The Platonizing Sethian background of Plotinus's mysticism

Contents
Editor’s Preface to the Present Volume
Author’s Acknowledgments
Editor’s Note on References, Editions, and Translations
Abbreviations
Tables
Author’s Preface
Chapter 1 Introduction: The Gnostic Background of Plotinus’s Mysticism
	1 The Fundamental Problem of Plotinian Mysticism
	2 Problems with the Prior Scholarship on Plotinian Mysticism
	3 Platonizing Sethian Visionary Ascent and the Historical Context of Plotinian Mysticism
	4 The Current State of the Research
Chapter 2 The Structure of Plotinus’s Ascent to Mystical Union with the One
	1 Introduction
	2 Phase A: Catharsis
	3 Phase B: Mystical Self-Reversion
	4 Phase C: Autophany
	5 Excursus: A First Meditation on the Identity of the Mystical Subject
	6 Phase C2: Self-Unification
	7 Phase D: Annihilation
	8 Excursus: Second Meditation on the Identity of the Mystical Subject
	9 Excursus: On Beauty
	10 Phase E: Union with the One
	11 Vision and Light
	12 Ennead VI.9[9].11.22–25 [See Complete Passage in Appendix A8]
	13 Ennead VI.7[38].36.10–26 [Appendix A16]
	14 Ennead V.3[49].17.28–38 [Appendix A19]
	15 Excursus on V.3[49].17–28
	16 Ennead V.5[32].8.18–21 [Appendix A12]
	17 Convergence of Center-Points
	18 Sexual Intercourse
	19 Excursus on VI.7[38].35.23–32
	20 Rapture or Spatial Displacement
	21 Excursus on VI.7[38].35.36–40
	22 Excursus on VI.7[38].36.15–18
	23 Cultic Praxis
	24 Phase E2: Desubjectification
	25 Conclusion
Chapter 3 The Identity of Prenoetic and Hypernoetic Subjectsin Plotinus
	1 Introduction
	2 Plotinian Ontogenesis
	3 The Identity of the Hypernoetic Subject with the Prenoetic Efflux
	4 The Convergence of Prenoetic and Hypernoetic Ecstasy
	5 Conclusion
Chapter 4 “The Way of Ascent is the Way of Descent”: The Mechanism of Transcendental Apprehension in Platonizing Sethian Gnosticism
	1 Introduction
	2 The Structure of Ascent in the Platonizing Sethian Ascent Treatises
	3 Mystical Self-Reversion and Autophany in Gnostic Visionary Ascent
	4 The Faculty of Transcendental Apprehension in Platonizing Sethianism
	5 Conclusion
Chapter 5 Conclusion: Dissolving Boundaries
	1 Introduction
	2 Platonists and Gnostics in Alexandria and Rome: Biographical and Socio-historical Reflections
	3 Philosophical Contemplation and Ritual Praxis
	4 Conclusion
	Appendices
Bibliography