ON THE MYSTERIES

you know them to be far removed from alien things, namely that they are locally (so to speak) separate. For if the world has no communion with the divine in regards to essence, power, and action, and if there is no shared distribution or fellowship—and certainly no co-extension or shared placement in space—then no mutual inclusion or mixing can be imagined between them in terms of species or genus. Indeed, things that differ entirely from one another do not allow for any reciprocal distribution, mixing, or enclosure. When a distribution of divinities occurs through the various regions of the world, understand that different regions receive the gifts of the gods differently, according to their own propertyThe "property" refers to the specific nature or inherent character of a physical place or substance that dictates how it interacts with the divine.. Considering this, the art of sacred rites uses specific invocations which seem appropriate to that kind of distribution and the specific character of the divinities. Any part of the world receives something from any god, for every god is present as a whole to every part of the world. However, different parts receive from them in different ways: the Ether receives in an ethereal manner, while the Air receives in an aerial manner. For the gifts of the gods are naturally attracted by certain materials and specific invocations.

That everything divine is far removed from passions.

nThe divinities superior to us have nothing in themselves that is passibleoriginal: "passibile." In this philosophical context, "passible" means capable of being acted upon, changed, or suffering from external influences. The gods are "impassible" because they are perfectly stable., and they possess this (so to speak) state of being unaffected not by acquired virtue, but by their very nature. Not even the soul—which is the lowest of divine things—possesses anything passible. I speak here of the soul that is pure from bodies; it is not even touched by the disturbance of pleasure (which is merely a restoration to a natural state) Neoplatonists, following Plato, defined physical pleasure not as a good in itself, but as the process of a body returning to its natural equilibrium after being depleted.. Since its life is supernatural and unbegotten, it is not subject to any dissolving pain, as it exists outside of every body and the nature that is divided around the body. It is also outside the harmony that descends into the body from the principal harmony of the soulThe "principal harmony" refers to the soul's original, perfect mathematical and spiritual structure before it animates a physical form.. Furthermore, it has no need for the "passions" that precede the senses. It is not contained by a body, nor is it forced to perceive bodies through external instruments. Indeed, since it is an individual and uniform essence, remaining incorporeal in itself and sharing nothing with the body, it certainly admits no passions of division, alteration, or any other change.

He speaks of the soul separated from the body.

aThe soul, even while it is present in the body, does not itself suffer anything, nor do the seminal reasonsoriginal: "rationes seminales." These are the formative, "seed-like" principles or blueprints that the soul uses to organize and give life to physical matter. which it passes on to the body. For these are forms—simple and uniform—and they admit no disturbance or departure from themselves.