Philosophy and Theurgy in Late Antiquity

271 Pages·2014·1.73 MB·English

by  Algis Uzdavinys

PHILOSOPHY AND THEURGY
IN LATE ANTIQUITY
Algis Uždavinys
PHILOSOPHY
&
THEURGY
IN LATE ANTIQUITY
First published in the USA
by Sophia Perennis
© Algis Uzdavinys 2010
Angelico Press/Sophia Perennis edition 2014
All rights reserved
Series editor: James R. Wetmore
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission
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Angelico Press, Ltd.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Uzdavinys, Algis
Philosophy and theurgy in late antiquity
by Algis Uzdavinys. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references
ISBN 978 1 59731 086 4 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Plato. 2. Neoplatonism. 3. Philosophy, Ancient.
4. Theurgy — History I. Title.
B395.U93 2008
186'.4—dc 22 2008022417
Cover image credit:
Detail of Libations from Initiation into the Cult of Dionysus,
Fresco Cycle at the Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii
Cover design: Cristy Deming
CONTENTS
Foreword
Introduction
1: THE ORIGINS AND MEANING OF PHILOSOPHY
Eidothea and Proteus: the veiled images of philosophy
The distinction between philosophical life and philosophical discourse
Standing face to face with immortality
Philosophy and the hieratic rites of ascent
The task of ‘Egyptian philosophy’: to connect the end to the beginning
The Kronian life of spectator: ‘to follow one's heart in the tomb’
Thauma idesthai: ‘a wonder to behold’
The invincible warriors as models of philosophical lifestyle
The inward journey to the place of truth
To be like Osiris
The death which detaches from the inferior
Entering the solar barque of Atum-Ra
Philosophical initiations in the Netherworld
Self-knowledge and return to one's innermost self
Recovered unity of Dionysus in ourselves
Philosophical mummification inside the cosmic tomb
Platonic dialectic: the science of purification and restoration of unity
Philosophy as a rite of becoming like God
The ancient logos and its sacramental function
Riddles of the cosmic Myth
Philosophy, magic, and laughter
2: VOICES OF THE FIRE: ANCIENT THEURGY AND ITS
TOOLS
Definitions of theurgy in antiquity
Descending lights and animated cult images
Figures, names, and tokens of the divine speech
The prophet Bitys and the overwhelming Name of God
The descending and ascending paths of Heka
The Silence before the gods and its creative magic
Hekate’s golden ball as a rotating ‘vocal image’ of the Father
The Sounding breaths of the All-Working Fire
The Elevating rays of the resounding light
The rites of hieratic invocation and ascent
The Tantric alchemy and the Osirian mummification
Golden seeds of the noetic Fire
Theurgic speech of the birds and solar knowledge
Tongues of the gods and their songs
Back to the lifegiving wombs and the ineffable Silence
Chanting out the universe by the Name of everything
When Orontes flowed into Tiber: the revived tradition
3: SACRED IMAGES & ANIMATED STATUES IN
ANTIQUITY
Myth and symbol: what makes the impossible happen?
Metaphysics of creation and its images in pharaonic Egypt
Theogonic appearances and animated stones
Theology of images and its esoteric dimension
Privileged habitations for the immortal gods
Beholding the ineffable beauties
Divine bodies and representations in Indian Tantrism
Sense perception and intellection in Neoplatonism
Divine light and luminous vehicle of the soul
Divine presence in images
Living images of the Egyptian gods
To be made into a spirit of light
Rites of alchemical transformation
The opening of the statue’s mouth
Mystical union with the noetic Sun
Revelation of the divine face
Divine statues and their sacred gifts
Salvation as return to the divine
4: METAPHYSICAL SYMBOLS AND THEIR FUNCTION IN
THEURGY
Symbols as ontological traces of the divine
The anagogic power of secret names and tokens
Animated theurgic hieroglyphs of the hidden Amun
Neoplatonic rites of metaphysical reversion
The ineffable statues of transcendent light
5: DIVINE RITES AND PHILOSOPHY IN NEOPLATONISM
Ritual and cosmic order
The aim of philosophy
Different aspects of divine acts
Theurgy and spiritual hermeneutics
Hieratic rites of ascent
The common metaphysical background
Philosophers as sacred statues
To be reborn into the solar world
The cosmic theatre of sacrificial fires
Golden cords of Apollo
The shining forth like a god
APPENDIX: THE LIMITS OF SPECULATION IN
NEOPLATONISM
The Hermeneutical program of reading Neoplatonism
Non-discursive divine presence and relational transcendence
Masks and tongues of the ineffable
The distinction between looking up at the Sun and looking down at reflections
Modes of intellection and union
To live means to read
Golden cords of Apollo
The shining forth like a god
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS ON PHILOSOPHY & THEURGY
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
FOREWORD
Philosophy, Theurgy, and the Gods
NEAR THE BEGINNING of Ani’s Book of Going Forth by Day, the soul of Ani (a
scribe in ancient Egypt) states what he expects to have gained in the next life
after leading a holy life on earth following the path laid down by the gods:
May you grant power in the sky, might on earth, and vindication in the
God’s Domain, a journeying downstream to Busiris as a living soul and a
journeying upstream to Abydos as a heron; to go in and out without
hindrance at all the gates of the Duat. 1
This ancient text, beautifully illustrated and written in the second millennium
BCE, marks in a very early form the hopes and expectations of the religious elite:
a special place in the next world with a right to come and go back to the land of
the living at will. It also shows the importance of the gods in the process and—
even more especially—the bond between the believer and those gods. In other
passages it is clear that Ani has become a god himself, and is in fact Osiris when
he joins the god in the underworld. The path to Osiris is not easy, and there is
much knowledge that Ani must have attained on earth in order to navigate the
underworld safely and eventually come successfully through the weighing of his
heart (Plate 3) to the presence of the gods (Plates 4, 30, and 36). The entire
process is therefore marked by Ani’s wisdom granted him by the gods. The
process involved mutually gods and human beings.
Although it is most probably true that the ancient Greeks from the fifth
century BCE onwards could not have had access to The Book of Going Forth by
Day, the so-called Egyptian Books of the Dead, buried as it they were their
creators, and that even if they had had such access they could not have
deciphered the hieroglyphic writings in them, the fact remains that the ideas
contained in this Egyptian text were still available to them. The strange tales
related by Herodotus (c. 484 –c. 425 BCE) in book II of his Histories show the
power that Egypt had for capturing the Greek imagination, and even at that time
several works on this ancient nation and its religious beliefs were available.
After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, his general Ptolemy took
control of Egypt, and his family retained control of the country until the Romans
took it over after the death of Cleopatra in 30 BCE. During that time, it is clear
that even more works about the country and its ways were written, many of
which were about their religious beliefs. Thereafter Egypt remained the land
known for wisdom and magic.
There is, then, a discernible literary and traditional path from Ani’s book to
Iamblichus’ philosophy. In chapter two, below, Dr. Uzdavinys considers the role
and meaning of theurgy in Iamblichean philosophy. He rightly shows that the
word theourgia is one of many that Iamblichus and his fellow Platonists use for
the relationship between gods and mortals. It is also clear that Iamblichus
believed that his version of theurgy had ancient roots that extended back to the
Egyptians. Indeed, he wrote his most famous work, On the Mysteries, under the
persona of an Egyptian priest.
Iamblichus (c. 245 –c. 325 CE) probably took the term ‘theurgy’ from the
Chaldaean Oracles, sacred texts assembled by the father/son team Julian the
Chaldaean and Julian the Theurgist in the second century CE. 2 As Dr. Uzdavinys
has argued, the term has been misapplied by scholars for many years, but more
recently (thanks especially to the excellent scholarship of J.M. Dillon, G. Shaw,
E.C. Clarke, and others) a better understanding of the meaning of the term has
emerged along with a new vision of how theurgy and philosophy are
interconnected in Iamblichean Neoplatonism. Interestingly, what has emerged is
a view of theurgy that is very much akin to Ani’s Egyptian beliefs.
Dr. Uzdavinys’ learned work elucidates many of the connections between
Iamblichus and the ancient Egyptians, and I will not belabor them here. I will
instead briefly suggest how Iamblichus interpreted the (now lost) writings on
ancient Egypt and the Chaldaean Oracles and created a brand of Neoplatonism
that would stand for centuries after him. I should add too that the founders of the
Chaldaean Oracles, the two Julii, were (like Numenius, a Neopythagorean
contemporary with them who also had Platonic leanings) from Apamea. This
adds a Syrian connection to theurgical rite, which should not be ignored. Indeed,
as Dillon argues, 3 Iamblichus likely set up his own Syrian school in Apamea.
Thus, Iamblichus is clearly setting himself, his school, and his philosophy in
Eastern as well as Egyptian currents of learning.
This desire to attach Platonism to earlier traditions is an important aspect of
Iamblichus’ philosophical goal: the unity of Pagan teachings. In his De
Mysteriis, he argues at length against the narrowly Greek and narrowly
(skeptical) philosophical beliefs articulated by Porphyry. For Iamblichus,
Platonic philosophy is more than Greek texts and what he would see as narrow
philosophical eristics. Plato himself, he would argue, knew ancient wisdom and
used it, and so it is imperative that Greek philosophers now do the same or risk
misunderstanding Plato. Theurgy is the means of bringing ancients and Plato