# What Is a 'Neoplatonic Magic Rite'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 20, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-neoplatonic-magic-rite/923436 "2020-10-20T20:45:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-neoplatonic-magic-rite/923436/1 "2020-10-20T20:45:14Z")
I have to confess to you, as I write this, I am watching the _Star Trek: TNG_ episode _Emergence_, episode #175, apparently first aired on (or around?) May 9, 1994. Anyways, at the beginning of the show, Data is performing a scene from Shakespeare’s _Tempest_, Act V, Scene 1. And Data tells Captain Picard that he is doing a ‘Neoplatonic magic rite’. What on earth is a ‘Neoplatonic magic rite’? Yes, I looked up Neoplatonism in Wikipedia. And I certainly know what magic is. But what was Data specifically referring to? Before I saw the show, I never even heard of a ‘Neoplatonic magic rite’. Oh, and we studied the play in high school. And I can assure you Shakespeare never used the term in the play. So what does it mean? I put this question in GQ, because I assume that the term has some meaning independent of the _Star Trek: the Next Generation_ series. Thank you in advance for your helpful and civil replies 🙂 . 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-neoplatonic-magic-rite/923436/2 "2020-10-20T21:39:36Z")
You might have been better off looking up [Theurgy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theurgy). A “neoplatonic magic rite” would be a magical ritual along neo-Platonic lines. It would generally involve intense meditation and contemplation to bring oneself closer to the Divine. Some forms might include recapitulating the Divine with invocations that would affect the material world. In this case, though, I suspect the episode writer was just throwing out the dramaturgical equivalent of technobabble. In Act V, Scene 1, Prospero and Ariel _discuss_ Prospero’s magical workings, but Prospero doesn’t actually perform a rite. And Prospero’s magical workings don’t seem neo-Platonic, anyway. Using staff and book to summon a storm seems a lot more like classic Hermetic magic than neo-Platonism. At a stretch, Data _could_ be saying that performing the play is in and of itself a neo-Platonic magic rite, a dramaturgical working. There are definitely modern occultists who follow this line. I kinda doubt the episode writer had that in mind, though. It would be _really_ out of character for Data, and out of genre for the show. Again, I strongly suspect the line is just technobabble, with no deeper meaning than “reversing the polarity”. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-neoplatonic-magic-rite/923436/3 "2020-10-20T22:37:33Z")
This idea may apply as well: > **[Period Speech](https://xkcd.com/771/)** > > The same people who spend their weekends at the Blogger Reenactment Festivals will whine about the anachronisms in historical movies, but no one else will care. So the “joke” is we 20th Century audience folks know he’s misusing these terms. But he doesn’t. Plus of course Data being an Asbergery tedious wanker he’d use over-fancy terminology if he was reading a book of 20th Century bathroom graffiti. Mostly though I think @gdave nailed it: pure treknobabble. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2020, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-neoplatonic-magic-rite/923436/4 "2020-10-21T05:12:34Z")
Spock had a tendency to do the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2020, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-neoplatonic-magic-rite/923436/5 "2020-10-21T13:37:12Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > So the “joke” is we 20th Century audience folks know he’s misusing these terms. But he doesn’t. Picard surely would have, though. And for that matter so would soon-to-be-Sir Patrick Stewart of the Royal Shakespeare Company. I wonder if he had anything to say about the line. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2020, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-neoplatonic-magic-rite/923436/6 "2020-10-21T14:29:18Z")
“Neo-Platonic magic rite” isn’t a Shakespearean term. It’s not a term that would have been used contemporaneously. There’s no reason for Picard, or Sir Patrick Stewart of the Royal Shakespeare Company, to know what the term would mean, or that Data seems to be using it incorrectly. Picard, and Patrick Stewart, might well know that Prospero is _discussing_ magical rites in Act V, Scene 1, not _performing_ them, but there’s no reason to think he would have any idea of the differences between neo-Platonism and Hermeticism. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2020, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-neoplatonic-magic-rite/923436/7 "2020-10-21T15:20:34Z")
Come on - Star Trek would _never_ make up technical terminology. Now just reverse your polarities and calm yourselves down. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2020, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-neoplatonic-magic-rite/923436/8 "2020-10-21T15:49:12Z")
Is that the same Patrick Stewart who said, “I wouldn’t know a space-time continuum or warp core breach if they got into bed with me”?