Chapter 11 Otherwise Than the Father: Night and the Maternal Causes in Proclus’ Theological Metaphysics
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Abstract
The following examines Proclus’ conception of the maternal causes in the Neoplatonist’s theological metaphysics. Beginning with a feminist critique of his gendered system, the bulk of the essay will examine his explicit identification of the summit of the intelligible-intellective sphere with the feminine/maternal, showing that the first gendered deity in Proclus’ system, the goddess Night, is the mother goddess that receives, reveals and mediates to the divine orders of intelligible Being and the Good. In this, she acts as the first dyadic paradigm, both intelligible and intellective, instructing through her prophetic and connective powers how to unite and bring into contact all multiplicity. We shall thus see that the essential role of the feminine is not merely subordinate generative work (as is often the case in patriarchal discourses), but, rather, this feminine principle conditions all mediation, therein becoming a necessary and superior condition for the work of the Demiurge in his task of creation. Further, we shall unpack how Night’s paradigmatic activity establishes the roles of other feminine orders, particularly in such “daughters” as the divine Mixing Bowl and Necessity, who in turn function as the “mothers” who, with the Demiurge, co-establish the cosmos.