The Henads · the plural divine unities

Proclus's boldest structure, and the most startling parallel in this entire wing. Between the One — utterly simple, admitting no plurality — and the Intellect, he sets a rank of henads: plural divine unities, each fully divine, each a distinct manner in which the One is participated, together mediating an unknowable source to everything below. That is, formally, what the sephirot are: a structured plurality that is neither the Infinite itself nor separate from it, solving the same problem — how can the absolutely simple give rise to the many without becoming many? Both answer: through graded unities that are the Source as given, not the Source as it is. Nobody claims Proclus taught the sephirot; the claim is that the Kabbalah inherited a solved problem and filled the solution with Torah.