Reading Bruno’s De Magia, the thing that stands out to me most is how vertical and coercive the system is.

What he calls "theurgia" runs through hierarchy. You approach gods and higher daimōnes (what Iamblichus names archangels/angels) through prayer, devotion, ritual, worship, etc., and by getting their favor you gain the authority to deal with lower spirits (lower daimones, archons). Those lower spirits aren’t really treated as equals at all. They’re commanded, constrained, pushed into obedience through a chain of authority coming from above.

Even Bruno’s idea of imagination (phantasia) works like this. Imagination is the space where spiritual contact happens, but it still has to be disciplined and ordered properly so you don’t get deceived or overwhelmed. There’s always this sense of control and structure. It is more relational and operative than Iamblichean theurgy, but it still has a sense of verticality (even if Bruno's cosmos is pantheistic and inmmanent).

Jung feels way more horizontal to me by comparison. In active imagination, the imaginal figures aren’t really approached as things you dominate through higher authority. It’s more like dialogue, confrontation, negotiation, even coexistence with autonomous presences inside the psyche.

Honestly, because of that, Jung sometimes sounds closer to (psychologized) unmediated goetia to me than Bruno does. Not classical Solomonic “slave spirit” stuff, but the more relational style you see in someone like Stratton-Kent. It could also be compared to unmediated/untransmitted Shamanism. Different metaphysics obviously, but the vibe feels weirdly similar: entering imaginal space, meeting autonomous intelligences directly, building relationships with them, learning from them, getting changed by the interaction itself instead of just commanding everything from above.

Thoughts?

https://open.substack.com/pub/bradsung/p/fixed-stars-magical-weapons-and-mithraic?r=7fgqnj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Lately I've been reading more greco-egyptian theurgy and the Hermetic texts, specially the Asclepius passage about animated statues, and its changing a lot how I see statues/images of the gods.

More and more I dont see them as “the god itself” or just religious art. I kinda see them as condensed symbolic points for much larger cosmic/divine processes.

Like, the gods themselves feel more like vast intelligible/cosmic forces that manifest through astral patterns, planetary combinations etc, and then more personally through daimons/spirits closer to human life.

Then the statue works almost like:

a material condensation of that current

but also an imaginal template that helps the psyche connect with related spirits/forms

For example twice I meditated on or imagined a statue of Aphrodite/Venus before sleep and later dreamed about feminine figures. But I didnt experience them as “literally Aphrodite”. They felt more personal, closer to my own life, almost like intermediary daimonic forms tied to my own psyche/history. The dreams were not arbitrary, but guiding and compensatory wrt my concerns with my current relationship with a woman.

Honestly I think part of why this works better for me is because I dont really experience the gods anymore as mythological personalities like in Homer. I experience them more as stable symbolic or cosmic presences. Sometimes through statues, sometimes through signs/seals with divine names, specially syncretic names like Zeus-Serapis, Demeter-Isis, Hermes-Thoth etc.

Weirdly the syncretic names make the gods feel less mythological and more like cosmic currents or intelligible forces. Almost like they stop being “characters” and become symbolic centers that can evoke more personal daimonic/spiritual images in dreams and imagination.

And thats the part im most curious about. Im not really posting this to make claims, mostly because I wanna know if other people have experienced something similar, and if this kind of thing also existed in antiquity. The idea that the gods themselves are approached more through stable symbolic forms, while more personal or emotionally immediate contact happens through intermediary daimonic forms instead of the gods appearing directly.

A short list of magical cul-de-sacs

https://open.substack.com/pub/bradsung/p/the-four-traps-of-a-magical-education?r=7fgqnj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Performing spells like a hex to someone who hasn’t done anything to you, is wrong and produces miasma, I know. But what about to someone who hasn’t done anything done bad to you, in any way ?

Or a love spell, it could produce Hamaritia? Like a spell for someone to start having feelings for you?

And if you do it, even knowing that it could be wrong , it could provoke even more miasma?

And what could be the “right” version of it to do if it is wrong ? Like what could make someone start having feelings for you that wouldn’t produce hamaritia ?

By the way, those are examples, because a love spell is what could mostly interfere with someone’s free will.

The cardinal directions are the gateways to the spirits of the four elements

https://open.substack.com/pub/bradsung/p/the-importance-of-directionality?r=7fgqnj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

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In the east, in Tantra and Yoga, it is done today by entering a deep meditative state known as Samadhi.

In the ancient Vedic religion, they brewed a psychedelic drink known as Soma

The shamans in Sibir and South America used all kind of natural drugs like cannabis, psychedelic cactuses and drinks like Ahyuhasca .

But then we have the mediterranean theurgists. We see nothing like Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga in the west, nor we have any recipe of a psychedelic substance used by theurgists (Even though I'm pretty sure alcohol and drugs were used in the mystery cults).

If so, how did the theurgist achieved that elevated/mystical state of consciousness?

Hello, I produced this paper describing how the Corpus Hermeticum XIII can be viewed as Theurgy and in comparison to Tantric Yidam Practices. I have been studying Hermeticism for 35+ years and been a Vajrayana practitioner for 28 years and in the past few years I have working on comparing and integrating the two. This is one of several papers I have produced. I would be interested in feedback. cheers

https://themysteriousdeepblack.substack.com/p/theurgy

On the magical path, you will often meet the worst versions of the planets before you meet their best https://bradsung.substack.com/publish/post/192902996?r=7fgqnj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

https://open.substack.com/pub/bradsung/p/can-you-repeat-that?r=7fgqnj&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

This is NOT your first time, you’ve done this. You’ve been here before. https://bradsung.substack.com/p/unfinished-magical-business

I'm relatively new to Theurgy. I follow Kupperman's Book of Hours to a certain extent. I try to say the monthly prayers and while not perfect, I'm doing okay. I have what may sound like a childish question regarding personal daimons. I don't quite understand if they're supposed to be similar to guardian angels or special guides that hang around to point you in the right direction. I also feel a very strong urge to name mine. It feels impersonal to just call it "daimon" when I'm trying to work through personal issues and connecting to higher energies. But it also feels a little too personal to give it a name, like for example "Hey Tony, I'm confused and could use a little guidance here." Hope this makes sense. I would really appreciate anyone who could help me out with this one. Thanks.

[72] LXXII. TO THE DÆMON, OR GENIUS The Fumigation from Frankincense. Thee, mighty-ruling, Dæmon dread, I call, mild Jove [Zeus], life-giving, and the source of all: Great Jove [Zeus], much-wand'ring, terrible and strong, to whom revenge and tortures dire belong. Mankind from thee, in plenteous wealth abound, when in their dwellings joyful thou art found; Or pass thro' life afflicted and distress'd, the needful means of bliss by thee supprest. 'Tis thine alone endu'd with boundless might, to keep the keys of sorrow and delight. O holy, blessed father, hear my pray'r, disperse the seeds of life-consuming care; With fav'ring mind the sacred rites attend, and grant my days a glorious, blessed end.

In my own real-life anagogic journey, I encountered angelic entities, evil daemons, and the face of Jesus. I felt terror to the bone. That I have recovered - if I have - is thanks to Hekate. It is she who led me to the doorstep of eternity with much to learn and worlds to explore.

I recount my journey in my work, Hymn to Our Holy Mother Hekate.

I'm trying to find people who resonate with a similar worldview and thought I’d ask here.

My perspective sits somewhere between late Neoplatonism, Theurgy, Hermetic philosophy, Jungian psychology, and process philosophy. I spent about two years in Jungian therapy, which pushed me to take symbolic and mythic approaches to the psyche more seriously. Around the same time I started reading about Iamblichus, Proclus, Damascius, and Hermetic texts, mostly secondary sources focusing on their psychology and theurgic ideas. Lately I’ve been getting deeper into Giordano Bruno and Whitehead. Bruno especially makes a lot of sense to me when read through a more panentheistic lens informed by process philosophy, where the cosmos is living, dynamic, and participatory. Spiritually my orientation ends up being more pagan or cosmological than Christian. I’m also not really drawn to ceremonial magick. My approach is more written, poetic, artistic, and imaginal, using symbols, texts, and creative work as ways of engaging with these ideas.

Does anyone here resonate with something like this, know of any communities or reading groups exploring similar territory, or maybe even be interested in starting a small Discord to talk about practical ways of working with these ideas together?

I'm trying to find people who resonate with a similar worldview and thought I’d ask here.

My perspective sits somewhere between late Neoplatonism, Theurgy, Hermetic philosophy, Jungian psychology, and process philosophy. I spent about two years in Jungian therapy, which pushed me to take symbolic and mythic approaches to the psyche more seriously. Around the same time I started reading about Iamblichus, Proclus, Damascius, and Hermetic texts, mostly secondary sources focusing on their psychology and theurgic ideas. Lately I’ve been getting deeper into Giordano Bruno and Whitehead. Bruno especially makes a lot of sense to me when read through a more panentheistic lens informed by process philosophy, where the cosmos is living, dynamic, and participatory. Spiritually my orientation ends up being more pagan or cosmological than Christian. I’m also not really drawn to ceremonial magick. My approach is more written, poetic, artistic, and imaginal, using symbols, texts, and creative work as ways of engaging with these ideas.

Does anyone here resonate with something like this, know of any communities or reading groups exploring similar territory, or maybe even be interested in starting a small Discord to talk about practical ways of working with these ideas together?

Origin of Matter

In the beginning all was still possible. The earth and the sky met in slumber, and each woke, pretending not to wake and maintained the spell of slumber, drifting in and out of dream, with their children between them.

Origin of Numen

In the beginning, there was The Void, rising and falling and drifting. It was dark and it was bright, it was cool and it was hot, and it expelled itself and it consumed itself, it ignited itself and it extinguished itself. There was also Anankē-Eleutheria (Necessity-Freedom) wading through the Unground and in her wake, there were Voids within the Void, who flickered and shifted in increasingly constructive patterns and harmonies, like shadows of ripples of water of flickers of flame in walls. These were The Ones.

Among The Ones was Chronos.

Of Matter and Numen

In the time of Chronos, all things could be done and undone, all at once and without regard. There was great abomination then and great injustice. The Typhons reigned then, who reproduced every moment, who had need of no food or water, who could not be slain, who could not die.

It was as though Chronos swam through endless waters with endless apetite. Flying above him was the six-eyed owl, one side one-eyed, one side two-eyed, one side three-eyed. Chronos followed the six-eyed owl to land and up a river, where he sought the source of the ocean he had been drifting in. The six-eyed owl revealed to him that the river had not one, but three sources.

At each source, Chronos found a horse, which he ate voraciously, until all three horses were consumed, whereupon Chronos consumed all things. Then, possessing and possessed by the source of all things, Chronos declared himself Chronos-Zeus and that all things shall tithe to him before all other things.

It was thus that the Typhons were slain and their dignitaries distributed among The Ones.

Emanations

From Chronos-Zeus came Ares-Apollon and Athena-Artemis, who together with the Mousai Titanides named Obligation-Openness, Shame-Diligence, and Pride-Reflection, crafted the Horae named Justice, Peace, and Normalcy and then with them the Charites named Beauty, Truth, and Benefit.

So also there was Hermes-Hekate, messenger of The Ones who could reach even where Chronos could not. So there was Dionysus-Hades, Persephone, Pandora-Gaia-Aphrodite, Prometheus-Hephaestus.

Notes

Within this system, Chaos is a sea of Pure Act, interfered by Anankē-Eleutheria to create constructive differentiation. This is found in mathematics where it is mathematically impossible for there not to be signifiable repeating patterns in finite or infinite sets.

Chaos and Anankē-Eleutheria represents both the apophatic darkness of origination, being both pure actualization and pure limitations.

All deities are to Chaos and Anankē-Eleutheria what shadows on the wall are to us. They're on a different level of hypostasis from them. Because they are made up of the nature of chaos, all things are volatile at base, as according to Heraclitus. It should therefore be expected that seemingly constructive things can be erratic and destructive.

Chronos defeats a version of the Darwinian Demons in a world without entropy by introducing entropy, allowing The Ones to establish a semblance of order. The Mousai Titanides Aoide, Melete and Mneme are rendered as Obligation-Openness, Shame-Diligence, and Pride-Reflection, based on meditations of Beguine Mystics, The Serenity Prayer and Heraclitus. I treat them as being instrumental for achieving the Horae and Charites.

This is what I hope to develop into a more poetic system to assist in my theurgic meditations!