Tag: Carl Jung

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The Futurity of the Archetype

Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. ~ Mark 10:15

The climax to the Letter on the Magician is the transformation of the Child or Puer archetype into the Self archetype represented by the Magician.

Analogy and Play

The value of an analogy depends on the quality of one’s experience. But the method of analogy corresponds to “concentration without effort”. Specifically, the analogy is either directly intuited or it is not. The rational intellect is of not help, except as preparatory work. This preparation requires the accumulation of experiences and study of the teachings. Only in that way can the faculty of immediate perception of analogous correspondences be developed. We read in the Letter:

The practice of analogy on the intellectual plane of consciousness does not, in fact, demand any effort; cither one perceives (“sees”) analogous correspondences or one docs not perceive or “see” them. Just as the magician or juggler has had to train and work for a long time before attaining the ability of concentration without effort, similarly he who makes use of the method of analogy on the intellectual plane must have worked much —i.e. to have acquired long experience and to have accumulated the teachings which it requires — before attaining the faculty of immediate perception of analogous correspondences, before becoming a “magician” or “juggler” who makes use of the analogy of beings and of things without effort as in a game.

As a form of “play”, the method of analogy becomes almost childlike. The child plays rather than works, yet he is concentrated, with a complete and undivided attention. Hence, the Arcanum of the Magician represents intellectual genius which Tomberg defines as the

vision of the unity of beings and things through the immediate perception of their correspondences—through consciousness concentrated without effort.

The Inner Child

Analogously, the attitude of the child needs to be our attitude when approaching the kingdom of God: to once again become whole and undivided. To be sure, that does not mean at all to become puerile; to be child-like is not the same as to be childish.

There is chatter today about awakening the “Inner Child” as though that were some difficult, not to mention desirable, outcome. If you pout when you don’t get your way, you have awakened it.

No, psychurgical practice is the transformation of consciousness rising from plane to plane. Hence, to become again like a child means to recapitulate the childlike qualities at a higher level of consciousness, i.e., intellectual genius. The child “carries only easy burdens and renders all his yokes light.”

Harmony and Equilibrium

Tomberg refers to Carl Jung and Friedrich Schiller to illustrate his point. The Magician represents the man

  • Who has attained harmony and equilibrium
  • Between the spontaneity of the unconsciousness (as understood by Jung)
  • And the deliberate action of the consciousness (as an “I” or ego)

In other words, this state is the synthesis of the conscious and the unconscious elements of the personality. This corresponds to the process of “individuation” as described by Jung. This is the passage from Essays on a Science of Mythology by Jung and Kerenyi referenced in the letter.

The Science of Mythology

One of the essential features of the child-motif is its futurity. The child is potential future, hence the occurrence of the child-motif in the psychology of the individual signifies as a rule an anticipation of future developments, even though at first sight it may seem to be a retrospective configuration. Life is a flux, a flowing into the future, and not a stoppage or a back wash, it is therefore not surprising that so many of the mythological saviors are child-gods. This corresponds exactly to our experience in the psychology of the individual, which shows that the “child” paves the way for a future change of personality.

In the individuation process, it anticipates the figure that comes from the synthesis of conscious and unconscious elements in the personality. It is therefore a uniting symbol which unites the opposites; a mediator, bringer of healing, that is, one who makes whole. Because it has this meaning, the child-motif is capable of the numerous transformations mentioned above: it can be expressed by roundness, the circle or sphere, or else by the quaternity as another form of wholeness. I have called this consciousness-transcending wholeness “self.” The purpose of the individuation process is the synthesis of the self. From another point of view the term “entelechy” might be preferable to “synthesis.” There Is an empirical reason why “entelechy” is, in certain conditions, more fitting: the symbols of wholeness frequently occur at the beginning of the individuation process, indeed they can often be observed in the first dreams of early infancy.

This observation says much for the a priori existence of potential wholeness, and on this account the idea of entelechy instantly recommends itself. But insofar as the individuation process occurs, empirically speaking, as a synthesis, it looks, paradoxically enough, as if something already existent were being put together. From this point of view, the term “synthesis” is also applicable.

from Essays on a Science of Mythology by Jung and Kerenyi
H/T: Matthew Anderson for locating the Jung/Kerenyi passage.

Entelechy and Synthesis

This passage from Jung and Kerenyi illustrates Tomberg’s points beautifully. The child is not the goal, but rather points the way to the goal. In an instinctive way, the child unites the opposites of the conscious and unconscious elements. That is, it is the analogy of the Self, which is the culmination of the individuation process.

The self is the result of a synthesis, viz., of the conscious and unconscious elements. It is also an entelechy, that is, that actualization of a potential. In other words, the Self exists first as a possibility, but the work of synthesis makes it actual.

Note how this esoteric understanding of actualization differs from conceptions common today. The Self represents Wholeness; it is transcendent, not empirical. The Hermetic path leads to wholeness, to a single unified being.

Contemporary ideals of self-actualization involve realizing different empirical possibilities in oneself. Hence, one can be a baker or a rocket scientist, a lover and a mother, a man or a woman, at will. The only requirements are desire and opportunity. However, it is clear that none of those choices represents wholeness, but only an abundance of parts.

The True and the Beautiful

Friedrich Schiller describes the same process in a different way as the synthesis of:

  • Intellectual consciousness which imposes duties and rules
  • The instinctive nature as the drive to play (Spieltrieb)

The true and the desired [the word is “intention” in the German] find their synthesis in the beautiful, which has two effects:

  • It lightens the burden associated with duties of the true
  • It raises the darkness of instinctive forces to the level of light and consciousness

So whoever sees the beauty in what is true cannot then fail to love it. Then the element of constraint imposed by duty will disappear, becoming a delight instead. Keep in mind that not just any desire is beautiful, but only those which correspond to the true nature of things. When this is achieved:

Work is transformed into play and concentration without effort becomes possible.

Notes on Translation

Here are some recommended important translation changes. One deals with the understanding of myth on page 15, which should be replaced with:

These are myths, i.e. in the first place historical symbols referring to time, and not symbols expressing the unity of the worlds in physical, metaphysical, and spiritual space. The Fall of Adam and Eve does not reveal a corresponding fall in the divine world, within the heart of the Holy Trinity.

“False friends” in translations refer to words that appear to be the same in two different languages, but whose meaning differs. In this case, the word “moral” has, in English, the connotation of ethical behavior, but the word in French has a wider meaning. In this case, “moral space” makes no sense. Hence, a better rendition would be “spiritual space” or perhaps “intellectual space”. As an example, Dante’s Divine Comedy provides an elaborate spiritual topography as an expression of the unity of the worlds.

Another false friend is “geniality”, which means in English: “the quality of having a friendly and cheerful manner.” However, in French “genial” is related to genius. Now, the archaic meaning of the word in English is “characterized by genius”. So, in the translated text, the word should be understood in this archaic sense.

As a side note, the Philokalia means “love of the beautiful” in ancient Greek. Schiller merges the experience of the beautiful with the idea of the Good (as duty). Curiously, modern Greek translates kalia as “good” rather than “beauty”.

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Bodhisattva Notes 1

Meeting Notes from 9 January 2017
We read from the bottom of page 607 to page 611.

The mission of Hermetism – both in the past and to come – is the union of spirituality and intellectuality.

However, not everyone who has contributed to that work is explicitly a Hermetist. Tomberg provides a short list of such thinkers. It is obviously helpful to study one or more of them, although their spiritual paths differed and the intellectual interests were quite disparate.

  • Vladimir Solovyov: In “Lectures on Divine Humanity”, Solovyov offered an intellectual understanding of the dogmas of Chrisitianity, e.g., the Trinity or the Incarnation. He incorporated ideas from the Kabbalah, Neoplatonism, Boehme, Swedenborg, and the German philosopher Friedrich Schelling. In his lectures, he mentioned the connection between Alexandrian theosophy and Christian doctrine. Spiritually, he was highly influenced by the Divine Sophia, having had several experiences of her presence. Those writings are collected in a book in English titled “Divine Sophia”. Solovyov was highly influential on Tomberg.
  • Nicolas Berdyaev: Berdyaev was another Russian who reconciled his intellectual interests in philosophy with a deep spirituality based on the creativity and freedom of the human spirit.
  • Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: Teilhard was a French Jesuit and paleontologist. In “The Phenomenon of Man”, he created a sweeping vision of evolution of higher and higher layers; from life to thought to the centrality of Christ. He looked for the eventual culmination in God.
  • Carl Jung: Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist, who combined the scientific method of his profession with a gnostic spirituality. His discovery of the archetypes was expanded on by Tomberg.

The guardians of the Hermetic tradition have two tasks:

  • The study and practical application of the heritage of the past
  • Continuous creative effort aiming at the advancement of the work

This spiritual work, on the historical plane, reconciles two opposing notions, described in several ways

  • One source is from above, the other from below
  • The action of continuous revelation and the effort of human consciousness
  • Revelation and humanism
  • Avatars and Buddhas
  • Saints and the righteous

Job, Socrates, and Immanuel Kant are examples of righteous men. Kant, with the discovery and description of the categorical imperative (which Tomberg equates with the notion of Dharma), leads to faith in the nobility of human nature. Tomberg gives us a deeper understanding of the God-Man Jesus Christ. Since He is completely both natures, faith in Jesus Christ should unite both faith in God and faith in man, and love for Jesus Christ unites love of God and love of neighbor.

Jesus Christ, then, unites the Avatar and the Buddha. The corollary of this is that the simplistic notion — popular in some circles — that all “spiritual teachers” including Krishna, Buddha, and Jesus Christ somehow “taught the same thing”. Tomberg, on the other hand, brings out their distinctiveness, while also uniting them.

We discussed the idea of the Avatar and Buddha, particularly why Tomberg chose them as exemplars. The conclusion was that they are not mere ciphers, or placeholders, for his argument. Rather, they bring real revelations to the Hermetist. Hence, we will be making efforts to understand precisely what Krishna (in the Bhagavad Gita) and Buddha taught. And not simply in an intellectual way, but in terms of states of consciousness.

Our task is to be sure to make meditation and prayer part of our daily schedule. Avoid meditations that are based solely on sounds of untranslatable mantras, or those that concentrate on nothing or perhaps just the awareness of breath. Prayer should include both vocal and mental prayer. Also during the day, be sure to awaken yourself several times and observe what you were considering.  In mental prayer we are considering God. Dom Lehodey describes it this way:

The considerations are not a mere speculative study; they are not made in order to learn or to know, but to inflame the heart, and set the will in motion. The mind’s eye is fixed

  • upon some truth in order to believe it
  • upon some virtue in order to love and seek it
  • upon some duty to fulfill it
  • up moral evil to detest and fly from it
  • upon some danger to avoid it

The fruits of mental prayer are these:

Little by little, mental prayer well made

  • will render our faith more lively
  • will strengthen our conviction
  • will penetrate us deeply with the things of God
  • will keep the supernatural always present to our mind.

Then there will be no more forgetfulness, no more sleep

Upcoming schedule: In addition to the text on Bodhisattva, we will bring in supplementary material:

After that, we will do for Lent a series of seven meditation on the Passion of Jesus Christ as described by Tomberg.

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The Magician and Individuation

There is a reason why Valentin Tomberg worked on his Meditations in private for so long. If he had been publishing them piece by piece over time, he would have encountered opposition, arguments, disputes, etc., so that seems to be a common response to new ideas. That would have dissipated his energy needlessly. We see that, for example, in social media that give rise to arguments that do not lead to a greater synthesis, but harden attitudes instead.

The point is that the Meditations do not constitute a new teaching, doctrine, or dogma, but rather they give us the tools to understand sacred teachings in greater depth. Only by changing our level of being can we get the most out of the Meditations. Although clarifications are worthwhile, disputations are not.

Last year or so, a woman contacted me about the Tarot Meditations. She was a wealthy Palm Beach socialite who attended Mass daily and wanted to deepen her spirituality. After several email exchanges, we met for lunch. She went on and on about her Jungian psychoanalysis. She had an analyst in Palm Beach who did house calls because the socialite did not like to drive. There was another one in California that she consulted from time to time.

She emphasized that the analysts were quite expensive, especially the one in California. I was getting the feeling that she did not respect my work because I was not charging for it. Of course, as you probably know, there are many sources who charge a substantial fee to teach the Tarot. Good luck with that if that is what you respect.

Finally, I butted in and asked the obvious question: “How do you know when you are done with the analysis?” That left her visibly flummoxed! She had never even considered that question.

I went on to explain about “Individuation”, which is the aim of Jungian analysis. I offered to work with her on that. However, after lunch she sent me an email breaking off our relationship.

So to the point. Tomberg describes the state of consciousness of the Magician as “the synthesis of the conscious and the unconscious — of creative spontaneity and deliberately executed activity.” Tomberg explicitly identifies that state with what Carl Jung described as “individuation”. Moreover, it is required for “fruitfulness in both practical and intellectual realms.”

In Taoism, this state is described as the True Man.

To cut to the chase, we all need to work through that process of individuation, the formation of an integrated Self. That is not the RESULT of the Hermetic teaching, but rather the PREREQUISITE to even get started. After all, it begins with the Magician.

There are many resources available on individuation, and it may even be a good topic for discussion for those inclined. If you need a kick start, then perhaps this short video may help:
Individuation, the Persona, the Shadow, and the Self

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Doubt and Certainty

Certainty is vanquished doubt, it is faith regained.

Adam and Eve by Cranach
In the meditation on Eden and the Fall in the Arcanum of the Lovers in Meditations on the Tarot, Valentin Tomberg tells us a little more about Hermetic meditation and how to obtain greater depth. He credits Carl Jung for discovering the method of successive explorations of the psychic layers in psychology. These depths extend even beyond one’s birth, and, since nothing dies, the entire past lives right now in the deep consciousness of the soul, i.e., the unconscious or subconscious. Keep in mind that this refers to the psychic memory, not necessarily the memory of physical events.

The example he uses is the story of Adam and Even in the book of Genesis. Unlike the fundamentalists who try to prove the historical and scientific veracity of the story as an objective event, Tomberg instead turns inward. He is not concerned with the external facts of the garden, trees, serpent, etc., but rather with the living psychical and spiritual realities that are revealed through the symbolism used in the story.

First of all, the story reveals the “beginning”, i.e., it is an initiation, not just of man as an objective being, but also of his interior states. That beginning is the primordial state of being in the image and likeness of God. The reawakening of that state is regeneration or theosis. But Paradise is also the beginning of the Fall, or the principle of temptation, which has three elements:

  1. Eve listened to the voice of the Serpent
  2. She saw that the tree is good to eat and pleasant to behold
  3. She took some fruit, ate it, and then gave some to Adam

In general, temptation follows the following progression: listening, seeing, and experiencing.

The Tree of Life is the spirit, or higher centers, or true Self. The higher centers are oriented “vertically”, i.e., transcendentally. They hear the voice of God, which is one and unchanging. Adam-Eve are in unity and there is no doubt. Together, they are a pneumatic being.

Eve is the feminine principle of Adam, that is, the soul (or “anima”), i.e., the psychic (or “animal”) level. The serpent is the most cunning of the “animals” which is why “Eve” is the first target. (In English the connection between animal and anima is lost.) She listens to the serpent, which represents horizontal consciousness, i.e., the world as though it exists apart from God. The promise he makes is opposed to God’s command, so all of a sudden Even is faced with doubt as she entertains two contrary thoughts.

Just listening to the serpent is the root cause of the Fall, because the two opposing thoughts are considered to be on the same level. Yet the serpent’s claim seems plausible since the Tree of Knowledge is tasty and a delight to look at. This just increases the doubt to the point of an unbearable tension. There are two ways to deal with doubt.

  • One is to overcome it by rising up to a higher plane, that is, to return to God. This is the way to faith and certainty.
  • The other way is to try to resolve the doubt through experience. After all, Eve assumed that by actually eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, she could see for herself whether the serpent’s claim was true. This choice just leads to more confusion.

By interiorizing the story in this way, Tomberg elucidates the nature of temptation and how it is a constant presence in our spiritual lives, not just a unique event that happened to some other people in the indefinite past. God is One, but the devil is legion. Hence, in the “world”, we are bombarded with a barrage of opinions, all claiming to be the truth, and all contradictory with each other. This sows confusion. Now it should be a straight-forward decision to reject the ways of the world in favor of the ways of God.

Unfortunately, the glamour of the world is too delightful and we are nearly irresistibly attracted to it. What we hear sounds plausible, it makes us feel good, it enhances our self-esteem, and so on. Considering an idea in the mind then leads us to act on it, so we seek out various experiences by which we hope to assuage our doubt and find happiness. The temptation multiplies because, as Tomberg points out, those who fall into temptation try to draw others into the same experience as a way of confirming their own decision.

We don’t have to go into all the details and anyone can come up with countless examples from the news and in his own life. This meditation on Genesis is not meant to be a one-time meditation, so over time meditators can see more and more how the world entices us with its various promises. The reigning worldview is that if it feels good, it must be right. But that is tantamount to living at the level of an animal, when we really need to be living in the image and likeness of God.

It takes a lot of courage to resist all the temptations we face; just as the world lies to us, we lie to ourselves, hence the need to be extra vigilant. Ultimately it is a matter of Grace. There is no technique or process that will lead us to the primordial state. By clearing the soul of the perturbations resulting from temptations, we will open ourselves up to the experience of Grace. This cannot be forced. That is why Tomberg concludes:

One has experience but does not seek out experiences, because it would be contrary to the holy vow of Chastity to extend a hand and take from the tree of knowledge. The spiritual world does not tolerate experimenters. One seeks, one asks, one knocks on the door, but one does not open it by force. One waits for it to open.

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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”