For the Greater Good

[sdi]

Porphyry wrote in his Life of Plotinus (§10):

Amelius was scrupulous in observing the day of the New Moon and other holy days, and once asked Plotinus to join in some such celebration. Plotinus refused: "It is for those Beings to come to me, not for me to go to them."

What was in his mind in so lofty an utterance we could not explain to ourselves and we dared not ask him.

I can't be sure what was in Plotinus' mind, and I am not yet halfway through his work, but I have a theory.

Plotinus rarely speaks of the cosmic gods. I think he's discussed Zeus and Aphrodite Pandemos once each (in the same place, no less), but of the other Olympians he has said nothing at all. Similarly, he's discussed the planets collectively a couple times, but only in the context of larger topics (like Fate and Providence). No, he spends all his time talking and thinking of the hypercosmic Gods: the Good (e.g. Ouranos), the Nous (e.g. Kronos), and Soul (e.g. Aphrodite Ourania) are referenced dozens of times in each and every chapter, and his whole philosophy is based on understanding the interaction of these Three and how it explains the properties of lower things (which are presumed to act in mimicry of Them).

It is as if this world is too small for Plotinus, the questions it presents too simple to hold interest for him, its gods—while worthy of respect—are merely the regents of a backwater. He seeks a larger world, he seeks more intricate puzzles, he seeks greater Gods.