On the Chaldean Oracles (1894) - Page 25

For these errors lie either in the perverse reasoning of the Chaldean The "Chaldeans" here refers to the authors or practitioners of the Chaldean Oracles, a 2nd-century mystical text—about whom you should not think I judge too harshly—since he called the same entities gods, minds, and globes of fire; or perhaps the error lies in the foreign origin of this fragment.

All things have arisen from the Father:

All things are the offspring of one fire.

original Greek: εἰσὶ πάντα ἑνὸς πυρὸς ἐκγεγαῶτα

Psellus 1145^a (so the manuscripts; the word "one" is omitted in some versions). Truly, he is not only fire and mind, but also the Monad Monad: the ultimate, single, and indivisible source of all existence. Proclus, in his commentary on the Alcibiades 356,20, states: "Since there are three substances among the intelligible and hidden gods, and the first is characterized by the Good, perceiving the Good itself,"

where the paternal Monad is.

original Greek: ὅπου πατρικὴ μονάς ἐστι

So says the oracle; compare also the commentary on Euclid 98,17. The accounts handed down by Proclus in his commentary on Euclid 98,23 are obscure: "For these reasons, it imitates the wholeness and that order, which is both the extended Monad and gives birth to two," and Damascius II 29,16: "For it is an extended Monad, according to the oracle, which gives birth to two," referring this to the second intelligible order, that is, the Aeon Aeon: an eternal divine power or era; nor are the following verses any clearer:

From both of these surely flows the body of the first triad,

which is not the first, but where the intelligible things are measured.¹⁾

Proclus and Damascius refer these lines to the third intelligible triad arising from the preceding ones; we certainly gain this much: that there is some kind of trinity in the intelligible world, though the oracle forbids measuring it (cf. page 11, line 6; Damascius I 109,16; 306,12). We see this agrees marvelously with the dogma of Iamblichus, who produces an intelligible trinity from the Monad, Dyad, and Triad (Damascius I 86,20).

We learn from these fragments that God is perfect and kind:

For nothing incomplete wanders from the paternal principle.

original Greek: οὐ γὰρ ἀπαὶ πατρικῆς ἀρχῆς ἀτελές τι τροχάζει

Psellus 1145^d.

The Father does not instill fear, but pours forth persuasion.

original Greek: πατὴρ οὐ φόβον ἐνθρώσκει, πειθὼ δ’ἐπιχεύει

Psellus 1145^d (various manuscript readings: "pours out," "rejoices in persuasion"); let him who thinks a fruitful critique of these fragments is possible try to reconstruct them; to these I add Proclus, in his commentary on the Republic 355,50:

Not knowing that every god is good, O you laborers,

wake up!²⁾

original Greek: νήψατε; literally "be sober" or "wake up from the stupor of ignorance"

¹⁾ Damascius II 63,21: Ruellius suggests "surely" instead of "to the." Heitzius suggests "essence." Proclus refers to this in Platonic Theology 167,30: "Therefore, according to both pre-existing triads, this one has come forth flowing according to the oracle."

²⁾ Compare the Hermetic homily 16,5: "O people, earth-born men, who [have given yourselves over] to drunkenness and [sleep]..."