On the Three Primary Hypostases [1]

~Plotinus

What can it be, therefore, that has made the souls forget the god who is their father and be ignorant of themselves and him even though they are parts of the intelligible world and completely belong to it?

The starting point for their evil is, then, audacity, generation, primary difference, and their willing that they belong to themselves. Since they appeared actually to take pleasure in their autonomy, and to have made much use of their self-motion, running in the opposite direction and getting as far away from home as possible, they came not to know even that they themselves were from the intelligible world.

They were like children who at birth are separated from their fathers and, being raised for a long time far away, are ignorant both of themselves and of their fathers. They can, then, no longer see their father or themselves, and they dishonour themselves, due to their ignorance of their lineage, honouring instead other things, in fact, everything more than themselves. They marvel at these things and are awestruck by them; they love them and are dependent on them; they severed themselves as much as possible from the things from which they turned away and which they dishonoured. 

So, it follows that it is honouring these things and dishonouring themselves that is the cause of their absolute ignorance of god. For to pursue and marvel at something is at the same time to accept that one is inferior to that which one is pursuing and to that at which one is marvelling. If one supposes oneself inferior to things that come to be and perish and assumes oneself to be the most dishonoured and mortal of the things one does honour, neither the nature nor the power of god could ever ‘be impressed in one’s heart’.

For this reason, the way of arguing with those so disposed should be twofold – that is, if one is indeed going to turn them around in the opposite direction and towards the things that are primary and lead themup to that which is highest or first, that is, the One. What, then, are the two ways? The first is to show how the things now honoured by the soul are in fact dishonourable; we will discuss this further elsewhere. The second is to teach the soul to remember the sort of lineage it has and what its worth is – a line of reasoning that is prior to the other one and, once it is clear, makes that other one evident, too. 

This is what needs to be spokenof now; it is close to what we are seeking and provides the groundwork for it. For what is doing the seeking is a soul, and it ought to know what it is that is doing the seeking, so that it should first of all learn about itself; whether it has the ability for seeking such things, whether it has the right sort of ‘eye’ that is able to see, and whether it is fitting for it to seek these things. For if the things sought are alien to it, why should it seek them? But if they are of the same lineage, it is fitting for it to seek them, and it is possible to find that which it is seeking.

From: The Enneads

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