Hellenic Tantra

<p><em>Hellenic Tantra </em>argues that scholarship on later Platonism has been misled by a dualist worldview. The theurgic Platonists in the school of Iamblichus (4th century CE) did not <em>ascend</em> out of their bodies to be united with the gods-as is the common belief-but allowed the gods to <em>descend </em>into their bodies. By comparing embodied deification in theurgy to Tantric traditions of embodied deification Gregory Shaw allows us to understand the power and charisma of the last Platonic teachers. <em>Hellenic Tantra</em> reveals a living Platonism that has been hidden from us.</p>