Many years ago, when I was still young, I had three strange encounters. Even if they appeared to be different, each one had an impact that echoed at the deepest levels of my memory. Behind what I perceived, I felt that each of the encounters was connected to a common source.
The first encounter happened when I was walking on a beach. The sun was high in the sky. The sounds of the waves and the calls of the birds were the only noises around me. Then I saw her, naked, stepping into the sea. When the sea was at the level of her hips, she stopped and performed a strange ritual, declaiming texts in a language I was not able to understand. As she threw water up to the blue sky, I saw the water shimmering in the rays of the sun before it flowed back down onto her body. Drops of water were scattered about on her hair, which shone in the sun. Her body seemed to be totally immersed in the natural elements, deeply united with the sun and the sea, balancing the whole cosmos in a ritual I didn’t understand.
Another time, I was walking in the country under a grey, cloudy sky and I saw a woman at the edge of a wood. Facing the direction of the rising sun, it seemed to me that she was talking to creatures I was not able to see. She raised her arms to the sky and I saw a ball of light, bright as the sun, whirling just under the dark clouds. Then the sky opened and rays of the sun lit up the place, warming the wet land. A light mist began to rise as a sweet breeze stirred.
The last encounter occurred while on a long journey in Egypt, during the astrological sign of Leo. I was visiting a little temple far from any tourist group. It was the beginning of the afternoon. The sand and the stones were scorching. I saw a man. He was moving in silence in the ruins, sometimes touching parts of the walls, praying in a language I had never heard before. He was invoking the ancient divinities who lived in this temple. I felt a powerful presence around him, and progressively, the reality of a living chain of initiates became clear to me. I felt deeply that if divinities are immortal, they cannot ever die or be killed out. They are still there now, listening to the voices of their initiates, waiting for the time when they will be welcomed again by the people of the world.
These encounters echoed deeply in me. They were a part of what removed the veils that still cloaked my memory at that time.
There is an official history and a forgotten history. Even if we are unaware of that, we have become accustomed to the idea that history and religions form progressively. Consequently, the newest religions will often present themselves as the best and final accomplishment. Even if we can talk about progress in science, progress on the spiritual level is not the same thing.
For a little more than 1500 years Christianity has spread, first in the Western world, and then all over the world. It is historically clear that a large and essential part of what comprises this religion has its origin in the ancient philosophies, spiritualities, and initiations. This new religion was not built out of nothing, on virgin territory. For thousands of years, powerful civilizations, including the Chaldean, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman civilizations, have really been the foundation of the Western world as we know it today.
The pre-Christian religions were not as organized and coherent as Christianity. In fact every tribe, every race, and every city had its own major divinity or group of divinities. Paganism, as we know it today, didn’t exist in the ancient world. The word “Paganism” was coined to characterize peasants who did not give up on their beliefs and traditional rituals fast enough to suit Christians who were trying to convert them. In Paganism, everyone was free to choose one or more divinities that suited them, and free to continue to worship the divinities of their own family. Everyone was able to change divinities and to welcome a new divinity brought to locals from a foreign city by relatives who travelled abroad. Temples were also scattered everywhere and pilgrims travelled from one to another, always worshipping different Gods and Goddesses.1 In opposition to the modern monotheistic religions, these ancient religions were inclusive instead being exclusive.
Figure 1: The symbol of the Sun God Shamash, being a form of the eight-pointed star, was widely employed all throughout Mesopotamia.
In every period of history, there were people who were eager to unveil the mysteries and have something more than simple prayers. Just as you are searching today, they were looking for a real and direct contact with the divine world in order to accomplish several purposes; some related to their daily lives, others related to the afterlife. Various systems were progressively developed in order to achieve these inner experiences. In the Western tradition, “schools of Mysteries” and High Magick (Theurgy) were the main systems utilized by those who were not satisfied being simple believers. In parallel with the development of these secret ceremonies, several philosophies emerged. Some of them were more focused on the study of nature, but most of them explored the universe and the divinities.
The Neoplatonic and Hermetic traditions (Plotinus, Iamblichus, Proclus, for example, are part of this school) developed essential concepts to understand the cosmos, the nature and destiny of the soul. Understanding the world was an essential step, but just as today, initiates were eager to really act and change their lives. They reasoned that if the divinities are all around us it would be necessary to understand how to contact them and how they can help us achieve our goals as humans. This purpose is far higher than popular religion or magic. It originated with a deep desire to understand what we are, but, at the same time, to have a clear and progressive method that is able to help us in life and after death. These concerns were the same for the first philosophers. In the Mediterranean world they developed a very powerful initiatic and magical tradition called the Theurgic tradition, sometimes known as “High Magick.”
This Western tradition provided real and effective Theurgic rituals. Marks of these rituals can be found here and there in different modern initiatic Orders, though they are sometimes deformed or fragmented. Fortunately, these teachings were preserved in different ways and were reenacted during the Italian Renaissance. Eventually, they were handed down to modern times through the links of what is called the “Golden Chain.” These processes (visualization, lucid dreams, individual Theurgic rituals, etc.) enable us to harmonize the different levels of our being, in order to return to a good internal balance and to the serenity we once possessed. Once this is accomplished, we will be able to restore our place in the cosmos, and to act freely, having a positive effect on our life and destiny.
Magical and Theurgic rituals use the human inner powers to increase or enhance beauty, love, and pleasure. Balance and harmony are the main points of this esoteric and spiritual approach.
This is the tradition I will teach you about in this book. The exercises and rituals provided in this book come from the same pre-Christian and pre-Qabalistic sources. I will explain the historical and philosophical markers, but also the main rituals you must use in order to make progress on this path.
Gods and Goddesses speak to everyone, and no ideology can pretend to impose its divinities on anyone else without restraining personal freedom.
Take the time to really enjoy your studies. You should revel in them. Every time we learn and read sacred texts, we are really praying. Our studies are like a perfume rising up to the divine. As you will see when you read the text of the Corpus Hermeticum: “The virtue of the soul is Gnosis, because the one who knows is good, pious, and already divine.” (C.H. 10:9)
When I open a book that was written by a Theurgist such as Iamblichus, I am always amazed at how eternal his words are. Some questions, some mysteries, are the same today as they were centuries ago. It has always been strange and fascinating for me to feel such a personal contact with this Chain. Theurgy and Hermetism2 are vehicles of pure light, which is far different from what we see today in most magic orders. They are replete with an abundance of symbols, medals, seals, degrees, honors, etc. A Hermetist or Theurgist is looking for simplicity. Men and women are both looking for the same thing. When I was first placed in direct contact with this Ogdoadic Chain, I realized and deeply felt the worthlessness of the initiatic charts, degrees, and the exciting clothing that was used in other orders. I saw that if a tradition is true and luminous it must be simple and without any anger or violence. Initiation cannot be an intellectual game used by magicians who sit around arguing for their power or pleasure. When you feel this light, when you feel the Golden Chain, you feel the responsibility that comes with this power. At that moment, your vision of the world changes. This can happen in an instant, perhaps during an initiation, or even while reading. This Theurgic tradition is the heart of the Western heritage. By unveiling it, we accomplish the first step in bringing light to ourselves, after we have been stuck in the shadows that are created by various dangerous spiritual traditions. Searching for beauty in our body, as well as in the intellectual and spiritual aspects of our being, will manifest this teaching for us. It is easy to tell you to focus on your body in our contemporary world. This is nothing new, even to the excesses that include the adoration of the physical body. The body is the manifestation of divine beauty. That is why a respect for the body and the quest for beauty are deeply religious and spiritual behaviors. When we behave this way, it helps us penetrate the surface meaning of the things around us, and ascend to the ideal of beauty.
May the words of Proclus be yours: “O Gods, by the understanding of the holy books and by dispelling the obscurity which surrounds me, grant me a pure and holy light that I may know the incorruptible God and being that I am.”
1As a matter of fact, the convention of capitalizing the name “God” (singular) and not capitalizing “Gods” or “Goddesses” comes from a religious influence that has been consistently trying to minimize the importance of the Immortal Divinities. This book is about the Hermetic and Theurgic traditions, and I have always been tolerant and respectful of all beliefs. For this reason, I will use capitals in this book for “God,” “Gods,” and “Goddesses.”
2In 1997, a scholar proposed a change in the spelling of Hermetism in order to distinguish the period before and after the Renaissance. For the period before the Renaissance, he proposed that the spelling remain “Hermetism.” But for the period after the Renaissance (up to and including today) he proposed the use of a new term: Hermeticism.
Hermetism refers to the period up to the Renaissance and Hermeticism refers to the period after the Renaissance, up to and including today. Even though this distinction is an artificial one, it can be quite useful. For example, since I am writing about the period prior to the Renaissance in this book, I chose to use the term “Hermetism” throughout this entire book.