Sitra Achra Gloria

I want to comment on this, although I do believe some spirits experience such a range of emotions, Socrates rejected the anthromorphism of the Gods.

So following the philosophy of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and the Neoplatonist Philosophers, the Greeks and Romans saw the Gods as always being in a state of divine bliss. Aristotle says we have a conflicting nature in us, which is from the desire for the pleasure but the capacity to feel and fear pain. The Gods do not have a conflicting nature but are unified and perfect.

With this, the Greeks and Romans did not see the Gods as doing any bad or simply causing misfortune. Plotinus also argues that the Stars and Planets are always in a similar serene state, as it seems rather absurd with this that they experience different emotions depending on what angle they percieve each other from our point of view and so on.
The Stars and Planets are also seen as the visible bodies of the Gods, although the Gods’ highest form is beyond the intellectual world, which is to say their highest form is beyond being possible to understand. They existed before time was created, and they exist outside of space.

The Gods are seen as arising out of The One, with one God first arising out of The One who is identified as Zues, and he is the Demiurge (in Platonism, the Demiurge is considered benevolent and philosophers like Plotinus, who was once a Gnostic, make many arguments and reasonings against the Gnostics in his Enneads), and created all the other Gods.

Now, everything did not need to arise out of The One. The Gods did not need to exist for The One. Rather, everything arose out of The One because it’s superabundant goodness overflows. Iamblichus gives the analogy of a fountain overflowing.

It is similar with the Gods. So it was considered near blasphemous to think that the gifts we give during prayer is like an offering, which is implying that the Gods can be bribed. But they did not think that the Gods can be bribed. After all, you are ultimately giving their own gifts back to them, as they Gods create all things in the Cosmos and inwardly nourish it. The Gods are perfect, there is nothing they need or that they desire. Rather, these things are given as a symbolic means of appreciation of the Gods. They do not benefit from us giving them gifts. We benefit more from communion with them than it seems that they do with us. In this way, it is in their nature that their own goodness overflows.

I have certainly had experiences with this that seem to confirm what I have said here regarding the nature of the Gods, but my own testimony is hardly needed, as we have entire traditions of wise, experienced and powerful sages all affirming this.

9 Likes