“Behind the Lightning Mask: Theurgy in Late Antiquity” with Leonard George.
The roots of astrological magic lie in the ancient world. The vision of a cosmos and hypercosmos seething with hidden life and humming with occult links is found in revelations such as the Chaldean Oracles, and in the works of philosophers such as Plotinus, Iamblichus and Proclus. Based on these sources, theurgy (“divine action”) aligned human and divine intention, transforming the operator into a co-creator of the universe. The instrumental possibilities in this animate, hyperlinked, participatory reality foreshadow developments in magic such as are found in the Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm (Picatrix).