The Chaldean Oracles: Text, Translation and Commentary

by Ruth Majercik, H.S. Versnel (Editor )

The Chaldean Oracles hold a special place in the development of the Platonic tradition - they gave a new impetus and inspiration to a number of philosophers now known as neoplatonists. The extant fragments of the Oracles have been the subject of several studies in the modern since its publication in 1989 this presentation of the Chaldean Oracles in parallel text and translation with Ruth Majercik's detailed notes and analysis has established itself as the modern baseline for scholarly work upon the Oracles. This is a facsimile edition of that publication.

Genres: Philosophy, Theology, Spirituality, History

247 pages, Hardcover

First published March 24, 2013

Reviews

[Mateusz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great resource to combine with Plutarch's De Iside et Osiride, Orphic Hymns, and Iamblichus writings. If read from a faithful angle, they provide a lot of substance for practice, and with deeper insight, proportional understanding. Transposing the text into phantastikon and the land of notions, we find that the worlds co-arise as a whole, and finding analogies in the the variegated topology of the world is indeed a form of high magic, then finding relations in-between the objective world and our Intellect, Feelings, Fire of the Spirit of Consciousness, between Truth, Reason and Beauty, we translate our wholeness -if given a chance - to a greater level of existence, in life and beyond.

[Kaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very happy to read this because I was curious about the context of what was being quoted by the philosophers.

[Aung Sett Kyaw Min]

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the contents of the oracular fragments were less "intellectual" than I had initially presupposed. The commentary was extraordinarily helpful in contextualizing the properly soteriological dimension of these fragments.

[Hellebore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know that this is just a thrown together collection of different mysticism and philosophy- encompassing Gnostic, Neoplatonist, early Christian, ect. ideas
but damn is it interesting and somehow pretty coherent.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The difference between Thomas' and Majercik's interpretation of the neo-Platonic text is something I will need to digest. I read this as a way to understand a Hekate closer to Neolithic humans regard for the divine feminine.

In both texts I could see the precursor of the Gnostic text in the telling of creation.

In Thomas' translation I found Hekate to serve humanity as Jesus would hundreds of years later. In Majercik's translation Hekate marginalized. A critique of Majercik's work by Edward P Butler, PhD, New School, aligns Hekate with the creative force, but not as product thereof as does Thomas, but as the creator.

Somewhere along this continuum of understanding Hekate, is a pointer to the primoridial divine feminine.

[Christine]

not sure if this is the 'right' version

[Katelis Viglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must in Neoplatonic studies. But it is difficult to be found.
It is more recent than Des Places' Oracles chaldaïques.