Enneads II 4: Matter in its Two Kinds

[sdi]

This tractate was another very challenging one to me: it is very logical, but it was hard to see the forest for the trees. (I note with some amusement that the last one that gave me a really hard time was I 4, and that 4 is the number of getting stuck.)

II 4: Matter in its Two Kinds

Matter is the passive, qualityless substrate upon which active, qualified Ideas are imprinted. Even though it gives rise to bodies, Matter itself is incorporeal, for corporeality is a quality. Similarly, even though it gives rise to compounds, Matter itself is a simplex, since a compound has distinct parts and distinction requires qualification. It is the same with any other quality you might care to name: shape, color, quantity, heat, etc.: Matter itself has none of these whatsoever, and when they are visible it is because the quality exists in some forming power and is reflected in Matter.

We can extend the analogy to the higher realms: since Matter is a reflection, there must be a Ideal "Matter" it is reflecting. And so it is that empyrean Ideas are reflected in ætherial "Matter," which in turn are the ætherial Ideas that are reflected in material Matter. But while the ætherial "Matter" is also a passive recipient of Ideas, isn't quite the same as material Matter: while material Matter is utterly destitute of all qualities, ætherial "Matter" occupies a middle ground and is only destitute of some, but not all.

The analogy cannot, however, be extended further: there is nothing formless whatsoever in the empyrean, and so nothing that can be called "Matter" can exist there.