In the current time, despite the ever-increasing attractiveness of the New Age, the occult and the Eastern religions, we tend to have a materialist outlook. Even our dabbling in the occult or other religions are seen more as useful and about self-fufilment rather than worship. This is to be contrasted with true religion, founded on humility before the Divine.
It is somewhat counter-intuitive to link dry and objective science with anything mystical, but science originated in the esoteric worlds of alchemy and the occult. Newton was fascinated by occult ideas and early chemistry sprang from esoteric alchemy. Indeed, scratch the surface a little and we find the same underlying desire in both the occult and the scientific mindset - the grasping of power to manipulate the world. Nature is then, in Heideggerian terms, standing reserve and we impose our will on it to exploit it from a position of Machenschaft.
Today we see a re-emergence of pseudo religious ideas in the manifestation of singularity and the technicians' belief in immortality through technology - the creation of own own hands that seems to be controlling us and that we worship.
In today's world of objective and rationalist science we see the reappearance of old and esoteric beliefs that are premised on attaining power, immortality and deification through our own manipulative efforts. It might seem incongruous, but what manifests in both magic and science was there from the beginning, - the grasping at the fruit of knowledge, contrary to God's plan for his naive and immature creation, Man.
Such a spirit underpinned many of the pagan rites of initiation whether in the tradition of Mithras or Pythagoras. The Neoplatonists made use of theurgy, which was a formulaic way of achieving deification. By using certain incantations to invoke the divine, one is entering magical practice and thereby the manipulation of the divine or nature to achieve one's ends. And these same processes as used in magic and theurgy, whether neoplatonic or alchemist, are in fact a form of techne - the manipulation of the world for own own ends and the attainment of power over God or the cosmos.
From the perspective of faithful humility the praxis of magic, theurgy, alchemy, science and technology are forms of manipulation and domination, therefore being regarded to an extent as Luciferian. Despite false dichotomies presented today, from the perspective that matters, one of humility, these different forms of praxis are all linked to the Fall - they are all grasping attempts at manipulation.
Humility is then the key distinction from these manipulative forms of praxis. How we should have acted in the Garden was through a spirit of humility, not through pride attempting to seize power to achieve eternal life and knowledge disregarding our Creator.
There is a way to deification and it is not through the self realisation of alchemic or occult theurgies. It is in a spirit of humility and faithful trust expressed in prayer. Saint Seraphim of Sarov spoke of acquisition of the Holy Spirit as achieved by a life of Christian virtues. Primarily the grace of the Holy Spirit is attained through prayer. Prayer is the act of asking, not grasping and to ask is to act in the spirit of humility and trust.
To attain theosis the Fathers teach is to be deified. And the means is a life of Christian virtue and prayer, The possibility of acquiring the Holy Spirit is only possible because "God became Man that men might become gods" as both Saint Irenaeus of Lyons and Saint Athanasius, the great opponent of Arianism, said.
What this means is that any dichotomy between technology and the occult or chemistry and alchemy is false if the scientific work is in the spirit of pride, defiance and acquisitiveness. If we are grasping at power to be like gods, while bypassing God, be that through creating artificial intelligence, developing the atom bomb or engaging in New-Age meditation, we are replaying the story of the Fall from the Garden. Furthermore, we are mistaken if we attempt to separate the cold rationalism of science from the esoteric world of magic and the occult. These are different sides of the same coin when science becomes scientism and both have their origin in Luciferian pride, and are the ensnaring by Lucifer the beautiful evening star who distracts us from the Father of Lights and our salvation.
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