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The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

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x xviii INTRODUCTION.<br />

the Gods is in all, and all are in each, being<br />

ineffably united to each other and the highest<br />

God, because each being a superessential<br />

unity, their conjunction with each other is a<br />

union <strong>of</strong> unities. And hence it is by no<br />

means wonderful that each is celebrated as<br />

all. But another and a still more appro-<br />

priate cause may be assigned <strong>of</strong> each <strong>of</strong> the<br />

celestial Gods being called by the appella-<br />

tions <strong>of</strong> so many other deities, which is this,<br />

that, according to the Orphic theology, each<br />

<strong>of</strong> the planets is fixed in a luminous etherial<br />

sphere called an oXo.rq9, or wholeness 18, be-<br />

cause it is a part with a total subsistence,<br />

and is analogous to the sphere <strong>of</strong> the fixed<br />

stars. In consequence <strong>of</strong> this analogy, each<br />

<strong>of</strong> these planetary spheres contains a multi-<br />

tude <strong>of</strong> Gods, who are the satellites <strong>of</strong> the<br />

leading divinity <strong>of</strong> the sphere, and subsist<br />

conformably to his characteristics. This doc-<br />

trine, which, as I have elsewhere observed,<br />

is one <strong>of</strong> the grand keys to the mythology<br />

and theology <strong>of</strong> the ancients, is not clearly<br />

delivered by any other ancient writer than<br />

Proclus, and has not, I believe, been noticed<br />

l8 Each <strong>of</strong> these spheres is called a wholeness, because it<br />

contains a multitude <strong>of</strong> partial animals coordinate with it.

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