Theurgy

By Anne Sheppard

  Theurgy was a form of pagan religious magic associated with the Chaldaean Oracles and taken up by the later Neoplatonists. It covered a range of magical practices, from rain-making and cures to animating statues of the gods. Like other forms of magic, theurgy was based on a theory of cosmic sympathy but in theurgy, as in Neoplatonist metaphysics, sympathy was thought to extend beyond the material world and to unite it with a higher, divine world. Theurgy was accordingly believed to promote the union of the human soul with the divine. Plotinus shows no interest in theurgy but in the next generation it became the focus of a dispute between Porphyry and Iamblichus (2). Iamblichus' On the Mysteries argues, against Porphyry, that the human soul cannot attain union with the divine purely by its own efforts of philosophical contemplation; such union requires the assistance of the gods, which can be brought about by theurgy. Most of the later Neoplatonists accepted Iamblichus' position, although they varied in the emphasis they placed on theurgy. Eunapius records that the pupils of Iamblichus' pupil Aedesius differed on this point: Eusebius of Myndus apparently disapproved of theurgy while Chrysanthius and Maximus (3) were enthusiastic practitioners. Proclus and his school at Athens followed Iamblichus. It has often been thought that the 5th- and 6th-cent. Neoplatonists of Alexandria (1) were less committed to theurgy than their Athenian contemporaries. In fact, of the pagan Neoplatonists at Alexandria, Ammonius son of Hermeias is notably silent about both theurgy and the Chaldaean Oracles but the rest share the views of the Athenian school. Theurgy continued to attract the interest of the Byzantine Neoplatonists, particularly Michael Psellus.

  The only “magic” accepted on the Via Christa, is the instruction given us by our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ when he said, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”–Matthew 7:7-8.

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