I was just musing that my understanding of Deleuze’s advocacy for the occupation of different plateaus in his proposed endeavour of an intellectual Nomadism- isn’t dissimilar to a Hermetic Theurgy of sorts. The former being the occupation or maximisation of a value system; I imagine the mountains of an identity-plane – the pinnacles representing the pure forms of contemporary Jungian archetypes. Deleuze suggests that instead of being ‘locked’ to a certain idea of ourselves based upon our former experience and environment and conditioning- that we instead explore the infinite plethora of mediums and mannerisms by which we can possibly express ourselves; a constant state of becoming – doing away with stagnation of personality. We climb those plateaus each, considering the qualities of character and the value systems that each archetype represents- and we reach as high as we can- shedding the unnecessary baggage of habitual modes of expression that we ingrain and entrench ourselves in over the years, while keeping the bits of identity-experience that speak to our soul and that make us better people. When we feel that we have done our best- we pick another peak, and choose our lines of flight. You know when Frank Sinatra sings “I’ve been a Puppet a Pauper a Pirate a Poet, a Pawn and a King”? Yeah, basically that.
Hermetic Theurgy is the practice of invoking certain deities, sometimes by embodying their representation- one of the most famous historical examples of this would be that of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra as Dionysus-Osiris and Isis-Aphrodite (they loved their syncretisms). This is done in the hope of bringing the individual closer to the divine, and for their personal and spiritual development.
If we take the mythological pantheons of gods and use them as our archetypal plateaus- we’ve got pretty much the same two ideas here, which is an interesting if not novel comparison. Perhaps there was more than a little magic to Deleuze’s ideas- and how apt a sponsor Dionysus would’ve been.
Aethnen 
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