Enneads are almost all philosphical though of Plotinus, who as we know had many connections with ancient magic. Also his Enneads had a big influence in renessance philosophy, especially magic one, because of its occult topic.
Plotinus criticizes for adopting metaphysical views (close to what is generally described as ‘Gnosticism’) and exegeses of Platonic sources not in line with his own interpretation of Plato. Plotinus dedicates an entire chapter (the fourteenth) of the Ennead II to confuting his ‘Gnostic’ disciples’ views on magic and exorcism. Considering that the Ennead II, nowdivided in 18 chapters, was originally made up of a series of lectures given by Plotinus at his school, which later on Porphyry edited by combining them into a treatise that he entitled Against the Gnostics, it is considerable the importance that Plotinus ascribes to the topic of magic and exorcism, as these ‘arts’ were practiced among his own ‘Gnostic’ disciples. In his Life of Plotinus Porphyry relates that Plotinus himself was not alien to that sort of magical practice that the Chaldean Oracles call theurgy, which includes evocation rituals of demons or lesser deities, whosehelp the theurgist can make use of for a variety of purposes, from curing diseases to transcendingthe physical realm in order to obtain the unio mystica
with the supreme God. In chapter ten of his Life of Plotinus, Porphyry reports two episodes where Plotinus deals with magical practises.The first one concerns Olympius, a fellow student of Plotinus at Ammonius Sacca’s school of philosophy. In order to show his superiority over Plotinus, Olympius used his magical art to turnthe evil influence of the stars against him. However, says Porphyry, he was forced to desist fromcontinuing his evil spell when this started to rebound on him because of the force of Plotinus’s soul, which was so powerful that not only rendered him immune to evil spells, but also made them rebound on those who had cast them. A second interesting episode is when an Egyptian priest asked Plotinus to undergo the evocation of his own guardian demon inside the sacred walls of the temple of Isis at Rome. Plotinus acceptedand the evocation (a clear teurgical ritual) took place; but, Porphyry reports, instead of a normal guardian demon appeared a god that was far superior to all demons. The Egyptian priest was so astonished that he exclaimed: ‘blessed are you, whose demon is a god who has nothing to do with (demons) of inferior kind. MsSVig
Plotinus criticizes for adopting me
with the supreme God. In chapter ten of his Life of Plotinus, Porphyry reports two episodes where Plotinus deals with magical practises.The first one concerns Olympius, a fellow student of Plotinus at Ammonius Sacca’s school of philosophy. In order to show his superiority over Plotinus, Olympius used his magical art to turnthe evil influence of the stars against him. However, says Porphyry, he was forced to desist fromcontinuing his evil spell when this started to rebound on him because of the force of Plotinus’s soul, which was so powerful that not only rendered him immune to evil spells, but also made them rebound on those who had cast them. A second interesting episode is when an Egyptian priest asked Plotinus to undergo the evocation of his own guardian demon inside the sacred walls of the temple of Isis at Rome. Plotinus acceptedand the evocation (a clear teurgical ritual) took place; but, Porphyry reports, instead of a normal guardian demon appeared a god that was far superior to all demons. The Egyptian priest was so astonished that he exclaimed: ‘blessed are you, whose demon is a god who has nothing to do with (demons) of inferior kind. MsSVig