Neoplatonism · Translation and commentary
The Chaldaean Oracles · Volume II
Chaldaean oracle fragments; translated and commented by G. R. S. Mead
The second volume continues the fragments and comments through the soul, purification, divine manifestations and theurgic art. Mead’s source notes make the difference between a quotation and an attributed tradition part of the reading.
Open the edition page ↗Where to begin
Read The Theurgic Art, printed pp. 72–74 / PDF pp. 77–79. Follow each quotation back to the sentence that introduces it, especially the qualification about native names.
Keep in mind
An item printed under an Oracles heading is not automatically a line of the original poem. Mead questions the provenance of one instruction and excludes the native-names saying from the poem on metrical grounds, while still discussing it as part of the tradition. His interpretation is not a practical protocol or proof of supernatural effects.