The Soul

The Creator conceived that a being which was self-sufficient would be far more excellent than one which lacked anything.

He did not think it necessary to give to such a being:

• hands, since it did not need to take anything or defend itself.
• feet, since the chakras would provide movement.

It was made to move in the same way and on the same spot, within his own limits revolving in a circle. All the other 6 motions were taken away from it.

As this circular movement required no feet, the universe was created without legs and without feet.

Such was the whole plan of the eternal God about the god that was to exist. He gave him a smooth and perfect globular body.

In the centre, he put the soul, which he diffused throughout the body, making it also to be the exterior environment of it.

He made the universe a circle moving in a circle, one and solitary. It is able to converse with itself, needing no other friendship or acquaintance.

God did not make the soul after the body, although we are speaking of them in this order.

This is because He would never let the elder be ruled by the younger.

But this is a random manner of speaking which we have, because we ourselves are very much ruled by chance.

He made the soul in origin and excellence prior to and older than the body. The soul was the ruler, the body was the subject.

He made the soul out of the following elements. He took:

1. the indivisible and unchangeable Same
2. the divisible and material Other

He added a third and intermediate Essence which has the nature of the first and second. He placed this in a mean between the indivisible, and the divisible and material.

He took the 3 elements of the same, the other, and the essence and mingled them into 1 form. He did this by forcefully compressing the reluctant and unsociable nature of the other into the same.

When he had mingled them with the Essence and out of three made one, he again divided this Whole into many portions. Each portion was a compound of the Same, the Other, and the Essence, divided in this way:

1. He took away one part of the Whole (1)
2. Then he separated a second part which was double the first (2)
3. Then he took away a third part which was half as much again as the second and three times as much as the first (3)
4. Then he took a fourth part which was twice as much as the second (4)
5. A fifth part which was 3 times the third (9)
6. A sixth part which was eight times the first (8)
7. A seventh part was 27 times the first (27).

After this, he filled up the double intervals (i.e. between 1, 2, 4, 8) and the triple (i.e. between 1, 3, 9, 27) cutting off yet other portions from the mixture and placing them in the intervals, so that in each interval there were 2 kinds of means:

• the one exceeding and exceeded by equal parts of its extremes (as for example 1, 4/3, 2, in which the mean 4/3 is 1/3 of 1 more than 1, and one-third of 2 less than 2)
• the other being that kind of mean which exceeds and is exceeded by an equal number (e.g.
  • over 1, 4/3, 3/2, - over 2, 8/3, 3, - over 4, 16/3, 6, - over 8
  • over 1, 3/2, 2, - over 3, 9/2, 6, - over 9, 27/2, 18, - over 27.

Where there were intervals of 3/2 and of 4/3 and of 9/8, made by the connecting terms in the former intervals, he filled up all the intervals of 4/3 with the interval of 9/8, leaving a fraction over; and the interval which this fraction expressed was in the ratio of 256 to 243:

243:256::81/64:4/3::243/128:2::81/32:8/3::243/64:4::81/16:16/3::242/32:8.

Thus, the whole mixture out of which he cut these portions was all exhausted by Him.

This entire compound He divided lengthwise into 2 parts, which he joined to one another at the centre like the letter X, and bent them into a circular form, connecting them with themselves and each other at the point opposite to their original meeting-point.

Comprehending them in a uniform revolution upon the same axis, he made the one the outer and the other the inner circle.

Now, the motion of the outer circle he called the motion of the Same. The motion of the inner circle the motion of the Other or diverse.

The motion of the Same he carried round by the side (i.e. of the rectangular figure supposed to be inscribed in the circle of the Same) to the right.

The motion of the diverse diagonally (i.e. across the rectangular figure from corner to corner) to the left.

He gave dominion to the motion of the same and like, for that he left single and undivided.

But the inner motion he divided in 6 places and made 7 unequal circles [chakras] having their intervals in ratios of two and three, three of each.

He bade the orbits proceed in a direction opposite to one another, 3 he made to move with equal swiftness*.

The remaining four move with unequal swiftness to the 3 and to 1 another, but in due proportion.*

When the Creator had framed the soul according to His will, he formed within it the corporeal universe and brought the 2 together and united them centre to centre*.

The soul, interfused everywhere from the centre to the circumference of heaven, of which also she is the external envelopment, herself turning in herself, began a divine beginning of never-ceasing and rational life enduring throughout all time.

The body of heaven is visible. But the soul is invisible and partakes of reason and harmony.

The soul is composed of:

• the Same
• the Other
• the essence.

These three divided and united in due proportion, and in her revolutions returns upon herself,

When the soul touches anything which has Essence (whether dispersed in parts or undivided), it gets stirred to declare:

• the sameness or difference of that thing and some Other
• to what individuals are related or affect each other and how and when, both in the world of generation and in the world of immutable being.

Reason works with equal truth whether the soul be in the circle of the Diverse or of the Same.

Sure opinions and beliefs arise in the soul when reason:

• is in voiceless silence holding her onward course in the sphere of the self-moved
• is hovering around the sensible world and the circle of the Diverse, also moving, truly imparts the intimations of sense to the soul.

But when reason is concerned with the rational, and the circle of the same moving smoothly declares it, then intelligence and knowledge are necessarily perfected.