4 Intentions in 10 Sentences

a) Spiritual / Political : All things change, just as fire penetrates the lump of myrrh, until the joining bodies die and rise again in smoke called incense. Away, then, with prophets who cry peace, peace, when there is no peace. [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ]

b) Visionary : Cognition, or grasping (katalêpsis) after fact, is not the same as knowledge (epistêmê), which must be worked into a systematic whole with other such cognitions. And yet, even when the mind is feeling its way cautiously and working its way round a problem from every angle, it is still moving directly onwards and making for its goal. [ 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 ]

c) Alchemical : That which is below is like that which is above & that which is above is like that which is below to do miracles of one only thing. And as all things have been & arose from one by mediation of one, so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation: separate thou earth from fire, the subtle from the gross sweetly with great industry. [ 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 ]

d) Discursive : A question divides the set of possible worlds into a number of mutually exclusive alternatives. A proposition is considered relevant when it addresses some issue that was previously raised in the context. Neither can be entirely private. In any discursive act, such as a conversation, you can only see your “face” in the reactions of another, in another's face, as your interpretation of your own “othered” face, so that neither you nor your double can have the final say. [ 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 ]

*Sources: Herakleitos and Diogenes, translated by Guy Davenport; Martin Luther's The 95 Theses; Stoicorum veterum fragmenta; Meditations of Marcus Aurelius; The Tabula Smaragdina, translated by Issac Newton; Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations.