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The trinity of Father (equivalent to Existence), Power, and Intellect. Proclus, Platonic Theology 365,1: "For the paternal element is everywhere leading, Power holds the middle place, and Intellect completes the end of the triad."
original: "τὸ μὲν <γὰρ> πατρικὸν ἀρχηγικόν ἐστι πανταχοῦ, τοῦ μέσου δὲ ἡ δύναμις, ὁ δὲ νοῦς τὸ τέλος συμπεραίνει τῆς τριάδος"
original: "ἡ μὲν γὰρ δύναμις σὺν ἐκείνῳ, νοῦς δ’ ἀπ’ ἐκείνου"
According to the oracle (reading "with them" and "but" in the editions) — in the commentary on Alcibiades 392,7: therefore the power belongs to the Father himself and is not to be separated from him as if it were another god. Damascius I 108,17: "But just as the gods themselves, when conversing with men, declared that the three principles relate to one another, so it is with Intellect, Power, and Father—or Existence, the Power of Existence, and the Perception of Power."
original: "ἀλλ’ ὡς οἱ θεοὶ καὶ αὐτοὶ μέντοι ἀνθρώποις διαλεγόμενοι οὕτως ἔχειν πρὸς ἀλλήλας ἀπεφήναντο τὰς τρεῖς ἀρχάς, ὡς ἂν ἔχοι νοῦς καὶ δύναμις καὶ πατὴρ ἢ ὕπαρξις καὶ δύναμις τῆς ὑπάρξεως καὶ νόησις τῆς δυνάμεως."
Damascius teaches that this trinity existed in the intelligible world according to the oracles (I 196,1; 221,13; II 36,13), and Porphyry and Iamblichus seem to have done the same before him (I 288,12); Proclus finds it in all worlds (Commentary on Timaeus 118e). See also Damascius I 88,10; 97,26; 133,20; 193,26; Olympiodorus, Commentary on Phaedo 99,13; 204,24 etc. These are clear artificialities: starting from that single verse which they interpret incorrectly, they transferred this triad to all their worlds. 1) For Proclus, hunting everywhere for a tripartite scheme, this series was always before his eyes: 1) Substance, Existence, Father; 2) Life, Power; 3) Intellect, Activity.
original: "1) οὐσία, ὕπαρξις, πατήρ 2) ζωή, δύναμις 3) νοῦς, ἐνέργεια"
Compare Commentary on Parmenides 1106,28; Platonic Theology 157,28; 217,16; Damascius I 309,24.
To return to the Father, we have learned that he possesses fire; but he himself is also said to be fire; anonymous Oxford manuscript 181,12: "The Father himself is hymned among them as a sacred fire."
original: "αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ πατὴρ ἱερὸν πῦρ ὑμνούμενος παρ’ αὐτοῖς"
These verses offer more:
For not into matter
does the first Fire beyond shut up his power
by works, but by Intellect; for the Intellect of Intellect is the
craftsman of the fiery world 2).
The first fire is called the "transmundane" transmundanus: existing beyond the physical world Father, because another sphere of fire exists (see below); he does not enclose his power in matter...
1) "Power" is also found in an obscure fragment of Proclus (Excerpta Vaticana 194.31): "And if it is said of the first Father in other places: 'and the first power of the sacred word'?" The iynges: magical/theurgic wheels or mediators are called "paternal powers": see below. What Damascius says of the middle intelligible order (I 228.21)—"Therefore this principle is called 'paternal power' even by the gods"—rests solely on that verse: "Power is with Him."
2) Proclus, Commentary on Timaeus 157a; Platonic Theology 333,29; Damascius II 136,10; 218,4. Compare Philo, On Animal Victims 13 (261 M): "For from that [matter] God generated all things, not touching it himself; for it was not lawful for the Blessed One to touch infinite and confused matter, but he used the incorporeal powers, whose true name is the Ideas, so that each genus might take its fitting form."