Pneumena

Sources used:

"The breath of life" - Sirvan Sehat

"Metaphysics : Archaic and contemporary understandings" - Sasan Rayegan

"Pneumena: zeitgeist product or naturally occuring phenomena?" - Monir Mousavi

Couple of sources contemporary to the era.

The Breath of Life

The Cornerstone of life

The exact etymology of Pneumena is unknown, according to ancient sources the closest meaning we can infer from it is "air" or "wave", but what exactly is Pneumena? Put in a way that summarizes three books worth of content: it's everything, it's omni-present, eternal. Look over your shoulder and you will see Pneumena. Look at your hands, the table before you and you will see it.   Essentially, Pneumena is the primary force which provides the crux of existence, it flows naturally through all things, both living and inanimate. Some scholars even make the argument that it even builds up abstract concepts like time, death etc. providing a fabric which upholds existence.  

The Three types of Pneumena

As i alluded to in the prior paragraph, Pneumena has been observed and interpreted in various forms. It's commonly accepted, both in ancient and contemporary scholarship, that there exists three distinct types of Pneumena. The distinction is made because of the various functions animate and inanimate objects have, i.e. a rock versus a person  

First type: Pneumos

Also referred to as "The Totality" by scholars, it is the first type of Pneumena. It earned its moniker for it's universal presence. Usually residing within objects like rocks, wood to essentially keep them manifested in reality. In the abstract sense, it also ensures that all concepts melt into each other neatly, ensuring that existence is maintained. Some scholars however, believe The Totality does not extend to time. They estimate that time exists indepedent from Pneumena, since Pneumena is observed to be a moving thing, and therefore needs a temporal force to keep the movement going. If it's the case that time is driven by Pneumena, it raises the question of what came first and if they came at the same time, by what?    

Second type: Pneumis

Also called "The Growth". This form of the Pneumena exists in all living objects. It got its name as a nod to its primary function in existence, this of course being the perpetuation of fauna and flora. It the air you breath in, it's what keeps your cells going, it's what caused things to grow and deterioate. It should be noted however that this is a more contested form of Pneumena among scholars, because it's attributes sound very much in line with something that the totality is already covering by being the fabric of everything. More interestingly, others point out that Pneumis is actually time itself. Pneumos ensures that everything remains in existence, even natural objects. Meanwhile Pneumis, being the cycle of growth, death and rebirth is a temporal force that ensures the change in everything. This opinion is contested of course, as it raises the question of how you can "breathe time". Perhaps one of my proffesors addressed this, but I fell asleep during the lecture.  

Third type: Pneuma

The heavy hitter of each type, simply reffered to as "The Soul". This is the most contested form of Pneumena, since the concept of the soul (what is a soul, what amounts to a soul etc.) varies a lot depending on which cultural/religious/philosophical group you ask. If I were to outline each of them, you would still be reading this tomorrow, so for this one I wll have to provide a very generalized version of what Pneuma. As established, it is the soul, Pneuma is the cosmic force which builds up the incorporeal psyche of an individual. It is you, essentially. What makes you tick and what makes you think etc. As we at the academy understand it, it is something untangiable, that cannot really be destroyed and has some properties we deem quite supernatural