Enneads V 1: The Three Initial Hypostases

V 1: The Three Initial Hypostases

As below, so above: we can extrapolate the basics of the nature of the divine realms by looking within. We are alive, and one precedes many, so ontologically there must be one Great Life that precedes and empowers the many lives we see around us. Since even the gods have life, then this Great Life must be the greatest God of them all, and our own small lives must share in its nature (even if in a much smaller way).

But the gods, even the greatest among them, must have an archetype, since potential precedes actualization. Thus there is a Father of the Gods standing above them and providing the substrate of Being in which life participates.

But even this has a limitation, in that there is the distinction between the substrate and that which rests upon it. Distinction is not primal, since, as we have said, one precedes many. So there must be Something beyond distinction, standing above even the Father of the Gods, but since we can only understand things by distinction, whatever It is must be beyond our understanding.

Now, returning to ourselves: how is it, that if we are divine, we concern ourselves with the material rather than the divine? It is because the material is the act of the soul, and indeed the way in which it attempts to apprehend what it greater than it. But the soul is a lofty thing, should we not honor it as highly as any other divinity? Therefore it is only right for one to turn their attentions from the material and back to their eternal home, bringing the soul's act to completion.

For some sightseeing, Plotinus goes to some effort in §8–9 to demonstrate that his interpretation of Plato regarding his Trinity is in full accord with the philosophy of the ancients and not merely some invention of his own. I'm not well-versed enough in Plato, Aristotle, Anaxagoras, or Heraclitus to comment on those parts of his defense; but I did find it interesting that he equates the One and Mind with Empedocles' Love and Strife, respectively.

Enneads V 2: The Origin and Order of Beings Following on the First

V 2: The Origin and Order of Beings Following on the First

As we have stated elsewhere, the One is everything and the origin of everything. The byproduct of the One's self-completeness is the divine Mind. The byproduct of the Mind's self-contemplation is the Soul. The byproduct of the Soul's motion is Nature. But note that none of these are separate: everything is composed of its priors, just as its posteriors are composed of it. At the highest levels, there is only the barest distinction between them.

What's more, spatial extent and position is below all of them. Suppose one cuts off the limb of a tree: what becomes of the soul that was "within" it? Well, the soul remains where it was: it is the body that it severed. In the exact same way, the bodies of material beings are all distinct, but the souls "within" them are all connected. Ultimately, all life is one Life, even if it manifests in many and varied ways.