The first principle (i.e., of "esotericism" – another red-flag word, but meaning here simply the "way of the experience of the reality of the spirit") is expressed in the following formula: Learn at first concentration without effort transform work into play make every yoke that you have accepted easy and every burden that you carry light! The first stage is that of "concentration without effort" taught by the card "The Magician" (and also, the author points out, by St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross). The author of Meditations, however, then goes on to specify the "key" to the Apocalypse in the four "arcana" symbolized by the first four cards of the Tarot (which, I should emphasize, is NOT being treated here as a system of divination or black magic). This is roughly the approach I adopted in my book. For as the Apocalypse is 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." Vials signify, all together, a course of spiritual exercises composed of twenty-eight exercises.
The seven letters to the churches, the seven seals of the sealed book, the seven trumpets and the seven to make use of it as a book of spiritual exercises which awaken from sleep ever-deeper layers of consciousness.
"The key to the Apocalypse is to practise it, i.e. Let us look at what he says about the Book of Revelation. Nevertheless, this strange book contains many interesting insights – things which "ring true", to me at least. The positive (but not unreserved) recommendation by Hans Urs von Balthasar has undoubtedly done more to damage Balthasar's reputation than to elevate Tomberg's. Meditations, of course, is a highly controversial book, and at the mere mention of it orthodox Catholics tend to reach for their pitchforks. In the fourth chapter of All Things Made New I refer to a comment by Valentin Tomberg, the (no longer) anonymous Catholic author of Meditations on the Tarot.
0 kommentar(er)
