Book [One]

And from what has been written before: the Intellect original: nous; the highest form of divine intelligence is sovereign, looking toward the Intellect that precedes it The Divine or Universal Intellect from which the soul’s intelligence is derived., toward itself, and toward its own activities, and considering these to be worthy archetypes. Thus, the heavens contain all things intellectually original: noerōs, the soul contains all things soul-wise original: psychikōs, the human being contains things manifestly original: epiphantikōs; meaning in a way that allows them to be shown or brought to light., the soul contains them canonically according to a standard or rule, and the soul has interpreted the inhabited heavens. Wherefore Plato also gladly places the soul over all natural and mathematical species; he describes the soul as dividing itself according to numbers and harmonizing itself with analogies and harmonic ratios original: harmonikois logois. He further suggests that the soul projects within itself the revolutions of the figures—the Same and the Other In Plato's Timaeus, these are the two fundamental motions of the World Soul: the 'Same' represents the fixed stars and the 'Other' represents the planets.—and moves the circles within itself intellectually.

Therefore, all mathematical things exist primarily in the soul. Before the numbers we see are the self-moving numbers;
vital

and before the apparent shapes are the vital shapes original: zoïka schemata; literally "living shapes," referring to the zodiac or the living geometric archetypes.; and before things that are harmonized are the harmonic ratios; and before the bodies that move in a circle are the invisible circles established. The soul is the fulfillment of the universe, and it produces this entire world-order out of itself. Proceeding from its own origin, it fills itself with life; and receiving a "fullness" from the Creator original: dēmiourgos, it exists incorporeally and without physical extension. And when it brings forth its own rational principles original: logous, then it also brings to light all sciences and virtues.

The soul, therefore, is given its essential being in these rational principles through the forms. Whether it is the multitude of units descending from the soul's own number, or the ideas of sensible arrangements that exist without a physical home, one must understand that all things exist vitally and intellectually as the paradigms original: paradeigmata; the perfect blueprints or models. of apparent numbers, shapes, ratios, and motions.

A decorative flourish or paraph marks the end of this section of the text.