UA-digest Digest V99 #28

[Clint Staples]

Re: Earl Wajenburg's '-mancy vs. -urgy' debate. A little background on
'Theurgy'.

Before we get started, I think Urbanomancy works just fine. Within the
world of UA, who named the school? A classics scholar, fully versed in
Greek and Latin? Maybe. Or someone who, like most of us (me worsat of
all), knows just enough Greek and Latin to get myself into trouble. And
once the name is applied, it'll stick no matter what get's done (short
of a Grammaturge changing the name as a power play against the
city-mages. Although I guess a Grammaturge would have to change his/her
own name or risk reprisals from the Geriaturgists. Sorry).

Theurgy

The term 'Theurgy' as I understand it is not what you could really call
'White magic'. Theurgy referred originally to the experiential cults of
a number of the mystery religions of the Hellenistic and
post-Hellenistic world. The best known is probably that of Mithras, but
the cults if Isis and Osiris, Attis and Cybele, the Dionysiacs and a
bunch of lesser ones all revolved around the use of various
magico-religious formulae that allowed the initiate to directly contact
the divine. The cults were often ecstatic, allowing the contacted deity
to enter the body of the initiate, but at the very least focusing on the
'rush' of immediate contact with the divine. The experience was  often
heightened through the use of drugs and hallucingens. 

Having said that, I take your use of the term 'white magic' to refer to
some sort of ethical orientation on the part of the worshippers that we
can see as essentially positive and beneficial. This is not really the
case for most of the recorded mystery cults and their members. The
experience seems to have been a very personal one and ultimately a
private one as well. With very few exceptions the point of the
initiation experience was to curry the favour of the god, or perhaps to
seek knowlege of the future for personal benefit. Ultimately, the goal
of the various mystery religions was personal salvation through
initiation.

If you are using 'white magic' to refer to the ritual practices of the
mystery cults, say in opposition to the 'unclean rites' traditionally
associated with demon worship, it should be remembered that many of the
practices so associated with devil worship are common to the mystery
cults. For example, Mithraic initiation involved the slaughter of bulls
and goats, and in all likelihood the bathing in and consumption of their
blood.  Initiates of Attis and Cybele symbolically, and often actually,
castrated themselves. Many of these cults were directly opposed by
Christian theologians of the time because they were thought to pervert
the sacrament. Several of the rituals that have been preserved in these
cults involve a ceremony very much like the bread and wine of Christan
worship. Idols of the god or goddess in question were found in just
about every mystery temple known, as many of the rituals were intended
to animate an idol with the presence of the diety.

Finally, The OED states that Theurgy did become associated with 'white
magic', but only in late medieval times. The OED also has the term for
'black magic' in this context as 'Goety' (medieval Latin - 'to wail,
cry', but it became an epithet for sorcery).

Sorry, that post got away on me a bit.

Clint Staples

> 
> While we're on the subject of etymology in the names of
> magic schools, here's a nit: "-mancy" is for forms of divination,
> so that "necromancy" is primarily getting information from
> the dead.  If a school of magic is primarily for DOING stuff,
> the ending root should probably be "-urgy," from "ergos," work.
> "Theurgy" is "god-work," a fancy name for "white magic," and
> "thaumaturgy" is "wonder-working," a fancy synonynm for magic
> in general.  "Demonurgy" is "devil-work," black magic.