2023, INITIATIC RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE IN NEOPLATONISM.

From Late Antiquity

To The Renaissance. Edited by Andreea-Maria Lemnaru, Luciano Albanese, José-
Maria Zamora Calvo and Giuseppe Muscolino. Mimesis International.

José Manuel redondo ornelas

ASTROLOGY IS TO THEURGY
WHAT ASTRONOMY IS TO THEOLOGY
IN LATE ANTIQUE PLATONISM
Remarks on Proclus’s theurgy
J.M

It is necessary that I speak astrologically about the

rising and the setting of the Sun and the stars … to
exhibit publicly all the constellations of the zodiacal
wheel … whose names are this: Ram, Bull, Twins, Crab,
Lion, Virgin…
Proclus, Ouranodromou, f. 11.

the wisdom of the Chaldeans, a polytheist and

singular human group, they are full of piety and practice
astrology more than anyone
M. Psellus, Scripta minora I, 446, 8-10.

Chapter XI, book 1, of Lynn Thorndike’s monumental study A

history of magic and experimental science (1923) is dedicated to
“Neoplatonism and its relations to Astrology and Theurgy”. In this
brief chapter of his groundbreaking work, Thorndike highlights what
is now fully recognized, that is, the intense interest of Platonists
of Late Antiquity regarding the sacred arts, which, however, are
labeled by Thorndike as “the occult” (“the Neo-Platonists were
much given to the occult”1). This is a serious distortion, which, while
it has been corrected, it is still present today. Platonists are presented
as intellectual dabblers; philosophers with an exotic interest in
superstitious techniques.
Of course, things have changed a lot in academic research regarding
platonic theurgy, one hundred years after Thorndike’s work. No
longer seen as an aberration unworthy of philosophers, theurgy is now

1 Lynn Thorndike, A history of magic and experimental science, p. 298.

36 Initiatic Religious Experience In Neoplatonism

understood as a complex and sophisticated philosophical conception

that brings together metaphysics, ethics, cosmology, psychology,
epistemology, and more.2 Nonetheless, when it comes to astrology,
the Platonist’s notions about it are usually ignored, research focusing
on a far narrower conception of astrology, as that practiced by the
professional astrologers of the time, limited to being a technique.
This seems to be reflected by the histories of ancient astrology
where, while in some cases -if mentioned at all- they mention the
Platonist’s interest in the discipline and the heavy criticisms they
throw at professional astrologers, they are not considered seriously
as astrologers themselves, as experienced practitioners.3 To put it
succinctly, it seems that astrology’s place in Platonism has not

2 Knippe affirms that a “deadly blow” has been dealt to the notion that
Platonists interests in rituals was an escapist degeneration on their part,
falling into the irrationality of occultism: “the major changes that have
taken place in the scholarly approach to theurgy since 1963 might be
summarized as follows: theurgy, and the committed embrace of ritual in
entails, is now seen as deriving from articulate philosophical positions,
consequently, the place of theurgy as a genuine expression of Platonist
thought has been re-evaluated; in turn, this has led to a treatment of
theurgy as a specific phenomenon to be understood in its own terms rather
than as another manifestation of late-antique ‘occultism’; theurgy is now
generally studied separately from the nebulous underworld of ‘magic’:
pace Agustine, few scholars today would contend that to describe
‘theurgy’ as another form of goeteia is helpful in anyway”. Knipe,
“Recycling the Refuse-Heap of Magic: Scholarly Approaches to Theurgy
since 1963”, 343. For “occultism” as a cultural category, see Micea
Eliade, Ocultismo, brujería y modas culturales. For theurgy as an esoteric
practice of Late Antiquity, root of “western esoterism”, see Karen-Claire
Voss & Antoine Faivre, “Western Esotericism and the Science of
Religions”. Regarding the notion of esoterism in the study of ancient
religions, see also García Bazán Francisco, Aspectos inusuales de lo
sagrado, 103 ff.
3 Something similar seems to happen around the figure of Ptolemy, an
astronomer/astrologer very much appreciated by the late Platonists. Since
he was not a professional astrologer, then he is considered by some, only
a theoretical astrologer, as if he could not be a practicing astrologer only
because he did not dedicate professionally as an astrological consultant
and teacher like his contemporary Vettius Valens, for example.
J.M. Redondo Ornelas - Astrology is to theurgy what astronomy is to theology 37

been fully appreciated up to this day.4 However, considering the

central role astronomy has in platonic theology, we may appreciate
the central role astrology has in theurgy, thus, in Late Antiquity
Platonism; both a mystical or soteriological, contemplative role and
a practical one since the astrological correspondences (between stars
and diverse substances) articulate the whole of theurgical activities,
as it happens in the Greek Magical Papyri material. All of this is
more specifically clear or accentuated in Proclus, whose theurgy, we
may say, is the most Chaldean, that is, astrological (Proclus himself
associates the Chaldeans with astrology5). But things get even more
complicated when we confront the fact that some scholars today, not
only find it very hard to see the Platonists as astrologers, but they
are seen as contrary to astrology; that is, as rejecting not only the
practices of the commercial astrologers, their rigid fatalism and the
poor comprehension they show about their art, but as also rejecting
astrology itself, this being thought of particularly in the case of
Plotinus.6
So, contrary to a wide assumption still made by many scholars
today, based, for example, on the apparent rejection expressed
in the Chaldean Oracles against astrology (frag. 107) -rejection

4 See the provocative article by Francisco Lisi, “Astrología, astronomía y

filosofía de los principios de Platón”. There is very important recent work
done by scholars like Crystal Addey, Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum,
Marylinn Lawrence, A. Kaniamos and Guiseppe Muscolino, which has
resulted in very stimulating contributions and advancements in this
regard.
5 As we will see, there are examples of this in De Prov., in In Tim. and in In
Remp. Tanaseanu-Döbler also underlines how Proclus himself favors the
synthesis of mathematics with theurgy in questions astronomical and
astrological, in relation to which he considers the Chaldeans as authorities.
However, in her thorough study she does not pays much attention to
astrology regarding theurgy. See Theurgy in Late Antiquity, pp. 203-204.
The only comprehensive effort that I am aware of that touches specifically
on the relationship of theurgy and astrology, is the very interesting article
by Marilynn Lawrence, “Astral symbolism in theurgic rites”, which
presents a clear and concise panoramic discussion about the place of
astrology in late platonic theurgy; also showing how, in the end, this
varies from author to author.
6 See, for example, Peter Adamson, “Plotinus on Astrology”.
38 Initiatic Religious Experience In Neoplatonism

which, in turn, is assumed to be shared unequivocally by the

platonic theurgists-,7 this paper attempts to address the problem
of the place of astrology in late platonic theurgy, specifically, in
Proclus’s. In a rather brief sketch, it will be argued that it is a place
that is far more important and central than usually acknowledged.
The reason why astrology is thus understood to have such
prominence is its ultimate metaphysical ground, which allows
for an understanding of astrology, as an ethical instrument, as a
contemplative tool of self-knowledge. The whole celestial ascent
motive present in Platonism provides an ethical framework for
the integration of astrology. According to platonic metaphysics,
astrology maybe be understood as something far more complex and
profound than as a technique to interpret celestial configurations;
it is seen as the very dynamic nature of sensible reality itself,
this way conceived as the paradigm of ritual practice (theurgy
follows demiurgy8) and the reason why theurgical activities
have to be done at the appropriate astrological time. This being
the foundation of the correspondences used by the theurgists,
as mentioned above, but also an understanding of astrology as
a meta-philosophical language: it is the metaphysical language
of reality itself and at the same time, practical metaphysics and
theology that applies this analogical language.
Part of the context of Proclus’s astrological theurgy is
Iamblichus criticism of technical astrology, instead approving a
theurgical astrology.9 In a similar fashion, Proclus will criticize the
technical astrology of Ptolemy and Porphyry, following instead

7 For example, this is the view of Lewy, Saffrey, Majercik and Jhonston.
None of them acknowledges a link between the Chaldean Oracles and
astrology; some of them even deny it.
8 See In Tim., III, 5 and III, 69. In In Remp. II, 118, Proclus refers to the true
hieratic science, that which has its existence in the higher worlds,
paradigm of the practice of the hieratic art by the human beings.
9 See the insightful study by Crystal Addey, Divination and Theurgy in
Neoplatonism: Oracles of the gods; particularly ch. 7 (Divination and
theurgy in Iamblichus’ De Mysteriis); also by Addey, “Oracles, dreams
and Astrology in Iamblichus’ De Mysteriis”. See also Gregory Shaw,
‘Astrology as divination: Iamblichean theory and its contemporary
practice’. See also M. Lawrence observations on Iamblichus’
J.M. Redondo Ornelas - Astrology is to theurgy what astronomy is to theology 39

the astronomy/astrology of the Chaldeans. The astrological

technique to discover the planetary ruler of the astral chart of
birth used by Platonists as a means to discover the daímōn, the
tutelary deity leader of the soul, is one of the most important
illustrations of the eminent place astrology has in platonic theurgy
(at least from Porphyry and Iamblichus on);10 such a technique is
taken by the theurgists beyond the conception and practice of
astrology in a technical and discursive manner only.11 However,
in a wider sense, also part of the context is the actual recognition
of the inseparability, in antiquity, of divination and magic, as it
happens in the PGM (where the link between astrology and magic

astrological theurgy, in ‘Astral symbolism in theurgic rites’, pages

277-278.
10 Regarding the question of the oikodespotés or ruler of the astral figure,
see “Porphyrii Philosophi, Introductio in Tetrabiblum Ptolemaei” ch. 30;
Iamblichus’s D.M. IX; Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos III, 10; Scholia chaps. 2, 6
and chap. 36 of the Elementa apotelesmatica of Paulus of Alexandria, as
well as ch. 40 of the Commentary of Olimpiodorus on Paulus (Heliodori,
ut dicitur, in Paulum Alexandrinum commentarium). See also Rhetorius
(a younger contemporary of Proclus), paragraph 33 of his Compendium
(Compendium astrologicum secundum epitomen in Cod. Paris. Gr. 2425
servatam), and Antiochus of Athens, Thesaurus, also paragraph 33. Cf.
with the passages by Teucer of Babylon (influential in Porphyry),
preserved by Rhetorius, on the interpretation of each of the planets as
ruler of the geniture or astral chart; Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum
Graecorum VII, pp. 213-224 (Rhetorius de planetarum natura). See also
the notable, in depth study by Greenbaum, The Daimon in Hellenistic
astrology.
11 That is, there seems to be a correlation between the criticism of technical
divination and the criticism of the reductive exercise of philosophy as
only an analytical activity of discursive rationality (diánoia), taking it
beyond by Platonists, integrating it into intuition and inspiration (nóesis;
manía).
40 Initiatic Religious Experience In Neoplatonism

is clear)12, but which we can trace all the way back to Plato,13 as
a directive for later Platonists. Again, that was also sanctioned by
Iamblichus, for whom theurgy and divination (mantikḗ) overlap
or identify in a sense.14 However, beyond Plato, the essential link
between magical-religious practice and astrology can be traced
to the Mesopotamian cultures. In Proclus’s fifth century, we still
find a living tradition of Hellenized Babylonian astrological ritual
practice, as is the case of Hephaistion of Thebes, for example, an
astrologer contemporary to the philosopher.15

12 Recently, Sarah Iles Johnston has recalled to our attention that magic has
always been related to divination in a fundamental way, a fact ignored by
academic research of the xx century. Iles Johnston speaks of the PGM and
theurgy as divinatory magic. See Ancient Greek Divination, c. 5, “The
Mantis and the Magician”; specially pp. 13; 114 and 166-169. J. L. Calvo,
comparing theurgic practices with those in the PGM, underlines that in
the case of the last it is evident the intimate relationship between magic
and astrology: “las operaciones mágicas están en todos los casos
condicionadas por la posición de los astros, tal como las determina la
astrología” (Calvo Martínez, ‘La Astrología como elemento del
sincretismo religioso del helenismo tardío’, pp. 82 ss).
13 See Leg. XI 932e - 933d, where the true priest is the mantis.
14 D. M. III. Cf. Proclus, Th. Pl., I, 25, 113, 6-10: τῆς θεουργικῆς δυνάμεως,
ἣ κρείττων ἐστὶν ἁπάσης ἀνθρωπίνης σωφροσύνης καὶ ἐπιστήμης,
συλλαβοῦσα τά τε τῆς μαντικῆς ἀγαθὰ καὶ τὰς τῆς τελεσιουργικῆς
καθαρτικὰς δυνάμεις καὶ πάντα ἁπλῶς τὰ τῆς ἐνθέου κατακωχῆς
ἐνεργήματα (“the theurgic potency, which is higher than all temperance
and human science, and it comprehends the good of divination, the
purifying powers in the realization of the rites, and, in short, all those
things as are the effects of divine possesion”; my tanslation). See also
Proclus, In Tim. III, 155, 15-25 for the relationship of interdependence
between theurgy (telestikḗ) and divination; and De Prov. 39.
15 Erica Reiner refers to Hephaestion, a Greco-Egyptian astrologer roughly
a contemporary of Proclus, as evidence of the continued vitality of
Mesopotamian divinatory traditions, somehow influencing or still present
in the development of late antique astrology; see Astral Magic in
Babylonia, p. 79. See book III, 6-7 of his Apotelesmatiké, where
Hephaestion gives different astrological indications about the propitious
times for divination with the entrails of sacrificed animals, as well as
instructions about the astrological conditions propitious for the founding
of temples, the consecration of divine statues and ritual petitions in
general.
J.M. Redondo Ornelas - Astrology is to theurgy what astronomy is to theology 41

The case will be made that Proclus astrological theurgy corresponds

with his binary metaphysical model (henadology-ontology), which
has an astronomical ground, where the planets are sort of sensible
henads, a sensible expression of the gods or divine unities; so,
astrology would be for Proclus something like applied henadology.
The fragments On the hieratic art of the Greeks are illustrative in this
case as well as regarding the celestial-terrestrial correspondences,
central for theurgical practices. It is a text which has received rather
little attention in proclean studies, somewhat strange considering the
all-pervading presence of theurgy in Proclus, the philosopher whose
death was signaled in the skies by a couple of solar eclipses.16

Proclus’s hieratic astronomy: the government of the gods.

prior to them [Ptolemy and Hipparchus] the Egyptians

made use of observations too, and prior by far even to
them, the Chaldeans, and prior to their observations, they
were instructed by the gods
Proclus, In Tim. III, 124.

Proclus’s interest in astrology matches his vast and complex

theological, metaphysical and scientific interests in astronomy.17
Unlike the astronomy of Aristarchus, Hipparchus, and Ptolemy,
Proclus follows the astronomy developed by Plato in the Timaeus,
but previously affirmed by the “Chaldaeans and Egyptians”, which
considers the divine intelligible causes of the heavenly movements.18

16 Vita Procli 37.

17 Cf. Plato’s “astral theology”, Leg. X. For Proclus’s work as an astronomer,
see the summary by Siorvanes Lucas, Proclus: Neo-Platonic Philosophy
and Science, 262 ff.
18 Cf. Hyp. I, 1–3; Proclus, In Remp. II, 227, 23–235, 3 and Proclus, In Tim.
III, 124-126. Several works on astronomy and astrology are attributed to
Proclus, in some cases the attribution being considered dubious. See
Rosán Laurence Jay, The Philosophy of Proclus: The Final Phase of
Ancient Thought. 44-47. Both him and Siorvanes believe that the works
on Ptolemy attributed to Proclus positively belong to him.
42 Initiatic Religious Experience In Neoplatonism

Like the Platonists that preceded him, Proclus sees the celestial ambit
as a medium (mésos) between generated beings (genētōn) and the
intelligible (noētōn).19 The celestial, in its turn, it is assimilated to
the mathematical and related to the psychological; there, where the
intelligible exists as images (eikonikós) and the sensible as paradigms
or exemplars.20 For Proclus, the planets are the cause of change in the
corporal world, being also the causes of change of the seasons and the
weather.21 According to the philosopher, the seven planets are living
divine beings, whom he calls leaders (hēgemόnes):22 “we shall say
that each of the planetary spheres is a whole cosmos which includes
many kinds of gods that are invisible to us, but in all this cases, the
visible star has a leadership role.”23 Planets are conceived by Proclus
as the cosmic governors or rulers (kosmokrátores, an astrological
term), to whom a total but specific power has been assigned, each
planet being the leader of an appropriate group of beings.24 The
planets as gods are called by Proclus protectors (prostátais) of the
realm of generation in its totality.25 They procure its fulfilment: “For
the heavenly revolutions fulfill somethings for somethings, others
for others, and they bring to completion one fabric from all entities,
which contributes to the fulfilment of the universe”.26 Besides, their
aspects and apparitions produce signs (sēmeía) of future events,
comments the philosopher following Plato`s Timaeus 40c-d, where
there seems to be a reference to Chaldean celestial divination -at
least- according to Proclus.27
So, for each planetary sphere there is a multitude of beings
coordinated with the same while belonging to different levels and

19 See Proclus, In Tim. III, 150, 23-28.

20 Proclus, In Tim. I, 8, 15-20.
21 The astrological Aristotelian physics of Ptolemy, notes Siorvanes;
Proclus: Neo-Platonic Philosophy and Science, 267-268. Here Siorvanes
refers to Proclus, In Tim. III, 122, 6-10; 119, 23-30; 124, 14-18 & 79, 15-
19.
22 See Proclus, In Tim. III, 129, 9-14.
23 Proclus, In Tim. III, 131, 1-3.
24 Proclus, In Tim. III, 58.
25 See Proclus, In Tim. I, 34.
26 Proclus, In Crat., LV (24, 14-16).
27 Proclus, In Tim. III 150, 21-151,9.
J.M. Redondo Ornelas - Astrology is to theurgy what astronomy is to theology 43

kinds.28 As Siorvanes explains, we can appreciate how each planet,

in virtue of its own existence, has or belongs to a henad while also
participating of a true being; it has its own means of movement or
soul, determined by a form while also having a body. In terms of
notions, we may divide into two what for Proclus is the celestial
compound object: a corporeal part and an incorporeal part, which
includes the self-substantive unity, the intellect and the soul of the
celestial. The corporeal and visible part constitutes the physical
aspect of the planet; the incorporeal part constitutes its metaphysical
aspect, that responsible for its action.29 The celestial divine unity
is the ultimate source of the power of the planet. It is in virtue of
this unity that the celestial has the volition and potency to act; an
activity channeled by the mediation of the non-physical levels. This
is the way that the celestials are said to affect people, exercising
providence over them as gods. Proclus calls their power “sovereign”
(archikḗ) and “controller” (kratikḗ).30 Thus, the planets, the cosmic
gods, are like visible henads.31 Though theurgy in Proclus may be
said to be astrological in a technical, secondary sense, primarily it
is astrological in a metaphysical sense, the way it may be said that
sensible, corporeal experience is the astrological phenomenology of
the soul of the cosmos composed by the celestial spheres. Bodies

28 See Proclus, In Tim. III 58, 8-13; 151, 32-152, 2; 131, 10-18. See also
Proclus, In Remp., II 220, 11-221,10.
29 Lucas Siorvanes, Proclus: Neo-Platonic Philosophy and Science, 271-
272. Cf. Proclus, In Tim. III 72, 19-21.
30 This concepts underlie Proclus’s observations regarding the moving
divinity (kinētikḗ theótēs) found in each planet. Proclus, In Tim. III, 57,
17-20. Cf. El. Th. 120-122.
31 Being visible henads, visible gods, in this manner, we may say, they are a
key aspect of Proclus’s henadology, which reverses or complements the
top-down ontology that seems to place the henads far above in the
metaphysical structure, since, in the divine unities the ontological
distinction between the intelligible and the sensible collapses, the divine
presence permeating it all, even the lowest substances like herbs and
stones, on which ritual practice is founded. Therefore, the planets are like
self-visible gods that unite everything in our world, unity being the central
notion in this regard. For Proclus’s henadology, see Redondo,
“Henadología y ontología, o los dioses y las formas: la metafísica binaria
y erótica de Proclo”, and the precursor eminent work of Edward Butler.
44 Initiatic Religious Experience In Neoplatonism

are the results or effects (apotelésmaton) of soul’s self-creative

contemplation and portrayal in the astral dynamics which, according
to a Lógos, mediates between the intelligible and the sensible; an
analogical language, we mentioned above.32 Physical, natural
reality, is the result of the astral cycles, hence astrology was known
as ἀποτελεσματική (apotelesmatikḗ),33 the science of the effects.
Astrology affords a way in which a rite imitates the divine intelligible
order expressed by the order of the celestial gods, integrating thus
the ritual display into the cosmic harmony as an organic expression
of it. Theurgists reciprocate natural entities whose living being is
imagined or seen with thought as a natural hymn (ὓμνος φυσικός),
like the lotus opening his petals like lips singing (ὑμνεῖν) to the
rising sun34. Proclus, with his presentation of the chains of orders
that extend from the first to the very last beings, all bounded by
the henads or gods who express their will through a heavenly
Logos or celestial writing,35 seems to echo very ancient Babylonian
traditions, where the gods have in their hands ropes that bind under
their command everything in the lower world.36 Proclus employs

32 For Proclus, then, astrology as a technique employs an analogical

language, derivative of its ontological reality as the metaphysical language
that structures reality itself. In Proclus thought, the notion of analogy is
central and quite complex. On the other hand, for him, astrological
language, in both senses, metaphysical and technical, besides being
analogical, following Iamblichus, is also symbolic and imaginative,
poetic.
33 See Porphyry,“Porphyrii Philosophi, Introductio in Tetrabiblum
Ptolemaei”, 1.
34 The loose terms and sentences in Greek that appear in the text from here
on belong to Proclus´s On the hieratic art of the Greeks; translations are
mine.
35 Like Plotinus before, Proclus conceives the stars as letters. See Plotinus,
Enn. II, 3, 7, 1-15; III, 1, 6, 20.
36 It is interesting in this regard that the dictionary gives for σειρά: rope,
chain, noose, bind. Regarding Babylonian celestial divination, see
Francesca Rochberg, ‘Heaven and earth. Divine – human relations in
Mesopotamia celestial divination’ and The Heavenly Writing. Divination,
horoscopy, and astronomy in Mesopotamian culture. See also Erica
Reiner, Astral Magic in Babylonia; also “Babylonian celestial divination”,
as well as N. Campion, The dawn of Astrology, chaps. 3 and 4.
J.M. Redondo Ornelas - Astrology is to theurgy what astronomy is to theology 45

the Homeric image of the golden chain that binds the totality of the
cosmos together, to designate this way the diverse divine series, so
that “the government of the gods extends from heaven as far as to
the last of things”.37
For the Platonists, the cosmos is the divine temple, adorned with
an extraordinary altar, the celestial vault wherein are found the stars,
statues of the gods whose eternal act of the creation of the cosmos is
a ritual, led by the demiurgic hierophant; a theurgical act dedicated to
the God of gods. The whole cosmos is an eternal liturgical activity;
a universal ritual: astrology reveals this way its deepest dimension
as a political project, as it adumbrates the practical possibility of a
universal religion where different gods relate to different planets/
henads, as in Proclus’s complex theological hermeneutics.38 A
cosmic religious law to be followed by the individual (ethics) and
the community (politics: the government of the gods).39 The whole
of Late Antiquity’s Hellenic culture shares an astrological view of
the world as permeated by a divine fire, by the potencies radiated
from the Sun and the stars.40A common participation of all things in
a celestial fire: an erotic principle of being, life and consciousness.
Generalizing, we can say that during this age, astrological symbolism
becomes a common cosmic vocabulary and a central motive of
Hellenic culture, of its politics, science, art and religions as well as
in magic and the mysteries. This expression of astral piety has been

37 See Proclus, In Tim. III 162, 1-20. Cf. with Iamblichus, D. M., I 19. For
Homer, see Ill. VIII 17-27.
38 See for example In Tim. III, 131-132. Here Proclus mentions that the
books of the theologians and the theurgists are full of this god: planet
correspondances.
39 See In Tim. 1, 4, 20-25, for “Socrates’s politics” assimilated to the celestial
order (cf. Rep. 592b).
40 We find very similar visions regarding the celestial divine fire expressed
in the Chaldean Oracles, the Hermetica, the Papyri Graecae Magicae,
the astrological literature (Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum;
Firmicus Maternus’s Mathesis), the Clarian oracle (Oenanda scription)
and the Theos Hypsistos cult, for example.
46 Initiatic Religious Experience In Neoplatonism

called by some “astral religion”, to differentiate it from astrology,

understood in the narrow, technical sense.41

Divination and theurgy: the negotiation of fate

All the hieratic works are based on the celestial-terrestrial

correspondences, a theme that permeates the fragments On the hieratic
art of the Greeks. As a symbol charged with divine presence, every
terrestrial substance used in theurgical practice is the counterpart
of a celestial element, which is in turn an intelligible expression
originating with the gods. “In heaven are found the terrestrial
celestially, according to cause and, reciprocally, in the earth are the
celestial [things] in a terrestrial manner” (ἐν οὐρανῷ μὲν τὰ χθόνια
κατ’ αἰτίαν καὶ οὐρανίως, ἔν τε γῇ τὰ οὐράνια γηΐνως).42 The palm
tree resembles the sun in the same way that the sunflower and the
rooster converge or are dynamically compatible (συμπεριπολοῦντα)
with the luminary; the sun, the sunflower and the rooster moving
together coordinately (συγκινεῖται); their lives being connected. It
is sympathy that binds together all the orders of the cosmos (τάξιν,
σειρῶν) which, presided over by the gods as their guides, stretch
from the very first beings to the very last. Sympátheia as the bond
between all things, articulates the correspondences among the

41 For José Luis Calvo, the “Astrolatría, Astrología, Magia y Religiones

Mistéricas son, pues, los elementos básicos del sistema de creencias de la
llamada época del sincretismo”, epoch which would extend from
Hellenistic to Late Antiquity times. Calvo Martínez, “La Astrología como
elemento del sincretismo religioso del helenismo tardío”, 60-61.
Comparing astrology to Christian ecumenism, Otto Neugebauer affirms
that “with the exception of some typical Mesopotamian relics the doctrine
was changed in Greek hands to a universal system in which form alone it
could spread all over the world. Hence astrology in the modern sense of
the term, with its vastly expanded set of ‘methods’ is a truly Greek
creation, in many respects parallel to the development of Christian
theology a few centuries later.” Neugebauer, Otto, A history of ancient
mathematical astronomy, 613. Cf. Mace Hannah, “Astrology and Religion
in Late Antiquity”.
42 Proclus, “Peri tes hieratikes teknes” 148, 9-10,
J.M. Redondo Ornelas - Astrology is to theurgy what astronomy is to theology 47

different cosmic levels and the gods, applied by the theurgists in

their activities; sympathy also expressed poetically as the bonds of
Eros.43 Angels, demons, souls, animals, plants, minerals, all share
certain similar living properties, full of the breath (ἐμπνέοντας)
emanating from the stars (φωστήρων ἀπορροίαις); properties which,
while being analogously displayed in multiple forms, simultaneously
through all the orders of the cosmos, have their unity in a god, all
participating in the divine whose presence (παρουσία) embraces it
all. “Thus all is full of gods” (Οὕτω μεστὰ πάντα θεῶν), repeats
Proclus, after the sage Thales.44
Notwithstanding this extraordinary vision of the cosmos where
everything is united in harmony by a single bond, there is freedom
for the human being to act in life:

Therefore one must not refer all events only to the order in the
universe, as we neither attribute them all to our impulses, nor again
deprive the soul of the power of choice, since it has its very being
precisely in this, in choosing, avoiding this, running after that, even
though, as regards events, our choice is not master of the universe.45

We already pointed to the dynamic relationship conceived between

theurgy and divination.46 One necessarily implies the other, and this,
in flexible ways, given a conception of fate as conditional:47 for a
negative forecast, theurgy may have a preventive value (De Prov. 10,
37-39). Divine providence integrates our free choices and actions. In

43 See Proclus, In Alc. I, 68-69, 10; also, Orac.Chald. f. 39. For sympátheia
in Proclus, see El. Th. 97 y 123, 125 y 128.
44 Proclus, “Peri tes hieratikes teknes”,149, 28. Thales, A 22. For a fuller
exposition by Proclus about the different chains, see Proclus, In Tim. I, 11,
9 ff. and III, 271, 1.
45 De Prov. 36; translation by C. Steel.
46 See above note 46. See also In Alc. I, 314, 15 ff. for a precise definition of
the mantis and his activities, which imply the possession of knowledge
(episteme) and something beyond it.
47 For the platonic notion of conditional fate, see J. Opsomer, “The middle
Platonic doctrine of conditional fate”. As M. Lawrence rightly indicates,
“The close relationship between providence and fate in Middle Platonism
continues in the theurgic Neoplatonism of Iamblichus and Proclus”; see
“Astral symbolism in theurgic rites”, n. 16, p. 285.
48 Initiatic Religious Experience In Neoplatonism

the case of the monography On providence, fate and what depends

on us, it is clear that for Proclus there is a fluid and continuous
relationship between astrology and theurgy; a dialogical relationship
of interdependence, like that between diagnose and remedy, since
the planets do not produce inexorable results, but their patterns
symbolize tendencies, inclinations, which, being foreseeable, then
they can be anticipated:

The application of theurgy may dissolve the influxes that come down
from harmful agents, using as co-operative powers the influxes of the
agents that are beneficial to us, and the examination of the future plays
an important role in the effects.48

In this manner, theurgy has a practical advantage over philosophy:

The philosophic life, indeed, as he says [Plato], contributes; but in

my opinion, the telestic art is most efficacious for this purpose; through
divine fire obliterating all the stains arising from generation, as the
Oracles teach us, and likewise everything foreign, which the spirit and
the irrational nature of the soul have attracted to themselves.49

Associating astrology with the hieratikḗ téchnē, gives Proclus a

method to seek the most propitious moments to realize the different
rituals like sacrifices and prayers using the divine names.50 For
example, Proclus indicates that in the same way that the gods assign
to the souls, according to the cosmic order, the remedies to their faults
in the right moment, for their benefit, “so also godlike (theoprepeís)
men subordinately aim (stocházontai) at the right moment (toú

48 De Prov. 39. C. Steel adds a note to this passage of his translation,

referring to Psellus about the possible effect of theurgy to protect form
sickness indicated by the stars. Psellus, Philosophica Minora, I, 3, 150-5
(Proclus, On Providence, 85 note 178). There is another interesting
passage there, where Psellus also indicates that for “the Chaldean”: “the
soul may also be purified by the use of stones, herbs and incantations”
(CXXII 1131d-1132a. See pp. 134; 138, Oráculos Caldeos). In De Prov.
7, the experts on things divine referred seem to be the Chaldean astrologers,
according to Proclus, On Providence, 75, note 37.
49 Proclus, In Tim. III, 300; translation by T. Taylor. Cf. Orac.Chald. f. 196.
50 See Proclus, In Remp. II, 344 ff.
J.M. Redondo Ornelas - Astrology is to theurgy what astronomy is to theology 49

kairoú)”. The discernment of the correct time is fundamental for

the communion (synousía) with the good daimons, affirms Proclus;
“different portions of time are suited to different activities”, says
the philosopher alluding to the appropriate cosmic cycles (kósmou
períodoi).51

The theurgist as a cosmic human being: to light the heart as the

Demiurge lights the Sun.

Hearken, you gods holding the helm of holy wisdom,

who, having kindled an upward-leading fire, draw to
the immortals human souls, who leave the dark hole
behind,purified by the secret initiations of hymns.
Hymn common to the gods.52

The totality of the experiences of the human beings are connected

to the stars:

For individual souls that are being settled within it [the cosmos] are
enlisted in the company of their guiding gods, and become worldly via
their own vehicles, imitating their leaders, and the mortal creatures are
fashioned and given life by the gods of the heavens… the human being
is a miniature cosmos that contains partially all those things that the
cosmos contains divinely and completely. For we are in possession of
active intelligence, and rational soul that proceeds from the same father
and the same life-giving goddess as the universe, and a vehicle of aether
that has the same role [for us] as the heaven does [for the universe],

51 The complete passage is Proclus, In Alc. I, 121-122, 10; trans. O’Neill.

See also Proclus, In Tim. I, 214, 7-11 and 215, 1-20, for the division of the
times for prayer, corresponding to different astronomical cycles. These
temporal cycles are seen as themselves divine. See Proclus, In Tim. III,
40-41 y 43, where we are told that given the divinity of the day and the
night, the months and the years, the theurgist then have left for us
congresses, invocations and telestic sacred laws to celebrate this.
52 Trans.Van der Berg R.M., Proclus’ Hymns, IV, 1-7.
50 Initiatic Religious Experience In Neoplatonism

and an earthly body composed of the four elements – to these it is also

coordinate.53

By the end of his Commentary on the Timaeus, in another important

passage where he develops on the theme of the human being as
a microcosm, the philosopher makes an explicit link between the
planets and the faculties of the particular souls of which the human
beings participate:

Hence, also, some are accustomed to say, that his intellectual part is
arranged analogous to the sphere of the fixed stars; but that of reason,
that which is theoretic, is analogous to Saturn, and that which is
political, to Jupiter. Of the irrational part likewise, the irascible nature
is analogous to Mars; that which is endued with the faculty of speech,
to Mercury; that which is epithymetic, to Venus; that which is sensitive,
to the Sun; and that which is vegetative, to the Moon. The luciform
vehicle likewise, is analogous to the heavens; but this mortal body, to
the sublunary region.54

It is within the astral matrix of the cosmic soul that the human
being develops, from being a new-born baby to reaching old age,
all of his life is seen as a cosmic initiation that progresses in seven
stages that correspond to the seven classical planets that conform the
soul of the cosmos. “This is consonant (sýmphōnon) with the order
of the universe (táxei toú pantós)”, says Proclus, while explaining
the so-called planetary ages of the human being, an astrological
notion that he presents in his Commentary on the Alcibiades I.55 Our

53 In Tim. I, 5; trans. Tarrant.

54 In Tim. III, 355; trans. Taylor.
55 Proclus,In Alc. I, 196. The ascending order of the planetary spheres is the
same as that that the soul traverses after death according to the narrative
of the Poimandres, the first dialogue of the Corpus Hermeticum; see C. H.
I, 25-26. In his commentary on the myth of Er, Proclus interprets
astrologically the whole Moirai mythologem. See also Proclus, In Remp.
II, 343, 4-5 y 318, 12 ff. where Proclus refers to the Chaldean and Egyptian
astrologers who make predictions from genitures (genéseis) or natal
charts. Also, in In Tim. III, 151, 1-5 Proclus talks about Theophrastus
refering to the Chaldean astrologers who made admirable predictions of
particular events.
J.M. Redondo Ornelas - Astrology is to theurgy what astronomy is to theology 51

birth situates us in the complex cosmic order, according to an end,

which is envisioned as the return to the star from where we came.56
For this, we have to deploy its particular trace, which we find in our
very being, since souls, explains Proclus, “some are of the sphere
of the Sun, some of the sphere of Hermes, some of the sphere of
the Moon”.57 Every soul, “even if (it) is full of the same reason-
principles, possesses only one Form that differentiates it from others;
for example, the solar Form characterizes the solar soul and, another
(Form), another (type of soul)” 58: the planetary symbol of the henad
to which it belongs. This is the reason of the conversion of the souls
to the gods according to a union that is unique and indissoluble, like
the celestial gods returning to the supercelestials, this, in turn, to the
intellective gods and this to the intelligible gods, all of them in direct
continuity, encompassing all in a ineffable, invisible way.59 Chains of
whole series where the conversion of the soul to the gods is guided
by the daimon, the particular custodian of the soul. This guardians,
says Proclus, “they rejoice in being called ‘Apollos’ and ‘Zeus’ and
‘Hermes’ because they represent the peculiar characteristics (idiótēta
tōn oikeíōn) of their own gods”.60 The relationship of the daimon
with the planetary symbol of the henad to which it belongs, it is
obviously connected with the astrological techniques to determine
the daimon in the astrological chart of birth, the planetary tutelary
deity.61 It is the daimon that moves, controls and ordains all of our
experiences, guiding the whole of our life. It is a guide that we have
the responsibility to be able to follow, since:

56 Cf. Plato, Tim. 41d-42b.

57 Proclus, In Alc. I, 113, 5-10. Cf. Proclus, In Tim., III, 276, 22-30 and I,
111, 3-9.
58 Chal. Phil. V (14-16); trans Spanu. See Th. Pl. I 3, 15 ff. and III 18, 64.;
cf. Proclus, In. Parm. 948, 12-30 and Proclus, In Alc. I, 68-69, 10. Cf. El.
Th. 139.
59 See Proclus, In Tim. III 162, 1-20.
60 Proclus, In Alc. I, 69.
61 See above note 10 for the astrological technique to determine the daimon.
For Proclus on the cosmic notion of the despotés, see In Tim. II, 118, 10-
119, 5.
52 Initiatic Religious Experience In Neoplatonism

The life according to the daimon is blessed and happy (tò katà
daímona zēn makárion einai kaì eúdaimon). For the class of daimons
exists near the gods and is of the utmost service to souls for the divine
life; through it lies the ascent to and union with the gods (ánodos kaì
he synaphḕ).62

To refer to the experience of union with the divine, Proclus uses

the image of the ignition of light, of fire, similar to the ones found
in the Chaldean Oracles. Divinization resembles to lighting; to
being inflamed and illuminated by the divine fire.63 Inspiration is
envisioned like sparks that seek to ignite us. Like when Proclus, with
his heart ignited by the gods, out of nowhere –says Marinus-, uttered
in a loud voice an inspired poetic improvisation: “My soul has come,
breathing the might of fire, and, opening the mind, to the aether in a
fiery whirl, it rises, and clamours immortally for the starry orbits.”64
In the same way that the demiurge has lighted the fire of the Sun
(Tim. 39b), for theurgists and astrologers analogue to the heart,65 so
do the gods light the divine fire in the heart of the theurgist that burns
in the flames of the mania, the fire of divine love.66 All the different
orders and series of the astral chains revel themselves as orders of
eros: it is love that moves the stars, the whole cosmos, as well as the
soul’s aspiration for the fountain of that love, for the beloved. He by
whom the solar fire “was established at the site of the heart”. This
way, “existing as a radiant fire”, “taking wing, the soul of mortals

62 Proclus, In Alc. I, 93, 20; trans O’Neill. See also Proclus, In Alc. I, 77-78
ff.
63 Cf. Proclus, “Peri tes hieratikes teknes”, 149, 1-149. Here, union with the
divine is preceded by a warming or preparation of a material capable of
being ignited by the loving gods when their fire is transmitted (πυρὸς
διάδοσις). For the image of the ignition, see Proclus, In Alc. 33, 11- 16
and Proclus, In Tim. II, 104. Cf. Orac.Chald. 57-58, 60.
64 Vita Procli 28; trans. Edwards.
65 For the correspondence Sun: heart, see Vettius Valens, The Anthology I, 1,
and Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos III, 12. See also Van der Berg R.M., Proclus’
Hymns, “Hymn to Helios” (5-6): “Hearken: for you, being above the
middlemost seat of aether and in possession of the very brilliant disk, the
heart of the cosmos”; cf. Orac.Chald. 58.
66 For the equation of fire with love, see Orac.Chald. 39, 42-43; In Alc. I,
30-31, 10 and 31, 15-32, 12.
J.M. Redondo Ornelas - Astrology is to theurgy what astronomy is to theology 53

will press God into itself. And possessing nothing mortal, the soul
is completely intoxicated by God. Therefore boast of the harmony
under which the mortal body exists.”67

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