Theurgy of Iamblichus Part 10:

 

Theurgy of Iamblichus Part 10:

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

“…the person who has learned the scheme of his nativity, and so knowing his own demon is liberated from fate, is truly favored by divinity.” Porphyry

“For if the demon has been assigned to us from the scheme of nativity, and we may find him from that, how are we released from fate through the knowledge that the demon was given to us according to fate?”

The Holy Guardian Angel does not liberate us from the bonds of karma, instead, fate and karmic circumstances that have been inherited through incarnation are seen in a new light, wherein the causes of things are accurately intuited and understood. By becoming aware of our essential nature, karma may be better understood, our Holy Guardian Angels according to some people is Atman and so it is the awakening of this omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent eternal self that leads to Knowledge and Conversation. That doesn’t in any way indicate that the attainment will liberate us from karma or fate, however, it may lead to greater understanding of the nature of our fate and karma.

“Hence the things now uttered by thee not only conflict with themselves, but they are also at variance with the truth; seeing that the personal demon does not by any means come to everyone by the scheme of his peculiar nativity. On the other hand, its origin, which we will hereafter set forth, was older than this.”

Along with Hadit, the Holy Guardian Angel precedes incarnation and these are the only two constants, therefore our fate in this incarnation is wholly tied up in this life and has very little to do with the essential natures of our angels, although certain aspects of this may be found by studying the nature of our nativity via astrology, the truth is that this angel has been with us since the first incarnation wherein we experienced consciousness and will be there until the end, thus it is not subject to or much concerned with fate in the same way that we are bound by fate in this life.

“If, however it is necessary to reveal to thee the true doctrine in relation to the personal demon let me say this: It is not from one part in the sky, nor from any individual element of the objects that are visible, that he is assigned to us. But there is from the whole world and the various kinds of life in it, and the various kinds of body by which the soul comes down into generated existence, an allotted portion, all our own, divided among us to each of the distinctive qualities in us, which distribution is made according to the ruling disposition of each individual.”

The Holy Guardian Angel is the sum total of the best in us, that which through incarnations have been developed to establish in each person their own uniqueness. Thus, once Knowledge and Conversation is attained it is the Holy Guardian Angel that becomes the vehicle for the True Will, as being those characteristics that have been perfected and through Knowledge and Conversation have found a means of consciously expressing perfection.

“The demon therefore, is present as exemplar before the souls descend into the realm of generated existence. As soon as the soul chooses him for leader the demon immediately comes into charge of the completing of its vital endowments, and when it descends into the body, unites it with the body, and becomes the guardian of its common living principal.”

The Holy Guardian Angel through its superior nature governs what endowments are attracted to the soul or the astral body, this happens by being attracted to that which is sympathetic to its nature. So, naturally, the older the angel the more-pure will be its form, as only that which has been most highly developed through previous incarnations forms part of this body and that which in harmony is attracted and has the chance of so being congealed in life. The intensity of Knowledge and Conversation logically is determined by karma and that the True Will is not short-hand for preternatural communication, but that all may attain to it, but that not all may become mediums of divine inspiration, which is determined by the nature of the angel.

“He guides human beings thus continually till through the sacred Theurgic discipline we shall obtain a god to be guardian and leader of the soul. For then he gives place to the superior, or delivers over the superintendence, or becomes subject, as a tributary, to him, or in some other way is servant to him as to an Overlord.”

“Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are of us. They shall rejoice, our chosen, who sorroweth is not of us.” Liber AL II,19

The idea of Theurgy is to make contact with preternatural intelligence so that we may show the beauty of the gods to the world. This cannot be done unless one has attained Knowledge and Conversation, and once it has been attained the soul gives itself over to the influence of what could be called a god or the Secret Chiefs as they are known in Thelema. I believe that Crowley was throughout his life conversant with more than one of these Secret Chiefs. However, in Crowley’s case the best known of these is Aiwass who dictated to him the Book of the Law. As per Iamblichus, once Knowledge and Conversation is achieved it is the aim of Theurgy to give over the superintendence of the soul to a god, something that before this awakening was the responsibility of the Holy Guardian Angel, which guided the evolution of the soul through incarnations, until finally, in its perfected state, Knowledge and Conversation is possible and preternatural communication is attainable.

“From these facts I may easily reply to your next question. For the personal demon does not “preside over specific regions in us,” but simply over all at once.”

“Accordingly it is not right to define ”one demon as guardian of the body, another of the soul, and another of the mind.”

The soul in the above quote may be called the astral body or the unconscious, the harmonizing and congealing of these perfected parts is what gives way to Knowledge and Conversation, the soul may then be seen as all of these parts working together as a unified whole under the guardianship of the Holy Guardian Angel. Only once this union is achieved is there any chance of success in Theurgic operation.

“There is accordingly, one personal guardian demon for every one of us. It is not right to assume that it is common to everyone, or that it is common at all. But only that it is present with every individual as his own.”

Although there has been assigned a Guardian Angel to every one of us, only some angels have matured enough to carry the torch of the gods to illuminate this world. The nature of one’s angel may be found within the context of our own uniqueness, those things that make one an individual. Things like talents; and interests that one has been unconsciously drawn to, and those things of beauty that speak to our souls, are all indicators of the nature of our True Wills as it pertains to the nature of our angels. Thus, our relationship with our Holy Guardian Angels may be cultivated by contemplating the nature of beauty and our unique relationships to it.

“Love is the law, love under will.”