On the Mysteries of the Egyptians

...Heroes, on the contrary, under the condition of multiplicity, motion, and permission, possess unity, identity, stability, and excellence. In this Neoplatonic context, "identity" and "stability" are divine attributes of unchanging being, while "motion" and "multiplicity" characterize the lower, material realm. Daemons and heroes are closest to the extremes: the former to the gods, the latter to souls. The differences between daemons and heroes consist primarily in this: that heroes sometimes decline more toward particular and mobile things than daemons do. These two intermediates—namely, daemons and heroes—are composed of the properties of the extremes, which is to say, of gods and souls. However, in daemons there is more of the divine, while in heroes there is more of the human.

How the actions of superior beings are distinguished among themselves.

d Gods hold the highest rank of beings, while souls hold the lowest. Gods are able to do all things in a unified moment. Souls, by contrast, can neither do all things, nor do them in a moment, nor in a unified way. Gods act and care for all things without being inclined original: "inclinati." In this philosophy, "inclination" refers to the soul "leaning" or descending toward the material world; gods remain transcendent even when governing the world. toward them. Souls act with a certain inclination and turning. Gods are the primary causes; souls depend perpetually upon the will of those gods. Gods, with the swiftest vigor, grasp their innermost ends together with their principles. Souls proceed from one thing to another, moving from the imperfect to the perfect. Gods cannot be grasped by any measure or form. Souls are held back and overcome by inclination, habit, and will. They are touched by a desire for lesser things and by a familiarity with them, and from this they contract certain qualities.

On the intellect and the soul.

i The Intellect, the maker Opifex original: "opifex." This refers to the Demiurge or the divine Craftsman who shapes the universe according to intellectual patterns. of all things, is always present to all gods most fully through a single act remaining within itself. The soul is a participant in an intellect that is more divisible and multiform, adapted for governance, and it naturally provides for inanimate things, being affected by various forms at different times. Likewise, order is present in the gods from higher causes, as is beauty itself, or the causes of both. In the soul, however, there is order and intellectual beauty. Item: in the gods there is a measure powerful over all things. The soul, however, is defined by that measure and acts upon specific things through it. Daemons and heroes, as intermediaries between gods and souls, exist in a fitting proportion to the extremes and themselves; they are composed of the properties of both souls and gods, which we have described above. Therefore, if you wish to grasp the nature of the gods, consider the properties of the lowest rational soul and attribute the opposite properties, in their perfection, to the gods. If it pleases you to construct the nature of a daemon, compose it from both, though attributing more divinity to it in the process. If, finally, you seek the nature of a hero, do so from both, but bringing in more of the conditions of the soul. He criticizes Porphyry's Porphyry was Iamblichus's teacher, but Iamblichus wrote "On the Mysteries" largely to correct Porphyry's more rationalistic approach to the divine. separate...