The Soul of the World

 

“Into that heaven, all at rest, let the great soul be conceived to roll inward at every point, penetrating, permeating, from all sides pouring in its light. As the rays of the sun throwing their brilliance upon a lowering cloud make it gleam all gold, so the soul entering the material expanse of the heavens has given life, has given immortality: what was abject it has lifted up; and the heavenly system, moved now in endless motion by the soul that leads it in wisdom, has become a living and a blessed thing; the soul domiciled within, it takes worth where, before the soul, it was stark body- clay and water- or, rather, the blankness of Matter, the absence of Being, and, as an author says, "the execration of the Gods" (Plotinus, The Enneads, V.I).

So much for Plotinus hating the material world… This is quite a different thinker than the popular caricature.

One of these days I am going to write in more detail about the Plotinian view of the world and of his cosmology in general, since I have found that this is a highly misunderstood topic, but at the same time an accessible one - especially when compared to the purer metaphysical thought of the tradition. Let this then serve as an introduction.

The above passage encapsulates Plotinus’ view fairly well: matter, being so low in the hierarchy of being spirals headlong into non-being and causes souls to forget their divine nature and origin, it is in this sense that it is considered evil. But this is not the only condition that material manifestation can partake in, as what was abject has been lifted up by the Soul who mysteriously dwells even here: “it envelops the heavenly system and guides all to its purposes: for it has bestowed itself upon all that huge expanse so that every interval, small and great alike, all has been ensouled.”

The material world can only be called good because it has been rescued by Soul; the presence of God in the world doesn’t proclaim matter's goodness, but its emptiness.