The Illuminations of Theurgy: Philosophy and Magic

2019 ◽  
pp. 314-377
Author(s):  
Radcliffe G. Edmonds III
Keyword(s):  
Ritual Practice ◽  
Material World ◽  
Divine Power ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Or Practice ◽  
Inanimate Matter ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Negative Sense

This chapter focuses on ancient ideas of theurgy. From the uses of the term in the ancient evidence, “theurgy” may be defined as the art or practice of ritually creating a connection between the mortal, material world that is before one's eyes and the unseen, immortal world of the gods. Such a practice may be a lifelong assimilation of the individual soul to the divine, or it may be a momentary activation of the connection with divine power to achieve some more immediate end on earth. Whereas normative religious action in the Greco-Roman world tends to involve just the human worshipper and the divine god in a sequence of reciprocal responses, theurgy, as it appears in the ancient evidence, attempts to bring the divine and mortal together, uniting the divine power with the human worshipper. This process of unification involves connecting elements of the cosmos at every level of being, from the lowest dregs of inanimate matter through the animal and human living creatures and up to the various kinds of divinities, including the very highest. Ultimately, theurgy appears as magic, labeled as an “extraordinary ritual practice,” whether in a positive or negative sense.

Science, Philosophy, and Technology in the Greco-Roman World: I

1973 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Desmond Lee
Keyword(s):  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Science Philosophy ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Great Harm

My title is an ambitious one, and defines a field which is more suitable for a book than for a single lecture, and which has the added disadvantage that it crosses the boundaries between a number of disciplines: history, science, philosophy, and technology. Anyone who chooses such a theme is in danger of being told by those well-versed in the individual disciplines that his knowledge of each of them is inadequate; which may well be true, and is certainly true of me. But cross-disciplinary exploration is in itself a desirable activity; and if a few explorers perish in the process no great harm is done, and others may follow their example more successfully. I should not, however, in saying this, like it to be thought that I am claiming any great novelty for what I shall say to you today. Little of my material is new; all I can hope to do is to suggest to you a particular interpretation of it.

Healing and Protective Magic: Defense against the Dark Arts

2019 ◽  
pp. 116-148
Author(s):  
Radcliffe G. Edmonds III
Keyword(s):  
Ancient World ◽  
Potential Harm ◽  
Divine Power ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Special Knowledge ◽  
Everyday Problems ◽  
Extraordinary Means

This chapter looks at the tradition of protective and healing magic in the Greco-Roman world. While normal strategies of defense and protection against one's enemies and the ordinary perils of life in the ancient world could be employed in everyday problems, for extraordinary crises, extraordinary means with extraordinary efficacy were needed. Such means were needed not only to ward off potential harm but also to heal the damage already done. Special knowledge might be required to determine the necessary remedy for an unusual or serious problem, whether that knowledge was transmitted in the traditional lore about various plants and minerals or in systematic treatises that compiled the arcane lore for scholarly minded philosophers and doctors. Either the traditional lore or the occult knowledge might be labeled as “magic.” Protective and curative magic channeled divine power in special ways to achieve its extraordinary effects, and so, like other forms of magic in the ancient Greco-Roman world, it was at times viewed askance as superstition and at other times eagerly sought as the only solution to otherwise insuperable problems.

scholarly journals Calculating the Lots of Fortune and Daemon in Hellenistic Astrology

2007 ◽  
Vol 11 (1 and 2) ◽  
pp. 163-187
Author(s):  
Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum
Keyword(s):  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Length Of Life ◽  
The Way

This paper looks at some of the contributions the Lots of Fortune and Daemon make to the practice of Hellenistic astrology. First, an overview on the role that Fortune and Daimon play for the individual in the Greco-Roman world, including in the perceived fate of an individual, is given. Next, how Fortune and Daimon help to create the system of astrological lots is discussed. The Lots of Fortune and Daemon may be a way of incorporating ideas of personal destiny into astrology, at least in determining length of life, if not in other areas. For this reason, the methods used in their calculation become important. The paper examines variations in these methods and the rationale behind them, what different astrologers say about them, and discusses the way an ancient astrologer (Titus Pitenius, in P. Lond. 130) may have calculated the Lot of Fortune.

Twins in Myth

1976 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. De Rachewiltz ◽  
P. Parisi ◽  
V. Castellani
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Egypt ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
African Populations ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Ancient Civilizations ◽  
Negative Sense

Twins have an important place in mythology and a sacred character appears to be attached to them since the most ancient times. In ancient Egypt, the royal placenta was worshipped, being considered as the Pharao's twin (a conception that is still alive among certain African populations), and actually everyone was considered to possess a spiritual twin, the Ka or astral body, through whom it was supposed to be possible to operate with magic rituals and hit enemies. Twin gods were worshipped by Babylonians and Assyrians (who even introduced them among astronomic constellations), and may be also found in the Persian and Veda religions. In the classic, Greco-Roman world, the examples of twin gods and heroes are innumerable: from the twin sons of Zeus, the Dioscuri, to the opposite-sexed twin gods Apollo and Diana, to Rome's founders, Romulus and Remus, etc. Since the most ancient times, a magic conception is connected to the twins, either in a positive or a negative sense, but often with some kind of a “fatidic” aspect. Such a two-faced approach to the phenomenon of twinning, that variously characterizes neareast, protomediterranean, classic, and other ancient civilizations, may still be found in contemporary primitive societies.

Early Christian Attitudes Towards Dietary Impurity

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Blidstein
Keyword(s):  
Normal Order ◽  
Roman Religion ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The Individual

This chapter describes how purity and defilement were practiced and discussed in diverse cults throughout the Hellenistic and Roman Empires and in contemporary Judaism. There were several types of purity and defilement. The first, a “truce” impurity perception, was temporary and mundane, a defilement occurring when there was an obstruction to the normal order or when categories were mixed up. A second type, the “battle” impurity perception, followed exceptional actions, typically deliberate, such as murder or adultery. Here purification required both punishment by the community and ritual actions, such as sacrifice. A third type became more and more significant in the first centuries CE. This was the defilement of the individual by his or her evil actions and dispositions, conceptualized at times as a “defilement of the soul,” and its purification through asceticism, philosophy, or repentance. Though purity and defilement also featured in Greco-Roman religion, it received an unusually central role in Judaism.

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