Theurgie, Imagination und aitherischer Seelenleib: Aspekte visionärer, ritueller Dichtung bei Henry More?

Abstract

In this article I will attempt to understand the poem Psychodia Platonica by the Cambridge Platonist Henry More against the historical background of Neoplatonic, ritualistic, theurgical texts, thus gaining a hermeneutical approach towards the central role which is played by the ethereal body of the soul (the ochema) as a medium of divine inspiration for this kind of poetry. As a ritualistic-performative text of the urgical quality the Psychodia Platonica not only thematizes purely metaphysical and theological contents but also uses these and their textual guise in order to guide its recipients towards a special kind of spiritual change.

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