Neoplatonism
A philosophy of the third century onward, founded on Plotinus, that shaped later magic, theology and mysticism.
Also: Platonism of late antiquity, Plotinus, Iamblichus
Neoplatonism is a modern label for the school of Plotinus (about 204 to 270) and followers such as Porphyry, Iamblichus and Proclus. It describes reality as flowing from a single source, the One, through levels of mind and soul down to matter, with the soul able to climb back. Iamblichus defended ritual, theurgy, as a path of ascent, against Porphyry's more philosophical view. The ideas passed into Christian, Jewish and Islamic thought and into Renaissance magic through Ficino and Pico della Mirandola. The notion that the cosmos is linked in levels gave later occult writers a framework for correspondences and for the idea that human beings can act on higher realities.