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Liber XII · Hermeticism

Liber XII · Hermeticism · Chapter V: Neoplatonism & Theurgy

The Chaldean Oracles: Fire, the Father and Theurgic Ascent

The Chaldean Oracles explained: second-century verses of the two Julians, their fiery Father and Hekate, theurgic ascent, and their Neoplatonic afterlife.

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The Chaldean Oracles are a collection of Greek hexameter verses composed in the later second century CE and attributed to Julian the Chaldean and his son Julian the Theurgist, who presented them as revelations from the gods. Surviving only in fragments quoted by later authors, they describe a transcendent fiery Father, a creative Intellect, the goddess Hekate as cosmic Soul, and ritual methods for lifting the human soul back to its divine source, and late Neoplatonists revered them as sacred scripture.

The Two Julians and the Origins of the Oracles§

Almost everything known about the authors comes from the Byzantine encyclopaedia called the Suda and scattered later reports. Julian "the Chaldean" is described as a philosopher, and his son Julian "the Theurgist" as the author of works on theurgy and of oracles in verse. The epithet "Chaldean" probably did not mean that the family came from Babylonia; by the Roman period the word was a byword for astrologers and wise men of the East, and it lent an aura of ancient sacred learning.

According to tradition, the younger Julian served with Marcus Aurelius on the Danube and claimed credit for a miraculous rainstorm that saved a Roman army from thirst during the Marcomannic wars, an event depicted on the Column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome. The same miracle was claimed for an Egyptian priest and, by Christian writers, for the prayers of Christian soldiers, so the story shows more about rival claims to divine power than about what happened.

Modern scholars generally take the Oracles to be a composition of the two Julians themselves, possibly produced through a medium in trance, with the father questioning and the son speaking as the voice of the gods. The verses are written in the elevated hexameter style of Greek oracles, dense with metaphor and deliberately obscure.

How the Oracles Survived§

No manuscript of the Oracles as a book exists. Their text has been reconstructed from quotations in later writers who treated them with great reverence. Porphyry (died c. 305) collected and discussed oracles, and is said by later sources to have written on the Chaldean verses. Iamblichus reportedly composed an enormous commentary, now lost, and his defence of ritual in On the Mysteries is deeply shaped by Chaldean ideas. The richest sources are the fifth-century Athenian Neoplatonist Proclus, who is said to have called the Oracles and Plato's Timaeus the two books he would save if all others were lost, and his successor Damascius.

In Byzantium the eleventh-century polymath Michael Psellus wrote a commentary on a selection of the verses, and in the fifteenth century Gemistus Plethon arranged a shorter collection under the title of "magical oracles of the Magi, followers of Zoroaster". Modern critical work began in earnest with Wilhelm Kroll's edition of 1894, followed by Hans Lewy's monumental study Chaldaean Oracles and Theurgy (1956), Édouard des Places' edition (1971) and Ruth Majercik's text, translation and commentary (1989). Because each fragment depends on the interests of the author who quoted it, the reconstruction remains uncertain and the order of the original poem is unknown.

The Fiery Father, the Intellect and Hekate§

The theology of the Oracles is a version of Middle Platonism, the philosophy that dominated the second century, expressed in poetic and religious language.

The transcendent Father§

At the summit stands the Father, a supreme and hidden principle described as fire and as a silence beyond thought. The Father is said to have withdrawn himself from the world, so that he is not directly reachable by ordinary mind. He is grasped, if at all, by the "flower of the intellect", a faculty above discursive reason.

The Second Intellect and the cosmos§

From the Father proceeds a second Intellect, the demiurge or craftsman who shapes the world according to the Father's thoughts. Between them and the visible cosmos lie ranks of intermediary powers with distinctive names: the iynges, which carry the Father's thoughts outward; the synocheis or "connectors", which hold the levels of reality together; and the teletarchai, "rulers of initiation", who preside over the soul's perfection. The material world, by contrast, is often presented as a place of heaviness and danger to the soul.

Hekate as cosmic Soul§

One of the most striking features of the Oracles is the exalted role of Hekate. Far from the goddess of crossroads and ghosts familiar from Greek folklore, she appears as a cosmic membrane or womb standing between the Father and the Intellect, the source of the World Soul and of life-giving power. Sarah Iles Johnston's study Hekate Soteira (1990) showed how the Oracles transformed her into a saving goddess, a portrait that influenced later Neoplatonic hymns and, much later, modern devotion to Hekate.

Theurgy: Ritual Ascent of the Soul§

The Oracles are the earliest text closely associated with theurgy, a term usually explained as "divine work" and contrasted with theology, mere speaking about the gods. For the Chaldean tradition, the soul has descended into a body and become weighed down; philosophy alone cannot lift it, because the highest realities lie beyond reason. What is needed is ritual that uses the "symbols" and "tokens" (symbola, synthēmata) which the Father has sown throughout the cosmos: certain stones, plants, sounds, names and images that carry a trace of divine power.

The rites hinted at in the fragments and in later reports included purifications with water and fire, prayers and hymns, the use of a spinning wheel or iynx associated with Hekate, the invocation of gods into statues or mediums, and contemplative practices for the "solar ascent" of the soul. The soul's subtle vehicle, the ochēma or pneumatic body, was to be purified so that it could rise through the spheres. The surviving sources give only allusions, not a complete liturgy, and much remains conjectural.

This combination of philosophy and ritual sets the Oracles close to other works of the period, including the Hermetic writings and passages of the Greek Magical Papyri such as the "Mithras Liturgy". The difference lies in their audience: the Oracles became authoritative for an intellectual elite who sought union with the gods rather than practical favours.

Neoplatonists, Christians and Byzantine Readers§

Plotinus (died 270), the founder of Neoplatonism, does not appear to have used the Oracles, and his student Porphyry was ambivalent about ritual. With Iamblichus, however, theurgy became central to Neoplatonism, and by the fifth century the Athenian school treated the Oracles as divine revelation alongside the Orphic poems and Plato. The general story of that development is told in the guide to Neoplatonism and theurgy.

Christian writers took the Oracles seriously enough to attack them. Augustine criticised Porphyry's interest in theurgic purification in The City of God, arguing that it amounted to commerce with demons. In Byzantium, Psellus both admired the Oracles' philosophy and distanced himself from their rites, while the emperor Julian (r. 361–363), who favoured Neoplatonist theurgists, gave them a brief political prominence as part of his revival of traditional cults.

Zoroaster, the Renaissance and Modern Occultism§

The Oracles' later reputation owes much to Gemistus Plethon. By ascribing his collection to the followers of Zoroaster, he made them appear as the oldest record of divine wisdom, older than Moses or Plato. Marsilio Ficino translated Plethon's version into Latin, and for Renaissance thinkers the "Oracles of Zoroaster" stood at the head of the ancient theology, as described in prisca theologia. Francesco Patrizi gathered many more fragments in 1591, and Thomas Stanley published an English version, The Chaldaick Oracles, in his History of Philosophy in 1661 (see the catalogue entry Stanley's Chaldaick Oracles).

The Zoroastrian attribution did not survive critical scholarship, but it persisted in esoteric circles. In 1895 William Wynn Westcott, a founder of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, issued The Chaldaean Oracles of Zoroaster in his Collectanea Hermetica (see the Westcott edition), and Golden Dawn ritual borrowed phrases from them. Today the Oracles are read by historians of late antique religion as a key witness to the fusion of philosophy and ritual, and by modern Hellenic and Hekatean practitioners as a source of devotion.

Frequently asked questions§

Who wrote the Chaldean Oracles?§

They are attributed to Julian the Chaldean and his son Julian the Theurgist, who were active in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Most scholars think the father and son composed them together, perhaps presenting the verses as utterances received from the gods through a medium.

Are the Chaldean Oracles really from Chaldea or Zoroaster?§

No. The name "Chaldean" was a prestigious label suggesting eastern wisdom, and the link with Zoroaster was made by Gemistus Plethon in the fifteenth century. The Oracles are Greek poems of the second century CE, rooted in Platonic philosophy.

What is theurgy in the Chaldean Oracles?§

Theurgy is ritual work intended to purify the soul and unite it with the gods. It relies on divine symbols hidden in nature, together with prayers, purifications and invocations, rather than on reasoning alone.

Is there a complete text of the Chaldean Oracles?§

No complete text exists. Around two hundred fragments survive in quotations by later philosophers, chiefly Proclus, Damascius and Psellus, and modern editions arrange them by theme rather than in their original order.

Sources and further reading§