Neoplatonist theurgy and divine mysteries

Iamblichus

245 – 325

Iamblichus was a Syrian Neoplatonist philosopher who decisively redirected the school away from Plotinus's purely intellectual mysticism toward theurgy — ritual practices for uniting the soul with the divine through material symbols, prayers, and sacred rites. His De Mysteriis (On the Egyptian Mysteries) defended theurgic ritual as the supreme path to the gods and became a cornerstone text for later Western occultism, Renaissance Hermeticism, and ceremonial magic, providing the philosophical justification that ritual action can effect genuine metaphysical transformation. Every subsequent Western tradition that combines philosophical mysticism with ritual practice stands on the foundation Iamblichus built.