Charmed, I'm Sure: The Ethics Of Love Spells by Mike Nichols

Self-Identification with Deity  and Voces Magicae in Ancient Egyptian and Greek Magic , by Laurel Holmstrom

The God that Couldn't Be,  by Ian Elliott 

Dionysian Initiation, By Rosemarie Taylor-Perry, Author of The God Who Comes; Dionysian Mysteries Revisited

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Charmed, I'm Sure: The Ethics Of Love Spells

Mike Nichols

To gain the love of someone:

On a night of the full moon, walk to a spot beneath your beloved's bedroom window,

and whisper his/her name three times to the nightwind. --Ozark love spell

It seems to be an immutable law of nature. You are interviewed by a local radio or TV station, or in some local newspaper. The topic of the interview is Witchcraft or Paganism, and you spend the better part of an hour brilliantly articulating your beliefs, your devotion to Goddess and nature, the difference between Witchcraft and Satanism, and generally enlightening the public at large. The next day, you are flooded with calls. Is it people complimenting you on such a splendid interview? No. People wanting to find out more about the religion of Wicca? Huh-uh. People who are even vaguely interested in what you had to say??? Nope. Who is it? It's people asking you to do a love spell for them! This used to drive me nuts. I'd take a deep breath and patiently explain (for the thousandth time) why I won't even do love spells for myself, let alone anyone else. This generally resulted in my caller becoming either angry or defensive, but seldom more enlightened. "But don't you DO magic?", they ask. "Only occasionally," I answer. "And aren't most magic spells love spells?", they persist. That was the line I really hated, because I knew they were right! At least, if you look at the table of contents of most books on magic, you'll find more love spells than any other kind. This seems as true for the medieval grimoire as for the modern drugstore paperback. Why? Why so many books containing so many love spells? Why such an emphasis on a kind of magic that I, personally, have always considered very negative? And to make matters even more confusing, the books that do take the trouble of dividing spells between "positive" and "negative" magic invariably list love spells under the first heading. After all, they would argue, love is a good thing. There can never be too much of it. Therefore, any spell that brings about love must be a GOOD spell. Never mind that the spell puts a straightjacket on another's free will, and then drops it in cement for good measure. And that is why I had always assumed love magic to be negative magic. Years ago, one of the first things I learned as a novice Witch was something called the Witch's Rede, a kind of 'golden rule' in traditional Witchcraft. It states, "An it harm none, do what thou will." One uses this rede as a kind of ethical litmus test for a spell. If the spell brings harm to someone -- anyone (including yourself!) -- then don't do it! Unfortunately, this rule contains a loophole big enough to fly a broom through. It's commonly expressed, 'Oh, this won't HARM them; it's really for their own good.' When you hear someone say that, take cover, because something especially nasty is about to happen. That's why I had to develop my own version of the Witch's Rede. Mine says that if a spell harms anyone, OR LIMITS THEIR FREEDOM OF THOUGHT OR ACTION IN ANY WAY, then consider it negative, and don't do it. Pretty strict, you say? Perhaps. But there's another law in Witchcraft called the Law of Threefold Return. This says that whatever power you send out, eventually comes back to you three times more powerful. So I take no chances. And love spells, of the typical make-Bobby-love-me type, definitely have an impact on another's free will. So why are they so common? It's taken me years to make peace with this, but I think I finally understand. The plain truth is that most of us NEED love. Without it, our lives are empty and miserable. After our basic survival needs have been met, we must have affection and companionship for a full life. And if it will not come of its own accord, some of us may be tempted to FORCE it to come. And nothing can be as painful as loving someone who doesn't love you back. Consequently, the most common, garden-variety spell in the world is the love spell. Is there ever a way to do a love spell and yet stay within the parameters of the Witch's Rede? Possibly. Some teachers have argued that if a spell doesn't attempt to attract a SPECIFIC person into your life, but rather attempts to attract the RIGHT person, whomever that may be, then it is not negative magic. Even so, one should make sure that the spell finds people who are 'right' for each other -- so that neither is harmed, and both are made happy. Is there ever an excuse for the make-Bobby-love-me type of spell? Without endorsing this viewpoint, I must admit that the most cogent argument in its favor is the following: Whenever you fall in love with someone, you do everything in your power to impress them. You dress nicer, are more attentive, witty, and charming. And at the same time, you unconsciously set in motion some very powerful psychic forces. If you've ever walked into a room where someone has a crush on you, you know what I mean. You can FEEL it. Proponents of this school say that a love spell only takes the forces that are ALREADY there -- MUST be there if you're in love -- and channels them more efficiently. But the energy would be there just the same, whether or not you use a spell to focus it. I won't attempt to decide this one for you. People must arrive at their own set of ethics through their own considerations. However, I would call to your attention all the cautionary tales in folk magic about love spells gone awry. Also, if a love spell has been employed to join two people who are not naturally compatible, then one must keep pumping energy into the spell. And when one finally tires of this (and one will, because it is hard work!) then the spell will unravel amidst an emotional and psychic hurricane that will make the stormiest divorces seem calm by comparison. Not a pretty picture. It should be noted that many spells that pass themselves off as love spells are, in reality, sex spells. Not that there's anything surprising in that, since our most basic needs usually include sex. But I think we should be clear from the outset what kind of spell it is. And the same ethical standards used for love spells can often be applied to sex spells. Last year, the very quotable Isaac Bonewits, author of 'Real Magic', taught a sex magic class here at the Magick Lantern, and he tossed out the following rule of thumb: Decide what the mundane equivalent of your spell would be, and ask yourself if you could be arrested for it. For example, some spells are like sending a letter to your beloved in the mail, whereas other spells are tantamount to abduction. The former is perfectly legal and normal, whereas the latter is felonious. One mitigating factor in your decisions may be the particular tradition of magic you follow. For example, I've often noticed that practitioners of Voudoun (Voodoo) and Santeria seem much more focused on the wants and needs of day-to-day living than on the abstruse ethical considerations we've been examining here. That's not a value judgement -- just an observation. For example, most followers of Wicca STILL don't know how to react when a Santerian priest spills the blood of a chicken during a ritual -- other than to feel pretty queasy. The ethics of one culture is not always the same as another. And speaking of cultural traditions, another consideration is how a culture views love and sex. It has often been pointed out that in our predominant culture, love and sex are seen in very possessive terms, where the beloved is regarded as one's personal property. If the spell uses this approach, treating a person as an object, jealously attempting to cut off all other relationships, then the ethics are seriously in doubt. However, if the spell takes a more open approach to love and sex, not attempting to limit a person's other relationships in any way, then perhaps it is more defensible. Perhaps. Still, it might be wise to ask, "Is this the kind of spell I'd want someone to cast on me?" Love spells. Whether to do them or not. If you are a practitioner of magic, I dare say you will one day be faced with the choice. If you haven't yet, it is only a matter of time. And if the answer is yes, then which spells are ethical and which aren't? Then you, and only you, will have to decide whether 'All's fair in love and war', or whether there are other, higher, metaphysical considerations.

Document Copyright © 1988, 1998 by Mike Nichols

This document can be re-published only as long as no information is lost or changed, credit is given to the author, and it is provided or used without cost to others. Other uses of this document must be approved in writing by Mike Nichols. mike_nichols@geocities.com

Self-Identification with Deity
and Voces Magicae in Ancient Egyptian and Greek Magic

by Laurel Holmstrom

Occultists and esotericists, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn [1], have theorized that ancient Egyptian magic is a primary source for western magic practice and ideas. Since we know that the Hermetica and Neo-platonic theurgy have had a profound influence on later European magical traditions [2], an inquiry into possible relationships between Egyptian and Greek magical ideas would be useful in exploring the veracity of the occultists' claim. This paper focuses on one set of ancient texts, the Greek Magical Papyri, which offer considerable potential for investigating this relationship.

The PGM (Papryi Graecae Magicae) [3] is the name given to a cache of papryi of magical spells collected by Jean d'Anastaisi in early 1800s Egypt. Hans Deiter Betz, in his introduction to the newest English translation, speculates that these papyri may have been found in a tomb or temple library and the largest papyri may have been the collection of one man in Thebes.[4] However, the exact provenance for the PGM is unknown. Betz states that through literary sources it is known that quite a number of magical books of spells were collected in ancient times, most of which were destroyed.[5] Thus, the PGM are a very important source for firsthand information about magical practices in the ancient Mediterranean.

The PGM spells run the gamut of magical practices from initiatory rites for immortality to love spells and healing rites. Most of the papyri are in Greek and Demotic with glosses in Old Coptic and are dated between the 2nd century BC and the 5th century AD. The spells call upon Greek, Egyptian, Jewish, Gnostic and Christian deities.

Two of the most intriguing aspects of these texts are the practice of self-identification with deity and the use of voces magicae in performing magical rituals. In many of the spells, the practitioner is told to use "I am" with a specific deity name to empower or work the spell. PGM I 247-62, a spell for invisibility, states `I am Anubis, I am Osir-phre, I am OSOT SORONOUIIER, I am Osiris whom Seth destroyed. ."[6] The use of specific magical language in these texts, the voces magicae, is abundant. Most of these words are considered "untranslatable" by the scholars working with the papyri [7]. Words of power in the incantations are composed of long strings of vowels, A EE EEE IIII OOOOO, YYYYYY, OOOOOOO, alone or with special names of deities or daimons which are often palindromes and significantly lengthy as in IAEOBAPHRENEMOUNOTHILARIKRIPHIAEYEAIPIRKIRALITHONUOMENERPHABOEAI. [8] The exact pronunciation of these voces magicae was key to the success of the spells.

Since Egyptian funerary texts clearly identify the deceased with deity and the power of words and language is a predominant feature of Egyptian magic, these notions found in the PGM appeared to provide a possible link between ancient Egyptian and Greek magic.

Throughout the funerary literature of ancient Egypt, from the Pyramid Texts to the Book of the Dead, there is abundant evidence that ancient Egyptians thought that human beings could become deities. Deities were seen as possessing heku, magic, an aspect of the original creative power that formed the cosmos. [9] Thus, magic was perceived to be an intrinsic part of reality and the divine. [10] The Coffin Texts provide a guide book for the deceased to help her or him retain what magic they already possess and to gain more. Naming is extremely important in this experience and it is the ability to name all the gods and objects encountered that proves one has acquired enough magic to sit with the gods. [11] In these texts, the deceased is clearly identified with the god Osiris. By using historaloe the deceased will successfully navigate the journey to the afterlife as did Osiris. The use of historaloe in magical practice was common, particularly in healing rites. [12] By knowing the names of all encountered in the afterlife and establishing a link with a deity that had already been successful in this realm, the deceased was well prepared for the journey.

In the Pyramid texts, the initial Utterances appear to be a script directing the different Egyptian deities to recite specific formulas on the deceased king's behalf. Utterance 1 begins "recitation by Nut, the greatly beneficent", utterance 2, "recitation by Geb" and so forth. [13] Evidence that these utterances were spoken during funeral rites are the notes after the recitations which give directions saying, for example, "pour water" (ut 23) and "cold water and 2 pellets of natron" (ut 32). The priests and priestesses are taking the role of the deities in preparing the deceased to join the gods in the afterlife as well as the deceased being identified with Osiris. Self-identification with deity is an "authentically Egyptian trait". [14]

Language, and particularly naming, carries substantial magical power in Egyptian thought. The goddess Isis, once she learns Ra's true name, is then able to cure him of snake bite. [15] One of the oldest cosmologies of the Egyptians from Memphis (approx. 2700 BC) describes the god Ptah creating by his mind (heart) and word (tongue) [16]. Thus, words contain a primal substance and the act of speaking mirrors original creation. Speaking creates reality. Writing was given to humans by the god Thoth and the Egyptians called their language "words of the gods" and hieroglyphs "writing of the sacred words." [17]

The Pyramid Texts, Coffin Text and the Book of the Dead all exhibit the Egyptian belief in the power of language to affect the world. Words, spoken or written were not just symbols, but realities in themselves. [18] Hieroglyphs held particular resonance with magical power and most of the funerary texts were written in hieroglyphs. The Egyptians clearly believed that humans have energetic doubles in the world beyond the physical and it seems reasonable to suspect that the hieroglyphs were thought to have a similar existence since they were written on the inside of the pyramid tombs or coffins or on scrolls placed inside the coffins for the deceased to use. Further evidence of the reality of the images themselves comes from the practice of cutting particular hieroglyphs in half to diminish their potential effect. [19]

Vowel chanting is also found in Egyptian religious practice as reported by Demetrius in his Roman treatise, De Eloutione:

"in Egypt the priests, when singing hymns in praise of the gods, employ the 7 vowels which they utter in due succession and the sound of these letters is so euphonious that men listen to it in place of the flute and lyre" [20]

The distinction between religion and magic in scholarly discourse breaks down in the context of Egyptian religion and it is reasonable to suspect that vowel chanting could be used for more than hymns of praise by Egyptian priests.

Thus, self-identification with deity and use of a specific kind of magical language found in the PGM places Egyptian magical notions within a Greek magical context. The question then becomes, can evidence be found that Greek magic, prior to the PGM, included these practices and do they appear in later Greek magical material that we know to have influenced the European tradition.

Betz states in the Encyclopedia of Religion that "magic was an essential part of Greco-Roman culture and religion." [21] In classical Greece, Egypt and Thessaly were considered prime sources of magical knowledge, but by 323 BC magical material in Greece had increased considerably. Betz further states that it was "Hellenistic syncretism that produced the abundance of material available today." [22] Greek magical practitioners distinguished different types of magic; goeteia -- lower magic, mageia -- general magic and theourgia -- higher magic. Theourgia, appears to be the most likely place to find self-identification with deity and the use of voces magicae.

Self-identification with deity in magical acts as part of ancient Greek magical practice prior to the PGM is not evident. The Greeks speculated that humans and gods "had the same mother," but a huge gap existed between them. From ancient times to the latest date of the PGM, Greek notions about the relationship between human existence and divine existence took a variety of forms [23], but never followed the Egyptian pattern of the possibility of declarative divine identity. The ancient Greeks believed that communion with the gods was possible as in the Eleusian and Dionysian mysteries [24] and Empedocles declared he had the knowledge to make himself immortal. [25] But, the Greek idea of a divine spark within the human soul which can be activated, contemplated and reunited with the gods still assumes an other-ness of deity and validates the fundamental separateness of human existence from the divine.

For the Egyptians, the divine appears to be immanent in the world. The world of humans and gods were not seen as being decidedly different. Human activity continued after death and Gods, embodied as the Pharaoh, lived in human society. Magical practice was merely clarifying what already exists. For the Greeks, magic was a conduit for communication and communion with deity or a process whereby the soul could be purified through direct contact with the Divine. Egyptians had only to affirm a state of being through speech to create the sought reality. "Repeated commands or assertions that a desired state of affairs was already in being, are a common feature of Egyptian spells." [26]

However, there are references to the voces magicae in ancient Greek material aside from the PGM. Early, are the Ephesia grammata, (ASKION, KATASKION, LIX, TETRAX, DAMNAMENEUS, AISIA) mystic letters that were supposedly inscribed on the statue of Artemis at Ephesus used verbally and written to avert evil. A lead tablet inscribed with the Ephesia grammata dates to the 4th c BC and they were said to be used spoken as an apotropiac charm while walking in a circle around newlyweds. [27]

Peter Kingsley, writing of Empedocles' magical worldview, states "there is nothing that is not vibrantly and knowingly alive. For him [Empedocles] - everything - even the words spoken by a man of understanding has an existence, intelligence and consciousness of it's own."
[28] This notion appears close to the Egyptian ideas that words are not symbols, but realities.

Orpheus healed human pathos with poems and the lyre, while Pythagoras could chant his disciples to sleep and heal body and soul through musical words. [29] Fox argues that the PGM are carrying forward this "shamanic" tradition of magical musical charms. For the actual author(s) of the PGM, the notion of the magical potency of language could have been very strong indeed coming out of both the Egyptian and Greek magical traditions.

The use of voces magicae continues into later Coptic texts. For a spell invoking a "thundering power to perform every wish" the practitioner should say: "I invoke you. . .who is addressed with the great secret name HAMOUZETH BETH ATHANABASSETONI." [30] Vowel incantations are also found in these Coptic texts in figures typical of the PGM: [31]

AEEIOUO
EEIOU
EIO
IO
I

Voces magicae are also referred to in the Chaldean Oracles which are contemporary with the PGM and they appear to be an intrinsic part of the theurgist's ritual. What is intriguing, for this study, about the Chaldean Oracles, is the relationship between the voces magicae and the process of immortalization of the soul, which is the goal of theurgy. These texts provide the closest approximation to self-identification with deity in a non-Egyptian context. According to the Chaldeans, the soul, in its descent to the body gathers impure substances. Through theurgistic rites, the soul can re-ascend, encounter the Divine and be purified of these impure substances and attain immortality. The voces magicae invoke the assistant spirits that will help the soul to ascend without fear of being dragged down into Hades. [32] However, even though immortalization is the goal, self-identification with deity is not declared and only the soul can attain such a state.

The idea that the Egyptian language specifically held magical power is seen in the writings of people of the time. In the Hermetica (CH xvi) there is a passage which states that Greeks will not understand the Hermetica when translated into their language as Greek does not contain the power of Egyptian. [33] The Chaldean Oracles state "do not ever alter the foreign names (of the gods)." Lewy elaborates further, "It is impossible to translate the magical formula, because its power it not due to its external sense." [34] Iamblichus, describing the difficulty of translating the Hermetica from Egyptian to Greek says ". . .for the very quality of the sounds and the [intonation] of the Egyptian words contain in itself the force of things said." [35] Invocation of deities by their secret names is also characteristic of Egyptian magic prior to the PGM according to Pinch, but unfortunately she does not give examples. [36]

Scholars have identified other potential sources beside Egyptian for specific voces magicae. The glossary in the Betz edition of the PGM speculates on a few of the voces magicae. Jewish and Greek origins are offered as well as Egyptian for the eight names considered. Betz finds an intricate syncretism of Greek, Egyptian and Jewish elements in the texts. [37] To tease out the various strands and definitively locate the origin of specific voces magicae is yet to be done and will be difficult. What we may be seeing in the voces magicae is a general and widespread ancient Mediterranean magical practice. It could be that ABRACADABRA is a cousin to the voces magicae in the PGM.

Further questions to be asked regarding the voces magicae are: what were the potential avenues of magical communication between Egypt and Greece in the 4th century BCE where the earliest evidence of specific magical words is found in the Ephesia grammata? Is there evidence of specific voces magicae, other than vowel chanting, in Egyptian magical practice prior to the PGM? If the specific form comes from Greek notions, why are the voces magicae in the PGM glossed into Old Coptic in many spells where the main body of the text is in Greek?

In conclusion, the claim that the roots of European magic can be traced to Egyptian magic appears highly suspect in regard to the notions discussed. Egyptian ideas and practices of self-identification with deity do not seem to be compatible with Greek notions of the relationship between the human and divine worlds. Through the voces magicae there is evidence of a generalized magical tradition in the ancient Mediterranean from which the European tradition may draw, but not specifically from Egypt.

Endnotes

1. Flying Roll no. XVI "The History of the Rosicrucian Order" states "Know then, O Aspirant, that the Order of the Rose and Cross hath existed from time immemorial and that its mystic rites were practiced and its hidden knowledge communicated in the initiations of the various races of Antiquity. Egypt, Eleusis, Samothrace, Persia, Chaldea and India alike cherished these mysteries, and thus handed down to posterity the Secret Wisdom of the Ancient Ages. . ."  Flying Rolls were semiofficial internal documents of the Order of an instructional and theoretical nature. See King, Frances. Ritual Magic of the Golden Dawn. Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1987 & 1997, p. 105. See also Ramacharaka. The Kybalion: a study of the Hermetic philosophy of ancient Egypt and Greece. Chicago: The Yogi Publication Society.
2. see "Occultism" in The Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Elidae, ed.
3. I am using Betz, Hans Deiter. The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation including the Demotic spells. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. Papyri Graecae Magicae refers to the original title of the Preisendanz edition.
4. see Betz, Introduction to the PGM, p. xlii.
5. Ibid., p xli.
6. PGM I, 140, 195.
7. Betz, p. xliii.
8. Betz, p. 332
9. Pinch, p. 6.
10. In hieroglyphics, the word for magician uses the symbol for a god as the determinative. Personal communication with Dr. W. Poe, 11/24/97.
11. Brier, p. 125
12. Pinch, p. 23 and Kotansky, Roy. "Incantations and Prayers for Salvation on Inscribed Greek Amulets." in Faraone & Obbink, eds. Magika Hiera.
13. Faulkner, pp. 1, 4 and 6.
14. Fowden, p. 26.
15. Pinch p. 7.
16. Eliade, p. 89.
17. Personal communication with Dr. W. Poe, 11/24/97.
18. Barb, p. 155
19. Ibid.
20. Fowden, p. 118.
21. See "MAGIC: Magic in Greco-Roman Antiquity" in The Encyclopedia of Religion.
22. Ibid.
23. See Corrigan, K. "Body and Soul in Ancient Religious Experience" in Armstrong, A. H. ed. Classical Mediterranean Spirituality.
24. Willoughby.
25. Kingsley, p. 233-38.
26. Pinch, P. 72. For another perspective on this problem, I asked subscribers to ARCANA, a listserv devoted to the scholarly study of the occult if they know of any examples of self-identification with deity in Western magical practice outside of theurgy. Aleister Crowley's works and the writings of the Golden Dawn were mentioned several times. One writer specifically wrote: "In all their initiatory rituals, the officers [of the Golden Dawn] took on the forms and powers of various Egyptian gods and directed that force at the initiate" (Benjamin Rowe, Oct 6, 1997 email correspondence, see also http://w3.one.net/~browe) He also suggested that John Dee's Enochian magic included self-identification with deity implicitly in it's "Angelic Calls". The significance of Dee's use of this particular magical practice is beyond the scope of this paper. However, it is fascinating that the Golden Dawn associated Egyptian magical practice with divine self-identification. Exactly how this association was made is also not our topic, but it apparently did not come through the Greek magical tradition.
27. Kotansky, p. 111.
28. Kingsley, p. 230
29. see Fox, Patricia. "In Praise of Nonsense" in Armstrong, A. H. Classical Mediterranean Spirituality.
30. Meyer & Smith, p. 239.
31. Ibid., p. 234 and PGM I, 15-20.
32. Lewy, p. 227-257.
33. see Fowden, chapter 1.
34. Lewy, p. 240.
35. Fowden, p. 30.
36. Pinch, p. 23.
37. Betz, p. xliii

 Works Cited

Armstrong, A. H., ed. Classical Mediterranean Spirituality: Egyptian, Greek and Roman. NY: Crossroads, 1980.

Barb. A. A. "Mystery, Myth and Magic" in Harris, J. R. The Legacy of Egypt, 2nd edition, London: Oxford University Press, 1971.

Betz, H. D. The Greek Magical Papyri in translation including the Demotic spells. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1986.

Brier, Bob. Ancient Egyptian Magic. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1980.

Eliade, Mircea. A History of Religious Ideas. vol. 1, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.

Eliade, Mircea, ed. The Encyclopedia of Religion. New York: Macmillian, 1987.

Faraone, Christopher and Obbink, Dirk, eds. Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Faulkner, R. O., trans. The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. London: University of Oxford, 1969.

Fowden, Garth. The Egyptian Hermes: a historical approach to the late pagan mind. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Kingsley, Peter. Ancient Philosophy, Mystery and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.

Lewy, Hans. Chaldean Oracles and Theurgy: mysticism, magic and platonism in the later Roman empire. Le Caire: Impremerie De L'institut Francais D'Archeologie Orientale, 1956.

Meyer, Marvin and Smith, Richard, eds. Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic texts of ritual power. San Francisco: Harper, 1994.

Pinch, Geraldine. Magic in Ancient Egypt. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994.

Willoughby, Harold R. Pagan Regeneration: a study of mystery initiations in the Graeco-Roman world. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1929.

Other Works Consulted

Johnston, S. I. Hekate Soteria: a study of Hekate's role in the Chaldean Oracles and related literature. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990.

Majercik, Ruth. The Chaldean Oracles: text, translation and commentary. Leiden and New York: E. J. Brill, 1989.

Parrott, Douglas, ed. Nag Hammadi Codices 5:2-6 and 6 with papyrus Beronliensis 8502, 1 and 4. Leiden: Brill, 1979.

Shaw, G. Theurgy and the Soul: the neoplatonism of Iamblichus. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995.

Used with permission.
Contact the author at  laurel.holmstrom at sonoma.edu

[Pagan Institute is proud to present this little gem which is sure to become a Pagan classic! cl, ed.]

The God That Couldn't Be
By Ian Elliott    

The difference between a very great height and an infinite height is that the former is barely conceivable, while the latter is inconceivable.  This is the main reason why monotheism, which posits an infinite God who lives outside the universe in no place at all, who is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-good, leads naturally to atheism.  Such a God, unlike the Gods and Goddesses of the old nature religions, cannot be imagined and therefore must always lie outside the mental reach of human beings.  To support a religion based on such a phantasm, it was necessary to have an all-powerful and highly visible Church controlling all human thought and activity.  Once the dictatorship of the Church receded, its chimerical God was left without ballast,  ascended into the atmosphere like a runaway balloon, and eventually disappeared.  With this, the modern secular society was born and people became practical atheists, however much they affected religious beliefs on Sunday.

The attempts to understand the attributes of this vanished God have always ended in paradox.  This was taken as a proof of his existence, since obviously he was beyond human comprehension. Thus the Church, which has always loved having things both ways, could preach the reasonableness of the Christian creed up to the point where it made no sense, and then fall back on mysticism and mystification to silence any argument.

We are fortunate to be living in a time in history when writers like the late Bertrand Russell could deliver lectures like "Why I am Not a Christian" without being hanged or burned at the stake.  Leaving aside his remarks about Christ, I would like to summarize his objections to the doctrines of the One God and the arguments traditionally raised in their defense, showing along the way how polytheistic conceptions of the divine meet those objections.

One of the essentials of being a Christian, Russell states, is a belief in the existence of God, and the Catholic Church has laid it down "that the existence of God can be proved by the unaided reason." [1]   The Church set up a number of arguments to prove this God's existence, and Russell examines the major ones:

(1) The First Cause Argument.

"It is maintained that everything we see in this world has a cause, and as you go back in the chain of causes further and further you must come to a First Cause, and to that First Cause you give the name of God."

Russell points out, referring to the philosopher John Stuart Mill, that if everything has a cause, God must have a cause.

"If there can be anything without a cause, it might just as well be the world as well as God. There is no reason why the world could not have come into being without a cause; nor, on the other hand, is there any reason why it should not always have existed. There is no reason to suppose that the world had a beginning at all." [3]

Now, robust Paganism, by which I mean Pagan religion without any compromising admixture of Abrahamic or Zoroastrian doctrine, really holds that the Universe is eternal and had no Creator.  Pagan creation myths all involve the ordering of matter out of a primal state of chaos.  There is no creation of everything out of nothing, only a structuring of some things out of pre-existent 'stuff'.  These creation myths all presuppose the pre-existence of matter and therefore of the material world, and therefore robust Paganism begins with the world, not with some transcendent Creator.  When it says that in the beginning Gods were born from chaos and then shaped that chaos into a world, it does not mean an absolute beginning, since chaos and all it contains were there first.  What it really means is "in the beginning of this cycle," because all robust Pagan religions posited a theory of endless cycles of creation and dissolution.  The Gods arise, they build a world out of whatever is lying around, they maintain it and uphold it as long as they can, and eventually it unravels and returns to chaos again; then, after long ages perhaps, the whole thing starts over.  This view is quite in keeping with the theory that there are a number of Bangs that occur at different times and in different parts of the universe, and they release matter and energy from a state of condensation, perhaps due to the collapse of black holes.  But if future evidence runs against this model and we are left with a universe that had a definite beginning but no foreseeable end, this still leaves us with the world in the beginning as the cause of itself and whatever beings arise from it.  The ancient Greeks called this original progenetrix the Goddess Night, and considering the known facts the name does not seem  inappropriate.

2) The Natural-Law Argument.   
This argument was popular in the eighteenth century. "People observed the planets going around the sun according to the law of gravitation, and they thought that God had given a behest to these planets to move in that particular fashion, and that was why they did so." [4]   Russell begins by pointing out that we now know that what appears to be uniform behavior on the part of matter and energy is really a matter of statistical averages drawn from observations of the movements of atoms, but he admits that that objection is based on the scientific view then current, which might change in time.  He goes on to the real heart of the matter when he points out that the whole Natural-Law Argument is based on a false analogy between the voluntary obedience of humans to human laws and descriptions of how things in the universe happen.  Since by natural laws we simply mean descriptions of how things in fact behave, there is no reason to suppose that there is someone who told them to behave in that way.  But supposing there were, "you are then faced with the question, 'Why did God issue just those natural laws and no others?'  If you say that he did it simply from his own good pleasure, and without any reason, you then find that there is something which is not subject to law, and so your train of natural law is interrupted.  If you say.that there [was]. a reason for the laws which God gave, then God himself was subject to law, and therefore.you have a law outside and anterior to the divine edicts, and God does not serve your purpose, because he is not the ultimate lawgiver." [5]  

(3) The Argument from Design. 
"You all know the argument from design," says Russell. "Everything in the world is made just so that we can manage to live in the world, and if the world were ever so little different, we could not manage to live in it."  [1]   Russell begins by pointing out that the theory of evolution suggests that instead of circumstances adapting themselves to the needs of living things, living things, over time, adapt to circumstances.  But then he moves on to his main argument, which is that any honest appraisal of the universe must show any claim that omniscience, omnipotence and benevolence designed the world to be nonsense.  "Do you think," he says, "that if you were granted omnipotence and omniscience and millions of years in which to perfect your world, you could produce nothing better than the Ku Klux Klan and the Fascists?"

He goes on to point out that science tells us that human life, and life in general, is a stage in the decay of the solar system, and that the moon shows us towards what the whole process is tending - a dead, cold world. In Pagan [6]  Russell begins by pointing out that the theory of evolution suggests that instead of circumstances adapting themselves to the needs of living things, living things, over time, adapt to circumstances.  But then he moves on to his main argument, which is that any honest appraisal of the universe must show any claim that omniscience, omnipotence and benevolence designed the world to be nonsense.  "Do you think," he says, "that if you were granted omnipotence and omniscience and millions of years in which to perfect your world, you could produce nothing better than the Ku Klux Klan and the Fascists?"

None of this is a problem for Paganism.  Again, those who are satisfied with purely mechanistic explanations can simply accept what science tells us about the world and no more.  But many of us cannot escape the conviction that there is some element of design in the world, and for us it would seem that only Pagan religion fits the facts, for the Gods of Paganism are neither omniscient, nor omnipotent, nor wholly benevolent.  There is much in the world, for instance in ecology, to suggest an admirable degree of design; but also much that goes awry.  Humans and viruses, for instance, seem to represent a design that is at cross-purposes with itself; and this suggests that if design is present, there may well be more than one designer, and their plans may not always agree.  To take the most obvious example of poor design, seventy or eighty years of corporeal existence seem hardly adequate for the development of human knowledge and skill;  and even granting rebirth, without remembering previous lives we are forced to learn things over and over again.  Here again, we seem to have only two choices:  accepting pure materialism, or a conception of the divine that fits the facts.  If we face the world honestly yet have also seen spirits, only Pagan conceptions of the divine will serve:  the world is just as good as the Gods can make it at this stage in their own evolution, given local conditions and the material that lies at hand.  Instead of scrambling for explanations to save face for a perfect God, the Pagan can calmly face the facts of the world as it is, bow his head to fate, and hope for better conditions in the world of spirit or at the beginning of the next cycle.

(4) The Moral Arguments for Deity.  The philosopher Immanuel Kant devised a moral argument for the existence of God which was popular during the nineteenth century.  One form of the argument "is to say that there would be no right or wrong unless God existed."[7]"If you are quite sure there is a difference between right and wrong," Russell continues, "then you are in this situation: Is that difference due to God's fiat [will] or is it not?  If it is due to God's fiat, then for God himself there is no difference between right and wrong, and it is no longer a significant statement to say that God is good." [8]But if you want to say that God is good, Russell says, then right and wrong must have some meaning independent of God's fiat, and this means that there is something prior to God that determines the difference between right and wrong.

As far as the Biblical story of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac is concerned, there can be no doubt that the Hebrews want to say that only God's fiat determines whether an act is good or evil.  Yet only the most determined dogmatist can fail to be revolted at Abraham's compliance with his God's wishes (the fact that God relents at the last moment is immaterial) in his readiness to cut an innocent child's throat.  We feel in our hearts that good and evil must be prior to any God's will, and this is in fact the Pagan position.  Zeus abhors Ares for being a bloodthirsty madman and prizes Athena for her reason and prudence.   Poseidon balks at obeying Zeus but subsides when the Erinyes remind him that they always stand at the side of the elder brother.  Thus, a moral law precedes the Gods and they stand or fall, ultimately, according to whether they obey or flout it.  This moral law, like the natural processes mentioned earlier, must somehow be inherent in the Universe, for it cannot proceed from the will of any God, as we have seen.  These are simply the rules of the cosmic house we live in; they come with the territory.

(5) The Argument for the Remedying of Injustice.  This final argument for God's existence struck Russell as very curious: "that the existence of God is necessary to bring justice into the world." [9]

"In this part of the universe that we know there is great injustice.if you are going to have justice in the universe as a whole you have to suppose a future life to redress the balance of life here on earth." [10]On this basis, Christians wish to believe in a heaven and hell so that justice can finally be done in the world.  Suppose, says Russell, we were to open a crate of oranges and find a few bad oranges on top.  We would not reason that the rest of the oranges must be good to make up for the bad ones; on the contrary, we would think it likely to find more bad oranges as we worked our way farther down. 

The Pagan answer to injustice is to work to right it. 

If there are bad oranges in the crate, throw them out, keep the good ones, and go harvest more.  Pagans take the world as they find it and seek to make it better.  They do not wallow in compensatory fantasies.  The Gods have charge of this world and labor to improve it.  The labor gets harder as a world cycle draws to a close, and at its end the Gods go down to defeat fighting.  After an age of darkness, another cycle begins, but now there are more mature spirits than before, and the new world that arises is better than the last one.  This is so if, and only if, we make it so.  Nothing is provided us by some transcendental being beyond the heavens.  Everything is up to us.

Bibliography

RUSSELL, Bertrand,  Why I Am Not a Christian, and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects.   
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1957.                                                                                                                             

                                                                                      Endnotes
 

[1] Russell, p. 5.
[2] Ibid., p. 6.
[3] Ibid., p. 7.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid., pp. 8-9.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid., p. 12.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid, p. 13.
[10] Ibid.