I have come across with this on the course:
“The elements of nature – whence have they arisen?” I asked. And he answered: “From the counsel (Boule) of god which, having taken in the word and having seen the beautiful cosmos, imitated it, having become a cosmos through its own elements and its progeny of souls …“
What's does Boule stands for here? and going further in to this, (which i was already intrigued by) the word counsel, does refer to an actual counsel of beings? in this case, the Nous, the Logos, and the Cosmos giving birth to Nature?... the progeny of souls?
Or this Counsel has to do more like an "interior voice", like the Will of God, which is an all powerful divine Thought?
Or is it that the craftsman is his counsel?, Who is the one that imitates the beautiful creation?
Or again another reference could be like an Hypostasis in terms of the essentiality of God, within himself and his trifold activity?
"Boule" is the Greek word for "will", in the Hermetica this is primarily the Will of God or Providence.
Concepts like Nous, Logos, Demiurge, and Boule are sometimes described as a divine activity or characteristic, but sometimes described as a kind of hypostasised standalone entities.
The Will (Boule) and the Word (Logos), which can be understood as reason or rational understanding, are two aspects of the divine reality.
The Greek noun Boule, Will, which is related to the verb, to will or wish, occurs in the love-act between Anthropos and Nature in CH I. In the sentence that precedes the love-act, the verb "will" denotes one of Anthropos' mental acts, which leads to the descend (of Anthropos)"
Boule is also mentioned in the Holy Trisagion in CH I:
"Holy is god, the father of all;
Holy is god, whose will (Boule) is done by his own powers"
Everything does the will of God. So, yes Nous, Boule, and Logos working in perfect union can be seen as a "divine counsel" through which creation happens.
Human souls are "special" as humans have a relationship with the Anthropos. Souls can be seen as the means of the Divine Will (Boule) to express herself in creation. That is a beautiful thought.