Iamblichus on the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians |
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according adapted Alcibiad allotted anagogic ancient angels animals appear archons assert attention become BERTRAM DOBELL cause celestial bodies Chaldean oracles CHAP communion comprehended concerning conformably conjoined connascent contrary Corybantes dæmoniacal Damascius Demiurgus divine nature effected Egyptians energy enthusiasm essence evil excellent genera excellent natures externally fire Gale genesiurgic genus Gods heavens Hence Hermaic heroes honour human Iamblichus images immaterial immutable imparts ineffable intellect intelligible invoked JAMES THOMSON kind knowledge liberated light likewise mania manifest manner matter mode monad motion mundane oracles partible participate passions peculiar dæmon perfect pertains phantasms Plato Plotinus Plutarch Porphyry possess present preside principle prior Proclus produced proper pure purified Pythagoras reason receive requisite respect sacred operations sacrifices secrets of Isis separate similitude soul subsist tain telestic terrestrial theurgic theurgists things tion transcendent translation true truth unfold visible whole worship γαρ δε εν και προς
Popular passages
Page xiii - Thus, all beings proceed from, and are comprehended in the first being; all intellects emanate from one first intellect; all souls from one first soul; all natures blossom from one first nature ; and all bodies proceed from the vital and luminous body of the world. And lastly, all these great monads are comprehended in the first one, from which both they and all their depending series are unfolded into light. Hence this first one is truly the unity of unities, the monad of monads, the principle of...
Page xxii - ... should again be made respecting that, till we arrive at the highest conceptions, than which we have no longer any more venerable. " Nor should we stop in our ascent till we find this to be the case. For there is no occasion to fear that our progression will be through an unsubstantial void, by conceiving something about the first principles which is greater than and surpasses their nature. For it is not possible for our conceptions to take such a mighty leap as to equal, and much less to pass...
Page xii - ... all largely partaking of the ineffable, all stamped with the occult characters of deity, all possessing an overflowing fulness of good. From these dazzling summits, these ineffable blossoms, these divine propagations, being, life, intellect, soul, nature and body, depend ; as monads suspended from unities, deified natures proceeding from deities.
Page xv - There is one God, the king and father of all things, and many gods, sons of God, ruling together with him. This the Greek says, and the barbarian says, the inhabitant of the continent, and he...
Page 353 - But how are statues said to have an enthusiastic energy? May we not say, that a statue, being inanimate, does not itself energise about divinity ; but the telestic art, purifying the matter of which the statue consists, and placing round it certain characters and symbols, in the first place renders it, through these means, animated, and causes it to receive a certain life from the world ; and, in the next place, after this, it prepares the statue to be illuminated by a divine nature, through which...
Page 344 - Hence the sun-flower, as far as it is able, moves in a circular dance towards the sun; so that if any one could hear the pulsation made by its circuit in the air, he would perceive something composed by a sound of this kind, in honor of its king, such as a plant is capable of framing.
Page 296 - The path by which to Deity we climb, Is arduous, rough, ineffable, sublime ; And the strong massy gates thro' which we pass, In our first course, are bound with chains of brass ; Those men the first who of Egyptian birth, Drank the fair water of Nilotic earth, Disclosed by actions infinite this road.
Page xxii - It is requisite that he who ascends to the principle of things should investigate whether it is possible there can be anything better than the supposed principle ; and if something more excellent is found, the same enquiry should again be made respecting that, till we arrive at the highest conceptions, than which we have no longer any more venerable. " Nor should we stop in our ascent till we find this to be the case.
Page 130 - Tauromenian lad, who had been feasting by night, and intended to burn the vestibule of his mistress, in consequence of seeing her coming from the house of his rival. For the lad was inflamed and excited (to this rash attempt) by a Phrygian song ; which however Pythagoras most rapidly suppressed. But Pythagoras, as he was astronomizing, happened to meet with the Phrygian piper at an unseasonable time of night, and persuaded him to change his Phrygian for a spondaic song ; through which the fury of...
Page xii - ... series of principles proceeds, all largely partaking of the ineffable, all stamped with the occult characters of deity, all possessing an overflowing fulness of good. That from these dazzling summits, these ineffable blossoms, these divine propagations, being, life, intellect, soul, nature...