Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
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"For just as the Soul of the World so also the soul of an individual man will be found in one respect incapable of division — if it is regarded from the standpoint of the simplicity of its divine nature — and in another capable [of division] — since the former is diffused through the members of the world, and the latter through those of a man.
"When then the soul is drawn towards body — in this first production of it — it begins to experience a material agitation, matter flowing into it.2
" And this is remarked by Plato in the Phcedo [when he says] that the soul is drawn to body staggering with recent intoxication, — meaning us to understand by this a new draught of matter's superfluity, by which it becomes defiled and gravid and so is brought down.
" A symbol of this mystic secret is that Starry Cup (Crater) of Father Bacchus placed in the space between
1 Not into a mathematical cone, but into an egg-shaped or elliptical form resembling that of a pine-cone.
2 This shows that the soul was thought of as being without or outside body of every kind, and body was taken into it.
Cancer and Leo1 — meaning that intoxication is there first experienced by souls in their descent by the influx of matter into them. From which cause also forgetfulness, the companion of intoxication, then begins secretly to creep into souls.
"For if souls brought down to body memory of the divine things of which they were conscious in heaven, there would be no difference of opinion among men concerning the divine state. But all, indeed, in their descent drink of forgetfulness — some more, some less.
"And for this cause on earth, though the truth is not clear to all, they nevertheless have all some opinion about it ; for opinion arises when memory sinks. Those, however, are greater discoverers of truth who have drunk less of forgetfulness, because they remember more easily what they have known before in that state.
" Hence it is that what the Latins call a ' lecture (lectio) the Greeks call a ' re-knowing ' (repetita cognitio 2), because when we give utterance to true things, we re-cognize the things which we knew by nature before the influence of matter intoxicated our souls in their descent into body.
" Now it is this Matter (Hyle) which, after being impressed by the [divine] ideas, fashioned every body in the cosmos which we see. Its highest and purest nature, by means of which the divinities are either sustained or consist,3 is called Nectar, and is believed to be the drink of the gods ; while its lower and more turbid nature is the drink of souls. The latter is what the Ancients called the River of Lethe [or Forgetfulness].
1 Cf. Pistis Sophia, pp. 371 and 367.
2 That is, presumably, avdyvtaa-nn — a philosophical discourse, or sacred sermon.
3 As distinguished from "exist." Latin, however, is but a poor medium for the expression of philosophical distinctions.
"The Orphic [initiates], however, suppose that Dionysus himself is to be understood as 'Hylic Nous'1 — [that Mind] which after its birth from the Indivisible [Mind] is itself divided into individual [minds].
"And it is for this reason that in their Mysterytradition Dionysus is represented as being torn limb from limb by the fury of the Titans, and, after the pieces have been buried, as coming together again whole and one ; for Nous — which, as we have said, is their term for Mind — by offering itself for division from its undivided state, and by returning to the undivided from the divided, both fulfils the duties of the cosmos and also performs the mysteries of its own nature.
"The soul, therefore, having by means of this first weight [of matter] fallen down from the Zodiac and Galaxy into the series of spheres that lie below them, in continuing its descent through them, is not only enwrapped in the envelope of a luminous body,2 but also develops the separate motions which it is to exercise.
" In the sphere of Saturn [it develops] the powers of reasoning and theorizing3 — which [the Greeks] call TO \oyia-TiKov and TO OeooprjriKov ; in that of Jupiter, the power of putting into practice — which they call TO irpaKTiKov ; in that of Mars, the power of ardent vehemence — which they call TO OU/ULIKOV ; in that of the Sun, the nature of sensing and imagining — which they call TO al<rQr}TiKov and TO <j>avTa<mKov ; in that of Venus, the motion of desire — which they call TO
2 The augoeides.