THE UNIVERSE AS ONE INEFFABLE ANIMAL BEING, Proclus's Platonic Thought, An Introduction

The Universe as One Ineffable Animal Being

from Thomas Taylor’s Introduction to Proclus’ Elements of Theology

What if the universe you see—this turning vault of stars, this breathing world beneath your feet—is not a dead machine, but a single living being? A creature older than time, vast beyond imagination, whose every motion is guided by hidden intelligences blazing in the deep?

In this astonishing introduction, Thomas Taylor pulls back the veil on the mystic theology of Proclus—the last great voice of Platonic wisdom. Here, the cosmos is revealed as a chain of divine beings descending from an unknowable first principle… an ineffable One that even the gods cannot fully name. Taylor’s voice rises like a forgotten hymn, celebrating a universe woven by intellect, animated by soul, and governed by orders of unseen powers once known to Orpheus, Pythagoras, and Plato.

He argues with fiery clarity that the stars themselves are alive; that countless nations, ancient prophets, philosophers, and early Christians once recognized a hierarchy of divine beings; and that modern ages, blinded by materialism, have forgotten what every ancient culture knew instinctively—that reality is radiant, conscious, and saturated with divinity.

If you have ever wondered whether the cosmos is more than atoms and accident…
If you have felt the presence of something immense in the silence of night…
If you have suspected that the universe may be a mind looking out through your own…

…then Taylor’s dramatic gateway into Proclean thought will ignite that intuition into a flame.

Prepare to enter a world where philosophy becomes theology, theology becomes geometry, and the universe becomes a single living, ineffable animal, unfolding through gods, souls, and stars.

A revelation awaits.