From: The Dial, Vol. IV, No. IV. (April 1844)
Author:
Published: James Munroe and Company 1844 Boston
(a) That is, the irrational soul, which is the image of the rational.
(b) That is, the region above the moon.
(c) i. e. The human body.
(d) i. e. This terrestrial region.
(e) i. e. Lest it retain something of the more positive life.
(f) This oracle is conformable to what Plato says in his Republic, that a philosopher must astronomize above the heavens: that is to say, he must speculate the celestial orbs, as nothing more than images of forms in the intelligible world.
(g) i. e. The producing cause of the soul.
(h) By sacred reason, is meant the summit, or principal power of the soul, which Zoroaster, in another place, calls the flower of intellect.
(i) i. e. The orbs of the seven planets.
(j) For in every nation there are names of divine origin, and which possess an ineffable power in mystic operations.
(k) i. e. The fontal fathers, or intellectual gods. By inflexible, understand stable power.
(l) This sphere was of gold. In the middle of it there was a sapphire; and the sphere itself was turned round by means of a thong, made of the hide of an ox. It was likewise every where inscribed with characters; and the Chaldæans turning it round, made certain invocations. But it is called Hecatine, because dedicated to Hecate.
(m) By me is meant the fountain or cause of the celestial constellation called the lion.
(n) By unfigured, understand most simple and pure; and by the reins of fire, the unimpeded energy of the theurgic life of such a soul.
(o) Man is a subtle production, considered as the work of the secret art of divinity. But he is of a bold nature, as exploring things more excellent than himself.
(p) Hecate, according to the Chaldæans, is the centre of the intellectual gods; and they say, that in her right hand parts she contains the fountain of souls; and in her left, the fountain of the virtues.
(q) This oracle relates to the vision of divine light.
(r) i. e. The image, to be invoked in the mysteries, must be intelligible, and not sensible.
(s) By the blossoms of depraved matter, understand the dæmons called Evil; but which are not so essentially, but from their office.
(t) That is, the human soul, through its immortality and purity, becomes replete with a more excellent life, and divine illumination; and is, as it were, raised above itself.
(u) i. e. Unapparent and intelligible harmony.
(v) i. e. The summit or flower of its nature.
(w) i. e. All the gnostic powers of the soul.
(x) Understand by the spirit, the aerial vehicle of the soul; and by the superficies, the ethereal and lucid vehicle.
(y) The Chaldaic Paradise is the choir of divine powers about the Father of the universe; and the empyrean beauties of the demiurgic fountains.
(z) By the vessel is meant the composite temperature of the soul; and by the wild beasts of the earth, terrestrial dæmons. These, therefore, will reside in the soul which is replete with irrational affections.
(aa) i. e. An intellect full of divine light.
(bb) i. e. Material dæmons.
(cc) i. e. Saturn.
(dd) i. e. Jupiter.
(ee) That is, the powers that punish guilty souls, bind them to their material passions, and in these, as it were, suffocate them; such punishment being finally the means of purification. Nor do these powers only afflict the vicious, but even such as convert themselves to an immaterial essence; for these, through their connection with matter, require a purification of this kind.
(ff) That is, symbols of all the divine natures.
(gg) This oracle praises a violent death, because the soul, in this one, is induced to hate the body, and rejoice in a liberation from it.
(hh) The soul is the mistress of life, because it extends vital illuminations to the body, which is, of itself, destitute of life.
(ii) That is, as divinity is not of a tyrannical nature, he draws every thing to himself by persuasion, and not by fear.
(jj) That is, Saturn, the summit of the intellectual order, is perfectly separated from all connection with matter; but, at the same time, imparts his divinity to inferior natures.
(kk) Meaning the intelligible, which immediately subsists after the highest God.
(ll) That is, those powers of the soul which separate it from the body.
(mm) That is, of one divine nature.
(nn) That is, the voice of intellect is an intellectual, or, in other words, an immaterial and indivisible energy.
(oo) The meaning of the oracle is, that even the very children of the impious are destined to subterranean punishments; and this, with the greatest propriety; for those who, in a former life, have perpetrated similar crimes, become, through the wise administration or Providence, the members of one family.
(pp) Fate is the full perfection of those divine illuminations which are received by Nature; but Providence is the immediate energy of deity. Hence, when we energize intellectually, we are under the dominion of Providence; but when corporeally, under that of Fate. The oracle, therefore, admonishes to withdraw ourselves from corporeal energy.
(qq) For divinity is self-perfect; and the imperfect cannot proceed from the perfect.
(rr) That is, till she has recovered her knowledge of the divine symbols, and sacred reasons, from which she is composed; the former of which 1he receives from the divine unities, and the latter from sacred ideas.
(ss) Terrestrial daemon s are full or deceit, as being remote from divine knowledge, and replete with dark matter; he, therefore, who desires to receive any true information from one of these, must prepare an altar, and sacrifice the stone Mnizurim, which has the power of causing another greater daemon to appear, who, approaching invisible to the material demon, will give a true answer to the proposed question; and this to the interrogator himself.
(tt) The intelligible is twofold; one kind being coordinate with intellect, but the other being or a super-essential characteristic.
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