Philosophy and Theurgy in Late Antiquity
Algis Uzdavinys (Author), John Finamore (Foreword), New York: Angelico Press, 2010
Description
The Ancient Philosophy, in its original Orphico-Pythagorean and Platonic form, is not simply a way of life in accordance with the divine or human intellect (nous), but also the way of alchemical transformation and mystical illumination achieved through initiatic “death” and subsequent restoration at the level of divine light. As a means of spiritual reintegration and unification, ancient philosophy is inseparable from the hieratic rites. The theurgic “animation” of statues appears to be among the main keys for understanding how various royal and priestly practices, related to the daily ritual service and encounter with the divine presence in the temples, developed into the Neoplatonic mysticism of late antiquity.
(Text from the publisher)
Table of contents
Foreword
Introduction
- The origins and meaning of philosophy
Eidothea and Proteus: the veiled images of philosophy
The distinction between philosophical life and philosophical discourse
Standing face to face with immortality
Philosophy and the hieratic rites of ascent
The task of ‘Egyptian philosophy’: to connect the end to the beginning
The Kronian life of spectator: ‘to follow one’s heart in the tomb’
Thauma idesthai: ‘a wonder to behold’
The invincible warriors as models of philosophical lifestyle
The inward journey to the place of truth
To be like Osiris
The death which detaches form the inferior
Entering the solar barque of Atum-Ra
Philosophical initiations in the Netherworld
Self-knowledge and return to one’s innermost self
Recovered unity of Dionysus in ourselves
Philosophical mummification inside the cosmic tomb
Platonic dialectic: the science of purificarion and restoration of unity
Philosophy as a rite of becoming like God
The ancient logos and its sacramental function
Riddles of the cosmic Myth
Philosophy, magic, and laughter
- 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 beforer 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
- Sacred images and 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
- 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 trancendent light
- 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
Golden cords of Apollo
The shining forth like a god
Bilbiography of works on Philosophy&Theurgy
Glossary of terms
Biographical note
Link
https://www.angelicopress.org/philosophy-and-theurgy-in-late-antiquity-uzdavinys