Enneads III 1: Fate

[sdi]

III 1: Fate

Recall that Soul is the cause of motion. This is true both directly and indirectly, for a chain of effects follow from every cause. But this chain of effects can limit the range of motion of one's future actions, and we call this Fate: our best and truest actions are when our soul is free to act according to its reason, but we may be compelled to act in a certain manner contrary to reason due to the effects of prior actions.

There are many souls in the world, from the World Soul all the way down to the individual souls of people and lesser things, and so when multiple souls interact (again, either directly or indirectly), there must be some negotiation and compromise between them, with greater souls having proportionally greater bargaining power. So the wise and good are better able to express their own soul's power regardless of circumstance; in lesser beings, the power to act comes occasionally in those moments when they are less bound by Fate; and finally in the least of all, there is no power to act and the chains of fate are total.

I find the notion compelling that our souls accept to enter bodies with various compromises—made necessary by prior actions—in order to express some particular act of their own. So if you hate your body, remember that you yourself picked it for a reason. What was the reason? Figure it out and you're one step closer to making body and soul one. And you remember where that leads, don't you?

Comments

past lives

[neptunesdolphins]

There is a theory in the past lives community and therapists that people are souls who do pick their time, place, and body.

Then again among Polytheists, people have multiple souls, so it could be one goes to another body.

Re: past lives

[sdi]

I never realized that there was a past-lives community!

I think (but am not 100% sure) that agency is the distinction between metempsychosis (souls pick bodies) and reincarnation (souls are assigned to bodies, at random or otherwise)? Certainly at least Plato (in the Republic) and Plotinus (in various places, including this chapter) assume that the souls choose their bodies, while I believe the Buddhists taken reincarnation strictly as a matter of merit.

For my own part, I'm not really sure how it works but tend to trust that it'll all be for the best!