Philosophy and Theurgy in Late Antiquity by Uzdavinys, Algis -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Title Page Copyright Page CONTENTS Foreword Introduction 1: THE ORIGINS AND MEANING OF PHILOSOPHY

2: VOICES OF THE FIRE: ANCIENT THEURGY AND ITS TOOLS

Definitions of theurgy in antiquity Descending lights and animated cult images Figures, names, and tokens of the divine speech The prophet Bitys and the overwhelming Name of God The descending and ascending paths of Heka The Silence before the gods and its creative magic Hekate’s golden ball as a rotating ‘vocal image’ of the Father The Sounding breaths of the All-Working Fire The Elevating rays of the resounding light The rites of hieratic invocation and ascent The Tantric alchemy and the Osirian mummification Golden seeds of the noetic Fire Theurgic speech of the birds and solar knowledge Tongues of the gods and their songs Back to the life-giving wombs and the ineffable Silence Chanting out the universe by the Name of everything When Orontes flowed into Tiber: the revived tradition

3: SACRED IMAGES & ANIMATED STATUES IN ANTIQUITY

Myth and symbol: what makes the impossible happen? Metaphysics of creation and its images in pharaonic Egypt Theogonic appearances and animated stones Theology of images and its esoteric dimension Privileged habitations for the immortal gods Beholding the ineffable beauties Divine bodies and representations in Indian Tantrism Sense perception and intellection in Neoplatonism Divine light and luminous vehicle of the soul Divine presence in images Living images of the Egyptian gods To be made into a spirit of light Rites of alchemical transformation The opening of the statue’s mouth Mystical union with the noetic Sun Revelation of the divine face Divine statues and their sacred gifts Salvation as return to the divine

4: METAPHYSICAL SYMBOLS AND THEIR FUNCTION IN THEURGY

Symbols as ontological traces of the divine The anagogic power of secret names and tokens Animated theurgic hieroglyphs of the hidden Amun Neoplatonic rites of metaphysical reversion The ineffable statues of transcendent light

5: DIVINE RITES AND PHILOSOPHY IN NEOPLATONISM

Ritual and cosmic order The aim of philosophy Different aspects of divine acts Theurgy and spiritual hermeneutics Hieratic rites of ascent The common metaphysical background Philosophers as sacred statues To be reborn into the solar world The cosmic theatre of sacrificial fires Golden cords of Apollo The shining forth like a god

APPENDIX: THE LIMITS OF SPECULATION IN NEOPLATONISM

The Hermeneutical program of reading Neoplatonism Non-discursive divine presence and relational transcendence Masks and tongues of the ineffable The distinction between looking up at the Sun and looking down at reflections Modes of intellection and union To live means to read

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS ON PHILOSOPHY & THEURGY GLOSSARY OF TERMS BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE