Thursday, January 6, 2011

What does "theurj" mean?

What does “theurj” mean? For years my internet pen name has been “theurj.” Occasionally someone will ask what that name means. Some will notice that it can be broken into two words, “the” and “urj,” the latter sounding like “urge.” So of course what is the urge? Many assume the urge is sex, indeed next to eating being a primary, urgent necessity. But there are of course many urges, and the prefix “the” does have specific denotations. For example it is part of the word “theology,” meaning the study of divinity, aka theism. It is also part of the word “theurgy,” where my name has more direct and specific relevance. Theurgy is defined as “a system of beneficent magic practiced by the Egyptian Platonists and others” (see dictionary.com) and translates more directly as god working. Theurj is a diminutive of the magical motto I took upon entering the Golden Dawn back in the mid 90s, which was indeed a modern representative of said Egyptian (neo)Platonists. God working in this regard was specifically related to taking on “godforms” in ritual, i.e., letting various gods inhabit one during the period of the ritual, different gods(desses) depending on the ritual role one played.

Although I left the Order after 6 years on my road to the postmetaphysical, I still retain the internet name because I now connote to it a nondual understanding. It is that combination of divinity (the) with sexuality and body (urj) that together are both, yet neither. They cannot be separated into a dichotomy so hence there is no absolute distinction between god and the devil, spirituality and sexuality, mind and body. Yet there are indeed different, not identical. They are not one, not two, yet two and one. That is, they are nondual in an integral postmetaphysical way, at least as I perceive and interpret it. I'll say a lot more about nonduality in future posts.

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