Church of Theurgy
كنيسة الثيورجية
You should consider Theurgy if…
…you’ve ever had the impression that “all things are connected.”
…you believe in the divine, but have yet to find a belief system that “makes sense” or “works.”
…you enjoy or aspire to meditative prayer.
…you feel connected to, have had, or want to have religious experiences in regard to ancient indigenous Eastern Mediterranean religion.
…you want to practice an ancient religion indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean, that has a full system of beliefs which are straight from the minds of ancient writers themselves, with no involvement, assertions, or opinions from modern historians or archeologists.
…you want to be completely respectful to the various peoples to whom these traditions are an essential and inalienable part of their history and identity.
…you have read our “About Us” page and can see yourself aligning with these values.
…you have read my freely available introductory book, “Theurgy: A Guide.”
These are points of interest and entryways into Theurgy, but the goal of Theurgy is always the pursuit of henosis, or the realization of the soul’s mystic and immaterial union with the One.
Philosophy
The philosophical core of theurgy is the school of Neoplatonism. It provides us insight into metaphysics, virtue, and the nature of the divine. This is essential to understanding one's own religious work, since it is through the Near Eastern sages of this school that we understand henosis, the chief goal of every theurgist.
We have created a curriculum and series of lessons for our members to help them create their own theurgical praxes. The purpose of this course is to learn the theory of worship, so that the practitioner completely understands the rationale behind each of his religious activities before he begins to practice them. The following are the main texts that we used to construct our curriculum:
Theurgy
Participating in theurgy means completing rites of worship and prayer, involving various materials including iconography, food and drink, symbolic offerings, incense and candles, ritual body movements, hymns and other recitations, music, a silent, meditative prayer. More information can be found on the “Theurgy” page.
Material rites
Use material offerings in prayer. The purpose of these materials is to be the initiatory step on Diotima’s Ladder. They prepare the soul to be attentive to the divine, and operate as sunthemata (material tokens and symbols which are "sealed" by the gods and when invoked, help us identify and befriend the gods) in prayer. Here are some examples of material offerings, any one of which counts towards "participating materially:"
Iconography.
Food, drink, or symbolic offerings.
Incense or candles.
Ritual body movements.
Mindful rites
Use immaterial offerings in prayer. The purpose of these immaterial offerings is intellectual. They engage the mind in worship and are the actively "imitative" part of worship. Here are some examples of immaterial offerings, any one of which counts towards "participating mindfully:"
Reciting hymns, prayers, or myths.
Music or chanting.
Invocation of religious symbols.
Unitive rites
Engage in a meditative, silent prayer. The purpose of a meditative, silent prayer is to mimic the cause of unity, the One. Silence is the expression of completed philosophy, completed thought, completed dialectic, and the resolution of the mind. Different styles of meditation are all appropriate, whether they are guided by breath, mantra, or other meditative focuses, so long as outward silence is maintained. We have developed our own meditative prayer we call “The Silent Prayer.” The elements this meditative prayer requires are as follows:
Visualizing aspects of a central deity.
Repeating the deity’s name or epithets along with an “elevating phrase” in one’s mind.
Incorporating a physical movement or tactile engagement to affect an emotional, intuitive, or otherwise experiential result.
Liturgical Language
Use a liturgical language, reserved for formal prayers, songs, or other performative, spoken forms of worship. The point of using a liturgical language is to elevate one’s experience in prayer and help make prayer transformative for the soul. It is by using a sacred language that we “elevate” above mundane language , which aids us in achieving the soul’s ascent. Language invoked in rite mimics God’s cosmogenic word or Logos. The liturgical languages that exist in the Near East today are ancestors of their original languages and retain powers of soul or animation. Indeed, they are still used liturgically by other religions. Being fluent in a liturgical language is not necessary. You need only know how to pronounce the words being used. These include:
Classical Syriac
Bohairic Coptic
Classical Arabic
Ge’ez
Classical Hebrew
Koine Greek
Ecclesiastical Latin
Demiurgy
Engage in a devotional activity outside of prayer, wherein you struggle to create beauty. This activity must be productive in some way, while also retaining religious significance and usage. All arts, sciences, and disciplines can be made devotional. The following is a general step-by-step on how to make a skill, craft, or discipline “demiurgical.” More information can be found on the “Demiurgy” page.
Discern your patron god. Reflect on which deity’s seira resonates with your natural gifts and interests. Determine a set of arts, skills, or disciplines that you can develop. These will change over time, with new ones added when insight allows and old ones falling away when you have outgrown them. See the arts, skills, or disciplines you practice as a way of pursuing likeness to your patron god. Prepare to transform your practice into a type of prayer.
Purify intention. Commit to the four virtues so your work carries no “noise in matter.” Examine habits and beliefs, and change them to prepare for work.
Gear up. Get the appropriate supplies and make other preparations to meaningfully engage in practice.
Attain a basic level of competence. The goal is to get to some level of autonomy, independence, and creativity in your practice.
Establish a consistent schedule. Practice your choice of activity. Do so with ethics and morality in mind—accept “self-unity” as a core principle by which you proceed toward excellence.
Establish practical goals for yourself. How do you become meaningfully better and more knowledgeable in this practice? What instructional or helpful reading materials can you obtain, and how will you use that knowledge to inform your practice? Can you find a teacher, tutor, or a cohort?
Be mindful of God while working. Contemplate how the god’s series operates in your practice. What symbolic or unifying connections can you make between your work and the cosmogenic work of the gods? Remember that the struggle to create something beautiful is the struggle to “know thyself.” Your work is not for the approval of others, but for God’s approval.
Transfer your experience in prayer to your activity. When you experience feelings of excellence and unity, embrace them. If you don’t experience those things, learn to see them in your activity and choose to open your heart to your potential for excellence.
Produce and share. Create finished products to share, critique, collect, and represent real progress. Create the parameters for yourself of what “completion” of one work entails.
Let the gods work through you. Trust your creative intuition.