarsus" he means the base of their feet, being broad, because of the extension of the toes separated by the skin in between. «The cuttings of entrails of sacrifices; all these are trifles»; that is: the so-called sacrificial science, which seeks the foreknowledge of future things through sacrifices and through the cutting of the entrails of slaughtered victims, are plainly playthings. «props of commercial deceit»; that is: deceptive occasions for profit. «Therefore do not,» he says, «you who are being taught by me, meddle in these things, being about to open the sacred paradise of piety». But the sacred paradise of piety according to the Chaldeans is not the one which the book of Moses speaks of, but the meadow of the higher contemplations, where there are the various trees of the virtues and the tree 131 of the knowledge of good and evil, that is, the discerning prudence which separates the better from the worse, and the tree of life, that is, the plant of the more divine illumination which bears fruit for the soul, a more sacred and better life. In this paradise, at least, also the four most general principles of the virtues flow in the manner of rivers; in this paradise both virtue and wisdom and good order are found. And virtue is one in its general form, but many as divided into species. And wisdom is that which contains all of these, which the divine mind puts forth as an ineffable monad. Of such Chaldean exhortations, most are in a way suitable also to our instructions, but some have also been set aside. For since our dogma explicitly states that the visible creation came into being for the sake of man, the Chaldean does not accept this account, but posits that the things in heaven are moved eternally by the work of necessity and not for our sake. Chaldean Oracle. Seek the channel of the soul, whence or in what order having served the body ** you will raise it up again to its order, having united work to sacred reason. Exegesis. that is: seek the origin of the soul, from where it was brought forth and served the body and how someone might, without judgment, having raised it through the teletic works, lead it back to where it came from. «having united work to sacred reason»; this is of such a kind. The sacred reason in us is the more intellectual life, or rather the higher power of the soul, which the oracle in other places names the flower of the intellect. But this sacred reason is unable by itself for 132 the higher ascent and for the reception of the divine. And the reason of piety leads this one to God through the illuminations from there, but the Chaldean through the teletic science. And teletic science is that which, as it were, perfects the soul through the power of the materials here below. At any rate, this is what he means by «having united work to sacred reason,» that is, having joined to the sacred reason of the soul, or to its better power, the work of the rite. And the theologian according to us
ὑπὸ σὴν φρένα βάλλου· οὐ γὰρ ἀληθείης φυτὸν ἐν χθονί»· τοῦτ' ἔστι· μηδὲ τὰ μεγάλα μέτρα τῆς γῆς πολυπραγμόνει τῇ σῇ φρενί,
ὥσπερ οἱ γεωγράφοι ποιοῦσι καταμετροῦντες τὴν γῆν· σπέρμα γὰρ ἀληθείας οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν γῇ. «μηδὲ μέτρει» φησί «μέτρον ἠελίου
κανόνας συναθροίσας· ἀιδίῳ βουλῇ φέρεται πατρός, οὐχ ἕνεκεν σοῦ»· τοῦτ' ἔστι· μὴ ἀσχολοῦ περὶ ἀστρονομίαν μηδὲ καταμέτρει
τὸν τοῦ ἡλίου δρόμον κανόσιν ἀστρονομικοῖς· οὐ γὰρ ἕνεκεν τῆς σῆς ζωῆς τὸν δρόμον ποιεῖται, ἀλλ' ἀχρόνως κινεῖται κατὰ τὸ
τοῦ θεοῦ βούλημα. «μήνης ῥοῖζον ἔασον· ἀεὶ τρέχει ἔργῳ ἀνάγκης»· τοῦτ' ἔστι· τὸ τῆς σελήνης εὔτροχον κίνημα μὴ πολυπραγμόνει·
τρέχει γὰρ αὕτη οὐ διὰ σέ, ἀλλ' ὑπὸ κρείττονος ἀνάγκης ἀγομένη. «ἀστέριον προπόρευμα σέθεν χάριν οὐκ ἐλοχεύθη»· τοῦτ' ἔστιν·
οἱ προηγούμενοι τῶν ἀπλανῶν ἀστέρων ἢ τῶν πλανωμένων οὐ χάριν σοῦ τὴν ὑπόστασιν ἔλαβον. «αἴθριος ὀρνίθων ταρσὸς πλατὺς οὔποτ'
ἀληθής»· τοῦτ' ἔστιν· ἡ διὰ τῶν πετομένων ὀρνίθων ἐν τῷ ἀερὶ τέχνη, ἣν δὴ καὶ οἰωνιστικὴν ὀνομάζουσιν, οὐκ ἔστιν ἀληθής, περιεργαζομένη
πτήσεις αὐτῶν καὶ κλαγγὰς καὶ καθέδρας. ταρσὸν δὲ πλατὺν τὴν τῶν ποδῶν αὐτῶν λέγει βάσιν πλατεῖαν οὖσαν, διὰ τὴν τῶν δακτύλων
ἔκτασιν διειργομένων τῷ μεταξὺ δέρματι. «θυσιῶν σπλάγχνων τε τομαί· τάδ' ἀθύρματα πάντα»· τοῦτ' ἔστιν· ἡ θυτικὴ καλουμένη
ἐπιστήμη, ἡ διὰ τῶν θυσιῶν τῶν μελλόντων ζητοῦσα τὴν πρόγνωσιν καὶ ἡ διὰ τῆς τομῆς τῶν σπλάγχνων τῶν σφαζομένων ἱερείων, παίγνιά
εἰσιν ἄντικρυς. «ἐμπορικῆς ἀπάτης στηρίγματα»· τοῦτ' ἔστιν· ἀφορμαὶ κέρδους ἀπατηλαί. «μὴ τοίνυν» φησί «ταῦτα πολυπραγμόνει
σὺ ὁ μαθητευόμενος ὑπ' ἐμοῦ, μέλλων εὐσεβίης ἱερὸν παράδεισον ἀνοίγειν». ἱερὸς δὲ παράδεισος εὐσεβείας κατὰ Χαλδαίους οὐχ
ὃν ἡ τοῦ Μωυσέως βίβλος φησίν, ἀλλ' ὁ λειμὼν τῶν ὑψηλοτέρων θεωριῶν, ἔνθα τὰ ποικίλα τῶν ἀρετῶν δένδρα καὶ τὸ ξύλον 131 τὸ
γνωστικὸν καλοῦ καὶ πονηροῦ, τοῦτ' ἔστιν ἡ διακριτικὴ φρόνησις ἡ διαιροῦσα τὸ κρεῖττον ἀπὸ τοῦ χείρονος, καὶ τὸ ξύλον τῆς
ζωῆς, τοῦτ' ἔστι τὸ φυτὸν τῆς θειοτέρας ἐλλάμψεως τῆς καρποφορούσης τῇ ψυχῇ ζωὴν ἱερωτέραν καὶ κρείττονα. ἐν τούτῳ γοῦν τῷ
παραδείσῳ καὶ αἱ τέτταρες γενικώταται τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀρχαὶ δίκην ποταμῶν ῥέουσιν· ἐν τούτῳ τῷ παραδείσῳ καὶ ἀρετὴ καὶ σοφία καὶ
εὐνομία φέρονται. ἔστι δὲ ἀρετὴ μία μὲν ἡ γενική, πολλαὶ δὲ αἱ κατ' εἴδη διαιρούμεναι. σοφία δέ ἐστιν ἡ τούτων ἁπάντων περιεκτική,
ἣν ὡς μονάδα ἄρρητον ὁ θεῖος προβάλλεται νοῦς. Τῶν δὴ τοιούτων Χαλδαϊκῶν παραινέσεων τὰ μὲν πλείω καὶ ταῖς καθ' ἡμᾶς εἰσηγήσεσι
κατάλληλά πώς εἰσι, τινὰ δὲ καὶ ἠθέτηται. τοῦ γὰρ καθ' ἡμᾶς δόγματος διαρρήδην φάσκοντος διὰ τὸν ἄνθρωπον τὴν ὁρατὴν γεγενῆσθαι
κτίσιν, ὁ Χαλδαῖος τὸν λόγον οὐ παραδέχεται, ἀλλ' ἀιδίως τίθεται κινεῖσθαι τὰ κατ' οὐρανὸν ἔργῳ ἀνάγκης καὶ οὐχ ἕνεκεν ἡμῶν.
Χαλδαϊκὸν λόγιον. δίζηαι ψυχῆς ὀχετόν, ὅθεν ἢ τίνι τάξει σώματι θητεύσας ** ἐπὶ τάξιν αὖθις ἀναστήσεις, ἱερῷ λόγῳ ἔργον ἑνώσας.
Ἐξήγησις. τοῦτ' ἔστι· ζήτει τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς ψυχῆς, πόθεν παρήχθη καὶ ἐδούλευσε σώματι καὶ πῶς ἄν τις ταύτην ἄνευ κρίσεως, ἐγείρας
διὰ τῶν τελεστικῶν ἔργων, ἐπαναγάγοι ὅθεν ἀφίκετο. «ἱερῷ λόγῳ ἔργον ἑνώσας»· τοῦτο δὲ τοιοῦτόν ἐστι. ἱερός ἐστιν ἐν ἡμῖν λόγος
ἡ νοερωτέρα ζωή, μᾶλλον δὲ ἡ ὑψηλοτέρα δύναμις τῆς ψυχῆς, ἣν ἄνθος νοῦ ἐν ἑτέροις ὀνομάζει τὸ λόγιον. ἀλλ' οὗτος ὁ ἱερὸς λόγος
ἀδυνατεῖ ἀφ' ἑαυτοῦ πρὸς 132 τὴν ὑψηλοτέραν ἀναγωγὴν καὶ πρὸς τὴν τοῦ θείου παράληψιν. καὶ ὁ μὲν τῆς εὐσεβείας λόγος χειραγωγεῖ
τοῦτον πρὸς θεὸν διὰ τῶν ἐκεῖθεν ἐλλάμψεων, ὁ δὲ Χαλδαῖος διὰ τῆς τελεστικῆς ἐπιστήμης. τελεστικὴ δὲ ἐπιστήμη ἐστὶν ἡ οἷον
τελοῦσα τὴν ψυχὴν διὰ τῆς τῶν ἐνταῦθ' ὑλῶν δυνάμεως. τοῦτο γοῦν φησιν «ἱερῷ λόγῳ ἔργον ἑνώσας», τοῦτ' ἔστι συνάψας τῷ ἱερῷ
λόγῳ τῆς ψυχῆς ἤτοι τῇ κρείττονι δυνάμει τὸ τῆς τελετῆς ἔργον. καὶ ὁ μὲν καθ' ἡμᾶς θεολόγος
