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Herme<neu>tica New Approaches to the Text and Interpretation of the Corpus Hermeticum These conference papers may be of interest: http://www.princeton.edu/~hellenic/Hermeneutica/

One of the conclusions that I that I came to after decades of study was that in the general population, Platonism was one of the single most under appreciated influences in the formation of Hermeticism, Christianity, Esoteric Judaism and other movements that developed during the Hellenistic period. Granted that this position is more or less scholarly orthodoxy it is generally dismissed by people who don't know enough about Plato to see the influence of his Gorgias in the "Sermon on the Mount" or who who don't realize enough about the technical language of Greek philosophy to see that Hermes Trismegistos was kind enough to speak to the barbarous Greeks in their own technical language and address issues in terms that they had formulated. I am not a person who believes in the "Greek Miracle", as if there was something special about the Greeks, but some of the ideas discovered by a few of their thinkers are so powerful that they changed the way people thought about almost everything. I don't intend to enter into long arguments about the sources of Plato's thinking, but I will post some ideas about them that most people will find surprising, such as the proposal of E. R. Dodds that Plato was attempting to defend a position that was derived from Shamanism. This many years before the supposedly ground breaking work of Peter Kingsley. I will put forward Ideas, directions and sources. In particular I will not engage in discussions with people who have not read a jot of Plato and who cite secondary sources that line up with their own personal prejudices, but are unwilling to open their mind to alternatives. My first post after this will be about my personal journey to my understanding of Plato, which involved a great deal of rethinking and open minded examination. Edit: Italisized Gorgias and put quotes around Sermon on the Mount.

The post which follows is a reply to a post that appeared in Apech's Ancient Egyptian symbols thread (http://thetaobums.com/topic/26848-ancient-egyptian-symbols/?p=405379). Apech suggested that it be moved and I am copying it here as a new topic, as I mentioned I might in my response to him. It is an attempt to clear up misconception related to gods and demons and the process of demonization that occurred in the Hellenistic period. It deals tangentally with matters of Theurgy and Goetia. There are some interesting cross cultural references in it. If I have time I will endeavor to reply to questions on its content or the content of the posts which it references. Unfortunately because of time constraints, I cannot guarantee a response at all, much less a timely one.

Where does the line between religion and magic cross? Article on theurgy here: Iamblichus' Defence of Theurgy: Some Reflections This is taken from this free open access journal that's worth a look round: The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition edit: my bad, journal on Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft isn't open access.