Iamblichus
245 – 325 Syrian (Roman) Neoplatonist philosopher, theurgist
Neoplatonist who made sacred ritual, or theurgy, central to spiritual ascent.
- Religion
- Neoplatonism with theurgy, holding that the soul rises to the divine not only through thought but through sacred ritual acts that draw down the gods.
- Affiliations
- Founded a Neoplatonic school in Syria. His work On the Mysteries defended ritual theurgy.
Iamblichus argued that philosophy alone could not lift the soul to the divine and that sacred rites, which he called theurgy, were needed to complete the ascent. His treatise On the Mysteries became a foundational text for later ceremonial and ritual magic. Renaissance and modern occultists drew on his defense of ritual as a spiritual technology.