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The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

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OF ORPHEUS.<br />

THE FUMIGATION FROM AROMATICS.<br />

NATURE, all-parent, ancient and divine,<br />

0 much mechanic mother, art is thine ;<br />

Heav'nly, abundant, venerable queen,<br />

In ev'ry part <strong>of</strong> thy dominions seen.<br />

28 Nature, as we are informed by Proclus, in Tim. p. 4,<br />

is the last <strong>of</strong> the demiurgic causes <strong>of</strong> this sensible world,<br />

and the boundary <strong>of</strong> the extent <strong>of</strong> incorporeal essences, and<br />

is full <strong>of</strong> productive powers and forms, through which she<br />

directs and governs mundane beings. And she is a goddess<br />

indeed in consequence <strong>of</strong> being deified ; but she has not<br />

immediately the subsistence <strong>of</strong> a. deity. For, says he, we<br />

call divine bodies Gods, as being the statues <strong>of</strong> Gods. He<br />

adds, "But she governs the whole world by her powers,<br />

containing the heavens in the summit <strong>of</strong> herself, but ruling<br />

over generation [or the sublunary realms] through the<br />

heavens ; and every where weaving together partial natures<br />

with wholes. Being however such, she proceeds from the<br />

vivific Goddess [Rhea]. For [according to the Chaldean<br />

Oracle] 'Immense Nature is suspended from the back <strong>of</strong><br />

the Goddess ; ' from whom all life is derived, both that which<br />

is intellectual, and that which is inseparable from the sub-<br />

jects <strong>of</strong> its government. Hence, being suspended from<br />

thence, she pervades without impediment through, and in-<br />

spires all things ; so that through her the most inanimate<br />

beings participate <strong>of</strong> a certain soul, and such things as

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