Gender Roles in Greco-Roman Witchcraft - High and Low Magic

High and Low Magic

Magical operations largely fall into two categories: theurgical and goetic. The word theurgia in some contexts appears simply to try and glorify the kind of magic that is being practiced – usually a respectable priest-like figure is associated with the ritual. Of this, scholar E.R. Dodds claims:

Proclus grandiloquently defines theurgy as, 'a power higher than all human wisdom, embracing the blessings of divination, the purifying powers of initiation, and in a word all operations of divine possession' (Theol. Plat. p. 63). It may be described more simply as magic applied to a religious purpose and resting on a supposed revelation of a religious character. Whereas vulgar magic used names and formula of religious origin to profane ends, theurgy used the procedures of vulgar magic primarily to a religious end ... — E. R. Dodds, The Greek and the Irrational

In a typical theurgical rite, contact with divinity occurs either through the soul of the theurgist or medium leaving the body and ascending to heaven, where the divinity is perceived, or through the descent of the divinity to earth to appear to the theurgist in a vision or a dream. In the latter case, the divinity is drawn down by appropriate "symbols" or magical formulae. According to the Greek philosopher Plotinus (205-270 CE) theurgy attempts to bring all things in the universe into sympathy, and man into connection with all things via the forces that flow through them. Theurgia connoted an exalted form of magic, and philosophers interested in magic adopted this term to distinguish themselves from the magoi or goetes — lower-class practitioners. Goetia was a derogatory term connoting low, specious or fraudulent mageia. Interestingly, goetia is similar in its ambiguity to charm: it means both magic and power to (sexually) attract.