Category: Hermetic Tradition

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Enriching the Tradition

What follows is my translation of the preface from the French edition of Meditations on the Tarot, which differs in subtle ways from the authorized English translation. Since the letters were written in French for a definite reason, it is not unimportant to refer to that text. Understanding this preface will make clear the aim and method of the meditations and we should take what Tomberg says here with great seriousness.

First of all, the reader will come to know what Christian Hermetism really is, but only after meditating, not just reading, the letters. The meditations also reveal much about the author; hence, one should be way about relying on rumours, speculations, or third party reports that would contradict or add to anything in the letters themselves.

So the letters constitute a work about Christian Hermetism and the intent is to draw others into that stream, thereby enriching the Tradition. Note that, although the author lived in England, he chose the French current of Hermetism over the British. The British version of Hermetism, transmitted particularly through the Golden Dawn order and its many offshoots, is pagan, whereas the French version is Christian.

Finally, Christian Hermetism is not a set of static dogmas, but a living current of Tradition that depends on like-minded spirits for its continuation. The manner in which Tomberg proposes to “enrich” that Tradition is explained in the letters, but it has to do with reuniting the Church of Peter with the Church of John.

Preface

These meditations on the major arcana of the Tarot take the form of letters addressed to the unknown friend. This unknown friend is everyone who will read them, and after meditated on them, he will know with certainty what Christian Hermetism is. He will see that through these letters the author says more about himself than he could have in any other way, and he will know him better, thanks to them, than from any other source.

These letters were written in French—which is not the mother tongue of the author—because it is in France, and in France alone, that a living literature on the tarot has continued since the 18th century. Moreover, there exists there as well a continuous tradition of Hermetism, which joins the spirit of free research with respect for the Tradition. These letters, throughout their contents, will thus be able to become an integral part of the Tradition, as well as enriching it.

In the capacity of support of and contribution to the Hermetic tradition, whose origin is lost in the night of time that has become mythical, the epoch of Hermes Trismegistus, these letters are the concrete expression of an ancient current of thought, effort, and revelation. Their goal is to make the Tradition come alive again in the 20th century, but also, and especially, to enable the reader, the unknown friend, to immerse himself in this current, perhaps in a definitive way. That is why the numerous citations of ancient and modern authors that you will find in these texts are due neither to literary considerations, nor to a concern for erudition. They intend only to evoke the masters of the Tradition, so that they may be present, with their aspirations and the light of their thought, in the current of meditation that these letters illustrate, these twenty two spiritual exercises that will enable you, dear unknown friend, to immerse yourself in the current of the living Tradition and to penetrate to the heart of the community of spirits who have served it and are serving it. The citations are there only to point out this community. For the links of the chain of the Tradition are not made of thoughts and efforts alone, but, above all, of living beings who are at the origin of these thoughts or efforts. The essence of the Tradition is not a doctrine, but a community of spirits that endures from age to age.

From beyond the grave, your friend greets you, dear unknown friend.

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The Future of Prophecy


Ezekiels Vision
Ezekiel’s Vision

Among the biblical books containing magical formulas, Valentin Tomberg lists the Book of Ezekiel. Moreover, a Hermetist who made Ezekiel’s vision the object of spiritual exercises, would likely become a “profound Cabbalist”. If that is true, then we can regard Pope St Gregory the Great as perhaps the first Cabbalist in the Church. Gregory’s meditations on Ezekiel run to nearly 500 pages in the English translation, yet he only manages to cover about 5 chapters or so.

Under the inspiration of Almighty God, Gregory begins by first explaining the three tenses of prophecy: future, present, past, although we typically consider prophecy applying to the future only. He gives some examples of each:
Continue reading “The Future of Prophecy”

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Solar and Lunar Initiation

Christian initiation is the conscious experience of the heart of the world and the solar nature of man. ~ Valentin Tomberg

If Hermetism has provided a safeguard for nearly twenty centuries, it must be said that circumstances have now changed. At the current point in history, as at the time of the Coming of Christ, the veil has been partially raised. Therefore, for those who want to advance beyond book knowledge, which never goes beyond the domain of information; for those who intensely seek the true sense of life, who want to understand the significance of the mission of the Christian in the New Era, the possibility will exist of initiation into this divine Wisdom, mysterious and hidden. ~ Boris Mouravieff, Gnosis I

Classic initiation formula: try to grasp that which, once learned, you will know all. ~ Boris Mouravieff, Gnosis II

In his Meditation on the Lovers, Tomberg describes the experience of Initiation. Along the way, he teaches us how to understand symbolic texts. Commenting on the story of creation in Genesis, he points out that the true of that story lies not in its allegedly historical details—viz., the Garden, Tree, Serpence, etc.—but in our inner experience. By penetrating into the depths of the soul, one can recover a sense of the Primordial state and how it was lost. To make clear, this is not the same as some pseudo-intellectual description of symbols, but rather of conscious efforts to recreate that story in consciousness.

This, he says is knowledge of the “beginning”, initium, which knowledge is called initiation. As Mouravieff also points out, initiation now takes place on a spiritual plane, not on the material. Tomberg concurs, when he writes, “God-man is the Initiator and there is no other.”

This descent into the depths of the human being is called Hermetic Initiation by Tomberg. Its method is enstasy, which is the aim of the jnani in the Vedantic systems. Following this path, the Initiate descends into the depths of his soul, until he awakens to the primordial layer of his soul as the “image and likeness of God”. This is the alchemical creation of the true I or Will, the experience of the Microcosm.

The second type of initiation involves ecstasy, or the going outside oneself, leaving the Self behind to be absorbed in God or Heaven. This is what is commonly known as mystical experience. The Initiate reaches the beginning in terms of the Macrocosm. There is no need to discuss this at this point, since the literature is so vast.

However, it is the first type of initiation that is less known or even rejected when it is made known. However, in our time, when man has no experience of the Macrocosm nor even understands who he is, it is the necessary path. In the past, the development of the Self has been referred to as the Left Hand Path, in contrast to those paths that seek to annihilate the Self. Mouravieff goes so far as to point out the dangers of seeking ecstasy for its own sake. He points out that this often involves the use of drugs, or entheogens. Quite clearly, if the aim is consciousness of the Self and development of the Will, any drug induced stupor leads in the totally opposite direction.

For Mouravieff, then, the path of the Initiate in the Era of the Holy Spirit is the development of the I. Nevertheless, this does not preclude the experience of the Macrocosm as found in his elaborate cosmology, but rather that it must be done so consciously.

Tomberg insists the Christian esotericism unites the two paths. So, like the left hand paths, he proclaims the knowledge of the Self. Yet unlike those unbalanced deviations that see no more than material reality, Tomberg makes clear that the true Initiate must also be initiated in the right hand path. The following chart summarizes Tomberg’s description of the two methods.

Solar Initiation Lunar Initiation
Left Hand Path Right Hand Path
Disciples of day Disciples of night
Hermetic initiation Pythagorean initiation
Conscious experience of the Initial microcosmic state Conscious experience of the initial macrocosmic state
Conscious descent into the depth of the human being Conscious ascent into the Empyrean
Enstasy Ecstasy
Experience at the depths at the foundation within oneself Rapture, or going out of oneself
one becomes more and more profound until one awakens within oneself to the rimordial layer (the image and likeness of God( The macrocosmic layers (spheres or heavens or Empyrean) reveal themselves to consciousness
The sense of spiritual touch The sense of spiritual hearing
Like a chemical experiment undergone on the psychic and spiritual plane (alchemical and substantial) Musical (music of the spheres) & mathematical
Beginning is the microcosmic layer of Eden Beginning is the macrocosmic sphere of Heaven
Sacred Heart (the intellectual center of man) Cosmic Word (the Logos)
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The Vow of Poverty

Valentin Tomberg describes the purpose of the practice of poverty:

The practice of poverty pins down the tendencies of the thief in the human being whose male side tends to seize and female side to keep indefinitely instead of waiting for the free gift or merited fruits of one’s labour.

Obviously, he does not mean material poverty in itself, since a material cause cannot effect a spiritual change. It is interesting to note how this corresponds to the Bhagavad Gita, where we read Krishna’s advice to Arjuna:

Be free from the pairs of opposites. Be always established in sattva. Do not try to acquire what you lack or preserve what you have. Be established in the Self. (2:15)

Here he is referring to the three gunas, or fundamental forces. Rajas is the active (male) principle that seeks to acquire, while the tamas is the inertial (female) principle that seeks to horde. Sattva, serenity and harmony, is the equilibrium between rajas and tamas. Tomberg describes the practice of spiritual poverty in these words:

The vow of poverty is the practice of inner emptiness that is established as a consequence of the silence of personal desires, emotions and imagination so that the soul may be capable of receiving the revelation of the Word, the life and the light from above. Poverty is the active perpetual vigil and waiting in the face of eternal sources of creativity; it is the soul ready for what is new and unexpected, it is the aptitude to learn always and
everywhere, it is the condition sine qua non of all illumination, all revelation and all initiation.

In the light of this, our understanding of the inclinations to seize and horde is deepened. Poverty of spirit must first follow obedience. Obedience is the silencing of personal desires, emotions, and imagination, by making them subject to the dictates of reason, conscience, and legitimate authority. We may also want to add here the silencing of personal opinion.

Without this silencing, illumination and revelation are impossible; we cannot hear the new and unexpected, since all we hear are our old and persistent expectations. The desire to seize leads us to claim an understanding that is not ours. When our mind is emptied, we may receive the free gift of the Spirit which is the revelation of the Word. Otherwise, we are hearing what we want to hear, that which satisfies a secret desire, makes us “feel” good or important, enflames our imagination with fantasies of power or success. There is a simple touchstone we can use to discern the spirits.

  1. Is what we hear reasonable?
  2. Is what we hear good and consistent with the moral law, or does it perturb our conscience?
  3. Is it consistent with spiritual and other legitimate authority?

The second obstacle is the desire to horde. The female desire to horde means that we hang on to our personal opinions and theories. This takes many forms and it is quite common in milieus of this type. In this case, we cannot hear anything new, since everything is filtered through our prior expectations. We may belong to some political, religious, or intellectual movement that colours all our perceptions. This is subjectivity, or “arbitrary, personal activity”, as Tomberg puts it. This subjectivity is an obstacle to the realization of the Holy Spirit. Its opposite is objectivity, as explained below:

The prerogative of the human state is objectivity; the essential content of which is the Absolute. There is no knowledge without objectivity of the intelligence; there is no freedom without objectivity of the will; and there is no nobility without objectivity of the soul . . . Esoterism seeks to realize pure and direct objectvity; this is its raison d’etre. ~ Frithjof Schuon, Esoterism As Principle and As Way

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Spiritual Friendship

Aristotle tells us there are three reasons for friendship: good character, utility, or pleasure; only the first is not defective, so it is the only ground for true friends. So to be one of the Unknown friends, we aspire for the same character and knowledge of the author of Meditations on the Tarot. To understand him, we also engage in the Moral Purification of the Will. A true friend is like another “self”, since he has the same character, shares in common activities, and works toward the same goals. In the Introduction to the Meditations, the author states his goal: to enrich the Hermetic tradition. Thus his true friends have the same goal and work towards that end.

A different kind of friendship is based on utility or pleasure. Thus two friends may cooperate as long as they are useful to each other or bring each other pleasure. However, such a friendship is shallow and usually ends abruptly when one party becomes useless to the other. There are many more such friends of the Meditations than there are true friends. They have their own agendas and their own goals. The Meditations may be useful to them to attract adherents, students, or paying customers. Sincere seekers of true friendship will then often be misled on the path, only to suffer disillusionment later on.

Aristotle tells us that one’s true friends will be few. There are not too many who will read a book such as the Meditations. Fewer still will embrace it and its goals wholeheartedly. Few among them will actually do the meditations and develop a disinterested moral character. Among these few, it will be difficult for them to find and get to know each other. Nevertheless, these few friends will somehow recognize each other. True friends of the Meditations will help each other understand the text in depth.

I have translated the following passage from Arcana XX: Judgment, where the author explains this. He clearly expects his true Friends to carry on the work that he himself was carrying on from his own friends. In that spirit, this blog wishes carry on that work. Note especially his plea that NO organisation be established to carry on this work. So beware of any group that has goals that differ from the clearly stated goals of the Author. Be leery of anyone who wants to charge you for classes. Question anyone who claims to have inside or special knowledge apart from the text itself. The sure way to understand the Meditations is to do the meditations oneself.

Dear Unknown Friend, you who are reading these lines written in 1965 after some 50 years of effort and experience in the field of Hermetism, please do not regard them as a simple wish in support of the progress of Hermetic historicism, but as a legacy making you who read these lines the agent of such a task, provided you consent to it. Therefore, do what you judge to be good, but I implore you not to do just one thing: to found an organisation, an association, a society, or an order which would be charged with that task. For the Tradition lives, not thanks to organisations, but in spite of them. In order to preserve the life of a tradition, friendship pure and simple is necessary; what is not needed is to entrust it to the care of embalmers and mummifiers par excellence which organisations are, except for the one founded by Jesus Christ.