Hypernoetic Cognition and the Scope of Theurgy in Proclus

Abstract

tuoMo lAnkilA concept of the soul's ascent in Proclus is thoroughly theurgical, and for Dodds theurgical meant the same as occult and magic.Hans lewy saw (H.lewy, Chaldaean Oracles and Theurgy.Mysticism, Magic and Platonism in the Later Roman Empire.Nouvelle édition, Paris 1978 [orig.Cairo 1956, but Lewy's contribution was actually already written before 1945]) theurgy and philosophy as two different methods aiming at the same goal.For L. J. Rosán, The Philosophy of Proclus.The Final Phase of Ancient Thought, New York 1949, the theurgy is present in the Proclean project but in two different forms, as a ritual-magical "lower" theurgy and a "higher" theurgy which operates with non-ritualistic symbols.According to A. C. Lloyd "unification with the unparticipated One, is beyond the scope of intellectual virtue and accomplished by theurgy", A. C. Lloyd, "Athenian and Alexandrian Neoplatonism", in A. H. Armstrong (ed.),The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy, Cambridge 1967, 312.Jean Trouillard thought that the theology of negations call forth theurgy as a mediating element between contemplation and mystical union (Trouillard's intervention in the discussion in O. Reverdin (ed.), De Jamblique a Proclus [Entretiens sur l'antiquité classique XXI], Genève 1975, 101).According to Anne Sheppard (1982, note above) besides ritualistic practice, Proclus has two different kinds of non-ritualistic theurgies, the first of which reaches to the noeric realm and the second achieves unity with the One.Carine Van Lieferinge (La théurgie.Des Oracles Chaldaïques à Proclos, Liège 1998) adopts Sheppard's opinion with some qualifications.Robert M. van den Berg declares his allegiance, with minor reservations, to Sheppard's threetheurgy model (Proclus' Hymns, leiden 2001) and it seems that his dedicated reading of the Commentary on Cratylus (2008, note above) does not modify that position.Sara Rappe (S.Rappe, Reading Neoplatonism.Nondiscursive Thinking in the Texts of Plotinus, Proclus, and Damascius, Cambridge 2000, chapter 8) offers the most theurgic reading of Neoplatonism: for her even the magnum opus of Proclus, the Platonic Theology, is essentially a theurgic text.