Focus on Creation: Plato and the Platonists

Iamblichus. De mysteriis Egyptiorum.
Venice, A. Manutius, 1497

In his longing to make a connection with the divine, the Neoplatonist Iamblichus (ca. 245-330) subordinated philosophy to theurgy ('acting through God'). Iamblichus considered it possible to a certain degree to become a part of the divine creator by means of magical writings and practices. With The mysteries of the Egyptians Iamblichus responded to Porphyry, who was critical of theurgy. Iamblichus used Egyptian, Chaldaean and Assyrian sources for his work. His version of the Egyptian religion is at the same time his own version of the Neoplatonism of his age.

'The Egyptians [...] imitate the nature of the universe and the gods' work of creation, by producing symbolic images to represent mysterious, occult and invisible meanings. Nature, in the same way, has revealed its unseen principles in visible forms, and the craftsmanship of the gods has made perceptible copies of the reality of the Forms. And so, because they know that all higher beings take delight to see their likeness in their inferiors, their wish is to complete the felicity of the gods by copying them, to the best of their powers; they [...] produce, in an appropriate form, an initiation into divine mysteries concealed in symbols.'

VII 1, T. Taylor