Genesis, the Gospels, and the Apocalypse dominate the readings for the Our Father Course. Since those books (and there are others) are understood by Valentin Tomberg to be composed of spiritual exercises, he gives us some clues about how to read such books. Keep these points in mind as you do the meditative readings for day. In particular, in the Meditations, Tomberg explains how to read the Apocalypse as well as the Gospels. These techniques will apply to the other readings as well.
How to read the Apocalypse
You may come to a different understanding from Tomberg’s commentary on the Course. But this is how he suggests reading the Apocalpyse:
the “key” to the Apocalypse of St. John is nowhere to be found… for it is not at all a matter of interpreting it with a view to extracting a philosophical, metaphysical or historical system. The key to the Apocalypse is to practise it, i.e. to make use of it as a book of spiritual exercises which awaken from sleep ever-deeper layers of consciousness.
The seven letters to the churches, the seven seals of the sealed book, the seven trumpets and the seven vials signify, all together, a course of spiritual exercises composed of twenty-eight exercises. For as the Apocalypse is a revelation put into writing, it is necessary, in order to understand it, to establish in oneself a state of consciousness which is suited to receive revelations.
- It is the state of concentration without effort (taught by the first Arcanum),
- followed by a vigilant inner silence (taught by the second Arcanum),
- which becomes an inspired activity of imagination and thought, where the conscious self acts together with superconsciousness (teaching of the third Arcanum).
- Lastly, the conscious self halts its creative activity and contemplates —in letting pass in review—everything which preceded, with a view to summarising it (practical teaching of the fourth Arcanum).
The mastery of these four psychurgical operations, symbolised by “The Magician”, The High Priestess”, “The Empress” and “The Emperor”, is the key to the Apocalypse. One will search in vain for another.
How to read the Gospels
This requires the use of the imagination (step 3 above) to properly read the Gospels. This is so radically different from the scholarly techniques of textual analysis, etc., which mostly desiccate the texts.
The Gospels, likewise, are spiritual exercises, i.e. one has not only to read and re-read them, but also to plunge entirely into their element, to breathe their air, to Participate as an eye-witness, as it were, in the events described there — and all this not in a scrutinising way, but as an “admirer”, with ever-growing admiration.
The Higher Self
I recently listened to a super-correct theologian who objected to Hermetic teaching, calling the idea of raising one’s state of consciousness “satanic”. It is best to leave such types at peace, but, for us, we follow St Bonaventura, St Augustine, John Climacus, Dante, St John of the Cross, and many others who documented the ascent to God. I have documented their teachings on my blog; I do not create new doctrines. Tomberg uses terms derived from Steiner to represent these higher states; I’ll probably continue to use them as a convenience, but that does not mean a full endorsement of Anthroposophy. Thomas Aquinas claimed we cannot know God in his essence in this life, yet we can go as far as we are capable of. This is how Tomberg describes it in the Meditations:
The transcendental Self is not God. It is in his image and after his likeness, according to the law of analogy or kinship, but it is not identical with God. There are still several degrees on the ladder of analogy which separate it from the summit of the ladder —from God. These degrees which are higher than it are its “stars”—or the ideals to which it aims. The Apocalypse specifies the number of them: there are twelve degrees higher than that of the consciousness of the human transcendental Self. It is necessary, therefore, in order to attain to the ONE God, to elevate oneself successively to degrees of consciousness of the nine spiritual hierarchies and the Holy Trinity.