This passage is Plotinus at the peak of his mysticism, describing how the soul comes to know the Supreme (the One).
What Plotinus is saying
1. The Soul must remain unified
“Thus, the Soul unlit remains without that vision…”
The soul cannot perceive the highest reality while it is divided, scattered among desires, thoughts, sensations, and external things.
Unity is required for vision.
2. The Supreme is not seen by borrowed light
“…not by the light of any other principle…”
You don’t see the One by:
- reasoning
- concepts
- senses
- imagination
- external knowledge
Those are reflected lights.
The One is seen only by its own light.
3. The Soul becomes what it sees
“The Supreme which is also the means to the vision…”
This is crucial.
The One is:
- what is seen
- the light by which it is seen
- the act of seeing itself
There is no subject–object split.
Just as:
- the eye sees the sun by the sun’s own light
So too:
- the soul sees the One by becoming illuminated by it
4. Seeing is being
“for that which illumines the Soul is that which it is to see”
You don’t look at the One.
You are transformed into vision itself.
Knowledge here is not information — it is identity.
5. How is this accomplished?
“But how is this to be accomplished?
Cut away everything.”
This is the method.
Not adding.
Not learning more.
Not accumulating insight.
Subtracting.
- Cut away images
- Cut away thoughts
- Cut away desires
- Cut away identity
- Cut away even the sense of “I am seeing”
Until only simple unity remains.
The core meaning
Plotinus is saying:
The highest truth is not known by thinking, but by becoming simple enough to receive it — and in that moment, knower and known are one.
Why this resonates with mysticism
This passage aligns with:
- Christian apophatic mysticism
- Eastern non-duality
- “Be still and know that I am God”
- “Die before you die”
It is not philosophy about God.
It is a practice of un-becoming until the divine is revealed from within.