Even the cool intellect of Igor Stravinsky was touched by theurgic energies: the neo-pagan scenario of "The Rite of Spring" was co-created by the Russian Symbolist painter Nicholas Roerich, who went on to have a spectacularly strange career as a Theosophical sage.
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In order to justify superstition and the ancient cults, philosophy in Iamblichus becomes a theurgic, mysteriosophy, spiritualism.
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According to Hasidic legend, the fate of Napoleon was decided not on the battlefields, but between the theurgic prayers and deeds of the Hasidic Rebbes.
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Theurgy has a clear relationship to Neoplatonism and Kabbalah and contains the concept of spiritual evolution and ultimately unification with God or the Godhead at its core. Theurgy is considered by many to be another term for high magic and is known to have influenced the members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn many of whom considered the order to be Theurgic in nature. Aleister Crowley also considered his Thelemic system of magical philosophy to be a Theurgic tradition as it emphasized the Great Work, which is essentially another form of spiritual evolution. The Great Work is believed to result in communication with one's personal angel or higher self.
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Through this, the border between supplicatory prayer and theurgic practice blurs if prayer becomes viewed as a magical process rather than Divine response to petitions. However, Kabbalists censored directly magical Practical Kabbalah willed control of angels for only the most holy, and justified their theurgic prayer as optimising the divine channels through which their prayerful supplication to God ascends. Kabbalists declare one prayers only "to Him (God's essence, "male" here solely in Hebrew's gendered grammer), not to His attributes (sephirot)". To pray to a Divine attribute introduces the cardinal idolatrous sin of division and plurality among the sephirot, separating them from their dependence and nullification in the Absolute Ein Sof Unity.
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In contrast, Theosophical traditions centred around the theurgic power and cosmic centrality importance of normative Jewish worship and Halakha observance, especially when carried out with elite Kavanot mystical intentions. Pinchas Giller questions usage of the term "meditation" for Theosophical (mainstream) Kabbalah's theurgic kavanot intentions, where deveikut cleaving to God was secondary, preferring the term more accurately for Ecstatic Kabbalah's unio mystica methods and goal. He sees generalising the term in reference to all Kabbalistic intentions as a reflection of contemporary zeitgeist, promoted by Aryeh Kaplan and others. He recommends Ecstatic Kabbalah, the Jewish Sufism of Abraham Maimonides, or Chabad Hasidic prayer contemplation as paths more suited to develop a future ethic of Jewish meditation (unio mystica).
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By meditating on the sephirot and praying for their unification, Kabbalists seek the theurgic goal of healing a shattered world. For Kabbalists, the sefirot are as follows: Keter "Crown, Source"; Chokhmah "Wisdom"; Binah "Understanding"; Chesed "Loving-kindness"; Gevurah "Strength"; Tiferet "Beauty"; Netzach "Endurance"; Hod "Glory"; Yesod "Foundation"; and Malkuth "Kingdom, Sovereignty".
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Eusebius of Myndus () was a 4th-century philosopher, a distinguished Neoplatonist. He is described by Eunapius as one of the links in the "Golden Chain" of Neoplatonism. He was a pupil of Aedesius of Pergamum. He devoted himself principally to logic and ventured to criticize the magical and theurgic side of the doctrine.
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Plutarch was versed in all the theurgic traditions of the school, and believed, along with Iamblichus, in the possibility of attaining to communion with the Deity by the medium of the theurgic rites. Unlike the Alexandrists and the early Renaissance writers, he maintained that the soul which is bound up in the body by the ties of imagination and sensation does not perish with the corporeal media of sensation. In psychology, while believing that Reason is the basis and foundation of all consciousness, he interposed between sensation and thought the faculty of Imagination, which, as distinct from both, is the activity of the soul under the stimulus of unceasing sensation. In other words, it provides the raw material for the operation of Reason.
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Kabbalists of different schools have been concerned with a range of esoteric encounters with divinity mediated by different meditative practices, ranging from ecstatic mystical cleaving to God, or prophetic visual and auditory disclosing of the divine, to theurgic manipulation of theosophical divine emanations. Practices included meditation on the names of God in Judaism, combinations of Hebrew letters, and kavanot (esoteric "intentions"). The main concern of the Theosophical Kabbalah such as the Zohar and Isaac Luria was on theurgic harmonisation of the sephirot Divine attributes, though recent phenomenological scholarship has uncovered the prophetic visualisation of the sephirot as a Divine Anthropos in the imagination of the medieval theosophical practitioners.Through a Speculum That Shines - Vision and Imagination in Medieval Jewish Mysticism, Elliot R. Wolfson, Princeton University Press 1997.
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Porphyry was opposed to the theurgy of his disciple Iamblichus. Much of Iamblichus' mysteries is dedicated to the defense of mystic theurgic divine possession against the critiques of Porphyry. French philosopher Pierre Hadot maintains that for Porphyry, spiritual exercises are an essential part of spiritual development. Porphyry was, like Pythagoras, an advocate of vegetarianism on spiritual and ethical grounds.
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Grave of Elimelech of Lizhensk, leading disseminator of Hasidism in Poland- Galicia Among the disciples of the Maggid of Mezeritch, Elimelech of Lizhensk (1717–1787), who founded Hasidism in Poland-Galicia, wrote the early Hasidic classic work Noam Elimelech (1788), which developed the role of the Hasidic Tzadik into a full training of charismatic theurgic mystical "Popular/Practical Tzadikism". The work so cultivated the innovative social mysticism of leadership that it led to the proliferation of new Hasidic Tzadikim among leading disciples in Galicia and Poland. This populist "Mainstream Hasidism" praised the role of the elite tzadik in extreme formulations, which incurred the censorship of the Mitnagdim. The tzadik was depicted as the divine foundation of existence, who's task was to draw and elevate the common Jewish masses by charismatic appeal and theurgic intercession.
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The ascent through seven grades is viewed by Meyer as representing Mithraic initiation, but it also bears a more general resemblance to the ascent of the initiate in theurgy, with parallels in fragments from the Chaldaean Oracles.Sarah Iles Johnston, "Rising to the Occasion: Theurgic Ascent in Its Cultural Milieu," in Envisioning Magic: A Princeton Seminar and Symposium (Brill, 1997), p. 181ff.
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In order to achieve reconciliation with God, the incarnation of Jesus Christ was necessary, which by preaching, suffering, death, and resurrection laid the foundation for reconciliation, and the Reintegration of the present generation of mankind. Previous generations, according to the Treatise, were reconciled by the most vivid Old Testament saints and prophets: Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Elijah. For the final stage of reconciliation, it took Divine Condescension, that is, the incarnation of Jesus Christ. However, in order to follow the path of the Reintegration, according to the teachings of Pasqually, one should follow the path of internal self-perfection, and also make good use of the theurgic operations that Pasqually taught to the ‘men of desire’, whom he found worthy of initiation. Through these operations, the disciples must enter into relations with the angelic entities, which ‘pass through’ the theurgic operations.
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In some non-Jewish Hermetic Qabalah, contact is sought with the Qliphoth unlike in the ethical-mystical Jewish prohibition, as part of its process of human self-knowledge. In contrast, the theurgic Jewish Practical Kabbalah was understood by its practitioners as similar to white magic, accessing only holiness, while the danger in such venture of mixing impure Magic ensured it remained a minor and restricted practice in Jewish history.
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This doctrine, he intended for an elite chosen from the ranks of his contemporary masons, and gathered under the banner of the 'Elus Coens' (Elect Priests). Quickly this order gained quite the reputation in French masonic circles, but the theurgic operations remained reserved for the higher degrees. Martinez did not, to a greater extent, graft his system solely on freemasonry. Until 1761, it is to be located in Montpellier, Paris, Lyons, Bordeaux, Marseilles, and Avignon.
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The separation of the mystical and magical elements of Kabbalah, dividing it into speculative theological Kabbalah (Kabbalah Iyyunit) with its meditative traditions, and theurgic practical Kabbalah (Kabbalah Ma'asit), had occurred by the beginning of the 14th century.Josephy, Marcia Reines. Magic & Superstition in the Jewish Tradition: An Exhibition Organized by the Maurice Spertus Museum of Judaica. Spertus College of Judaica Press, 1975 Many traditional speculative Kabbalists disapproved of practical Kabbalah, including Abraham Abulafia, who strongly condemned it.
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Studies in East European Jewish Mysticism and Hasidism, Joseph Weiss, Littman Library: chapter "The Kavvanoth of Prayer in Early Hasidism". This downplaying of the theurgic role of Theosophical Kabbalah, the psychologisation of Kabbalistic symbolism, and emphasis on Divine Omnipresence, began with the Baal Shem Tov. In a parable he related that knowing each of the detailed Kabbalistic Kavanot in prayer unlocked individual gates in Heaven, but tears break through all barriers to reach the King Himself.
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From the 1730s, the Baal Shem Tov (BeShT) headed an elite theurgic mystical circle, similar to other secluded Kabbalistic circles such as the contemporary Klaus (Close) in Brody. Unlike past mystical circles, they innovated with the use of their psychic heavenly intercession abilities to work on behalf of the common Jewish populace. From the legendary hagiography of the BeShT as one who bridged elite mysticism with deep social concern, and from his leading disciples, Hasidism rapidly grew into a populist revival movement.
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The activity of Baalei Shem among the community, as well as the influence of Kabbalistic ideas, contributed to the popular belief in Tzadikim Nistarim. The new mystical role of the Hasidic tzadik leader replaced Baal Shem activity among the populace, combining the Practical Kabbalist and maggid, the itinerant preacher. In addition, it replaced Practical Kabbalah with the tzadik's theurgic divine intercession. The 1814–15 Praises of the Besht sets the Baal Shem Tov's teaching circle against his remaining occupation as traveling Baal Shem.
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The conquest of Asia by Alexander the Great exposed the Greeks to ideas from Syria, Babylon, Persia and central Asia.Campion, 2008. p. 173. Around 280 BCE, Berossus, a priest of Bel from Babylon, moved to the Greek island of Kos, teaching astrology and Babylonian culture.Campion, 2008. p. 84. By the 1st century BCE, there were two varieties of astrology, one using horoscopes to describe the past, present and future; the other, theurgic, emphasising the soul's ascent to the stars.Campion, 2008. pp. 173–174.
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The Ogdoadic Tradition stems from the Mediterranean mystery religions of ancient Greece as well as the Theurgic practices of the priesthoods of Ptolemaic Egypt. Its signature symbol is the Eight-pointed Star of Regeneration, an emblem signifying the Regeneration of the Soul and Divine Inspiration. Its philosophy and practices appear in the works of early Hermetists and the teachings of the Neoplatonic schools of Alexandria, Apamea, and Athens in Late Antiquity. According to its initiates, the father-figure of the Tradition is Hermes Trismegistus.
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In Talmudic and Gaonic times, rabbinic mysticism focused around exegesis of Ezekiel's vision of the divine Chariot- Throne, and meditative introspective ascent into the heavenly chambers. This elite practical mysticism, as described in the esoteric Hekhalot literature, incorporated and merged into magical incantation elements. The Talmud and Midrash refer to this as "using the Divine Name" for theurgic-practical ascent, as in the story of the Ten Martyrs who enquired in Heaven of the decree. In the Hekhalot literature, angels guarding each level are meditatively bound by formulae and seals to allow entry.
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The Midrash and Talmud are replete with the use of names of God and incantations that are claimed to effect supernatural or theurgic results. Most post-Talmudic rabbinical literature seeks to curb the use of any or most of these formulae, termed Kabbalah Ma'asit ("practical Kabbalah"). There are various arguments for this; one stated by the Medieval Rabbi Yaakov ben Moshe Levi Moelin is that the person using it may lack the required grounding, and the ritual would be ineffective. Yet the interest in these rituals of power continued largely unabated until recently.
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With the decline of Christian Cabala in the Age of Reason, Hermetic Qabalah continued as a central underground tradition in Western esotericism. Through these non-Jewish associations with magic, alchemy and divination, Kabbalah acquired some popular occult connotations forbidden within Judaism, where Jewish theurgic Practical Kabbalah was a minor, permitted tradition restricted for a few elite. Today, many publications on Kabbalah belong to the non-Jewish New Age and occult traditions of Cabala, rather than giving an accurate picture of Judaic Kabbalah.The Jewish Religion: A Companion, Louis Jacobs, Oxford University Press 1995.
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With this, what Campion calls, 'the innovative energy' in astrology moved west to the Hellenistic world of Greece and Egypt.Campion (2008) p. 84. According to Campion, the astrology that arrived from the East was marked by its complexity, with different forms of astrology emerging. By the 1st century BCE two varieties of astrology were in existence, one that required the reading of horoscopes in order to establish precise details about the past, present and future, the other being theurgic, meaning literally 'god-work', and emphasised the soul's ascent to the stars.
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The Hechalot text Merkavah Rabbah requires one to suck on a myrtle leaves as an element of a theurgic ritual. Kabbalists link myrtle to the sefirah of Tiferet and use sprigs in their Shabbat (especially Havdalah) rites to draw down its harmonizing power as the week is initiated (Shab. 33a; Zohar Chadash, SoS, 64d; Sha’ar ha-Kavvanot, 2, pp. 73–76).List of plants in the Bible Myrtle leaves were added to the water in the last (7th) rinsing of the head in the traditional Sephardic tahara manual (teaching the ritual for washing the dead).
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Instead, the tradition of Meditative Kabbalah has similarity of aim, if not form, with usual traditions of general mysticism; to unite the individual intuitively with God. The tradition of theurgic Practical Kabbalah in Judaism, censored and restricted by mainstream Jewish Kabbalists, has similarities with non- Jewish Hermetic Qabalah magical Western Esotericism. However, as understood by Jewish Kabbalists, it is censored and forgotten in contemporary times because without the requisite purity and holy motive, it would degenerate into impure and forbidden magic. Consequently, it has formed a minor tradition in Jewish mystical history.
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The esoteric teachings of kabbalah gave the traditional mitzvot observances the central role in spiritual creation, whether the practitioner was learned in this knowledge or not. Accompanying normative Jewish observance and worship with elite mystical kavanot intentions gave them theurgic power, but sincere observance by common folk, especially in the Hasidic popularisation of kabbalah, could replace esoteric abilities. Many kabbalists were also leading legal figures in Judaism, such as Nachmanides and Joseph Karo. Medieval kabbalah elaborates particular reasons for each Biblical mitzvah, and their role in harmonising the supernal divine flow, uniting masculine and feminine forces on High.
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Comminicating the Infinite: The emergence of the Habad school, Naftali Loewenthal, University of Chicago Press In this, as in the different Polish Peshischa-Kotzk school that stressed personal autonomy, the main role of the Tzadik was as teacher in Habad, or mentor in Peshischa. The most extreme form of Mainstream Tzadikism, sometimes opposed by other Hasidic leaders, was embodied in "Wonder-working" Rebbes, for whom Divine channelling of blessing through theurgic practice became central, at the expense of Torah teaching. Hasidism developed the customs of Tish (gathering), Kvitel (request) and Yechidut (private audience) in the conduct of the Tzadik.
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The Zohar speaks of two types of Yichudim in general, a Yichud Mah u Ban and a Yichud Ava. These divine names derive from esoteric expansions of the Tetragrammaton, representing different supernal forces. Kabbalistic theosophy explores the esoteric function of Yichudim in the unfolding creation of the spiritual realms, while meditative Kabbalah experiences and influences these supernal forces through the human psyche, as mystical Kavanot intentions during prayer, Jewish observance, or isolated practice. Kabbalistic doctrine sees unifications in the divine realm among the sephirot, and between God and lower creation, as the theurgic restorative task of man.
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Baalei Shem were seen as miracle workers who could bring about cures and healing, in addition to mystical powers that allowed them to foresee or interpret events and personalities. They were considered to have a "direct line" to Heaven, evoking God's mercies and compassion on suffering human beings. In Jewish society, the practical theurgic role of Baalei Shem among the common folk was a mystical institution, contrasted with the more theosophical and ecstatic Kabbalistic study circles, which were isolated from the populace. The Baal Shem, the communal maggid preacher and the mokhiakh (מוֹכִיחַ/preacher) of penitence were seen as lower level unofficial Jewish intelligentsia, below contract rabbis and study Kabbalists.
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A tradition of parapsychology abilities, psychic knowledge, and theurgic intercessions in heaven for the community is recounted in the hagiographic works Praises of the Ari, Praises of the Besht, and in many other Kabbalistic and Hasidic tales. Kabbalistic and Hasidic texts are concerned to apply themselves from exegesis and theory to spiritual practice, including prophetic drawing of new mystical revelations in Torah. The mythological symbols Kabbalah uses to answer philosophical questions, themselves invite mystical contemplation, intuitive apprehension and psychological engagement.In Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, First lecture: General Characteristics of Jewish Mysticism, Gershom Scholem discusses the difference between symbolism used by Kabbalah, and allegory used by Philosophy.
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Rabbi Abraham Eleazar demonstrating the alchemical process of distillation through symbolism, 1760 Despite Maimonides' denunciation of Hermetism, Jewish scholars in the Renaissance struggled to reconcile his beliefs with those of the proponents of Hermetic thought within Judaism. Renaissance scholars argued that the rationalism of Maimonides drew upon the prisca sapienta that had both Mosaic and Hermetic origins and that Abraham ibn Ezra's Commentary on the Pentateuch was evidence that they shared the same views on the relationship between religion and science. However, scholars such as Averroist Elijah del Medigo carried on Maimonides' crusade. Medigo claimed that the theurgic practices of Hermetism were against the teachings of the Torah.
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In the present day, necromancy is more generally used as a term to describe manipulation of death and the dead, or the pretense thereof, often facilitated through the use of ritual magic or some other kind of occult ceremony. Contemporary séances, channeling and Spiritualism verge on necromancy when supposedly invoked spirits are asked to reveal future events or secret information. Necromancy may also be presented as sciomancy, a branch of theurgic magic. Because of their themes of spirit contact, the long-running show Supernatural Chicago and the annual Harry Houdini séance, both of which are held at the Excalibur nightclub in Chicago, Illinois, dub their lead performer "Neil Tobin, Necromancer".
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Greek initiates were strongly present in Alexandria, in the latest period of Egyptian history known as the Ptolemaic period. They brought with them the Greek initiatic system of the Mysteries, which was then incorporated by the ancient Egyptian priests into their traditions, thereby giving a new, coherent structure to the same. According to Ordo Aurum Solis and its initiates, this was the real birth of the Hermetic Theurgic Tradition, later to be known as the Ogdoadic Tradition, or Ordo Aurum Solis. As Sumerian and Egyptian magic also found their place in the clear system of the ancient Greek Mysteries, the Western initiatic tradition was born.
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He lived in Athens as a vegetarian bachelor, prosperous and generous to his friends, until the end of his life, except for a voluntary one-year exile, which was designed to lessen the pressure put on him by his political-philosophical activity, little appreciated by the Christian rulers; he spent the exile traveling and being initiated into various mystery cults. He was also instructed in the "theurgic" Neoplatonism, as derived from the Orphic and Chaldean Oracles. His house has been discovered recently in Athens, under the pavement of Dionysiou Areopagitou Street, south of Acropolis, opposite the theater of Dionysus. He had a great devotion to the goddess Athena, who he believed guided him at key moments in his life.
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Adam prevaricated himself and fell into the very prison he was to contain, becoming a physical and mortal being, and was so thus forced to try to save both himself and the original creation. It can be done via inner perfection with the help of Christ, but also by the theurgic operations that Martinez taught to the men of desire he found worthy of receiving his initiation. Through these rites, the disciple is to enter into relations with angelic entities that appear in the operations as passes. These are to appear mostly in the form of characters or hieroglyphs of spirits invoked by the operator, as proofs that he is on the proper way of reintegration.
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The book was edited by Joseph Campbell and Charles Muses. Each contributed a chapter to the book along with Riane Eisler and Marija Gimbutas. The title of Muses chapter is, The Ageless Way of Goddess: Divine Pregnancy and Higher Birth in Ancient Egypt and China. On pages 136–137, he states, “Similarly, the ancient theurgic doctrine taught that in the dim and mysterious recesses of each human brain are lodged the control centers for transducing a higher metamorphic process in that individual, of which the butterfly, wonderful as it is, is but a crude and imperfect analogue... The acquisition of a higher body by an individual meant also, by that very token, the possibility of communicating with beings already so endowed.
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Blavatsky writes that, "according to lexicographers, the term theosophia is composed of two Greek words—theos "god," and sophos "wise." She then writes that Noah Webster defines it as "a supposed intercourse with God and superior spirits, and consequent attainment of superhuman knowledge, by physical processes, as by the theurgic operations of some ancient Platonists, or by the chemical processes of the German fire-philosophers." Professor James Santucci wrote that the article author considers this interpretation unsuccessful, calling it "a poor and flippant explanation." In hers opinion, Robert Vaughan has proposed "a far better, more philosophical" definition: "A Theosophist is one who gives you a theory of God or the works of God, which has not revelation, but an inspiration of his own for its basis.
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Corresponding with the traditional words of prayer, the Kabbalist intentionally contemplates each Divine Name sephirot channel with theurgic Kavanot meditations to open the Divine flow so prayer supplication to God's hidden innermost Will (concealed within the innermost dimensions of the first sephirah Keter, where it merges into the Ein Sof) is optimised, as the traditional prayer relates, "May it be Your Will that... your Kindness overrides Judgment" etc. Aryeh Kaplan described what he termed "meditative kabbalah", shared across academic divisions between Theosophical and Ecstatic Kabbalists,Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, Gershom Scholem, Schocken, originally published 1941. Chapter on the Ecstatic Kabbalah of Abraham Abulafia sharply distinguishes it from Theosophical Kabbalah embodied in the Zohar as a midpoint on the spectrum between "practical kabbalah" and "theoretical kabbalah".
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Contemporary with the Zoharic efflorescence of Spanish Theosophical-Theurgic Kabbalah, Spanish exilarch Abraham Abulafia developed his own alternative, Maimonidean system of Ecstatic-Prophetic Kabbalah meditation, each consolidating aspects of a claimed inherited mystical tradition from Biblical times.Aryeh Kaplan, Meditation and the Bible and Meditation and Kabbalah, Samuel Weiser Books This was the classic time when various different interpretations of an esoteric meaning to Torah were articulated among Jewish thinkers.Concealment and Revelation: Esotericism in Jewish Thought and its Philosophical Implications, Moshe Halbertal, Princeton University Press 2007 Abulafia interpreted Theosophical Kabbalah's Sephirot Divine attributes, not as supernal hypostases which he opposed, but in psychological terms. Instead of influencing harmony in the divine real by theurgy, his meditative scheme aimed for mystical union with God, drawing down prophetic influx on the individual.
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Hierocles, Hellenistic Astrology, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy For the same reason, he opposed theurgic and magic practices as they were attempts to supersede the divine providential order. Although he never mentions Christianity in his surviving works, his writings have been taken as an attempt at reconciliation between Greek religion traditions and the Christian beliefs he may have encountered in Constantinople. The collection of some 260 witticisms attributed to Hierocles and Philagrius, the Philogelos, has no connection with Hierocles of Alexandria, but is probably a compilation of later date, founded on two older collections. It is now agreed that the fragments of the Elements of Ethics preserved in Stobaeus are from a work by a Stoic named Hierocles, contemporary of Epictetus, who has been identified with the "Hierocles Stoicus vir sanctus et gravis" in Aulus Gellius (ix. 5. 8).
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The Great Star, official seal of Ordo Aurum Solis Ordo Aurum Solis ("Order of the Gold of the Sun") is a Hermetic and Theurgic order founded in England in 1897 by George Stanton and Charles Kingold. It is a vehicle of the Ogdoadic Tradition, itself an important element of the Western Mystery Tradition. Ordo Aurum Solis is best known through the published works of two of its past Grand Masters, Vivian Godfrey and Leon Barcynski. Better known by their pseudonyms, Melita Denning and Osborne Phillips, the husband and wife team together authored many books (some reappearing in newer editions) that cover different aspects of magical practice, such as the Llewellyn Practical Guide to Astral Projection and Llewellyn Practical Guide to Creative Visualization, as well as their seminal work (reprinted in three volumes) outlining the philosophy and practices of Ordo Aurum Solis: The Magical Philosophy.
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Jean-Baptiste Willermoz Jean-Baptiste Willermoz (born 1730, Lyon, France; died 1824 also at Lyon), was initiated into Masonry at the age of 20 in a lodge which operated under the auspices of the Strict Observance. He was initiated into the Elus-Cohen in 1767, eventually attaining the highest degree of the Order, and being named by de Pasqually as a "Superior Judge," one of its most senior officers. Concerned about dissent in the order after the death of de Pasqually, Willermoz in 1778, together with two other Superior Judges, formulated the idea of creating two additional degrees for the Auvergne Province of the Strict Observance, which exemplified the philosophy, though not the theurgic practices, of the Elus-Cohens, while working in the Knight Templar-oriented milieu of the masonic rite. The name of the rite was changed to Chevaliers Beneficient de la Cité-Sainte (CBCS).
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However, as mitzvot are the primary centre of traditional Judaism, Giller sees Jewish prayer, rather than classic meditation akin to Eastern Religions, as the true central expression of Judaism. Theosophical Kabbalists and later Hasidism were deeply concerned to develop mystical approaches to prayer, whether theurgic in the case of Kabbalah, or devotional and self-nullifying in the case of Hasidism.Kabbalah - A Guide for the Perplexed, Pinchas Giller, Continuum 2011, chapter on Kabbalah and Meditation In contrast to rationalist Jewish philosophy's progressively anti- metaphysical interpretation of Jewish observance, Theosophical Kabbalists reinterpreted Judaism's prayer and mitzvot as cosmic metaphysical processes, especially when carried out in particular ways that could channel the mystical flow between the Divine sephirot on high and from the divine realm to this world. They reinterpreted standard Jewish liturgy by reading it as esoteric mystical meditations and the ascent of the soul for elite practitioners.
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From the 1730s, the Baal Shem Tov headed an elite theurgic mystical circle, similar to other secluded Kabbalistic circles such as the contemporary Klaus (Close) in Brody, but with the innovative difference to use their psychic heavenly intercession abilities on behalf of the common Jewish populace. From the legendary hagiography of the Baal Shem Tov as one who bridged elite mysticism with deep social concern, and from his leading disciples, Hasidism rapidly grew into a populist revival movement. Central, and most distinctively innovative, in Hasidic thought was its new doctrine of the Hasidic tzadik, which replaced the former Tzadikim Nistarim private pietists and Baal Shem Practical Kabbalists in Eastern Europe. As doctrine coalesced in writing from the 1780s, Jacob Joseph of Polonne, Dov Ber of Mezeritch, Elimelech of Lizhensk, Yaakov Yitzchak of Lublin and others shaped Hasidic views of the tzadik, whose task is to awaken and draw down the flow of divine blessing to the spiritual and material needs of the community and individual common folk.
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Emanating from many modern interpretations lies a trail of misconceptions about magic, one of the largest revolving around wickedness or the existence of nefarious beings who practice it. These misinterpretations stem from numerous acts or rituals that have been performed throughout antiquity, and due to their exoticism from the commoner's perspective, the rituals invoked uneasiness and an even stronger sense of dismissal. An excerpt from Sefer Raziel HaMalakh, featuring various magical sigils (סגולות segulot in Hebrew) In the Medieval Jewish view, the separation of the mystical and magical elements of Kabbalah, dividing it into speculative theological Kabbalah (Kabbalah Iyyunit) with its meditative traditions, and theurgic practical Kabbalah (Kabbalah Ma'asit), had occurred by the beginning of the 14th century. One societal force in the Middle Ages more powerful than the singular commoner, the Christian Church, rejected magic as a whole because it was viewed as a means of tampering with the natural world in a supernatural manner associated with the biblical verses of Deuteronomy 18:9-12.
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In their visions, these mystics would enter into the celestial realms and journey through the seven stages of mystical ascent: the Seven Heavens and seven throne rooms. Such a journey is fraught with great danger, and the adept must not only have made elaborate purification preparation, but must also know the proper incantations, seals and angelic names needed to get past the fierce angelic guards, as well as know how to navigate the various forces at work inside and outside the palaces. This heavenly ascent is accomplished by the recital of hymns, as well as the theurgic use of secret names of God which abound in the Hekhalot literature. The Hekalot Zutarti in particular is concerned with the secret names of God and their powers: At times, heavenly interlocutors will reveal divine secrets. In some texts, the mystic’s interest extends to the heavenly music and liturgy, usually connected with the angelic adorations mentioned in Isaiah 6:3.
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He joined the German Order of Strict Templar Observance in 1773, the order was reformed by Willermoz under a new name, the Order of Knights Beneficent of the Holy City, which combined Templar Freemasonry with the ceremonial of the Élus Coëns. Meanwhile, Louis Claude de Saint-Martin had renounced Freemasonry and the theurgy used by Élus Coëns. By judging these methods of angelic evocation to be unreliable and even dangerous, he chose to take another path, what he called ‘The Way of the Heart’ to attain the Reintegration, the inward contemplation that opposes the exterior theurgic ritual. At the end of the 19th century, various occultist currents reclaimed Martinez de Pasqually—among them, the Ordre de la Rose- Croix catholique du Temple et du Graal—founded in 1890 by Joséphin Péladan, which claimed to fight against the ‘Latin Decadence’ by the return to the religion of the ‘Art God’ and an imperial theocracy. The order was revived by Robert Ambelain in 1942 (under the name ) on the basis of a few rare documents, among them, the most well-known one is the Manuscrit d’Alger discovered by Ambelain himself, currently preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
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