Within the philosophy and practice of Hermeticism it is taught that there are three parts of the wisdom of the whole universe. These three parts are Alchemy, Astrology, and Theurgy. Today I want to give a brief breakdown on my personal view of Theurgy.
Theurgy comes from Late Greek theourgia “a divine work, a miracle, magic, sorcery” and is historically identified as being “white magic”, in contrast to what is known as Goëtia or “black magic”. I personally don’t look at Theurgy this way as I don’t make a distinction between “white” and “black” magic. In my eyes, magick is magick but I do see Theurgy as a specific type of magick.
Theurgy is a type of magick that deals with perfecting the Self through the invocation of deities and the inner working of the archetypal energies they are associated with. If that sounds confusing what I mean is instead of using magick to acquire material or external things (like money spells), you use magick to cause change within you. To me this is the most important, most effective, and most lasting form of magick as it puts you in line with your True Will and the accomplishment of your “magnum opus” or “Great Work”.
Money spells and love spells are two hot topics people ask about a lot, and when it happens I shake my head because I understand it as coming from a place of lack – which is a feeling that any witch should rarely feel (almost never, but we are human). Using these two examples consider this:
- Instead of doing a money spell, receiving some fiat to pay your bills and luxuries, and then needing to do another money spell again once it’s all gone….do spells on yourself that attract abundance into your life so that abundance is always flowing towards you. You know (or you should know) enough about yourself where areas in your being can be worked on to clear any blockages that keeps abundance from coming to you. Abundance blockages are usually dealing with gratefulness and reciprocity. Are you thankful for the things that you already do have and do you utilize what you’ve been given properly?
- The same attitude can be used towards love spells. Instead of infringing on someone’s free will with a love spell (which is an entire topic deserving of its own post), do love spells on yourself. Make your heart space open and available to love while also loving yourself. When you radiate that love from within, that love will attract the people that are meant to be in your life as lovers and friends. You can also trust that that’s much more satisfying than trying to force someone to love you.
This is not to knock using magick for material gain, external change, or in whatever way you want to use magick. I’ll say again I truly don’t see magick as being “good”, “bad”, “black”, “white”, and I use a money spell here and there too. I’m just making a point that Theurgy has proven in my own life to be the most beneficial. It’s almost like the instant gratification vs long lasting satisfaction dichotomy.
Peace, Love, & Balance
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