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
for it is higher than being venerated, than being uttered, and than being conceived. A Chaldean Oracle. The Iynges, being conceived by the Father, themselves also conceive, being moved by unutterable counsels, so as to conceive. Exegesis. The Iynges are certain powers after the Paternal Depth, composed of three triads; whom the Father conceives according to the Paternal Intellect that has set forth their cause uniformly in itself. And the counsels of the Father are unutterable on account of their intelligible excess. For the activities of beings are unutterable; and their very existences are unutterable. And the intellectual tokens of the transcendent ones, even if they are conceived by the secondary ones, are conceived as unutterable and as transcendent of the intelligible processions. For just as the conceptions of souls, even if they conceive the intellectual orders, conceive them as immutable, so the activities of the intellectual beings, conceiving the intellectual tokens, conceive them as unutterable, subsisting in unknown existences.
By the same author, a summary and brief exposition of the doctrines among the Chaldeans
They say there are seven corporeal worlds: one empyrean and first, and after it three ethereal, then three material, of which the last is called chthonic and light-hating, which is the place below the moon, having in itself also the matter which they call depth. They hold one principle of all things, and they praise it as one and good. Then they revere a certain Paternal Depth, composed of three triads. And each triad has a Father, a Power, and an Intellect. Then there is the intelligible Iynx, and after this the Connectors: the empyrean, the ethereal, and the material. And after the Connectors are the Teletarchs, and after these the fontal Fathers who are also called Cosmagoi; of whom the first is the one called Once Beyond; after whom is Hecate, then the Twice Beyond, after whom are the three Implacables, and last the Girded One. They also revere a fontal triad of Faith and Truth and Love. They also speak of a ruling sun from the solar font and an archangelic one, and a font of sense-perception and a fontal judgment and a thunderous font and a font of mirrors and a font of characters that rides upon the unknown tokens, and fontal summits of Apollo, Osiris, Hermes. And they speak of material fonts, of centers and elements and a zone of dreams, and a fontal soul. And after the fonts they say there are principles. For the fonts are more principial than the principles; and of the life-giving principles, the summit is called Hecate, the middle a ruling soul, and the termination a ruling virtue. And among them there are also unzoned Hecates, such as the Chaldean Trioditis and the Comas and the Eccluste; and among them the unzonal gods are Sarapis and Dionysus and the series of Osiris and that of Apollo. And they are called unzoned who easily exercise power over the zones and are established above the manifest gods, while the zonal are those who absolutely unroll the zones in heaven and administer the things here. For there is among them a divine zonal race, which has been allotted the portions of the sensible world and has girt itself with the allotments concerning the material place. And after the zones is the sphere of the fixed stars, containing the seven spheres in which are the stars. And among them, the solar world is one thing, serving the ethereal depth, and the zonal another, being one of the seven. And they posit twofold fontal causes of human souls: both the Paternal Intellect and the fontal soul. And for them the partial soul proceeds from the fontal soul according to the will of the Father; and it has a self-begotten and self-living essence; for it is not as if moved by another. For if according to the oracle it is a portion of the divine fire and a shining fire and a paternal thought, it is an immaterial and self-subsistent form. For such is everything divine, of which the soul is a part; and they say that all things are in each soul, but according to each one's particular property
γὰρ καὶ τοῦ σεμνύνεσθαι ὑψηλότερον καὶ τοῦ ἐκφωνεῖσθαι καὶ τοῦ ἐννοεῖσθαι. Χαλδαϊκὸν λόγιον. αἳ ἴυγγες νοούμεναι πατρόθεν
νοέουσι καὶ αὐταί, βουλαῖς ἀφθέγκτοις κινούμεναι, ὥστε νοῆσαι. Ἐξήγησις. αἱ ἴυγγες δυνάμεις εἰσί τινες μετὰ τὸν πατρικὸν βυθὸν
ἐκ τριῶν τριάδων συγκείμεναι· ἃς νοεῖ ὁ πατὴρ κατὰ τὸν πατρικὸν νοῦν τὸν τὴν αἰτίαν αὐτῶν ἑνοειδῶς ἐν ἑαυτῷ προστησάμενον.
αἱ δὲ βουλαὶ τοῦ πατρὸς διὰ τὴν νοητὴν ὑπερβολὴν ἄφθεγκτοι. ἀφθεγκταὶ γάρ εἰσιν αἱ 146 ἐνέργειαι τῶν ὄντων· αὐταὶ δὲ αἱ ὑπάρξεις
ἄφθεγκτοι. τὰ δὲ τῶν ἐξῃρημένων συνθήματα νοερά, κἂν νοῆται ὑπὸ τῶν δευτέρων, ὡς ἄφθεγκτα νοεῖται καὶ ὡς ἐξῃρημένα τῶν νοητῶν
προόδων. ὡς γὰρ αἱ τῶν ψυχῶν νοήσεις, κἂν νοῶσι τὰς νοερὰς τάξεις, ὡς ἀμεταβάτους νοοῦσιν, οὕτως αἱ τῶν νοερῶν ἐνέργειαι,
τὰ νοερὰ συνθήματα νοοῦσαι, ὡς ἄφθεγκτα νοοῦσιν ἐν ὑπάρξεσιν ὑφεστηκότα ἀγνώστοις.
Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἔκθεσις κεφαλαιώδης καὶ σύντομος τῶν παρὰ Χαλδαίοις δογμάτων
Ἑπτά φασι σωματικοὺς κόσμους, ἐμπύριον ἕνα καὶ πρῶτον, καὶ τρεῖς μετ' αὐτὸν αἰθερίους, ἔπειτα τρεῖς ὑλαίους, ὧν ὁ ἔσχατος
χθόνιος εἴρηται καὶ μισοφαής, ὅστις ἐστὶν ὁ ὑπὸ σελήνην τόπος, ἔχων ἐν ἑαυτῷ καὶ τὴν ὕλην ἣν καλοῦσι βυθόν. μίαν ἀρχὴν τῶν
πάντων δοξάζουσι, καὶ ἓν αὐτὴν καὶ ἀγαθὸν ἀνυμνοῦσιν. εἶτα πατρικόν τινα βυθὸν σέβονται, ἐκ τριῶν τριάδων συγκείμενον. ἑκάστη
δὲ τριὰς ἔχει πατέρα, δύναμιν καὶ νοῦν. εἶτα ἔστιν ἡ νοητὴ ἴυγξ, μετὰ δὲ ταύτην οἱ συνοχεῖς, ὁ ἐμπύριος, ὁ αἰθέριος καὶ ὁ
ὑλαῖος. μετὰ δὲ τοὺς συνοχεῖς οἱ τελετάρχαι, μετὰ δὲ τούτους οἱ πηγαῖοι πατέρες οἱ καλούμενοι καὶ κοσμαγοί· ὧν ὁ πρῶτος ὁ
ἅπαξ ἐπέκεινα λεγόμενος· μεθ' ὃν ἡ Ἑκάτη, εἶτα ὁ δὶς ἐπέκεινα, μεθ' οὓς τρεῖς ἀμείλικτοι, καὶ τελευταῖος ὁ ὑπεζωκώς. σέβονται
δὲ καὶ πηγαίαν τριάδα πίστεως καὶ ἀληθείας καὶ ἔρωτος. φασὶ δὲ καὶ ἀρχικὸν ἥλιον ἀπὸ 147 τῆς ἡλιακῆς πηγῆς καὶ ἀρχαγγελικόν,
καὶ πηγὴν αἰσθήσεως καὶ πηγαίαν κρίσιν καὶ κεραύνιον πηγὴν καὶ πηγὴν διοπτρῶν καὶ χαρακτήρων πηγὴν ἐπιβατεύουσαν τοῖς ἀγνώστοις
συνθήμασι, καὶ πηγαίας ἀκρότητας Ἀπόλλωνος, Ὀσίριδος, Ἑρμοῦ. καὶ ὑλικὰς δὲ πηγάς φασιν, κέντρων καὶστοιχείων καὶ ὀνείρων ζώνην,
καὶ πηγαίαν ψυχήν. μετὰ δὲ τὰς πηγὰς λέγουσιν εἶναι ἀρχάς. αἱ γὰρ πηγαὶ ἀρχικώτεραι τῶν ἀρχῶν· τῶν δὲ ζῳογόνων ἀρχῶν ἡ μὲν
ἀκρότης Ἑκάτη καλεῖται, ἡ δὲ μεσότης ψυχὴ ἀρχική, ἡ δὲ περάτωσις ἀρετὴ ἀρχική. εἰσὶ δὲ παρ' αὐτοῖς καὶ ἄζωνοι Ἑκάται, ὡς ἡ
τριοδῖτις ἡ Χαλδαϊκὴ καὶ ἡ κωμὰς καὶ ἡ ἐκκλύστη· ἀζωνικοὶ δὲ παρ' αὐτοῖς θεοὶ ὁ Σάραπις καὶ ὁ ∆ιόνυσος καὶ ἡ τοῦ Ὀσίριδος
σειρὰ καὶ ἡ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος. ἄζωνοι δὲ καλοῦνται οἱ εὐλύτως ἐνεξουσιάζοντες ταῖς ζώναις καὶ ὑπεριδρυμένοι τῶν ἐμφανῶν θεῶν,
ζωναῖοι δὲ οἱ τὰς ἐν οὐρανῷ ζώνας ἀπολύτως περιελίττοντες καὶ τὰ τῇδε διοικοῦντες. θεῖον γὰρ γένος ἐστὶ παρ' αὐτοῖς ζωναῖον,
τὸ κατανειμάμενον τὰς τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ κόσμου μερίδας καὶ ζωσάμενον τὰς περὶ τὸν ὑλαῖον τόπον διακληρώσεις. μετὰ δὲ τὰς ζώνας
ἐστὶν ὁ ἀπλανὴς κύκλος περιέχων τὰς ἑπτὰ σφαίρας, ἐν αἷς τὰ ἄστρα. καὶ ἄλλος μὲν παρ' αὐτοῖς ὁ ἡλιακὸς κόσμος τῷ αἰθερίῳ βάθει
δουλεύων, ἄλλος δὲ ὁ ζωναῖος, εἷς ὢν τῶν ἑπτά. Τῶν δὲ ἀνθρωπίνων ψυχῶν αἴτια διττὰ πηγαῖα τίθενται, τόν τε πατρικὸν νοῦν καὶ
τὴν πηγαίαν ψυχήν. καὶ προέρχεται μὲν αὐτοῖς ἡ μερικὴ ψυχὴ ἀπὸ τῆς πηγαίας κατὰ βούλησιν τοῦ πατρός· ἔχει δὲ καὶ αὐτόγονον
οὐσίαν καὶ αὐτόζωον· οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ὡς ἑτεροκίνητος. εἰ γὰρ κατὰ τὸ λόγιον μοῖρα τοῦ θείου πυρός ἐστι καὶ πῦρ φαεινὸν καὶ νόημα
πατρικόν, εἶδός ἐστιν ἄυλον καὶ αὐθυπόστατον. τοιοῦτον γὰρ πᾶν τὸ θεῖον, οὗ μέρος ἡ ψυχή· καὶ πάντα φασὶν εἶναι ἐν ἑκάστῃ
ψυχῇ, καθ' ἑκάστην δὲ ἰδιότητα
