For the Love of the Gods: The History and Modern Practice of Theurgy - Brandy Williams 2016

Theurgic Study Course
Appendix

We have seen that theurgy is a literate tradition; following are some of its most notable works. They include English translations of ancient texts and contemporary interpretations of the texts. Each student is free to chart a personal course through reading these works.

How to Read the Texts

The original texts are written in many languages, including hieroglyphic and demotic, Latin and Arabic. Where there is more than one translation, it can be illuminating to read different versions, as each translator draws on his or her own training and perspectives.

Many are written in Greek. Some translations take a different word in English than the Greek word; my favorite example is “magic,” which can stand in for any of a number of different words, including “goes,” meaning practical magic with a shading of disreputable, and “pharmakon,” meaning an herb or object charged with healing or cursing properties. Taking the time to learn the Greek alphabet allows us to find the source word in the text and make our own decisions about what it might mean.

In addition to reading the texts on our own, we may be inspired to read the texts as part of a reading group with other people who are interested in the practice of theurgy. Every group is smarter than the smartest person in it; group study is a great way to leverage that power.

AFRICAN WISDOM TEXTS

Hieroglyphic inscriptions on stone and wood are primary sources for ancient Egyptian religious thought and practice.

THE PYRAMID TEXTS

The Pyramid Texts begin with the pyramid of Unas at Saqqara dated to about 2345 BCE. The texts assist the pyramid’s inhabitants in their afterlife journey to join the gods among the stars.

· • Samuel Mercer, The Pyramid Texts, available online.

· • R. O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, considered definitive by academic scholars.

· • Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature: Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms, includes selections from the Pyramid Texts.

COFFIN TEXTS

While the Pyramid Texts date to the Old Kingdom, the Coffin Texts were produced in the first Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom. They sometimes copy the Pyramid Texts, but there are new additions here as well. Like the Pyramid Texts, they assist the coffin’s inhabitants in their post-life journeys.

· • R. O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts.

BOOK OF GOING FORTH BY DAY

By the New Kingdom, the rituals guiding the deceased in their journeys had become widely available as funerary scrolls. The 1250 BCE Papyrus of Ani, titled the Book of Going Forth By Day, is the most complete of these texts.

· • E. A. Wallis Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Papyrus of Ani in the British Museum

· • R. O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead

· • Maulana Karenga, Maat, The Moral Idea in Ancient Egypt. Karenga extensively analyses the Papyrus of Ani and the coffin texts.

· • Eva Von Dassow, editor, The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day

· • Wasserman, James, The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day.

Kemetic Ritual Practice

Each morning the priestesses and priests in the temples would approach the statues that provided earthly bodies in which the deities could manifest. The temple walls and papyri are inscribed with instructions on how to perform these rites. The Opening of the Mouth ceremony could be performed on a statue of deity or on the mummy of a recently deceased royal or noble to enable that physical presence to receive offerings.

· • E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of Opening the Mouth.

· • Richard Reidy, Eternal Egypt, Ancient Rituals for the Modern World. Reidy adapts rituals for bringing deity into statue and interacting with that statue daily.

· • Robert Ritner, The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice. Ritner discusses the work of temple priests and priestesses and the interaction of temple and home.

· • Serge Sauneron, The Priests of Ancient Egypt. Sauneron describes the daily ritual practice in the temple.

· • Mark Smith, The Liturgy of Opening the Mouth for Breathing.

The Works of Plato

Plato’s works have survived in some number. They encapsulate the works of Pythagoras, Socrates, and Diotima. Scholars note that it is difficult to decide which of Plato’s thoughts are attributable to him, but we can certainly consider the corpus of his work to include the thoughts of his predecessors, including his unnamed Kemetic teachers.

One approach to this learning would be to read the works in the order Iamblichus designated. Neo-Platonic philosophers held that reading the works in this order constitutes something of an initiation, with earlier texts providing the foundation for later thought. Here is the order:

· • Alcibiades I

· • Gorgias

· • Phaedo

· • Cratylus

· • Theaetetus

· • Sophist

· • Statesman

· • Phaedrus

· • Symposium

· • Philebus

· • Timaeus

· • Parmenides

These are available in many translations online and in print. Benjamin Jowett’s readable translations from the early twentieth century are posted courtesy of MIT. If you can read only one of these works, read Timaeus.

· • Mary Ellen Waithe, A History of Women Philosophers. Waithe specifically discusses the thought of Diotima and other women Platonic philosophers.

Platonic Philosophers

PLOTINUS

Plotinus’s student Porphyry arranged and edited six of his lectures into the Enneads.

· • Stephen MacKenna, The Enneads. This translation is available online through MIT. The work includes Porphyry’s biography of Plotinus.

· • Algis Uždavinys, Algis, editor. The Heart of Plotinus: The Essential Enneads Including Porphyry’s On the Cave. Uždavinys provides a readable overview of Plotinus’s work in his introduction to the book.

IAMBLICHUS

Some of Iamblichus’s surviving works have a Pythagorean character, including his biography of Pythagoras. Most important for the theurgist is his book Theurgia or the Mysteries of Egypt, sometimes called De Mysteriis.

· • Emma Clarke, John M. Dillon, and Jackson P. Hershbell, Iamblichus On the Mysteries, 2003. The excellent introduction to the translation provides a helpful analysis of the work.

· • Thomas J Johnson. Iamblichus, the Exhortation to Philosophy: Including the Letters of Iamblichus and Proclus’ Commentary on the Chaldean Oracles.

· • Thomas Taylor. Iamblichus’ Life of Pythagoras.

· • Gregory Shaw, Theurgy and the Soul: The Neo-Platonism of Iamblichus. This analysis is enormously helpful to the practitioner seeking to understand the theory behind the practice of the rites.

HYPATIA

Claudius Ptolemais wrote the Almagest in 150. Hypatia’s biographer Dzielska argues that Hypatia herself edited her father Theon’s edition of Ptolemais’s Almagest and largely wrote the commentary attributed to her father. The Almagest formed the foundational text for the practice of astronomy and astrology in medieval Europe. Reading the Almagest, which is not lengthy, reveals something of Hypatia’s preoccupation with universal harmony. Bruce MacLennan brings Hypatia’s thought back to life in The Wisdom of Hypatia; we owe him a tremendous debt for permitting us to sit at her feet again.

· • David Blitz, Ptolemy: Almagest, Book I.

· • Bruce MacLennan, The Wisdom of Hypatia.

PROKLOS

Proklos wrote prolifically; five of his commentaries on Platonic dialogues and six of his books survive. The work of Proklos certainly encompasses the thoughts of his teacher, Asklepigenia. In A History of Women Philosophers, Mary Ellen Waithe discusses Asklepigenia’s thoughts on metaphysics and magic. Most notably, Asklepigenia taught that fate was not immutable, but could be altered by ritual action. Proklos also wrote many hymns; five that have survived were translated by Thomas Taylor.

· • E. R. Dodds, Proclus’ Elements of Theology.

· • Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, Marinus’ On Happiness, the Life of Proclus, available online

· • Thomas Taylor, Proclus’s Platonic Theology.

· • Thomas Taylor, Proclus, Five Hymns.

Ritual Texts

CHALDEAN ORACLES

We have previously discussed the oracles in their ancient context. While Plethon was the last Pagan to have access to the complete poem, numerous scholars have collected the existing fragments. Hans Lewy translated the available fragments in 1956. He separated fragments into “theurgical” and “magical.” The most recent translator, Ruth Majercik, does not replicate this division.

· • Sarah Iles Johnston, Hekate Soteira. Johnston’s work makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of the oracles.

· • Ruth Majercik, Chaldean Oracles, Text, Translation and Commentary. This version is the current and the definitive translation, treating nearly two hundred hexameter verses, reproducing the Greek texts with facing translations. She includes an exhaustive bibliography of primary and secondary sources, along with the best summation of classes of beings mentioned in the texts, the cosmology of the Oracles, and theurgic practice as found in the text.

· • G. R. S. Mead, Chaldean Oracles. Mead’s version deserves more attention than it gets. His volume gives an overview of texts where the fragments were found, the historical context, the cosmology of the oracles, and some idea of theurgic techniques.

· • Thomas Taylor, Collection of the Chaldean Oracles. Taylor was the first to translate the fragments into English.

· • William Wynn Westcott, Chaldean Oracles. The Golden Dawn founder relates the cosmology of the oracles to the Qabbalah.

KEMETIC AND GREEK RITUAL TEXTS

· • Hans Dieter Betz, editor, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation: Including the Demotic Spells. This is the current definitive collection.

· • Eleni Pachoumi, The Greek Magical Papyri: Diversity and Unity, A Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Pachoumi links specific ritual techniques back to the philosophical doctrines that explain them.

· • Stephen Skinner, Techniques of Graeco-Egyptian Magic. Skinner has analyzed the texts and provided a tabulated guide to the techniques.

Graeco-Egyptian Source Works

HERMETICA

The Corpus Hermeticum was assembled in Alexandria in the second century BCE from a much larger body of earlier texts. The Hermetica are presented in the form of a dialogue or teaching, most given by Hermes Trismegistus to various disciples, some of which contain ritual as well as theology and philosophy. They were known to Psellos and were redacted by Byzantine editors. The Hermetica were among the writings purged from the libraries of Western Europe and re-introduced to the West through Marsilio Ficino’s translations in the time of the Florentine academy. Since Ficino’s time, this collection has been enormously influential to esotericists and magicians.

Copenhaver notes that two earlier editors, Walter Scott and Andre-Jean Festugiere, divided the works into two categories, “philosophical” and “popular,” with the “popular” works containing details of ritual practice. Fifteen “philosophical” texts form the currently translated canon. The “popular” or technical works were published by A. J. Festugiere volume I of La Revelation d’Hermes Trismegiste, copies of which can be located in a few university libraries, although I have not seen one.

· • Brian Copenhaver. Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum. This is the current definitive edition.

· • Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind. This work remains the most useful and authoritative commentary on the context and content of the Hermetica, and forms an essential companion volume to Copenhaver’s translations.

· • G. R. S. Mead, Thrice Greatest Hermes.