Theurgy, Theophany, and the Mundus Imaginalis

Carlos Schwabe, Le Destin, 1897.

The manifested dynamic cosmos, populated with myriads of occult correspondences, mythic realities, and host of non-material beings, exists on various levels of perception, with the senses perceiving the world, the active imagination the soul, and the daemonic consciousness through the intellect (The ‘intellect’ in this case is to be understood in the Platonic sense of the pre-conceptual knowing as described by Iamblichus). As the active imagination conveys events of the cosmos through images, the very act of imagining is in a sense an act of theurgic union, if one is to treat the dynamic cosmos as divine and daemonic. Yet, it must be clarified in the most vehement manner that this sense of ‘active imagination’ is very different from the modern view of reality where ‘imagination’ is merely a mode of separating one’s state of mind from ‘everyday’ mental perceptions and processes. In a state of active imagination, corporeal reality, which we conceive as being ‘real’, is in fact enveloped and consumed by the reality of the pure forces of the cosmos, and is determined by it. To quote Tom Cheetham, “it is the mode of being, the mode of Presence, of the human person that determines the nature of time, not the other way round” (Cheetham, 2003, page ?). 

According to Henry Corbin, the active imagination partakes, dwells, and embodies the mundus imaginalis, which is the mesocosm of visionary revelation and events that experienced more vividly real that mundane reality. This is a place of constant metaphysical experience, theophanic visions, meditative consciousness, ritual gesture, contemplative prayer, artistic inspiration, and the sensations of eros. The function of the active imagination transmutes sensible forms into living symbols, and as Corbin writes:

The active imagination guides, anticipates, molds sense perception, that is why it transmutes sensory data into symbols. The Burning Bush is only a brushwood fire if it is merely perceived by the sensory organs. In order that Moses may perceive the Burning Bush and hear the Voice calling him… an organ of trans-sensory perception is needed (Corbin, 1998, 80)... So that the intelligible realities perceived on the imaginal level may be reflected in the mirror of the senses and be translated into visionary perception… the vision of the angel does not emerge from the negativity of an unconscious, but descends from a level of a positively differentiated superconscious (Corbin, 1986, 265-265).

This is the theurgic endeavour of purification and liberation, the attempt to perceive traces of divine meaning behind appearances perceived by the senses.

The intensity of the active imagination that resonates throughout the mesocosm can create changes in the world, initiated through the occult correspondences of Indra’s net, transforming the possessor of such an active imagination into a divine creator who established the patterns from which material forms evolve. And as Angela Voss concludes, “what we call a miracle is the result of such a capacity to bring spiritual power to bear on matter and cut through the literal dimension of cause and effect” (Voss, 2007, 9). 

References:

Tom Cheetham, The World Turned Inside Out: Henry Corbin and Islamic Mysticism, 2003.

Henry Corbin, Alone with the Alone, 1998.

Henry Corbin, Temple and Contemplation, 1986.

Angela Voss, ‘Becoming an Angel: the Mundus imaginalis of Henry Corbin and the Platonic path of self-knowledge’, 2007.

Enchantment, the Emerald Mystery

Heinrich Lossow, The Enchantress, 1868.

Emerald vines and ivy mournfully wrap themselves around the remains of a once glorious marble temple. From lands beyond the horizon, believers would come in ecstatic procession to partake in the mysteries, inhale the scent of a midsummer’s night dream and to rejoice beneath the shimmering silver silhouette of Selene. Now those distant memories revealed themselves to the faery, mournfully waltzing to the euphony of the soft breeze, a nostalgic echo trickling alongside dim rays of sunlight through the untamed canopy of woodland delight. The all-embracing dusk descended upon the emerald glade, smothering it in the sweetness of the twilight’s moistly mist and casting ever-changing shadows that dance around and amidst his marble remains slumbering in her emerald arms. The constellation of the lovers smiled softly as they glimpsed through the darkened canopies and witnessed lost souls of undying memories joining the shadows in their alluring serenade of mystique and serpentine charm. And deep within the feverish forest, the lunar dryad awoken to hear their primeval laughter and poetic utterances of ecstasy and mischief as they slither to the drumming of the nocturnal pulse and the rhythm of Pan’s flute. The lunar crescent upon her brow and gemstones of jade her eyes, she now stood before the faery and her sorcery, revealing to her the secret of her name.

Enchantment, the Faery

Carlton Alfred Grant, The Fairy Circle, 1895.

Not far from emerald green foliage of the enchanted wood, where dreams and perils embrace each other as reflections of the constellation of the lovers, a lost faery casts circles. Seething with sensual rage she sets ablaze the damp grains of sand beneath a dark and dreary Brythonic sky. Her scars are still bleeding, for the dryads of the enchanted wood were not kind to her or her sorcery. For it is forbidden to mortals and immortals alike to take beyond the wood the Emerald Mystery. And from beyond the sea she calls upon her host with her circles to storm the enchanted wood and take beyond the wood and across the sea that Emerald Mystery.

Many had ventured into that wood, lured in by the dying whispers of crucified sirens promising haven, the intoxicating incense of violet roses, and the mesmerising visage of the luscious foliage sparkling in the twilight of dusk. The fate of those shall always remain unknown. Some witches’ tales speak of these sorrowful souls being petrified and decorating the gardens of the pleasure palaces, tormented by their yearning and unfulfilled to taste the forbidden fruit. Other tales speak of horrific sacrifices upon pagan altars, which even poets fear to sing of. However some more wise speak of an overwhelming sensation, akin to that of the Elysian Fields, where these souls wander in the eternal bliss of enstasis defying the guilty innocence of time and partaking in worship of some immanent transcendence. Yet the faery, cursed and bleeding she now is, has seen the majesty and mystique of the lovers of the Emerald Mystery, and now summons the dark and dreary Brythonic sky to cast a shadow over the vigilance of Selene and Hypnos to bind all those who stand against her as colossal fiends. 

The True Will and Thelemic Mysticism

Aleister Crowley, Four Red Monks carrying a Black Goat across the Snow to Nowhere, 1928-30.

A classic example of the rise and spread of occultism, along with the practice of a form of mystical spirituality, is the fraternal order of the Ordo Templis Orientis (Order of the Temple of the East), which is also referred to as the O.T.O. Established in 1896 by Karl Kellner and then succeeded by Theodor Reuss, who professed that the Order was in possession of the innermost secret of all esoteric systems that lies at the foundation of all spiritual traditions. According to Reuss:

Our Order possesses the Key which opens up all Masonic and Hermetic secrets, namely, the teaching of sexual magic, and this teaching explains, without exception, all secrets of Naturem all the symbolism of Freemasonry and all systems of religion (Reuss, 1912, 21).

The leadership passed on in 1922 to Aleister Crowley, who incorporated many of his own personal esoteric ideas, approaches to ceremonial magic, Yoga, and the religio-philosophy known as ‘Thelema’. Within this fraternal framework, individuals attached to the branch of the Order that accepted  Liber Al vel Legis, or Book of the Law, have come to incorporate into their spiritual path of evolution a notion of Thelemic mysticism, which is designed to enable one to learn his or her unique True Will and achieve a sense of union with the All. The teachings fall under Crowley’s notion of ‘Magick’, which draws from various existing magical and mystical forms of conduct, such as Yoga, ceremonial magic, the Hermetic Qabalah, the Tarot, astrology, sex magick, and a eucharistic ceremony. Within this system of Thelemic mysticism the aim is for the Initiate to discover and manifest their own Will as their grand destiny and path of action that operates in union with that which underlies all being. This Will does not spring from conscious intent, but from the interplay between the deepest self and the universe. Theoretically, at this point, the Initiate acts in alignment with nature and the universe surrendering all forms of selfish resistance. An example of mystical pursuit that might lead the Initiate into a state of union with the All can be largely defined by the Tree of Life. The Initiate begins in Malkuth, which is the material world of phenomena, with the ultimate goal being at Kether, the sphere of unity with the All. The ability to accomplish this requires a great deal of preparation and effort, which consists of thorough knowledge of the Hermetic Qabalah, meditation, the development of one's Astral Body in order to experience other astral realms, and the consistent invocation of certain spirit entities.

According to Crowley’s teachings, the mystical path of the Initiate will be highly individualistic. The two fundamental aspects of Thelemic mysticism are what Crowley called ‘The Knowledge of and Conversation with the Holy Guardian Angel’ and the ‘Crossing of the Abyss’. Crowley described the Holy Guardian Angel as one's silent Higher Self. In later writings, he insisted that it was an entirely separate and objective entity. Whichever position is taken, the objective is to gain an intimate spiritual connection so that one's True Will can become fully manifested. After one attains Knowledge and Conversation with the Holy Guardian Angel the Adept may choose the Crossing of the Abyss, which in Crowley’s words:

Is extremely difficult to explain; but it corresponds more or less to the gap in thought between the Real, which is ideal, and the Unreal, which is actual. In the Abyss all things exist, indeed, at least in posse, but are without any possible meaning; for they lack the substratum of spiritual Reality. They are appearances without Law. They are thus Insane Delusions (Crowley, 1938, 3).

In Thelemic mysticism Choronzon is the ‘Dweller in the Abyss’ and the final obstruction. If he is met with the proper preparation, then he is there to destroy the ego, which allows the Initiate to move beyond the Abyss. If not, the Initiate must face total annihilation. Beyond the Abyss is Babalon beckoning the Initiate if he or she passes Choronzon. If the Initiate gives himself or herself to Her, the symbol of this union is the pouring of the Initiate's blood into her Graal, where he or she becomes impregnated in Her, a state called ‘Babe of the Abyss’, and is reborn as an Adept dwelling in the ‘City of the Pyramids’. In the City of Pyramids dwell the enlightened Adepts who have destroyed their earthly egos and becoming their True Self without the self-sense of ‘I’.

Examining the Thelemic approach to mysticism illuminates various features that are integral to the teachings and practices of this esoteric order, and it becomes apparent that Thelemic mysticism shares much in common with the emic phenomenon of mystical spirituality. The most shared feature is the eclectic nature of ideas and practices that entail a sense of internalised authority. Although Thelemic mysticism is entwined with a collection of beliefs and rituals, which are understood by some Thelemites as being essential for the Thelemic community and also as constituting a genuine expression of a lineage and tradition, an epistemologically individualistic approach to one’s spiritual evolution is the cornerstone of Thelemic mysticism. This is turn echoes a reaction against institutionalised mass religion through the process of the individual seeking a personalised state of gnosis to achieve a sense of union with the divine ground underlying all being. The individualism that is so much a feature of the religion of mysticism stems from the statement of its primary aim as personal holiness, perfection or deification, and the consequent concentration upon inwardness and fulfilment of the individual’s spiritual potential.

References:

Theodore Reuss, Jubilaeums – Ausgabe der Oriflamme, 1912, 21.

Aleister Crowley, Little Essays Toward Truth, 1938, 3.

Magic, the Praxis of Exclusion

Louis Chalon, Circe, 1888.

Magic has always been a problematic and controversial aspect of Western cultures. In order to understand magic, attempts have been made to study the social, religious, political, and more general ideological intentions and functions that magic has fulfilled. A common area in which magic has been located within Western contexts through historiographical presentations and ethnological accounts has been through processes of exclusion and identity building, which have taken place amongst believers, antagonists, and scholars. Especially in regards to processes of exclusion, magic has consistently been exploited as “a waste-basket filled with left-overs” (Hanegraaff, 2006, 717), such as the ‘occult’, ‘esotericism’, ‘mysticism’, ‘witchcraft’, ‘superstition’, the ‘irrational’ ‘primitive’, ‘fetishism’, and so on.  The result of this has been, at times, to employ this conceptual space to identify magic as a single category of identification, and in many circumstances, in order to identify, isolate, and often repress beliefs and practices that can be considered as differing or hostile to both historically and contemporary established socio-cultural, theological, political, and moral rhetorics.

However, despite its status of exclusion, and the fact that there have been many epistemological shifts and ruptures in the history of the West, makes it nearly impossible to provide a single definition for the complex phenomenon of magic. Despite this though, magic has been seen by some as a positive self-identifying category throughout the history of Europe and North America. This consistency of existence makes it clear that magic has served through self-representations by practitioners, impositions by anti-magical polemics, and scholarly research as an attempt to circumscribe specific areas of belief and practice in Western cultures.

When identifying magic as a category of investigation, its existence must not always be taken for granted by means of a simple definition without taking into account concepts that have shaped the self-representation of magic through historical and cultural avenues of expression. All attempts to make sense of an emic representation of magic should first unravel what magic means from this perspective, also taking into consideration historical developments that have led to this perspective, along with cultural translations of the nature and effects of magic.

From discussing with various people involved with the philosophy and practice of magic in Europe, and especially Britain, and accompanied by the study of primary and secondary sources related to magic, there appears to be a central practical and active element involved, namely that of ritual. According to Michael D. Bailey, this has been a definitive classification of magical performance. In his paper ‘The Meanings of Magic’ he writes:

In European society, beginning already in the later Middle Ages and early modern period, Christianity largely separated “religious” elements of belief and contemplation from the physical performance of ritualized actions. While many rites were maintained, particularly by the Catholic Church, their centrality was downplayed, and many authorities, particularly Protestant ones, came to elements of magic in many ritualized performances (Bailey, 2006, 16).

A common practitioner understanding of the effect of ritual is that it leads to the assumption of a self-legitimised identity. Practitioners claim that this embodies an engagement of an esoteric philosophy and magical intent with a magical worldview of symbolic and actual realisation through the performance of ritual. This magical ‘self’ matures in awareness and understanding of the mechanics of the magical worldview it intentionally corresponds to through the theory and practice of ritual. In continuum, this leads to a perception of the self as an embodied encounter and participation in a conceptualised actuality of a magical worldview, complete with its own religious symbolism, mythology, non-material beings, occult correspondences, limitations and expanses, performative codes of conduct and acts of transgression, and finally materialised results. The ritual space is the inter-focal point where the material and non-material meet and identify each other within a liminal space demarcated by the very act of ritual, and where the practitioners experience a cognitive paradigm shift from one worldview to another coming into contact with the experience of their ritual intent. 

Communion with the magical universe is normally experienced as a shift in consciousness and a feeling of self-transformation, which is essential for the magical self to achieve an analogical shift in awareness and understanding in the endeavour to conform to the cosmological patterns of a magical worldview distinct in form and method from a disenchanted worldview. This in itself becomes a focal point of meanings that reinforce each other through the interaction of pre-existing magical worldview and a personalised interpretation of it through experience, which can be described as pertaining to embodiment of ‘gnosis’. This focal point, reinforced and established through ritual, is where the process of the magical self begins to formulate creating the liminal conditions necessary for the ritual intent.

References:

Wouter J. Hanegraaff, ‘Magic’, in Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, edited by Wouter, J. Hanegraaff, Roelof van den Broeck, and Jean-Pierre Brach, 2006.

Michael D. Bailey, ‘The Meanings of Magic’, in Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, Summer 2006.

A History of Alchemy and Esoteric Transmutation

Bernard Hall, The Quest, 1905

The term ‘alchemy’ is believed to derive from the Egyptian word chem or qem, meaning ‘black’, and which was a reference to the black alluvial soils of the Nile. However, it is also thought that the term ‘alchemy’ established itself from the Greek chyma, which means ‘to fuse or cast metals’, which then established itself in Arabic as al kimia, from which the more familiar term of ‘alchemy’ derives from ( Drury, 2011, 14.). Western alchemy thrived during the second century C.E. in Alexandria but was later suppressed by Emperor Justinian in 529 C.E. along with other pre-Christian religious practices and beliefs. However, during the seventh century C.E. Stephanos of Alexandria revived an interest in alchemy with his book Nine Lessons in Chemia, which would later inspire medieval alchemical poets, who also extolled the principles of Hermetic philosophy, which passed into their works on alchemy (Seligmann, 1948, 82-83). Medieval alchemy espoused the Neoplatonic and Hermetic belief in the unity of the cosmos with correspondences between the unseen and seen dimensions reflecting each other. This belief also assumed that whatever existed in the universe must also be present in every human being. A Syriac Hermetic text emphatically affirms this:

What is the adage of the philosopher? Know thyself! This refers to the intellectual and cognitive mirror. And what is this mirror if not the Divine and original Intellect? When a man looks at himself and sees himself in this, he turns away from everything that bears the name of gods or demons, and, by uniting himself with the Holy Spirit, becomes a perfect man. He sees God within himself (quoted in Drury, 2011, 15).

In medieval alchemical thought humans contained the essence of the universe as a whole by consisting of spirit, soul, and body permeated by a universal spirit and united by a universal mind, a paradigm of thought that thrived in Renaissance magical philosophy living beings as unities consisting of anima, ‘soul’, reflecting the anima mundi, spiritus, ‘life’, reflecting the spiritus mundi, and corpus, ‘body’, reflecting the corpus mundi. In alchemical thought and practice this was also applied to every object that possessed some sort of life. However, medieval alchemists did not regard all objects as equally perfect. Gold was seen as the highest development in nature and came to represent spiritual beauty, whereas lead was seen as the most base of all metals representing sin and darkness. The alchemical process of transmuting base metal into gold, which involved the primary attempt to reduce the base metal to a state of its material prima, was seen as “an attempted application of the principles of mysticism to the things of the physical world” (Redgrove, 1922, 14). Thus the idea of spiritual alchemy as a process of simultaneously taking place both in a material and spiritual sense can be seen as:

All the ingredients mentioned in alchemical recipes… were in truth only one, the alchemist himself. He was the base matter in need of purification by the fire; and the acid needed to accomplish this transformation came from his own spiritual malaise and longing for wholeness and peace. The various alchemical processes… were steps in the mysterious process of spiritual regeneration (Coudert, 1989, 201).

This notion of spiritualised alchemy would also feature prominently in conceptions of initiation with the rise of occultism in nineteenth century with the reception and application of Renaissance magical philosophy. A prominent example of this can be seen in the rituals of initiation of The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which was founded on the beliefs similar to Antoine Faivre’s ‘correspondences’ and ‘practice of concordance’, with reference not only to alchemy and the Hermetic Qabalah, but also to astrology, the tarot, geomancy, Rosicrucianism, and above all ritual magic.

References:

Neville Drury, Stealing Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Modern Western Magic, 2011.

Kurt Seligmann, Magic, Supernaturalism, and Religion, 1948.

Herbert Stanley Redgrove, Alchemy Ancient and Modern, 1922.

Allison Coudert, ‘Renaissance Alchemy’, in Hidden Truths: Alchemy, Magic and the Occult, edited by Lawrence E. Sullivan, 1989.

The Hieratic Notion of Theurgy

Gustave Moreau, Jupiter and Semele, 1894.

With the advent of Later Platonism, or ‘Neoplatonism’ as coined by a German historian in the eighteenth century, a religious practice referred to as theourgia began to achieve a status of reverent acceptance amongst an elite circle of pagan philosophers seeking to achieve direct contact with their gods. Theurgy can be described as a set of philosophical treatises and mystical rites that are executed by theurgists with the intention with the henosis with a divine manifested current or being. It was first codified during the reign of Marcus Aurelius by a man called Julian the Theurgist, and the code itself was referred to as the Oracula Chaldaica. Despite some Greek philosophers not being sympathetic to it, many Neoplatonic philosophers embraced it enthusiastically and some made it a way of life with the upmost sense of fervour.

The concept of theurgy can be understood, in comparison to theologia as embodying a mystical set of techniques seeking communion with the gods, instead of it being merely a collection philosophical queries and debates. However, I am not implying that theurgy did not have a theoretical framework from which it extended or that the theurgists did not engage in deep acts of philosophical contemplation. The remains of primary and secondary literary sources, and the many references to the extensiveness of such literature regarding the philosophy and praxis of theurgy are evidence for the contrary.

Despite the opinion of early Christian authors, such as Gregory of Nazianzus, theurgy was an exceptional form of worship and many have rightly claimed that it was a higher form of magic, but not resembling what the Greeks labelled as goetia, for in the eyes of theurgists, such as Iamblichus, these goetes were merely ‘makers of images’ who produced only false apparitions of the gods for a monetary price. According to Iamblichus’ defence of theurgy:

It is not thought that links the theurgist to the gods; else what should hinder the theoretical philosopher from enjoying theurgic union with them? The case is not so. Theurgic union is attained only by the perfective operation of unspeakable acts correctly performed, acts which are beyond all understanding, and by power of the unutterable symbols intelligible only to the gods (Proclus, 1933, xx).

Many theurgists actually saw themselves as belonging to a priestly caste and for this reason they labelled theurgy hieratike techne as ‘priestly art’. Other terms used were theogogia literally meaning ‘evocation of a god’, and photagogia, ‘evocation of light’. A more general application of a term was erga eusebeias, which indicated the sacred duty of theurgy. Judging from other terms that were applied to theurgy, such as orgia, mysteria, teletai, and mystagogia indicated that theurgy of Late Antiquity had acquired the status of the old mystery religions. For some, theurgy itself could be seen as the ultimate development of the mysteries as it represented an initiation into the greatest mystery of all, henosis.

An elaborate description of the basic doctrine of theurgy was presented by Franz Cumont:

Following Plato, the Chaldean theurgists clearly opposed the intelligible world of ideas to the world of appearances which are perceptible by the sense... At the top of their pantheon they placed the intellect whom they also called the Father. This transcendent god who wraps himself in silence is called impenetrable and yet is sometimes represented as an immaterial Fire from which everything has originated. Below him are, on various levels, the triads of the intelligible world, then the gods who reside beyond the celestial spheres or who preside over them... The human soul is of divine substance, a spark of the original Fire, has of its own will descended the rungs of the ladder of beings and has become imprisoned in the body... When it is freed of all material wraps by which it is burdened, the blessed soul will be received in the fatherly embrace of the highest God (Cumont, 1949, 363, 367).

References:

Proclus, E. R. Dodds (ed.), Elements of Theology, 1933, xx.

Franz Cumont, Lux Perpetua, 1949, 363, 367.