Iamblichus: On the Mysteries · 193 of 218 · tr. Thomas Taylor
Chapter VIII-ag
Moreover, if it should happen that the whole race of some one successively use land which had originally been plundered, in this case, the injury in the first place becomes immanifest, and on this account is more difficult to be cured; and, in the next place, time causes the evil to become as it were natural.
Hence the Gods frequently predict to men that they should go to such or such places, and that an apology should be made to this man, who was never known to them, and that he should be appeased, in order that thus they may obtain a remedy and be liberated from their difficulties, and that the punishments inflicted on them by the Furies may cease.
The Gods, however, predict, not for the purpose of taking away punishment, but in order that justice may be done, and that we may be amended.
The telestic art, therefore, renders him better who possesses the mania which it imparts, and through him saves also many others.
Thus, for instance, it is related of one who was cutting down an oak, and though he was called on by a Nymph not to cut it down, yet persisted in felling it, that he was punished for so doing by the avenging Furies, that he was in want of necessary food, and that if at any time he met with it, it was immediately taken from him, till one who possessed the telestic art told him to raise an altar and sacrifice to this Nymph, for thus he would be liberated from his calamities.
Another person, likewise, who had slain his mother, was freed from the punishment inflicted on him by the Furies by migrating to another country, conformably to the mandate of divinity, and there fixing his abode.” 58 .
This is because Rhea, the mother of the Gods, is a vivific Goddess, being filled indeed (says Proclus, in Plat.
Theol.
lib.
v.
c.
xi.) from the father prior to her [ i.
e.
from Saturn] with intelligible and prolific power, but filling the Demiurgus [Jupiter], who derives his existence from her, with vivific abundance.
59 .
See, concerning this oracle, Scholiastes Apollonii ad i.
librum, et Tacitus ii.
Annal.
60 .
This oracle is mentioned by Herodotus, l.
i., by Strabo, l.
xiv.
and by Ammian.
Marcell.
lib.
xxix.
61 .
See Plutarch in his treatise De Defectu Oraculorum.
62 .
See Plutarch in the above mentioned treatise.
Concerning this luciform spirit, or vehicle, which is immortal, and which is called by Olympiodorus αυγοειδες χιτων , a luciform vestment , see my Translation of the fifth book of Proclus on the Timæus.
63 .
It was usual for those who prophesied to carry a wand.
Tiresias had a sceptre, and Abaris an arrow.
The Scholiast on Nicander says, that the Egyptian and Scythian magi, and also many of those in Europe, prophesied with wands.
And Eustathius on the Odyssey, p.
1657, observes, “that there is a certain magic in divine wands,” esse in ραβδοις θειοις τινα μαγειαν .
64 .
That is, to partake of an illumination, which has no σχεσις , or habitude , to any thing material.
65 .
For ἡ προιουσα here, it seems necessary to read ἢ προιουσα .
66 .
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The Gods actively predict mandates to men regarding migration and sacrifice to liberate them from punishment.
Final, collective cosmic judgment as an event in which the wicked are sentenced and the cosmos restored; distinct from psychopomp_journey (individual passage at death) and emphasising verdict where Zoroastrian frashokereti emphasises restoration.
The text describes punishments inflicted by Furies that cease only through divine mandate and sacrifice.
Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.
Evil is described as becoming 'as it were natural' over time and requiring divine intervention to cure.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
The 'telestic art' renders the possessor better and saves others through a transformative connection to divine power.
Iamblichean ritual practice that engages the gods directly through consecrated material symbols and actions, on the premise that divine power descends into properly prepared matter — distinct from philosophical contemplation alone.
The passage explicitly discusses the 'telestic art' as a practice that renders the possessor better and saves others through ritual sacrifice.