Proclus, Theologia Platonica; Michael Psellos

...as those who, having been set apart from multiform opinions and the variety that is reasonably carried away, maintain for themselves the pure and unadulterated intellection of the concepts of the gods. To those who apply their hearing to the Platonic Timaeus, it is appropriate to pursue with me the teachings concerning these things. Such listeners, possessing divine symbols, do not consider the intellect of our soul to be out of place, nor the worship worthy of Plato, nor the steepness of this contemplation. Not having rejected the whole principle concerning them, they have accepted that we possess the best part of ourselves for the sake of the divine, forming a judgment concerning these matters, inquiring from others, and examining the power within themselves.

But enough of the prefaces. It is necessary to speak and to proclaim the manner of the proposed teaching: what kind of character one should expect it to have, and for the listener to define his own disposition toward it. For he will encounter it appropriately if he is disposed not toward our own words, but toward the lofty and inspired philosophy of Plato. For it is indeed proper to assume that the fitness of the listeners is accordant with the types of discourse. Just as in the rites, those skilled in these matters prepare the receptions for the gods in advance; and they do not use just any inanimate things, nor irrational animals for the presence of the gods, but they use for each that which is able to participate in harmony, on account of the proposed struggle.

Let my discourse, then, be briefly divided from the start: at the beginning, summarizing the common 61 concepts concerning the gods, as many as Plato conceives among them, and observing their powers everywhere and the dignity of their ranks; and in the middle, the entire orders of the gods, enumerating also their individual characteristics.

II.
What the life of the discourses is in the present treatise; and what must take precedence in the choices of the practice.