Proclus in 114 propositions

1. The transcendent One is the supreme principle of all things.
2. The world is imperfect and derived from a total perfect reality.
3. There is a reality of the intellect consisting in the pure being of ideal forms.
4. But absolute perfection must coincide with total unity and hence not coincide with intellect .
5. The one cannot have positive characteristics because this would render it limited and
imperfect.
6. The One is totally undefinable, incomprehensible and ineffable and only admits negative
descriptions.
7. The One is extremely distant from the human state, separated by multiple levels of being.
8. But at the same time is is immediately present at all levels and in all beings.
9. Gnoseological principles coincide with ontological ones.
10. Hence all multiplicity and totality must participate in and be cause by Unity
11. The universe is a hierarchically ordered totality imbued with the One.
12. Matter in the human world is what is most distant from the One.
13. The One is the measure of perfection of all things, duality and multiplicity is the principle
of imperfection.
14. Hence there is a hierarchy of perfection of levels of being from the closest to the One to
the furthest away.
15. The One is also the teleological principle, the Supreme Good to which all beings aspire.
16. The Supreme Principle as an efficient cause is the One, as a final cause is the Good .
17. The imperfect and limited being has the desire of the superior perfect good which is also
its efficient cause which it participates in.
18. Limit is the principle of existence and coherence and at the same time the cause of
imperfection that leads to the desire for the Good of superior perfection which is infinite .
19. The One imbues everything but does not mix with what participates in it: it maintains
its pure transcendence .
20. The indefinable One is not truly One but superior to unity e and to any relation, cause or
limit. It is One considered as the principle of being which is the primordial limitation .
21. The One is truly infinite.
22. All discourse about the One is approximate, conjectural and by analogy .
23. Divine faith unifies the soul with the Supreme Good in an ineffable way. It cannot be
sought by cognition or with the intellect .
24. We should close our eyes and surrender ourselves to the divine light and become established in the incognizable secret of the Principle of all beings.
25. Theurgic rites are necessary to reach Divine Union as is catharsis, the soul’s shedding all
faculties and positive limited determinations .
26. But a preliminary detailed theoretical philosophical preparation is necessary
27. The One is providential in all levels of being.
28. The principles that immediately succeed the infinite and ineffable One, the Henads, can
be known by their effects .
29. The One is absolutely perfect, complete and self-sufficient. Hence it overflows, irradiates
and causes to proceed exteriorly. But it is not affected or altered in this .
30. In all being of a given level there is first an indefinite flowing forth prohodos from form of
a potency that distancing itself from its source becomes more imperfect and hence reverts
again epistrophê to its original source, longing to attain again the lost perfection .
31. A cause is the source of being and paradigm of its effect. The effect is both different and
similar to the cause .
32. Reversion is effected by renewal of similarity .
33. This re-assimilating reversion is never total and perfect (for then the effect would disappear into its cause) but it happens parallel to the process of procession of the effect from
the cause prohodos. Hence the effect acquires a cyclic stabilizing nature .
34. The effect also remains monê in its cause by virtue of its similiarity.
35. Hence the universe is a hierarchy of levels of being in which each being of a given level is
the cause of a being of the closest inferior level which is its effect and the first being is in
turn the effect of a cause situated on a higher level called the proximate cause.
36. The prohodos is a flowing downwards and the epistrophê is a upwards against the current.
The stabilizing of the two maintains the being in its level.
37. We can follow both along chains or circuits in various degrees and in particular trace for
each being its procession from the Supreme One by descending various degrees until its
own specific level and then follow the same path in the opposite direction to revert again
to the One, the remote cause.
38. The Principle of reversion is desire or appetite oreksis for the One as the Supreme Good.
It is as a means to attain the Supreme Good that each effect reverts to its proximate
cause and desires it
39. There is a level of pure being, a level of life and a level of intellect.
40. There can be no degree of perfection without self-sufficiency.
41. An effect cannot be a cause in its own turn of effects on a lower level if it does not possess
within itself a certain degree of perfection, plenitude and good.
42. In higher levels of beings not only do effects revert to the cause but they can revert to
their cause insofar as this cause leaves an image in them: they find a vestige of good in
themselves and hence are self-constituted authupostata.
43. Everything self-constituted can revert to itself and is self-productive .
44. In the superior levels each being has an aspect of independence, self-sufficiency and selfconstitution when considered in itself independently of its cause.
45. The level of matter is not capable of self-constitution and hence is not a cause and is the
lowest level of the hierarchy of levels of being .
46. The capacity of self-constitution is parallel to the level of unification and proximity to
the One.
47. Each level of being has a multiplicity of beings. But the self-reversion of this level is only
possible through the existence of a monad corresponding to this level which unifies all
aspects of it.
48. After the Supreme One there is the level of intellect (including being, life and intellect)
which contains intellects and the intellectual monad (called simply intellect), then there
is the level of Soul containing souls and the monad of Soul, and then the material or
bodily level.
49. In the Intellect there is a multiplicity of intelligible forms and particular intellects, but
they are strongly unified. The Intellect transcends space and time.
50. In the Soul there is more multiplicity and there is the presence of inner discursive time.
But it is cyclic and unified and can manifest successively all the types of logoi.
51. Matter is the principle of space and extension - of corporality. Here multiplicity is maximum. If a form manifests itself in one place it excludes necessarily its manifestation in
another - one form can only occupy one space. Here differentiation and the capacity of
conflict and disharmony is maximum .
52. Everything capable of self-reversion is incorporeal - and matter cannot do so and is passive
and a source of indetermination
53. All form of this world is caused by superior levels.
54. The emanation issuing from Soul or souls on the level of matter is called nature, it is a
passive indefinite exterior flowing-forth-procession that does not revert to its source but
is lost in matter which is often an obstacle to psychically generated forms.
55. When the ineffable and transcendent One relates to an inferior level it relates through
the aspect of limit .
56. Procession corresponds to the active potency and to the unlimited. Remaining monê of
the effect in its cause corresponds to limit. Reversion corresponds to the mixture of the
limited and the unlimited. Everything that exists depends on these two principles.
57. Whilst in superior levels the unlimited is an active potency, matter is a passive potency .
58. However in the passive potency of matter we can distinguish an aptitude epitedeiotês of
a given matter for a given form which corresponds to a certain desire oreksis for this
form .
59. In all levels of being there is an active and a passive potency. The higher the level the
greater the active and lesser the passive potency .
60. Each effects proceeding from a superior proximate cause also proceeds directly from all
the successively superior causes to the proximate cause: the procession is not only hierarchically linear but a given level causes effects on all inferior levels without delegation
and these proceed and revert to them in different cycles .
61. The more superior a cause the more universal and potent it is in its effects along all levels.
The higher levels form the substrate of basis of lower levels whilst less higher levels cause
more specific principles .
62. Hence there is a double transmission: for example the Soul has in itself a layer that
corresponds to the direct effect of the One as well as an image of the Intellect. The body
not only participates in the One directly but also through the One present in the image
of the Soul that it receives .
63. Thus in the case of a human being we have a being that is not only an effect of the
immediately superior level, the Soul- which only furnishes specifically rationality - but an
effect of all the superior states of beings both directly and indirectly via the Soul - and
these give it for example organic unity and the sensitive and vegetative souls .
64. Matter only receives the influence of the One and its simplicity is as a mirror of the One.
65. All things are in all things, but each in its own appropriate way.
66. All causes contains all its effects (both proximate and remote) in potentiality according
to the excellency and super-eminence of its level.
67. Hence everything that exists exists either in potentiality in a cause, as an image in an
effect or as something self-subsisting.
68. At the level of intellect we can distinguish three levels: the higher level of being and the
intelligible noeton, then the level of life and finally the level of the intellective intellect
in the strict sense. For in our world in order for there to be intellection there but be life
and for life to be there must be being.
69. The level of life can be called the intelligible-intellective and be said to represent the
procession and potency of the intellection of the intelligibles of the intellect.

70. By analogy and more generally the level of being corresponds to permanence monê, huparksis, the level of life to prohodos or dunamis and the intellect to epistrophê or energeia.
But they are different levels of being .
71. Hence by 66 and all that has been said about casues each level contains there others is
the corresponding way .
72. Matter only participates in the One, minerals in Being, plants also in Life, animals also
in Intellect and rational beings also in Soul. Hence the vegetative soul and sensitive souls
of man come from Life and Intellect mediated by their image in Soul. The Soul itself
furnishes rationality.
73. Another point of view on the relation of cause and effect is that of participation and this
is essential to describe the multiplicity of beings existent at a given level .
74. We can distinguish the being or form in itself when it is auto-sufficient and transcendent
- the imparticiple amethektos which is like the sun itself - the form when immanent in
the thing which participates in this form - the participle metechomenon which is as the
rays of the sun - and finally the thing which participates metekhon which is like the thing
illumined by the sun .
75. The participle only exists in function of the participant as an reflection only exists if there
is a mirror.
76. Each level of being has its principle in a monad and proceeds to a multiplicity coordinated
by this monad and all multiplicity on a given level can be traced back to a monad .
77. The monad is the universal or imparticiple essence of each elevel of being. The multiplicity
corresponds to the multiple aspects that a monad of an inferior level will participate in,
for it cannot participate in the higher monad itself but only in its multiple participle
aspects.
78. Only the monad of a given level can unify the multiplicity of participle aspects of this
level.
79. Hence a particular being participates in the higher level in two ways: either participating
in a particular being of the higher level or participating in the monad of its own level
which participates in the monad of the higher level and this is the only way of attaining
a synthetic and global vision of the higher level.
80. We can distinguish a whole anterior to parts, a whole made of parts and a whole in a
part .
81. The higher level monad is a whole anterior to parts, the lower monad as participating
simultaneously in a multiplicity of participle aspects of the superior monad is a whole
made up of parts. Finally the particular being is a whole in a part participating of a
particular participle aspect of the totality of the superior monad .
82. Each participle particular soul has a luminous and incorruptible body okhêma which first
participates in the soul, hence it is not the material body that individuates .
83. The is also a pneumatic body related to the vegetative and sensitive souls .
84. There are two kinds of participle beings corresponding to a monad: one kind are complete
in themselves and capable of reverting to themselves and are self-constituted, the other
kind are like radiations or illuminations .
85. A incorporeal being that is participle and capable of reverting to itself when it is participated in by other things participates in a separable way .
86. The higher participle depends on its participant for its existence only and has total control
of the participant and is not effected by it, but the radiation-participle depends of the
participant.
87. There are bodies participating in radiation-participles of the soul-level and there are participle souls that are yet self-subsisting and not affected by the body of the participating
vehicule. The participation in this case is achieved by another immanent illumination
ellampsis that is inseparable from the participant .
88. Hence in a human being we can distinguish: 1) the transcendent monadic Soul 2) the particular participle rational soul that is separable 3) the irrational soul that is an immanent
illumination of the participle soul 4) the body.
89. Hence just as the further a level of being is from the supreme One the more multiplicity
is present so at each level the self-subsisting participles are closest to the monad and less
numerous than the dependent participles .
90. Hence not all beings of a given level participate in beings of the next higher level. Hence
neither all intellects participate in a henad (and intellects that do are called divine) nor
all souls in an intellect nor all body in a soul .
91. The human souls are the first beings that are submitted to temporality and susceptible to
change and to lose the illumination of the superior intellect. From this comes the source
of evil .
92. We call henads the participle aspects of the imparticiple monadic One and they can be
seen as different modes or individuations of the Supreme One .
93. The totality of henads has the character of unity to the intelectual monad where there is
a unified synthesis of plural participle aspects of the One.
94. But the henads in themselves in their own mode are in an extreme degree a Unity. They
are only plural considered as causes.
95. All henad is in all other henads but they all have a pure individuality and distinction.
They do not need to be unified .
96. All hypostases are unified groups henomenon but are not unitary heniaioi. Only the
henads that are superior to being (super-essential), to life (super-vital) and to intellect
(super-intellectual), are unitary, that is, have the source of unity in themselves .
97. The henads, which are also called gods, are primordially and supremely simple and totally
self-subsisting .
98. There are four different types of relation between beings: identity, difference, part and
whole and whole and part. But the absolute immaculate purity amigeis of the gods is
bereft of any relation.
99. The only distinctive characteristic of the gods is their individuality idiotes, which is a
primordial determination of the One.
100. But they are ineffable, unknowable - only knowable as unifyers of their causes .
101. All gods together cannot be compared to the One which inconceivably surpasses the divine
multitude .
102. Each level of being must have a highest layer corresponding to the One and which can
also participate in the One through the corresponding monad. Hence just as only some
souls participate in an intellect so too only some souls participate in a god and are divine
souls and only some intellects are divine intellects .
103. But all the hierarchy of levels of being must pre-exist in the gods as in their cause. Hence
there are intelligible, vital, intellective, hypercosmic (corresponding to the soul-level),
hypercosmic-encosmic and encosmic (corresponding to nature, the corporeal world and
intermediate level) henads63 .
104. The henads in which the higher levels participate are closer to the One, are more universal
and potent in their causes, but the ones that the lower levels participate in are further
away, less universal and less potent .
105. Only the level of being can directly participate in the gods. All the level of being must
participate not only in the corresponding god but also in all subsequent gods so as to be
able to transmit their participation on down to lower levels .
106. Hence all monad is divine and metaphysics coincides with theology. All multiplicity
proceeding from a monad has in first place a divine order according to the level of the
monad, call the summit of the level.
107. All the order of the gods derives from the principles of Limit and Unlimited .
108. The gods in which Limit predominates are the patrikoi , paternal gods and are the highest
level. The gods in which the Unlimited prevails are called genetikoi and occupy the lowest
rank. The ones in which these two principles are in balance occupy the middle rank and
are called telesiourgos, or workers-of-perfection, and they preside over the reversion of
being .
109. There is also a fourth order of gods called the phrouretikoi, protectors, or achratoi, the
immaculates, that preserve each being in its own level and prevent it from falling into
lower levels .
110. The influence of the gods extends to the lowest level of our world .
111. Every being is connected to a corresponding divine order which extends in a chain culminating in the supreme One .
112. Hence there is the order of divine souls, then the order of souls that always follow these.
Many times they fall into generative temporality. However they remain part of that divine
order .
113. Even in the material world all being is connected to a order of encosmic gods through
the correspondence with beings that represent a divine encosmic being. For example the
Lotus flower and the Heliotropos which have a solar connection and represent a certain
order of encosmic gods belonging to a vertical chain leading to the supreme One.
114. Hence all being is a symbol sumbolon and a sign sunthema connected to a divine chain.
The human soul has the symbols and vestiges of the gods and the plenitude of all the
logoi.