The Unarmed Gods. Astral Implications in Certain Magical Formulas

Abstract

One of the basic principles of the religious attitude of the magicians is the possibility to involve superior beings (gods, demons, engels or other entities) in the fulfillment of their desires
and objectives. The most common forms of involvement are the prayers with which the magician looks for to submit their will so that with their power they fulfill the well-being or the curse pursuited by the ritual formula. The problem appears when these higher beings are the stars whose pretended own will being is subject to the mechanical movement of the universe, which they can not change In this case, effectiveness does not depend on the voluntary power of the conjurated higher beings, but on their astronomical positions and astrological attributions that Ptolemy wanted reduce to pretended scientific parameters. In my proposal I will start with some magical formulas of astral component to show how the rituals and aims indicated in them are really in keeping with the astrological doctrine of the Tetrabiblos and how only when the planets swere transformed to instrument of a superior divinity they recovered their own will and hat the possibility to modify the future according to their astrologicals arms, that they never lost.