Welcome to Online Translations
& Research Materials
from Chthonios Books

© Stephen Ronan, 2002

These pages will concentrate on a series of online translations and analyses of ancient esoteric religious and philosophical documents, along with other research materials. These works are original translations and other materials unavailable on the Web or, in some cases, off it. (That is, otherwise unpublished).

The three texts below give some essential materials from the ancient Neoplatonists which are fundamental to the study of Western spiritual and philosophical traditions. I will be expanding and adding to these texts considerably in the future. Stay tuned and please feel free to spread the word about the availability of these texts!

….to d’ atrekes en bathei esti.
Chaldean Oracles 183 (ed. Des Places)
Stephen Ronan
Hastings UK, July 2002

NEW Stephen Attragon has kindly donated some intelligent and very erudite short stories to this site :

New The Numenius Factor finds the sage Numenius (2nd C. AD) comparing Pythagorean/Platonic wisdom with that of India — as well as looking after the children of women in difficult circumstances... New
Apollo of a Thousand Years concerns Damascius and the last days of Plato’s Academy.
While Saturday’s Jubilee finds Giordano Bruno & Thomas Campanella under the Inquisition.....

Below are some crucial but little-known texts from ancient Pagan Neoplatonism. They throw profound light on western religious philosophy, experience and mysticism.

Proclus Diadochus On the Sacred Art. A beautiful piece which explains the theurgic understanding of the ‘spiritual mechanics’ behind religious ritual.

Proclus Diadochus On the Signs of Divine Possession. A brief but essential extract from Proclus which illuminates how the ancients understood the phenomena of trance and possession.

Porphyry of Tyre Letter to Anebo and Iamblichus of Chalcis On the Mysteries. A detailed analysis of these two famous documents which raise and resolve questions about the meaning of, and apparent contradictions in, ancient religion and ritual. Also of particular importance for the ancient Pagan-Christian debate.

Legal stuff
Apart from downloading a copy for your own use, please do not reproduce or disseminate this document without written permission. © 1998 Stephen Ronan.