CHAPTER VI

UT to return to our Therapeuts, Philo states that
their aim was to arouse in themselves what he terms ‘‘ that most indispensable of the senses. I mean not bodily sight, but that of the Soul, whereby truth and falsity are distinguished. . .. Let the race of Therapeute, being continually taught to see, aim at the vision of Reality, and pass by the Sun visible to sense.”
In the attempt to attain to these heights they gave up all worldly possessions, and dwelt in communities, living in the simplest of dwellings. And in each dwelling, as Philo says, “‘ is a sacred place called a shrine or monastery, in which in solitude they performed the mysteries of the holy life, whereby knowledge and devotion grow together and are perfected.” He adds that at dawn and at even they were accustomed to offer up prayers, while the “ whole interval from dawn to sunset they devote to their exercises.”
We need hardly emphasise these two words ‘“‘ mysteries ” and “‘ exercises,’ which in the original are in sufficiently close proximity to attract one’s attention, but this is a point with which we shall have to deal later.
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Philo continues: “Taking the Sacred Writings, they spend their time in study, interpreting their ancestral code allegorically, for they think that the words of the literal meaning are symbols of a hidden nature, which is made plain only by the undermeaning.”’ But with this point we have already dealt at sufficient length.
These and other such devotees carried on the tradition of the Mystery Schools of greater antiquity over against the Neo-Platonic teachings later inculcated by Plotinus and Porphyry, who taught a system analogous to the later Persian scheme, teaching that the Overmind, the Universal Soul and Nature pro- ceeded by emanation from the Absolute One, and that to this Absolute there might be attained, for brief periods, by philosophic discipline, contemplation and ecstasy, as Wilder puts it, the gnosis or intimate union.
This is the great difference between Mysticism as such and the Theurgic or so-called Magical School, for the former was a system of impassiveness, and was discarded by the Hierophants, who laid it down that by practice of the Theurgic Rites the Soul exalts itself over the Over-Mind and becomes at one with the Absolute, that it can even become permanently at one.
Of these practices Iamblichos says in his De Mysterits: ** Jt is not the concept that unites the theurgic priests to the Gods; else what is there to hinder those who pursue philosophic speculation contemplatively from
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having theurgic union to the Gods? Now . . . this is not the case. . . . It is the complete fulfilling of the Arcane performances, the carrying of them through in a manner worthy of the Gods and surpassing all con- ception, and likewise the power of the voiceless symbols which are perceived by the Gods alone, that establishes the Theurgic Union. Hence we do not effect these things by thinking.”
We have previously quoted Clemens Alexandrinus, one of the most celebrated of the Fathers of the early Church. The first three books of his lost work, The Outlines, bear a strong resemblance to the three stages of the Platonists—Purification, Initiation and Direct Vision, or, as lamblichos classifies them, Coming to the Divinity, Assimilation into the likeness of the Divinity and Perfection.
This latter authority, speaking of what the invo- cations accomplish, tells us that “‘ By such a purpose, therefore, the Gods being gracious and propitious, give forth light abundantly to the Theurgists, both calling their souls upward into themselves . . . and accustoming them while they are yet in the body, to hold themselves aloof from corporeal things, and like- wise to be led up to their own eternal and noetic First Cause. . . . From these performances . . . the soul reciprocates another life, is linked with another energy, and rightly reviewing the matter, it seems to be not even a human energy, but the most blessed energy of 54
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the Gods. ... The upward way through the in- vocations effects for the priests a purifying of the passions, a release from the conditions of generated life and likewise a union to the Divine Cause... . (They) by no means, as the term seems to imply, (involve) 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 participating of the Gods, leading it upward to them and bringing it into accord. . . . (So that) the Rites performed by the Adepts in superior knowledge bring them to the superior races, and attach them together by becoming assimilated.”
And this leads to the beholding or epopteia in its highest sense, of which Hierotheos says that “ ‘To the Pure Mind belongs the power of seeing above and below . . . for the full account of the secret of the Pure Mind (is) without limit and embraces every- thing.” And he adds that he is speaking of things that he has seen.
At this point, perhaps, it should be made clear that when we speak of Gods, as we have done and shall do still further, especially in quotations, it should not be thought that we are getting away from the fundamental idea of an essential monotheism. Nor was any such idea in the minds of the leaders of the Mysteries, whether in Egypt or elsewhere. The term Gods or Divinities was a technical term denoting certain high
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orders of Spiritual Beings, who, as compared with us, were best described as Gods. Such were, for example, the Gnostic Aeons, the Elohim of Genesis, some of the Greek Daimones, many of the Egyptian Deities and so forth.
Before all these ; before manifestation ; before the things that really are; before even the first principles of all things; prior to the Good ; prior to the One ; prior even to Being or Thinking, there is That which is shut out from all mortal comprehension.
As the ancient Oracle said: “‘In Him is an illimit- able abyss of glory, and from it there goeth forth one little spark, which maketh all the glory of the Sun and of the Moon and of the Stars. Mortal, behold how little I know of God; seek not to know more of Him, for this is far beyond thy comprehension, however wise thou art ; as for us, who are His ministers, how small a part are we of Him!”
But to resume. Everywhere, so far, we have been met by the idea of Rites and Ceremonies, Exercises, Magic and so forth, and it would perhaps be as well to examine a little more carefully what these people meant by Magic. In the minds of many it is associated with the Grimoires and such-like literature; with Necro- mancy and other unpleasant arts, such as the making of wax 1mages and sticking pins in them and so forth. It is, however, on the contrary, claimed by the Theurgists that it is the Wisdom and Philosophy of Nature and a 56
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perfect knowledge of the works of God and their effects. A Magus is therefore a Contemplator of Heavenly and Divine things ; a wise man and a priest, who, to paraphrase Picus di Mirandola, by the con- nection of natural agents and patients, answerable each to the other, may bring forth such effects as are wonder- ful to those that know not their causes.
Paracelsus, in his Occult Philosophy, Cap. II, says: ** It is a most secret and hidden Science of supernatural things in the Earth, that whatsoever is impossible to be found out by man’s reason may by this Art, that is most pure and not defiled.” While Cornelius Agrippa, who also wrote three books on Occult Philosophy, says (Book I, Cap. 2): “‘ Magic contains the profoundest contemplation of the most secret things, together with the nature, power, quality, substance and virtues there- of, as also the knowledge of whole nature.”
Elias Ashmole, who published the Theatrum Chemt- cum Britannicum (1652), summarises the position in his notes to Norton’s Ordinall of Alchimy, by saying: “The Magic here intended is Divine, True, of the wisdom of nature, and indeed comprehendeth the whole Philosophy of Nature, being a perfect knowledge of the works of God and their effects. It is that which reduces all natural philosophy from variety of specu- lation to the magnitude of works, and whose mysteries are far greater than all natural philosophy now in use and reputation will reach unto.” Which statement,
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we are of opinion—without wishing to offend—is as true to-day as the day it was made.
This involves the theory of Agrippa that the order and symmetry of the Universe is so regulated that the lowest things, belonging to the sub-celestial or element- ary region are immediately subservient to the middle or celestial, and these in turn to the super-celestial or intelligible, while these last obey the Supreme. That further there is an analogical bond between them by which the spiritual essences may be drawn down, or, rather, a particular spirit may be united to the Uni- versal, the simple and pure human mind being con- verted and laid asleep from its present life so utterly as to be brought into its divine nature and become enlightened with the divine light.
And this is in harmony with the Egyptian Theurgists, who said that the Gods were Spiritual Essences, and were partaken of as light, leaving the light unaffected, while the partaker was filled, receiving every excellent quality of mind, being purified and set free from all passions and irregular impulses. To the quest of this light it was necessary that everyone should give himself wholly, for by its means is obtained both truth and perfect excellence in souls, by the aid of both of which the Theurgist winged his way upwards to the Intel- Jlectual Fire which is the end of all knowledge and of all T’heurgic practice.
This is the Fire spoken of by the Oracle. “ And 58
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when, after all the phantoms, thou shalt see that Holy and Formless Fire; that Fire that darts and flashes through the hidden depths of the Universe, hear thou the Voice of Fire.”
But the Oracle also says, “‘So therefore, first the Priest who governeth the works of Fire, must sprinkle with the Water of the loud-resounding Sea.” So that the first preliminary must be purification, without which nothing may be attempted of a more profound order, for according to another saying of the same Oracle: “ ‘Thou shalt not invoke the self-conspicuous Image of Nature, ere thy body has been purged by the Sacred Rites, since ever seeking to drag down the Soul, from the confines of matter leap forth the terrestrial demons, showing no true sign unto mortal man.”
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