Plunging in the currents of the Hermetic Tradition
One often hears the lament, even from spiritual or religious people, “Why should I be judged, when I didn’t even choose to be born?” Valentin Tomberg, in the Letter on Death, formulates a response to that question:
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The first and fundamental principle of esoterism (i.e. of the way of experience of the reality of the spirit) can be rendered by the formula:
Learn at first concentration without effort; transform work into play; make every yoke that you have accepted easy and every burden that you carry light! ~ Valentin Tomberg, Meditations on the Tarot
Here we have a definition and a principle. Esoterism is the “way of the experience of the reality of the spirit”. Hence, there can be no ultimate “esoteric interpretation” of a text if by that is meant a verbal formulation. In spiritual works, there are four levels of interpretation:
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Wisdom has built her house, she has set up her seven pillars. (Proverbs IX.1)
The Bateleur represents Unity, which transcends thought, desire, volition, that is, the entire world process. It represents Intuition, mystical awareness, or a cognition beyond discursive thought. This “first act of intelligence” is a gift of the Spirit, who blows he wills, so it is not the customary way we know.
In ordinary life, to know is to be conscious of something, so duality arises, represented by the High Priestess. This “other” is the reflection of Spirit, represented by Water. This is the feminine principle, the Divine Sophia, which builds the house of Being. Thus, everything in the world of form is actually the symbol or “signature” of Transcendence, in the words of Schwaller de Lubicz.
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In the essay On Magic, Giordano Bruno discusses the existence and action of non-human spirits. The practice of invoking god, demons, and heroes is the branch of magic called theurgy. He calls this the “magic of the hopeless” because they often become the vessels of evil demons. A safer practice is to learn to command and control lower demons through higher spirits. Valentin Tomberg describes theurgy in a similar way:
With respect to the cult of the “gods” and the iconolatry that this cult entailed, the “pagan” initiates and philosophers saw in it the practice of theurgy, i.e. that of intercourse with entities of the celestial hierarchies either by raising themselves to them, or by rendering possible their descent and presence on earth.
But when the artichoke flowers, and the chirping grasshopper sits in a tree and pours down his shrill song continually from under his wings in the season of wearisome heat, then goats are plumpest and wine sweetest; women are most wanton, but men are feeblest, because Sirius parches head and knees and the skin is dry through heat. ~ Hesiod
According to Valentin Tomberg, the Minor Arcana represent an extension to the final Major Arcanum, The World. As such, they represent an ascent, known as Jacob’s Ladder.
The Minor Arcana of the Tarot represent the way of ascent from consciousness belonging to the world of action (the phenomenal world) through the world of formation and the world of creation to the world of emanation.
The suit of Pentacles corresponds to Assiah, or the World of Action. This is the mixed, or dualistic world. Not fully God’s creation, it is the result of Adam’s fall. It is ruled by Satan, the Prince of the World. Tomberg explains:
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