When the Intellect is in upward orientation that (lower part of it) which contains (or, corresponds to) the life of the Soul, is, so to speak, flung down again and becomes like the reflection resting on the smooth and shining surface of a mirror; in this illustration, when the mirror is in place the image appears but, though the mirror be absent or out of gear, all that would have acted and produced an image still exists; so in the case of the Soul; when there is peace in that within us which is capable of reflecting the images of the Rational and INTELLECTUAL-PRINCIPLES these images appear. Then, side by side with the primal knowledge of the activity of the Rational and the INTELLECTUAL-PRINCIPLES, we have also as it were a sense-perception of their operation. Ennead I,4,10
In the Supreme, the INTELLECTUAL-PRINCIPLES are not annulled, for in their differentiation there is no bodily partition, no passing of each separate phase into a distinct unity; every such phase remains in full possession of that identical being. It is exactly so with the souls. Ennead IV,3,5
By their succession they are linked to the several INTELLECTUAL-PRINCIPLES, for they are the expression, the Logos, of the INTELLECTUAL-PRINCIPLES, of which they are the unfolding; brevity has opened out to multiplicity; by that point of their being which least belongs to the partial order, they are attached each to its own Intellectual original: they have already chosen the way of division; but to the extreme they cannot go; thus they keep, at once, identification and difference; each soul is permanently a unity (a self) and yet all are, in their total, one being. Ennead IV,3,5
Thus it comes about that this kosmos, lit with many lights, gleaming in its souls, receives still further graces, gifts from here and from there, from the gods of the Supreme, and from those other INTELLECTUAL-PRINCIPLES whose nature it is to ensoul. This is probably the secret of the myth in which, after Prometheus had moulded woman, the other gods heaped gifts upon her, Hephaistos “blending the clay with moisture and bestowing the human voice and the form of a goddess”; Aphrodite bringing her gifts, and the Graces theirs, and other gods other gifts, and finally calling her by the name (Pandora) which tells of gift and of all giving - for all have added something to this formation brought to being by a Promethean, a fore-thinking power. As for the rejection of Prometheus’ gift by after-thought, Epimetheus, what can this signify but that the wiser choice is to remain in the Intellectual realm? Pandora’s creator is fettered, to signify that he is in some sense held by his own creation; such a fettering is external and the release by Hercules tells that there is power in Prometheus, so that he need not remain in bonds. Ennead IV,3,14
As what, then, is its unity determined? As Intellectual-Principle: determined Life is Intellectual-Principle. And the multiplicity? As the multiplicity of INTELLECTUAL-PRINCIPLES: all its multiplicity resolves itself into INTELLECTUAL-PRINCIPLES - on the one hand the collective Principle, on the other the particular Principles. Ennead VI,7,17
But does this collective Intellectual-Principle include each of the particular Principles as identical with itself? No: it would be thus the container of only the one thing; since there are many INTELLECTUAL-PRINCIPLES within the collective, there must be differentiation. Ennead VI,7,17