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Eclectic Dictionary

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Eclectic Dictionary: Mysticism Magick Dictionary on NEOPLATONISM

NEOPLATONISM

By the 3rd Century A.D., an eclectic occultism composed of Neoplatonism and Qabalah seriously rivalled Christianity. All those who wrote on this subject went under the name of "Hermes," the best known book of which is "The Pymander." Later, Hermes was equated with alchemy. With Ammonius Saccas and Plotinus, the religion of the Orient were fused to Plato, Pythagoras, Aristotle and Stoicism eventually to form a doctrine of three hypostases (Monos, Nous, Psyche). The material world and its glories are the work of demons but union with the gods, our higher souls, our higher egos, can be accomplished only by theurgical means, which join us according to individual capacity to the divinely creative realm. Vatic powers reside in the higher ego which we all possess. In the 4th Century, Iamblichus (author of De Mysteriis), in struggling against the Galileans, stressed intellectual meditation and vigorously opposed magic and religion. But he virtually equated theurgy with raja yoga, calling samadhi manteia. In the 5th Century, Neoplatonism under Porphyry (who was Jewish), split into a Xtian version at Alexandria and an extremely short-lived Pagan version at Athens under Proclus. Porphyry and Plotinus also disapproved of "phenomenal theurgy" (physical magic). Neoplatonism was revived during the Renaissance by Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, whereafter it survived through the XIXth Century.

Its chief philosophy can probably be summed up as simple pantheism, but which the Xtians complexified to "the Logos that derives from One Divine Source."

Neoplatonism regarded Egypt as the source of all occult knowledge. Saccas himself rejected Xtianity totally, as it had in it nothing that could not be found in previous teachings. Paul Christian in his History of Magic tells us that, according to Proclus, Plato underwent a 13-year initiation in the mysteries of Thoth-Hermes by famed magi of Memphis -- Patheneitb, Ochoaps, Sechtnouphis and Etymon of Sebennithis. He emerged with what we now know as the "Platonic Doctrine."

At its best, Neoplatonism encouraged in the West an interest in Oriental systems, picking up Qabalah, Buddhism and Hinduism as enrichments. At its worst, it popularized an "anything goes" bubble-headed mysticism.

(See also: NEOPLATONISM, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

Eclectic Dictionary: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Neoplatonism, Neoplatonists

Neoplatonism, Neoplatonists This famous school of Platonic theosophy originated in the 2nd century at Alexandria, with Ammonius Saccas (170-243), and was developed by his pupils, of whom Plotinus (204-270) was the outstanding philosopher and under whom Neoplatonism reached its culmination. Other famous representatives were Porphyry (the pupil of Plotinus, 233-305); Iamblichus (d. 330); Hypatia (d. 415); Synesius (378-430); Proclus (412-485); and concluding with Olympiodorus (6th century). Among other pupils of Ammonius Saccas were Longinus and Origen.

"The Neo-Platonists were the same as the Philaletheians and the Analogeticists; they were also called Theurgists, and by various other names. They were the Theosophists of the early centuries. Neo-Platonism is Platonic philosophy plus ecstasy, divine Raja-Yoga" (Key 340).

At the time that the Neoplatonists voiced their teachings, the Mediterranean world was in a condition similar in some respects to that of today: the Roman imperium had brought about a commingling of many cultures, ancient and modern, Eastern and Western, so that there was a suitable field for revival of the ancient wisdom-religion as the common source and reconciler of all faiths. Such a system may be called eclectic in a sense; but the expression is unjust if it is meant to imply a mere patchwork of borrowed fragments.

The declared purpose of the Neoplatonists was to demonstrate the reality of a fundamental wisdom, to draw together the elect of every faith, and likewise to sow the seeds for a unification of faiths. The teachings are religious in the sense that they appeal to the religious instincts and inculcate the loftiest and purest morality; but on the other hand no church or creed was founded. The conditions of the times did not call for a scientific presentation of the ancient teachings; the regimentation of external life had turned men's hopes inward. Such a system could not be created by merely putting together borrowings from Plato and Pythagoras, the Jews, and Gnostics, etc. Behind the movement must have been minds initiated in the lore of ancient Egypt and India, and thus supplied with the design which alone could make a unity out of the elements. Through succeeding centuries, revivals of Neoplatonism have appeared, sometimes using the name itself. It deeply influenced the Christian church, not only in early times but later under the influence of the pseudo-Dionysius and still later of Erigena.

The teachings of the Neoplatonists are essentially those of modern theosophy; the later teachers of the schools laid much stress upon theurgy, and its practical aspect, the application of the teachings to self-development. Though these teachers emphasize the distinction between theurgy or divine magic and its evil counterpart, sorcery or necromancy, in so corrupt an age many deleterious cults supervened upon the withdrawal of the genuine schools.

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