On the Mysteries

Iamblichus of Chalcis

On the Mysteries is the philosophical masterpiece of Iamblichus, the Syrian Neoplatonist who died around 326 AD — the same year Constantine made Christianity the favoured religion of the Roman Empire. It is the most sophisticated defence of ritual magic ever written: a systematic argument that theurgy — the practice of invoking the gods through ritual — is not superstition but the highest form of

Codex Digital EditionComing soonEdition currently in preparation

Edition088

FormatDigital PDF

Editorial statusIn review

TraditionMystery Schools

Before you read

Context without the mythology.

Codex ISO separates the surviving evidence from later interpretation, so you can encounter the text without being told what to believe about it first.

01 / Historical context

4th century. The theological defence of ritual magic by the greatest of the Neoplatonist philosophers. Outlawed when paganism was banned, 391 AD. The last full defence of theurgy b

02 / Why it matters

Written the year Christianity became state religion. The last defence of the gods.

From / associated with the text

““For to be perfectly united with the gods through theurgy, not merely through thought, is the end of the priestly science as we teach it.””

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On the Mysteries

Context without the mythology.

Source before story.

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