Life is the union of mind and soul; the chain of images — Aeon, cosmos, sun, man
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Nous — εἰ γὰρ χωρισθείη αὐτοῦ, πάντα μὲν συμπεσεῖσθαι, πάντα δὲ τεθνήξεσθαι ἀνάγκη, ὡς μὴ οὔσης ζωῆς· εἰ δὲ πάντα ζῶα, μία δὲ καὶ ἡ ζωή, εἷς ἄρα καὶ ὁ Θεός. καὶ πάλιν εἰ πάντα ζῶά ἐστι, καὶ τὰ ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ καὶ τὰ ἐν τῇ γῇ, μία δὲ κατὰ πάντων ζωὴ ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ γίνεται, καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ὁ θεός, ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ἄρα γίνεται πάντα. ζωὴ δέ ἐστιν ἕνωσις νοῦ καὶ ψυχῆς, θάνατος δὴ οὐκ ἀπώλεια τῶν συναχθέντων, διάλυσις δὲ τῆς ἑνώσεως. Ἔστι τοίνυν εἰκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ αἰών, τοῦ δὲ αἰῶνος ὁ κόσμος, τοῦ δὲ κόσμου ὁ ἥλιος, τοῦ δὲ ἡλίου ὁ ἄνθρωπος. τὴν δὲ μεταβολὴν θάνατον οἱ λαοί φασιν εἶναι διὰ τὸ μὲν σῶμα διαλύεσθαι, τὴν δὲ ζωὴν εἰς τὸ ἀφανὲς χωρεῖν αὐτοῦ διαλυομένου.
For if he were separated from it, all things must collapse, and all die, of necessity, as if there were no life; and if all things are alive, and the life is one, then one also is God. And again, if all things are alive, both those in the heaven and those in the earth, and one life over all comes to be by God, and this is God, then by God come to be all things. And life is the union of mind and soul; death, then, is not the destruction of what was gathered, but a dissolution of the union. There is then an image of God: the Aeon; and of the Aeon, the cosmos; and of the cosmos, the sun; and of the sun, man. And the change the crowd call death, because the body is dissolved, and the life withdraws into the unseen as it is dissolved.
Nous: for if he were separated from it, all things must collapse and all die, of necessity, as if there were no life. And if all things are alive, and the life is one, then God too is one. And again, if all things are alive — both those in heaven and those on earth — and one life over all comes to be by God, and this is God, then by God all things come to be. And life is the union of mind and soul; death, then, is not the destruction of what was gathered together, but a dissolution of the union. There is then an image of God: the Aeon; of the Aeon, the cosmos; of the cosmos, the sun; of the sun, man. And the change the crowd call death, because the body is dissolved and the life withdraws into the unseen as it dissolves.
The section gathers the argument's threads and then gives the treatise two of its most quoted images. First the sustaining-God: were he 'separated from it (χωρισθείη αὐτοῦ),' the whole world would 'collapse (συμπεσεῖσθαι)' and die at once, 'as if there were no life.' God is not a first cause who withdraws but the continuous ground of being; his presence is the world's life from moment to moment. From the single life shared by all things the unity of God is re-derived — 'one life, then one God' — and the conclusion is stated as flat as a theorem: 'by God come to be all things.'
Then a definition that quietly reframes the fear of death. 'Life is the union of mind and soul (ἕνωσις νοῦ καὶ ψυχῆς); death, then, is not the destruction of what was gathered together (οὐκ ἀπώλεια τῶν συναχθέντων), but a dissolution of the union (διάλυσις τῆς ἑνώσεως).' Nothing is annihilated at death; the components — mind, soul — are not destroyed, only un-joined. It is the same consolation CH VIII gave ('nothing perishes, only changes'), here sharpened into a precise anatomy: death unbinds, it does not end. What was gathered is merely let go.
And then the great ladder of likeness, four rungs descending: 'there is an image of God, the Aeon; of the Aeon, the cosmos; of the cosmos, the sun; of the sun, man (εἰκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ αἰών… τοῦ δὲ ἡλίου ὁ ἄνθρωπος).' Each level images the one above — eternity mirrors God, the world mirrors eternity, the sun mirrors the world, and man mirrors the sun. It is a chain of εἰκόνες that places the human being at the far end of a line of reflections reaching back to God, and makes contemplation an ascent: to know oneself as image of the sun, the sun as image of the cosmos, and so up. The section ends by folding death back into this frame — 'the change the crowd call death (τὴν μεταβολὴν θάνατον οἱ λαοί φασιν)' — the many misname a transformation, the withdrawal of life 'into the unseen (εἰς τὸ ἀφανές),' as an ending. Only 'the crowd' see death where there is only dissolution and return.
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