Bibliotherapy
Hans Yohanan Lewy – The Caller and the Call
Votive relief of the strategoi of Mesambria in honour of Hecate.
2nd-1st century BC. Archeological Museum, Nesebar, Bulgaria.
Picture by Ad Meskens.
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Today’s sharing from the Blue House of Via-HYGEIA, is an excerpt from the ‘must have’ posthumous publication of classical philologist Professor Hans Yohanan Lewy’s ‘Chaldaean Oracles And Theurgy, Mystic Magic and Platonism in the Later Roman Empire’, published in 2011 by professor Michel Tardieu at the ‘Institut d’Études Augustiniennes’ in Paris. We published earlier his translation of an hymn by Tiberianus and we are now focusing on this incredible work as announced at the time. ‘It is a treasure trove of source material and an important milestone in the ‘Chaldaean Oracles’ field of studies‘ states Pierre Hadot in an article published inside. Today’s theme reminds us, in a series of fascinating Neo-Platonist echoes, of the Islamic ‘Adhan’ (the call for prayer) and its key role in the mystical union with God. An up-coming publication will examine it through the lenses of Sheikh Muḥyīddīn Ibn Arabi, who gives a thorough explanation of ‘the Caller and the Call‘ in chapters 68 and 69 of the ‘Futuhat al-Makkiyya’.
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Background information about the author and the book
‘Professor Lewy was born in Berlin, Germany in 1901. He studied at Berlin University and received a doctorate in 1926. He emigrated to Mandate Palestine (now Israel) in 1934 and taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he was professor of Roman language and literature. He died, age 44, in 1945. A number of his articles were collected by his students and published some fifteen years after his death.’ (wikipedia)
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‘Gershom Scholem, in a contemporaneous letter to Hannah Arendt, calls Lewy a friend and says he was “very good” as a scientist‘. (‘Berliner Konstellationen am Ende der Weimarer Republik: Eduard Norden und die Altertumswissenschaft in Jerusalem’ by Hubert Cancik und Hildegard Cancik-Lindemaier. p. 69-91).
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‘In 1956, an important work by Hans Lewy on the Chaldaic Oracles, ‘Chaldaean Oracles and Theurgy- Mysticism, magic and Platonism in the later Roman Empire’ was published at the Institute of Oriental Archeology in Cairo. This study, quickly out of print, was the subject, in 1978, of a new edition in the Collection des Études Augustiniennes, by Michel Tardieu, which accompanied Hans Lewy’s text with a series of twelve supplements, including a contribution by Eric Robertson Dodds, and another by Pierre Hadot. This work, which remains fundamental for the knowledge of the Chaldaic Oracles and of all ancient philosophy, was long out of print, and Michel Tardieu now offers a third edition: alongside minor corrections, this new edition includes a thirteenth supplement, “The Chaldaic Oracles 1891-2011”, which offers a synthesis of 120 years of research, from the work of Jahn, in 1891, to the present day, and a bibliography divided into five sections, which strips the entire production on the subject. With this new edition, the reader has the update of an essential tool for the study of the Chaldaic Oracles and ancient philosophy.‘ (From the book back-cover)
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Excursus V
1. ‘The Chaldaeans designated the officiants of the theurgical operation, who attracted the gods by magical formulas, with the name, “callers”, ‘χλητορες’ . This Nomen acentis is a term peculiar to the Chaldaeans, but the notion itself was in common use already since early times. The noun ‘χλσις’ means ‘calling on the gods in prayer” and was employed by the magicians as name of the binding spells by which they cited gods and spirits. With the transition into the magical sphere the meaning of the term changed: the invocation becomes an evocation. This magical belief was opposed to the axiom of the philosophers concerning the apathy and autonomy of the divine. Porphyry raises therefore in his ”Letter to the Egyptian priest Anebo” (which contains a canon of religious problems) the following question: ‘Since many holy actions are performed under the presupposition that the gods are subdue to passion, the divine, however, is in truth subject neither to compulsion nor to flattery, the binding spells which are intended to lead the godhead to “incline itself towards” (ωροσχλινειν) the caller, are vain efforts‘. This question is answered by Iamblichus in his work ”On the Mysteries” (the reply to Porphyry’s “Letter to Anebo” in which Iamblichus is disguised as another Egyptian priest bearing the name Abammon) by the following arguments: “The irradiation of divine light upon the calling of the magician does not mean that the divinity is drawn downwards, but that it manifests itself of its own free will. Being benevolent and gracious the gods, whose will is to he regarded as free, make their light shine forth to the theurgists, by “calling upwards their souls towards them” and by granting them the union with themselves”. The “ascent brought about by calling” does not therefore draw downward the passionless gods into the sphere of passion, but rather delivers the men who are slaves to it. Iamblichus reverts to the same question several times. He denies that the godhead can be “attracted” to apparition by compulsory spells, as it is stronger than any force; every irradiation activity of the divine Fire is “self-called” and ”self-effected”, so that the differentiation between the “caller” and the ”called” loses its validity with regard to them.
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2. Iamblichus’ explanation (which is taken over by Proclus) is based, as we have shown, upon the Chaldean doctrine concerning the sacrament of the soul’s ascent within the ray of the sun. The irradiation of this light is explained by Iamblichus as the “call” of the godhead. This view has not been developed by a mechanical inversion of the original relationship, necessitated by dogmatical obligations. It can be proved that Iamblichus was influenced by another, metaphysical use of the noun ‘χλσις’, for which he invoked the authority of Plato, although, in reality, Plotinus was the initiator of his theory. Alluding to the Platonic description of the philosophical Eros, Plotinus designated the striving of the philosopher as a “turning” of his soul “towards” the Being (επιστροφη) and compared this “conversion” of the soul with a “being called” by the love of the Beautiful. Proclus and his co-disciple Hermias take over this image, and the latter explains it by reference to the Platonic etymology (Crat. 11 6-c 7) ,c ) ‘χαλδν απδ τοθ χαλειν’. As Hermias quotes this opinion in his commentary on the ‘Phaedrus’, where he refers frequently to Iamblichus’ commentary on the same work of Plato, we may infer that this lost work of Iamblichus represented his source as well as that of Proclus. We arrive in this way at the conclusion that Iamblichus’ explanation of the ‘Chaldaean Oracles’ is based upon the correlation of the theurgical and the metaphysical “elevation” (αναγωγη). As we have seen in the precedent Excursus, this correspondence constituted the basic axiom 0f Iamblichus’ explanation of the Chaldaean mysteriosophy.
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3. Iamblichus’ view of the divine “rail” is associated with his central doctrine of the magical sympathy which holds together the portions of the universe. The potencies which effect this connection are the “symbols” or the ”synthemata” (the terms are taken from the ‘Chaldaean Oracles’). For the Creator “sowed” them into every part of the world : not only into the gods and the spirits attached to the gods. but also into the portions of the celestial and terrestrial world and also into the human soul, in order to keep awake in all of them the desire for the First Being. This inward Force causes every entity to turn towards the suprajacent order and constitutes thus a continuous chain extending from the lowest order of the universe until the Primal Being. As this inherent force ”calls” for the participation in the perfection of the One, it is also termed the “calling power”, ‘αναχλητιχη δυναμις’. With the help of this all pervading Force, both the philosopher and the theurgist achieve the unition with the divine: the philosopher, who concentrates his thought in the supreme cognition, discovers in his soul the “synthema” of the One, the “flower of the Intellect”, and unites with the One through its psychical likeness inherent in him. The theurgist who utters the “symbols” (i.e. the magical names) of the gods, causes the invoked gods link themselves with him through the “chain” of the daimons attached to each of them, who draw him upwards to the desired goal. In both cases, the same “railing power”-inherent in the universe and in the human soul-is the agent of the mystical or magical union.’
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