Theurgy of Iamblichus Part 3:

 

Theurgy of Iamblichus Part 3:

”Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.”

 

Porphyry:                                                                                                        

“Why then are many ceremonies performed historically in the sacred rites, as though the gods are moved by passion?”

Iamblichus:                                                                                                                                               “Yet it may not be admitted that any part of the Holy Observance is performed to the gods or demons as to being impressionable beings. For the essence which is subjectively everlasting and incorporeal is not of a nature to permit any change from the bodies […] It is supplied from itself, and from the nature (or feminine principle) of the world, and from the abundance which is the genesis (or generative energy); […]”

We are being presumptuous if we believe that these offerings serve to invoke within the gods anything whatsoever, the sacrifices are not meant to bring about any change in the perception of the gods who are wholly impersonal and remain so. They are meant for the participants alone and serve to attune the faculties of the participants to be in closer proximity with the gods. The nature of sacrifice in the Theurgic rites are present in this way, they are either images and symbols representing the archetypal nature of the force invoked, such as images consecrated to that force or they present our relationship to the gods. Thus, those that are of a certain nature bring to the operation that symbol of the generative quality in female form. This is symbolized in fertility images specifically and other offerings of a feminine nature, establishing with them a generative quality necessary for a successful operation.

[…], we remark that the planting of “phallic images” is a special representing of the procreative power by conventional symbols and that we regard the practice as an invocation to the generative energy of the universe. On this account many of these images are consecrated in the spring, when all the world is receiving from the gods the prolific force of the whole creation.”

With these initial offerings the aim of the ceremony is clearly presented in the symbolism, that indicate union between the soul and the gods resulting in ecstasy. The phallus carrying the universal energy that induces within us states of higher consciousness or ecstasy resulting in a greater union between body and soul and leading to greater heights of creative expression, by the initial communion experienced with the gods through ritual. Ourselves symbolized by the generative energy of the earth as mother and fertility, or a womb that generates life. We are thus invoking this procreative force of absolute abundance, which is symbolized in these images and imagery.  

“I think however that the immodest language to which you refer affords an illustration of the absence of moral virtue in the realm of matter, and the unseemly rudeness of the elements that are to be organized. These being utterly destitute of orderly arrangement are passionate eagerly for it, so to speak, to such a degree as they are conscious of the unbecoming condition around themselves. Hence, again perceiving from the speaking of vile utterances, what is vile, they follow to the (divine) source of ideals and moral beauties. They accordingly not only turn aside from evil action, but through the words, it is manifest in its forms and changes the impulse to a contrary direction”   

By the “vile utterances” we are acknowledging in a sense the obstacle to complete union and that would be the bonds of matter, certainly we are of the corporeal world, however without acknowledging the inherent connection between the world of matter and the gods, as both forming aspects of the demiurgic art, we would have no footing. Our initial connection with the divine is therefore an acceptance of those things that may be deemed vile or immoral, which however spring from the same divine source as the gods and therefore inherently perfect. It is a delusion to think that anything in creation is not of the gods and doesn’t share in the One, we are all of the One (First Cause) within which the will of the Demiurge is established and all is encompassed.

“The powers of the human passions that are in us, when they are barred, on every side, become more vehement: but when they are sufficiently delighted and satisfied, and becoming more satisfied are won over and set to rest.”

The greatest sin therefore is restriction, if we restrict our natural impulses to partake in the pleasures of fleshly life, our repression will lead to these impulses realizing themselves in unhealthy or dangerous ways. There is nothing unholy or unnatural about the things that delight the flesh, quite the opposite is true. The expression of these as holy sacraments is indicative of the essential and divine nature of all of us and indeed their repression therefore in its denial and a blasphemy against the gods.

I,12: Come forth, o children, under the stars, & take your fill of love!                                                                                     

I,13: I am above you and in you. My ecstasy is in yours. My joy is to see your joy.

I,41: The word of Sin is Restriction. O man! refuse not thy wife, if she will! O lover, if thou wilt, depart! There is no bond that can unite the divided but love: all else is a curse. Accursed! Accursed be it to the aeons! Hell.

Liber AL vel Legis:

“In the Sacred Rights, also, we are, by certain spectacles and relations of ugly things, delivered from the harm that is likely to befall through the events represented by them. Things of this character are brought into use, therefore, for the healing of the soul within us, the moderating of the evils which have become natural to it through the genesis or nativity, and likewise for the sake of its unloosening and deliverance from its bonds.”

The soul spoken of by Iamblichus is ethereal and therefore is bound by the expectations and fears that we have acquired through nativity. These fears are then the general fears and especially the fear of death shared by most people born into material existence. The “unloosening and deliverance” of the soul “from its bonds” then is an acceptance, by the conscious partaker in these rights and the coming to terms with our own mortality, that raises the soul to greater awareness, freeing it from the restrictions that bind it and prevents it from attaining complete union with the gods. This is accomplished by introducing certain “spectacles and relations of ugly things” into Theurgic ceremony which symbolize these fears, thus by overcoming them we are raised from their holds upon us.

Porphyry:                                                                                                                                             “The invocations are made to gods that are impressionable beings; so that it is implied that not the demons only are impressionable, but the gods likewise.”

Iamblichus:                                                                                                                               

“For such invocation does not draw down beings that are impassive and pure, to that which is susceptible and impure. On the contrary, it makes us who had become impressionable through the generated life, pure and steadfast. […] It is by no means, as the term seems to imply, an inclining of the mind of the gods to human beings, but on the contrary, as the truth itself will teach the adapting of the human intelligence to the participation of the gods, […]”

By means of Theurgic invocation we are enlivening ourselves to conscious union with the gods, meaning that we are always in contact with the gods. Our decisions and actions in everyday life all reflect the influence of the gods. Therefore, there should be no need to appease the gods through the practice of ritual sacrifice and within the art of invocation, calling them down from the heavenly realm; these practices merely serve to lift the veil that separates us from perceiving the gods.

[…] “the propitiations of anger” will be plain enough if we learn thoroughly what the anger of the gods really is. It certainly is not, as some imagine an inveterate and persisting rage. On the contrary, so far as the matter relates to the gods, it is turning away from their beneficent guardianship. We ourselves turn away from this just as we bring darkness upon ourselves by shutting away the light at noon-day and so rob ourselves of the priceless gift of the gods.”

I will here reiterate our relationship with the celestial spheres as being subjective and that the effects induced through these practices may not amount in change occurring within the world that we see outside of ourselves. The same is true for the rites performed to accrue favor from the gods, these rites are merely present to further lift the veil between ourselves and the gods by establishing congruency with the gods. We are thus made worthy to partake of the gifts of the gods, by affirming the fact to ourselves via these rites and practices.

“Nevertheless, because evil is present in the regions of the earth the “expiatory sacrifices” act as a remedy and prepare us so that no change or any passive condition may occur with reference to us.”

The gods’ favor is not intervening in worldly affairs by bringing down chariots of fire to smite our enemies. When every faculty we possess has been brought to bear upon achieving the aim, we call it divine providence and these sacrifices serve as either ridding one of that which serves as a hindrance to this communion, or act as reestablishing a prior connection to that which has been lost, or indeed to strengthening one’s existing communion by reaffirming the purpose.

“For that something in us that is divine, mental essence and one—or mental alone, if you choose to call it so—is then vividly aroused in prayers, and when it is awakened it longs vehemently for its counterpart, and becomes united to the absolute perfection.”

This speaks of the anagogic prayers employed in the Art of Theurgy meant to awaken within us that spark that is the centre of knowing and of the same nature as the divine cause, which in Thelema we call Hadit. As mentioned in a previous essay it is this divine essence that is the origin of our spiritual aspiration and once enlivened strive vehemently for union with the beloved. Hadit is not the soul as understood in this essay, in fact Hadit possesses the soul and the body and unites our faculties to work in accord with our aspiration of attaining union with the divine.

“The gods certainly do not receive prayers in themselves through faculties of sense, or through organs, but they encompass in themselves the full purport and energies of the pious utterances, and especially of those which happen through the Sacred Rites to have been established and brought into one with the gods.”

Again, we are not trying to charm the gods with sacrifices and prayers, the archetypal imagery of these Holy Books is consistent with the nature of the gods and this imagery is therefore likewise present in each of us. What we are therefore doing is illuminating the presence of the gods via the noetic faculty and establishing greater rapport. This anagogic nature of prayer and pious contemplation is particularly well presented in the Holy Books of Thelema, which I shall now quote from as an example.

 1. Into my loneliness comes --  

2. The sound of a flute in dim groves that haunt the uttermost hills.  

3. Even from the brave river they reach to the edge of the wilderness.

4. And I behold Pan.

5. The snows are eternal above, above --  

6. And their perfume smokes upward into the nostrils of the stars.  

7. But what have I to do with these?

8. To me only the distant flute, the abiding vision of Pan.

9. On all sides Pan to the eye, to the ear;  

10. The perfume of Pan pervading, the taste of him utterly filling my mouth, so that the tongue breaks forth into a weird and monstrous speech.

11. The embrace of him intense on every centre of pain and pleasure.  

12. The sixth interior sense aflame with the inmost self of Him,

13. Myself flung down the precipice of being

14. Even to the abyss, annihilation.

15. An end to loneliness, as to all.

16. Pan! Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan!    

Prologue of the unborn: Liber VII

“If we are judged by being compared to the gods, the consciousness of our own nothingness causes us to betake ourselves to supplication, and we are led from supplication to the object of supplication, and from the familiar intercourse we acquire a similarity to it, and from imperfection we quietly receive the divine perfection.”

We may therefore say that the soul truly is the most blessed of the divine races. Who through its transient nature may partake of the beauty of the gods and the splendor of the earth at once. For if it wasn’t for the latter, there would be no seeing and thus there would be no relationship with the divine. One’s aspiration is always in search of the beauty which subsists in the gods and we find our most vivid expression of this in the books and poetry that have been inspired and dedicated to them. Prayer therefore could be considered as of the most venerable nature of all observances, for it serves to bring the mind of the observer into immediate relation with the divine by enlivening within it the expression of the gods and raising this expression to conscious awareness, prior to which the aforementioned expression would have gone unnoticed. Through the impact these supplications have on the consciousness of the observer, they serve to bring us to perfection via their daily observance. We inflame ourselves with the imagery of the gods’ and these take root in our souls; and as they grow, they guide us towards Divine Perfection and union with the gods.

“For thou hast proposed this question: “If only the gods are incorporeal, how shall the Sun, the Moon and the other luminaries visible in the sky be accounted as gods?”                                                               

We reply: That they are not encompassed by bodies, but that on the contrary they encompass the bodies with their own divine lives and energies; also that they are not converted to the divine cause; and that the body does not interfere with their spiritual and incorporeal completeness, nor occasion any obstacle to it by intervening.”

The gods are wholly incorporeal, our  individual perceptions of them and their effects on us are not seen or felt in the world of matter, however the planetary bodies are certainly gods. For they have within them a significance and character of godliness, that persists in the mind and the nature of the soul. Although not gods themselves they are symbols of the gods, that have taken form and have become alive in the ether and by being so have indeed been imbued by the character and have acquired the power of the gods. Therefore, observing the laws that are accompanied by their existence such as the times and days and months are equally valid, for these have been written in the soul and the collective unconscious as subsisting with the gods.

“Love is the law, love under will.”