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Elements of Theology, Proposition 39
Sep. 12th, 2024 09:25 amEvery being either alone essentially returns, or vitally, or gnostically.
COMMENTARY
Here we have the familiar Intelligible Triad of Being, Life, and Intellect. These three are arranged hierarchically, with Being coming first, then Life, then Intellect. In late Platonist thought, the Intelligible Triad became the first three levels of existence, followed in order by Soul, Nature, and Matter.
Proclus give us three ways in which beings might return to their cause. Those which have being alone return through being, which Proclus calls "an aptitude for participation of causes." In other words, something about such a being's very nature inclines it towards its cause. Other beings both exist and are alive, and these have in them a natural "motion toward more excellent natures." Finally, there are those beings which exist, and are alive, and also know. These beings return through a conscious participation in their causes.
The reason that the Triad is arranged hierarchically is because it's clear from the examination of our universe that every thing exists, and so the power of being extends to all creation. But only some things both exist and live, and so the power of Life is less extensive than that of being. Finally, only a few sorts of beings exist, and live, and are capable of higher knowledge, and so Intellect's power is less extensive than either Life or Being.
The variation on this idea seen in modern occult traditions such as Rosicrucianism sees Life and Intellect as something toward which every being progresses over the course of aeons of evolution. As far as I know, this idea was unknown to Proclus. I quite like it, however, because it implies that created beings re-capitulate the creative sequence which begins in the Divine, but we do so in reverse. The One brings forth first being, then Life, then Intellect, and so on down to the last of things. The last of things then rise back toward the One, proceeding first into Being, and then into Life, and then into Intellect. Indeed, this same sequence is repeated in miniature over the course of every human life.
For either it alone possesses being from its cause, or life with being, or it receives from thence a gnostic power. So far, therefore, as every being alone is, it makes an essential conversion, but so far as it lives, a vital, and so far as it knows, a gnostic conversion. For as it proceeded from its cause, so does it return to it, and the measures of its conversion are limited by the measures according to its progression. The desire to return therefore is to some according to being alone, this desire being an aptitude for the participation of causes; but to others it is according to life, being a motion to more excellent natures; and to others it is according to knowledge, being a conscious perception of the goodness of their causes.
COMMENTARY
Here we have the familiar Intelligible Triad of Being, Life, and Intellect. These three are arranged hierarchically, with Being coming first, then Life, then Intellect. In late Platonist thought, the Intelligible Triad became the first three levels of existence, followed in order by Soul, Nature, and Matter.
Proclus give us three ways in which beings might return to their cause. Those which have being alone return through being, which Proclus calls "an aptitude for participation of causes." In other words, something about such a being's very nature inclines it towards its cause. Other beings both exist and are alive, and these have in them a natural "motion toward more excellent natures." Finally, there are those beings which exist, and are alive, and also know. These beings return through a conscious participation in their causes.
The reason that the Triad is arranged hierarchically is because it's clear from the examination of our universe that every thing exists, and so the power of being extends to all creation. But only some things both exist and live, and so the power of Life is less extensive than that of being. Finally, only a few sorts of beings exist, and live, and are capable of higher knowledge, and so Intellect's power is less extensive than either Life or Being.
The variation on this idea seen in modern occult traditions such as Rosicrucianism sees Life and Intellect as something toward which every being progresses over the course of aeons of evolution. As far as I know, this idea was unknown to Proclus. I quite like it, however, because it implies that created beings re-capitulate the creative sequence which begins in the Divine, but we do so in reverse. The One brings forth first being, then Life, then Intellect, and so on down to the last of things. The last of things then rise back toward the One, proceeding first into Being, and then into Life, and then into Intellect. Indeed, this same sequence is repeated in miniature over the course of every human life.
