Meditations on the Tarot - a review

[Thomas]

Meditations on the Tarot
A Journey in to Christian Hermeticism

Anonymous.

Translated by Robert A. Powell. Amity House, Inc.

1985

"In his foreword to the German edition, Hans Urs von Balthasar writes: "A thinking, praying Christian of unmistakable purity reveals to us to symbols of Christian Hermeticism in its various levels of mysticism, gnosis, and magic, taking in also the Cabbala and certain elements of astrology and alchemy. These symbols are summarized in the twenty-two so-called "Major Arcana" of the Tarot cards. By way of the Major Arcana the author seeks to lead meditatively into the deeper, all-embracing wisdom of the Catholic Mystery."

This may be regarded as one of the great spiritual classics of this century. In the hands of this author of immense erudition and deep contemplation, the Tarot cards of ancient Egypt reveal their universal archetypal symbolic nature and become a school of objective insight. The meditations are, in the truest sense, a school of lectio divina requiring an activity more profound than that of study and intellectual explanation. The author gathers us into his own spiritual journey to the authentic Source of all true knowledge and compassion. This book in my view is the greatest contribution to date toward the rediscovery and renewal of the Christian contemplative tradition of the Fathers of the Church and the high Middle Ages. With its firm grasp of tradition, its balance, wisdom, profundity, openness to truth, and comprehensive approach to reality, it deserves to be the basis of a course in spirituality in every Christian institution of higher learning and what would be even better, the point of departure and unifying vision of the whole curriculum."
Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO

(Hans Urs von Balthasar was one of the foremost theologians of the 20th century, who died shortly before his investiture as a Cardinal in 1988)

[China Cat Sunflower]

Valentin Tomberg (Feb. 27, 1900–Feb. 24, 1973) was born into a Lutheran family in St. Petersburg, Russia. As an adolescent, he was drawn to the hermetic Martinism of G.O.Mebes, as well as to Theosophy and the mysticism of Eastern Orthodoxy. Tomberg’s mother was killed by looters during the Russian Revolution, after which Valentin and his father fled to Tallinn, Estonia, where Tomberg studied languages and comparative religion at the University of Tartu. As a young man, he was strongly influenced by Vladimir Soloviev and had a personal experience of the Sophia at a cathedral in Holland. In 1925, he joined the Anthroposophical Society, under whose auspices he lectured in Holland and England and wrote on his understanding of the Bible, Anthroposophy, and esoteric Christianity. During World War II, he left the Anthroposophical Society and its internal struggles and converted to Catholicism. In 1948, he moved to England, where he became a translator for the BBC and monitored Soviet broadcasts during the Cold War, while continuing his devotion to meditation practice and further writing on his esoteric insights. In 1960, he retired to Reading near the River Thames. He died while vacationing in Majorca. The best-known work of his later life is Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism, written anonymously.

http://www.steinerbooks.org/detail.html?id=0880105658

Anything you wanted to discuss related to the book Stephen? I started re-reading it, got halfway into the second letter, and haven't got back to it yet. I want to digest it again, but much more slowly. There's a lot to think about! Tomber wrote another book titled Christ and Sophia that I've been meaning to get to. Have you read it?

Chris

[China Cat Sunflower]

Man, I called Thomas Stephen. Sorry Thomas, you just remind me of someone from another forum.

I posted a quote from the book on the Esoteric board.

http://www.comparative-religion.com/forum/sacred-magic-and-the-post-5928.html#post77300

Chris

[Thomas]

Christ and Sophia that I've been meaning to get to. Have you read it?

No, I hadn't heard of it. I do have his Covenant of the Heart.

There was no particular question - rather for those interested in Christian Hermeticism, this is a more-than-useful commentary.

I (legally) downloaded a comprehensive index from somewhere, very useful if using the book as a kind of primer, rather than the focus of meditation, as the author primarily intended ... I can dig it, or the link, out for you, if you haven't already got it.

Thomas

[China Cat Sunflower]

Originally Posted by Thomas

Christ and Sophia that I've been meaning to get to. Have you read it?

No, I hadn't heard of it. I do have his Covenant of the Heart.

There was no particular question - rather for those interested in Christian Hermeticism, this is a more-than-useful commentary.

I (legally) downloaded a comprehensive index from somewhere, very useful if using the book as a kind of primer, rather than the focus of meditation, as the author primarily intended ... I can dig it, or the link, out for you, if you haven't already got it.

Thomas

Yeah I'd like that link. I think there's been a new edition published with the index.

Check out my thread on the esoteric forum. I posted some new comments that might interest you.

Chris