The Psychic World

[sdi]

Plotinus calls "matter" that which is furthest away from the One, and it is upon this that souls are reflected. In this, he is following the definitions of his predecessors, but I disagree.

See, we say there is a "material" world (made of "matter") and a "spiritual" world (made of "spirit"). I think the latter's nomenclature is fine: if we call the Nous "Spirit," then the spiritual world is the world composed of (and existing within) It: the world in which souls inhabit. There is some chance of confusing this with the modern notion of "spirits" (e.g. "ghosts"), but calling the highest comprehensible divinity a Spirit is reasonable enough—everybody intuitively understands the American Indian notion of "the Great Spirit," for example. So perhaps the nomenclature is justified so long as we only speak of "Spirit" and never "spirits."

But what is this "matter" that the material world is composed of? We are told that matter and energy are interchangeable, and what is energy but light? (My understanding of physics is by no means up to date, but do not matter and energy both define the fields of spacetime, as well? So is it not the case that matter is energy is light is time is space?) But if light is soul, then we are just saying that the material world is the world made of souls. So either we should call this world the "psychic" world (e.g. consisting of "psyche," soul), or we should call souls "matter."

Either way, I think treating "matter" as a sort of limiting shore upon which the waters of the divine are breaking is mistaken: souls are the very thoughts of Spirit, and light (and the space and time and matter it gives rise to) is the movement of souls.