COSMOLOGY
reality is monistic; existence arises from, and remains contained by, an inconceivable source known as the One, the principle of totality; through a process of progressive differentiation, multiplicity arises, culminating in the cosmos of discrete percepts that dominates awareness
- thus, an array of causes and conditions not directly available to sense or thought governs the arising, persistence and dissolution of discrete objects; this unfolding of the One into complexity is structured and potentially describable in mathematical terms
- there are two dimensions of connection in this universe; "horizontal" links between entities at the same level of being; and "vertical" connections across levels
- "matter" (hyle) is not a substance, but a relational term; for any given point in the cascade of unfoldment from One to Many, everything in the cascade that is more distant from the One than itself is "matter"; in other words, "matter" is anything that receives causal influences from a more unified level of being
- the principles governing the ordered emanations of the One correspond to what we would today call "laws of nature", "personality traits", etc.; as these principles shape our lives, it is important to attend to them, so as to establish mature relations with them; Iamblichus and other pagans supported this attentiveness by personifying the principles as daimones and gods
- the classical geocentric map of the cosmos can be seen not just as a literal cosmology, but as a depiction of our attentional universe; earth-oriented concerns occupy the centre, but they are ringed with invisible powers that also require our mindfulness if we are to mature and understand the world we live in