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The new music for saxophone and electronics on this recording is inspired by ancient Greek mysticism and magic. It grows out of my longstanding fascination with ritual and symbol as a means of giving physical expression to non-physical realities, of opening us to the ineffable, and of moving us beyond the limitations of discursive reason to engage the numinous. The Greeks pursued this impulse in forms ranging from the ancient mystery cults, to the esoteric-philosophical speculations of the Neoplatonist, to celebrated oracles like Delphi and Trophonius. Oracles were more than simple predictions; they were the direct utterance of the gods. Cryptic and enigmatic, if correctly interpreted the oracle unveiled divine wisdom – the very act of wrestling with the oracle, of attempting to penetrate its symbolic meaning, was itself the act of engaging the mystery it concealed. In this music, sound is the oracle that simultaneously reveals and conceals, the veil between the manifest and the unmanifest, as the listener moves through imagined rituals of ascent and descent, initiation and transformation.
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1. Voces Mysticae (2017)
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Voces mysticae, literally means ‘mystical voices’ and refers to non-lexical (non-sense) words found in ancient Greek magical and mystical texts. Sometimes these words appear as garbled Greek, Hebrew or Egyptian words, at other times as long strings of vowels, and in still others as clusters of consonances. But in all cases, they carry ritual power. The voces mysticae should never be translated or altered in any way because it is the sound, the sonic quality of the words, not their meaning, which empowers them as divine symbols.
An important source for the voces mysticae is the Greek Magical Papyri (in Latin Papyri Graecae Magicae, abbreviated as PGM). This is a magic book compiled in Egypt from the first century BCE to the fourth CE. The PGM includes spells for everything from turning invisible to curing headaches, to rituals designed to induce mystical experience – a reminder that in the ancient world there was no clear distinction between magic and religion. The PGM moves seamlessly between passages written in Greek and untranslatable voces mysticae. Although these formulas lack any lexical meaning, many have very intentional formal arrangements, such as palindromes or systematic patterns of transformation. The transformation of patterned sound without linguistic content comes very close to a definition of music, and in this piece, I wanted to explore the musical possibilities of the voces mysticae.
I was also struck by the similarities between voces mysticae and the Kabbalah – a form of Jewish mysticism that includes meditating on word transformations to achieve visionary states. Words are transformed to create new incantations through three principal techniques: notarikon, where a single letter is replaced by a group of letters, a sort of reverse acronym; temurah, where letters are substituted through a process of letter exchange (e.g. A becomes Z, B becomes Y, etc.); and gematria, where a word is replaced by another word with the same numerical value. Exercising my artistic license, I integrated these Kabbalistic techniques into the compositional process.
The first movement, Abulafia, is named in honor of Abraham Abulafia (1240-1291), the medieval Spanish Kabbalist who developed a practice of contemplating words and letters. The title of the second movement, Akrakanarba, is a magic word found in the PGM, while the final movement, Auioeoueei, is an invocation I created myself. The musical form of each movement is based on its title, the letters of which go through various Kabbalistic transformations to generate new strings of letters. Each letter is assigned a musical motive and these are arranged in the score such that the music ‘spells’ out the title and its transformations. As each letter-motive reappears, it also undergoes its own musical transformation again based on Kabbalistic procedures. In this way, I wanted to write a piece that was not only inspired by the voces mysticae, but actually encoded them in the music by working out Kabbalistic procedures musically.
The Mithras Liturgy is a visionary ritual also found in the PGM. It includes a detailed discussion of the words, actions, and ritual implements necessary to pass by supernatural guardians and ascend through the celestial spheres. In this electronic piece, my colleague, classics professor Dr. Mischa Hooker, reads the original text, alternating between Greek and voces mysticae – the careful listener will be able to discern long strings of vowels. The music becomes increasingly intense as the initiate moves toward the revelation of the god Mithras himself.
Orpheus was the greatest of all musicians. The son of Apollo, his music had the power to charm animals and control the weather. The title of this piece, When I Walked the Dark Road of Hades (2016), comes from the Orphic Argonautica. Traditionally attributed to Orpheus himself, this Greek epic poem tells the tale of Jason and the Argonauts on the quest for the Golden Fleece. But it also includes Orpheus’s greatest adventure – his katábasis or descent to shadowy Hades to rescue his wife, Eurydice, from death. Through the power of his music he was able to compel the underworld gods to release her, but only on the condition that he would not look at her until they had returned to the land of the living. This one restriction he famously violated, and Eurydice remained in the underworld forever. Distraught, Orpheus was eventually torn apart by Maenads, wandering followers of Dionysus. His head and lyre floated to the island of Lesbos, continuing to utter prophecies without his body. In later generations, the famed musician was known as a religious teacher and initiator as the patron of the Orphic Mysteries.
There are striking similarities between Orpheus and shamans, traditional religious practitioners who have the power to descend (or ascend) to the spirit world to guide souls, heal the sick, and gain secret knowledge. They make these journeys in an ecstatic trance induced through music, often by drumming and singing magic songs. Orpheus reappears in the Renaissance in the work of the philosopher-magus Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499). Best known for making the first complete Latin translation of Plato’s writings, Ficino also translated the Orphic Hymns, sacred texts traditionally attributed to Orpheus. Accompanying himself on the lyra de braccio, Ficino would sing these hymns to induce ecstatic states much like a shaman. The Hymnsbecame part of Ficino’s astrological practice designed to draw down beneficial planetary influences personified as Greek gods. During the Renaissance this was completely compatible with Ficino’s devout Christianity, a period when Italy was teeming with esoteric and occult ideas. It was in this world that opera began, and several early operas were in fact about Orpheus. The most famous of these was Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. One can only wonder to what extent these nascent operas were an elaboration of Ficino’s astrological music.
This piece attempts to unite all of these threads: Orpheus as shaman, initiator, and Renaissance magus. The composition is based on Monteverdi’s aria Possente sprito (Oh, powerful spirits) from L’Orfeo – the point where Orpheus enters into the underworld. Here Monteverdi’s elaborate vocal ornamentation gives the original song an incantational quality, which I have intensified by exaggerating the embellishments and making them microtonal. Here the saxophone becomes an imagined, archaic wind instrument through which the player performs a shamanic invocation to become, like Orpheus, a psychopomp – the guide of the soul.
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 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.
An important source for the voces mysticae is the Greek Magical Papyri (in Latin Papyri Graecae Magicae, abbreviated as PGM). This is a magic book compiled in Egypt from the first century BCE to the fourth CE. The PGM includes spells for everything from turning invisible to curing headaches, to rituals designed to induce mystical experience – a reminder that in the ancient world there was no clear distinction between magic and religion. The PGM moves seamlessly between passages written in Greek and untranslatable voces mysticae. Although these formulas lack any lexical meaning, many have very intentional formal arrangements, such as palindromes or systematic patterns of transformation. The transformation of patterned sound without linguistic content comes very close to a definition of music, and in this piece, I wanted to explore the musical possibilities of the voces mysticae.
I was also struck by the similarities between voces mysticae and the Kabbalah – a form of Jewish mysticism that includes meditating on word transformations to achieve visionary states. Words are transformed to create new incantations through three principal techniques: notarikon, where a single letter is replaced by a group of letters, a sort of reverse acronym; temurah, where letters are substituted through a process of letter exchange (e.g. A becomes Z, B becomes Y, etc.); and gematria, where a word is replaced by another word with the same numerical value. Exercising my artistic license, I integrated these Kabbalistic techniques into the compositional process.
The first movement, Abulafia, is named in honor of Abraham Abulafia (1240-1291), the medieval Spanish Kabbalist who developed a practice of contemplating words and letters. The title of the second movement, Akrakanarba, is a magic word found in the PGM, while the final movement, Auioeoueei, is an invocation I created myself. The musical form of each movement is based on its title, the letters of which go through various Kabbalistic transformations to generate new strings of letters. Each letter is assigned a musical motive and these are arranged in the score such that the music ‘spells’ out the title and its transformations. As each letter-motive reappears, it also undergoes its own musical transformation again based on Kabbalistic procedures. In this way, I wanted to write a piece that was not only inspired by the voces mysticae, but actually encoded them in the music by working out Kabbalistic procedures musically.
The Mithras Liturgy is a visionary ritual also found in the PGM. It includes a detailed discussion of the words, actions, and ritual implements necessary to pass by supernatural guardians and ascend through the celestial spheres. In this electronic piece, my colleague, classics professor Dr. Mischa Hooker, reads the original text, alternating between Greek and voces mysticae – the careful listener will be able to discern long strings of vowels. The music becomes increasingly intense as the initiate moves toward the revelation of the god Mithras himself.
Orpheus was the greatest of all musicians. The son of Apollo, his music had the power to charm animals and control the weather. The title of this piece, When I Walked the Dark Road of Hades (2016), comes from the Orphic Argonautica. Traditionally attributed to Orpheus himself, this Greek epic poem tells the tale of Jason and the Argonauts on the quest for the Golden Fleece. But it also includes Orpheus’s greatest adventure – his katábasis or descent to shadowy Hades to rescue his wife, Eurydice, from death. Through the power of his music he was able to compel the underworld gods to release her, but only on the condition that he would not look at her until they had returned to the land of the living. This one restriction he famously violated, and Eurydice remained in the underworld forever. Distraught, Orpheus was eventually torn apart by Maenads, wandering followers of Dionysus. His head and lyre floated to the island of Lesbos, continuing to utter prophecies without his body. In later generations, the famed musician was known as a religious teacher and initiator as the patron of the Orphic Mysteries.
There are striking similarities between Orpheus and shamans, traditional religious practitioners who have the power to descend (or ascend) to the spirit world to guide souls, heal the sick, and gain secret knowledge. They make these journeys in an ecstatic trance induced through music, often by drumming and singing magic songs. Orpheus reappears in the Renaissance in the work of the philosopher-magus Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499). Best known for making the first complete Latin translation of Plato’s writings, Ficino also translated the Orphic Hymns, sacred texts traditionally attributed to Orpheus. Accompanying himself on the lyra de braccio, Ficino would sing these hymns to induce ecstatic states much like a shaman. The Hymnsbecame part of Ficino’s astrological practice designed to draw down beneficial planetary influences personified as Greek gods. During the Renaissance this was completely compatible with Ficino’s devout Christianity, a period when Italy was teeming with esoteric and occult ideas. It was in this world that opera began, and several early operas were in fact about Orpheus. The most famous of these was Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. One can only wonder to what extent these nascent operas were an elaboration of Ficino’s astrological music.
This piece attempts to unite all of these threads: Orpheus as shaman, initiator, and Renaissance magus. The composition is based on Monteverdi’s aria Possente sprito (Oh, powerful spirits) from L’Orfeo – the point where Orpheus enters into the underworld. Here Monteverdi’s elaborate vocal ornamentation gives the original song an incantational quality, which I have intensified by exaggerating the embellishments and making them microtonal. Here the saxophone becomes an imagined, archaic wind instrument through which the player performs a shamanic invocation to become, like Orpheus, a psychopomp – the guide of the soul.
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 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.
Bibliography
Addey, Crystal. “Assuming the Mantle of the Gods: ‘Unknowable Names’ and Invocations in Late Antique
Theurgic Rituals” inSacred Words: Orality, Literacy and Religion (Vol. 8). Edited. by APMH Lardinois, JH
Blok & MGM Van Der Poel, Brill: Leiden-Boston 2011, 279-294.
---. Divination and Theurgy in Neoplatonism. Burlington, Ashgate, 2014.
Barry, Kieren. The Greek Qabalah: Alphabetic Mysticism and Numerology in the Ancient World. York
Beach: Samuel Weiser, 1999.
Betz, Hans Dieter, ed. The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation: Including the Demotic Spells: Texts (Vol.1).
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
---, Editor. The “Mithras Liturgy”: Text, Translation, and Commentary.Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003.
Clarke, Emma, C. Iamblichus’ De Mysteriis. Burlington, Ashgate, 2001.
DeConick, April D. “From the Bowls of Hell to Draco: The Mysteries of Peratics,” in Mystery and Secrecy in
the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices. Edited by Christian H.
Bull, Liv Ingeborg Lied and John D. Turner. Brill: Leiden, 2012.
Dieleman, Jacco. Priests, Tongues and Rites: The London-Leiden Magical Manuscripts and Translation in
Egyptian Ritual (100-300 CE). Leiden: Brill 2005.
Ficino, Marsilio. Three Books on Life. Translated and Edited by Carol V. Kaske and John R. Clark.
Binghamton, NY: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies in conjunction with the Renaissance Society
of America, 1989.
Graf, Fritz and Sarah Iles Johnston. Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets.
London: Routledge, 2007.
Guthrie, W. K. C. Orpheus and Greek Religion. New York: Norton, 1966.
Hanegraff, Wouter, J. Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Iamblichus. On the Mysteries. Translated by E. C. Clark, J. M. Dillon, J. P. Hershbell. Atlanta: Society of
Biblical Literature, 2003.
Idel, Moshe. The Mystical Experience of Abraham Abulafia. Albany: State Universityof New York Press,
1988.
Janowitz, Naomi. Poetics of Ascent: Theories of Language in a Rabbinic Ascent Text. Albany: State
Universityof New York Press, 1989.
Kaplan, Aryeh. Meditation and Kabbalah. York Beach, ME: S. Weiser, 1985.
---. Sefer Yetzirah. York Beach, ME: S. Weiser, 1997.
Kingsley, Peter. Ancient Philosophy, Mystery and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition. Oxford,
UK: Oxford University Press, 1995.
---. In the Dark Places of Wisdom. Inverness, CA: The Golden Sufi Center, 1999.
Lewis Williams, David. The Mind in The Cave. London: Thames and Hudson, 2002.
Lewy, Hans. Chaldaean Oracles and Theurgy. Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1978.
Luck, Georg. “Theurgy and Forms of Worship in Neoplatonism”, in Religion, Science, and Magic in Concert
and Conflict. Edited by J. Neusner, E.S. Frerichs, P.V.M. Flesher: New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1989,
185-225.
Majercik, Ruth. The Chaldean Oracles: Text and Translations. Leiden: Brill, 1989.
McKenna, Terence. Go to YouTube, search ‘Terence McKenna’ and see what you get!
Nicholson, Shirley, Editor. Shamanism, Wheaton IL: Quest Books, 1987.
Pentcheva, Bissera. The Sensual Icon: Space, Ritual, and the Senses in Byzantium. University Park: The
Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013.
Rappe, Sara. Reading Neoplatonism: non-discursive thinking in the texts of Plotinus, Proclus, and
Damascius. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Schibille, Nadine. Hagia Sophia and the Byzantine Aesthetic Experience. Burlington: Ashgate, 2014.
Shaw, Gregory. “Containing Ecstasy: The Strategies of Iamblichean Theurgy,” Dionysius 21 (2003) 53-88.
---. Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus. University Park: The Pennsylvania State
University Press, 1995.
Staal, Fritz. Rules without Meaning: Ritual, Mantras, and the Human Sciences. New York: P. Lang, 1990.
---. “The Search for Meaning: Mathematics, Music and Ritual.” The American Journal of Semiotics2.4 (1984):
1-57.
---. “Vedic Mantras” inUnderstanding Mantras. Albany, NY: State Universityof New York Press, 1989.
Tomlinson, Gary. Music in Renaissance Magic: Toward a Historiography of Others. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1993.
Versnel, H. S. “The Poetics of the Magical Charm: An Essay in the Power of Words,” in Magic and the Ritual
in the Ancient World.Edited by Paul Mirecki and Marvin Meyer. Leiden: Brill, 2002.
Voss, Angela. “Orpheus Redivivus: The Musical Magic of Marsilio Ficino” in Marsilio Ficino: His Theology,
His Philosophy, His Legacy. Edited by M.J.B. Allen & V. Rees with M. Davies: Leiden: E.J. Brill, 227-41
Walker, D. P. Spiritual and Demonic Magic from Ficino to Campanella. University Park: The Pennsylvania
State University Press, 2000.
Addey, Crystal. “Assuming the Mantle of the Gods: ‘Unknowable Names’ and Invocations in Late Antique
Theurgic Rituals” inSacred Words: Orality, Literacy and Religion (Vol. 8). Edited. by APMH Lardinois, JH
Blok & MGM Van Der Poel, Brill: Leiden-Boston 2011, 279-294.
---. Divination and Theurgy in Neoplatonism. Burlington, Ashgate, 2014.
Barry, Kieren. The Greek Qabalah: Alphabetic Mysticism and Numerology in the Ancient World. York
Beach: Samuel Weiser, 1999.
Betz, Hans Dieter, ed. The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation: Including the Demotic Spells: Texts (Vol.1).
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
---, Editor. The “Mithras Liturgy”: Text, Translation, and Commentary.Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003.
Clarke, Emma, C. Iamblichus’ De Mysteriis. Burlington, Ashgate, 2001.
DeConick, April D. “From the Bowls of Hell to Draco: The Mysteries of Peratics,” in Mystery and Secrecy in
the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices. Edited by Christian H.
Bull, Liv Ingeborg Lied and John D. Turner. Brill: Leiden, 2012.
Dieleman, Jacco. Priests, Tongues and Rites: The London-Leiden Magical Manuscripts and Translation in
Egyptian Ritual (100-300 CE). Leiden: Brill 2005.
Ficino, Marsilio. Three Books on Life. Translated and Edited by Carol V. Kaske and John R. Clark.
Binghamton, NY: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies in conjunction with the Renaissance Society
of America, 1989.
Graf, Fritz and Sarah Iles Johnston. Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets.
London: Routledge, 2007.
Guthrie, W. K. C. Orpheus and Greek Religion. New York: Norton, 1966.
Hanegraff, Wouter, J. Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Iamblichus. On the Mysteries. Translated by E. C. Clark, J. M. Dillon, J. P. Hershbell. Atlanta: Society of
Biblical Literature, 2003.
Idel, Moshe. The Mystical Experience of Abraham Abulafia. Albany: State Universityof New York Press,
1988.
Janowitz, Naomi. Poetics of Ascent: Theories of Language in a Rabbinic Ascent Text. Albany: State
Universityof New York Press, 1989.
Kaplan, Aryeh. Meditation and Kabbalah. York Beach, ME: S. Weiser, 1985.
---. Sefer Yetzirah. York Beach, ME: S. Weiser, 1997.
Kingsley, Peter. Ancient Philosophy, Mystery and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition. Oxford,
UK: Oxford University Press, 1995.
---. In the Dark Places of Wisdom. Inverness, CA: The Golden Sufi Center, 1999.
Lewis Williams, David. The Mind in The Cave. London: Thames and Hudson, 2002.
Lewy, Hans. Chaldaean Oracles and Theurgy. Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1978.
Luck, Georg. “Theurgy and Forms of Worship in Neoplatonism”, in Religion, Science, and Magic in Concert
and Conflict. Edited by J. Neusner, E.S. Frerichs, P.V.M. Flesher: New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1989,
185-225.
Majercik, Ruth. The Chaldean Oracles: Text and Translations. Leiden: Brill, 1989.
McKenna, Terence. Go to YouTube, search ‘Terence McKenna’ and see what you get!
Nicholson, Shirley, Editor. Shamanism, Wheaton IL: Quest Books, 1987.
Pentcheva, Bissera. The Sensual Icon: Space, Ritual, and the Senses in Byzantium. University Park: The
Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013.
Rappe, Sara. Reading Neoplatonism: non-discursive thinking in the texts of Plotinus, Proclus, and
Damascius. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Schibille, Nadine. Hagia Sophia and the Byzantine Aesthetic Experience. Burlington: Ashgate, 2014.
Shaw, Gregory. “Containing Ecstasy: The Strategies of Iamblichean Theurgy,” Dionysius 21 (2003) 53-88.
---. Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus. University Park: The Pennsylvania State
University Press, 1995.
Staal, Fritz. Rules without Meaning: Ritual, Mantras, and the Human Sciences. New York: P. Lang, 1990.
---. “The Search for Meaning: Mathematics, Music and Ritual.” The American Journal of Semiotics2.4 (1984):
1-57.
---. “Vedic Mantras” inUnderstanding Mantras. Albany, NY: State Universityof New York Press, 1989.
Tomlinson, Gary. Music in Renaissance Magic: Toward a Historiography of Others. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1993.
Versnel, H. S. “The Poetics of the Magical Charm: An Essay in the Power of Words,” in Magic and the Ritual
in the Ancient World.Edited by Paul Mirecki and Marvin Meyer. Leiden: Brill, 2002.
Voss, Angela. “Orpheus Redivivus: The Musical Magic of Marsilio Ficino” in Marsilio Ficino: His Theology,
His Philosophy, His Legacy. Edited by M.J.B. Allen & V. Rees with M. Davies: Leiden: E.J. Brill, 227-41
Walker, D. P. Spiritual and Demonic Magic from Ficino to Campanella. University Park: The Pennsylvania
State University Press, 2000.
