Hans Lewy

The sourcebook and guide on this sort of thing. It is an egaging analysis of a mystical-philosophical hybrid that emerged in the late Roamn empire: drawing on the religious philosophy of Plato, oriental, Jewish and gnostic speculation. Of interest to intrigued by Hellenic culture and the particular reader. Particularly those with any interest in the old koan, "what was your face before your father was born". I do not mean to be cryptic (if that is the word wanted) - but to, while in the early stages of an adventure, approach the "ineffable" via reasoned and discursive pathways, you could do so much worse.

So anyone who has been entertained by Crowley's publicity, the book of Abramelin, or Les Illuminations et Saison of Rimbaud - this is the Baedeker. More up to date (if not more valid) works on the topic of the Oracles and theurgy in general would include S. Iles Johnston's Hekate Soteira, and various works of Algis Uzdavinys and Gregory Shaw. There may be others, undiscovered termas, accidental, tangential (even stones and herbs, they say, are linked in the web of sympathy), but there is much patchouli-reeking nonsense out there best side-stepped. I have always believed that one reads for information or for recollection. Professor Lewy is recommended either way.… (meer)

An absolute masterwork of Hans Lewy. The review was extensively given by Dodds, another expert in the field, neither do I feel qualified to write about something that I know little about, compared to such giants. However, I may fully recommend this book to anyone interested in the best theological and historical reconstruction of the underground of neoplatonism, the theurgical path based on the Chaldean Oracles. As an ardent student of ancient mystery cults and inventive performative magic, I prefer to study the traditions in depth in order to find fuel for my personal structural developments. This masterful text is for serious students of history and magic, for the intelligent and daring to act - mysteries and initiations may be extracted and performed, the chain of initiation is not broken as long as memory persists. Aletheia, after all is not the river of forgetfulness, but a heroized, glorified Truth, to be read from synthemata, signs, sigilia and tokens that are indeed - sown across this world and the universe, the great ones, although disembodied, carry the grand ideas from within and from without. Least we forget, least we give up all hope.… (meer)

An absolute masterwork of Hans Lewy. The review was extensively given by Dodds, another expert in the field, neither do I feel qualified to write about something that I know little about, compared to such giants. However, I may fully recommend this book to anyone interested in the best theological and historical reconstruction of the underground of neoplatonism, the theurgical path based on the Chaldean Oracles. As an ardent student of ancient mystery cults and inventive performative magic, I prefer to study the traditions in depth in order to find fuel for my personal structural developments. This masterful text is for serious students of history and magic, for the intelligent and daring to act - mysteries and initiations may be extracted and performed, the chain of initiation is not broken as long as memory persists. Aletheia, after all is not the river of forgetfulness, but a heroized, glorified Truth, to be read from synthemata, signs, sigilia and tokens that are indeed - sown across this world and the universe, the great ones, although disembodied, carry the grand ideas from within and from without. Least we forget, least we give up all hope.… (meer)