On the Chaldean Oracles (1894) - Page 12


Psellus 1137^c: The "depth of the soul" original: ψυχῆς βάθος consists of its triple powers: the intellectual, the discursive, and the opinion-forming. Its "eyes" are their triple cognitive activities; for the eye is a symbol of knowledge, while life is a symbol of desire.	Vatican Excerpt 193,1: They say the "depth of the soul" is its triple cognitive powers (intellectual, intelligible Jahn correctly suggests "discursive", and opinion-forming); and all the "eyes" are its Jahn suggests "her" triple cognitive activities. For the eye is a symbol of knowledge, while life is a symbol of desire.
Psellus 1144^b: The soul possesses a power corresponding to every object of thought: sensation for sensible things, discourse for discursive things, and intellect for intelligible things.	Vatican Excerpt 194,10: All knowledge, through likeness, binds the perceiver to the perceived: the sensory power to the sensible object, the discursive power to the discursive object, and the intellectual power to the intelligible object.
Psellus 1148^b: For the soul is composed of sacred reasons or "proportions" and divine symbols; some of which come from the sacred forms, while others written as "the" come from the divine unities The "Henads," a Neoplatonic term for the highest unities. And we are images of the sacred essences, but statues of the unknown tokens. One must also know this: that every soul differs in species from every other, and as many souls as there are, so many are the species of souls.	Vatican Excerpt 195,18: For the soul is composed of intellectual reasons and divine symbols, some of which come from the intellectual forms, and others from the divine unities. And we are images of the intellectual essences, but statues of the unknown tokens . . . 24 For one must also know this: that every soul differs in species from every other, and as many souls as there are, so many are the species of souls.

Furthermore, many other passages smack of the philosophy and even the very words of Proclus A major Neoplatonic philosopher (5th century AD) whose work heavily influenced later mystical thought, such as those he sets forth concerning the three iynges iynges: magical "wheels" or "whirls" used as mediators between the divine and material worlds in 1149^b. Some parts are so thin that they seem to be owed to Psellus himself; the same applies to those remarks concerning Christian dogma that are occasionally attached. We may therefore suspect that he used an epitome a summary or condensed version of Proclus's commentary—the same one from which the Vatican excerpts were derived; since the verses were not always cited in full in that source, he seems to have fished out the hexametric the poetic meter of epic and oracles remains from the interpretation as best he could, sometimes shortening the oracles himself to create complete sentences. For example, "Learn the intelligible, since it exists outside of mind" (1148^d) is nothing other than "So that you may learn the... exists" in Damascius The last head of the Neoplatonic Academy I 154,26. Sometimes he followed false readings, such as