Late Antiquity

18 moments, c. 200 to c. 5th–7th century.

c. 200

The Mishnah restricts the Chariot and Creation

Rabbinic law limits public teaching of Ma'aseh Bereshit and Ma'aseh Merkavah, testifying to early esoteric speculation on creation and Ezekiel's throne-vision.
Liber XX · Kabbalah
c. 100–300

The Corpus Hermeticum composed

Greek dialogues credited to Hermes Trismegistus teach that the soul can know God through gnosis and rebirth; they surface again in Florence in the 1460s.
Liber XII · Hermeticism
240

Mani begins his mission

The Persian prophet proclaims a universal dualist religion of Light and Darkness; Manichaeism spreads from the Roman Empire to China.
Liber IX · Gnosticism
244–270

Plotinus teaches in Rome

The founder of Neoplatonism describes the One, Intellect and Soul and the soul's return by contemplation, shaping Western mysticism and esotericism ever after.
Liber XII · Hermeticism
c. 274–277

Death of Mani

Mani dies in prison under the Sasanian king Bahram I, but his missionaries carry the religion of Light across Eurasia for over a thousand years.
Liber IX · Gnosticism
c. 300

Zosimos of Panopolis writes on alchemy

The Egyptian author's treatises and visions are the earliest substantial alchemical writings with a named author, blending metallurgy with spiritual purification.
Liber I · Alchemy
c. 300

Iamblichus defends theurgy

In On the Mysteries, Iamblichus argues that ritual 'god-work', not reason alone, unites the soul with the divine—a charter for later ceremonial magic.
Liber XIII · High Magick
c. 301

Porphyry publishes the Enneads

Plotinus's student arranges his master's treatises into six groups of nine, the form in which Neoplatonism reached later ages.
Liber XII · Hermeticism
c. mid-4th century

Nag Hammadi codices produced

Coptic books of Gnostic, Hermetic and other texts are copied in Upper Egypt and later buried, possibly after Athanasius's 367 letter on the canon.
Liber IX · Gnosticism
c. 325–425

Patañjali's Yoga Sutras compiled

Many scholars now date the classical yoga aphorisms, with their eightfold path to meditative absorption, to around the turn of the fifth century.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism
391

Destruction of the Serapeum

Christian mobs destroy Alexandria's great temple of Serapis amid Theodosius's laws against pagan cult, marking the end of public Egyptian religion there.
Liber II · Ancient Magic
413–426

Augustine's City of God

Augustine attacks theurgy and the Hermetic Asclepius as demonic, establishing the Christian framework within which magic was judged for a millennium.
Liber II · Ancient Magic
c. 3rd–6th century

Sefer Yetzirah composed

The 'Book of Formation' describes creation through the ten sefirot and the twenty-two Hebrew letters; its date remains debated by scholars.
Liber XX · Kabbalah
c. 5th century

Earliest surviving Shaiva Tantras

Texts such as the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā record initiation, mantra and ritual for Shiva worship, opening the long history of tantric traditions.
Liber VIII · Eastern Mysticism
485

Death of Proclus

The last great head of the Athenian Neoplatonic school leaves systematic works on theurgy and the hierarchy of being that influenced Christian and Islamic thinkers.
Liber XII · Hermeticism
c. 500

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

A Syrian writer using the name of Paul's convert writes on celestial hierarchies and the unknowable God, founding Christian negative theology.
Liber IX · Gnosticism
c. 3rd–8th century

Hekhalot literature

Jewish texts describe adepts ascending through seven heavenly palaces to behold the divine Chariot-throne, using hymns, seals and secret names.
Liber XX · Kabbalah
c. 5th–7th century

Aramaic incantation bowls

Jewish, Mandaic and Christian practitioners in Mesopotamia inscribe spiral spells inside clay bowls buried beneath houses to trap demons.
Liber II · Ancient Magic