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

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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First e-book edition 2015

E-book ISBN: 9780738746319

Book design by Bob Gaul
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Cover design by Kevin R. Brown
Editing by Laura Graves
Interior art by Llewellyn Art Department

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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 978-0-7387-4631-9 -- ISBN 978-0-7387-4528-2
1. Theurgy. I. Title.
BF1623.T56
133.43dc23
2015013502

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Contents

: A Divine Technology

: What Is a God?

: The Addresses of the Gods

: Rituals and Tools of Theurgy

: Divination and Oracles

: Daimonology

: Thaumaturgy

: Know Thyself

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 encour aged 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 theres 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.

Its 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 readers 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 itand to show off a little. I most assuredly did not do 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 dont even live in places like ancient Greece or Rome. Ancient Greece would be, to modern American mindsor modern European minds, for that matteran 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 doesnt 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, Im 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 dont remember who) once put it this way to me: The gods give the world its being; we give gods their forms.