readoldthings

Everyone knows the Twelve Olympian Gods. If you need a reminder, these are Jupiter, Neptune, Mars, Apollo, Mercury, and Vulcan; and Vesta, Ceres, Venus, Diana, Athena, and Juno. Yes, those are the Roman names; Thomas Taylor uses them exclusively in his translations, and I have those in mind just now.

The Twelve appear in Plato's Phaedrus, in a very specific role. In this dialogue we learn that each of us is ultimately gathered under one of the Twelve. We are, originally, immortal spirits, each of us one of the vast multitude of spirits that follows on each of the gods. It is in this dialogue that Plato gives us his famous image of the soul as a winged chariot drawn by two horses, which you may be familiar with from another source:




In any case, these Twelve play a specific and interesting role in the thought of Proclus, who discusses them in Book 6 of his Platonic Theology. For Proclus, the Twelve are divided in two ways. First, Jupiter and Vesta-- the king of the gods and the goddess of the hearthfire-- are the two most important; they are monads, the other ten gathered into a decad. Second, the Twelve may be gathered into four triads. These triads are shaped exactly the way we have seen Platonic triads structured before. One begins the series, one proceeds from it, and the third closes out the series, at once reflecting the first, returning to it, and beginning a new order.

This may also look familiar:




The four triads are named the demiurgic, the guardian, the vivific, and the anagogic.


"Demiurge" means "craftsman," and it is the term for the creator of the universe in Platonic thought. Plato's Timaeus is concerned with the original creation of the universe by the Demiurge. This Demiurge is unnamed in the Timaeus, and Plato leaves his identity open to question. For Proclus the question is closed; the Demiurge is Jupiter, or Zeus. This Jupiter is, in fact, the third in a triad of his own, a triad which begins with his father Saturn, procedes into his mother Rhea, and concludes with himself.

This Jupiter, however, isn't the Jupiter that we know and love. From him procedes another triad of demiurgic gods, consisting of a second Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, the three sons of Saturn. Jupiter governs all things, Neptune guides them into material existence, and Pluto closes the series, ruling matter-- and the release from matter, as god of the dead.

But-- and this will confuse you-- we still haven't reached the Jupiter of the Demiurgic Triad.

After the Three Sons of Saturn follows another order of gods, who are divided into a Tetrad-- that is, a group of four. There may or may not be a third Jupiter as part of this series; I'm not clear on this.

Finally we come to our Twelve, who are called the Liberated Gods. These are, again, divided into the Demiurgic, Guardian, Vivific, and Anagogic triads.

Let's look at them one at a time.

The Demiurgic Triad consists of Jupiter, Neptune, and Vulcan. Like the preceding demiurges, these gods are concerned with the creation of things. Jupiter (either the third or four Jupiter) begins the series, in Proclus's words "supernally from Intellect governing souls and bodies." The meaning of this will be apparent in a moment. Neptune governs the middle of the series, as he is especially concerned with motion and generation; he governs the soul, as the soul is "essentially motion." Finally, Vulcan closes out the demiurgic series, as he produces bodies, including what Proclus calls the "mundane seats of the gods"-- that is to say, the planets and stars. And so in the demiurgic series we have three gods ruling or producing the three levels of being below the divine, that is, the Intellectual (or Noetic), the Astral (or Psychic), and the Physical (Hylic).

After this we have the "Guardian and Immutable Triad." This series consists-- in order-- of Vesta, Minerva, and Mars. Vesta-- who was the goddess, above all, of the altar; I believe that altars at Rome were sometimes called "vestae"-- "contains the summits of wholes," another one of these difficult phrases. Minerva preserves "middle lives," and Mars sustains corporeal things. As is often the case with Proclus, it's easier to understand any of this if you work backward. If we start from Mars, we realize that these three gods perform the role of preserving and sustaining the existence of things. Mars sustains the corporeal and gives it power; Minerva rules the intellectual life; and Vesta preserves things as a whole.

The Vivific Triad gives life to all things; it consists of Ceres, the Earth Goddess; Juno, the queen of the gods; and Diana, the moon goddess. Ceres generates all life in the world, whether intellectual, psychic, or corporeal. Juno governs the generation of hte soul. Diana, finally, as moon goddess, governs the life of matter, "perfecting its imperfections," and "moving all natural reasons into energy." The latter sentence is qutie a difficult one, because we have to do some detective work to understand what Greek words are being translated here and what they mean. "Reasons" usually translate "logoi." Logoi, at least for Plotinus, are the emanations of the Ideas at another level down. The Ideas, remember, are those unchanging principles which unfold the whole of things. Reasons or logoi, then, are more specific ideas which conduct eternal powers further downward into matter. "Natural" reasons are reasons having to do with Nature, that is, with living things below the sphere of the Moon, and "energy" has the specific meaning of activity. To put it in very modern and incorrect terms, Diana rules the "laws of nature."

Finally, we have the Anagogic Triad. "Anagoge" means "to lead upward." As the Demiurgic Triad creates things, the Guardian Triad sustains created things, and the Vivific Triad gives life to things, the Anagogic Triad conducts things-- that is, souls-- back out of material existence, to return to union with the Divine. This series begins with Hermes, procedes with Venus, and concludes with Apollo. These three represent the three paths of ascent given in the Phaedrus, which are the ways of Philosophy, Love, and Music.