The Practical Art of Divine Magic: Contemporary & Ancient Techniques of Theurgy

245 Pages·2015·2.38 MB·English

by  Patrick Dunn

About the Author
Patrick Dunn (Chicago, IL) is a poet, linguist, Pagan, and university English
professor with a PhD in modern literature and language. His understanding of
semiotics and the study of symbols arise from his training in linguistics and
literary theory. He has practiced magic since childhood. Visit him online at
Pomomagic.nfshost.com.
Llewellyn Publications
Woodbury, Minnesota
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The Practical Art of Divine Magic: Contemporary & Ancient Techniques of
Theurgy © 2015 by Patrick Dunn.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dunn, Patrick, 1975–
The practical art of divine magic: contemporary & ancient techniques of
theurgy/
Patrick Dunn.—First Edition.
1 online resource.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher;
resource not viewed.
ISBN 978-0-73874631-9 -- ISBN 978-0-7387-4528-2
1. Theurgy. I. Title.
BF1623.T56
133.4’3—dc23
2015013502
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Contents
Acknowledgments
A Note on Sources and Translations
Introduction
C A Divine Technology
HAPTER 1:
C What Is a God?
HAPTER 2:
C The Addresses of the Gods
HAPTER 3:
C Rituals and Tools of Theurgy
HAPTER 4:
C Divination and Oracles
HAPTER 5:
C Daimonology
HAPTER 6:
C Thaumaturgy
HAPTER 7:
C Know Thyself
HAPTER 8:
Epilogue
Appendix—Pronunciation of Greek Words of Power
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
I am extremely grateful to the people in my life who make it possible for me to
live my dreams. These includes my family, my friends, and my students. I want
to thank some of them by name: Richard, who regularly makes my life
ridiculously wonderful (and wonderfully ridiculous); my mother, Joyce, who
taught me more than I can possibly enumerate and always encouraged my
dreams; Chris, Ryan, Pete, Eric, who argued, discussed, debated, listened, and
talked me through graduate school. I also want to thank my teachers, both those
who taught me mundane things and those who taught me magical things (as if
there’s a difference). Some I had as a teacher for one day, some for years: Jason,
John, Karen, Betty, Gustav, and many others.
I also want to thank John Michael Greer, whose workshop on sacred geometry
gave me the oomph to finish this book. I must, in addition, thank Lon Milo
DuQuette, who several years ago said a single sentence that totally blew my
mind and changed my view of magic forever.
It’s also fitting that I thank my editor, Elysia, for her extremely helpful
suggestions. She has a tremendous eye for detail, and has prevented me from
embarrassing myself in print more times than I care to count.
And, finally, those heroes and intellectual ancestors, who generously left us
their words to guide us, not knowing or guessing what sorts of people we might
be: Aristocles, Socrates, Plotinus, Iamblichus, Proclus, and countless others.
A Note on Sources and Translations
For the most part, I have selected sources for classical texts that are online and in
the public domain for the reader’s convenience. In some cases I could not find
an online translation or edition acceptable to me and have therefore cited print
versions of these books. In other cases, such as that of the Chaldean Oracles,
these print versions are academic editions, which tend to be expensive. If you
wish to consult those editions, I would encourage using your local library, where
you can request to borrow those books from libraries that have them in their
possession.
In some places I have done my own translations of some Greek texts. I
sometimes chose to do so to make a particular distinction from the original text
clearer than it is made in some other translations. Sometimes I chose to do my
own translations so they would fit better in ritual (a precise academic translation
does not always trip nicely off the tongue during a ceremony). Sometimes I
chose to do it for the practice and sheer fun of it—and to show off a little. I most
assuredly did notdo it because I quibble with the commonly available academic
translations of these works, which are always excellent.
Introduction
This book attempts to explore and revitalize the spiritual techniques of diverse
times and places all under the loose heading of “theurgy.” Theurgy is a
collection of spiritual practices ranging from antiquity to modern times by
people of many different religious and philosophical backgrounds. In its heyday,
in Late Antiquity, it competed with Christianity and other religious and
philosophical movements. In fact, ideas from theurgy planted themselves in
Christian, Muslim, and Jewish practices and remain there even today.
This book does not attempt to reconstruct the religious practices of Late
Antiquity or ancient Pagan religions. Any attempt to revitalize an ancient way of
life that ignores the cultural differences between now and antiquity cannot, in
my opinion, succeed. We do not live in ancient Greece or ancient Rome. We
don’t even live in places like ancient Greece or Rome. Ancient Greece would be,
to modern American minds—or modern European minds, for that matter—an
alien culture, with institutions we would not recognize and practices like slavery
we could not support. We can admire their accomplishments, learn from their
teachings, even revitalize some of their practices, but we must ultimately
understand, as L. P. Hartley said, that the past is a different country.
Nor do I throw ideas and concepts together willy-nilly, because this kind of
irresponsible eclecticism doesn’t work either. It also ignores the cultural context,
and leads to muddied thinking and contradiction. The ancients were themselves a
bit eclectic, worshiping Isis alongside Zeus, but I prefer to approach this kind of
eclecticism with care.
The attitude with which I approach this book, then, is neither eclectic nor
reconstructionist. It is postmodern. I am an unusual breed of postmodernist in
that I think there is an ultimate truth that is not culturally constructed. But at the
same time, the paths we cut to this truth are indeed made by our hands. In other
words, the terrain exists but we know it only by our maps, which we have made.
When I pray to Iuppiter, I am praying to a god who exists, I believe,
independently of any culture. At the same time, I’m taking a Roman name and
image and method of prayer, applying it to the reflection of the god I have
constructed in my mind, and using those as a way back to that ultimate ideal
deity. Someone wise (and I don’t remember who) once put it this way to me:
The gods give the world its being; we give gods their forms.
That’s why at some points in this book I delve into original sources and put on