Chaldean Oracles: Encyclopedia - Chaldean Oracles

Chaldean Oracles

The Chaldean Oracles that are embodied in fragmentary texts of the 2nd century AD consist mainly of Hellenistic commentary on a single mystery-poem that was believed to have originated in Chaldea (Babylon), but had been re-rendered as a syncretic combination of neo-Platonic elements with others that were Persian or Babylonian in origin. Later neo-Platonists, such as Proclus, rated them highly. The 4th-century Emperor Julian suggests in his Hymn to the Magna Mater that he was an initiate of the God of the Seven Rays, and was an adept of its teachings. When Christian Church Fathers or other Late Antique writers credit "the Chaldeans", it is generally to this tradition they are referring.

An analysis of the Chaldean Oracles demonstrates the tradition's sympathy with contemporary gnostic teachings: fiery emanations initiate from the transcendental First Paternal Intellect, from whom a second Intellect, the Demiurge comprehends the cosmos as well as himself. Within the First Intellect, a female Power, designated Hecate, is, like Sophia, the mediating World-Soul. At the base of all lies created Matter, made by the Demiurge, a foul shell from which the enlightened soul must emerge, shedding its bodily garment. A combination of ascetic conduct and correct ritual will free the soul from the astrological confines of Fate, and defend it against the demonic powers who fill the realm between gods and mortals [1].

Chaldean Oracles - Origin

The origins of the text are suitably mysterious. The Chaldean Oracles in the form in which they survive were attributed to Julian the Theurgist, who served in the Roman army during Marcus Aurelius' campaign against the Quadi. Julian claimed to have saved the Roman camp from fiery destruction by causing a rainstorm (Dillon, pp. 392-393). The circumstances surrounding the writing of the Oracles are mysterious, the most likely explanation being that Julian uttered them after inducing a sort of trance akin to that of the archaic oracles of Greece.

Whether or not they were composed by Julian or whether they are in any sense translations from supposed Chaldean originals, the oracles are mainly a product of Hellenistic (and more precisely Alexandrian) syncretism as practiced in the cultural melting-pot that was Alexandria, and were credited with embodying many of the principal features of a "Chaldean philosophy". They were held in the greatest esteem throughout Late Antiquity, a sentiment which was shared alike by the early Christian Fathers and the later Platonists. The doctrines contained therein have been attributed by some to Zoroaster.

Chaldean Oracles - Importance of the Oracles

The essence of Hellenistic civilization was the fusion of a Hellenic core of religious belief and social organization with Persian-Babylonian ("Chaldean") and Egyptian cultures, including their mysterious and enthusiastic cults and wisdom-traditions. Hellenistic thinkers philosophized the mythology and cults, as well as foreign oracular utterances and initiatory lore. Philosophy originating from these two areas, or simply attributed to them, was regarded as possessing knowledge transmitted from the most ancient wisdom traditions.

In Egypt, the attempt to philosophize and synthesize ancient religious content resulted in part in the writings conventionally attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. The Chaldean Oracles are a parallel endeavour, on a smaller scale, to philosophize the wisdom of Chaldea. However, rather than the prose writings that came out of Egypt, the Chaldean Oracles originated from the fragments of a single mystery-poem, which has not been entirely preserved. By far the greatest number of the poem's known fragments are found in the books of the later Platonic philosophers, who from the time of Porphyry, and probably that of Plotinus, held these Oracles in the highest estimation. Iamblichus of Syria referred frequently to the Oracles and mingled their ideas with his own.

Chaldean Oracles - Chaldea

"Chaldea" is the term the 4th century and later Greeks used for Babylon. It is the way they transliterated the Assyrian name Kaldū, which was an area that lay southeast of Babylonia towards the coast of the Persian Gulf. The term "Oracles" was probably bestowed upon these writings to arouse the sense of their having a profound and deeply mysterious nature. To the number of Sibyls, later Greeks added a "Persian Sibyl" or a "Babylonian Sibyl" whom the "Chaldeans" were imagined to venerate as highly as the Greeks did the oracle of Delphi.

Chaldean Oracles - Metaphysics of the Oracles

The metaphysical schema of the Chaldaean Oracles begins with an absolutely transcendent deity called Father, with whom resides Power, a productive principle from which it appears Intellect proceeds. This Intellect has a two-fold function, to contemplate the Forms of the purely intellectual realm of the Father, and to craft and govern the material realm. In this latter capacity the Intellect is Demiurge.

The Oracles further posit a barrier between the intellectual and the material realm, personified as Hecate. In the capacity of barrier, or more properly "membrane", Hecate separates the two 'fires,' i.e., the purely intellectual fire of the Father, and the material fire from which the cosmos is created, and mediates all divine influence upon the lower realm.

From Hecate is derived the World-Soul, which in turn emanates Nature, the governor of the sub-lunar realm (Dillon, p. 394-395). From Nature is derived Fate, which is capable of enslaving the lower part of the human soul. The goal of existence then is to purify the lower soul of all contact with Nature and Fate by living a life of austerity and contemplation. Salvation is achieved by an ascent through the planetary spheres, during which the soul casts off the various aspects of its lower soul, and becomes pure intellect.

The Chaldean Oracles were taken up in the 19th-century Occult tradition and translated by William Wynn Westcott in 1895.

Chaldean Oracles - Reference

• Dillon, J.M., The Middle Platonists (Ithaca: Cornell University Press 1977).

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