Enneads V 8: On the Intellectual Beauty

[sdi]

V 8: On the Intellectual Beauty

Suppose one has two blocks of stone, one unworked and the other carved into the shape of a woman. Which is more beautiful? As a stone, of course, neither is—they're just rock, and equally effective at holding up a roof or whatever. But to us, the viewer, the woman is the more beautiful; this is not due to any property of the stone, but rather due something in us: we see a reflection, however, dim, of some beauty within ourselves.

Now suppose the woman was living, rather than stone. Even if her form were identical to the statue, would not the living woman be more beautiful? But of course, her beauty isn't a property of her blood or cells or whatever; it is that she, being alive, provides a less dim reflection of that inner Beauty. This is because we are no longer looking at a reflection in the mirror of Matter, but rather in the mirror of Nature, which is a higher reality.

In the same way, the mirror of Soul is higher still. So it was that Socrates, famously ugly in body, was enchanting to all who met him.

Beauty is not some property that things can possess: it is something in which we participate, and this is the Intellect. But we despair of describing it, for it is the very beauty of the gods themselves! Here we can only see a reproduction of things, like a photograph; there it is the thing itself and you have no need of eyes to see nor light to illuminate, for all there is unity and you perceive all without need of such crude apparatuses.

So here we have a trail of breadcrumbs from the world of Matter, to Nature, to the Soul, to the Intellect: by grasping how each relates to its prior, you can, in contemplation, walk yourself back, step by step, from the chair upon which you sit to the throne of God.

This is a moving tractate, among the best, and I recommend reading the original since my summary cannot do it justice. §4 has Plotinus speaking of what heaven is and is like. §§9–11 describe, in detail, Plotinus' method of meditation. §13 reiterates Plotinus' likening of Ouranos to the One, Kronos to the Intellect, and Aphrodite to the Soul, which we last saw in III 5; and also includes the essential point that "we ourselves possess beauty when we are true to our own being; our ugliness is in going over to [self-ignorance]." Don't let others think for you!