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He argued that philosophy alone cannot lift the soul to the divine. You also need to know the right rituals.
The last great systematizer of pagan philosophy, who built Neoplatonism into a vast cathedral of being just as the ancient world was ending.
Connection
Iamblichus theurgy systematized Proclus — Proclus inherited Iamblichus' conviction that ritual and metaphysics belong together, and built it into the elaborate hierarchy of the Elements of Theology.
Ideas
Words
“It is not thought that links the theurgists to the gods — else what should hinder theoretical philosophers from union with them?”
“The power of unutterable symbols, understood by the gods alone, establishes theurgic union.”
“Everything that proceeds from a cause both remains in it and returns to it.”
Key Moments
c. 245 CE
Born in Roman Syria
c. 275 CE
Studies under Porphyry
c. 300 CE
The school at Apamea
412 CE
Born in Constantinople
c. 437 CE
Head of the Academy
c. 450 CE
Elements of Theology
485 CE
Death in Athens
Works
On the Mysteries
The Elements of Theology