Proclus wrote a commentary on the Chaldean Oracles which is lost. This is my current top entry for “books I would rescue from the mists of time”. However there is one fragment which survives, “On the Hieratic Art”. Marsilio Ficino paraphrased the text as “De Sacrificio et Magia” in 1576.

The hieratic art is theurgy, and the little piece neatly summarizes the operation of synthema, substances carrying the energy of the planets which can be used to protect, heal, and attract the gods. In “Sacrifice and Magic” Proclus discusses the solar nature of plants and animals: heliotropes, plants that follow the sun; lion; and cock, meaning rooster. The rooster is said to intimidate the lion which Proclus explains as due to his superior sun power. When magicians think of solar attributions we often think of sunflower-lion-rooster, I guess that goes back to Proclus!

Here are the English translations of “Sacrifice and Magic”, from Ficino’s version or from the original Greek.

• Thomas Taylor, 1895, On the Hieratic Art.
• Brian Copenhaver, 1988, “Hermes Trismegistus, Proclus, and a Philosophy of Magic”, in Hermeticism and the Renaissance, Merkel and Debus edd. I don’t find an online copy of this.
• Stephan Ronan, 1998, On the Sacred Art

I’m getting a copy of the Copenhaver from the library. I’m curious to see if it’s all that different from the other versions, they’re pretty straightforward.