Thaumaturgy (from the
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
words θαῦμα
thaûma, stem
thaumat-, meaning "miracle" or "marvel" and ἔργον
érgon, meaning "work") is the capability of a
saintSaints, individuals of exceptional holiness, are significant in many religions, particularly Christianity.-General characteristics :Though the term is mostly used for Christians considered holy or virtuous, many religions use similar concepts to elevate people worthy of respect, e.g. see Hindu...
or magician to work
miracleA miracle is a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature, such that can be attempted to be explained by divine intervention, and is sometimes associated with a miracle worker. Many folktales, religious texts, and people claim various events they refer to as "miraculous". People in different...
s. It is sometimes translated into English as
wonderworking. A practitioner of thaumaturgy is a
thaumaturge or
miracle worker.
In original Greek writings, the term
thaumaturge is used to describe several Christian
saintSaints, individuals of exceptional holiness, are significant in many religions, particularly Christianity.-General characteristics :Though the term is mostly used for Christians considered holy or virtuous, many religions use similar concepts to elevate people worthy of respect, e.g. see Hindu...
s.
Thaumaturgy (from the
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
words θαῦμα
thaûma, stem
thaumat-, meaning "miracle" or "marvel" and ἔργον
érgon, meaning "work") is the capability of a
saintSaints, individuals of exceptional holiness, are significant in many religions, particularly Christianity.-General characteristics :Though the term is mostly used for Christians considered holy or virtuous, many religions use similar concepts to elevate people worthy of respect, e.g. see Hindu...
or magician to work
miracleA miracle is a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature, such that can be attempted to be explained by divine intervention, and is sometimes associated with a miracle worker. Many folktales, religious texts, and people claim various events they refer to as "miraculous". People in different...
s. It is sometimes translated into English as
wonderworking. A practitioner of thaumaturgy is a
thaumaturge or
miracle worker.
Christianity
In original Greek writings, the term
thaumaturge is used to describe several Christian
saintSaints, individuals of exceptional holiness, are significant in many religions, particularly Christianity.-General characteristics :Though the term is mostly used for Christians considered holy or virtuous, many religions use similar concepts to elevate people worthy of respect, e.g. see Hindu...
s. This usage carries no associations with magic, and is usually translated into English as "wonderworker". Famous ancient Christian thaumaturges include Saint Gregory of Neocaesarea, also known as Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus, Saint Nicholas of Myra, Saint Seraphim of Sarov and
Saint Ambrose of OptinaVenerable Ambrose of Optina was a starets and a hieroschemamonk in Optina Monastery, canonized in 1988 by the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.-Biography:Aleksandr was born in the family of sexton...
. The Carmelite Bishop of Fiesole, Saint Andrew Corsini (1302-1373), was also called a thaumaturge during his lifetime.
In Islam
In Sunni, Shia and Sufi
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
,
Tay al-ArdTayy al-Arḍ is the name for thaumaturgical teleportation in the mystical form of Islamic religious and philosophical tradition. The concept has been expressed as "traversing the earth without moving"; some have termed it "moving by the earth being displaced under one's feet"...
(literally "folding up of the earth") is a term used to describe a saint miraculously teleporting, or "moving by the earth being displaced under one's feet". In translations, these miracles have been described as thaumaturgical.
In Magic
In the 16th century, the word
thaumaturgy entered the English language meaning miraculous or magical powers.
The word was first anglicized and used in the magical sense in
John DeeJohn Dee was a noted mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occultist, navigator, imperialist, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. He devoted much of his life to the study of alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy....
's book
Mathematicall Praeface to Euclid's Elements (1570). He mentions an "art mathematical" called "thaumaturgy... which giveth certain order to make strange works, of the sense to be perceived and of men greatly to be wondered at."
In Dee's time, "the Mathematicks" referred not merely to the abstract computations associated with the term today, but to physical mechanical devices which employed mathematical principles in their design. These devices, operated by means of compressed air, springs, strings, pulleys or levers, were seen by unsophisticated people (who did not understand their working principles) as magical devices which could only have been made with the aid of demons and devils.
(By building such mechanical devices, Dee earned a reputation as a conjurer "dreaded" by neighborhood children. He complained of this assessment in his "Mathematicall Praeface": "And for these, and such like marvellous Actes and Feates, Naturally, and Mechanically, wrought and contrived: ought any honest Student and Modest Christian Philosopher, be counted, & called a Conjurer? Shall the folly of Idiotes, and the Malice of the Scornfull, so much prevaille... Shall that man, be (in hugger mugger) condemned, as a Companion of the hellhoundes, and a Caller, and Conjurer of wicked and damned Spirites?")
Thus thaumaturgy means making and operating physical devices, based on early engineering principles, to produce an effect. However, some who used the title thaumaturge related thaumaturgy to
theurgyTheurgy describes the practice of rituals, sometimes seen as magical in nature, performed with the intention of invoking the action or presence of one or more gods, especially with the goal of uniting with the divine, achieving henosis, and perfecting oneself.See also...
, a Greek term for a branch of magic concerned with spiritual matters. In this view, the material effect produced by a thaumaturgical device was considered to actually be caused by a spiritual ritual (theurgy), which influences the material sphere by way of the more subtle, ethereal realm.
In the Hermetic Qabalah
For example, in the
Hermetic QabalahHermetic Qabalah , is a Western esoteric and mystical tradition. It is the underlying philosophy and framework for magical societies such as the Golden Dawn, Thelemic orders, mystical societies such as the Builders of the Adytum and the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, and is a precursor to the...
mystical tradition, a person titled a Magician has the power to make subtle changes in higher realms, which in turn produce physical results. For instance, if a Magician made slight changes in the world of formation (Olam Yetzirah), such as within the Sefirah of
YesodYesod is one of the important Kabbalistic sephirot. Yesod is the sephirah below Hod and Netzach, and above Malkuth .-Yesod:The sephirah of Yesod translates spiritual concepts into actions that unite us with God....
upon which Malkuth (the material realm) is based and within which all former
SephirothSephirot , meaning "enumerations", are the 10 attributes/emanations in Kabbalah, through which God reveals Himself and continuously creates both our physical realm and the chain of higher metaphysical realms...
are brought together, then these alterations would appear in the world of action (Olam Assiah).
In philosophy
In his book,
The Gift of Death,
deconstructionist philosopherDeconstruction is the name given by French philosopher Jacques Derrida to an approach which rigorously pursues the meaning of a text to the point of undoing the oppositions on which it is apparently founded, and to the point of showing that those foundations are irreducibly complex, unstable or ...
Jacques DerridaJacques Derrida was a French philosopher born in Algeria, who is known as the founder of deconstruction. His voluminous work had a profound impact upon literary theory and continental philosophy...
refers to
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
as thaumaturgy. His reading is based on a deconstruction of the origin of the concepts of responsibility, faith, and gift.
External sources