On the Chaldean Oracles

It is hardly surprising, since he does not even include it within his mental power. That the Father is a Mind and that a second Mind (the "Mind of the Mind") is distinguished from him is confirmed by another fragment:

For the Father perfected all things and delivered them to the second
Mind, whom the whole race of men calls the first¹).
original Greek: πάντα γὰρ ἐξετέλεσσε πατὴρ καὶ νῷ παρέδωκε δευτέρῳ, ὃν πρῶτον κλῄζετε πᾶν γένος ἀνδρῶν. This suggests humans often mistake the secondary creator-god for the supreme deity.

Psellus 1140^c. Therefore the Father, or the first MindGreek: νοῦς (Nous); the principle of intellect or pure thought., completes all things by thinking, and then hands them over to the second Mind which administers matter. To this latter Mind, therefore, these verses pertain:

A DyadThe number two, representing the first step away from absolute unity toward multiplicity. sits beside this one;
for he possesses both: to hold the objects of thought in the Mind,
and to introduce sense-perception to the worlds²).

These matters are not obscure in themselves; but it is difficult to judge concerning the Paternal MindLatin: mens paterna; the aspect of the divine mind associated with the Father-source. who is sometimes mentioned. For the question is asked: what relationship exists between the Father, the Paternal Mind, and the second Mind? Porphyry (p. 6) and the anonymous author of Turin regarded them as three gods; more recent scholars have made even more out of them. In reality, there are two: the Father, who is nevertheless also a Mind and is therefore called the "Paternal Mind"—if he is called the "Mind of the Father," one should not think of a different person—and the second Mind. Indeed, I am moved not to separate the Paternal Mind from the Father chiefly because in several fragments he undoubtedly plays the part of the supreme god. For he is self-begottenGreek: αὐτογένεθλος (autogenethlos); existing without a prior cause., which cannot be said of the second god (p. 25); he is granted to the Aeon and to pure souls as something pre-eminent, so that they may behold the Paternal Mind (cf. p. 27); the Dyad of the second Mind is opposed to the MonadThe "One" or absolute unity. of the Father: nothing can be inserted between them. However, the fact that the World SoulLatin: anima mundana; the animating spirit of the universe. is said to dwell after the "thoughts" of the Father (p. 28) seems to have caused the greatest difficulties even for Porphyry (p. 6), which we ourselves shall not remove;

1. Cf. Numenius fragment 31: "O men, the Mind which you imagine (namely, the Creator) is not the first, but there is another Mind before this one, older and more divine." Lobeck Aglaophamus 439 d.
2. Syrianus on the Metaphysics 883 b 16: "But indeed we have believed that there is also a certain creative sense-perception celebrated among the theologians, of which even the beings in heaven have an image, themselves introducing sense-perception to the worlds according to reason." Proclus on the Cratylus 56,5; on the Republic 376,34; 387,16 B; on the Timaeus 164 e; Damascius II 177,20; 205,20 etc., who refer this to the "Dyad"; concerning this matter cf. p. 16 ff. Proclus wrongly connects the Dyad with the name "Dy" (on the Cratylus 56; Platonic Theology 332,26); he concludes from these that an "intellectual sense-perception" exists (on the Parmenides 964,9). Cf. Numenius fragment 25: "For the second, being twofold, himself creates both his own Form and the world, being the Creator, then being entirely contemplative (?)." Fragment 30: "The first is concerned with the objects of thought, the second with both objects of thought and objects of sense." Plotinus V 1.4.5 says the Mind is bipartite for this reason: because in it the thinker differs from the thing thought.