For the Love of the Gods: The History and Modern Practice of Theurgy - Brandy Williams 2016
Theurgy FAQ, A Dialogue between Teacher and Student
Appendix
Imagine a sunny courtyard. The tile paving is cool, shaded by trees outside the wall. A woman sits in a simple chair working a drop-spindle. A man sits respectfully on the paving at her feet asking questions. The woman spins thread while she answers.
“What is theurgy?”
“The definition of the word theurgy is ’god-work.’ Depending on how you look at it, this can mean the work the gods perform or the work we accomplish with the gods.”
“Who practiced theurgy?”
“The first people who practiced theurgy were upper-class Pagan teachers at the dawn of the Christian era. As Christian emperors and bishops outlawed open Pagan practice, these teachers sought to preserve the knowledge of the gods, both their own philosophical rituals and the religious practices of the people.”
“What kind of philosophy?”
“They studied the work of Plato. Today we call them ’Neo-Platonic’ but they called themselves ’Platonist.’”
“Who was Plato?”
“He was a Greek aristocrat born in the late fifth century BCE. He was educated in Athens by the finest teachers of his time and in particular studied with the philosopher Socrates. After Socrates died, Plato left Athens and travelled to Egypt, called Kemet by its people, to study. Plato eventually returned to Athens to teach. He used what he learned in Kemet to reform the paideia, the Hellenic cultural and educational matrix that included knowledge of the gods. Plato thought deeply about the gods, the nature of the universe, human life and our place in the cosmos, and the soul and what happens after death. His numerous texts are still widely studied today.”
“Who were the Neo-Platonists?”
“These were people responding to the urbanization of their world. About a thousand years after Plato, a city was founded in Egypt that drew students and teachers from the Mediterranean world. In Alexandria people from Egypt, Greece, Rome, Syria, and as far away as India rubbed shoulders and traded goods, stories, and philosophical discussions. In this environment Platonic philosophy took a particular turn, adapting to the flood of new ideas and the needs of the people studying it. The philosophers from the Alexandrian school are called Neo-Platonic to distinguish them from the other schools of philosophy of the time and to emphasize their connection to Plato.”
“Were women also Neo-Platonists?”
“Women have been involved in writing and teaching Neo-Platonism from the earliest times to the present. Plato credited the priestess Diotima as being one of his most important teachers. Platonic and Neo-Platonic circles often included women.”
“Were all the Neo-Platonists white and European?”
“Alexandrian Neo-Platonic philosophers inherited their knowledge from Africa, Europe, and Asia. In antiquity these philosophers were white, black, brown. Many of the most important ancient and modern thinkers went to Egypt to learn. One of the earliest Neo-Platonic philosophers in Alexandria, Plotinus, was probably Egyptian himself. Many Neo-Platonic philosophers came from Syria, a country with a mix of indigenous, Semitic, Arab, Greek, and Roman peoples.”
“Is Neo-Platonism dead?”
“Neo-Platonism has been continuously developed to the present day. Parts of this philosophy were brought into the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, influencing the theological development of these religions. The emergence of this philosophy in medieval Europe helped to spark the Renaissance and found the scientific revolution.”
“Is Neo-Platonism just a philosophy?”
“The study of Neo-Platonic philosophy has been linked to Pagan religion from its inception to the present day. Despite the widespread adoption of Neo-Platonic ideas among non-Pagans, the core of these ideas is fundamentally Pagan. Wherever Neo-Platonic works have emerged, Pagan religion revives. In our lifetime, the ancient rituals themselves have been relinked with the texts that explain them.”
“Why does this matter?”
“Studying Neo-Platonism confronts us with the major questions of Neo-Paganism in our time. Why do we think the way we think? What are the predecessors of our culture? What are the origins of the way we look at the world? Who should we accept as our teachers? What texts can help us understand the people who came before us? How are we different from those people? How can we understand our religion as alive and evolving?”
“What does philosophy have to do with ritual practice?”
“Theurgy comes from the gods themselves. The rituals call the gods to speak to us and bring them into our spiritual sight. The ancients recorded what they saw and heard and how they brought themselves into a state to hear, see, and understand. The gods instruct us to harmonize our actions in the world with the life-giving patterns of the world. They beckon us to experience ourselves as participating in the divine.”
“What does a theurgist do?”
“A theurgist lights incense at his altar to ask his gods for their aid and thank them for their gifts. A theurgist steps outside and turns to greet the sun, chanting vowels to bring the sun’s energy into herself to start the day. A theurgist falls into trance while his partner quietly asks him questions about what he is seeing. A theurgist opens the door of the shrine and makes offerings to the living presence of her goddess.”
“How do I practice theurgy now?”
“If you have an altar and make offerings to a god you have already started. Our practices are contiguous with the practices of the past. You can read the Neo-Platonic texts. You can also study the lives of the teachers—they show the way.”
The student touches his forehead to his teacher’s feet. She smiles and touches his head for a moment before resuming her spinning.