Chaldean Oracles
The Chaldean Oracles ( ) or Chaldean Oracles are a collection of oracles theurgy (Greater Magic), published in Greek, circa 170 (the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius ), by Julian Theurgist the first to be named " theurgist "and son of Julian the Chaldean. There are only fragments and testimonies. "Chaldean" or "Chaldean" means magic, occult. .
The book was reviewed by Porphyry of Tyre , Proclus , Psellus Gemistus Plethon , Damascios , Michel Italicos.
Summary |
Franz Cumont summarizes the philosophical doctrine: "Following Plato, the Chaldean theurgists clearly opposed to the world of ideas intelligible forms of the sensible world of appearances. They had thus a dualistic universe. At the top of their pantheon, they placed the Intellect, which they called as "the Father". This transcendent God who wraps himself in silence, is declared impenetrable, and yet it is sometimes represented as a Fire intangible, which all comes from. Below him are staged triads of the intelligible world and the gods who sit beyond the celestial spheres, or which president. The human soul, a divine, spark of Fire original, down by an act of will the degrees of the scale of beings came locked in the prison of a body. When she is stripped of all envelopes material which she had charged the blessed soul will be welcomed into the bosom of the supreme God father. "
The world has three stages: the World of Light (world readable), the ethereal world (heavenly bodies), and finally the material world under the Moon (the four elements: Earth, Water, Air, Fire). The triad consists of the Heavenly Father (First God), Power (God son) and Intellect (Demiurge). "In every world shines a triad, a monad command" (fragment 27).
It seems that the philosophy of the Chaldean Oracles depends on the philosophy Numnios of Apamea , a thinker of the Middle Platonism slightly earlier (c. 155), but some scholars believe it Numnios which was influenced by the Oracles. "The priority of the Oracles it is to H. Lewy and Eric Robertson Dodds ; than Numnios of Apamea, AJ Festugiere and JH Waszink "(Edouard des Places), which can add Charles H. Kahn. In any case, we see many triads, characteristic of Middle Platonism. In Numnios of Apamea there are three gods (A, Demiurge, Third One who is the Soul of the world or the cosmos), as in the Oracles.
Theurgy
The theurgy is an action type where the magic officiating trying to get in touch with the gods, to take knowledge, for a miraculous operation, or to achieve a kind of life counterpart to the gods. Two methods are possible: the contemplative and the operative. Theurgy contemplative through the elevation of the intellect, while the operative theurgy through rituals and sacred objects.
Two techniques dominate: the animation of statues, the evocation of the gods through trance mediums.
Bibliography
Text
- Chaldean Oracles (ca. 170), trans. the Greek Island of Places, Les Belles Lettres, 1971, 357 p., 2nd ed. Review 1997.
Sources
- Suidae lexicon , record "Ioulianos" (434), II, p. 642.
Studies
- Hans Lewy, Oracles and Chaldan Theurgy. Mysticism, Magic, and Platonism in The Later Roman Empire, New Edition by Michel Tardieu, Paris, and Augustinian Studies Turnhout, Brepols, 1978, 734 p.
- Henri-Dominique Saffrey, "The Neoplatonic and 'Chaldean Oracles,'" Journal of Augustinian Studies, 27 (1981), p. 209-225.
- Henri-Dominique Saffrey "Theurgy as a cultural phenomenon among the Neoplatonists (IV-V century)," Koinonia, 8 (1984), p. 161-171.
See also
Related articles
External Links
References
- Saffrey HD, The Neoplatonists and 'Chaldean Oracles, Augustinian Studies Review, 27 (1981), p. 216.
- H.-D. Saffrey, "The Neoplatonists and the Chaldean Oracles," Augustinian Studies Review, vol 27, 1981, p. 210 ff.
- Franz Cumont, Lux Perpetua, Paris, 1949, pp. 363-364, quoted in Chaldean Oracles, p. 11-12.
- Henry Lewy, Chaldean Oracles and Theurgy, Augustinian Studies, 1978, p. 461-466.
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