Apollonius Tyanaeus

He traveled to Assyria, Babylonia, Greece, Italy, Spain, Egypt, and India, curing the sick and studying with the learned. He almost certainly was influenced by Jain teachers, then known as “Gymnosophists,” and may have been influenced by Buddhists as well. Later, he became an initiate of the Eleusinian Mysteries. 

In his travels, he became well known as a man of the loftiest character, a gifted healer, and a charismatic spiritual leader. He developed a considerable following. Many fantastic legends of his feats of prophecy and miracle-working were recorded after his death, and he came to be regarded as a “divine being.” He is probably one of the models for the syncretistic figure of Christ, and many anecdotes in the life story of Apollonius are duplicated in that of Jesus. No writings of Apollonius survive, but his detailed life story was assembled from the records of his friends and associates by the scholar Flavius Philostratus (172 – 250 EV) at the command of the emperor Severus.

Eliphas Lévi’s only recorded act of ceremonial magic was the conjuring of the spirit of Apollonius of Tyana. Lévi also translated a document called the “Nuctemeron of Apollonius of Tyana” which he published as a supplement to Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. Despite the title, the document is almost certainly not the work of Apollonius Tyanaeus.

References

• Barrett, Francis; The Magus, or Celestial Intelligencer [1801], Citadel, Secaucus, NJ 1967

• Forlong, J.G.R.; Faiths of Man, a Cyclopaedia of Religions [Bernard Quaritch, 1906], University Books, NY 1964

• Lévi, Eliphas; Transcendental Magic, translated by A.E. Waite [1896], Samuel Weiser, York Beach, Maine 1970/1986

• Mead, G.R.S.; Apollonius of Tyana, the Philosopher-Reformer of the Fisrt Century A.D., University Books, NY 1966

• Rohmer, Sax; The Romance of Sorcery, Causeway, NY 1973