Today, there will be a lot of outrage about the Supreme Court decision about abortion. It is already overwhelming, and I am not even on social media — just in the family group text, a chat room related to my alma mater, and so on. My mother is the one who alerted us, actually, in … Continue reading What about *my* religious beliefs? — and a passage from Iamblichus
Tag: iamblichus
Quiet, But Still Praying
The first degree of prayer is the introductory, which leads to contact and acquaintance with the divine; the second is conjunctive, producing a union of sympathetic minds, and calling forth benefactions sent down by the Gods even before we express our requests, while achieving whole courses of action even before we think of them; the … Continue reading Quiet, But Still Praying
The Ineffable Power of Syllable and Sound
'Do not change the nomina barbara;'that is, the names handed down by the gods to each people have ineffable power in the initiation rites.Chaldean Oracles, Fragment 150, trans. Majercik, where it appears in context from Psellus Nisha Ramayya’s States of the Body Produced By Love is the best experimental poetry book I have read in a … Continue reading The Ineffable Power of Syllable and Sound
Apollôn’s Birth on Delos
For the past few days, I have been thirsty for reading myths, and on Tuesday, I realized I had enough Kobo points to get the ebook of Kerényi's The Gods of the Greeks for free. The book, which I own in print, has been part of my collection since I found it used in my … Continue reading Apollôn’s Birth on Delos
A Miscellany of Quotations — Shaw and Kongtrul (with some Addey)
I finished my Goodreads annual book challenge about a month ahead. There are still more books I absolutely need to read. Such is the struggle of a bookworm 📖🐛. From Theurgy and the Soul Gregory Shaw "Heat" (tapas/yoga : thermon/theurgy) is awakened by, or directly related to, the "breath" (prana/yoga : pneuma/theurgy). When sufficiently heated, … Continue reading A Miscellany of Quotations — Shaw and Kongtrul (with some Addey)
Returning to the Lojong Slogans (with Iamblichus This Time)
I'm working my way through G. Shaw's Theurgy and the Soul (2nd ed.) While at the laundromat yesterday, I read the chapters "Ritual and the Human Hierarchy" and "Ritual as Cosmogony." The chapters rely on De Mysteriis, with injections of De Anima and some other texts. Essentially, human souls are divided into three groups, with different types of … Continue reading Returning to the Lojong Slogans (with Iamblichus This Time)
A Cosmology Analogy for Something in Iamblichus
It occurred to me while reading an article in Scientific American about misconceptions people have about cosmology that there are similar challenges when trying to visualize the systems in philosophers like Iamblichus and Proclus. I'm blogging briefly about it because (a) I get to talk about astronomy and (b) maybe it's useful to others. (Now that … Continue reading A Cosmology Analogy for Something in Iamblichus
In Which Some Comments Are Made About the Word Theurgy
In my blog post about reading Iamblichus’ On the Mysteries, I said that theurgy is “basically a fancy word for traditional cultus.” The post has gotten a lot of reach, with most referrals from Facebook (where I can’t see anything), but it was also posted to a Reddit board called r/Occult by someone. A Reddit … Continue reading In Which Some Comments Are Made About the Word Theurgy
I Read Iamblichus’ ON THE MYSTERIES in a Laundromat and You Can, Too
This went onto my TBR list a decade ago, and I finally read it in its entirety. Here is my after-reading-excitement decompression post.
KALLISTI 