Seeing with Different Eyes - Cosmology and Divination

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Chapter Two
cosmos, since in Babylonian and Assyrian theological thought the gods are
represented by numbers. 18 The seven-levelled ziggurat symbolised the
ascent through the cosmos, itself equated with the Sacred Tree and the
body of the royal Anthropos, thus indicating the seven levels of initiation
and the theurgic ascent to the supreme God, who is symbolised by the
number one. In this context, Ishtar signifies, in her descent, the Holy Spirit
of revelation which fills the purified receptacle (the heart or entire body of
the diviner, who becomes a kind of mystic) and, in her ascent, the
individual soul. Hence, as Parpola says, “the ascending Ishtar is the
penitent, reborn soul, which has been cleansed of its sins… and can start a
gradual ascent towards heaven”. 19 The ascent of Ishtar functions as a
model for theurgic elevation, since Ishtar is an equivalent of Hekate in the
sacramental theology of the Chaldean Oracles. According to Psellus,
In the definition of the Chaldeans, Hekate occupies an exactly intermediate
order and assumes the role of the centre relative to all the powers. And to
her right they put the source of the souls, and to her left the source of the
virtues. 20
This position of Hekate is the same as that of Ishtar in the Assyrian
Tree of Life diagram which consists of the different triadic constructions
that would be taken up by Neoplatonic metaphysics. The key doctrine,
related to the soul’s descent into the world from Ishtar/Hekate through the
loss of its wings, is that of its revelation and illumination—the encounter
with divine powers which enable its ascent and immortalisation. Hence,
prophetic divination is divination only accidentally, as it is first and
foremost a means of gnosis and ascent to Heaven following the paradigms
established by Ishtar, Ninurta, Nabu and other gods. No wonder that for
Iamblichus, theurgical divination is not an end in itself, but simply a stage
on the way to mystic union, achieved when the gods illuminate the
theurgist (who is likened to the hieratic statue) with an excess of energy
(periousia dunameos), without physically descending into the pure
receptacle of his soul. This ecstasy, which is experienced by the apilum of
Adad, Dagan, Shamash or Ishtar, causes an utter forgetfulness of one’s self
(fana’ in the Sufi sense) and an absorption into God’s dunameis, and not
only serves as a source of oracles, but enables the soul to ascend. This kind
of inspiration and ecstasy (accompanied by revelations) is not caused by
the passions, but transcends nature (huper ten phusin) and is therefore able
to lift the soul up.
“Scientific” astrology, with its Wheel of Life (zoe is life, kuklos,
circle) analogous to the Wheel of samsara, is meaningful only if viewed
within a mandala-like symbolic framework whose twelve constellations