Theurgy (Iamblichus, Proclus, Chaldean Oracles)

1. Introduction

Version followed: late-antique Neoplatonic theurgy as historians reconstruct it from Iamblichus' Reply to Porphyry (De mysteriis), in the English translation by Clarke, Dillon and Hershbell (SBL, 2003), read through the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Iamblichus (Lecerf, revised 2023) and Gregory Shaw's Theurgy and the Soul; the Chaldean Oracles in Ruth Majercik's edition (1989; reissued in facsimile by the Prometheus Trust); Proclus as presented in recent scholarship on his On the Hieratic Art. This guide gives a public, scholarly outline only. It contains no invocations, names of powers, ritual steps or materials. [source: SEP Iamblichus; SBL Press; Prometheus Trust; BMCR 2026.09.20]

What it is. Theurgy (Greek theourgia, "divine action" or "godlike action") is the ritual side of late Neoplatonism. Iamblichus of Chalcis (ca. 242 to ca. 325), a Syrian Platonist and former student of Porphyry, defended it in a reply to Porphyry's critical Letter to Anebo, writing in the persona of an Egyptian priest, "Abamon". The SEP describes theurgy as co-action with the gods, carried out through prayer, offerings, sacrifice and liturgy, and treats it as the goal of the Iamblichean soul. [source: SEP Iamblichus; SBL front matter]

Core idea of change, as its authors held it. Iamblichus taught that the human soul descends fully into the body and is weakened in its very essence, so it cannot rise to the divine by thinking alone. It needs the gods' help, which the SEP glosses as a kind of grace. Rites and symbols that the gods themselves are held to have revealed connect the soul to them, and the soul then moves toward union with the divine. Iamblichus insisted that the gods are the real cause and that human rites are only auxiliary. He rejected the idea that people can compel higher beings, and he set theurgy apart from magic, which he saw as manipulating forces within nature. Shaw reads this as a serious philosophical project applying Platonic and Pythagorean teaching to embodied life, not as manipulative magic. [source: SEP Iamblichus §6.3; SBL front matter; Angelico Press and PhilArchive descriptions of Shaw]

Context. The Chaldean Oracles are second-century hexameter verse oracles. They offer a Platonist-influenced revelation drawing largely on the Timaeus, with a dualistic view of matter and a divine energy called "fire". Iamblichus treated them as authoritative and wrote a commentary on them of at least 28 books, now lost. They are traditionally linked to two figures named Julian, father and son [uncertain: not verified]. Proclus, taught by Syrianus in Athens, studied Orphic and Chaldaean theology and wrote a short work On the Hieratic Art according to the Greeks, newly edited by Eleni Pachoumi (Brill, 2024). Scholars disagree about whether "hieratic art" and "theurgy" mean the same thing (BMCR review, following Hans Lewy). The Emperor Julian championed Iamblichus as part of his attempt to revive ancestral religion. Through Proclus, Damascius, Dionysius the Areopagite and Ficino, Iamblichean ideas shaped medieval and Renaissance Platonism. Proclus lived in the 5th century CE [uncertain: not verified]. [source: SEP Iamblichus; BMCR 2026.09.20; SBL front matter; Shaw descriptions]

What is practised today, and how it reaches clients. Theurgy survives today mainly as (a) an academic field in classics, philosophy and religious studies, and (b) small revival practices among contemporary polytheists, ceremonial magicians and some Christian-Platonist readers. Practitioner-facing books include Jeffrey S. Kupperman, Living Theurgy: A Course in Iamblichus' Philosophy, Theology and Theurgy (Avalonia, 2014). Its published description covers contemplative practices (lectio divina, contemplation, visualisation), theology, hymns and prayers, purification, symbols and the consecration of images. There is also Bruce MacLennan's The Wisdom of Hypatia, which teaches theurgy as a third "degree of wisdom" [publication details uncertain: not verified]. MacLennan identifies present-day relatives of theurgy in Neopagan and Wiccan "aspecting", ceremonial magic, shamanic journeying and Jungian active imagination. Shaw's study has been reissued by Angelico Press with a foreword by Christian theologians (John Milbank and Aaron Riches). Clients meet this material through books, audiobooks, podcasts, online courses and study groups, and through esoteric orders that draw on Neoplatonism. Audiobook and podcast availability is [uncertain: not verified]. [source: Kupperman 2014, book description; MacLennan preprint; Angelico Press]

Evidence status (one line). Claims of union with the gods and of divine efficacy are religious and metaphysical claims. They are outside empirical testing, and there is no research base for theurgy as a psychological or health intervention [synthesis].

For the psychotherapist. This is not a therapy, and this guide does not teach theurgy. The "interventions" below are the therapist's own work when a client practises, studies or is drawn to theurgy or to modern Neoplatonic revival practice: understanding what it means to the client, cultural assessment, differential assessment without pathologising belief, adverse effects, dependency and cost, and referral. [synthesis]

2. Framework

2a. The historical framework (as scholars describe it)

• Three disciplines. Iamblichus distinguishes philosophy, theology and theurgy (Reply to Porphyry I.2). Theurgy goes beyond reason but rests on philosophical arguments about the gods and the soul, so the SEP warns against setting it against rational method. [source: SEP §6.3]
• A ladder of virtues. Iamblichus is reported to have set out seven grades of virtue: natural, moral, political, purificatory, contemplative, paradigmatic, and theurgic ("hieratic"), with the theurgic at the top. Moral preparation is a precondition: personal holiness makes the soul fit to receive divine influence. [source: SEP §7.2, §6.3]
• Symbols and chains. The gods are held to reveal symbols that link the soul to them. These may be objects, rites, myths or revealed texts such as the Oracles, each under a particular deity's patronage, forming a "chain" (seira). (Specific symbols, names and materials are deliberately not given here.) [source: SEP §6.3]
• Graded practice for different souls. Shaw and other scholars report that Iamblichus matched more material and more immaterial forms of worship to souls at different stages [uncertain: not verified]. The aim is union with the gods, and ultimately with the One. [source: SBL Press description; Shaw descriptions]
• Format. Historically, this was practice within philosophical schools (Apamea, later Pergamon and Athens), under a teacher, alongside study of Plato and of revealed texts. [source: SEP biography; BMCR on Proclus and Syrianus]

2b. The clinician's framework when a client is involved [synthesis]

The sources give no session counts or durations for clinical work with theurgy practitioners. The phases below are a working structure, not a protocol.

1. Engagement and cultural assessment. Goal: understand the practice in the client's own words and its place in their life (CFI core interview plus the Spirituality, Religion and Moral Traditions module). Move on when the client feels understood and you can describe their practice back to them in their own terms.
2. Formulation and differential assessment. Goal: decide whether the presenting problem is (a) unrelated to the practice, (b) a religious or spiritual problem (ICD-10-CM Z65.8), or (c) a clinical condition (psychosis, mania, dissociation, OCD, complicated grief) that the practice is expressing or worsening. Move on when risk is assessed and the formulation is shared with the client.
3. Working with meaning and with problems. Goal: use the client's tradition as a resource where it helps, and address adverse effects, dependency, cost or conflict where it does not. Move on when the agreed goals are met or a referral is needed.
4. Collaboration, referral and ending. Goal: link the client, if they wish, with a responsible teacher or community, and with psychiatric, medical or specialist care where needed. Plan for relapse signs.

3. Guiding principles

• Describe, attribute, do not adjudicate. Present theurgic concepts (gods, daimones, the soul's descent, union) as Iamblichus and his scholars hold them, neither as fact nor as delusion. In practice: say "in Iamblichus' account…" or "in your practice…". [source: SEP; synthesis]
• The therapist is never a theurgist, initiator or teacher in therapy. In practice: do not perform, design, suggest, correct or rehearse rites, prayers or invocations, and do not interpret "signs" for the client. [synthesis]
• Use the client's own name for their tradition. The CFI module tells interviewers to do this. In practice: if they say "Platonic polytheism" or "the Work", use those words. [source: CFI Supplementary Modules]
• Competence and consultation. Where religion is essential to effective work, the APA Ethics Code calls for training, consultation, supervision or referral [synthesis; source: APA Ethics Code]. Vieten et al. (2013) set out spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists that can guide this self-assessment [source: IONS page on Vieten et al. 2013]. In practice: read a scholarly overview (e.g. the SEP entry) early in the work, rather than relying on the client to teach you [synthesis].
• Respect for religious difference. Principle E asks psychologists to respect religion and keep bias out of their work. In practice: notice any reflex to label ritual practice as "magical thinking". [source: APA Ethics Code, Principle E]
• No multiple roles. Standard 3.05 covers multiple relationships; the Code also addresses conflicts of interest and exploitation [synthesis]. In practice: a therapist who also practises or teaches theurgy, magic or another esoteric discipline keeps that wholly separate from the client: no shared groups, no teaching, no sales. [source: APA Ethics Code 3.05]
• Grounding in ordinary life. MacLennan, a practitioner-scholar, advises those doing theurgy-like inner work to have an experienced guide, an ethical stance, and steady roots in everyday life. In practice: track sleep, work, relationships and self-care alongside the practice. [source: MacLennan preprint]
• Personal revelation is personal. MacLennan discusses "unverified personal gnosis": personal revelations need to be kept apart from universal truths. In practice: help clients hold their experiences as meaningful to them without having to act on them as commands. [source: MacLennan preprint]
• The tradition's own guard against coercion. Iamblichus held that people cannot compel the gods. MacLennan contrasts theurgy (mutual accommodation of human and divine) with thaumaturgy (serving the ego's wishes). In practice: the client's own tradition can be used to question compulsive, controlling or fear-driven use of ritual. [source: SEP §6.3; MacLennan preprint]
• Informed consent for any adapted work. If you bring in an approach without established techniques (e.g. imaginal or depth work on the client's spiritual imagery), explain that it is still developing, its risks, the alternatives, and that taking part is voluntary. [synthesis; source: APA Ethics Code]
• Safety first. Risk assessment, medical routing and safeguarding take priority over exploring meaning. [synthesis]

4. Intervention inventory

All interventions below are the therapist's own clinical procedures. Unless a source is tagged, they are [synthesis]. None of them involves performing, teaching or scripting theurgic rites.

4.1 Orienting yourself and the client to the scholarly picture

• Purpose / when: Early on, when the client names Iamblichus, Proclus, the Chaldean Oracles or "theurgy", or when the client wants to understand where a modern practice comes from. A shared, accurate frame cuts down misunderstanding on both sides.
• Steps: (1) Ask what sources the client uses: ancient texts in translation, scholarly studies, practitioner books, online teachers, a group. (2) Read the matching scholarly overview yourself (the SEP entry on Iamblichus is the standard starting point). (3) If the client asks, offer, briefly and in attributed form, how historians describe it: a late-antique Platonist ritual practice aimed at union with the gods, defended by Iamblichus, which he held depends on divine initiative and not human control. (4) Keep a clear line between scholarship (what historians document) and practice (what the client does). Do not supply ritual content. [source: SEP §6.3]
• Example language (illustrative): "I've read a bit about how historians describe Iamblichus' theurgy, mostly so I don't misunderstand you. I'm not a teacher of it, and I won't be suggesting practices. Can you tell me how it shows up in your life?"
• Watch for: The client casting you as an authority or fellow initiate. The client testing whether you will judge them. It is working when the client corrects your understanding freely and the talk moves to their lived experience.

4.2 Cultural Formulation Interview with the Spirituality, Religion and Moral Traditions module

• Purpose / when: At assessment for every client for whom the practice is important, and again if the practice changes sharply.
• Steps: (1) Run the CFI core interview. (2) Add the supplementary module, which covers four areas: identity and affiliation (traditions, communities, family background, any additional traditions); the role of the tradition in daily life and big decisions; its connection to the problem (has it helped coping, have they sought support from leaders or community, have texts, media, prayer or ritual helped); and stress and conflict (has the tradition contributed to the problem, any distress, discrimination or conflict). (3) Use the client's own name for the tradition. (4) Paraphrase the questions; the APA permits clinicians to reproduce the forms for use with their patients. [source: CFI Supplementary Modules]
• Example language (illustrative): "How would you describe your path, in your own words? … How does it shape a normal week for you? … Has it been a support with what brought you here, or has it been part of the strain?"
• Watch for: Secrecy obligations: the client may have committed not to disclose certain things. Tell them they need not share ritual specifics for you to help. Family conflict over "pagan" or "occult" practice. Experiences of stigma. It is working when you can state the practice's role in the client's life back to them and they agree.

4.3 Mapping the practice: sources, time, money and people

• Purpose / when: To see how the practice reaches the client and whether it is proportionate.
• Steps: (1) Draw a simple map with the client: books, courses, online teachers, podcasts, a group or order, a private teacher. (2) For each, note time spent, money spent (courses, consultations, initiations, materials), and who has authority over the client's practice. (3) Note solitary versus communal practice and any obligations or secrecy. (4) Ask how the practice changed in the period before the presenting problem began.
• Example language (illustrative): "Let's sketch where your practice comes from: the books, people and groups. Which of these feel nourishing, and which feel like pressure?"
• Watch for: Rising spending, debt, escalating paid tiers or one-to-one "guidance", isolation from non-practitioners, or a teacher who discourages outside help. These lead to 4.8.

4.4 Differential assessment without pathologising belief

• Purpose / when: When the client reports contact with gods, daimones, voices, visions, "signs", possession-like states, or intense experiences of union, especially if function, sleep or mood have changed.
• Steps: (1) Establish what is normative in the client's practice and community: is this experience expected, shared and interpretable within the tradition? Ask, with permission, a trusted fellow practitioner or teacher if the client wishes. (2) Screen for psychosis: thought disorder, beliefs that are fixed and spreading beyond the tradition's frame, voices commanding harm, functional decline. (3) Screen for mania: reduced need for sleep, pressured speech, grandiosity (e.g. a special mission), risky spending. (4) Screen for dissociation, derealisation and depersonalisation: lost time, feeling unreal, inability to "come back" after practice. (5) Screen for OCD and scrupulosity: fear that a rite done imperfectly will bring harm, repeated redoing, reassurance-seeking. (6) Screen for grief: practice aimed at contact with the dead after a loss. (7) Screen for substance use around practice. (8) Assess suicide and harm risk using standard practice. (9) Record a religious or spiritual problem, where it fits, as ICD-10-CM Z65.8 ("Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances", whose inclusion terms list "religious or spiritual problem"). The DSM-5-TR wording is [uncertain: not verified]. [source: Unbound Medicine ICD-10-CM Z65.8; synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "In your tradition, is this kind of experience something people expect? … Afterwards, are you able to return to ordinary life: sleep, work, eating? … Is there anything the presence asks of you that worries you?"
• Watch for: Psychotic or manic features, command hallucinations or risk call for psychiatric assessment that same day or urgently, whatever the spiritual frame. The debate on "spiritual emergency" (Grof; Lukoff's work toward the DSM category) is relevant background [uncertain: not verified]. It is working when the formulation separates the client's beliefs, which you respect, from symptoms, which you treat.

4.5 Exploring meaning: descent, embodiment and ascent

• Purpose / when: When the practice carries the client's search for meaning, worth or healing, or when it is entangled with shame about the body or the world.
• Steps: (1) Invite the client to say what draws them to theurgy. (2) Explore the core narrative they hold. In Iamblichus' account, as scholars describe it, the soul descends fully into the body and is helped by the divine. Shaw reads this as affirming embodied life, unlike strands of Platonism that devalue the body. (3) Ask what this narrative does for them: does it give dignity to their embodiment, or feed contempt for body and ordinary life? (4) Link it to goals in therapy (e.g. self-care, relationships) in the client's terms. [source: Shaw descriptions; SEP §6.3; synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "You said your practice is about the soul coming home to the divine. How does that sit with your body and your everyday life right now: closer, or further away?"
• Watch for: Spiritual bypassing (using the practice to avoid grief, conflict or trauma work), world-denial, or perfectionism about purity. It is working when meaning from the tradition supports, and does not replace, daily functioning and relationships.

4.6 Using the tradition's own distinction between devotion and control

• Purpose / when: When ritual has become compulsive, fear-driven or aimed at controlling outcomes (relationships, money, health), or when the client feels they must "make" something happen.
• Steps: (1) Ask how the client understands the role of the gods versus their own effort. (2) If it fits their frame, reflect the historical point that Iamblichus held the gods cannot be compelled and that human rites are only auxiliary. Reflect also MacLennan's practitioner distinction between theurgy (mutual accommodation) and thaumaturgy (serving the ego's wishes). (3) Explore what it would mean to practise without trying to control outcomes. (4) Where obsessional patterns are present, refer to or provide ERP-based OCD treatment as clinical sources describe it, coordinating so the client's legitimate practice is respected [uncertain: IOCDF guidance not verified]. [source: SEP §6.3; MacLennan preprint; synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "In the tradition you follow, the gods aren't something anyone can force. I'm curious what it would feel like to hold your practice that way, as an offering and not a lever."
• Watch for: Using the distinction to shame the client ("you're doing it wrong"). The therapist must not take a theological position. It is working when ritual-related anxiety, redoing and reassurance-seeking reduce.

4.7 Monitoring adverse effects and grounding

• Purpose / when: Throughout, for clients doing intensive solitary ritual, visualisation or imaginal practice (the contemplative practices described in modern theurgy manuals, or related ceremonial or "aspecting" work).
• Steps: (1) Agree a short check-in each session on sleep, appetite, work or study, relationships, and any unusual experiences. (2) Ask about after-effects of practice: feeling unreal, intrusive imagery, fear of presences, inability to stop thinking about the practice. (3) If after-effects are rising, explore with the client whether to scale back intensity or frequency, ideally with their teacher's agreement. The client decides; you do not prescribe practice. (4) Build ordinary grounding (routine, sleep, exercise at the client's usual level, social contact, time in non-spiritual activity). (5) If the client uses fasting, sleep loss or substances around practice, address the health risks qualitatively and route to medical care; never advise on medicines. MacLennan, writing as a practitioner, recommends an experienced guide, an ethical stance and staying grounded in ordinary life, and warns against the ego trying to command unconscious contents. [source: MacLennan preprint; synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "Let's keep an eye on how you're doing around your practice: sleep, energy, how you feel the day after. Not to stop it, but so we notice early if something is costing you more than it gives."
• Watch for: Derealisation or depersonalisation persisting between practices, new voices or presences outside practice, sleep loss, or withdrawal. Any of these prompts the differential assessment in 4.4. It is working when practice and daily life coexist without escalating distress.

4.8 Dependency, teacher relationships and money

• Purpose / when: When the client relies on a teacher, order or online figure for decisions, pays escalating fees, or reports pressure, secrecy or isolation.
• Steps: (1) Using the map from 4.3, review who holds authority over the client's practice and life decisions. (2) Ask about costs and whether they are rising or open-ended. (3) Ask whether doubts and outside relationships are welcomed or discouraged, and whether leaving would carry threats or spiritual penalties. (4) Name patterns neutrally and let the client draw conclusions. (5) If the client wants to step back or leave, plan practical and emotional support and allow for grief over lost community and meaning. Treat any religious trauma at the client's pace. (6) Never describe a group by a pejorative label. Describe behaviours. [synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "When you've had a different view from your teacher, what has happened? … Looking at the last year, how has what you spend on courses and guidance changed?"
• Watch for: Financial exploitation, sexual or emotional exploitation by a teacher, threats of spiritual harm for leaving, isolation from family. These may raise safeguarding or legal issues; consult. It is working when the client makes choices with full information and keeps outside relationships.

4.9 Depth-oriented work with spiritual imagery (for appropriately trained therapists only)

• Purpose / when: When a client of a depth or Jungian orientation wants to explore images of gods or daimones from their practice as personal meaning, and the therapist has the training to do so.
• Steps: (1) Get informed consent that this is a developing approach, with its risks and alternatives. (2) Work with the meaning of images the client brings. Do not induce trance, ritual, invocation or contact states. (3) MacLennan maps Neoplatonic cosmology onto Jungian psychology (the One to the Self, gods to archetypes, daimones to complexes) and treats Jung's active imagination as a theurgy-like practice. Note that this is one practitioner-scholar's interpretation, and that it may conflict with a client who holds the gods to be objectively real. (4) Analytical psychology avoids identifying with unconscious figures. Help the client keep a stable sense of self. (5) Refer to a trained analyst for sustained active-imagination work. [source: MacLennan preprint; APA Ethics Code; synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "You've described this figure that appears in your practice. If you'd like, we can explore what it means for you personally, without any ritual, just talking. You can stop at any point, and whatever it is to you stays yours to decide."
• Watch for: Psychologising that the client experiences as dismissive of their gods. Rising dissociation. Identification with a divine figure (grandiosity). It is working when the imagery deepens self-understanding without destabilising the client.

4.10 Collaboration with the client's community, and referral

• Purpose / when: When the client wishes, or when a responsible teacher or community could support recovery or help clarify what is normative.
• Steps: (1) Ask whether the client wants anyone from their community involved. (2) Get explicit written consent and agree what may be shared. (3) Consult on normative experience and on supportive adjustments to practice. Do not ask them to override clinical care. (4) Refer onward as needed: psychiatry for psychosis or mania, a GP or physician for physical effects, specialist OCD treatment, trauma services, financial or legal advice, or safeguarding services where children or vulnerable adults are at risk. (5) Seek consultation if the religious dimension is beyond your competence. [source: APA Ethics Code; CFI module; synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "Is there someone in your practice community whose judgement you trust, who you'd like me to speak with? Only if you want that, and we'll agree together what I share."
• Watch for: Teachers who discourage treatment. Breaches of the client's confidentiality inside small communities. It is working when the client feels supported on both sides.

4.11 Boundaries when the therapist is also a practitioner

• Purpose / when: When you yourself practise theurgy, ceremonial magic, polytheist religion or related disciplines, or are known to in your area or online.
• Steps: (1) Do not offer readings, rites, initiations, blessings, teaching or recommendations of teachers to clients. (2) Decide in advance what you will disclose. Disclose only when it serves the client, briefly. (3) Avoid shared groups, rituals or online communities with clients. (4) Do not sell books, courses or services to clients. (5) Take supervision on countertransference (over-identification, competing interpretations). [source: APA Ethics Code 3.05; synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "I do have some background in this area, but in here my role is your therapist, not a fellow practitioner or teacher. That keeps this space fully yours."
• Watch for: Sliding into teacher or co-practitioner roles. Clients seeking your spiritual endorsement. It is working when the client brings their practice to therapy without seeking your spiritual authority.

4.12 Safeguarding where children are involved

• Purpose / when: When a parent's practice involves children, or when spiritual explanations are used in place of medical or developmental assessment.
• Steps: (1) Ask how the practice affects family life and children. (2) Make sure children's medical and developmental needs are met through standard services. (3) Follow local safeguarding law where there is neglect, harsh discipline, exposure to frightening practices, or refusal of care. (4) Work for the children's assent and age-appropriate understanding. [synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "How do your children experience your practice at home? … Who looks after their health checks and schooling needs?"
• Watch for: Spiritual labels replacing assessment. Isolation of the children. It is working when children's needs are met and the parent's faith is respected.

5. Handling problems

The historical and scholarly sources do not address clinical problems. All guidance in this section is [synthesis], except where a source is tagged.

• Client asks you to teach, check or join their practice (e.g. "Is this prayer right?", "Can you witness the rite?"). Decline warmly and explain your role. Redirect to what the request means: uncertainty, wanting a witness, fear of error. Point them to their teacher, community or the scholarly literature for practice questions. (illustrative) "That's a question for your tradition, not for me. But I'm interested in what makes getting it right feel so important today."
• Client expects you to dismiss them. Many esoteric practitioners anticipate being called irrational. Name the difference between your interest in their wellbeing and any judgement about metaphysics. Use the CFI module (4.2) and Principle E. [source: APA Ethics Code Principle E; CFI module]
• Secrecy and partial disclosure. The client may be bound not to reveal practices. Make clear that you do not need ritual content. Work with effects (sleep, mood, relationships, experiences), not contents.
• Stuck: intellectualising. Theurgy comes with a large philosophical literature, and sessions can turn into seminars. Acknowledge the ideas briefly, then return to feeling and lived detail. (illustrative) "That's a rich idea. What happens in you when you think about it?"
• Overwhelm after intensive practice (fear of presences, derealisation, insomnia). First, stabilise and assess safety (4.4). Then support grounding (4.7). With the client's agreement, they may pause or reduce practice, ideally with their teacher's agreement. Escalate to psychiatric assessment for psychotic or manic features or risk.
• Scrupulosity: fear that an imperfect rite will cause harm. Assess for OCD. The tradition's own view that the gods are not compelled by human acts (SEP §6.3) can loosen the client's sense of omnipotent responsibility. Specific OCD treatment (ERP) should be delivered by a trained clinician, respecting legitimate practice [uncertain: IOCDF guidance not verified].
• Grandiosity or special mission (e.g. being chosen by the gods to restore an ancient religion). Assess for mania and psychosis before treating it as a meaning issue. Involve family, with consent, if risk rises.
• Grief-driven practice (seeking contact with a dead person). Explore grief directly. Watch for paid intermediaries exploiting bereavement. Support mourning alongside the client's beliefs about the dead.
• Non-adherence to therapy because the practice "should be enough". Explore both. Do not set therapy against the practice. Agree on what each is for.
• Medical decisions made on spiritual grounds. Route all medical decisions to the client's doctors. Never advise starting, stopping or changing medicine. Address children's care under safeguarding (4.12).
• Rupture: the client feels you psychologised their gods (e.g. after Jungian reframing). Acknowledge it, apologise for imposing a frame, and return to the client's own language. Depth reframes are offered only with consent (4.9). [source: MacLennan preprint for the Jungian mapping]
• Rupture: the client discovers you also practise (or that you do not). Talk about what it means to them, restate role boundaries (4.11), and seek supervision. [source: APA Ethics Code 3.05]
• Exploitation by a teacher or group (money, sex, isolation, threats). Document it, support the client's autonomy, discuss reporting options (police, consumer or charity regulators, professional bodies if the teacher is registered), and plan for the loss of community. Do not name or label the group in your notes beyond factual description.
• Leaving a practice or community. Expect grief, identity disruption and possibly religious trauma. Work at the client's pace. Help them keep what they valued (e.g. the philosophy, the study) if they wish.
• Family conflict over "occult" practice. Offer family sessions focused on communication and safety, not on theology. Use the CFI's stress and conflict questions to frame it. [source: CFI module]
• Online-only practice. Watch for parasocial dependence on online teachers, escalating paid content, and solitary practice without any community check. Help the client set limits on cost and time.

Sources

• Iamblichus, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Adrien Lecerf, rev. 2023)
• Iamblichus: On the Mysteries, SBL Press (Clarke, Dillon, Hershbell, 2003)
• SBL front matter and introduction extract, Iamblichus De mysteriis
• Theurgy and the Soul, Angelico Press edition
• The Chaldean Oracles, Prometheus Trust (Majercik facsimile)
• BMCR 2026.09.20, review of Pachoumi, Proclus' On the Hieratic Art (Brill, 2024)
• MacLennan, "Liber Novus sed non Ultimus: Neoplatonic Theurgy for our Time" (preprint)
• DSM-5 Cultural Formulation Interview Supplementary Modules (APA, 2013)
• ICD-10-CM Z65.8 (Unbound Medicine): Z65.8 "Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances" (includes: religious or spiritual problem)
• APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct
• Spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists, IONS page

Books and articles cited:

• Clarke, E. C., Dillon, J. M., & Hershbell, J. P. (2003). Iamblichus: On the Mysteries. Writings from the Greco-Roman World 4. Society of Biblical Literature.
• Shaw, G. Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus. New edition, Angelico Press.
• Majercik, R. (1989). The Chaldean Oracles: Text, Translation and Commentary. Facsimile reissue, Prometheus Trust.
• Pachoumi, E. (2024). Proclus' On the Hieratic Art According to the Greeks: Critical Edition with Translation and Commentary. Brill.
• Kupperman, J. S. (2014). Living Theurgy: A Course in Iamblichus' Philosophy, Theology and Theurgy. Avalonia.
• MacLennan, B. (2020). Liber Novus sed non Ultimus: Neoplatonic theurgy for our time. In M. Stein & T. Arzt (Eds.), Jung's Red Book for Our Time, Vol. IV (pp. 99–145). Chiron.
• MacLennan, B. The Wisdom of Hypatia [uncertain: not verified].
• Vieten, C., Scammell, S., Pilato, R., Ammondson, I., Pargament, K. I., & Lukoff, D. (2013). Spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 5(3), 129–144. (Sixteen competencies across attitudes, knowledge and skills; useful for self-assessment of competence under APA 2.01b.)