Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 2: In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four PeriodsPlotinus
Philosophy
Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 2: In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four Periods
Plotinus
Plotinus
That name indicates the difference between matter and a mother. To
those who, refusing to be satisfied with superficialities, insist on
thoroughness, they thus signified in as precise a manner as possible
(without lifting the veil of) obscurity, that matter was sterile,
although feminine also to extent at least that matter receives, without
contributing to, the act of generation. They indicated it by this, that
the (Galli) who surround Cybele are not women, but neither are they
men, possessing no power of generation; for by castration they have
lost a faculty that is characteristic only of a man whose virility is
intact.
FOURTH ENNEAD, BOOK THREE.
Psychological Questions.
A. ARE NOT ALL SOULS PARTS OR EMANATIONS OF A SINGLE SOUL?[99]
PSYCHOLOGY OBEYS THE PRECEPT "KNOW THYSELF," AND SHOWS HOW WE ARE
TEMPLES OF THE DIVINITY.
1. Among the questions raised about the soul, we purpose to solve
here not only such as may be solved with some degree of assurance,
but also such as may be considered matters of doubt, considering our
researches rewarded by even only a definition of this doubt. This
should prove an interesting study. What indeed better deserves careful
examination and close scrutiny than what refers to the soul? Among
other advantages, the study of the soul has that of making known to us
two order of things, those of which she is the principle, and those
from which she herself proceeds. This examination will be in line with
the divine precept to "know ourselves."[100] Before seeking to discover
and understand the remainder, it is no more than right first to apply
ourselves to finding out the nature of the principle that embarks in
these researches[101]; and as we are seeking what is lovable, we will
do well to contemplate the most beautiful of spectacles (that of our
own intellectual nature); for if there be a duality, in the universal
(Soul), so much more likely will there be a duality in individual
intelligences. We should also examine the sense in which it may be said
that souls are sanctuaries of the divinity; but this question will not
admit of solution till after we have determined how the soul descends
into the body.
ARE INDIVIDUAL SOULS EMANATIONS OF THE UNIVERSAL SOUL?
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