Jul. 11th, 2024

Every cause which is productive of other things, itself abid­ing in itself, produces the natures posterior to itself, and those which are successive.

For if it imitates The One, but that immovably constitutes the things posterior to itself, everything which produces will possess in a similar manner the cause of productive energy. But The One constitutes things im­movably. For if through motion, the motion will be in it; and, being moved, it will no longer be The One, be­cause it will be changed from The One. But if motion subsists together with or after it, it will also be from The One, and either there will be a progression to in­finity, or The One will produce immovably, and every thing which produces will imitate the producing cause of all things. For everywhere from that which is primari­ly that which is not primarily derives its subsistence; so that the nature which is productive of certain things orig­inates from that which is productive of all things. Hence every producing cause produces subsequent natures from itself. And while productive natures abide in themselves undiminished, secondary natures are produced by them. For that which is in any respect diminished cannot abide such as it is.

COMMENTARY

This proposition is less about introducing new ideas than about reiterating and clarifying ideas we've already encountered, specifically the relationshp between the One and the Unities (Henads, Gods.)

Two concepts seem to me to be key:
 
The One constitutes things im­movably

and
from that which is primari­ly that which is not primarily derives its subsistence
and

the nature which is productive of certain things orig­inates from that which is productive of all things

The One gives existence to everything, and It does so from its very nature. It's worth noting that some, though not all, Christians object to this point, because they want the act of creating the universe to have been a decision by God. A decision takes place at a certain time, according to certain considerations; it's a particular act, not a constant act or a constant state of being. For Proclus the One is like an overflowing fountain which never ceases. In my own thinking, God is a river whose mouth is everywhere and whose source is nowhere. 

The Unities are secondarily what the One is primarily. To say it differently, the Gods are secondarily what God is primarily. From God, the Gods derive their subsistence. As the One, or God, produces all things primarily, the Gods, who originate from God, produce particular things. This, by the way, is one way that a Christian Platonist can reconcile Genesis with Plato's Timaeus. In the Timaeus, the Demiurge creates the universe, but delegates to the particular Gods the job of creating material forms; in Genesis, God does all the heavy lifting himself. But these can be seen as different ways of talking about the same thing, as, on Proclus's account, the Gods will cause secondarily what God Himself causes primarily. Of course, Proclus's own view of the creation story in the Timaeus is rather different, as he assigns the role of Demiurge to Jupiter, who derives his creative power from Saturn, the leader of the Intellectual Triad of which is the final term. 

One other thing which is worth considering. For Proclus, the One constitutes all things; the One is also radically simple. The Unities produce certain things, deriving their subsistence from the One. And, as we learned last time, everything perfect generates things like itself, imitating the First Cause. There is thus a sense here in which real being is necessarily creative. Being, in this sense, and the endpoint of beings like us who are doing the work here in the world of Time, is also creative power. This is precisely what is meant by "Will" or "True Will" in modern magical traditions. It's not about doing what you want, or getting what you want. The "wants" are of the lower phase of the soul, enmeshed in matter; these are passions, not actions. True Being is not in any way passive, but active, and the closer we approach to it, the more united we ourselves become, the more we become active. 

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