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Henosis is also a synonym of Bulbophyllum
Bulbophyllum

Bulbophyllum is the largest genus in the orchid family Orchidaceae. With 1805 species, it is also one of the largest genus in the entire plant kingdom, exceeded only by Senecio and Euphorbia....
, a genus of orchid.


Within the realm of Neoplatonic philosophy
Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, founded by Plotinus and based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonism....
, the Mystery Religions and the Hermes Trismegistus
Hermes Trismegistus

Hermes Trismegistus is the representation of the combination of the Greek mythology god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. In Hellenistic Egypt, the Greeks recognised the congruence of their God Hermes with the Egyptian god Thoth....
 henosis (Greek "unity, oneness
Oneness

Oneness may refer to:* Divine oneness, the belief that God is without parts* Oneness Pentecostalism , a particular belief about the Godhead held largely by Oneness Pentecostalism...
") is the goal of union with the Monad, Source, force or the One. As part of henology and potentially part of the modern term Henotheism
Henotheism

Henotheism is a term coined by Max M?ller, to mean worshiping a single god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deity. M?ller made the term central to his criticism of Western theology and religion exceptionalism , focusing on a cultural dogma which held "monotheism" to be both fundamentally well-defined and inhe...
.
et closest to the One, each individual must engage in divine work (theurgy
Theurgy

Theurgy describes the practice of rituals, sometimes seen as magic in nature, performed with the intention of invoking the action of one or more gods, especially with the goal of uniting with the divine, achieving henosis, and perfecting oneself....
) according to Iamblichus of Chalcis
Iamblichus of Chalcis

Iamblichus, also known as Iamblichus Chalcidensis, was a Assyrian Neoplatonism philosopher who determined the direction taken by later Neoplatonic philosophy, and perhaps Roman mythology Paganism itself....
.






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Henosis is also a synonym of Bulbophyllum
Bulbophyllum

Bulbophyllum is the largest genus in the orchid family Orchidaceae. With 1805 species, it is also one of the largest genus in the entire plant kingdom, exceeded only by Senecio and Euphorbia....
, a genus of orchid.


Within the realm of Neoplatonic philosophy
Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, founded by Plotinus and based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonism....
, the Mystery Religions and the Hermes Trismegistus
Hermes Trismegistus

Hermes Trismegistus is the representation of the combination of the Greek mythology god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. In Hellenistic Egypt, the Greeks recognised the congruence of their God Hermes with the Egyptian god Thoth....
 henosis (Greek "unity, oneness
Oneness

Oneness may refer to:* Divine oneness, the belief that God is without parts* Oneness Pentecostalism , a particular belief about the Godhead held largely by Oneness Pentecostalism...
") is the goal of union with the Monad, Source, force or the One. As part of henology and potentially part of the modern term Henotheism
Henotheism

Henotheism is a term coined by Max M?ller, to mean worshiping a single god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deity. M?ller made the term central to his criticism of Western theology and religion exceptionalism , focusing on a cultural dogma which held "monotheism" to be both fundamentally well-defined and inhe...
.

Divine Work

To get closest to the One, each individual must engage in divine work (theurgy
Theurgy

Theurgy describes the practice of rituals, sometimes seen as magic in nature, performed with the intention of invoking the action of one or more gods, especially with the goal of uniting with the divine, achieving henosis, and perfecting oneself....
) according to Iamblichus of Chalcis
Iamblichus of Chalcis

Iamblichus, also known as Iamblichus Chalcidensis, was a Assyrian Neoplatonism philosopher who determined the direction taken by later Neoplatonic philosophy, and perhaps Roman mythology Paganism itself....
. This divine work can be defined as each individual dedicating their lives to making the created world and mankind's relationship to it, and one another, better. This is done by living a virtuous
Arete

Arete is the term meaning "virtue" or "excellence", from Greek ??et?Arete may also refer to:*as a given name of persons or things:**Queen Arete , a character in Homer's Odyssey....
 life seeking after one's Magnum opus
Magnum opus

Magnum opus , from the Latin meaning great work, refers to the largest, and perhaps the best, greatest, most popular, or most renowned achievement of an author, artist, or composer....
. Under the teachings of Iamblichus (see the Egyptian Mysteries
De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum

The Theurgia, or De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum , was written by Iamblichus , a Neoplatonic philosopher who studied under Porphyry .Porphyry is known to have had a disagreement with Iamblichus over the practice of theurgy, and the Mysteries consists mainly of Iamblichus' responses to the criticisms of his teacher....
), one goes through a series of theurgy
Theurgy

Theurgy describes the practice of rituals, sometimes seen as magic in nature, performed with the intention of invoking the action of one or more gods, especially with the goal of uniting with the divine, achieving henosis, and perfecting oneself....
 or ritual
Ritual

A ritual is a set of repeated actions, often thought to have symbolic value, the performance of which is usually prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community by religious or political laws because of the perceived efficacy of those actions....
s that unites the initiate to the Monad. These rituals mimic the ordering of the chaos of the Universe into the material world or cosmos
Cosmos

In its most general sense, a cosmos is an orderly or harmonious system. It originates from a Greek language term ??s??? meaning "order, orderly arrangement, ornaments," and is the antithetical concept of chaos....
. They also mimic the actions of the demiurge
Demiurge

Demiurge in philosophical and religious language is a term for a creator deity, responsible for the Creation myth of the physical universe.In the sense of a divine creative principle as expressed in ergon or energy, the word was first introduced by Plato in Timaeus , 41a ....
 as the creator of the material world.

The cosmos and order

Each individual as a microcosm
Macrocosm and microcosm

Macrocosm and microcosm is an ancient Greek philosophy schema of seeing the same patterns reproduced in all levels of the cosmos, from the largest scale all the way down to the smallest scale ....
 reflects the gradual ordering of the universe referred to as the macrocosm
Macrocosm and microcosm

Macrocosm and microcosm is an ancient Greek philosophy schema of seeing the same patterns reproduced in all levels of the cosmos, from the largest scale all the way down to the smallest scale ....
. In mimicking the demiurge (divine mind
Nous

Nous is a philosophical term for mind or intellect. Outside of a philosophical context, it is used, in English, to denote "common sense," with a different pronunciation ....
), one unites with The One or Monad. Thus the process of unification, of "The Being", and "The One", is called Henosis. The culmination of Henosis is deification. Deification here making each man a God by replacing the concept of God as creator with themselves as creators of their lives.

Fate and Destiny

As is specified in the writings of Plotinus
Plotinus

Plotinus was a major Philosophy of the ancient world who is widely considered the founder of Neoplatonism . Much of our biographical information about him comes from Porphyry 's preface to his edition of Plotinus' Enneads....
, the highest stage of deification is tabula rasa
Tabula rasa

Tabula rasa refers to the epistemology thesis that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that their knowledge comes from experience and sensory perception....
, or a blank state where the individual may grasp or merge with The Source (or The One, this process being henosis or unity). Here within Plotinus the monad can be referred to as the Good above the demiurge. In the writings of Plotinus
Plotinus

Plotinus was a major Philosophy of the ancient world who is widely considered the founder of Neoplatonism . Much of our biographical information about him comes from Porphyry 's preface to his edition of Plotinus' Enneads....
 called the Enneads
Enneads

The Six Enneads, sometimes abbreviated to The Enneads or Enneads, is the collection of writings of Plotinus, edited and compiled by his student Porphyry ....
 the monad or dunamis
Dunamis

Dunamis or dynamis is an Ancient Greek word meaning "power" or "force". It is the root of the English language words "dynamic", "dynamite", and "dynamo"....
 (force) is of one singular expression all is contained in the Monad and the Monad is all (pantheism
Pantheism

Pantheism is the view that everything is part of an all-encompassing Immanence abstract God. In pantheism the Universe, or nature, and God are equivalent....
). Any division, the last being duality (dyad), is completely missing from the Monad, Source or One (see monism
Monism

Monism is any philosophical view which holds that there is unity in a given field of inquiry, where this is not to be expected. Thus, some philosophers may hold that the Universe is really just one thing, despite its many appearances and diversities; or theology may support the view that there is one God, with many manifestations in different...
). It is the demiurge that is the nous in Plotinus. It is the demiurge (creator, action, energy) or nous that "perceives" and therefore causes the force (potential or One) to manifest as energy, or the dyad
Dyad

Etymology: Late Latin dyad-, dyas, from Greek d?a?, from dyodyad may refer to:*dyad , according to the Pythagoreans, is the principle of "twoness" or "otherness"...
 called the material world. Nous as being, being and perception (intellect) manifest what is called soul (World Soul
Gaia hypothesis

The Gaia hypothesis is an ecology hypothesis proposing that the biosphere and the physical components of the Earth are closely integrated to form a complex system that maintains the climate and biogeochemistry conditions on Earth in a preferred homeostasis....
).

Modalism

Henosis for Plotinus was defined in his works as a reversing of the ontological process of consciousness via meditation
Meditation

Meditation is a mental discipline by which one attempts to get beyond the reflexive, "thinking" mind into a deeper state of relaxation or awareness....
 (in the Western mind to uncontemplate
Contemplation

The word Contemplation comes from the Latin root templum , and means to separate something from its environment, and to enclose it in a sector. Contemplation is the Latin translation of Greek 'theory' ....
) toward no thought (Nous
Nous

Nous is a philosophical term for mind or intellect. Outside of a philosophical context, it is used, in English, to denote "common sense," with a different pronunciation ....
 or demiurge
Demiurge

Demiurge in philosophical and religious language is a term for a creator deity, responsible for the Creation myth of the physical universe.In the sense of a divine creative principle as expressed in ergon or energy, the word was first introduced by Plato in Timaeus , 41a ....
) and no division (dyad
Dyad (symbol)

The Dyad is a title used by the Pythagoreans for the number two, representing the principle of "twoness" or "otherness".Numenius said that Pythagoras gave the name of Monad to God, and the name of Dyad to matter....
) within the individual (being). Plotinus words his teachings to reconcile not only Plato with Aristotle but also various World religions that he had personal contact with during his various travels. Plotinus' works have an ascetic character in the reject matter as an illusion (none existent). Matter was strictly treated as immanent, with matter having no true or transcendent character. This approach is called philosophical Idealism
Idealism

Idealism is the philosophical theory which maintains that the ultimate nature of reality is based on mind or ideas. It holds that the so-called external or "real world" is inseparable from mind, consciousness, or perception....
.

Divine unity by return

At the point of unity individuals become energy
Energy

In physics, energy is a scalar physical quantity that describes the amount of Work_ that can be performed by a force. Energy is an attribute of objects and systems that is subject to a conservation law....
, and are further then reduced to force
Dunamis

Dunamis or dynamis is an Ancient Greek word meaning "power" or "force". It is the root of the English language words "dynamic", "dynamite", and "dynamo"....
 (once they are stripped of their person, nous
Nous

Nous is a philosophical term for mind or intellect. Outside of a philosophical context, it is used, in English, to denote "common sense," with a different pronunciation ....
); the energy of individuals is then returned to the infinite non-sentient
Sentience

Sentience is the ability to feel or perceive subjectivity. It is an important concept in philosophy, particularly in the philosophy of animal rights and in eastern philosophy, as well as in science fiction and the study of artificial intelligence, although in each of these fields the term is used slightly differently....
 force -- the Source or One -- and reamalgamated back into the Universe. The process then starts again and brings another part of the universe into line with the Monad
Monad

Monad may refer to:In philosophy:*Monad a term used by ancient philosophers Pythagoras, Parmenides, Xenophanes, Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus as a term for God or the first being, or the totality of all being....
 (see Pantheism
Pantheism

Pantheism is the view that everything is part of an all-encompassing Immanence abstract God. In pantheism the Universe, or nature, and God are equivalent....
). Hence the demiurge as an intrinsic (immanence) concept (creator is the mind and therefore not outside the mind) does not exist (per se
Per se

per se :*A List of Latin phrases #P used in English arguments for "by itself" or "by themselves"It also is used in law:*Illegal per se, the legal usage of "per se" in criminal and anti-trust law...
) as anything but energy in force or a reflective duality that in the process of perpetual recurrence
Ouroboros

The Ouroboros , is an ancient symbol depicting a Serpent or European dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle.The Ouroboros often represents self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as th...
 is man himself.

Within the works of Iamblichus, The One and reconciliation of division can be obtained through the process of theurgy
Theurgy

Theurgy describes the practice of rituals, sometimes seen as magic in nature, performed with the intention of invoking the action of one or more gods, especially with the goal of uniting with the divine, achieving henosis, and perfecting oneself....
. By mimicking the demiurge, the individual is returned to the cosmos to implement the will of the divine mind. Iamblichus used the rituals of the mystery religions to perform rituals on the individual to unite their outer and inner person. Thus one without conflict internal or external is united with The One.

Neoplatonism here taking the concept of unity (henosis) as rational and deterministic against indeterminism
Indeterminism

Indeterminism is a philosophy position that maintains that some form of determinism is incorrect: that there are events which do not correspond with determinism ....
 as evil, to the level of religion. Since, now unity (henosis) is no longer strictly rationalization (reconcillation) of man with being and becoming (ontology
Ontology

Ontology in philosophy is the study of the nature of being, existence or reality in general, as well as of the basic category of being and their relations....
) but in the works of Neoplatonist considered also, salvation (Soteriology
Soteriology

Christian Soteriology is the branch of Christian theology that deals with salvation. It is derived from the Greek language soterion + English -logy....
).

See also

  • Posidonius
    Posidonius

    Posidonius "of Apamea " or "of Rhodes" , was a Greeks Stoic philosopher, politician, astronomer, geographer, historian and teacher native to Apamea, History of Syria....
  • Porphyry
    Porphyry

    Porphyry may refer to:*Porphyry , a plutonic rock with large crystals in a fine-grained matrix*Porphyry , a Neoplatonic philosopher*Porphyrio, also known as Pomponius Porphyrio, a Latin grammarian, fl....
  • Proclus
    Proclus

    Proclus Lycaeus , called "The Successor" or "Diadochos" , was a Greek philosophy Neoplatonist philosophy, one of the last major Classical philosophers ....
  • Julian the Apostate
    Julian the Apostate

    Flavius Claudius Julianus, known also as Julian or Julian the Apostate , was Roman Emperor of the Constantinian dynasty. He was the last non-Christian Roman Emperor, and expended much energy during his reign attempting to supplant the growing power of Christianity within the empire with officially revived Religion in ancient Rom...
  • Theosis
    Theosis

    In Christianity theology, particularly in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and Eastern Catholic Churches theology, theosis is the process of a believer in emulating the life example of Jesus Christ and of following the gospel of Christ in one's daily life; the process of seeking to become more holy....
  • Anamnesis
    Anamnesis

    Anamnesis...
  • Henotheism
    Henotheism

    Henotheism is a term coined by Max M?ller, to mean worshiping a single god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deity. M?ller made the term central to his criticism of Western theology and religion exceptionalism , focusing on a cultural dogma which held "monotheism" to be both fundamentally well-defined and inhe...
  • Neutral monism
    Neutral monism

    Neutral monism, in philosophy, is the metaphysics view that the mental and the physical are two ways of organizing or describing the very same elements, which are themselves "neutral," that is, neither physical nor mental....
  • Monolatrism
    Monolatrism

    Monolatrism or monolatry is the recognition of the existence of many gods, but with the consistent worship of only one deity. Monolatry is not the same thing as henotheism, which is the belief in and worship of one God without at the same time denying that others can with equal truth worship different gods....
  • Eudaimonia
    Eudaimonia

    Eudaimonia is a classical Greek word commonly translated as 'happiness'. Etymologically, it consists of the word "eu" and "Daemon " ....
  • Eudaimonism
    Eudaimonism

    Eudaimonia, [literally ?having a good guardian spirit?] along with "ar?te" , is one of the two central concepts in ancient Greek ethics. Ancient philosophers understood eudaimonia to be the highest human good, and are concerned with saying just how to achieve it....
  • Nicomachean Ethics
    Nicomachean Ethics

    Nicomachean Ethics, or Ta Ethika, is a work by Aristotle on virtue and moral character which plays a prominent role in defining Aristotelian ethics....
  • Virtue ethics
    Virtue ethics

    Virtue theory is a branch of moral philosophy that emphasizes character, rather than rules or consequences, as the key element of ethical thinking....
  • Fellowship of Reason
    Fellowship of Reason

    The Fellowship of Reason is a moral community based in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. Its founder, Martin L. Cowen III, calls himself a "non-theist", and says that although he does not believe in God or other things supernatural, he nonetheless thinks that churches serve a useful function by providing "moral communities." Wishing...
  • Humanism
    Humanism

    Humanism is a broad category of ethics that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appealing to universal human qualities, particularly rationalism, without resorting to the supernatural or alleged divine authority from religious texts....
  • Summum bonum
    Summum bonum

    Summum bonum is an expression used in philosophy, particularly in medieval philosophy and in Kantianism Immanuel Kant, to describe the ultimate importance, the singular and most ultimate end which human beings ought to pursue....
  • Prognostication
    Divination

    Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of a standardized process or ritual. Diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a querent should proceed by reading signs, events, or omens, or through alleged contact with a supernatural agency....


External links

  • - Site primarily devoted to the late antique hieratic praxis of Theurgy.
  • Theurgy, Iamblichus and henosis.
  • Online edition of Thomas Taylor's translation at
  • - Online copy of On the Egyptian Mysteries (not public domain).