Customer Reviews

Meditations on the Tarot

5 star:		(28)
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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(5)

 

 

First, what this book is NOT: it is not a "how to" book that will teach you how to use and interpret Tarot cards for the purpose of divination. There is nothing here about "spreads," nor are the "minor arcana" discussed at all. So if divination is your purpose, or even a general introduction to the Tarot, this is not the book you are looking for.

Then what is it, and who is it for? It is what the title says, i.e., the Tarot cards (major arcana) are used as "launching points" for philosophical meditations on the {alleged) truths of Christian Hermeticism. And what is Christian Hermeticism? It is an occult philosophy that is the Western equivalent of what in the Hindu tradition is called the "Purusha," the doctrine of the Primordial Man or the Divine Man, in which the life of Jesus is viewed as an archetype of the relationship between every man and the Divine reality. The historical reality of Jesus is not so much denied as reinterpreted as a real-but-symbolic representation of the nature of man and man's relationship to God. The nature of man in a sense mimics and recapitulates the nature of God ("As it is above, so it is below."

This is heady stuff, and makes for difficult reading. Although originally published anonymously, the author is known to be Valentin Tomberg, an occultist of the Steinerian tradition who converted to Roman Catholicism relatively late in life. Tomber's erudition is impressive, and he is obviously widely read in the philosophical and mystical traditions of East and West.

This book is a tour-de-force in which Tomberg relates the symbolism of the Tarot cards to Christian doctrine, understood in both an exoteric (orthodox) and esoteric (mystical and/or heterodox) manner. The tone is gracious (the author repeatedly describes his reader as "dear unknown friend), and one can easily imagine Tomberg as an amiable sage seated in an overstuffed armchair, smoking his pipe, surrounded by books, and explaining the hidden wisdom of Christianity to a small group of enthralled listeners. Tomberg is a man who speaks with authority, and one wonders where that authority comes from. In fact, he is a representative of a Western occult tradition that is very old, a tradition that many orthodox Catholics will find disturbing, subversive, even diabolic. But it does not seem diabolic to me, and has indeed received praise from several prominent Catholic monks (Basil Pennington and Thomas Keating, among others).

I do not pretend to agree with, much less understand, everything Tomberg says, but he casts a spell which shines light on teachings which had hitherto seemed moribund and lifeless. Who would have thought religion could be so interesting?

The reader who comes to this book with a background in philosophy or theology, and who is prepared to give the book the time that it requires, will find much here that challenges, inspires, and perhape even provokes. But if you are looking for a quick read or a popularized introduction to the Tarot, go elsewhere - you are not likely to make it past page ten of this book.

This book has been listed as one of the greatest spiritual classics of the century.

For those who have been exposed to various religious, mystical, occult, philosophical, political and psychological thinkers and wondered how they all blend together in a meaningful way, this is the book that does it.

It is an effort to revive the tradition of Christian Hermeticism - that spiritual tradition that seeks the depths and the heights of meaning and authentic tradition. It is a welcome introduction to esoteric Catholicism - revealing the hidden meanings in the religion and explaining them in the light of Kaballah, Buddism, Sufism, Hinduism, Jungian thought, and on and on. There simply is no other book like it.

Finally the book itself is a work of spiritual exercises. Each chapter is to be read as a step in spiritual exercises.

You will find the answers to the following questions inside:

What is the method of seeing and understanding with spiritual depth?

What is the nature of Power and who is more powerful a lion or a virgin?

What are the three essential vows, necessary for progress in the spiritual life?

What are the esoteric meanings of the 10 Commandments?

What is the spiritual function of the Catholic Chruch in history?

What the difference is between black magic, magic and sacred magic? And why the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the most powerful ritual of sacred magic?

What is Catholic Chakra development?

The spiritual meaning of Nazism and Marxism?

The truth about the Virgin Mary?

The reality of the communion of saints and the hierarchy of angels?

And immensely more. . .

At the very beginning of this book, the anonymous author, who left this book behind with strict instructions that it not be published till after his death, addresses the reader: `Your friend greets you, dear Unknown Friend, from beyond the grave.' He means it literally, absolutely literally.

That is to say, in my experience, to engage sincerely with this book is to engage with more than a book. It is to engage with a living spiritual master and genius of the highest order. A very human being, with the warmest of hearts, the most lucid of minds. A profound, profound thinker whose heart, burning with compassion for the world, gave us a manual of practical Christian alchemy - an alchemy that has undone my neuroses, strengthened my sanity, vastly enlarged my scope of feeling, vitalised my mind, melted my anger, fired my compassion, deepened my calmness - and more - so, so much, much more besides.

But not only this, he has given us a compendium of psychology, sociology, politics, theology, philosophy and hermeticism that could offer the new millennium - in all its potential horror - the wisest of guides.

Some may find this hard to read. Try it in the mornings, or whenever you feel freshest and most alert. Any difficulty will not be because it is dry or abstract. No, this is the most human book I have ever read. Human, human, human - kind and warm, profoundly kind and warm - calling us to heal our lives, heal our culture, not with destruction and polemic, but with peace and alchemy, with the most rigorous clarity of thought and the most tender of feelings.

For those suspicious of the author's orthodoxy, I suggest they note its foreword by no less than Hans Urs von Balthasar. And for those suspicious of the author's Catholicism, I would say the author is arguably more holistic than anyone. He deeply recognises the evil in the Church - but refuses a path of polemic. The way to heal any tradition is through loving, gentle alchemy and not revolution, not violence - psychological or otherwise.

In this sense, this is a book of profound holistic peace. He repeatedly affirms all the world's traditions, and those called to participate in them. And yes, in the West he affirms the traditional church (Catholic and Eastern Orthodox), whose sacramental life, he considers as having the greatest healing value for our troubled culture. The sacraments can heal our ever more stressed, nervous, fractured psyches in a profound way. And he regrets the destruction to the traditional church by any who have taken up violence - psychological or otherwise. There is a deep affirmation of sacramental Catholicism here - but not, if you read it carefully, of a Catholicism that destroys, condemns, imposes, or frightens. The author's heart weeps for a Catholicism of non-freedom.

Such vast realms of insight are here. Single paragraphs can furnish years of meditation. Or a sentence might be read ten, twenty times, before one realises it contains a universe of meaning not glimpsed before one is ready. The thought of such thinkers as Aquinas and Kant, Rudolf Steiner and St Francis of Assisi, Eliphas Levi and Carl Gustav Jung and many more is probed, extended, amplified, regenerated. And still so much more. More upon more. World upon world upon world ... There is supernatural and superhuman inspiration and genius at work in these pages. Those who think me excessive, are urged to look at other reviews on this page - which testify, I think, to the immense detonation in consciousness this book can effect ... after which nothing is ever the same again.

Oh, what more can I say to you, dear Unknown Friend who left us this book? You have immeasurably enriched my life beyond compare - far, far beyond compare. You have healed and strengthened and succoured me. You have opened my heart and mind to the Christian Mystery. You have taught me about sincerity, about rigour, about non-violence, about tragedy, about courage, about tears, about philosophy and poetry, and about profound, profound human-ness. I can never thank you enough. I believe your masterpiece may be the most important of the twentieth century and is my greatest source of hope for the twenty- first.

Boring, wordy and not really about tarot? Well, yeah, in the sense that it's a long, complex book about so much more that the Tarot that it's like a bomb going off inside you when you start to follow where it's going. It took me several abortive attempts over half a decade to get past the first couple of chapters. But eventually I took the time to sit down and read one a night for three weeks. I'm really glad I did.

It's heady stuff, strong wine, but not deliberately intoxicating as so many "spiritual" books are. A date rape drug it's not. The anonymous author was once involved with Steiner but became a Catholic, and this is a deeply, devoutly Catholic book. It'll draw you, if you care to go, more deeply into the Christian-Hermetic tradition than anything else will, I think -- even Rene Guenon or Fulcanelli, who are not to be sniffed at themselves.

"The purpose of these letters," according to the author, "will be to incarnate into this tradition, i.e. to become an organic part of it, and in this way to contribute support to it... Their aim is not only to revive the tradition in the twentieth century but also, and above all, to immerse the reader (or rather the Unknown Friend) in this current -- be it temporarily or for ever."

It couldn't be less about divination or self-affirmation or transpersonal psychology. In fact, it sits far more comfortably alongside the work of such fine, authentic 20th century theologians as Henri de Lubac and von Balthasar (who wrote the preface to the German edition) or, say, Pavel Florensky than it does on the occult shelf where it's usually found. I love this book. It was worth writing and worth reading in a way that sets it apart from all but the tiniest few.

What a book...

As I mention in my review of a couple of years ago on Aeclectic.net, 'this work ranks amongst the classics of mysticism, gnosis and magic - the three pathways into Hermeticism. In my opinion, it is the most masterful book which utilises the Major Arcana of the Tarot as tools to enter spiritual dimensions.'

I write this new (and shorter) review having recently acquired the book in its French version - the language in which the Russian-born author decided to write the text.

Apart from the different nuances of language, it again reminds me of both the sublimity of his penetrative thought, his engagement in the vivifying life of the Spirit, and how the Tarot - and especially in its Marseille version - is profound in both its applications and its assistance in accompanying the Spiritual seeker on his or her journey.

Some anthroposophists have recognised and seen reflected in this work the same spiritual impulse working itself - though in a different form - as it did in the works of Rudolf Steiner. Others, unfortunately, seemed to have developed some antithetical views towards the author - somehow presuming that this author's spiritual authority undermined something of their own formed views. To my mind, this book, for the journeyer on the Path of the Spirit, is one of the brightest of modern signposts - along with Steiner's Philosophy of Freedom and but few other books.

This is undoubtedly not a book for everyone. Some may find either the language, or indeed the firm Tradition in which the author writes, to be too solid. For those who wish to step deeply into the Occidental Hermetic tradition, however, and who wish to also take on board the awakening of the forces of the Imaginative faculties which the Tarot may deeply assist in unfolding, this book remains unsurpassed.

Highly recommended...

As a student of everything mystical, magical, religious, and mysterious, I am completely floored by the contents of this book, not only for the author's incredible scope of knowledge, but for the quantity and quality of heart embedded in the transmission.

The author exposes ceremonial magic that is will-driven for what it is, and points out that only sacred magic in alignment with the "Will of the Father" is ultimately of value. Purification, illumination, and union are the goals of a true mystic. He also addresses the greatest dangers of the occult (which are self-pride and megalomania), shares incredible Qabbalistic insights, warns us that we create demons and egregores through our beliefs and fanaticism, and more... much, much MORE. He does not advocate occultism, but rather directs the reader through occult and mystical ideas to the realization that the greatest knowledge and wisdom are accessible through participication in the traditional, spiritual cirriculum of the Church. Throughout, he humbly bows to Holy Tradition (Catholicism and Orthodoxy), the priesthood, the monks, the Church Fathers, and the sacramental life of the Church, placing himself, the hermetic, in a place subservient to Tradition. Non-Catholics beware. The author is a papist. I am not. However, the book is a treasure nonetheless.

At the risk of redundancy, reading this book is truly like sitting down with an enlightened master of the west. The book has perhaps more "presence" than any I have read. Reading one page is like reading an entire book, so richly layered are the author's words with meanings and associations, knowledge, and the insights of experience. Saying this, I should add that one of the greatest values of this book is that it is not merely academic, but comes down to us as the jewel of both extensive research and deep, personal experience. After reading a borrowed copy of this book, I purchased my own and have studied it from cover to cover twice, and continue to refer to it often. MOT has become one of the most influential books in my life. It has helped me to unify my Christian faith with my perennialist beliefs and investigative nature. I, too, am helplessly hermetic and holistic in my thinking, and if you are, you too may be drawn to this tome of Western (and indeed human and Universal) wisdom and knowledge.

This isn't one to read and forget. Impossible!

The back cover quotes Fr Basil Pennington, one of the developers of Centering Prayer, as calling this "without doubt the most extraordinary book I have ever read". I would agree fully. This is a book I have been searching for for years: deeply Christ-centred and thoroughly orthodox in spirit, yet doing full justice to the many other spiritual currents of our time (Jung, Tarot, Theosophy, occultism, magic) that Christians are so often fearful of. Reading this book has done much to heal the splits in my life and my thinking, and I am profoundly grateful for it.

I am part of a small network of friends where I live in Cambridge, England, on whom the book is having a similarly profound effect, and I'd welcome contact with others who are reading it.

This book, like all great books, is not beyond criticism, but the writer's learning and wisdom is so vast and thorough that I admit that I am incapable and, in all humility, unworthy of rendering anything less than the highest mark. There were many moments when I seriously wondered how the author could know what he knows, and at certain times it strained credibility- or perhaps my present capacity for synthesis- but the sheer thoughtfulness, thought-provokingness, and vast command of his subject has proven to be of the most inestimable and greatest benefit to any who would read it with a critical and open mind. One could read this book several times and gain perhaps even exponentially over what they gained with the previous reading. (As far as the Tarot theme goes, it utilizes a certain older deck's pictoral symbology as a springboard to dicuss the often hidden relationships at work in the universal life and in our personal selves.) This truly belongs next to any of the greatest philosophical and spiritual books EVER written, even if you disagree with many of the things he says. You will at least come out of the exchange a better thinker. Don't expect to learn a lot about the Tarot per se, or even how to experience the peace(gnosis) of your innermost being- for that you must learn to meditate patiently and persistently until your heart's deepest understanding unfolds of itself and reveals to you your next evolutional step- but do expect to be instructed by a master in a truly invaluable system of synthesis that stretches far beyond the mere written page to perhaps deeply transorm the world as you see it.

Mr. Tromberg's work was favorably reviewed by both Joachim Illes and Urs von Balthasar, two of the most important theologians of the Vatican II Council. This work reveals aspects of an ancient Catholic Mysticism and the deep relevance that the Tarot has always had to that tradition. In its exposition it clarifies concepts in Eliphas Levi's Transcendental Magic and expounds on themes given in outline form in Papus' Tarot of the Bohemians. In addition, it confronts other modern concepts which challenge the traditional concepts of moral responsibility, creation from nothing, and the power of ritual sacraments. In all a book that punctures the misconception that such studies cannot be Christ centered.

I was excited by the first couple of chapters, then found the author promoting "Christian Hermeticism" at the expense of other paths, which he dismissed with swift and unsympathetic finality. He is unjustifiably severe for example in his criticism of Rene Guenon, who may be best known to academics for his excellent introduction to the philosphy of Advaita Vedanta; the author believes that Guenon showed a great lack of development (which he implies is explained by Guenon's support of Advaita Vedanta) by joining an Islamic group in Cairo in his later years, indulging in emotional devotions. He asks that Christians express their passion for God and Jesus, but if a Moslem does so, it expresses what he calls a simple-minded, lower faith.

Similarly, he entertains a cultish bias toward Buddhism, asserting as if it were verifiable fact that, due to Christianity's subtle influences, Buddhism's ideal moved from individual freedom-from-suffering to universal freedom-from- suffering, i.e. Hinayana to Mahayana. It's an interesting whim but hardly to be taken seriously. Worse, it shows that he doesn't seem to admit the possibility that Buddhism could have taken that path without the influence of Christianity. It reminds me of Western scholars who have dismissed the Krishna mythology as a re-hash of the Christ story.

The book often inspires a contemplative depth of thought, and I very much enjoy the mature judgements of a practicing Christian who by his account has been "working and praying" for 40+ years. While he maintains throughout an insistence on coupling experience with knowledge, that attitude is nevertheless at odds with the prejudices I've noted.

I enjoyed his discussions of various symbols employed in Tarot cards. I wearied of his assertion that a particular symbol has for all people the meaning he attaches to it. It is refreshing to see Tarot symbology in a positive Catholic perspective, but disappointing to see preserved a species of intolerance all too common among Catholic intellectuals.

I've rated it **** because it engages the reader in some fascinating problems. I would have loved to have had the chance to meet the author; the book is so well written (and/or translated) and so much an expression of heart that I often feel after reading that I have been with a person, not a book.