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Chaldean Oracles: Oracle 112

from Oracle by Randall Hall

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In the third and fourth centuries CE, Neoplatonic philosophers developed what might be called the mystical potential of Plato’s thought. In their view, the goal of philosophy was to prepare the soul for an ascent to the One, the ultimate transcendent source of all reality, both material and immaterial. Some philosophers argued that this ascent could not be achieved by contemplation alone and required the ritual assistance of the gods, a practice known as theurgy. Theurgy literally means ‘God work’ – as distinct from theology or knowledge about God – and emphasizes physical-sensory engagement over abstract concepts and rational arguments. Theurgic rituals are designed to purify the soul and guide it to direct experience of the divine.

What actually happened in these rituals is largely lost to history. They may have included sitting for long periods in silence, perhaps in the dark; perhaps various lighting effects broke the darkness. Magical tools, like the bullroarer (or rhombus of Hecate), may have been used; hallucinogens may have been ingested. These are all techniques used to induce ecstatic states, practices that seem to go back to very deep antiquity. A key element of theurgy is the use of physical objects – symbola and sunthemata, literally symbols and tokens – that contain immaterial aspects of the gods within their material form. These can be things such as numbers, colors, images, plants, metals, and the recitation or chanting of invocations and divine names.

A critical influence on the development of theurgy was the Chaldean Oracles, a second century CE collection of esoteric texts and the namesake of this composition. They are attributed to a father and son known as the two Juliani. The father, Julian the Chaldean, would enter a mystical trance and utter words that his son, Julian the Theurgist, would then record as hexameter poems. The Chaldean Oracles had an enormous influence on the theurgic rituals of Iamblichus and later Neoplatonic philosophers. Only fragments of the Chaldean Oracles survive, scattered throughout the works of later authors.

Each movement of the piece (2017) is based on a different oracle from the collection. These are read in the original Greek by Dr. Hooker at the beginning of each movement. The text of the selected oracle is musically encoded in the piece following procedures similar to my piece, Voces mysticae. The piece is designed to be an imagined theurgic ritual: Oracle 112 is slow and introspective, the initial disconnection from normal reality; in Oracle 115 the music is faster and more frenetic, as though the initiate is beginning a wild dance; in Oracle 116 the initiate is crossing into a visionary realm as the music becomes more disjointed and weird – the text spoken throughout this movement is no longer in Greek; it has undergone various transformations adapted from the Kabbala to produce new incantations; the last movement includes three short oracles (183-185) as the music again becomes frenetic, leading to the final ineffable vision of the gods.

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from Oracle, released June 19, 2020

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Randall Hall Rock Island, Illinois

Saxophonist, composer, and improvisor Randall Hall moves at the sonic limits of the instrument to delve into the mythic, the esoteric, and the apophatic.

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