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In his new book Hellenic Tantra, religious studies professor Gregory Shaw explores transformative practices that were once the core of Western philosophy and religion but have now been lost or misunderstood. The later Platonists described these rituals as theurgy (divine action), and they allowed us to become divine, not by escaping from our bodies but by inviting the gods to descend into our material life. Hellenic Tantra reveals how the 4th century Platonic teacher, Iamblichus, guided his followers into theurgies meant to transform them into angelic beings. Drawing parallels between Platonic theurgy and South Asian Tantra, Gregory Shaw recovers this lost spiritual tradition, revealing an existential glory that can once again become our own. This talk will introduce us to this lost history and its implications for a new—and more mystical—understanding of the Western philosophical tradition.