Jesus & Religious Excorcism + Necromancy

[kavaris]

So just to give some context first, and then ill resolve everything at the end, so dont worry (yous just have to bare w/ me, as theres a few things i have to explain)

The most important text here is probably the Testament of Solomon, a Greek pseudepigraphical work that presents itself as Solomon narrating how he commanded demons to build the Temple; It describes specific demons by name, their functions, the celestial forces that bind them, and the verbal/ritual means of compelling them. This is not fringe material, as it sits in a direct line from the broader Solomonic tradition, which in Second Temple Judaism assoc. Solomon w/ wisdom over spirits based on a passage in the book of Kings ~that later interpreters expanded enormously!

Closely related are the texts found at Qumran, particularly the Songs of the Maskil  and 11QApocryphal Psalms (11Q11), which contain explicit verbal formulas directed against demons. These are the earliest datable examples we have of something functioning like conjuration within a Jewish-proto-Christian framework, from roughly the 1st century BCE. The practitioner speaks directly at hostile spirits, invoking divine names and attributes to repel or bind them.

Jesus performs exorcisms constantly in gospels.  Alas,  the gospel writers are somewhat particular in distinguishing/scrubbing or writing around it, such that later, it'd not be recognized as what contemporaries might call conjuration (note, that I summarize this word at the very end). The distinction is in ἐξουσία (exousia — authority, inherent power) and τέχνη (technique, craft). When Jesus commands an unclean spirit in Mark 1, the crowd's reaction is specifically astonishment that he speaks with authority and not as the scribes: names, formulas, and ritual is scrubbed.

ἐξουσία is the one the gospel and epistle writers are conveying~for Jesus and by delegation for his followers, and τέχνη is the one that has to be written around, suppressed, or reframed, otherwise you get some fairly surprising stuff happening.

Then you have the curious ep., Acts 19 (the sons of Sceva) seven itinerant Jewish exorcists who try to use Jesus's name as a conjuration formula against a demon, essentially treating "the name of Jesus" as a powerful voces magicae. The demon responds by saying it knows Jesus and Paul but not them, and physically attacks them. Jesus, the Necromancer, scrubbed from history.

The Greek Magical Papyri (PGM) from Egypt?, 2nd-5th centuries CE, are indispensable, as they contain explicit syncretic material, including invocations of Iao, Adonai, Sabaoth, and by the later papyri, Jesus, alongside Egyptian and Greek divine names. These show you the actual working-level religious technology of the period, as opposed to the theological positions of the canonical writers. The presence of Judaeo-Christian divine names in the PGM tells us that these names were understood in the broader Hellenistic-Egyptian religious marketplace as particularly powerful voces magicae, regardless of what the nascent church thought about

By the 2nd-3rd century CE the church fathers are actively theorizing, Origen in particular, Contra Celsum, discusses the power of names at considerable length — arguing that divine names carry intrinsic power tied to their sound and form, not merely their meaning~a striking concession to the logic of conjuration, even as Origen is trying to distinguish Christian practice from it (Tertullian and later John Chrysostom are playing a part in treating anything magical-in-nature as bad and deceptive... shameful)

"Shame" is a sudden feature in the first century that previously hadnt been treated like OMG, whys everyone naked. Why are there zombies and demons in the literature, get it out! Like, if Jesus's name genuinely compels demons — which the exorcism tradition absolutely insists it does — then what exactly is the difference between that and conjuration? The answer that the tradition reaches for is the exousia distinction, the name works as a formula~activating impersonal cosmic machinery, as well as for personal, delegated divine authority.
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P.s. What is "conjuration" In Early Christianity? Conjuration is described as a process or act that involves invoking or summoning spiritual entities. This practice is explored in terms of its effects on both the soul and demons, as well as their responses to such acts. The examination of conjuration highlights its significance in understanding spiritual interactions within the framework of early Christian beliefs (and its not to dismiss incantations, inscriptions, invocation, evocation, necromancy, ritualistic ceremony, sacred offerings, divination, psychic/telepathic powers, etc.,"to conjure<something>" pertaining to all of these too)

⸸ conjuration is the reverse ~upside down~ cross, abjuration ☥ is the ankh, the upright up-cross, leading of either a spirit, or your soul, either abjuring to~or conjuring from (realm of the dead)

Edited 4 hours ago by kavaris

[kavaris]

We may get into things that require pulling from passages of Hermetic tradition (theres various related compilations of), as well as Greek Literature, Hymn and Mythology, The Odyssey and Theogony, etc., but I wanted to start from some point, some initialization on our staggering history of magick on Earth. I just thought Jesus was the best point, but i guess medieval period couldve been a place to start, going backwards towards ancient history.

*p.s. notice everything i write reads like music, cause thats actually important to this. As, in Ancient Greek tradition, "speech" is intertwined w/ actions, as well as patterns of behavior w/ symbolic meanings (thats how i read it phrased in "The Masters of Truth in Archaic Greece" anyway  -of which i'm still reading).

Edited 2 hours ago by kavaris