Chaldæan Oracles
The Dial, Vol. IV, No. IV (April 1844)
The Chaldean Oracles are fragmentary texts from the 2nd century CE, attributed to Julian the Theurgist and his father. They blend Platonic philosophy with mystical practices and became central to late Neoplatonism and theurgic ritual.
The following appeared in The Dial, Vol. IV, No. IV (April 1844)
There is a certain Intelligible which it behooves thee to understand with the flower of mind.
The Father perfected all things, and delivered them to the Second Mind.
All things are governed in the bosoms of this Triad.
The Father snatched away Himself, and did not inclose His own Fire in His intellectual power.
All things have issued from this one Fire.
For from Him leap forth all things.
For the Fire which is first beyond, did not inclose its Power in Matter by works, but by Mind.
For the Paternal Mind sowed symbols in souls.
Filling the soul with profound love.
The Mind of the Father riding on the attenuated rulers, they glitter with the tracings of inflexible and implacable Fire.
Who first sprang from Mind, clothing the one Fire with the other Fire, binding them together, that he might mingle the fountainous craters, while preserving unsullied the brilliance of His own Fire.
Such is the Mind which is generated from the Father, of an energetic fire.
And thence a fiery whirlwind drawing down the brilliance of the flashing flame, penetrating the abysses of the universe: for thence downward do all extend their wondrous rays.
For the eternal Ether permeates all things.
For Ether hath bound them together with a Centre.
In every world there shines a Triad, of which a Monad is the source.
Who knows himself, knows all things in himself.
But the Paternal Mind admits not the aspiration of soul, until she has gone forth from oblivion.
But God is never so much turned away from man, and never so much sends him new paths, as when he makes ascent to divine speculations or works in a confused or disordered manner, and, as they say, with unhallowed lips.
Things divine are not attainable by mortals who understand body, but only by those who stripped arrive at the summit.
Armed by arms of sounding light.
Exploring the recesses of fire.
Mortal approaching to fire will receive a light from divinity.
Let the immortal depth of soul be predominant, and all thine eyes extend upwards.
Direct not thy mind to the vast surfaces of the earth; for the plant of truth grows not upon ground.
But hastening to the light, and to the Father's beams, thence thou mayst draw a soul rich in Intellect.
If thou often invokest it, thou wilt see all things in a lion-form.
For neither will the convex bulk of heaven be then seen, nor will the stars shine; and the light of the moon shall be hid, and the earth shall not stand fast; but all things will be seen in the form of lightning.
For nothing imperfect wheels around the paternal abysses.
If thou extend the fiery mind to the work of piety, thou wilt preserve the flowing body.
For not in matter did the paternal mind enclose fire.
Nature persuades us that there are pure dæmons.
And the blossoms of the fire of evil matter are also serviceable to thee.
Enlarge not thy destiny.
The soul of man will clasp God closely to itself, having nothing mortal, it is wholly intoxicated from God. For it glories in the harmony under which the mortal body subsists.
The blessed sleep of mortals.
Stoop not down, for a precipice lies below the earth, drawing under a descent of seven steps beneath which is the throne of dire necessity.
Editorial Note. The text and accompanying audio above present selected passages from this installment as published in The Dial. The complete selection as it appeared in The Dial can be read through the Walden Woods Project.