Category Archives: Catholicism

Divine Gender, the Trinitarian Nature of God and Spiritual Love

The following article is a brief excerpt from my 2017 publication entitled Gender and Sexuality: In Light of Esoteric Science, and is available from Amazon.com

From what has been discussed thus far, it is obvious that esoteric science fully agrees with traditional Western theology that the One God is a perfect unity of three deific personifications―or simply, “three divine persons.” Furthermore, this “Trinity” of divine persons is agreed to be co-existent, co-equal and consubstantial with one another.

There is, however, a couple of noticeable differences. In Western theology, the divine Trinity is understood to be Father, Son and Holy Spirit; whereas the esoteric understanding of the divine Trinity is Father, Son and Holy Mother.

Moreover, in Western theology it is believed that the divine person of the Father eternally generates (or “begets”) the divine person of the Son; and together, the Father and the Son eternally generate (or “spirate”) the Holy Spirit. The esoteric understanding, however, is that the divine person of the Father together with the divine person of the Holy Mother eternally generate the divine person of the Son.

Esoterically speaking, then, the divine person of the Son is not a third gender; but rather the perfect union of the only two genders in real (divine) existence―the Heavenly Father (divine masculinity) and the Holy Mother (divine femininity).

Given the real-existence and complementarity of the Heavenly Father and the Holy Mother, it’s abundantly obvious that divine gender is transcendently more alive, personal and powerful than the various cosmic manifestations of universal gender. The infinite and eternal rhythmic interplay between the divine masculine (Heavenly Father) and the divine feminine (Holy Mother) is superlatively beyond any mechanical-style, vibratory oscillations that generate subatomic particles. As well, divine gender is transcendently superior to any back-and-forth mental vacillations which generate human thoughts and ideas. Divine gender is even infinitely grander than the recurring collapse and expansion of the entire universe.

The two divine genders, then, are much, much more than simply being universal forces of Nature; or universal mental operations in Nature; or universal principles (laws) of Nature. The two divine genders transcend the entire natural world; but are likewise much more than being simply supernatural forces, supernatural operations or supernatural principles (laws). The two divine genders are fully-alive, deific personifications―divine persons―who have eternally existed in perfect, mutual complementarity.

Esoteric science and Western theology also mutually accept the revelatory truth that “God is love.”How this is esoterically understood is that the spirit-nature of God is synonymous with divine love; that is, divine love is the spirit-nature of God. In this light, the two gender distinctions of God’s spirit-nature are also correctly understood to be two distinctions of divine love. The Heavenly Father, then, is the perfect personification of divine “masculine” love; and the Holy Mother is the perfect personification of divine “feminine” love.

The eternal, back-and-forth contraction and expansion of God’s spirit-nature, then, is best understood as an eternal interchange and infinite reciprocation of divine love between the Heavenly Father and the Holy Mother. Moreover, the Eternal Son is best understood as the perfect union of divine masculine and divine feminine love. As the divine offspring, the Eternal Son is eternally generated by the mutual love of the Heavenly Father and the Holy Mother (see Figure 1 below).

The divine Trinity, then, is best understood as a transcendent, “familial” love-relationship of divine Father, divine Mother and divine Progeny (Son). Of course when applying human familial terms and interactions to God’s Trinitarian spirit-nature, it must be kept in mind that they are all raised to a degree of infinite and eternal perfection (unlike the finite and temporal limitations of human nature).

Figure 1: The Trinity of Divine Love

The co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial love of the three persons of God is logically the highest and most perfect expression of love in reality. As such, the love of the Trinity serves as the goal and ideal of all love relationships in the created universe. In other words, the principles of universal gender strive to best reflect and manifest the divine gender expressed in Trinitarian love.

Of course the perfect love as expressed in divine gender is transcendently beyond what manifests as human sexuality and procreation. Human sexuality and procreation are temporary, limited, imperfect and undeveloped reflections of divine love as it manifests in the physical world.

Anthropo-Sophia and the Blessed Virgin Mary

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The following article is an excerpt from a publication of mine entitled: Mary and the Divine Sophia: The Salvation of Universal Wisdom (2016), and available from Amazon.com.

It is very unfortunate that in the present day there are a great many authors who write with such “esoteric” authority and conviction, but who have had little or no direct spiritual experience about what they write. Predictably, the information they convey with such weight and command is rife with error and falsehood.

Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than when they emphatically expound on the “being” of anthropo-sophia. If these pseudo-authorities had actually experienced the “lesser guardian of the threshold” for themselves, they would have a much clearer understanding of what Rudolf Steiner means by the “being” of anthropo-sophia.

For those who may be unfamiliar, the lesser guardian is a fearful astral figure that is objectively materialized out of an individual’s collective karma; that is, out of the accumulated effects of good and bad deeds that were performed throughout an individual’s incarnational history. The lesser guardian is invisible to ordinary sight; and only becomes visible to supersensible sight when an individual attempts to consciously cross the threshold into the spiritual world. The lesser guardian, then, is a spectral apparition, a personal astral creation. As figuratively described by Rudolf Steiner in Chapter 10 of Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment ( 1986):

But now all the good and evil sides of thy bygone lives shall be revealed to thee. Hitherto they were interwoven with thine own being; they were in thee and thou couldst not see them, even as thou canst not behold thine own brain with physical eyes. But now they become released from thee; they detach themselves from thy personality. They assume an independent form which thou canst see even as thou beholdest the stones and plants of the outer world. And . . . I am that very being who shaped my body out of thy good and evil achievements. My spectral form is woven out of thine own life’s record.

It will be gathered from the above that the Guardian of the Threshold is an (astral) figure, revealing itself to the student’s awakened higher sight …

So, if the lesser guardian is simply an astral materialization of accumulated karma, why does Steiner refer to it as “that very being” in the above quotation (and elsewhere)? The reason is to disclose and emphasize the supersensible fact that objective materializations in the astral world which issue from human activity are more than just ephemeral, inanimate creations that quickly disappear without effect.

Instead, these astral materializations will often assume a distinct human-like form; and being composed of astral substance, they possess a certain vitality as well as a degree of elemental mentation and sentience. Moreover, these humanly-generated astral formations will very often detach themselves from their human creator, and lead an independent existence in astral space; thereby affecting other astral formations in the superphysical environment.

While it’s important to recognize that astral materializations such as the lesser guardian exhibit a “being-like” quality of existence, it’s equally important to understand that these being-like astral formations are not “beings” in the usually-understood sense of existing as spirit-filled “persons,” such as human beings and celestial beings. An astral materialization such as the lesser guardian does not possess an organized assemblage of interpenetrating body and soul vehicles, such as an etheric body or an intellectual soul. Nor is the divine nature reflected in these astral materializations as an individualized spiritual-self. Moreover, a being-like astral creation does not have an extensive evolutionary history belonging to a particular life-wave, such as the angels, or the archangels, or the thrones or the seraphim.

From what has been described, then, it is clear that anthropo-sophia is a “being-like” astral materialization, and not a “being” in the same sense as a “human being,” as an ego-indwelt human “person.” Even though cosmic wisdom-sophia is as old as the universe, anthropo-sophia is only a recent manifestation.

Anthropo-sophia is essentially an objective materialization of spiritual-truth (cosmic wisdom-sophia) that has been consciously acquired by the human intellect through spiritual scientific means. As such, she only came into existence with the establishment of anthroposophical spiritual science by Rudolf Steiner in the early 1900s. Anthropo-sophia began as a personal materialization of the spiritual-truth acquired by Steiner himself; somewhat similar to the personal generation of the lesser guardian. But as more and more of his pupils began to apply the techniques of spiritual science to intellectually acquire spiritual truth as well, anthropo-sophia very quickly transformed from being a personal astral materialization, into becoming a collective one.

Since cosmic wisdom-sophia is a universal feminine-principle, the human-like form assumed by anthropo-sophia is predictably a feminine one. Moreover, even though she only recently came into materialized existence, she assumes the form of a “mature” woman due to the tremendous outpouring of spiritual truth that was acquired and conveyed by Steiner himself. As more and more individuals intellectually acquire cosmic wisdom-truth through spiritual science, anthropo-sophia naturally increases in astral stature, beauty, strength and influence. Moreover, as an astral “being-like” manifestation, anthropo-sophia is imbued with a degree of vitality, sentience and mentation.

Given that anthropo-sophia has only recently come into astral existence, it is somewhat perplexing why some anthroposophical writers have erroneously suggested that the Blessed Virgin Mary (of St. Luke’s gospel) and anthropo-sophia are one and the same being. As recognized by spiritual science, the Blessed Virgin Mary was the first and only physical incarnation of the heavenly-Eve. Since the heavenly-Eve has been a part of human evolution since its very inception, she is a human “being” in the fullest sense of the term, and is not a “being-like” astral materialization like anthropo-sophia..

What is equally perplexing is the assertion by some anthroposophical writers that the heavenly-Eve is not an actual human being but simply a pristine aspect of the earthly-Eve’s etheric body that was preserved from Luciferic corruption (and the resultant “fall” into physical incarnation) during ancient Lemurian times. If this were true, then the incarnation of the heavenly-Eve as St. Luke’s Mary is nothing but the physical embodiment of an uncorrupted etheric body-fragment.

According to this ill-conceived notion, then, the immaculate mother of St. Luke’s Jesus-child would have had no individualized soul or indwelling spirit. As such, she would have been a plant and not a human being! On strictly logical grounds, then, the idea that the heavenly-Eve is simply preserved etheric forces is obviously absurd. If these pseudo-esoteric authorities had taken the time to combine all that Rudolf Steiner revealed concerning the heavenly-Adam, they would have a correct understanding of the heavenly-Eve.

What is strangely ironic in this instance is the fact that it is usually the same self-styled esoteric authorities who claim that the heavenly-Eve―a real human being―is nothing but an etheric materialization, who also assert that anthropo-sophia―an astral materialization―is a real human being! As previously mentioned, this confusion on their part is a clear indication that they “know not of what they speak”; and should therefore keep esoterically silent.

The Slow Befriending of Anthroposophy and Catholicism in Our Time

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The following article has been taken from my book publication entitled The Greater and Lesser Mysteries of Christianity: The Complementary Paths of Anthroposophy and Catholicism (2015); and is in fact the concluding chapter. For anyone interested in pursuing this topic more thoroughly, the book is available on Amazon.com.

EVEN THOUGH FEW present-day anthroposophists and few current Catholics recognize and understand the two-millennial division of Christian teaching into exoteric mystery-wisdom and esoteric mystery-wisdom, there are still noteworthy examples in recent years which show that each side is beginning to amicably learn more about the other.

Even though the anthroposophical leadership in Dornach, Switzerland does not officially converse with the Catholic Church, and even though the Vatican Curia in Rome does not officially converse with the General Anthroposophical Society, individual anthroposophists and Catholics have begun to slowly befriend each other.

It will probably come as a complete shock and surprise, to both anthroposophists and Catholics alike, to discover that Karol Josef Wojtyla (1920‒2005)―before he became Pope John Paul II―was involved with an anthroposophical group in Poland that was studying the art of speech and working with Rudolf Steiner’s mystery dramas. Moreover, before he became Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (b.1927) was the head (or “prefect”) of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1981 to 2005. In this capacity (where he was nicknamed, “God’s Rottweiler”), Cardinal Ratzinger’s primary function was to defend and reaffirm traditional Catholic doctrine. During that time, he was friends with Dr. Martin Kriele (b.1931), a well-respected German constitutional lawyer who was both Catholic and anthroposophist. In an interview given in 1988, Kriele stated:

I don’t withhold [from the Catholic Church] that I’m an anthroposophist and I must say that it’s caused me not the slightest difficulty and even the ultimate arbiter [of the Church], so to speak, Cardinal Ratzinger, knows me to be an anthroposophist. He is today the ultimate defender of the faith and he took no offense from that.

Moreover, in Kriele’s experience, Catholics were much more accepting of him being an anthroposophist, than anthroposophists were of him being a Catholic. As he indicated in the same interview quoted above:

Catholicism, meanwhile, has become much more open. It’s often happened to me that my coreligionists respond not with hostility but with interest when I say that I am an anthroposophist. When, among anthroposophists, I mention that I am a Catholic, however, they act like they are about to cross themselves [as protection from the devil].

In Kriele’s opinion, this fearful and widespread anti-Catholic reaction among anthroposophists is misplaced and anachronistic. As he explained:

It seems to me that those who behave thus are seeing the reality around them not through their own eyes but through those of Rudolf Steiner seventy years hence. Not quite of course―Steiner himself had positive relations with Catholics. He even on January 30^th, 1924―after the Christmas meeting!―went as far as to say that the Catholic church is the only important institution that truly presents to the world the mystery of the spirit that has veiled itself with sensory impressions (Mystery Centres of the Middle Ages; GA 233a); awareness of its role, however, usually being absent … Anthroposophists who orient themselves only by Steiner’s explanations of forms of Catholicism of his own time and ignore his favorable expressions mistake the present reality; for example, that the church today recognizes religious freedom as an inalienable right, for other religions as much as itself. Further, supremacy of the conscience over dogma is now officially taught and also that departure from the church need not rank one among unbelievers. (Ibid.)

While John Paul II and Benedict XVI are certainly two examples of celebrated Catholics who have had an arm’s-length brush with anthroposophy, many other ordinary Catholics have also had similar favourable associations. For example, many Catholic parents have positively enrolled their children in anthroposophically-inspired Waldorf schools, or Camphill communities. Other Catholics have been pleasantly involved with anthroposophically-inspired Biodynamic farming; while others have enjoyably attended anthroposophically-inspired eurythmy performances or Mystery plays.

In other instances, some Catholics in recent years have deliberately delved much deeper into the anthroposophical material of Rudolf Steiner. During the early 1990s, for instance, Vatican scholars at the Institute for Philosophy in Liechtenstein (a Catholic research centre) studied Rudolf Steiner as an eminent spiritual philosopher, and concluded that anthroposophy was reasonably harmonious with accepted Catholic doctrine.

So, has there been a reciprocal interest on the part of anthroposophical groups to study Catholic doctrine and teaching? There doesn’t appear so―but in fairness, it is much more difficult to study a religion than it is to study a science (including a spiritual one). Religion requires emotional commitment, dedicated devotion, communal activity and repeated practice. A science, on the other hand, can be more easily understood in an objective, intellectual way. So for anthroposophists to truly understand Catholicism, they would actually have to practice or apply it for a certain length of time. Nevertheless, present-day anthroposophists can still achieve a much deeper understanding and appreciation of today’s Catholicism just by having Catholic speakers and experts attend anthroposophical group meetings; or by personally attending and observing a Christmas or Easter Mass.

Since the very beginning of anthroposophy, there has always been a small percentage of Catholics involved. One of the founding teachers of the first Waldorf school, for example, was Dr. Karl Schubert (1889‒1949), a Catholic anthroposophist that Rudolf Steiner held in high esteem. Even at the Christmas Conference in 1923, when the General Anthroposophical Society was officially established, Rudolf Steiner was accompanied by a Catholic priest named Father Trinquero.

Throughout the history of anthroposophy, most Catholic members have preferred to quietly practice their religious faith without widespread Society attention or notice. Moreover, they have generally preferred to keep these two areas of their lives separate, without making public efforts to unite or integrate them. There have been, of course, a few exceptions by some present-day anthroposophists who are favorably disposed to Catholicism. Prominent anthroposophical writers, Robert A. Powell (b.1947) and Christopher Bamford, for instance, have attempted to imitate the Catholic veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary by instituting the “Hermetic” celebration of the “Virgin Sophia”―the Holy Spirit of Wisdom.

Unfortunately, Powell, Bamford and other like-minded Catholic supporters within anthroposophy have been vocal champions of Valentin Tomberg, the controversial anthroposophical convert to Catholicism (please refer to Chapter 5 for more detail). Not surprisingly, then, those anthroposophists who regard Valentin Tomberg with suspicion and derision very often regard the Catholic-friendly “Tombergians” within anthroposophy with equal suspicion and wariness. Many members have also mistakenly concluded that all Catholic anthroposophists are Tomberg supporters; and this quite naturally raises questions about Catholic inclusion.

Clearly the lesson to be learned from the continuing Tombergian divisiveness is that efforts to interfuse and amalgamate anthroposophy and Catholicism (even well-intentioned efforts) are unhealthy, unproductive and mutually ruinous. Not just institutionally, but even within the sanctity of our own souls, it is vitally important to maintain a healthy autonomy between the religion of Catholicism and the (spiritual) science of anthroposophy. By doing so, these two crucial streams of Christian mystery-teaching will truly complement and elevate each other, now and into the future.

The Riddle of the Knights Templar

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Over the centuries, so much frivolous fantasy and fabrication has grown up around the Knights Templar which disregards the obvious fact that they were a Christian militaristic order—established and sanctioned by the Catholic Church—that was instituted in medieval times to protect pilgrims journeying to the Holy Lands. They were not a secret occult brotherhood that later morphed into Freemasonry in Scotland and elsewhere.

In an effort to provide some historical clarity on the Templars from an esoteric Christian perspective, the following article has been excerpted from my previously published book, The Son of Love and the Birth of the New Mysteries (2015), which is available from Amazon.com.

[“The Discovery of the True Cross” by Gustave Dore (1877)]

The Riddle of the Knights Templar

It is worth clarifying, at this point, the ever-popular misconception that the Knights Templar also functioned as an important esoteric conduit into medieval Europe for the vanishing mysteries of the ancient Middle East. As a Christian, monastic, military order officially endorsed by the Catholic Church at the Council of Troyes in 1129, the Templar mission was to provide protection to European pilgrims travelling at that time to Jerusalem and to the Holy Land. Templar knights were required to take the monastic vows of poverty, chastity, piety and obedience, and to strictly adhere to a detailed code of conduct known as the “Latin Rule” which was established by advocate St. Bernard of Clairvaux and founder Hugues de Payens.

Though the Templars certainly came into armed contact with militant Moslem brotherhoods such as the Order of Assassins, as a fervent and dedicated Christian order, they had no interest in becoming a secret repository for old pagan mystery knowledge. However, since the Order’s headquarters in Jerusalem was the captured Al Aqsa Mosque on Temple Mount, which was believed to be the ancient site of King Solomon’s temple, it was later rumoured that the Templars may have unearthed long-forgotten secrets of Solomon, or the Hebrew Ark of the Covenant or the sacred chalice of Christ-Jesus’ Passover meal.

Moreover, the lurid accounts of Templar knights worshiping a heathen idol called “Baphomet” (a mistranslation of “Mahomet” = Muhammad), or engaging in acts of sexual depravity, or conducting ceremonial blasphemy against the crucifix was entirely fallacious information obtained from knights under horrific duress by King Philip IV of France. The sinister king of France was heavily indebted to the Templar Order to help finance a protracted war for control of the English monarchy; so to avoid repayment and to seize their communal wealth, Philip arrested, tortured and executed innocent Templar knights, including the grand master of the order, Jacques de Molay. Philip also falsely arrested and expelled Jewish citizens from French territories in order to seize their assets as well.

When King Philip began to levy unfair taxes against the French clergy in order to continue financing his costly war, he was soundly condemned by Pope Boniface VIII. Whereupon, Philip abducted the pope by surprise retaliation in Italy and installed his own puppet pope, Clement V, in Poitiers, France. Under pressure from King Philip, Pope Clement ordered all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest the Templars and to seize their assets. Further military threats by Philip forced Clement to officially dissolve the order in 1312 and to turn over most of their remaining assets to the Knights of St. John (also known as the Knights of Malta or the Knights Hospitallers).

While some Templars certainly found safe haven in Scotland and Switzerland, which were outside the sphere of papal influence at this time since both territories had been previously excommunicated, many knights simply joined other orders, particularly the equally powerful Order of St. John. The Templar Order in Portugal continued to survive with the assistance of King Denis by simply changing its name and re-instituting as the Military Order of Christ. Some Templars in other countries were arrested and tried, but never convicted. Some knights were even pensioned off and left to retire peacefully. Remarkably, a misplaced document was found in the Vatican Secret Archives in 2002 that records the trial of the Templars and the fact that before dissolving the order in 1312, Pope Clement in 1308 actually absolved the accused Templars of all heresies against them. Unfortunately, that did not prevent the corrupt Philip IV from burning alive at the stake Grand Master de Molay and Normandy Master de Charney in Paris on March 19, 1314.

Templars and Freemasonry

So any modern-day orders, particularly Masonic, claiming to have a Templar connection are clearly spurious. The Templars were a Catholic monastic order established in the Middle Ages to provide military protection for Christian pilgrims to the Holy Lands. This once-essential service is no longer required, and since the Order has been officially dissolved in its original form by the Church, there are no recognized Templar knights remaining today. Without official Catholic approval, any group or individual claiming to be Templar is simply bogus. Moreover, it would be interesting to know if any of these Masonic would-be Templars take strict monastic vows of poverty, chastity, piety and obedience; or faithfully abide by the 72 instructions of the Latin Rule.

Though some Masonic legends claim that Freemasonry was actually started by exiled Templars or that persecuted Templars took safety within certain Masonic orders (in Scotland, for example), such conjecture makes no logical sense whatsoever. Firstly, feudal brotherhoods of stonemasons were in existence long before the Order of Templars was endorsed by the Church in 1129; so the Templars certainly didn’t establish Freemasonry. Secondly, while it is possible that desperate Templars could have temporarily hidden out in the guarded lodges of stonemasons, it is more likely that as Christian warrior-monks they would have sought refuge in any number of sympathetic monastic orders in Europe at the time.

The idea, however, that there was close contact between Templars and stonemasons is certainly logical. Since the Templars established a network of stone temples, castles and fortifications stretching from Britain to Jerusalem, they obviously would have employed an army of talented stonemasons to do the necessary construction. But since one was a military monastic order and the other was a practicing guild of tradesmen, their only commonality was their Christian faith and loyalty to the Holy Church.

The only reason that de-Christianized Freemasonry includes degrees and orders of pseudo-Templarism is the mistaken mystique that the Templars were not dedicated and devout Christian military monks but deceitful purveyors and practitioners of ancient pagan mysteries. Since modern Freemasonry cloaks itself in secrecy and deceit, it quite naturally looks for these qualities in other brotherhoods.

Templars and the Holy Grail

The truth is that the Templars did uncover and safeguard certain sacred treasures that had been acquired in the Middle East; but these were sacred relics associated with Christianity, not fragments of old pagan mystery knowledge. The Templars were documented to have possessed a piece of the true wooden cross of Christ. Also, the mummified head that the Templars were falsely accused of worshiping was actually a relic that the Order was known to possess, the head of St. Euphemia of Chalcedon. Also, the recorded “confessions” of the tortured knights in Paris makes mention of the Order possessing a red, monochromatic, full-length image of a man on linen or cotton cloth. This was clearly a reference to the famous Shroud of Turin, since the first known public display of the shroud in 1357 was by the family of the grandson of Geoffrey de Charney, the unfortunate Templar who was burned at the stake with Grand Master de Molay in 1314.

On a much deeper esoteric level, the Templars did indeed unknowingly stumble across an essential aspect of the mystery of the Holy Grail. Through their intense devotion and enthusiastic fervour as faithful servants of Christ-Jesus, Templar knights were to passionately feel that their entire lives had been turned over to the Risen Saviour. When they thought, it was Christ-Jesus thinking in them; when they felt, it was Christ-Jesus feeling in them; when they acted, it was Christ-Jesus acting through them. Every breath they took was intimately felt to be Christ-Jesus breathing in them; the beating of their heart and the coursing of blood through their veins was experienced as the life of Christ-Jesus in their bodies. As described by Rudolf Steiner in a lecture on 2 October 1916:

The blood of the Templars belonged to Christ Jesus―each one of them knew this. Their blood belonged to nothing else on earth than to Christ Jesus. Every moment of their life was to be filled with the perpetual consciousness of how in their own soul there dwelt―in the words of St. Paul―”not I, but Christ in me”! And in bloody and severe combat, in devoted work such as the Crusades demanded, the Templars put into practice what they had spiritually undertaken to do … to establish more firmly in earth existence the impulse which came from the Mystery of Golgotha. (Published in The Knights Templar: The Mystery of the Warrior Monks; 2011)

By mystically uniting their own blood with the spiritualized blood of the resurrected Saviour in the etheric sphere of the earth, the Knights Templar inadvertently experienced a form of Christian initiation whereby they contacted the real presence of Christ-Jesus in the supernatural realm. By uniquely experiencing the “sangréal” (Spanish for ‘royal blood’) of Christ―the “san gréal” or ‘Holy Grail’―the Templar initiates actually reflected the egohood of Christ-Jesus in their souls; thereby releasing true supernatural light into the world. Once again, as described by Rudolf Steiner:

Something quite remarkable and powerful had thus entered into the circle of the Templar Order without their having known the rules of Christian initiation other than through sacrificial service … This experience of the Templars meant that the Mystery of Golgotha was understood, and also experienced, at a higher stage than before. Something was now present in the world with regard to the Mystery of Golgotha which was previously not there … These external deeds and the enthusiasm that lived in these deeds drew out the souls of the Templars so that these souls, being separated from the body, outside the body, lived with the spiritual progress of humanity and penetrated in soul and spirit the secrets of the Mystery of Golgotha. They then underwent many and deep experiences, and not for the individual soul alone but for all humanity. (Ibid.)

Tragically, however, in spite of its grandeur and sublimity, the unintentional and spontaneously generated initiation of the Templars caused them to become anomalies in progressive human development. Their accelerated esoteric advancement placed them outside the stream of exoteric Christianity to which they properly belonged; but their connection to the medieval Roman Catholic Church excluded them from the normal stream of esoteric Christianity as well.

The Templars, then, became a religious order without a spiritual home. Moreover, since their abnormally rapid attainment prematurely expanded their consciousness beyond the safe confines of the body, the Templars also unknowingly opened themselves to Luciferic assault. Due to his diabolic lust for gold and power, Philip IV became the eager agent of Luciferic powers who sought to destroy the Templars and thereby halt the influx of Christ-light that was pouring into the world through them.

Thankfully, in the great hall of cosmic justice, the cruelly-murdered Templar knights found fair and lawful recompense. Their premature deaths flooded the supernatural world closest to the earth with radiant Christ-light that illumined and inspired the Christian souls descending to birth into Renaissance Europe. Many an enlightened intellect during that period could trace the source of their brilliance to Jacques de Molay and to the Christ-filled Templars on the other side of the veil.

Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Shadowy Occult Deception

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The following article about controversial anthroposophist-turned-Catholic, Valentin Tomberg (1900-1973), is an excerpt from my recently published book, The Greater and Lesser Mysteries of Christianity: The Complementary Paths of Anthroposophy and Catholicism (2015). For more information, the book can be ordered from Amazon.com.

Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Shadowy Occult Deception

Even though, as an anthroposophist, Tomberg was rebuffed in his efforts to be recognized as the esoteric Christian successor to Rudolf Steiner, he still fervently held on to this vainglorious, egocentric delusion throughout his Catholic conversion. His unabashed praise of St. Ignatius and his Spiritual Exercises was a subtle contrivance needed to position himself (and the Hermetic “spiritual exercises” of his Tarot book) as the Christian successor to St. Ignatius (and thereby, to Rudolf Steiner). What Tomberg had failed to accomplish as an anthroposophist, he was certain he had accomplished as a Catholic esotericist (even “from beyond the grave”).

It’s perfectly obvious to any sincere esoteric Christian (without a hidden agenda) that Valentin Tomberg cannot hold a candle-flame to the sun-burst of supersensible knowledge issuing from Rosicrucian initiate and “master of wisdom,” Rudolf Steiner. Tomberg’s feeble attempt with Meditations on the Tarot is pathetically obvious.

To begin with, the meditative imagery that Tomberg chooses for his “spiritual exercises” are coloured woodcut designs from Jean Dodal’s early eighteenth-century version of the Tarot de Marseille, a deck of cards purportedly invented in the fifteenth century in northern Italy. So why does Tomberg refer to these images as “Hermetic”? According to some occult historians, tarot cards (particularly the major arcana) were originally derived from the ancient Egyptian “Book of Thoth,” and later introduced into Medieval Europe by migratory gypsies. As explained by occultist, Manley P. Hall (1901‒1990) in The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928):

A curious legend relates that after the destruction of the Serapeum in Alexandria, the large body of attendant priests banded themselves together to preserve the secrets of the rites of Serapis. Their descendants (Gypsies) carrying with them the most precious of the volumes saved from the burning library―the Book of Enoch, or Thoth (the Tarot)―became wanderers upon the face of the earth, remaining a people apart with an ancient language and a birthright of magic and mystery.

Since the Egyptian god, Thoth, is also known as “Hermes” or “Hermes Trismegistus” (the “Thrice-great”), tarot cards are therefore considered by some occultists (such as Tomberg) to be “Hermetic.” However, even granting that tarot cards had an Egyptian origin, the images of the Tarot de Marseille are entirely Renaissance European: the clothing, the architecture, the furniture, the objects and the people―which include an emperor, an empress, a pope and a papess (female pope)―all did not exist during the ancient time of Hermes.

Even in such a “Europeanized” form, it’s still rather bizarre that Tomberg would choose meditative images loosely derived from pre-Christian Egypt to use as Catholic “spiritual exercises”! For all the areas of concern that have been previously identified with the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises (in Chapter sub-section 4.3), at least most of the meditative imagery was safely taken from the Gospels.

Besides, there already exists within the Catholic Church a safe and effective developmental path leading to union with Christ-Jesus, and that is the sevenfold path of Mystic-Christianity. This tried and true developmental system has been successfully practiced within the various monastic orders for centuries, and exclusively employs meditative scenes from the life of Christ-Jesus―not from ancient Egypt or Renaissance Europe.

Rather than meditating on “The Magician, The Hanged Man, The Devil, The Lovers, The Chariot, The Moon, The Wheel of Fortune” and fifteen other non-biblical images, Mystic-Christianity focuses on the Gospel of John and seven profound events in the life of Christ-Jesus:

the washing of the feet
the scourging
the crowning with thorns
the crucifixion
the mystic death
the burial and resurrection
the ascension

Why anyone―especially devout Catholics―would think that meditating on the images of the tarot is a superior method of Christian development, instead of that used in Mystic-Christianity, is certainly difficult to comprehend.

And what exactly is the goal, the end result of the Tombergian tarot meditations? It certainly can’t be mystical union with Christ-Jesus. If becoming Christ-like requires that the disciple follow in the footsteps of the Master, it’s not likely that our Saviour would be leading us through the labyrinthine symbolic imagery of a pseudo-Egyptian deck of cards so that we can finally reach him.

Therefore, one does not need to read very much of Tomberg’s Meditations on the Tarot to conclude that the entire enterprise is a blind occult alleyway leading to spiritual darkness, rather than to the true light of Christ.

Even aside from the shadowy occultism and the unsavory appeal to magic contained in the Meditations on the Tarot, it’s also astonishing how unabashedly arrogant and openly heretical Tomberg appears with certain of his written pronouncements. Once again on page 4, Tomberg wrote:

The seven sacraments of the Church are the prismatic colours of the white light of one sole Mystery or Sacrament, known as the Second Birth, which the Master pointed out to Nicodemus in the nocturnal initiation conversation which He had with him. It is this which Christian Hermeticism understands by the Great Initiation.

For over two thousand years the Catholic Church has celebrated seven sacraments that are unquestioningly held to have been established by Christ-Jesus himself, and lovingly entrusted to his body the Church: (1) baptism, (2) confirmation, (3) Holy Communion (Eucharist), (4) holy matrimony (marriage), (5) holy orders, (6) penance (reconciliation), and (7) anointing of the sick. Tomberg here astoundingly claimed to have discovered an eighth, overarching sacrament―the sacrament of sacraments―which he termed the “sacrament of the second birth,” which he also called the “Great Initiation”!

Other pronouncements that Tomberg made in Meditations on the Tarot, which attempt to combine his brand of tarot-occultism with Catholicism, are just plain silly. For example, commenting on “The Pope” meditation (or “Letter”) on page 119, Tomberg wrote:

The post of Pope or the Holy See is a formula of divine magic―just as the post of Emperor is―in the history of humanity. It is what is meant by the esoteric term Petrus (Peter) … Petrus is the term in the Old and in the New Testament designating the divine, immovable ordinance or formula of divine magic.

I’m sure the present pope, Francis I, would be shocked and amused to learn that Tomberg and his present-day Catholic supporters regard him as the “grand magician” of the “Church of divine magic.”

The Sacred Heart of Shambhala

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