So I read further in to the book "Magic in the Ancient World" into the first chapter. Yeah first chapter. This crazy cold (or at least I'm blaming it on that) has my brain in a fog. I was able to understand that the Romans pretty much took the same definition of magi to mean those Persian priests.
And.... that's all I got. The book is SOOOO hard to read. The words drone on together in what seems to be just a repetitive bunch of nothingness. I couldn't take it any longer. I pulled out a sticky note, closed my composition book and set it aside. I am defeated. I'll try to go back to it later on but for now dear Fritz, you have defeated me.
I'm so glad I have three other books to take the place of this one. Today I started on Hekate Soteira by Sarah Iles Johnston. This book looks at Hecate as the Cosmic Soul in the Chaldean system. I'm on page 18 thus far and it seems to be a bit smoother of a read. Up to this point I've looked up what cosmic soul is and what the thought behind the Chaldean Oracles is. Basically what I'm getting so far is that this group believed that all souls came from one soul. That one soul was divided up by a mathematical formula. There was the God, which was absolute power or intelligence and then the realms below.
The intelligence created or provided the seed to the next realm or barrier which was called Hecate. Hecate took the seed and passed it to the next realm or Demiurge , and because of being the receiver of that seed, Hecate is referred to as the world mother.
I would love to find a book that could break it down in plain English, but thus far, I'm not finding anything related to Cosmic Soul for Dummies or Absolutely Everything about Chaldean Oracles.
Wish me luck,
Blessings
Sosanna
)O(
Showing posts with label fritz. Show all posts
Magic in the Ancient World - 1
October 8, 2013
Chapter 2 – Naming the Sorcerer
For the most part, as I mentioned chapter 1 reads like
stereo instructions. I had a hard time
following the sentence structure and felt lost for the most part.
As chapter 2 started, I felt a bit more in line with the
writer. The author, Fritz Graf starts
out chapter 2 with a definition. He
states that a Magos or Magus is a priest or religious specialist. He goes on to refer to various historical
texts that use the words Magos/Magus/Magi as well as the word Magic or
Magia/Mageia
.
Magi are referred to as everything from “Experts in the Gods”
to “Men on the fringes of Society”. At
one point in the chapter in a reference to Plato’s Republic they are referred
to as men who “Will harm good men or bad for a price.” And as “Charlatans” who
trained in the art of deception and have power based on illusion.
Looking at the changes in the term, we can see that either
training in the fields of science increased or revile for those that spoke of
the gods occurred.
Going into this book I had a set idea of what magic is and
what a magus is. I had heard the term
Magi and was familiar with the Jesus birth and how gifts were presented to the
Christ child by the Magi. It was not until
today that I learned that basically Magi means, a priest of ancient
Persia. To me, magic is an energy that
is available for all to access. Priest, sorcerer
or not. Just as the word pagan changed
from yokel to heathen, I believe the same thing appeared to happen to words
related to magic.
I've just started on page 36 of the book, subtitled – The Roman
World. Looking forward to see what’s in
store.
As they say, when in Rome.
Blessings
Sosanna
)O(
Labels:
fritz,
magi,
magic,
Pagan,
PaganBlogProject,
priest,
torchbearer
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
