presence of the angels plays a limited role in Proclan/Iamblichan theurgy, appropriate to their place in hierarchy. no new center for Pico.
Bradshaw: tendency in Proclus to understand procession and return in less dynamic terms than Plotinus
radical individuality of henads/gods in pagan polytheist late neoplatonism mitigated by Christian theological constraints when app to angel
Pico sees faith and prayer driving the mystical ascent of Iamblichus and Proclus, not ritual magic or angel conjuring.
Thus for Proclus faith (pistis), necessary for theurgy and mystic experience, becomes more important
a superficially Christianized version of the theological and angelological speculations of Proclus http://bit.ly/f2nFsq
This is the itinerary of Gnostic angelology (particularly in its theurgical aspects), http://bit.ly/eLFlNE Cacciari, the necessary angel
theological reflection on angels came to be measured against new conceptions/Against metaphysicizing+naturalistic conception of angelology,
Proclus is more interested in Homer's support for his own elaborate angelology+demonology than in his support for Pythagorean dualism.
in particular Dionysius' angelology seems too reminiscent of the Athenian School's order of gods.
In its purest form it helped to give theological expression to Christian dogma regarding the Godhead; in a more dubious shape it helped to systematize angelology and psychology.
At Variance: Marsilio Ficino, Platonism, and Heresy http://bit.ly/dVBd5r Michael J.B. Allen
Al-Suhrawardi interpreted the theory os Platonic Ideas in terms of Zoroastrian angelology
Louth: "it looks as if Denys's distinctive contribution to Christian angelology is of Neoplatonic inspiration." http://bit.ly/dME676
Angelology has no place in the system of Plotinus. According to Iamblichus, Plato did not consider archangels worth mention
Iamblichus provides explanations for the workings of divination, which in its best form involves divine illumination.
Shaw, "Iamblichus argued that each divine genre defined itself, and its activity neither exhausted nor determined ... "
while I don't want to get too bogged down with theurgic/occultist interpretations, I do need to spend some time w/ Pico's magic+KBL, "hints"
sacrifices directed towards angels have an angel presiding http://bit.ly/i7SGCo Iamblichus De Mysteriis V.25 p.273
But of course Iamblichus could have denied separate existence to such beings, had he been so inclined
Dillon's list of Proclus Elements of Theology concepts that Dodds traced to Iamblichus http://bit.ly/dEYOIy
"can ascend to rank of angels" is first mention of angels http://bit.ly/gvQTHo Dillon again
Iamblichus distinguishes demons from gods http://bit.ly/hwaKF4 Iamblichi Chalcidensis By John M. Dillon, Iamblichus 16 minutes
even in Iamblichean theurgy humans who "become angels" don't become better than the gods, would be a mistake to say Pico's resorting to this
Pico seems to be trying to constrain interpretation of Kabbalah to licit, orthodox, Christian speculative philosophy--clearly he failed.
Since Pico only hinted at profitable research that might be made into Kabbalah as source for Dionysian mysticism, later Cabalists freely dug
Pico may have had an ingenious plan to explain Kabbalistic angel in terms of Dionysian neoplatonic angelology as he promised, but he didn't.
In any case Pico doesn't deal much with Kabbalistic angel lore/doesn't give us enough information to judge how it fits into his own "system"
Kabbalah may resonate with Pico's Neoplatonism, mysticism, magic, but he's reaching when he claims to discover same metaphysics of angels in
for Pico to be singled out as having a problematic attitude toward angels requires some explaining, but I have not encountered such an expl.
"The Iamblichan cosmos was therefore a magical one,populated by a great diversity of superhuman spiritual beings,influencing natural events"
when Pico mentions abstract/concrete being in de ente cite Mark Delp paper
Gersh 169 Angels 'have simple and blessed cognition . . . human souls possess rationality discursively' http://bit.ly/h55dVQ
Pico is working with Proclan principles already Christianized by Dionysius, mapped+analyzed by Aquinas, before he finds more stuff in Procl.
RT @EPButler Specifically, angels in pagan NP are divinized intelligences, daimons divinized immortal souls, heroes divinized mortal souls.
RT @EPButler If not Proclus, via Ps-D, then who? It's just that Ps-D's angelology comes, not from P's angelology, but his henadology,tweaked
RT @EPButler Since he uses the term "angel", yes. Granted, there's not much there, but it is part of the architecture of his system.
RT @EPButler Xtian ideas about angels prior to Ps-D may have more in common with Proclus' thought about angels than that coming after.
@EPButler Dionysius looks at angels/God in a more Proclan way than Thomas Aquinas did when interpreting Dionysius in ST, Pico follows Thomas
@EPButler my guy Pico definitely sees angels in the Dionysian-Thomistic way, and I don't think he's trying to go back to Proclan henadology.
@EPButler That's interesting about earlier ideas--can you say more or refer me? Have you read Arthur on Ps-D as Polemicist? But as for Pico-
@EPButler angels don't play same architectural role in Proclus as in PD? was angel important to Iamblichus? or just yet another class of ent
@EPButler what's interesting to me is how much Proclus is there to fill in the blanks left by tiny biblical angel traditions, for Dionysius.
Iamblichus' Hierarchy of Spiritual Entities http://www.kheper.net/topics/Neoplatonism/Iamblich-beings.htm
there is a number proceeding from each of the principle hypostases http://bit.ly/gU8MHp
how are angels and daemons said to energise providentially
lamblichus replies that it is impossible to perform divine works without the assistance of a god [i.e. not merely an angel] ibid
If one is to obtain participation in the divine light, the recurrent theme of Proclus' hymns, one has to fully ... http://bit.ly/em8GIp
Iamblichus (Taylor): God, who is thus invoked in the sacrifices, is their author, +the gods+angels around him constitute ...
"And about every God there is an appropriate number of angels, heroes and daemons" Proclus, Platonic Theology http://bit.ly/eZ9sjd
Proclus, "For what the monad is among gods, this a number is among angels" http://bit.ly/ifgcT7 Timaeus commentary p.233
going to bed early, waking up in the middle of the night, is like finding the secret bonus levels of sleep
Dionysius' angelology was also sculpted by those approaches he rejected--especially alchemical/hermetic/magical angel traditions(see Arthur)
# xxxv While the theurgist may, at his most elevated, ascend to the order of angels... he can never be regarded as above+beyond status of gods
Dionysian angel predates, can't be reduced to his choice to use Proclan mechanics/henad to philosophize about?
"philosophical exegesis is not all that was going on in Dick’s life and mind in this period"
@EPButler Would you call the discussion of divinized intelligences in Proclus an "angelology" simply b/c he uses the word angel?
@EPButler I'm not saying PD's angelology doesn't come from Proclus (sure does), just that he doesn't quite mean the same thing by angel.
honest commentators have admitted that Pico's uses of Kabbalistic lore of angels are inscrutable, Copenhaver on system int is out on a limb?
Angels don't play anything like same role in Neoplatonism b/c different theological needs, angel not used to set divine apart as transcend.
Angelology is anachronistic term applied to pagan Neoplatonists, who spoke of gods, with angels a lower level--wouldn't be same angelology.
Like Aquinas+Dionysius, Pico talks about angels as images of God, functionaries of the divine, most perfect created thing, illuminating man.
"In the intelligible world God, surrounded by nine orders of angels, unmoved Himself, draws all to Himself ...
When Pico discusses the importance of biblical/Dionysian angelic assistance(which he finds in Iamblichus)he's not talking about angel magic.
according to pseudo-Dionysius, love makes the cosmos a unity [deliberate misunderstanding of Proclus?] http://bit.ly/fKNN9Z poetics of conv.
a principle Proclus set forth in comment on Alcibiades... thinking of planetary motion, but Dionysius transposed this language to angelology
Olivi's main drive was inspired by what he perceived as an abuse of Greek philosophy within theological issues http://bit.ly/dVy5Sa
"they discussed them as if they were some kind of gods, as one can clearly see from the book of Proclus and the Liber de causis"
such theological errors suffice to invalidate at once all endeavour to use pagan cosmology as a basis for angelological discussion
This notion of triads is something that Pseudo-Denys derives from Proclus but then expands.
Aquinas debt to Dionysius - divine attributes, angelology http://bit.ly/fkqw4D
philosophical program led Aquinas to fnt.of Arabian angelology for an extensive study+criticism of Proclus, pseudo-Dionysius+Liber De Causis
Corbin: "the complicity between angelology and cosmology" that was to be decisive
Copenhaver overstates case when he says Pico "professes" magic
http://www.scribd.com/doc/22387891/Corbin-Suhrawardi-s-Angelology-by-Roberts-Avens
@EPButler so in late neoplatonism angels aren't all part of the same universal "celestial hierarchy" but proper to separate hier's of henads
Bradshaw on Proclus, Elements of Theology http://bit.ly/fNGl0O in Aristotle East and West
Rappe 168: Proclus sets out to enumerate the successive orders of gods along the axis of the Parmenidean ontology
schools of Syrianus+Proclus in City and School http://bit.ly/gvSUj1
relative importance of Orpheus versus the oracles for the exposition of Platonic theology was under dispute during Proclus' days at Academy
while Syrianus deemed Aristotle study indispensable to Platonists, rated Plato above him+denied to Aristotle true understanding of theology
the final impetus that Proclus gave Syrianus's theology consisted in confronting it systematically with the Chaldaean Oracles
Syrianus could have considered Aristotle inventor of theology... undoubtedly true that Syrianus calls the Metaphysics a theological treatise
The author of De Causis drastically reduced Proclus' complex hierarchy,
Goodrich-Clarke: Syrianus wrote a “symphony” of Orpheus, Pythagoras, and Plato with reference to the Oracles.
Rappe on neoplatonic "divine hierarchy" http://bit.ly/hsSSWW Proclus relied on Syrianus for the enumeration of this divine hierarchy
Finamore Syrianus and Proclus accepted Iamblichus' metaphysical hierarchy and his emphasis on theurgy almost without question.same 4 vehicle
restructured type of intelligible hierarchy associated with lamblichus
O'Meara: now we know that it is Syrianus who, in his interpretation of the first and second hypotheses of the Parmenides,
invented the doctrine of the divine henads as the first degree in the hierarchy of the gods below the One, True God.
A.H. Armstrong on The Divine Mind in Plotinus http://bit.ly/gQUcqF
It seems likely that Syrianus is basing his interpretation on Iamblichean principles.
Syrianus' revolutionary interpretation of the second hypothesis [of Parmenides] as a theogony http://bit.ly/gGAXP4
Syrianus' defence of the ontological status of limits
for myth group: compare Pico's revival of neoplatonic allegory to decode Scripture with PKD revival of gnostic/hermetic allegory to read PKD
Pico vs. Ficino / many profitable contrasts: different takes on magic, Proclus, Plotinus, Aquinas, absent angel, absent Kabbalah, talismans
This Intelligible Living Being and this demiurge are both situated at a relatively low degree in the hierarchy of beings.
Wear p.59 Despite Dionysius' use of scriptural exegesis to manipulate the names of angels
...to his own categories of beings in the celestial hierarchy, his system is plainly based closely on that of Syrianus and Proclus
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