Within the depth-psychology corpus, theurgy occupies a liminal position between philosophy, magic, and psychological practice, functioning as a recurring test case for the boundaries of rational inquiry and interior transformation. E. R. Dodds provides the most sustained scholarly account, tracing theurgy from its origins in the Chaldaean Oracles through Iamblichus and Proclus, defining it as ‘magic applied to a religious purpose and resting on a supposed revelation of a religious character’ — a refuge, he argues, for a despairing Neoplatonic intelligentsia confronting cultural decline. James Hillman inherits this lineage and turns it inward, aligning theurgic practice with active imagination and Neoplatonic image-work, while carefully distinguishing Jung’s psychological engagement with daimons from literal magical intent. Stephan Hoeller makes the most explicit psychological translation, arguing that Jung’s doctrine of the God-image renders every person a theurgist who externalizes inner spiritual actuality through imagination. Karen Armstrong maps the term’s transit into Christian mysticism through Pseudo-Dionysius and Proclus, where theurgy becomes the model for God-talk that releases divine energeiai. The central tension across these writers is whether theurgy designates an objective operative power acting upon divine realities, or a psychological movement projecting and integrating interior archetypal contents — a tension that proves constitutive for depth psychology’s self-understanding.
theurgy as ‘a power higher than all human wisdom, embracing the blessings of divination, the purifying powers of initiation, and in a word all the operations of divine possession’… magic applied to a religious purpose and resting on a supposed revelation of a religious character.
Dodds offers the foundational definition of theurgy for the corpus, distinguishing it from vulgar magic by its religious telos and its claim to revealed authority.
, The Greeks and the Irrational, 1951thesis
ceremonial magic once included the practice of theurgy, which translates as the working of divinities… According to Jung, all persons are in reality theurgists of sorts, for they all make God-images for themselves through their imagination.
Hoeller universalizes theurgy as the psychological act of producing God-images through imagination, identifying Jung’s entire project with the theurgic tradition.
, The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead, 1982thesis
theurgy was recommended by some Neoplatonists (Iamblichus, Mysteries, V, 15-17) in order to bring ‘body’ into the philosophy… fundamentally, as Plotinus insisted, theurgy cannot aid the soul’s return to the Intelligible order.
Hillman surveys the internal Neoplatonic debate over theurgy’s value, positioning it as a concession to embodied or literalistic minds while maintaining that Plotinus denied its ultimate metaphysical efficacy.
, Healing Fiction, 1983thesis
theurgy became the refuge of a despairing intelligentsia which already felt la fascination de l’abîme… theurgic union is attained only by the efficacy of the unspeakable acts performed in the appropriate manner, acts which are beyond all comprehension.
Dodds interprets theurgy as a socio-historical symptom of cultural despair, offering ritual efficacy as a substitute for failed philosophical argument.
, The Greeks and the Irrational, 1951thesis
theurgy in the pagan world had been a tapping of the divine mana by means of sacrifice and divination. Denys applied this to God-talk, which, properly understood, could also release the divine energeiai inherent in the revealed symbols.
Armstrong traces how Pseudo-Dionysius appropriated the Neoplatonic concept of theurgy to ground a mystical theology in which liturgical language releases inherent divine energies.
, A History of God, 1993supporting
This accomplishment was not a wilful resurrection of myths and daimons, nor an act of heresy, mystical politics, or magic theurgy, as Jaspers’ critique implies.
Hillman defends Jung against the charge of practicing magic theurgy, relocating Jung’s engagement with daimons within the field of psychopathology and psychological necessity rather than occult intention.
, Healing Fiction, 1983supporting
the elder Julianus ‘introduced’ his son to the ghost of Plato; and it seems that they claimed to possess a spell for producing an apparition of the god… They could also cause men’s souls to leave and reenter the body.
Dodds details the legendary theurgic operations attributed to the Juliani, establishing the concrete ritual claims — evocation, soul-travel, apparitions — that characterize operative theurgy.
, The Greeks and the Irrational, 1951supporting
two further questions suggest themselves in connection with the theurgic… did it contribute something to the belief, familiar alike to mediaeval Italy and mediaeval Byzantium, in (talismans) or ‘statuae averruncae’—enchanted images whose presence… had power to avert natural disaster.
Dodds traces the afterlife of theurgic animated-image practice into medieval talisman belief, connecting ancient theurgy to a continuous tradition of image-power.
, The Greeks and the Irrational, 1951supporting
the states described by the ancient and the modern observers are, if not identical, at least analogous… the ‘gods’ come at first reluctantly, but more easily when they have formed a habit—i.e., when a trance personality has been established.
Dodds draws a comparative parallel between ancient theurgic trance states and modern mediumistic phenomena, anchoring theurgy empirically in dissociative psychology.
, The Greeks and the Irrational, 1951supporting
if you want to be like god you must eat god… God is not always there to be eaten, nor indeed would it be safe to eat him at common times and without due preparation for the reception of the sacrament.
Dodds’s discussion of ritual consumption and divine identification provides background for understanding the logic of sacramental and theurgic union, though theurgy is not named directly here.
, The Greeks and the Irrational, 1951aside