The Enneads — trans. Stephen MacKenna

e, eternal existence, of the Kosmos, or “ World,” or material, or sense-grasped Universe, which is the Soul’s Act and emanation, image and ‘‘ shadow.” It is the Creator, therefore, and the Vital-Principle of all that is lower, or “ later ” than the Divine-Triad. In a sense that need not be here minutely elaborated the All-Soul includes, and is, All-the-Souls : for the first rough practical purposes of the average reader, it may be conveniently indicated in a stanza, by Richard Watson Dixon : —

“ There is a soul above the soul of each,

A mightier soul which yet to each belongs :

There is a sound made of all human speech,

And numerous as the concourse of all songs ;

And in that soul lives each, in each that soul,

Tho’ all the ages are its life-time vast ;

Each soul that dies in its most sacred whole
Receiveth life that shall for ever last.”

The Divine-Triad as a Unity

The Three Hypostases of the Supreme-Being are, of course, quite frequently spoken of collectively as one transcendent Being or one Divine Realm : sometimes, even, where one of the Three is definitely named, the entire context shows that the reference is not to the Hypostasis actually named but to the Triad collectively or to one of the two not

TERMINOLOGY : NATURE OF MAN

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named ; thus where the All-Soul is specified in a moral connection the reference may really be to The First, to The Good ; and where the connection is rather intellectual than moral or merely dynamic, the All-Soul may be used as a comprehensive term for the Godhead with a real reference to the Second Hypostasis, to Divine-Mind.

The Triad, it must never, under any stress, be forgotten, is The Divinity, and each Hypostasis is Divine : the All-Soul, as Jules Simon well remarks, is the expression of the outgoing energy of the Divinity as the Intellectual-Principle is the expression of the Godhead’s self-pent Thought or Vfision.

The Divinity is communicated and approached by the channel of any one of the three Hypostases. The Intellectual-Principle has its Act about The First, towards Which it “ looks ” in eternal “ contemplation,” while, of its lavdshness, it engenders the Vital- Principle or Soul ; similarly the All-Soul ceaselessly “ looks ” towards the Intellectual- Principle, while, of its lavish energy, it engenders or creates all the lower, down to the lowest form of being in the visible universe. Thus the Divinity is communicated to all things. Now this action within the Di\dne-Circle is reflected by a parallel action in the lower Kosmos.

its lavish energy, it engenders or creates all the lower, down to the lowest form of being in the visible universe. Thus the Divinity is communicated to all things. Now this action within the Di\dne-Circle is reflected by a parallel action in the lower Kosmos. All ‘‘ Nature,” even in the lowest, is in ceaseless Contemplation and Aspir.\tion : while every being, until the ultimate possible is reached, tends to engender an image of itself, it tends also to rejoin the next highest, of which it is itself a shadow or lower manifestation : even Matter, all but outcast from the sphere of Being and unable to engender, has the power of receiving form and is, thereby, tending feebly towards Authentic-Existence, towards Soul and Mind, and so is linked, distantly, with the Divine.

The Gods and Daimones

' ‘‘ The Gods ” are frequently mentioned in the Enneads : the words are generally little more than a fossil survnval, an accident of language not a reality of thought. Where, however, Plotinus names Ouranios (Coelius) Kronos (Saturn) Zeus (Jupiter), he indicates the three Hypostases of the Divine-Being : this is part of his general assumption that all his system is contained already in the most ancient knowledge of the world.

WTiere we meet “ The Gods ” without any specification we are to understand, according to the context ; sometimes the entire Divine Order ; sometimes the Divine- Thoughts, The Ideas or Archetypes ; sometimes exalted Beings vaguely understood to exist above man as ministers of the Supreme ; sometimes the stars and earth, thought of, at least in their soul-part, as Divine-Beings : sometimes the words indicate, vaguely, the souls of lofty men ; sometimes there is some v’ague, sleepy acceptance of the popular notion of the Olympian personalities.

The Daimones are, strictly speaking, lofty powers beneath the ‘‘ Gods ” : in practice they are often confounded with the Gods : the same word is translated here, according to context and English connotation, by “ Supernals,” Celestials, Divine Spirits, Blessed Spirits.

Man ; His Nature, Powers and Destiny

Porphyry’s arrangement of the Enneads has, at least, this one advantage that Plotinus’ work opens for us with a tract dealing mainly — and not inadequately or, on the whole, obscurely — with the Nature of Man : here then we may be very summary.

wers and Destiny

Porphyry’s arrangement of the Enneads has, at least, this one advantage that Plotinus’ work opens for us with a tract dealing mainly — and not inadequately or, on the whole, obscurely — with the Nature of Man : here then we may be very summary.

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PLOTINUS

The Third Hypostasis of the Divinity — the All-Soul, the Universal Life-Principle — includes, and is, all the souls : the human soul is, therefore, the All-Soul : but it is the All- Soul set into touch with the lower : it is the All-Soul particularised for the space, at least, of the mortal life of man.

This particularisation is necessarily a limitation : it sets bounds : it comports a provisory application to this rather than that ; we may, therefore, discern phases of the All-Soul in us. These phases or images of the Divine-Soul are found to be three ; they are : —

1. The Intellective-Soul, or Intuitive, Intellectual or Intelligent Soul, or the Intellectual-Principle of the Soul.

2. The Reasoning-Soul.

3. The Unreasoning-Soul.

1. The Intellective-Soul is impassible, all but utterly untouched by Matter, forever in the nature of things separated from the body : its Act is the act of Intellection, or Intuition, or True-Knowing of Real Existences : it has its being in eternal Contemplation of the Divine : this Act of the Intellective-Soul, identical with the Intellectual-Principle in Man, is, however, not perceived by the Man except when, by a life of philosophical morality (Sanctity or Sagehood), he has identified his entire being with this his highest principle.

2. The Reasoning-Soul is the principle of the characteristic human life : to live by the First Soul, the Intellectual-Principle, is to live as a God ; in this second Soul we have the principle that constitutes the normal nature of man. This Reasoning-Soul is separable from the body but not separated. Its Act is “ Discursive-Reasoning ” ; it knows, not in the instantaneous, unmediated, entirely adequate True-Knowing of the First soul but step by step, arriving by the way of doubt and of logic at a knowledge which is even at best imperfect : in its lower action we have as its result “ doxa ” the untranslatable word, usually rendered " Opinion ” — in this translation represented according to context, by " Surface-Knowledge,” by ‘‘ Ordinary Mentation,” by Sense-Knowing or Sense- Knowledge, or the like.

This second phase of the human soul also possesses the three faculties known as Will. Intellectual-Imagination, and Intellectual-Memory.