Work

On the Mysteries

De Mysteriis

Iamblichus·Greek

About this text

Iamblichus' reply, written under the mask of an Egyptian priest, to Porphyry's skeptical letter about ritual. Its claim scandalized philosophers and organized late Neoplatonism: thinking alone does not join us to the gods. Rite, symbol, and divine action do — theurgy, the work of the gods in us, completes what argument can only begin.

It is not thought that links the theurgists to the gods: else what should hinder those who philosophize theoretically from enjoying union with them? The case is not so. Rather, it is the accomplishment of acts not to be divulged, acts beyond all understanding, and the power of unutterable symbols understood by the gods alone, that establish theurgic union.

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