MAGIC 1105 · Plotinus Simulacrum and the Metaphysics of Magical Sympathy

Led by Plotinus of Lycopolis Simulacrum

1. Module 5 ○ Open

   Plotinus Simulacrum and the Metaphysics of Magical Sympathy

   Led by Plotinus of Lycopolis Simulacrum

   The question

   Plotinus (c. 204-270 CE), founder of the Neoplatonist philosophical school, was not himself a magician — he was famously cool toward ritual practice — but his metaphysical doctrine of the One, the procession of being from the One through Intellect (*Nous*) and Soul (*Psychē*) into the material world, and the cosmic sympathy (*sympatheia*) that connects every level of the procession, became the metaphysical foundation on which the next thousand years of Western magic would build. The doctrine of correspondence between the celestial and terrestrial worlds, the doctrine that *like attracts like*, the doctrine that the magician operates by drawing down higher powers through their lower correspondences — all of these have their philosophical foundation in the *Enneads*. What is Plotinian metaphysics, and how does it underwrite magical practice?

   Outcome

   The student has read *Ennead* IV.4.40-44 (the magic treatise — short, about ten pages), *Ennead* VI.9 (on the One — the foundational treatise), and at least one other treatise of the student's choice (recommended: *Ennead* I.6 *On Beauty* or III.8 *On Nature*).

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   Practice scenarios

   Reading the Magic Treatise

   Plotinus Simulacrum walks you through *Ennead* IV.4.40-44 — the most explicit treatment of magic in the *Enneads* and the foundational text for the Neoplatonist account of why ritual practice could be philosophically respectable. Read the passage in modern translation (Armstrong's Loeb is the standard; MacKenna's older translation is more readable but less accurate). Read also *Ennead* II.9 chapters 14-16 (the parts of *Against the Gnostics* most directly relevant to the question of cosmic sympathy and benign cosmic order). Then write a 700-word analytical essay: what is Plotinus's account of magical efficacy; how does it relate to cosmic sympathy; where does it differ from Iamblichus's later theurgic position (which you will encounter in Module 8); and what does Plotinus's relatively cool attitude toward actual ritual practice (despite the metaphysical framework that licenses it) tell us about the philosopher-magician distinction in late antiquity?

   Your goals

   • Read the magic treatise and the relevant *Against the Gnostics* passages before drafting.
   • Render Plotinus's account of cosmic sympathy precisely.
   • Address the philosopher's relation to ritual practice — Plotinus the metaphysician who provided the framework but did not himself work it.
   • Engage at least one piece of secondary scholarship.
   • 700 words ± 100, scholarly register.

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