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GERD VAN RIEL
From this introduction, one may expect my reply to be in the negative.
What I shall argue is, more precisely, that there is no Neoplatonic mysticism
without a rational project, that Damascius’ “reversal of discourse” (mepttpomn
t@v AOywv) is not a sceptical endeavour, and, most importantly, that the
expression of ignorance or of the shortcoming of discourse presupposes
the highest expression of rational analysis, before yielding to mystical
experience.
1. THE TENSION BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY AND MYSTICISM
We first need to tackle the question of how far the Neoplatonists went in
embracing mysticism. There are two ways in which their views can be
qualified as mystical. The first one, which is specific to late Neoplatonism,
is their way of dealing with what they call “theurgy”, i.e. religious practice,
rituals, and magic designed to unite with the gods and with the Highest
Principle. The Chaldaean Oracles, written in the 2" c. AD by two Julians,
father and son, served as the sacred text cited during those rituals. Syrianus
was not too keen on them, but others, like Iamblichus and Proclus (a pupil
of Syrianus’), took them very seriously. As Proclus testifies, philosophy and
mystical theology are seen as complementary exercises. In his Platonic
Theology, Proclus explains that “all of these doctrines [i.e. Greek theological
traditions expressed in Plato’s dialogues] are in agreement with Plato’s first
principles, and with the secret traditions of the theologians, for the entire
Greek theology is the daughter of the mystagogy of Orpheus” (Proclus,
Theologia Platonica [TP] 15, 25, 24-27). This theological tradition would then
be handed over from Orpheus to Pythagoras, and from Pythagoras to Plato.
That is to say, philosophy and the secret theologies (meaning mystic cults
derived from Orphic texts, including the Chaldaean Oracles) serve the same
purposes. Still, there is a difference in approach between these different
texts. According to Proclus, a distinction must be made between texts that
use an allusive language (61 évdei—~ewc) and texts that explain reality in an
unveiled way (anapakaAürtwg). Each of the two has two further subdivisions,
giving way to four types of theological speculation: the Orphic, which uses
symbolic and mythical language, the Pythagorean, using images (St eikxövwv)
and mathematics—those two are the allusive ones, while the unveiled ones
are, on the one hand, the Chaldaean Oracles, which give a direct revelation
of the divine truth in the celebration of the mysteries, and Plato, on the other,
who presents a scientific (kar émorrjunv) account of the divine principles."
4 Proclus TP 14, 19, 23-20, 25.
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