“The Door in the Dark”: Theosis, Theurgy, and Cybernetics

What we can, have, and should do with our capacity for soul-craft are key questions this talk will explore by sketching the broad trajectory of participatory ritual, scripture, and rhetoric that can traced back to debates about theurgy in Neoplatonism and forward to the possibilities that have emerged within various strands of contemporary Ecopoetics. After briefly exploring Iamblichus’s theurgy and Boehme’s theosophy attention is placed on how Coleridge makes the category of Reflection central to theosis. Why he does so can be better understood by making connections to theoretical conversations surrounding cybernetics. I argue that understanding the technologies, techniques and mediations that can inform our experience of theosis benefits from a consideration of how cybernetics could help clarify our thinking.