Podcasts about iamblichus

Let's explore the complex tradition of Hermeticism—an esoteric philosophy rooted in Hellenistic Egypt and attributed to the legendary Hermes Trismegistus. Exploring its metaphysical teachings, spiritual practices such as alchemy, astrology, and ritual magic, and its profound influence on Renaissance thinkers, Freemasonry, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and modern occultism, this video offers an accessible yet academically grounded journey through one of the most enduring currents in Western esoteric thought. Perfect for those curious about the deeper layers of magic, mysticism, and spiritual transformation.CONNECT & SUPPORT

Jive Book Review of Theurgy and the Soul by Gregory Shaw, Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College. In this work he outlines the philosophy and ritual practise of Iamblichus of Syria (ca. 240 325), whose teachings set the final form of pagan spirituality prior to the Christianization of the Roman Empire. Theurgy literally means "divine action" or "godly work"I describe how this work is useful for modern polythesists including Heathens like myself.

Check out my linktree to find our new song, socials & more: https://linktr.ee/filipholmSupport Let's Talk Religion on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/letstalkreligion Or through a one-time donation: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/letstalkreligion Also check out the Let's Talk Religion Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0ih4sqtWv0wRIhS6HFgerb?si=95b07d83d0254bSources/Recomended Reading:Clark, Gillian (translated by) (2000). "Porphyry: On Abstinence from Killing Animals". Bristol Classical Press.Gerson, Loyd P. (ed.) (2019). "Plotinus: The Enneads". Cambridge University Press.Gerson, Loyd P (2008). "Cambridge Companion to Plotinus". Cambridge University Press.Huffman, Carl A. (ed.) (2017). "A History of Pythagoreanism". Cambridge University Press.Iamblichus "On the Mysteries". Tranlsated by Emma C. Clarke, John M. Dillon & Jackson P. Hershell. Writings from the Graeco-Roman World. Society of Biblical Literature.Kirk, G.S., J.E. Raven & M. Schofield (1983). "The Presocratic Philosophers". Second Edition. Cambridge University Press.Shaw, Gregory (2014). "Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus". Angelico Press/Sophia Perennis.Wallis, R.T. (1998). "Neoplatonism". Second Edition. Bristol Classical Paperbacks. Hackett Publishing Company. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In S4E13 - the ARCANVM S4 finale - I sit down with with philosopher, Platonist, and content creator Eric Orwoll. Eric's work in dialogue with various collaborators has positioned him as an outstanding voice in the study of Platonism. Specifically, his work in reviewing the Iamblichean curriculum of the Platonic dialogues, Proclus' Elements of Theology, and the dissertations and essays of Thomas Taylor on the various aspects of Platonism and Neoplatonism are among what I consider to be the most important influences in my own work. Eric: https://www.youtube.com/@understandingplato1134 https://returntotheland.org For all things Ike be sure to visit: https://ikebaker.com Support Arcanvm on Patreon: https://patreon.com/arcanvm Follow on IG: @a.r.c.a.n.v.m Facebook: https://facebook.com/arcanvvm Contact: arcanvvm@gmail.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/arcanvm/support

Philosopher, professor, and author, Dr. Gregory Shaw enters the mind meld! Video Episode

Gregory Shaw, Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College, joins the show to discuss, theurgy, the work of Iamblichus, and how we have probably got the Neoplatonists' attitude to the body quite wrong.   We discuss   The DESCENT of rather than ASCENT TO the gods. The theurgic imagination and how it relates to the spirit world. The role of divination in the development of the soul. How Imablichus can teach us a better way to compare between cultures. The necessity for ceremony.   Professor Shaws joins us to discuss his latest book, Hellenic Tantra, which I am pretty sure is the best book I've read this year. Get it here.

In this video we explore the life, death and legacy of the 5th century Alexandrian philosopher Hypatia, the very dramatic events that led to her brutal murder and what this can tell us (or not) about the transition from antiquity to the middle ages.Check out my linktree for socials, music & more: https://linktr.ee/filipholmSupport Let's Talk Religion on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/letstalkreligion Or through a one-time donation: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/letstalkreligion Sources/Recomended Reading:Athanassiadi, Polymnia (ed.) (1999). "Damascius: The Philosophical History: text with translation and notes". Apamea Cultural Association.Gerson, Loyd P (2008). "Cambridge Companion to Plotinus". Cambridge University Press.Gregory, John (ed.) (1998). "The Neoplatonists: a reader". Routledge.Shaw, Gregory (2014). "Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus". Angelico Press/Sophia Perennis.Wallis, R.T. (1998). "Neoplatonism". Second Edition. Bristol Classical Paperbacks. Hackett Publishing Company.Watts, Edward J. (2018). "Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher". Academic.Socrates Scholasticus: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/26017.htm Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Vervaeke is the director of the Cognitive Science program at the University of Toronto. We discuss the possibility of creating AI sages that can lead to enlightenment as well as the dangers. We mention  @JonathanPageau  ,  @climbingmt.sophia  ( Ken Lowry) , DC Schlinder,  @PaulVanderKlay  , Plotinus, Iamblichus, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Buddha, Charles Taylor, and more.

Listen to this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts Let's face it the New Testament probably calls Jesus God (or god) a couple of times and so do early Christian authors in the second century. However, no one offers much of an explanation for what they mean by the title. Did early Christians think Jesus was God because he represented Yahweh? Did they think he was God because he shared the same eternal being as the Father? Did they think he was a god because that's just what they would call any immortalized human who lived in heaven? In this presentation I focus on the question from the perspective of Greco-Roman theology. Drawing on the work of David Litwa, Andrew Perriman, Barry Blackburn, and tons of ancient sources I seek to show how Mediterranean converts to Christianity would have perceived Jesus based on their cultural and religious assumptions. This presentation is from the 3rd Unitarian Christian Alliance Conference on October 20, 2023 in Springfield, OH. Here is the original pdf of this paper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5Z3QbQ7dHc —— Links —— See more scholarly articles by Sean Finnegan Get the transcript of this episode Support Restitutio by donating here Join our Restitutio Facebook Group and follow Sean Finnegan on Twitter @RestitutioSF Leave a voice message via SpeakPipe with questions or comments and we may play them out on the air Intro music: Good Vibes by MBB Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Free Download / Stream: Music promoted by Audio Library. Who is Sean Finnegan?  Read his bio here Introduction When early Christian authors called Jesus “god” (or “God”) what did they mean?[1] Modern apologists routinely point to pre-Nicene quotations in order to prove that early Christians always believed in the deity of Christ, by which they mean that he is of the same substance (homoousios) as the Father. However, most historians agree that Christians before the fourth century simply didn't have the cognitive categories available yet to think of Christ in Nicene or Chalcedonian ways. If this consensus is correct, it behooves us to consider other options for defining what early Christian authors meant. The obvious place to go to get an answer to our initial question is the New Testament. However, as is well known, the handful of instances in which authors unambiguously applied god (θεός) to Christ are fraught with textual uncertainty, grammatical ambiguity, and hermeneutical elasticity.[2]  What's more, granting that these contested texts[3] all call Jesus “god” provides little insight into what they might mean by that phrase. Turning to the second century, the earliest handful of texts that say Jesus is god are likewise textually uncertain or terse.[4] We must wait until the second half of the second century and beyond to have more helpful material to examine. We know that in the meanwhile some Christians were saying Jesus was god. What did they mean? One promising approach is to analyze biblical texts that call others gods. We find helpful parallels with the word god (אֱלֹהִים) applied to Moses (Exod 7.1; 4.16), judges (Exod 21.6; 22.8-9), kings (Is 9.6; Ps 45.6), the divine council (Ps 82.1, 6), and angels (Ps 8.6). These are texts in which God imbues his agents with his authority to represent him in some way. This rare though significant way of calling a representative “god,” continues in the NT with Jesus' clever defense to his accusers in John 10.34-36. Lexicons[5] have long recognized this “Hebraistic” usage and recent study tools such as the New English Translation (NET)[6] and the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary[7] also note this phenomenon. But, even if this agency perspective is the most natural reading of texts like Heb 1.8, later Christians, apart from one or two exceptions appear to be ignorant of this usage.[8] This interpretation was likely a casualty of the so-called parting of the ways whereby Christianity transitioned from a second-temple-Jewish movement to a Gentile-majority religion. As such, to grasp what early postapostolic Christians believed, we must turn our attention elsewhere. Michael Bird is right when he says, “Christian discourses about deity belong incontrovertibly in the Greco-Roman context because it provided the cultural encyclopedia that, in diverse ways, shaped the early church's Christological conceptuality and vocabulary.”[9] Learning Greco-Roman theology is not only important because that was the context in which early Christians wrote, but also because from the late first century onward, most of our Christian authors converted from that worldview. Rather than talking about the Hellenization of Christianity, we should begin by asking how Hellenists experienced Christianization. In other words, Greco-Roman beliefs about the gods were the default lens through which converts first saw Christ. In order to explore how Greco-Roman theology shaped what people believed about Jesus as god, we do well to begin by asking how they defined a god. Andrew Perriman offers a helpful starting point. “The gods,” he writes, “are mostly understood as corporeal beings, blessed with immortality, larger, more beautiful, and more powerful than their mortal analogues.”[10] Furthermore, there were lots of them! The sublunar realm was, in the words of Paula Fredriksen, “a god-congested place.”[11] What's more, “[S]harp lines and clearly demarcated boundaries between divinity and humanity were lacking."[12] Gods could appear as people and people could ascend to become gods. Comprehending what Greco-Roman people believed about gods coming down and humans going up will occupy the first part of this paper. Only once we've adjusted our thinking to their culture, will we walk through key moments in the life of Jesus of Nazareth to hear the story with ancient Mediterranean ears. Lastly, we'll consider the evidence from sources that think of Jesus in Greco-Roman categories. Bringing this all together we'll enumerate the primary ways to interpret the phrase “Jesus is god” available to Christians in the pre-Nicene period. Gods Coming Down and Humans Going Up The idea that a god would visit someone is not as unusual as it first sounds. We find plenty of examples of Yahweh himself or non-human representatives visiting people in the Hebrew Bible.[13] One psalmist even referred to angels or “heavenly beings” (ESV) as אֱלֹהִים (gods).[14] The Greco-Roman world too told stories about divine entities coming down to interact with people. Euripides tells about the time Zeus forced the god Apollo to become a human servant in the house of Admetus, performing menial labor as punishment for killing the Cyclopes (Alcestis 1). Baucis and Philemon offered hospitality to Jupiter and Mercury when they appeared in human form (Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.26-34). In Homer's Odyssey onlookers warn Antinous for flinging a stool against a stranger since “the gods do take on the look of strangers dropping in from abroad”[15] (17.534-9). Because they believed the boundary between the divine realm and the Earth was so permeable, Mediterranean people were always on guard for an encounter with a god in disguise. In addition to gods coming down, in special circumstances, humans could ascend and become gods too. Diodorus of Sicily demarcated two types of gods: those who are “eternal and imperishable, such as the sun and the moon” and “the other gods…terrestrial beings who attained to immortal honour”[16] (The Historical Library of Diodorus the Sicilian 6.1). By some accounts, even the Olympian gods, including Kronos and Uranus were once mortal men.[17] Among humans who could become divine, we find several distinguishable categories, including heroes, miracle workers, and rulers. We'll look at each briefly before considering how the story of Jesus would resonate with those holding a Greco-Roman worldview. Deified Heroes Cornutus the Stoic said, “[T]he ancients called heroes those who were so strong in body and soul that they seemed to be part of a divine race.” (Greek Theology 31)[18] At first this statement appears to be a mere simile, but he goes on to say of Heracles (Hercules), the Greek hero par excellence, “his services had earned him apotheosis” (ibid.). Apotheosis (or deification) is the process by which a human ascends into the divine realm. Beyond Heracles and his feats of strength, other exceptional individuals became deified for various reasons. Amphiarus was a seer who died in the battle at Thebes. After opening a chasm in the earth to swallow him in battle, “Zeus made him immortal”[19] (Apollodorus, Library of Greek Mythology 3.6). Pausanias says the custom of the inhabitants of Oropos was to drop coins into Amphiarus' spring “because this is where they say Amphiarus rose up as a god”[20] (Guide to Greece 1.34). Likewise, Strabo speaks about a shrine for Calchas, a deceased diviner from the Trojan war (Homer, Illiad 1.79-84), “where those consulting the oracle sacrifice a black ram to the dead and sleep in its hide”[21] (Strabo, Geography 6.3.9). Though the great majority of the dead were locked away in the lower world of Hades, leading a shadowy pitiful existence, the exceptional few could visit or speak from beyond the grave. Lastly, there was Zoroaster the Persian prophet who, according to Dio Chrysostom, was enveloped by fire while he meditated upon a mountain. He was unharmed and gave advice on how to properly make offerings to the gods (Dio Chrysostom, Discourses 36.40). The Psuedo-Clementine Homilies include a story about a lightning bolt striking and killing Zoroaster. After his devotees buried his body, they built a temple on the site, thinking that “his soul had been sent for by lightning” and they “worshipped him as a god”[22] (Homily 9.5.2). Thus, a hero could have extraordinary strength, foresight, or closeness to the gods resulting in apotheosis and ongoing worship and communication. Deified Miracle Workers Beyond heroes, Greco-Roman people loved to tell stories about deified miracle workers. Twice Orpheus rescued a ship from a storm by praying to the gods (Diodorus of Sicily 4.43.1f; 48.5f). After his death, surviving inscriptions indicate that he both received worship and was regarded as a god in several cities.[23] Epimenides “fell asleep in a cave for fifty-seven years”[24] (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 1.109). He also predicted a ten-year period of reprieve from Persian attack in Athens (Plato Laws 1.642D-E). Plato called him a divine man (θεῖος ἀνήρ) (ibid.) and Diogenes talked of Cretans sacrificing to him as a god (Diogenes, Lives 1.114). Iamblichus said Pythagoras was the son of Apollo and a mortal woman (Life of Pythagoras 2). Nonetheless, the soul of Pythagoras enjoyed multiple lives, having originally been “sent to mankind from the empire of Apollo”[25] (Life 2). Diogenes and Lucian enumerate the lives the pre-existent Pythagoras led, including Aethalides, Euphorbus, Hermotimus, and Pyrrhus (Diogenes, Life of Pythagoras 4; Lucian, The Cock 16-20). Hermes had granted Pythagoras the gift of “perpetual transmigration of his soul”[26] so he could remember his lives while living or dead (Diogenes, Life 4). Ancient sources are replete with Pythagorean miracle stories.[27] Porphyry mentions several, including taming a bear, persuading an ox to stop eating beans, and accurately predicting a catch of fish (Life of Pythagoras 23-25). Porphyry said Pythagoras accurately predicted earthquakes and “chased away a pestilence, suppressed violent winds and hail, [and] calmed storms on rivers and on seas” (Life 29).[28] Such miracles, argued the Pythagoreans made Pythagoras “a being superior to man, and not to a mere man” (Iamblichus, Life 28).[29] Iamblichus lays out the views of Pythagoras' followers, including that he was a god, a philanthropic daemon, the Pythian, the Hyperborean Apollo, a Paeon, a daemon inhabiting the moon, or an Olympian god (Life 6). Another pre-Socratic philosopher was Empedocles who studied under Pythagoras. To him sources attribute several miracles, including stopping a damaging wind, restoring the wind, bringing dry weather, causing it to rain, and even bringing someone back from Hades (Diogenes, Lives 8.59).[30] Diogenes records an incident in which Empedocles put a woman into a trance for thirty days before sending her away alive (8.61). He also includes a poem in which Empedocles says, “I am a deathless god, no longer mortal, I go among you honored by all, as is right”[31] (8.62). Asclepius was a son of the god Apollo and a human woman (Cornutus, Greek Theology 33). He was known for healing people from diseases and injuries (Pindar, Pythian 3.47-50). “[H]e invented any medicine he wished for the sick, and raised up the dead”[32] (Pausanias, Guide to Greece 2.26.4). However, as Diodorus relates, Hades complained to Zeus on account of Asclepius' diminishing his realm, which resulted in Zeus zapping Asclepius with a thunderbolt, killing him (4.71.2-3). Nevertheless, Asclepius later ascended into heaven to become a god (Hyginus, Fables 224; Cicero, Nature of the Gods 2.62).[33] Apollonius of Tyana was a famous first century miracle worker. According to Philostratus' account, the locals of Tyana regard Apollonius to be the son of Zeus (Life 1.6). Apollonius predicted many events, interpreted dreams, and knew private facts about people. He rebuked and ridiculed a demon, causing it to flee, shrieking as it went (Life 2.4).[34] He even once stopped a funeral procession and raised the deceased to life (Life 4.45). What's more he knew every human language (Life 1.19) and could understand what sparrows chirped to each other (Life 4.3). Once he instantaneously transported himself from Smyrna to Ephesus (Life 4.10). He claimed knowledge of his previous incarnation as the captain of an Egyptian ship (Life 3.23) and, in the end, Apollonius entered the temple of Athena and vanished, ascending from earth into heaven to the sound of a choir singing (Life 8.30). We have plenty of literary evidence that contemporaries and those who lived later regarded him as a divine man (Letters 48.3)[35] or godlike (ἰσόθεος) (Letters 44.1) or even just a god (θεός) (Life 5.24). Deified Rulers Our last category of deified humans to consider before seeing how this all relates to Jesus is rulers. Egyptians, as indicated from the hieroglyphs left in the pyramids, believed their deceased kings to enjoy afterlives as gods. They could become star gods or even hunt and consume other gods to absorb their powers.[36] The famous Macedonian conqueror, Alexander the Great, carried himself as a god towards the Persians though Plutarch opines, “[he] was not at all vain or deluded but rather used belief in his divinity to enslave others”[37] (Life of Alexander 28). This worship continued after his death, especially in Alexandria where Ptolemy built a tomb and established a priesthood to conduct religious honors to the deified ruler. Even the emperor Trajan offered a sacrifice to the spirit of Alexander (Cassius Dio, Roman History 68.30). Another interesting example is Antiochus I of Comagene who called himself “Antiochus the just [and] manifest god, friend of the Romans [and] friend of the Greeks.”[38] His tomb boasted four colossal figures seated on thrones: Zeus, Heracles, Apollo, and himself. The message was clear: Antiochus I wanted his subjects to recognize his place among the gods after death. Of course, the most relevant rulers for the Christian era were the Roman emperors. The first official Roman emperor Augustus deified his predecessor, Julius Caesar, celebrating his apotheosis with games (Suetonius, Life of Julius Caesar 88). Only five years after Augustus died, eastern inhabitants of the Roman Empire at Priene happily declared “the birthday of the god Augustus” (ἡ γενέθλιος ἡμέρα τοῦ θεοῦ)[39] to be the start of their provincial year. By the time of Tacitus, a century after Augustus died, the wealthy in Rome had statues of the first emperor in their gardens for worship (Annals 1.73). The Roman historian Appian explained that the Romans regularly deify emperors at death “provided he has not been a despot or a disgrace”[40] (The Civil Wars 2.148).  In other words, deification was the default setting for deceased emperors. Pliny the Younger lays it on pretty thick when he describes the process. He says Nero deified Claudius to expose him; Titus deified Vespasian and Domitian so he could be the son and brother of gods. However, Trajan deified Nerva because he genuinely believed him to be more than a human (Panegyric 11). In our little survey, we've seen three main categories of deified humans: heroes, miracle workers, and good rulers. These “conceptions of deity,” writes David Litwa, “were part of the “preunderstanding” of Hellenistic culture.”[41] He continues: If actual cases of deification were rare, traditions of deification were not. They were the stuff of heroic epic, lyric song, ancient mythology, cultic hymns, Hellenistic novels, and popular plays all over the first-century Mediterranean world. Such discourses were part of mainstream, urban culture to which most early Christians belonged. If Christians were socialized in predominantly Greco-Roman environments, it is no surprise that they employed and adapted common traits of deities and deified men to exalt their lord to divine status.[42] Now that we've attuned our thinking to Mediterranean sensibilities about gods coming down in the shape of humans and humans experiencing apotheosis to permanently dwell as gods in the divine realm, our ears are attuned to hear the story of Jesus with Greco-Roman ears. Hearing the Story of Jesus with Greco-Roman Ears How would second or third century inhabitants of the Roman empire have categorized Jesus? Taking my cue from Litwa's treatment in Iesus Deus, I'll briefly work through Jesus' conception, transfiguration, miracles, resurrection, and ascension. Miraculous Conception Although set within the context of Jewish messianism, Christ's miraculous birth would have resonated differently with Greco-Roman people. Stories of gods coming down and having intercourse with women are common in classical literature. That these stories made sense of why certain individuals were so exceptional is obvious. For example, Origen related a story about Apollo impregnating Amphictione who then gave birth to Plato (Against Celsus 1.37). Though Mary's conception did not come about through intercourse with a divine visitor, the fact that Jesus had no human father would call to mind divine sonship like Pythagoras or Asclepius. Celsus pointed out that the ancients “attributed a divine origin to Perseus, and Amphion, and Aeacus, and Minos” (Origen, Against Celsus 1.67). Philostratus records a story of the Egyptian god Proteus saying to Apollonius' mother that she would give birth to himself (Life of Apollonius of Tyana 1.4). Since people were primed to connect miraculous origins with divinity, typical hearers of the birth narratives of Matthew or Luke would likely think that this baby might be either be a descended god or a man destined to ascend to become a god. Miracles and Healing As we've seen, Jesus' miracles would not have sounded unbelievable or even unprecedent to Mediterranean people. Like Jesus, Orpheus and Empedocles calmed storms, rescuing ships. Though Jesus provided miraculous guidance on how to catch fish, Pythagoras foretold the number of fish in a great catch. After the fishermen painstakingly counted them all, they were astounded that when they threw them back in, they were still alive (Porphyry, Life 23-25). Jesus' ability to foretell the future, know people's thoughts, and cast out demons all find parallels in Apollonius of Tyana. As for resurrecting the dead, we have the stories of Empedocles, Asclepius, and Apollonius. The last of which even stopped a funeral procession to raise the dead, calling to mind Jesus' deeds in Luke 7.11-17. When Lycaonians witnessed Paul's healing of a man crippled from birth, they cried out, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men” (Acts 14.11). Another time when no harm befell Paul after a poisonous snake bit him on Malta, Gentile onlookers concluded “he was a god” (Acts 28.6). Barry Blackburn makes the following observation: [I]n view of the tendency, most clearly seen in the Epimenidean, Pythagorean, and Apollonian traditions, to correlate impressive miracle-working with divine status, one may justifiably conclude that the evangelical miracle traditions would have helped numerous gentile Christians to arrive at and maintain belief in Jesus' divine status.[43] Transfiguration Ancient Mediterranean inhabitants believed that the gods occasionally came down disguised as people. Only when gods revealed their inner brilliant natures could people know that they weren't mere humans. After his ship grounded on the sands of Krisa, Apollo leaped from the ship emitting flashes of fire “like a star in the middle of day…his radiance shot to heaven”[44] (Homeric Hymns, Hymn to Apollo 440). Likewise, Aphrodite appeared in shining garments, brighter than a fire and shimmering like the moon (Hymn to Aphrodite 85-89). When Demeter appeared to Metaneira, she initially looked like an old woman, but she transformed herself before her. “Casting old age away…a delightful perfume spread…a radiance shone out far from the goddess' immortal flesh…and the solid-made house was filled with a light like the lightning-flash”[45] (Hymn to Demeter 275-280). Homer wrote about Odysseus' transformation at the golden wand of Athena in which his clothes became clean, he became taller, and his skin looked younger. His son, Telemachus cried out, “Surely you are some god who rules the vaulting skies”[46] (Odyssey 16.206). Each time the observers conclude the transfigured person is a god. Resurrection & Ascension In defending the resurrection of Jesus, Theophilus of Antioch said, “[Y]ou believe that Hercules, who burned himself, lives; and that Aesculapius [Asclepius], who was struck with lightning, was raised”[47] (Autolycus 1.13). Although Hercules' physical body burnt, his transformed pneumatic body continued on as the poet Callimachus said, “under a Phrygian oak his limbs had been deified”[48] (Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis 159). Others thought Hercules ascended to heaven in his burnt body, which Asclepius subsequently healed (Lucian, Dialogue of the Gods 13). After his ascent, Diodorus relates how the people first sacrificed to him “as to a hero” then in Athens they began to honor him “with sacrifices like as to a god”[49] (The Historical Library 4.39). As for Asclepius, his ascension resulted in his deification as Cyprian said, “Aesculapius is struck by lightning, that he may rise into a god”[50] (On the Vanity of Idols 2). Romulus too “was torn to pieces by the hands of a hundred senators”[51] and after death ascended into heaven and received worship (Arnobius, Against the Heathen 1.41). Livy tells of how Romulus was “carried up on high by a whirlwind” and that immediately afterward “every man present hailed him as a god and son of a god”[52] (The Early History of Rome 1.16). As we can see from these three cases—Hercules, Asclepius, and Romulus—ascent into heaven was a common way of talking about deification. For Cicero, this was an obvious fact. People “who conferred outstanding benefits were translated to heaven through their fame and our gratitude”[53] (Nature 2.62). Consequently, Jesus' own resurrection and ascension would have triggered Gentiles to intuit his divinity. Commenting on the appearance of the immortalized Christ to the eleven in Galilee, Wendy Cotter said, “It is fair to say that the scene found in [Mat] 28:16-20 would be understood by a Greco-Roman audience, Jew or Gentile, as an apotheosis of Jesus.”[54] Although I beg to differ with Cotter's whole cloth inclusion of Jews here, it's hard to see how else non-Jews would have regarded the risen Christ. Litwa adds Rev 1.13-16 “[W]here he [Jesus] appears with all the accoutrements of the divine: a shining face, an overwhelming voice, luminescent clothing, and so on.”[55] In this brief survey we've seen that several key events in the story of Jesus told in the Gospels would have caused Greco-Roman hearers to intuit deity, including his divine conception, miracles, healing ministry, transfiguration, resurrection, and ascension. In their original context of second temple Judaism, these very same incidents would have resonated quite differently. His divine conception authenticated Jesus as the second Adam (Luke 3.38; Rom 5.14; 1 Cor 15.45) and God's Davidic son (2 Sam 7.14; Ps 2.7; Lk 1.32, 35). If Matthew or Luke wanted readers to understand that Jesus was divine based on his conception and birth, they failed to make such intentions explicit in the text. Rather, the birth narratives appear to have a much more modest aim—to persuade readers that Jesus had a credible claim to be Israel's messiah. His miracles show that “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power…for God was with him” (Acts 10.38; cf. Jn 3.2; 10.32, 38). Rather than concluding Jesus to be a god, Jewish witnesses to his healing of a paralyzed man “glorified God, who had given such authority to men” (Mat 9.8). Over and over, especially in the Gospel of John, Jesus directs people's attention to his Father who was doing the works in and through him (Jn 5.19, 30; 8.28; 12.49; 14.10). Seeing Jesus raise someone from the dead suggested to his original Jewish audience that “a great prophet has arisen among us” (Lk 7.16). The transfiguration, in its original setting, is an eschatological vision not a divine epiphany. Placement in the synoptic Gospels just after Jesus' promise that some there would not die before seeing the kingdom come sets the hermeneutical frame. “The transfiguration,” says William Lane, “was a momentary, but real (and witnessed) manifestation of Jesus' sovereign power which pointed beyond itself to the Parousia, when he will come ‘with power and glory.'”[56] If eschatology is the foreground, the background for the transfiguration was Moses' ascent of Sinai when he also encountered God and became radiant.[57] Viewed from the lenses of Moses' ascent and the eschaton, the transfiguration of Jesus is about his identity as God's definitive chosen ruler, not about any kind of innate divinity. Lastly, the resurrection and ascension validated Jesus' messianic claims to be the ruler of the age to come (Acts 17.31; Rom 1.4). Rather than concluding Jesus was deity, early Jewish Christians concluded these events showed that “God has made him both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2.36). The interpretative backgrounds for Jesus' ascension were not stories about Heracles, Asclepius, or Romulus. No, the key oracle that framed the Israelite understanding was the messianic psalm in which Yahweh told David's Lord to “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool” (Psalm 110.1). The idea is of a temporary sojourn in heaven until exercising the authority of his scepter to rule over earth from Zion. Once again, the biblical texts remain completely silent about deification. But even if the original meanings of Jesus' birth, ministry, transfiguration, resurrection, and ascension have messianic overtones when interpreted within the Jewish milieu, these same stories began to communicate various ideas of deity to Gentile converts in the generations that followed. We find little snippets from historical sources beginning in the second century and growing with time. Evidence of Belief in Jesus' as a Greco-Roman Deity To begin with, we have two non-Christian instances where Romans regarded Jesus as a deity within typical Greco-Roman categories. The first comes to us from Tertullian and Eusebius who mention an intriguing story about Tiberius' request to the Roman senate to deify Christ. Convinced by “intelligence from Palestine of events which had clearly shown the truth of Christ's divinity”[58] Tiberius proposed the matter to the senate (Apology 5). Eusebius adds that Tiberius learned that “many believed him to be a god in rising from the dead”[59] (Church History 2.2). As expected, the senate rejected the proposal. I mention this story, not because I can establish its historicity, but because it portrays how Tiberius would have thought about Jesus if he had heard about his miracles and resurrection. Another important incident is from one of the governor Pliny the Younger's letters to the emperor Trajan. Having investigated some people accused of Christianity, he found “they had met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately amongst themselves in honour of Christ as if to a god”[60] (Letter 96). To an outside imperial observer like Pliny, the Christians believed in a man who had performed miracles, defeated death, and now lived in heaven. Calling him a god was just the natural way of talking about such a person. Pliny would not have thought Jesus was superior to the deified Roman emperors much less Zeus or the Olympic gods. If he believed in Jesus at all, he would have regarded him as another Mediterranean prophet who escaped Hades to enjoy apotheosis. Another interesting text to consider is the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. This apocryphal text tells the story of Jesus' childhood between the ages of five and twelve. Jesus is impetuous, powerful, and brilliant. Unsure to conclude that Jesus was “either god or angel,”[61] his teacher remands him to Joseph's custody (7). Later, a crowd of onlookers ponders whether the child is a god or a heavenly messenger after he raises an infant from the dead (17). A year later Jesus raised a construction man who had fallen to his death back to life (18). Once again, the crowd asked if the child was from heaven. Although some historians are quick to assume the lofty conceptions of Justin and his successors about the logos were commonplace in the early Christianity, Litwa points out, “The spell of the Logos could only bewitch a very small circle of Christian elites… In IGT, we find a Jesus who is divine according to different canons, the canons of popular Mediterranean theology.”[62] Another important though often overlooked scholarly group of Christians in the second century was led by a certain Theodotus of Byzantium.[63] Typically referred to by their heresiological label “Theodotians,” these dynamic monarchians lived in Rome and claimed that they held to the original Christology before it had been corrupted under Bishop Zephyrinus (Eusebius, Church History 5.28). Theodotus believed in the virgin birth, but not in his pre-existence or that he was god/God (Pseudo-Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies 7.35.1-2; 10.23.1-2). He thought that Jesus was not able to perform any miracles until his baptism when he received the Christ/Spirit. Pseudo-Hippolytus goes on to say, “But they do not want him to have become a god when the Spirit descended. Others say that he became a god after he rose from the dead.”[64] This last tantalizing remark implies that the Theodotians could affirm Jesus as a god after his resurrection though they denied his pre-existence. Although strict unitarians, they could regard Jesus as a god in that he was an ascended immortalized being who lived in heaven—not equal to the Father, but far superior to all humans on earth. Justin Martyr presents another interesting case to consider. Thoroughly acquainted with Greco-Roman literature and especially the philosophy of Plato, Justin sees Christ as a god whom the Father begot before all other creatures. He calls him “son, or wisdom, or angel, or god, or lord, or word”[65] (Dialogue with Trypho 61).  For Justin Christ is “at the same time angel and god and lord and man”[66] (59). Jesus was “of old the Word, appearing at one time in the form of fire, at another under the guise of incorporeal beings, but now, at the will of God, after becoming man for mankind”[67] (First Apology 63). In fact, Justin is quite comfortable to compare Christ to deified heroes and emperors. He says, “[W]e propose nothing new or different from that which you say about the so-called sons of Jupiter [Zeus] by your respected writers… And what about the emperors who die among you, whom you think worthy to be deified?”[68] (21). He readily accepts the parallels with Mercury, Perseus, Asclepius, Bacchus, and Hercules, but argues that Jesus is superior to them (22).[69] Nevertheless, he considered Jesus to be in “a place second to the unchanging and eternal God”[70] (13). The Father is “the Most True God” whereas the Son is he “who came forth from Him”[71] (6). Even as lates as Origen, Greco-Roman concepts of deity persist. In responding to Celsus' claim that no god or son of God has ever come down, Origen responds by stating such a statement would overthrow the stories of Pythian Apollo, Asclepius, and the other gods who descended (Against Celsus 5.2). My point here is not to say Origen believed in all the old myths, but to show how Origen reached for these stories as analogies to explain the incarnation of the logos. When Celsus argued that he would rather believe in the deity of Asclepius, Dionysus, and Hercules than Christ, Origen responded with a moral rather than ontological argument (3.42). He asks how these gods have improved the characters of anyone. Origen admits Celsus' argument “which places the forenamed individuals upon an equality with Jesus” might have force, however in light of the disreputable behavior of these gods, “how could you any longer say, with any show of reason, that these men, on putting aside their mortal body, became gods rather than Jesus?”[72] (3.42). Origen's Christology is far too broad and complicated to cover here. Undoubtedly, his work on eternal generation laid the foundation on which fourth century Christians could build homoousion Christology. Nevertheless, he retained some of the earlier subordinationist impulses of his forebearers. In his book On Prayer, he rebukes praying to Jesus as a crude error, instead advocating prayer to God alone (10). In his Commentary on John he repeatedly asserts that the Father is greater than his logos (1.40; 2.6; 6.23). Thus, Origen is a theologian on the seam of the times. He's both a subordinationist and a believer in the Son's eternal and divine ontology. Now, I want to be careful here. I'm not saying that all early Christians believed Jesus was a deified man like Asclepius or a descended god like Apollo or a reincarnated soul like Pythagoras. More often than not, thinking Christians whose works survive until today tended to eschew the parallels, simultaneously elevating Christ as high as possible while demoting the gods to mere demons. Still, Litwa is inciteful when he writes: It seems likely that early Christians shared the widespread cultural assumption that a resurrected, immortalized being was worthy of worship and thus divine. …Nonetheless there is a difference…Jesus, it appears, was never honored as an independent deity. Rather, he was always worshiped as Yahweh's subordinate. Naturally Heracles and Asclepius were Zeus' subordinates, but they were also members of a larger divine family. Jesus does not enter a pantheon but assumes a distinctive status as God's chief agent and plenipotentiary. It is this status that, to Christian insiders, placed Jesus in a category far above the likes of Heracles, Romulus, and Asclepius who were in turn demoted to the rank of δαίμονες [daimons].[73] Conclusion I began by asking the question, "What did early Christians mean by saying Jesus is god?" We noted that the ancient idea of agency (Jesus is God/god because he represents Yahweh), though present in Hebrew and Christian scripture, didn't play much of a role in how Gentile Christians thought about Jesus. Or if it did, those texts did not survive. By the time we enter the postapostolic era, a majority of Christianity was Gentile and little communication occurred with the Jewish Christians that survived in the East. As such, we turned our attention to Greco-Roman theology to tune our ears to hear the story of Jesus the way they would have. We learned about their multifaceted array of divinities. We saw that gods can come down and take the form of humans and humans can go up and take the form of gods. We found evidence for this kind of thinking in both non-Christian and Christian sources in the second and third centuries. Now it is time to return to the question I began with: “When early Christian authors called Jesus “god” what did they mean?” We saw that the idea of a deified man was present in the non-Christian witnesses of Tiberius and Pliny but made scant appearance in our Christian literature except for the Theodotians. As for the idea that a god came down to become a man, we found evidence in The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, Justin, and Origen.[74] Of course, we find a spectrum within this view, from Justin's designation of Jesus as a second god to Origen's more philosophically nuanced understanding. Still, it's worth noting as R. P. C. Hanson observed that, “With the exception of Athanasius virtually every theologian, East and West, accepted some form of subordinationism at least up to the year 355.”[75] Whether any Christians before Alexander and Athanasius of Alexandria held to the sophisticated idea of consubstantiality depends on showing evidence of the belief that the Son was coequal, coeternal, and coessential with the Father prior to Nicea. (Readers interested in the case for this view should consult Michael Bird's Jesus among the Gods in which he attempted the extraordinary feat of finding proto-Nicene Christology in the first two centuries, a task typically associated with maverick apologists not peer-reviewed historians.) In conclusion, the answer to our driving question about the meaning of “Jesus as god” is that the answer depends on whom we ask. If we ask the Theodotians, Jesus is a god because that's just what one calls an immortalized man who lives in heaven.[76] If we ask those holding a docetic Christology, the answer is that a god came down in appearance as a man. If we ask a logos subordinationist, they'll tell us that Jesus existed as the god through whom the supreme God created the universe before he became a human being. If we ask Tertullian, Jesus is god because he derives his substance from the Father, though he has a lesser portion of divinity.[77] If we ask Athanasius, he'll wax eloquent about how Jesus is of the same substance as the Father equal in status and eternality. The bottom line is that there was not one answer to this question prior to the fourth century. Answers depend on whom we ask and when they lived. Still, we can't help but wonder about the more tantalizing question of development. Which Christology was first and which ones evolved under social, intellectual, and political pressures? In the quest to specify the various stages of development in the Christologies of the ante-Nicene period, this Greco-Roman perspective may just provide the missing link between the reserved and limited way that the NT applies theos to Jesus in the first century and the homoousian view that eventually garnered imperial support in the fourth century. How easy would it have been for fresh converts from the Greco-Roman world to unintentionally mishear the story of Jesus? How easy would it have been for them to fit Jesus into their own categories of descended gods and ascended humans? With the unmooring of Gentile Christianity from its Jewish heritage, is it any wonder that Christologies began to drift out to sea? Now I'm not suggesting that all Christians went through a steady development from a human Jesus to a pre-existent Christ, to an eternal God the Son, to the Chalcedonian hypostatic union. As I mentioned above, plenty of other options were around and every church had its conservatives in addition to its innovators. The story is messy and uneven with competing views spread across huge geographic distances. Furthermore, many Christians probably were content to leave such theological nuances fuzzy, rather than seeking doctrinal precision on Christ's relation to his God and Father. Whatever the case may be, we dare not ignore the influence of Greco-Roman theology in our accounts of Christological development in the Mediterranean world of the first three centuries.    Bibliography The Homeric Hymns. Translated by Michael Crudden. New York, NY: Oxford, 2008. Antioch, Theophilus of. To Autolycus. Translated by Marcus Dods. Vol. 2. Ante-Nicene Fathers. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001. Aphrahat. The Demonstrations. Translated by Ellen Muehlberger. Vol. 3. The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings. 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End Notes [1] For the remainder of this paper, I will use the lower case “god” for all references to deity outside of Yahweh, the Father of Christ. I do this because all our ancient texts lack capitalization and our modern capitalization rules imply a theology that is anachronistic and unhelpful for the present inquiry. [2] Christopher Kaiser wrote, “Explicit references to Jesus as ‘God' in the New Testament are very few, and even those few are generally plagued with uncertainties of either text or interpretation.” Christopher B. Kaiser, The Doctrine of God: A Historical Survey (London: Marshall Morgan & Scott, 1982), 29. Other scholars such as Raymond Brown (Jesus: God and Man), Jason David BeDuhn (Truth in Translation), and Brian Wright (“Jesus as θεός: A Textual Examination” in Revisiting the Corruption of the New Testament) have expressed similar sentiments. [3] John 20.28; Hebrews 1.8; Titus 2.13; 2 Peter 1.1; Romans 9.5; and 1 John 5.20. [4] See Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians 12.2 where a manuscript difference determines whether or not Polycarp called Jesus god or lord. Textual corruption is most acute in Igantius' corpus. Although it's been common to dismiss the long recension as an “Arian” corruption, claiming the middle recension to be as pure and uncontaminated as freshly fallen snow upon which a foot has never trodden, such an uncritical view is beginning to give way to more honest analysis. See Paul Gilliam III's Ignatius of Antioch and the Arian Controversy (Leiden: Brill, 2017) for a recent treatment of Christological corruption in the middle recension. [5] See the entries for  אֱלֹהִיםand θεός in the Hebrew Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT), the Brown Driver Briggs Lexicon (BDB), Eerdmans Dictionary, Kohlenberger/Mounce Concise Hebrew-Aramaic Dictionary of the Old Testament, the Bauer Danker Arndt Gingrich Lexicon (BDAG), Friberg Greek Lexicon, and Thayer's Greek Lexicon. [6] See notes on Is 9.6 and Ps 45.6. [7] ZIBBC: “In what sense can the king be called “god”? By virtue of his divine appointment, the king in the ancient Near East stood before his subjects as a representative of the divine realm. …In fact, the term “gods“ (ʾelōhı̂m) is used of priests who functioned as judges in the Israelite temple judicial system (Ex. 21:6; 22:8-9; see comments on 58:1; 82:6-7).” John W. Hilber, “Psalms,” in The Minor Prophets, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, vol. 5 of Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament. ed. John H. Walton (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 358. [8] Around a.d. 340, Aphrahat of Persia advised his fellow Christians to reply to Jewish critics who questioned why “You call a human being ‘God'” (Demonstrations 17.1). He said, “For the honored name of the divinity is granted event ot rightoues human beings, when they are worthy of being called by it…[W]hen he chose Moses, his friend and his beloved…he called him “god.” …We call him God, just as he named Moses with his own name…The name of the divinity was granted for great honor in the world. To whom he wishes, God appoints it” (17.3, 4, 5). Aphrahat, The Demonstrations, trans., Ellen Muehlberger, vol. 3, The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge, 2022), 213-15. In the Clementine Recognitions we find a brief mention of the concept:  “Therefore the name God is applied in three ways: either because he to whom it is given is truly God, or because he is the servant of him who is truly; and for the honour of the sender, that his authority may be full, he that is sent is called by the name of him who sends, as is often done in respect of angels: for when they appear to a man, if he is a wise and intelligent man, he asks the name of him who appears to him, that he may acknowledge at once the honour of the sent, and the authority of the sender” (2.42). Pseudo-Clement, Recognitions, trans., Thomas Smith, vol. 8, Ante Nicene Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003). [9] Michael F. Bird, Jesus among the Gods (Waco, TX: Baylor, 2022), 13. [10] Andrew Perriman, In the Form of a God, Studies in Early Christology, ed. David Capes Michael Bird, and Scott Harrower (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2022), 130. [11] Paula Fredriksen, "How High Can Early High Christology Be?," in Monotheism and Christology in Greco-Roman Antiquity, ed. Matthew V. Novenson, vol. 180 (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 296, 99. [12] ibid. [13] See Gen 18.1; Ex 3.2; 24.11; Is 6.1; Ezk 1.28. [14] Compare the Masoretic Text of Psalm 8.6 to the Septuagint and Hebrews 2.7. [15] Homer, The Odyssey, trans., Robert Fagles (New York, NY: Penguin, 1997), 370. [16] Diodorus Siculus, The Historical Library, trans., Charles Henry Oldfather, vol. 1 (Sophron Editor, 2017), 340. [17] Uranus met death at the brutal hands of his own son, Kronos who emasculated him and let bleed out, resulting in his deification (Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel 1.10). Later on, after suffering a fatal disease, Kronos himself experienced deification, becoming the planet Saturn (ibid.). Zeus married Hera and they produced Osiris (Dionysus), Isis (Demeter), Typhon, Apollo, and Aphrodite (ibid. 2.1). [18] Lucius Annaeus Cornutus, Greek Theology, trans., George Boys-Stones, Greek Theology, Fragments, and Testimonia (Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2018), 123. [19] Apollodorus, The Library of Greek Mythology, trans., Robin Hard (Oxford, UK: Oxford, 1998), 111. [20] Pausanias, Guide to Greece, trans., Peter Levi (London, UK: Penguin, 1979), 98. [21] Strabo, The Geography, trans., Duane W. Roller (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge, 2020), 281. [22] Psuedo-Clement, Homilies, trans., Peter Peterson, vol. 8, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1897). Greek: “αὐτὸν δὲ ὡς θεὸν ἐθρήσκευσαν” from Jacques Paul Migne, Patrologia Graeca, taken from Accordance (PSCLEMH-T), OakTree Software, Inc., 2018, Version 1.1. [23] See Barry Blackburn, Theios Aner and the Markan Miracle Traditions (Tübingen, Germany: J. C. B. Mohr, 1991), 32. [24] Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, trans., Pamela Mensch (New York, NY: Oxford, 2020), 39. [25] Iamblichus, Life of Pythagoras, trans., Thomas Taylor, Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras (Delhi, IN: Zinc Read, 2023), 2. [26] Diogenes Laertius, Life of Pythagoras, trans., Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 1988), 142. [27] See the list in Blackburn, 39. He corroborates miracle stories from Diogenus Laertius, Iamblichus, Apollonius, Nicomachus, and Philostratus. [28] Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras, trans., Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, 1988), 128-9. [29] Iamblichus,  68. [30] What I call “resurrection” refers to the phrase, “Thou shalt bring back from Hades a dead man's strength.” Diogenes Laertius 8.2.59, trans. R. D. Hicks. [31] Laertius, "Lives of the Eminent Philosophers," 306. Two stories of his deification survive: in one Empedocles disappears in the middle of the night after hearing an extremely loud voice calling his name. After this the people concluded that they should sacrifice to him since he had become a god (8.68). In the other account, Empedocles climbs Etna and leaps into the fiery volcanic crater “to strengthen the rumor that he had become a god” (8.69). [32] Pausanias,  192. Sextus Empiricus says Asclepius raised up people who had died at Thebes as well as raising up the dead body of Tyndaros (Against the Professors 1.261). [33] Cicero adds that the Arcadians worship Asclepius (Nature 3.57). [34] In another instance, he confronted and cast out a demon from a licentious young man (Life 4.20). [35] The phrase is “περὶ ἐμοῦ καὶ θεοῖς εἴρηται ὡς περὶ θείου ἀνδρὸς.” Philostratus, Letters of Apollonius, vol. 458, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 2006). [36] See George Hart, The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, 2nd ed. (Oxford, UK: Routledge, 2005), 3. [37] Plutarch, Life of Alexander, trans., Ian Scott-Kilvert and Timothy E. Duff, The Age of Alexander (London, UK: Penguin, 2011), 311. Arrian includes a story about Anaxarchus advocating paying divine honors to Alexander through prostration. The Macedonians refused but the Persian members of his entourage “rose from their seats and one by one grovelled on the floor before the King.” Arrian, The Campaigns of Alexander, trans., Aubrey De Sélincourt (London, UK: Penguin, 1971), 222. [38] Translation my own from “Ἀντίοχος ὁ Θεὸς Δίκαιος Ἐπιφανὴς Φιλορωμαῖος Φιλέλλην.” Inscription at Nemrut Dağ, accessible at https://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/mithras/display.php?page=cimrm32. See also https://zeugma.packhum.org/pdfs/v1ch09.pdf. [39] Greek taken from W. Dittenberger, Orientis Graecae Inscriptiones Selectae, vol. 2 (Hildesheim: Olms, 1960), 48-60. Of particular note is the definite article before θεός. They didn't celebrate the birthday of a god, but the birthday of the god. [40] Appian, The Civil Wars, trans., John Carter (London, UK: Penguin, 1996), 149. [41] M. David Litwa, Iesus Deus (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014), 20. [42] ibid. [43] Blackburn, 92-3. [44] The Homeric Hymns, trans., Michael Crudden (New York, NY: Oxford, 2008), 38. [45] "The Homeric Hymns," 14. [46] Homer,  344. [47] Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus, trans., Marcus Dods, vol. 2, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001). [48] Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis, trans., Susan A. Stephens, Callimachus: The Hymns (New York, NY: Oxford, 2015), 119. [49] Siculus,  234. [50] Cyprian, Treatise 6: On the Vanity of Idols, trans., Ernest Wallis, vol. 5, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995). [51] Arnobius, Against the Heathen, trans., Hamilton Bryce and Hugh Campbell, vol. 6, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995). [52] Livy, The Early History of Rome, trans., Aubrey De Sélincourt (London, UK: Penguin, 2002), 49. [53] Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, trans., Patrick Gerard Walsh (Oxford, UK: Oxford, 2008), 69. [54] Wendy Cotter, "Greco-Roman Apotheosis Traditions and the Resurrection Appearances in Matthew," in The Gospel of Matthew in Current Study, ed. David E. Aune (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 149. [55] Litwa, 170. [56] William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark, Nicnt, ed. F. F. Bruce Ned B. Stonehouse, and Gordon D. Fee (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974). [57] “Recent commentators have stressed that the best background for understanding the Markan transfiguration is the story of Moses' ascent up Mount Sinai (Exod. 24 and 34).” Litwa, 123. [58] Tertullian, Apology, trans. S. Thelwall, vol. 3, Ante-Nicene Fathers, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003). [59] Eusebius, The Church History, trans. Paul L. Maier (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007), 54. [60] Pliny the Younger, The Letters of the Younger Pliny, trans., Betty Radice (London: Penguin, 1969), 294. [61] Pseudo-Thomas, Infancy Gospel of Thomas, trans., James Orr (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1903), 25. [62] Litwa, 83. [63] For sources on Theodotus, see Pseduo-Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies 7.35.1-2; 10.23.1-2; Pseudo-Tertullian, Against All Heresies 8.2; Eusebius, Church History 5.28. [64] Pseudo-Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, trans., David Litwa (Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2016), 571. [65] I took the liberty to decapitalize these appellatives. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, trans. Thomas B. Falls (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2003), 244. [66] Justin Martyr, 241. (Altered, see previous footnote.) [67] Justin Martyr, 102. [68] Justin Martyr, 56-7. [69] Arnobius makes a similar argument in Against the Heathen 1.38-39 “Is he not worthy to be called a god by us and felt to be a god on account of the favor or such great benefits? For if you have enrolled Liber among the gods because he discovered the use of wine, and Ceres the use of bread, Aesculapius the use of medicines, Minerva the use of oil, Triptolemus plowing, and Hercules because he conquered and restrained beasts, thieves, and the many-headed hydra…So then, ought we not to consider Christ a god, and to bestow upon him all the worship due to his divinity?” Translation from Litwa, 105. [70] Justin Martyr, 46. [71] Justin Martyr, 39. [72] Origen, Against Celsus, trans. Frederick Crombie, vol. 4, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003). [73] Litwa, 173. [74] I could easily multiply examples of this by looking at Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, and many others. [75] The obvious exception to Hanson's statement were thinkers like Sabellius and Praxeas who believed that the Father himself came down as a human being. R. P. C. Hanson, Search for a Christian Doctrine of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), xix. [76] Interestingly, even some of the biblical unitarians of the period were comfortable with calling Jesus god, though they limited his divinity to his post-resurrection life. [77] Tertullian writes, “[T]he Father is not the same as the Son, since they differ one from the other in the mode of their being. For the Father is the entire substance, but the Son is a derivation and portion of the whole, as He Himself acknowledges: “My Father is greater than I.” In the Psalm His inferiority is described as being “a little lower than the angels.” Thus the Father is distinct from the Son, being greater than the Son” (Against Praxeas 9). Tertullian, Against Praxeas, trans., Holmes, vol. 3, Ante Nice Fathers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003).

We discuss Sosipatra of Pergamum, an otherwise-unknown late polytheist holy woman and philosopher, depicted by her biographer Eunapius as a living goddess as well as a philosophic teacher in the lineage of Iamblichus. Come for the Late Platonist resistance to Christianity in the fourth century, stay for the mysterious Chaldæan strangers.

#plotinus #iamblichus #magic What's Plotinus's idea of Magic? Why is theurgy so important for Iamblichus? Emanationism, Sympathy, Antipathy and Neoplatonic cosmology. CORRIGENDUM: It's "Fall under the umbrella", not "Follow". Apologies, I was unwell when I filmed this video. CONNECT & SUPPORT

In S2E2 I have the great pleasure of sitting down with scholar and professor of religious studies Dr. Gregory Shaw to talk Neoplatonism, Theurgy, & Spirituality. These are some of my favorite topics and it was an absolute pleasure to speak with Dr. Shaw in particular about his seminal work "Theurgy & the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus". Leave your thoughts in the comments!-Patreon: http://patreon.com/arcanvm - Follow on IG: @a.r.c.a.n.v.m - Contact: arcanvvm@gmail.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/arcanvm/support

This is another episode in our church fathers series. We talk about the later life and times of Athanasius. We mention Arius, Marcellus of Ancyra, Julian the Apostate, Iamblichus, William Lane Craig, Jake Brancatella, Photinus of Galatia, John Calvin, Michael Servetus and many more. Athanasius - Part 1 - Against the Heathen :    • Athanasius - Part...   Athanasius - Part 2 - On the Incarnation - Part 2 :    • Athanasius - Part...   Athanasius - Part 3 - His Middle Life and Writings -   • Athanasius - Part...   Jake Brancatella on Athanasius and Apollinarianism -    • Hidden Heresies E...  

On Thursday June 20th, 2019 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a report on the modern versions of the 6th and 7th degree initiations of the 18th century Crata Repoa. This system was originally intended to replicate an ancient Alexandrian mystery school initiatory program. Manley Hall called it "Egyptian Freemasonry." It was created by a committee of German Masonic scholars who accessed the Classical pagan works of Iamblichus, Porphyri, Plutarch and others to create an outline for a system of Seven Degrees, intended to convey the secrets of ancient Hermetic magick to initiates. But it was far from complete. It was an outline. It declared what was to be taught without providing the actual lessons. When we adopted it as an initiatory structure in 1970 we updated it with additional source material extending from Classical times through the Dark Ages, Medieval times, the Renaissance and the Rosicrucian era. We made the Crata Repoa the repository of the Western Esoteric Tradition, from King Solomon to the Holy Grail, to Christian Rosencreutz. We have discussed the degrees from Pastophoris through Alchemia on previous Podcasts so tonight we will put the cap on it (the four-corned red cap) with the final chivalric degrees the 6th Astronomus, (At the Gate of the Gods) and the 7th Propheta (one who knows the mysteries). So tune in and we'll tell you how the modern Crata Repoa culminates.  

Welcome back to After Socrates! Episode 14 releases next Friday, March 24th, 2023. Please join our Patreon to support our work! https://www.patreon.com/johnvervaeke Uncover the profound insights of ritual as a form of metaphysical inquiry. Dr. Vervaeke discusses the role of rituals in our lives, how they help us access deeper levels of self-consciousness, and their unique ability to reveal hidden aspects of reality. Our good friend @JonathanPageau is also discussed in this episode, please visit his channel if you have not yet done so! In this episode, you'll discover: *The powerful concept of "facing reality" and how it impacts our understanding of the world *The works of influential philosophers and theologians like Proclus, Iamblichus, John Scotus Eriugena, Nicholas of Cusa, and Ambrose of Milan, as well as insights from Jonathan Pageau, a French Canadian icon carver and public speaker *The role of synthemata in theurgy and how it can lead to higher levels of self-consciousness and reality disclosure *The unique way of knowing in rituals that cannot be accessed through other means *Join Dr. John Vervaeke as he explores the non-reductive noetic function of ritual and its importance in understanding ourselves and the world. If you feel like your life is empty of ritual, this episode might change the way you see things and help you reconnect with this essential aspect of human experience. -- You are invited to join John, Guy, and Christopher live, online, at the next Circling & Dialogos Workshop where we discuss & practice the tools involved in both Philosophical Fellowship & Dialectic into Dialogos. You can find more information, and register, here:   https://circlinginstitute.com/circlin... --- After Socrates is a series about how to create the theory, the practice, and the ecology of practices such that we can live and grow and develop through a Socratic way of life. The core argument is; the combination of the theoretical framework and the pedagogical program of practices can properly conduct us into the Socratic way of life. We believe that the Socratic way of life is what is most needed today because it is the one that can most help us cultivate wisdom in a way that is simultaneously respectful to spiritual tradition and to current scientific work.

Freemasonry in 7 Minutes or Less

#witchcraft #magick #neoplatonism NEOPLATONISM, Plotinus, Iamblichus, Marsilio Ficino, Monism, Emanation, The One in Magick, Esoteric, Witch and Occult practices. BECOME MY PATRON! www.patreon.com/angelapuca ONE-OFF DONATIONS paypal.me/angelasymposium JOIN MEMBERSHIPS https://youtu.be/R_rD7pnKqWI FOLLOW ME: Facebook (Angela's Symposium), Instagram (angela_symposium), Twitter (@angelapuca11). REFERENCES Cocco, G. (1992) ‘La Struttura Del Mondo Soprasensibile Nella Filosofia Di Giamblico', Rivista di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica, Vita e Pensiero – Pubblicazioni dell'Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, vol. 84, no. 2/3, pp. 468–493. Copenhaver, B. P. (1984) ‘Scholastic Philosophy and Renaissance Magic in the De vita of Marsilio Ficino', Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 523–554 [Online]. DOI: 10.2307/2860993. Gregory, J. (1999) The Neoplatonists: A Reader, Psychology Press. Mebane, J. S. (1992) Renaissance Magic and the Return of the Golden Age: The Occult Tradition and Marlowe, Jonson, and Shakespeare, U of Nebraska Press. Yates, F. A. (1999) Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, Taylor & Francis. Zambelli, P. (2007) White Magic, Black Magic in the European Renaissance, BRILL. 00:00:00 Introduction: The Influence of Neoplatonism on Esotericism 00:07:35 The origin of the school 00:09:26 The founding philosophers 00:10:49 The Great Chain of Being 00:17:45 Negative theology 00:23:01 Question break 00:31:32 Monism 00:37:35 Ethics 00:41:51 The problem of evil 00:45:43 Question break 00:56:31 Iamblicus 01:00:21 Marsilio Ficino 01:05:54 The influence of the planets 01:06:02 Neoplatonism in contemporary Esotericism 01:15:37 Final questions 01:32:44 Support Angela's Symposium Music by Erose MusicBand. Check them out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jyplc67lcA0

Peter Adamson is Professor of Late Ancient and Arabic Philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at King's College London. He's also the host of the podcast History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps and the author of the book series by the same name. Robinson and Peter talk about Neoplatonism—a philosophical movement in late antiquity—and its great thinkers, including Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus, as well as the many issues they thought and wrote about, such as evil, theology, logic, and vegetarianism.  OUTLINE: 02:14 Introduction 7:30 What's Interesting About Neoplatonism? 5:35 The Etymology of “Neoplatonism” 11:36 Where was Neoplatonism? 19:48 The Great Plotinus 23:56 Plotinus' Metaphysics  32:30 Plotinus and Theology  39:46 Plotinus on Evil 1:00:15 Porphyry, His Logic, and Arguments for Vegetarianism CLIP 1:18:31 Iamblichus 1:24:02 Proclus Robinson's Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/robinson-erhardt/support

Subconscious Realms Episode 186 - The Laurel Turns Green - Alexander Rivera. Ladies & Gentlemen, on this Episode of Subconscious Realms we welcome the Extraordinary author & Elite Level Researcher - Alexander Rivera, to discuss his latest book - The Laurel Turns Green...

Neoplatonism and Jewish Mysticism, an introduction. Exploring the debated origins of Kabbalah. Presenting Scholem's Gnosticism and Neoplatonism origin hypothesis, Idel's rejection of it and his own more nuanced theory. Check out the rest of our wonderful collaborators: @LetsTalkReligion What is Neoplatonism: https://youtu.be/vZEUo_sHoBw @TheEsotericaChannel Neoplatonism vs Gnosticism: https://youtu.be/ZV5ubPPzT7U @drangelapuca Plotinus and Iamblichus on Theurgy and Magic: https://youtu.be/lNqnNjsGExM @TheModernHermeticist The Platonic Philosophers' Creed by Thomas Taylor: https://youtu.be/Wzd98YSG6Hs @johnvervaeke Neoplatonism & 4E Cognitive Science: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbk3lA6zCic 00:00 Disclaimer 00:45 Shout out 02:06 Where does Kabbalah come from? 04:44 a word from our sponsors 05:21 Kabbalah as a Historical Phenomena 07:37 What is Kabbalah? 08:28 Why then, why so? 09:57 Gershom Scholem 11:55 What is Neoplatonism? 14:20 From Scholem to Idel 15:23 Moshe Idel 18:55 Idel's Theory 22:01 Thank you and shout out Sources and Further Reading • Gershom Scholem, Kabbalah, 1974, pp. 45, 98. • Gershom Scholem, Major Trends, 1941, pp. 74-75. • Gershom Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, 1987, pp. 269, 363. • Moshe Idel, "On Binary 'Beginnings' in Kabbalah-Scholarship", in Aporemata. Kritische Studien zur Philologiegeschichte 5 (2001): Historicization-Historisierung, pp. 322-25 • Moshe Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, 1988, pp. 30-2 • Moshe Idel, “Jewish Kabbalah and Platonism in the Middle Ages and Renaissance” in Lenn Goodman, Neoplatonism and Jewish Thought, State University of New York Press, 1992, pp. 318-9 • Lloyd P. Gerson, Foreword, Neoplatonism (Hackett Classics) 2nd Edition, by Lloyd P. Gerson and R. T. Wallis • Pauliina Remes and Svetla Slaveva-Griffin, “Introduction: Neoplatonism today,” in The Routledge Handbook of Neoplatonism by Pauliina Remes and Svetla Slaveva-Griffin (eds.) Join us: https://discord.gg/EQtjK2FWsm https://facebook.com/seekersofunity https://instagram.com/seekersofunity https://www.twitter.com/seekersofu https://www.seekersofunity.com Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Eny, Kim, Michael, Kirk, Ron, Seth, Daniel, Raphael, Daniel, Jason, Sergio, Leila, Wael, jXaviErre, Simona, Francis, Etty, Stephen, Arash, William, Michael, Matija, Timony, Vilijami, Stoney, El techo, Stephen, Ross, Ahmed, Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre. Join them in supporting us: patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seekers paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=RKCYGQSMJFDRU

Sources/Recomended Reading:Cooper, John M. (ed.) (1997). "Plato: Complete Works". Hackett Publishing Company.Dillon, John (1996). "The Middle Platonists". Bristol Classical Press.Gerson, Loyd P. (ed.) (2019). "Plotinus: The Enneads". Cambridge University Press. (This is the translation of the Enneads I have been using in this episode).Gerson, Loyd P (2008). "Cambridge Companion to Plotinus". Cambridge University Press.Gregory, John (ed.) (1998). "The Neoplatonists: a reader". Routledge.Iamblichus "On the Mysteries". Tranlsated by Emma C. Clarke, John M. Dillon & Jackson P. Hershell. Writings from the Graeco-Roman World. Society of Biblical Literature.Proclus "The Elements of Theology: A Revised Text with Translation, Introduction, and Commentary". Translated by E.R. Dodds. Second Edition. Oxford University Press.O'Meara, Dominic J. (1999). "Plotinus: An Introduction to the Enneads". Oxford University Press.Shaw, Gregory (2014). "Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus". Angelico Press/Sophia Perennis.Wallis, R.T. (1998). "Neoplatonism". Second Edition. Bristol Classical Paperbacks. Hackett Publishing Company.Also check out the excellent episodes about Plotinus on the "Secret History of Western Esotericism" pocast: https://shwep.net/#neoplatonism #philosophy #plotinus Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We speak about illusion, magic, and reality with magical experience designer Ferdinando Buscema. He can make stuff disappear, find your card anywhere in the deck, and read your mind. He is, in short, a magician. But he is also, like Apuleius, Iamblichus, Ficino, and Crowley before him, a philosopher of magic.

Tom Rowsell delivered this keynote speech at the PAGAN FUTURES conference in London on 25th June 2022. The talk addresses the conflict between an emerging religion of materialistic scientism seeking salvation through transhumanism (and other technophilic ideologies) and the practitioners of Traditional public forms of Indo-European paganism.This channel depends on your support:SubscribeStar: https://www.subscribestar.com/survive-the-jiveTelegram: https://t.me/survivethejiveCrypto: https://bit.ly/3ysmtvk

We explore the Theolegoumena arithmeticæ, the ‘Theology of Arithmetic', our most complete extant arithmological treatise from antiquity. It tells us a lot about Neopythagorean theory of number in the Greek ‘alphanumeric age', it may be by Iamblichus, and it informs us that the Dyad is ‘Daring'.

Borja the Modern Platonist joins me in advance of the Pagan Futures conference in London on 25th June to discuss the same issues we shall address at the event; The question of transhumanism, salvation through technology, faith in 'progress' rather than cyclical time and how these ideas conflict with traditional pagan beliefs. To what extent are modern technophiles neo-Gnostics? How do their beliefs conflict with those of Platonists and other pagans?Tickets for the conference: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/survive-the-jive-live-pagan-futures-tickets-313306266477

Alex and Benjamin talk about Iamblichus, and the strand of neo-Platonism that gets interested in theurgy. They compare Iamblichus with Plotinus. Is part of the soul in the realm of the intelligibles, or has all of it descended? The answer matters, politically. There's also some discussion of the religious politics of Emperor Julian, whose philosophical views were heavily influenced by Iamblichan ideas.

In a digression-filled survey, we attempt to give some idea of Porphyry's Letter to Anebo, of Iamblichus' responses to that Letter, and the general theological/practical approach found in the De mysteriis, antiquity's greatest philosophic manifesto for addressative ritual practice.

This episode is all about non-Christian, Greek-philosophical perspectives on demons and their role in the universe that were developing around the formative stages of Christian theology. Neoplatonism would go on to influence late-ancient and medieval Christianity and so we start to track its effects in this episode.Neoplatonic Demons and Angels, ed. Luc BrissonPlotinus, EnneadsPorphyry, On Abstinence from Animal Food, Bk. 2“Iamblichus” by Riccardo Chiaradonna & Adrien Lecerf at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy“Plotinus” by Lloyd Gerson at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy“Porphyry” by Eyjólfur Emilsson at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

We discuss the rich strata of the esoteric in the work of the sage of Chalcis. Starting from the evidence for socially-esoteric teaching within Iamblichus' school, we move on to discuss his constructions of esoteric wisdom lineages – notably the tradition of ‘the theurgists' – his employment of tropes of hiding and revealing, and the parameters of the Iamblichean ‘ineffable'.

Between the noetic triad and the triad of Soul, Iamblichus places the Greater Kinds, a hierarchy of archangels, angels, heroes, daimones, and several types of archōn. We explore this densely-populated divine bestiary – with discussion of what these entities look like when summoned to visible appearance – and discuss Iamblichus’ distinctive doctrines of the human […]

We explore Iamblichus' extraordinary ‘esoteric-literalist' approach to the Platonic corpus and the upper reaches of his complex metaphysics, the realms of the One(s) and the noetic-noeric levels of reality. Featuring special guest-star the Noeric Hebdomad.

We introduce Iamblichus, known to later Platonists as ‘the Divine', ‘the Great Iamblichus', Platonist philosopher and wonder-working holy-man. Come for the basic biographical summary and discussion of the Iamblichean corpus of writings, stay for the levitation and miraculous apparitions.

John Vervaeke and Paul VanderKlay come together for a dialogue on neoplatonism, evolution, and Christianity. This is my third dialogue with John Vervaeke and the first appearance of Paul on my channel. We mention Adam Friended, David Sloan Wilson, Bret Weinstein, Thomas Aquinas, the Apostle Paul, Jacob Faturechi, Origen of Alexandria, Plotinus, Philo of Alexandria, John Scotus Eriugena, Proclus, Maximus the Confessor, Porphyry, Noam Chomsky, Northrop Frye, CS Lewis, Iamblichus, Gregory Shaw, Pseudo-Dionysius, Jonathan Pageau, Numenius, Alvin Platinga, Daniel Dennett, Donald Hoffman, Joscha Bach, Paul Anleitner (aka Deep Talks ), Sevilla King (aka A Quality Existence ), Cornelius Platinga, David Bentley Hart, sigmund freud, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Hagel, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, DC Schlinder, Von Balthasar, and more.

In this episode, we explore the torrid and confusing history of astral projection. From its origins in mystic thought all the way down to its use as a magical tool - what is astral projection & how did we reach today's understanding? Tune in to hear how the concept of the astral ‘body of light' was born, and how it evolved in the midst of cultural fetishisation and the development of modern physics. We also discuss how out-of-body experiences might be explained by science.Come discuss your thoughts on our discord! https://discord.gg/kJthJyxTBcOn Neoplatonism, the soul, and Christian theology: Parnell, J. B. (2009). The theurgic turn in Christian thought: Iamblichus, Origen, Augustine and the Eucharist. University of Michigan.Evolution of the concept of ‘astral' during the development of physics Asprem, E. (2011). Pondering imponderables: occultism in the mirror of late classical physics. Aries-Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism, 11(2), 129 - Blanke, O., Landis, T., Spinelli, L., & Seeck, M. (2004).Out‐of‐body experience and autoscopy of neurological origin. Brain, 127(2), 243-258 - Brugger, P., Regard, M., & Landis, T. (1997).Illusory reduplication of one's own body: phenomenology and classification of autoscopic phenomena Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 2(1), 19-38. - Asprem, E. (2017).Explaining the esoteric imagination: Towards a theory of kataphatic practice Aries, 17(1), 17-50. - Luhrmann, T. M. (1991).Persuasions of the witch's craft: Ritual magic in contemporary England. Harvard University Press (also see Luhrmann's other work!)Liber Null PJ Carroll -The Black Arts - R CavendishAstral Atlas: http://astralatlas.tumblr.com/

Brian Cotnoir : Neoplatonism & Theurgy You know him perhaps from The Wiser Concise Guide to Alchemy or The poetry of Matter perhaps , we had a great discussion revolving around some of the fascinating Neoplatonists and theurgy as well as some other interesting things in the realms of Hermeticism like Dream incubation & The animation of Statues

We engage in an exhaustive study of Neoplatonism — including its impact on modern culture — finding its useable, spiritual tech to connect with the Divine. What is exactly is Theurgy, and how can it be implemented in our quest for consciousness expansion? What gave rise to the Neoplatonists, and why did they clash with their spiritual siblings, the Gnostics? How did Neoplatonism engage with the notions of evil and suffering? From Plotinus to Proclus to Iamblichus, we journey to intimately experience the One and how it became the Many (us!).Astral Guests – Dr. Jeffrey Kupperman, author of A Theurgist Book of Hours, and John Edgecomb, author of Becoming Aeon.This is a partial show. For the second half of the interview, please become an AB Prime member: http://thegodabovegod.com/members/subscription-levels/  or patron at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aeonbyteGet the simple, effective, and affordable Private RSS feed for all full shows: Exclusive Aeon Byte Podcast Feed | RedCircleMore information on Jeffrey: https://independent.academia.edu/JeffreyKupperman/CurriculumVitaeMore information on John: https://remnanteconomicphilosopher.com/Download these and all other shows: http://thegodabovegod.com/Become a patron and keep this Red Pill Cafeteria growing: https://www.patreon.com/aeonbyteSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/aeon-byte-gnostic-radio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Now with full video on YouTube! OK, so we cover a lot in this one. Spud tells everyone the word he received from his HGA "Omnisyn" and what it means. Tommie talks about his new album "Ritualis". We discuss Neoplatonism and Theurgy. We then spend the second half of the podcast talking about the great documentary Chasing The Present! Find Spud here: https://www.spudmurphy.net/ https://twitter.com/OmniSyn_ Spud's encounter with Sophia: https://www.spudmurphy.net/2021/06/24/meeting-sophia/ Non-Dual Retreat Lecture Series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDZ9NAmYL-5ybKHxJ8j1T5KUgUvhhSKN4 Documentaries: Ólafur Arnalds - When We Are Born - https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Ólafur_Arnalds_When_We_Are_Born Chasing The Present - https://chasingthepresent.com/ PODCAST: Rupert Spira on Non-Dualism, Consciousness, God, and Death https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWLd9y1MG4c BOOKS: - Living Theurgy: A Course in Iamblichus' Philosophy, Theology and Theurgy by Jeffrey S. Kupperman - https://amzn.to/3hDNaW6 - Happiness Beyond Thought: A Practical Guide to Awakening by Gary Weber - https://amzn.to/3AAOW2L If I missed anything let me know. _ _ _ _ _ Join the PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/tommiekelly Join the DISCORD https://discord.gg/qA2Tpvr Send a donation via PAYPAL http://www.paypal.me/tommiekelly Buy Me a Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/33TYYN3KT7ZAJ/ Buy me something off my AMAZON WISH LIST https://www.amazon.de/registry/wishlist/302ZDU38CDO3R _ _ _ _ _ Executive Producers: Christopher Moore, Dylan Sticker, Lindsey Renee Piker, Marcio Mendonca, Rodrigo Franco, Natasha Von Stiers, Sepherion, William Opdyke, and Michael Metelits. _ _ _ _ _ Buy The Forty Servants: DECK https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/the-forty-servants DELUXE DECK https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/forty-servants-deluxe-box-set-includes-the-four-devils- GRIMOIRE https://amzn.to/2MIta4T Buy Me a Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/33TYYN3KT7ZAJ/ Buy me something off my AMAZON WISH LIST https://www.amazon.de/registry/wishlist/302ZDU38CDO3R Please Share the videos, website, blog posts etc on your social media! Obviously, there is no obligation or pressure to do so, but if you do I thank you from the bottom of my heart! _ _ _ _ _ As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, so if you see an Amazon link it's more than likely an affiliate link. The price will be the exact same for you, but I get a commission. ***SITES AND SOCIAL MEDIA*** Web: http://www.adventuresinwoowoo.com Discord: https://discord.gg/qA2Tpvr Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tommiekelly Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adventuresinwoowoo Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tommiekelly/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PEvElCUoa6Eyz2d129UjE?si=MGgNKT-pQ52tOZ_Xv4cJOQ

Initiates, as I will make clear, and will become clear when you listen this episode that was supposed to be about Hermetic Qabalah simply could not be. There is too much material and too little time in the day. Therefore today we begin, for even numbered months, our next miniseries on what exactly comprises the Heremetic Qabalah as opposed to the true jewish kabbalah or the abortive and failed christian cabala. Part one, that is here before you, is the philosophy that under pins it. With all these disclaimers covered, please enjoy.   Complete works of Plato- https://amzn.to/3gLbh62 The Enneads- https://amzn.to/3gORwdL Iamblichus On the Mysteries of the Egyptians - https://amzn.to/2SZjbzB Fragments of Iamblichius' De Anima- https://amzn.to/3xK7sUd Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus- https://amzn.to/2SlOnJ5 Iamblichus and the Theory of the Vehicle of the Soul- https://amzn.to/3zMJqtv  Proclus an Introduction- https://amzn.to/3xI31Jr  Proclus The Elements of Theology- https://amzn.to/3qhTOVX From Plato to Platonism-https://amzn.to/35I118l Aristotle and Other Platonists- https://amzn.to/35LJagA Platonism and Naturalism: The Possibility of Philosophy- https://amzn.to/35JXRRh for a good copy of the corpus Hermtic- https://www.bookarts.org/ for a good copy of the three books of occult philosophy- https://www.blackletter-press.com/ "

Jeffrey S. Kupperman is a Neoplatonist, independent researcher and author of Living Theurgy: A Course in Iamblichus' Philosophy, Theology and Theurgy. In this episode we discuss Neoplatonism, the work of Iamblichus, the practical side of philosophy and more... Kupperman's book can be purchased direct from Avalonia Publishing here: https://www.avaloniabooks.com/product-page/living-theurgy-by-jeffrey-s-kupperman Become part of the Hermitix community: Hermitix Twitter - https://twitter.com/Hermitixpodcast Hermitix Discord - https://discord.gg/63yWMrG Support Hermitix: Hermitix Subscription - https://hermitix.net/subscribe/ Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/hermitix Donations: - https://www.paypal.me/hermitixpod Hermitix Merchandise - http://teespring.com/stores/hermitix-2 Bitcoin Donation Address: 3LAGEKBXEuE2pgc4oubExGTWtrKPuXDDLK Ethereum Donation Address: 0xfd2bbe86d6070004b9Cbf682aB2F25170046A99

Jeffrey S. Kupperman is a Neoplatonist, independent researcher and author of Living Theurgy: A Course in Iamblichus' Philosophy, Theology and Theurgy. In this episode we discuss Neoplatonism, the work of Iamblichus, the practical side of philosophy and more... Kupperman's book can be purchased direct from Avalonia Publishing here: https://www.avaloniabooks.com/product-page/living-theurgy-by-jeffrey-s-kupperman Become part of the Hermitix community: Hermitix Twitter - https://twitter.com/Hermitixpodcast Hermitix Discord - https://discord.gg/63yWMrG Support Hermitix: Hermitix Subscription - https://hermitix.net/subscribe/ Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/hermitix Donations: - https://www.paypal.me/hermitixpod Hermitix Merchandise - http://teespring.com/stores/hermitix-2 Bitcoin Donation Address: 3LAGEKBXEuE2pgc4oubExGTWtrKPuXDDLK Ethereum Donation Address: 0xfd2bbe86d6070004b9Cbf682aB2F25170046A99

Self, Spirit Guides, and Celestial Twin Beings are benevolent spiritual beings. They are our inner guides for discovering and knowing unconscious and hidden dimensions of our being. There are various types of spirit guides, including Self, Soul, Angel of Individuation, Celestial Twin, Daimon, Fravashi (Fravarti), Guardian Angel,- Tutelary Spirit, Guardian of the Threshold, Spirit Guides, Spirit Helpers, Spirit or Power Animals. Access to Personal Daimon and Spirit Guides were reported and acknowledged by Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Neoplatonic Greek Philosophers such as Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus, Roman Emperor and Stoic Philosopher, Marcus Aurelius, and Goethe and Carl Jung. Access to our inner guides requires our highest level of intention and a form of meditative journey. This meditative journey can be of different kinds, including drumming or chanting shamanic journeys, active imaginations, meditative breathing techniques, hypnotic trances, or shamanic rituals and ceremonies using psychedelic plant medicine. "I have been a seeker and I still am, but I stopped asking the books and the stars. I started listening to the teaching of my Soul." RumiThis podcast is produced by Aion Farvahar, who is a Life and Spirituality Mentor, and a Psychoshamanic and IFS Self-Leadership Practitioner. For more information about Aion Farvahar or Celestial Twin Life Mentorship visit:- Celestial Twin Website (https://celestialtwin.com/)- About Aion Farvahar (https://celestialtwin.com/linkinbio/)- Celestial Twin YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/CelestialTwin/) Reference Links- Internal Family Systems (IFS) is an evidence-based, psychospiritual model with applications in psychology and coaching. IFS model was pioneered by Dr. Richard C. Schwartz and is sponsored by IFS Institute (https://ifs-institute.com/). For an official representation of the IFS model, visit the IFS Institute Website. If you are interested in IFS basics based on my personal experience and understanding, check out my IFS basic concepts video presentation linked here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J__J9tH50nATom Cheetham (Henry Corbin): https://www.tomcheetham.com/Previous Mention of Angel of Individuation: Listen to Podcast Episode 5 or watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBOXzPKJyVsBackground Music (CC-BY): Artist: Meydän - Away, Artist's Website (https://soundcloud.com/meydansound/)  Disclaimer:The ideas presented here are based on personal perspectives, experience, or research, and are not meant to reflect any scientific or academic argument. No part of this podcasts may be reproduced or used without written permission from Celestial Twin Life Mentorship or Aion Farvahar (https://celestialtwin.com/). Use of brief quotations is permitted, if providing a clear attribution and link to the original post. Blessings!  

John Vervaeke is a Professor of Cognitive Science and Psychology at the University of Toronto. He has an excellent youtube channel and I would particularly recommend his series "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis". Awakening from the Meaning Crisis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54l8_ewcOlY&list=PLND1JCRq8Vuh3f0P5qjrSdb5eC1ZfZwWJ In this conversation we talk about what Neoplatonism was, how it interacted with Christianity, and how it is relevant today. We mention Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Carl Jung, Pierre Hadot, Plotinus, Hypatia, D. T. Suzuki, John H Spencer, The Stoics, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus, Sir Roger Penrose, William Lane Craig, Alfred North Whitehead, Owen Gilbert, Keith Stanovich, Jules Evans, Polar Bears, Bret Weinstein, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Evan Thompson, Christopher Mastropietro, Pseudo Dionysius, John Scotus Eriugena, Heraclitus, Jonathan Pageau, Augustine, and Paul Vanderklay.

Today we'll do a sneak preview of bonus content available to Patreon supporters- we'll break down the new Beyonce & Disney collaboration called "Black is King." You won't believe the blatant occult message of Beyonce channeling gods through magic circles and theurgy! We'll talk about her finger tattoo, magick circles, Iamblichus, Blavatsky's "ISIS UNVEILED", Oshun, Fallen Angels of Lucifer, Moloch and Isis and birthing the Star Child (Crowley's Moon Child)!**If today's your day to make the move and get ALL THE STUFF that comes with supporting on Patreon (free books, no commercials, bonus content, early access, Kubrick video, etc), you can join the IW Patreon team at Patreon.com/IlluminatiWatcher! Join the IW Patreon team at Patreon.com/IlluminatiWatcher! By joining Patreon you’ll get: -Bonus content-Free ebook of THE DARK PATH-Free ebook of KUBRICK'S CODE-2.5 hour KUBRICK'S CODE VIDEO-NO COMMERCIALS!-Early access-Signed books discount code-PDF show transcripts -Index of Patreon bonus podcast content: https://www.patreon.com/posts/index-of-all-29414054

Podcast: This week on The Mystical Positivist, we speak by telephone with Sam Webster, PhD, M.Div., Mage. Sam hails from the Bay Area and has taught magick publicly since 1984. He graduated from Starr King School for the Ministry at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley in 1993 and earned his doctorate at the University of Bristol, UK, studying Pagan history under Prof. Ronald Hutton. His thesis was published as The History of Theurgy from Iamblichus to the Golden Dawn. Sam is an Adept of the Golden Dawn, a cofounder of the Chthonic-Ouranian Templar order, and an initiate of Wiccan, Druidic, Buddhist, Hindu and Masonic traditions. His work has been published in journals such as Green Egg and Gnosis, and 2010 saw his first book Tantric Thelema, establishing the publishing house Concrescent Press. In 2001 he founded the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn, and in 2013 founded the Pantheon Foundation. Sam serves the Pagan community as a priest of Hermes. In this wide ranging conversation, we discuss the nature of ritual and Adeptship. In addition we discuss a Pagan/Magickal perspective on the current pandemic including the nature of the liminal moment facing humankind. More information about Sam Webster's work can be found at: The Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn website: www.osogd.org, Pagan Currents website: pagancurrents.com, Pantheon Foundation website: www.pantheonfoundation.org, Sam Webster's Blog: samwebstermage.com.

Fast-paced intro to the History of Mysticism in under 10, strap in • (Prehistory) Birth – One with Nature - 1:17Animism, Shamanism, Indigenous/Native Traditions, Egyptian, Proto Indo-Iranian, Proto Indo-European, Vedic and Mesopotamian Religion • (1000BCE) Infancy - 1:36Judaism, Hinduism, Jainism, Zoroaster, Greco-Roman Mysteries • (500bce) Discovering Self - 2:07Upanishads, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Hebrew prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Greek Philosophers Pythagoras, Parmenedies and Plato, Taoism - Lao tzu • (0) Rebellious age - 3:08Early Jewish Mysticism: Essenes, Qumran, Hasideans, Therapeutae, Apocalypticism, Merkava, Hechalot. Philo - Middle Platonism. Early Christian Mysticism: Paul, Ignatius, Irenaeus, Origen, Augustine, Pseudo Dionysius, Christian East: Maximus the Confessor. Gnosticism and Hermeticism. Neoplatonism: Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus. East: The Bhagavad Gita. Theravada and later Mahayana Buddhism • (5th – 10th/11th) Dark Night / Death of Mysticism - 4:14One exception in the West: John Scotus. Sufism: Al-Hallaj and Al-Farabi. East: Shankara, Advaita Vedanta. Zen and Tibetan Buddhism • (12th-15th) the Rebirth – Renaissance - 5:14Christian Mystics: Francis of Assisi, Albertus Magnus, Mesiter Ekhart, Raymond Llull, Nicolas of Cusa. Jewish Mystics: Ibn Gabirol, Isaac the Blind, Chasidei Ashkenaz, Eleazar of Worms, Avrohom ben HaRambam, Azriel of Gerona, Avrohom Abulafia, Nahmanides, Publicising of the Zohar, Joseph Gikatilla's Shaarei Orah. Sufis: Rumi, Ibn Arabi. Sikhism. Christian Kabbalists: Marsilo Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Giordano Bruno • (1500s) Growth - 6:14Safed Kabbalists: Joseph Karo, Shlomo Alkabetz, Moses Cordovero, Isaac Luria, Hayim Vital. Christian Mystics: Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross • (1600s) - 6:45Spinoza - Pantheism. George Fox - Quakers. Mulla Sadra - Illuminationism • (18th) Enlightenment – Waking up, Mirror Phase Newton, Rosicrucianism, Swedenborg, William Blake, Yisrael Baal Shem - Hasidism, Jakob Böhme - Bohemian Theosophy. Idealism & Romanticism: Berkeley, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel and Schopenhauer • (1800s) - 7:32Transcendentalism, Emerson and Thoreau. Occultism: Eliphas Levi, Madam Blavatsky and Manly P. Hall - Theosophical Society • (1900s) Rudolf Steiner - Anthroposophy, Gurdjieff - Fourth Way, René Guénon - Traditionalism. Modern Perennialists: William Jame, Aldous Huxley. Neohasidism: Hillel Zeitlin, Martin Buber, Avraham Yeshua Heschel, Zalman Schecher-Shalomi. Buddhist Modernism and NeoVedanta: Alan Watts, Professor Suzuki, Christmas Humphreys. New Age. Modern study of Mysticism • [Summary] - 7:55 • (2019:) You #ProjectUnity Let me know which of these periods, traditions, movements or mystics you want to hear covered in a future episode. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

On Thursday June 20th, 2019 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a report on the modern versions of the 6th and 7th degree initiations of the 18th century Crata Repoa. This system was originally intended to replicate an ancient Alexandrian mystery school initiatory program. Manley Hall called it "Egyptian Freemasonry." It was created by a committee of German Masonic scholars who accessed the Classical pagan works of Iamblichus, Porphyri, Plutarch and others to create an outline for a system of Seven Degrees, intended to convey the secrets of ancient Hermetic magick to initiates. But it was far from complete. It was an outline. It declared what was to be taught without providing the actual lessons. When we adopted it as an initiatory structure in 1970 we updated it with additional source material extending from Classical times through the Dark Ages, Medieval times, the Renaissance and the Rosicrucian era. We made the Crata Repoa the repository of the Western Esoteric Tradition, from King Solomon to the Holy Grail, to Christian Rosencreutz. We have discussed the degrees from Pastophoris through Alchemia on previous Podcasts so tonight we will put the cap on it (the four-corned red cap) with the final chivalric degrees the 6th Astronomus, (At the Gate of the Gods) and the 7th Propheta (one who knows the mysteries). So tune in and we'll tell you how the modern Crata Repoa culminates.  

In this episode, we get a world-historical overview of the term "theurgy" from German classicist and friend of the podcast, Leonte Maisel! We hop around from Iamblichus to Porphyry to Plotinus to Pseudo-Dionysius to Augustine to... well you get the point. Enjoy! Thanks to Thrpii's for the exit track this week. You can find them on Spotify, or check out their Facebook page here: www.facebook.com/thrpii/ Don't forget, if you like what we're doing, and you want to lend us some monetary support, visit Patreon.com/PTRPodcast !

The ancient philosopher Iamblichus had one of the best understandings of the nature of demonic spirits, which were eventually portrayed in the Solomonic grimoires more than a thousand years after his death! Get ready listeners for the first topic-based video in more than a year, as we travel back in time to explore the very same magical understanding between the cthonic spirits of the Lemegeton’s Goetia and Iamblichus, one of the most influential philosophers of all time. We examine Dr. Stephen Skinner’s observations on Iamblichus’ understanding in his seminal “Techniques of Solomonic Magic” tome._________Subscribe to Glitch Bottle!_________▶︎YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/user/glitchbottle▶︎ iTuneshttps://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1235137914▶︎Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/alexander-eth/glitch-bottle

The ancient philosopher Iamblichus had one of the best understandings of the nature of demonic spirits, which were eventually portrayed in the Solomonic grimoires more than a thousand years after his death! Get ready listeners for the first topic-based video in more than a year, as we travel back in time to explore the very same magical understanding between the cthonic spirits of the Lemegeton’s Goetia and Iamblichus, one of the most influential philosophers of all time. We examine Dr. Stephen Skinner’s observations on Iamblichus’ understanding in his seminal “Techniques of Solomonic Magic” tome._________Subscribe to Glitch Bottle!_________▶︎YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/user/glitchbottle▶︎ iTuneshttps://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1235137914▶︎Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/alexander-eth/glitch-bottle

 In this episode we were fortunate enough to talk to the very generous Professor Greg Shaw about Iamblichus and his theurgy. Its obvious that professor Shaw has explored this content on a very deep level. We discussed many topics including the nature and role of Daimons, and the practical application of prayer, meditation and the use of Sunthemata in theurgy. We also touched on the role of Hecate as well as using Jungian models for exploring the practice.  Professor Shaw's work:   https://stonehill.academia.edu/GregoryShaw    

Iamblichus fuses Platonism with pagan religious conviction and sets the agenda for Neoplatonism in generations to come.

As pagan traditions started to dwindle in the face of the rising popularity of Christianity in the third and fourth century C.E., a new interpretation of ancient philosophy was born. Drawing from the cosmology of the Thimaeus, this tradition attempted to revive the writings of Plato for a new time. This was a world view which gave place not only to the gods of the classic Greek mythology but also to an interpretation of the transcendent monotheistic deity. This school of philosophy later became known as Neoplatonism. With its roots in 2nd century Alexandria, Neoplatonism shares much of its cultural heritage with hermetism. Yet Neoplatonism's most famous proponent was not an Alexandrian, but instead came from Syria. His name was Iamblichus. Orating within a tradition that oftentimes had little interest in magical pursuits, Iamblchus became an important apologetic of esoteric practices. The writings of Iamblichus include a new definition of sacred magic dubbed Theurgy, or divine-working, which ought to sound familiar even to many new age practitioners today. Neoplatonism came to an abrupt end in 529 A.D. when Emperor Justinian forced the Neoplatonist schools in Alexandria and Athens to close their doors. However, neoplatonist philosophy survived outside the Christian world, being openly adopted in the Islamic world and having a profound influence on the medieval Kabbalists. Together with the Hermetism, Neoplatonist philosophy was revived in Western Europe at the early days of the Renaissance and was again studied and adopted by the intellectuals of a new time.