CHAPTER XI

NEO-PLATONISM AND ITS RELATIONS TO ASTROLOGY AND
THEURGY
Neo-
Platonism and the occult.
Neo-Platonism and the occult — Plotinus on magic — The life of rea- son is alone free from magic — Plotinus unharmed by magic — Invoking the demon of Plotinus — Rite of strangling birds — Plotinus and astrology —The stars as signs — The divine star-souls — How do the stars cause and signify? — Other causes and signs than the stars — Stars not the cause of evil — Against the astrology of the Gnostics — Fate and free- will— Summary of the attitude of Plotinus to astrology — Porphyry's Letter to Anebo — Its main argument — Questions concerning divine natures — Orders of spiritual beings — Nature of demons — The art of theurgy — Invocations and the power of words — Magic a human art : theurgy divine — Magic's abuse of nature's forces — Its evil character — Its deceit and unreality — Porphyry on modes of divination — lamblichus on divination — Are the stars gods? — Is there an art of astrology? — Porphyry and astrology — Astrological images — Number mysticism — Porphyry as reported by Eusebius — The emperor Julian on theurgy and astrology — Julian and divination — Scientific divination according to Ammianus Marcellinus — Proclus on theurgy — Neo-Platonic account of magic borrowed by Christians — Neo-Platonists and alchemy.
That the Neo-Platonists were much given to the occult has been a common impression among- those who have written upon the period of the decline of the Roman Empire, of the end of paganism, and the passing of classical philosophy. This is perhaps in some measure the result of Christian view- point and hostility; probably the Christians of the period would seem equally superstitious to a modern Neo-Platonist. If the lives of the philosophers by Eunapius sound like fairy tales, ^ what do the lives of the saints of the same period sound like? If the Neo-Platonists were like our mediums,
* Paul Allard, La transforma- tion dii Paganismc romain an IJ^e siccle, pp. 113-33, in Compte Rendu du Congrcs Scicnlifique
International dcs Catholiqucs. Detixicme Section, Sciences re ligieuses. Paris, 1891.
298
CHAP. XI NEO-PLATONISM 299
what were the Christian exorcists like? But let us turn to
the writings of the leading Neo-Platonists themselves, the
only accurate mirror of their views.
Plotinus/ who lived from about 204 to 270 A. D. and Plotinus
on magic, is generally regarded as the founder of Neo-Platonism, was
apparently less given to occult sciences than some of his successors.^ One of his charges against the Gnostics ^ is that they believe that they can move the higher and incor- poreal powers by writing incantations and by spoken words and various other vocal utterances, all which he censures as mere magic and sorcery. He also attacks their belief that diseases are demons and can be expelled by words. This wins them a following among the crowd who are wont to marvel at the powers of magicians, but Plotinus insists that diseases are due to natural causes.* Even he, however, ac- cepted incantations and the charms of sorcerers and magicians as valid, and accounted for their potency by the sympathy or love and hatred which he said existed between different objects in nature, which operates even at a dis-
^ Plotini opera o»inia, Forphyrii spect. A noteworthy recent pub-
libcr de znta Plotini, cum Marsilii lication is W. R. Inge, Tlie Philos-
Ficini commentariis . . . ed D. ophy of Plotinus, 1918, 2 vols.
Wyttenbach, G. H. Moser, and F. " H. F. Muller, Plotinische Stu-
Creuzer, Oxford, 1835, 3 vols. dicn II, in Hermes, XLIX, 70-89,
Page references in my citations argues that the philosophy of
are to this edition, but I have also Plotinus was genuinely Hellenic
employed: Plotini Enneadcs, ed. and free from oriental influence,
R. Volkmann, Leipzig, 1883; Se- that all theurgy was hateful to
lect Works of Plotinus translated him, and that he opposed Gnos-
from the Greek with an Introduc- ticism and astrology. Miiller
tion containing the substance of seems to me to overstate his case
Porphyry's Life of Plotinus, by and to be too ready to exculpate
Thomas Taylor, new edition with Plotinus, or perhaps rather Hel-
preface and bibliography by G. R. lenism, from concurrence in the
S. Mead, London, 1909; K. S. superstition of the time.
Guthrie, The Philosophy of Ploti- ^ For Gnosticism see Chapter 15.
mis, Philadelphia, 1896, and Ploti- *'Ennead, II, 9, 14. IWwTivovirpos
nos, Complete Works. 4 vols., tov% Tvucttikovs, ed. G. A. Heigl,
1918, English Translation. Where 1832; and Plotini De Virtutibus ct
my citations give the number of Advcrsus Gnosticos libellos, ed. A.
the chapter in addition to the Kirchhoff, 1847 ; are simply extracts
Ennead and Book, these agree from the Enncads. See also C.
\vith Volkmann's text and Guth- Schmidt, Plotin's Stellung cum
rie's translation,— which, however, Gnosticismus u. kirchl. Christeti'-
are not quite identical in this re- turn, 1900; in TU, X, 90 pp.
300
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
The life of reason is alone free from magic.
Plotinus unharmed by magic.
tance, and which is an expression of one world-soul ani- mating the universe,^
Plotinus held further, however, that only the physical and irrational side of man's nature was affected by drugs and sorcery, just as "even demons are not impassive in their irrational part," ^ and so are to some extent subject to magic. But the rational soul may free itself from all influ- ence of magic.^ Moreover, remorselessly adds the clear- headed Plotinus with a burst of insight that may well be attributed to Hellenic genius, he who yields to the charms of love and family affection or seeks political power or aught else than Truth and true beauty, or even he who searches for beauty in inferior things ; he who is deceived by appear- ances, he who follows irrational inclinations, is as truly bewitched as if he were the victim of magic and goetia so- called. The life of reason is alone free from magic.'* Whereat one is tempted to paraphrase a remark of Aelian ^ and exclaim, "What do you think of that definition of magic, my dear anthropologists and sociologists and modern students of folk-lore?"
This immunity of the true philosopher and sincere fol- lower of truth from magic received illustration, according to Porphyr}',® in the case of Plotinus himself, who suffered no harm from the magic arts which his enemy, Alexandrinus Olympius, directed against him. Instead the baleful de- fluxions from the stars which Olympius had tried to draw down upon Plotinus were turned upon himself. Porphyry also states '^ that Plotinus was aware at the time of the "sidereal enchantments" of Olympius against him. Inci- dentally the episode provides one more proof of the essential unity of astrology and magic.
^Ennead, IV, 4, 40 (11, 805 or 434). Tas dk yoTjreLas wws', v "rfj avuiraOilq., Kal tw ■Ke4>VKivai avn4>uvlau elvai ofjLolwv KalkvavrLujatv avofiolo^v, Kal rfj Twv bvvay.c(j3v tuv toXXoij' troiKiXiif. els if ^ct)oi> awTeXovuTwv. Ibid. 42 (II, 808 or 436) . . .KalTlxvoLisKailaTpiiv Kal kvaoLduv aWo ctXXco rjuayKaadr] ira- paax^'i-v TL TTjs bvvkixeoi's ttis avrov. Ennead, IV, 9 (II, 891 or 479).
el dk Kal kTTuioal Kal oXwj fiayelaL ffvvd- yovcn Kal avixiradtls TrSppudti' iroiov(Ti, wavTOi^ Toi hta i/'i'X^J nias.
^ Enncad, IV, 4 (II, 810 or 437).
'^Ennead, IV, 4, 43-44.
* Ennead, IV, 4, 44.
" See Chapter XII, pp. 323-4.
* Vita Plotini, cap. 10. ' Vita, cap. 10,
XI NEO-PLATONISM 301
Plotinus, indeed, was regarded by his admirers as Invoking
the divinely inspired, as another incident from the Life by demon of
Porphyry will illustrate.^ An Egyptian priest had little diffi- Plotinus.
culty in persuading Plotinus, who although of Roman
parentage had been born in Egypt, to allow him to try to
invoke his familiar demon. Plotinus was then teaching in
Rome where he resided for twenty-six years, and the temple
of Isis was the only pure place in the city which the priest
could find for the ceremony. When the invocation had been
duly performed, there appeared not a mere demon but a
god. The apparition was not long enduring, however, nor
would the priest permit them to question it, on the ground
that one of the friends of Plotinus present had marred the
success of the operation. This man had feared he might
suffer some injury when the demon appeared and as a
counter-charm had brought some birds which he held in his
hands, apparently by the necks, for at the critical moment
when the apparition appeared he suffocated them, whether
from fright or from envy of Plotinus Porphyry declares
himself unable to state.
This practice of grasping birds by the necks in both The rite of
hands is shown by a number of works of art to have been a birds.
custom of great antiquity. We may see a winged Gorgon
strangling a goose in either hand upon a plate of the seventh
century B.C. from Rhodes now in the British Museum.^ A
gold pendant of the ninth century B.C. from Aegina, now
also in the British Museum, consists of a figure holding a
water-bird by the neck in either hand, while from its thighs
pairs of serpents issue on whose folds the birds stand with
their bills touching the fangs of the snakes.^ There also is a
figure of a winged goddess grasping two water-birds by the
necks upon an ivory fibula excavated at Sparta.^
* Cap. 10. such as a figure holding up two
^ A748. water-birds, in immediate con-
' Shown in the article on nexion with IMycenaean gold pat-
"Jewelry" in the eleventh edition terns." See further A. J. Evans
of the Encyclopedia Britannica, in Journal of Hellenic Studies,
Plate I, Figure 50. The article 1893, p. 197.
says of the pendant, "Here we find *]. E. Harrison, Themis, Cam-
the themes of archaic Greek art, bridge, 1912. p. 114, Fig. 20.
302
MAGIC AND EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE chap.
Plotinus
and
astrology.
The stars as signs.
Porphyry also tells us in the Life that Plotinus devoted considerable attention to the stars and refuted in his writ- ings the unwarrantable claims of the casters of horoscopes.^ Such passages are found in the treatises on fate and on the soul, while one of his treatises is devoted entirely to the question, "Whether the stars effect anything?" ^ This was one of four treatises which Plotinus a little before his death sent to Porphyry, and which are regarded as rather inferior to those composed by him when in the prime of life. In the next century the astrologer, Julius Firmicus Maternus, re- gards Plotinus as an enemy of astrology and represents him as dying a horrible and loathsome death from gangrene.^
As a matter of fact the criticisms made by Plotinus were not necessarily destructive to the art of astrology, but rather suggested a series of amendments by which it might be made more compatible with a Platonic view of the uni- verse, deity, and human soul. These amendments also tended to meet Christian objections to the art. His criti- cisms were not new; Philo Judaeus had made similar ones over two centuries before.* But the great influence of Plotinus gave added emphasis to these criticisms. For in- stance, the point made by him several times that the motion of the stars "does not cause everything but signifies the future concerning each" ^ man and thing, is noted by Macrobius both in the Saturnalia ^ and the Dreamt of Scipio; "^ while in the twelfth century John of Salisbury, arguing against astrology, fears that its devotees will take refuge in the authority of Plotinus and say that they detract
^ Vita, cap. 15. It will be noted that like some of the church fathers Plotinus attacked geneth- lialogy rather than astrology. Upoa- elx^ 8i ToZs fj.ev ivepl Tcbv acrrepajv ko- vdaiv ov Trdfu Tt /laOrjuaTiKcbs, rotj 8e ruv yepeOXidXoycov airoTtkeaTiKols a.Kpv- pkarepop. Kal4>o}pa(Tas tvs kwayyeKLas r6 kvixtyyvov eXeyx^tf iroWaxov Kal (tuv) kv rots avyyp&fxfjiaaiu ovk ioKPrjae.
' Ennead II, 3, Ilepi tov el iroul tA, tarpa. Porphyry arranged his master's treatises in the form of six enneads of nine each and per-
haps somewhat revised them at the same time.
^ Mathescos libri VIII, ed. Kroll et Skutsch, Lipsiae, 1897. I, 7, 14-22.
*See below, pp. 353-4-
^ Ennead II, 3 (p. 242), "On v T03V SlCtpuiv tKaarov to. ka6p.eva AXX' ohK avrri ir&vTa iroiei, ws Tois ttoXXoIj 5o|(if«Tai, cKpTjrai fikv irohrfpov tv aWois. See also En- nead III, i, and IV, 3-4.
•I, 18.
^Cao. 19.
XI NEO-PLATONISM 303
nothing from the Creator's power, since He established once for all an unalterable natural law and disposed all future events as He foresaw them. Thus the stars are merely His instruments.^
But let us see what Plotinus says himself rather than The divine what others took to be his meaning. Like Plato, who re- ^^^'■■^°" s- garded the stars as happy, divine, and eternal animals, Plo- tinus not only believes that the stars have souls but that their intellectual processes are far above the frailties of the human mind and nearer the omniscience of the world-soul. Memory, for example, is of no use to them,^ nor do they hear the prayers which men address to them.^ Plotinus often calls them gods. They are, however, parts of the uni- verse, subordinate to the world-soul, and they cannot alter the fundamental principles of the universe, nor deprive other beings of their individuality, although they are able to make other beings better or worse.*
In his discussion of problems concerning the soul Plo- How do
the st3.rs
tinus says that "it is abundantly evident . . . that the mo- cause and tion of the heavens affects things on earth and not only in signify? bodies but also the dispositions of the soul," ^ and that each part of the heavens affects terrestrial and inferior objects. He does not, however, think that all this influence can be accounted for "exclusively by heat or cold," — perhaps a dig at Ptolemy's Tetrahihlos.^ He also objects to ascribing the crimes of men to the will of the stars or every human act
^ Polycraticus, II, 19, (ed. C. C. agreed that they have senses,