The Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster (Westcott edition)

The Chaldean Oracles are fragments of a Greek hexameter poem presented as divine revelation, composed in the second century CE and associated with Julian the Chaldean and his son Julian the Theurgist, who were said to have lived under Marcus Aurelius. The complete poem is lost, and what survives are quotations in later Neoplatonists such as Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus and Damascius, and in the Byzantine scholars Michael Psellos and Gemistos Plethon. The Oracles describe a transcendent Father, an intellect proceeding from him, the goddess Hecate as a cosmic intermediary, a hierarchy of intelligible and fiery powers, and the descent and ascent of the soul, which can be purified and raised through theurgy, ritual action that works with divine symbols. Late antique Platonists treated them as sacred scripture, and they shaped Neoplatonic theurgy decisively. In the Renaissance, Plethon's attribution of the collection to Zoroaster made them seem a primordial wisdom alongside Hermes. This edition was issued in 1895 by William Wynn Westcott under his Golden Dawn motto Sapere Aude as part of the Collectanea Hermetica series, with an introduction by Percy Bullock. It arranges the fragments by topic and marks each as belonging to the original Zoroaster or to later theurgists, a classification no longer accepted. The standard modern editions are those of Édouard des Places (1971) and Ruth Majercik (1989), which number the fragments differently and should be used for serious study.

What it contains

• The transcendent Father and paternal intellect
• The Monad, Dyad and Triad
• Intelligibles, ideas and fiery powers
• Hecate and the cosmic soul
• Descent and ascent of individual souls
• Matter, nature and daemons
• Magical and philosophical precepts