An extraordinary collection of genuine ancient fragments of teaching literally handed from the gods to the ‘theurgists’ or magicians of old.

According to the Chaldean Oracles, the theurgist receives help from the goddess Hecate, the central figure of the whole system, who was later considered the goddess of magic and witchcraft for centuries.

The Chaldean Oracles is a revealed wisdom text written in the second century of the Christian Era. They are attributed to Julian the Theurgist and his father, Julian the Chaldean. Julian the Theurgist served in the Roman army during the Marcus Aurelius’ campaign against the Quadi, a Germanic tribe. It is claimed that during a severe drought, Julian caused a rainstorm which saved the expeditionary forces.

The circumstances surrounding the writing of the Chaldean Oracles are mysterious, some regard them as direct utterances from the mouths of the deities including Hecate, possibly a trance medium or child was used, the most likely explanation being that Julian uttered them after inducing a sort of trance in himself akin to that of an oracle.

The Chaldean Oracles have a large amount of Hellenistic syncretistic elements, more precisely Alexandrian; as practiced in the cultural melting-pot city that was Egypto-Greek Alexandria, and were credited with embodying many of the principal features of a “Chaldean philosophy”. They were held in the greatest esteem throughout Late Antiquity, with Iamblichus writing a now lost thirty-volume commentary on the Chaldean Oracles and Julian the Philosopher being well-versed in their teachings.

There is much prior ancient knowledge that needs to be assimilated in these later Neo-Platonic magi, who worked from the premise that the ‘divine’ Plato had absorbed some of his philosophical knowledge from learned Persian magicians and Egyptian priests [Eg. Hem-Netjer “servant of god” or Kheri-Heb “lector priest” -the great magicians of Egypt].

The word ‘Theurgy’ (Greek: theourgia) is coined in the Chaldean Oracles. While the Julianii first use the word and develop its general use, it wasn’t until over a century later that theurgy was taken fully into Neo-Platonic religious practice.

The Chaldean Oracles survive only in these cryptic fragments, however they can be successfully pieced together and Professor Ruth Majercik has performed a great contribution to oriental and esoteric scholarship by amassing the appropriate Graeco-Latin literature that bears on the Oracula Chaldaica, transmitted to us in these ancient fragments.

She asserts the authors as the Julianii (father-son team), more specifically, the son. Her introduction removes much of the cobwebs in these oracular assertions.

There is much prior ancient magical knowledge that needs to be assimilated in these later neo-Platonic scholarchs and scholars, who worked from the premise that the ‘divine’ Plato had absorbed some of his philosophical knowledge from learned Persian magi [magicians] and Egyptian priests [Eg. Hem-Netjer “servant of god” or Kheri-Heb “lector priest” (the great magicians of Egypt)].