Through the use of his three primal hypostases, namely One, Mind, and Soul, Plotinus formulates his overall understanding of the Mystery of Being. How does the One become the many? We have observed in "The Descent of the Soul" that through mistaken identity, each soul takes up a cross of matter which separates itself from its template. Likewise, through recollection of the Forms, the soul may begin to recall its true origin and begin to make its ascent. The soul is in the body, but not of the body, therefore it is capable of an amphibious relationship between the One and the many. Without the soul, the body is dead just as the universe without the Soul is incapable of life. Soul becomes the life principle of all that exists, and its presence extends to the most distant regions of the physical cosmos. Because our soul is the same as that Soul which emanates throughout the spheres and planetary systems, it is the essence of all life, and if purified, refined, and released, it is no less than the Soul of the world. With self in Self, we find That which we once sought outside. Thus Plotinus adds, "If it is soul that makes us lovable, why is it that we seek it only in others and not in ourselves? You love others because of it. Love, then, yourself" (93).
             Acting as the life-giving principle, the individual soul of the Enneads may be confused with the soul as understood by Aristotle. This is both true and false, for Aristotle's soul does distinguish whether an object is animate or inanimate. It exists throughout all living things, yet it is not separable from living things. Plotinus understands the Soul to have no origin and no end. Individual souls are likewise. Plotinus' souls move in and out of bodies; no real being ever ceases to exist (132). Souls are expressions of the intelligences that guide them but are in no way bound to matter. Aristotle's soul is closer to what we know as the...