[2][3] Theurgy describes the ritual practices associated with the invocation or evocation of the presence of one or more deities, especially with the goal of achieving henosis (uniting with the divine) and perfecting oneself.
The first recorded use of the term is found in the mid-second-century neoplatonist work the Chaldean Oracles (Fragment 153 des Places (Paris, 1971): 'For the theourgoí do not fall under the fate-governed herd').
[8] Iamblichus believed theurgy was an imitation of the gods, and in his major work, On the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians, he described theurgic observance as "ritualized cosmogony" that endowed embodied souls with the divine responsibility of creating and preserving the cosmos.
Theurgy is a series of rituals and operations aimed at recovering the transcendent essence by retracing the divine 'signatures' through the layers of being.
Because of his untimely death and the hold mainstream Christianity had over the empire at the time, this was ultimately unsuccessful, but he did produce several works of philosophy and theology, including a popular hymn to the sun.
He continues by stating that theology equally "encourages a theurgy which is a social work of maximising democratic participation and socialist sharing".
[13] Some organizations, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, teach a type of theurgy that would help one ascend spiritually as well as understand the true nature of the self and its relation to the Divine and the Universe.