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Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism
By Anonymous; Translated by Robert Powell
Afterword by Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar
Published by Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, New York, 1985
Containing information not found elsewhere, its depth astounding, Meditations on the Tarot is a must-read for the serious Tarot student. Published posthumously, the author wrote the book in French anonymously. He chose French as the language of the book because there was an unbroken literary tradition in both Tarot and Hermeticism in French. The author described his book as an evocation of the masters of the Hermetic tradition that relies on the “current of meditative thought the Tarot represents.” He considered the Tarot “in essence 22 spiritual exercises."
Valentin Tomberg, a Russian émigré in France, wrote Meditations on the Tarot. Tomberg was probably a German Lutheran who converted to Roman Catholicism, a Martinist by training. Martinists are Catholic monks who follow the esoteric tradition of Hermeticism, a series of spiritual practices historically associated with Hermes Trismegistes, legendary incarnation of the Egyptian Thoth.
Contents and Positive Attributes
The organization of Meditations on the Tarot is simple. There are twenty-two chapters, one on each of the Major Arcana of the Tarot, beginning with the Magician, and ending with the World. The Fool is placed before the World, rather a unique placement. There is a very brief foreword by the author, and an afterword by Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar.
Meditations on the Tarot is just that. In the first chapter, The Magician, Tomberg advises the student to concentrate or meditate on each major arcanum for fifteen minutes daily, as then the cards will reveal themselves to the student. He continues with the results of his own meditations.
The author concentrates on one aspect of each card in great detail. He finds one virtue for each card and reveals it as a spiritual exercise. He stresses that the student must learn to experience and practice each virtue in order to reach a higher state of consciousness, the purpose of the Tarot in his view.
For example, in his chapter on arcanum three, the Empress, Tomberg makes the case that the Empress is the arcanum of sacred magic. He describes the images in the Card-- the crown; the shield; the sceptre with its cross, globe, and staff; the throne--then discusses how the images illustrate the meaning of sacred magic and its relationship to love, redemption, and magic’s object, the restoration of freedom to the individual. He compares sacred magic to the better-known personal magic and sorcery, describes sacred magic and its relationship to Nature and the Christian practice of bearing another's burdens. Tomberg includes the formula of sacred magic as found in the Old and New Testaments, and the Emerald Tablets of Hermes Trismegistes. He cites the formula of sacred magic represented in the Catholic/Orthodox mass, the 7 sacraments, the Tree of Life, gnosticism, modern science and Art. He calls this arcanum of sacred magic the arcanum of generation and fecundity. Using the example of Peter's healing of Aeneas, he shows how the Empress represents the spiritual exercise of bringing divine revelation down from a higher to a lower plane. Heady stuff.
Tomberg clearly is knowledgeable in many fields, quoting a wealth of information from history, philosophy, mythology, science, religion and literature in his description of each arcanum. He quotes many verses from the bible, but interprets them esoterically, that is as tenets of the "inner way" or "middle way" to God.
The afterword by Cardinal von Balthasar places Meditations in a historical and religious context, and does a good job of explaining the intellectual and philosophical background of the author.
Drawbacks and Limitations
As often happens, the strength of Meditations on the Tarot is also its limitation. Its great focus on the depth of each card belies the breadth of each card. After reading this book, one will know a great deal of the significance of each card and how to approach it, but one probably would not be able to describe exactly what the card means. The book is very long-- 660 pages in small print--and difficult to grasp because of the complexity of its material and presentation.
One certainly would not learn how to "read" groups of Tarot cards or to tell fortunes. The author would not feel “reading” the Tarot was appropriate.
The author is a Hermetic Christian. He feels that Hermeticism is not a religion, but rather a way of living one's religion. However, he is Roman Catholic, and the Catholic Church interprets scripture through its clergy and interprets very few verses in a literal manner. Although Roman Catholics, Orthodox Catholics and Buddhists would find this book fascinating whether or not they agreed with all of the author's interpretations, fundamentalist Christians who believe in literal interpretations of Scripture may find the book disturbing. Atheists or non-Christians could find the scriptural allusions interesting but irrelevant.
In summary, Meditations on the Tarot is a wonderful book for an advanced student because Tomberg describes in complete detail the arcana as layers of consciousness and uses scientific, religious, and philosophical information to clarify his theses. Meditations on the Tarot may be confusing to some readers because the author omits many of the expected meanings of the Major Arcana, choosing instead to focus on the spiritual exercise required by each image. Even so, the book clarifies the relationship of each arcanum to the next with a logic and accuracy missing in most other books on the subject.
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