Plotinus • on methods of Ascent
& Alcinous' Spiritual Exercises
- a journey to En -
What has long been emphasized in the Plotinian literature is that in the Enneads there exists an implicit but crucial difference between the individual soul, understood as a spectrum consisting of several levels of being and knowing (e.g. sensible, reasoning, and intellectual powers) on the one hand, and the self that is able to move up and down this spectrum.
There is no single term for ‘the self’ in Plotinus; he uses words such as ἡμεῖς (‘we’),
αὐτός (‘he’/‘himself’), ἄνθρωπος (‘human being’) or simply ψυχή (‘the soul’) to refer to the concept of the self.
αὐτός (‘he’/‘himself’), ἄνθρωπος (‘human being’) or simply ψυχή (‘the soul’) to refer to the concept of the self.
- Eric Dodds formulated this as “the vital distinction between the total personality (ψυχή) and the ego-consciousness (ἡμεῖς)”.
- More recently, Pauliina Remes denoted the mobile aspect of the self as the “subject of consciousness” and the static structure of the soul as “ontological selfhood”.
- Gwenaëlle Aubry also pointed to the distinction between the whole soul and the essential aspect of the self which is “the power to become” various levels of the individual soul and which “cannot be substantified”.
The soul is said to emanate from the One, but principally through
the emanated emanation of the intellect, and it is this which brings
reflective awareness to desire through having been an emanation of the
intellect. The upward journey back to divinity
involves the soul striving to reunite with absolute sublimity (the One),
raising up the "dead body" which brings greater and greater awareness,
becoming intellectualization (gnosis), and eventually uniting (henosis) with the Intellect and the One.
Plotinus uses a variety of ways to achieve his goal,
that is, non-discursive or intuitive contemplation of the three hypostases
that is, non-discursive or intuitive contemplation of the three hypostases
ত The method of anavasis consists in a gradual movement of the self through the levels of being and knowledge, by means of becoming active at various layers of the soul.
ত The method of aphaeresis or abstraction, in essence, aims to separate the self from a level of the soul or distinguish the self as the subject from those activities which it performs and those objects which it perceives by means of those activities.
Plotinus describes two subtypes of the aphaeretic exercise, which
has already been termed in the scholarship the ‘subjective’ and the
‘objective’ aphaeresis.
The subjective variant of it consists in abstracting from our self whatever is alien to its nature and here Plotinus is clearly inspired by Plato’s description of the ‘exercise in dying’.
In the imperial period, aphaeresis began to function within the Platonic tradition as a method of knowing immaterial beings by means of abstracting from them their material and sensible features.
The ‘aphaeretic method’, has specific meanings in the Enneads. The most concise exposition of this kind of exercise can be also found in 5.3.9 .
The process of aphaeresis or abstraction was treated briefly by Aristotle with regard to mathematical objects in his discussions of them in Physics (2.2) and Metaphysics (13.3). Geometry abstracts from the sensible beings every-thing apart from their solidity (στερεόν), whereas arithmetic goes further by abstracting from them everything apart from their numerability.
ত The method of 'agnoein' [term suggested by Stróżyński] (Plotinus uses the word ἀγνοεῖν in order to describe the method in question once, in 6.9.7) is a way of ascending which entails not only simply moving upwards or letting go of the particular levels of the soul’s spectrum, but something more radical: emptying consciousness of all the content corresponding to those levels.
꘏
Alcinous' Spiritual Exercises
Alcinous in the tenth chapter of his Didaskalikos enumerates three types of spiritual exercises leading to the noetic intuition of God.
❈ First, he mentions aphaeresis "The first way of conceiving God is by abstraction of these attributes, just as we form the conception of a point by abstraction from sensible phenomena, conceiving first a surface, then a line, and finally a point."
Ἔσται δὴ πρώτη μὲν αὐτοῦ νόησις κατὰ ἀφαίρεσιν τούτων, ὅπως καὶ σημεῖον ἐνοήσαμεν κατὰ ἀφαίρεσιν ἀπὸ τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ, ἐπιφάνειαν νοήσαντες, εἶτα γραμμήν, καὶ τελευταῖον τὸ σημεῖον. ~ Alcin. 10.
❈ As the second type of exercise Alcinous describes analogy (ἀναλογία), giving an example of comparing the role played by the sun in physical seeing to the role played by the First Intellect in the human knowledge of the Forms.
❈ The third type of exercise is the ascent described by Plato in Diotima’s speech with distinctive stages of bodies, souls, customs and laws (Alcinous omits here sciences, ἐπιστῆμαι), leading to the ‘great sea of Beauty’. Then he points beyond Beauty to the Good as the ultimate object of ascent "like a light appearing and, as it were, shining out to the soul which ascends in this way"
ὥσπερ φῶς φανὲν καὶ οἷον ἐκλάμψαν τῇ οὕτως ἀνιούσῃ ψυχῇ, ~ 10.6
꘏
The journey of the soul is a sacred exercise—a timeless path to liberation from the confines of the material world and a harmonious union with the divine.
Striving within the realm of transcendental wisdom, elevates a self to his Cosmic level of existence & Being.
As i'm continuing upon my -φ- path, i've blueprinted a journey to En and i'm paving the road daily.
Have you the Time & Mind, join ~ even as a parallel noetic trail ~ and let's further cultivate our Spirits and actualize our Ascendance.
Striving within the realm of transcendental wisdom, elevates a self to his Cosmic level of existence & Being.
As i'm continuing upon my -φ- path, i've blueprinted a journey to En and i'm paving the road daily.
Have you the Time & Mind, join ~ even as a parallel noetic trail ~ and let's further cultivate our Spirits and actualize our Ascendance.
Send a pigeon, Contact on X , or drop a message at _nest [discord]
Available readings on Bookshelf :
Meditating with Plotinus' Enneads,
Embark, as a self, to a Soul transformative Journey
To further explore Plotinus' philosophical concepts,
delve into the Essence of Universal Truths,
explore the Nature of the Soul,
and meet Virtues & Vices,
Noetically travel the cosmic trails of Plotinus
and further cultivate your Spirit via the path of Intellect.
Meditate on and Contemplate with,
concepts & theories, symbols & archetypes
An intro guide is available here.
Feel free to send a pigeon with specific or holistic feedback.
.png)
