Black Magic

In ancient Persia the Zoroastrian priests’ knowledge included philosophy, religion, astronomy, mathematics, and they referred to it simply as maghavan - magic.

The magician, through his scholarship and practices, knows both the forces and energies acting within the universe, but can also control them. Believing in the dogma of universal sympathy—a network of forces that constantly unifies the whole cosmic reality—the magician is fully conscious that everything is affected by everything, so he is not content simply to study these links and energies, but also wants to dominate and control them. He is also able to get in touch with the dimension of the divine in order to learn its secrets and therefore to live in harmony with it.

Porphyry of Tyre (whose book Philosophy from Oracles and Against the Christians was banned by Constantine the Great) fits perfectly into this concept and argues that the biblical Magi come from ancient Persia and are 'wise about the divine'. The access to such knowledge and the practices related to it for the management and the control of the cosmic forces, as in all priestly communities, is gradual and follows a strict timing of maturation and exercise.

Thus, the Magi are divided into three orders: the first are those who show a perfect self-control and have power on the cosmic forces, as well as exercise certain practices that cannot be disclosed to other members of the caste; the second order consists of those magicians who have less knowledge and a less powerful force of mind; the third are those who are still at an early stage.

According to Porphyry the more experienced and elderly among the Magi have the ability to get in touch with the gods thanks to their knowledge of the divine names, incomprehensible to the human ear, but indispensable for the correct invocation of the god. These names and these prayers have been disclosed by the gods directly to the Magi, who know how to invoke the deity seven times, as the wisest of them (that is Apollo) unveiled, and as the ancient magician Ostanes did.

Porphyry distinguishes six categories of gods, that can be classified into celestial, ethereal, aerial, terrestrial, marine and infernal. In De abstinentia after talking about the gods, he describes two kinds of lower spirits, i.e. the demons, the good ones and the bad ones.

On top of this hierarchy of infernal demons there are two gods: Serapis and Hecate who rule the evil demons, with whom Cerberus is also associated - the three-headed dog that symbolizes the evil demons and is threefold since the number three is the symbol of the bodily and terrestrial nature.

In 'Philosophia ex oraculis' Serapis is described with a tunic, long hair and a bushy beard, all features that are intended to confer authority, majesty and wisdom to the divinity; on his head he wears a calathos, an object used as the unit of measure for grain emphasizing the purely earthly nature of the god; he holds a sceptre with his left arm while his right arm is near Cerberus: this gesture symbolizes the control of Serapis on the three-headed dog, the emblem of all the demons and evil spirits. Clearly Serapis has evolved from Pluto, lord of the underworld.

Porphyry also talks about Hecate. He says she is queen of the demons of underworld: the virgin goddess of many faces, cruel, with three bull’s heads, holding the three symbols of the elements of nature and earth, governed by her black dogs - the demons of underworld. Hecate holds a whip with which she dominates the infernal demons. Elsewhere, the goddess can be represented with a sword to which a snake is twisted, holding a key symbolizing the control on the doors of underworld and the access or exit from Hades.

The infernal triad ends with Cerberus, the evil demon par excellence, depicted with three heads, with the tail like a snake and a myriad of snakes rising from its back. Cerberus, as stated in Philosophia ex oraculis, is the symbol of the infernal demons located in the three elements, water, earth and air. The evil demons, represented by the three-headed dog, are often depicted as black dogs: they howl at the full moon terrifying men, but tremble in the presence and vision of Hecate.

It is the infernal gods and evil demons who practice black magic and are also its recipients and use the magician to effectuate the evocative ritual and their misdeeds. And because it is accomplished by the gods and demons from underworld, and at the same time it is aimed at them, this magic is called black: black in fact is the symbolic colour of the ground and of the dark matter and therefore of the spiritual entities related to it. Black must also be the objects used during the magical ritual, the vestments used by the sorcerer during the execution of the rite, and also the animals sacrificed on the altar, and even the blood dripping from the sacrificial victims is “(similar) to the black wine"