Philosophy and Theurgy in Late Antiquity

Description

The Ancient Philosophy, in its original Orphico-Pythagorean and Platonic form, is not simply a way of life in accordance with the divine or human intellect (nous), but also the way of alchemical transformation and mystical illumination achieved through initiatic "death" and subsequent restoration at the level of divine light. As a means of spiritual reintegration and unification, ancient philosophy is inseparable from the hieratic rites."This remarkable book reintroduces us to a Platonism long forgotten in the West. In a passionate tour de force of scholarship and insight, Algis Uzdavinys argues that philosophy was once a mystagogic rite of initiation transmitted by the great Neoplatonic teachers from Plotinus to Damascius. Uzdavinys's wide scholarship not only draws profound connections between Platonic philosophy, theurgy, and the ancient Egyptian wisdom that Platonists acknowledged as their source, he also draws illuminating parallels between theurgy and Indian Tantra. His enraptured prose leads us into the non-dual vision of the later Platonists where each of us is invited to become a link in the Golden Chain that extends from heaven to earth." -- Gregory Shaw, Stonehill College, author of Theurgy and the Soul