Enneads IV 4: Problems of the Soul (2)

[sdi]

The last couple months have been extremely challenging: I apologize for the hiatus.

IV 4: Problems of the Soul (2)

What do souls do in the Intellectual Realm? [§1]

Recall that there is no change in Eternity, and so there is no notion of change or growth or progress in the Intellectual Realm. Souls who reside there therefore have no memory of of their experience here; instead, they ceaselessly contemplate the Object of their desire, and in so doing give rise to the world we see before us now.

Do souls remember their personalities? [§2–5]

No, the personality is a property of fusion of the soul and the body; it is a thing given to the soul by the spheres of the planets as the soul descends to the earth, and does not exist beyond those spheres. Soul itself is pure awareness or consciousness, intent on the object of its vision. We see this when soul is intent upon a body (it becomes wholly identified with that body), or when one is in an ecstatic state (it becomes wholly and unselfconsciously engrossed in the vision).

Indeed, the degree to which a soul remembers its personalities is precisely the same as the degree to which it is bound to those personalities, which makes the soul distant from the Intellectual Realm.

If souls do not remember their personalities, what do they remember? [§6–15]

By way of example, let us consider the planets—for they, after all, are eternal. Firstly, they lack nothing: so it is impossible for them to learn, since they already have all knowledge. But that knowledge is all one to them: if you ask them what happened yesterday or last year, this is but an artificial distinction we have placed on their motion; to them, it is all a part of a single continuous act. Secondly, they are not even looking at us: their attention is directed upwards towards higher things, and the effects they have upon us are incidental; another way to say this is that their spatial motion is not their essential motion, but rather a secondary one, amply apparent to us but beneath consideration to them, in just the same way we decide where we are going but pay no attention to each and every movement of our feet.

So much for the planets, but let us take a step higher: does not Zeus order and preside over all things? Must not the One who creates each thing remember everything He created? But if the universe itself is unlimited, then one cannot enumerate everything in it, even in theory—so how could even Zeus be conscious of each and every thing? Rather, He knows the universe as a single eternal life, indeed as a part of His own eternal life. Therefore He is aware of it as a whole, but not as a thing of process; having no changing state, He can not be said to be learning or remembering, only knowing.

And what of the All-Soul itself? Recall that the All-Soul is that which produces time; It is not in time, rather some of Its products are. And so the All-Soul, too, has no memory of specific moments or temporal processes; rather it knows its own great Life as an unbroken whole.

So eternal souls do not remember specific events or processes; rather they know, completely, the whole of their unique life.

How can souls be without memory if they have motion, which implies being in some sequence of ordered states? [§16]

The soul's motion is circular, orbiting a fixed center. So while the soul has motion, it is not perceived by the soul itself, intent as it is upon the center of its orbit: its motion is only perceptible from below the soul, by the personality.

How is it that our eternal souls are timeless, and yet we are blind to the future and filled with misgivings? [§17]

This is because the spirit connecting soul to body is pulled in so many directions by the soul, by the body, by the many and varied sensations clamoring in upon it. It is as if the soul is like a wise man in a public meeting who offers sound counsel, but is drowned out by the braying of the many coarse and foolish. The intuition of the future and the peace that attends it is there for the taking, if only we are able to calm the crowd and listen to it.

Does the body have a life of its own, separate from the soul? [§18–39]

Of course it does—for everything we see, even a corpse or a stone, is brought into being through the power of Soul and must contain some grade of life, however small. We call such things "dead" or "inanimate" because we do not see them move, but in truth even these have a hidden life within them that our senses are not keen enough to discern.

Are we so proud as to think that our own life, such a pale imitation of the Soul as it is, is so far superior to cells or proteins or minerals? No, in the same way that the salts that energize our cells are beneath our own notice, so too are we to that Greater Life in which we play a very, very small part.

How do magic spells work? [§40–45]

When one plucks a string, not only the part plucked but the whole string vibrates together. Further, not only does the string vibrate, but vibrations are induced in others at a distance and they may be swayed by the sound.

The Cosmos operates in the same way: all things are, at root, the disparate parts of that One Body, and the vibration of any one part may affect the Whole in some greater or smaller way. This is really no different than the means by which astrology operates: the planets do not exert their forces upon us directly, but indicate the conditions of the Whole that affect the earth no less than the heavens.

Do we not see this in nature? It is clear that the Moon exerts a force upon the oceans, or the Sun upon the Earth, or a beautiful woman upon a man, even at a great distance. Should we be so surprised that one who has carefully studied such things might induce a similar effect by some artificial means?

And should we be surprised that even the wicked may obtain their petitions from the gods and spirits? After all, the sun shines upon saints and sinners alike, and there is no natural law barring the wicked from drawing water from rivers.

But recall that the soul is eternal and is not affected by change. So a magician might affect the body, but not the soul. But what does the true philosopher care for the body? Such a person is intent only upon the soul, ceaselessly contemplating it—and no magic can affect that. The magician who causes the philosopher physical disease, then, does no harm and perhaps only speeds the philosopher on his way.

It may seem a little odd that Plotinus jumps right from the nature of life to magic, but I think this is because of the silly worldview foisted upon us by modern Western culture. Indeed, Plotinus makes a sweeping summary of his worldview at the end of this tractate, and it seems to me that it flows very naturally from point to point.

Comments

[boccaderlupo]

Glad to see you back!

Axé!

[sdi]

Thank you!