A hindu can easily believe in an Avatar, a unique and very special Avatar of Brahma, Vishnu Or Shiva, or even Brahman itself, or an exclusive Sun being, changing the course of earth evolution (or planetary evolution, if so). John Paul II caught unaware when photographed – or did he possibly wish to send a discreet signal of support for the book, even if not as pronounced as the step taken by von Balthasar? Anthroposophist talk about a "living" kind of thinking, and this book exemplifies such a way (as well as I can tell). Dense and difficult—the more so as I entered the book woefully uninformed about Catholic and Christian Hermetic ritual and terminology—but also endlessly fascinating and edifying, especially in the recondite and convincing manner with which scientific, psychological, and anthropological phenomena are reconciled with the spiritual revelation of Christ. For they echo what I felt for many years myself, when my own spirituality was very Eastern (a subject that incidentally I go into my big book that deals with Tomberg Cor Jesu Sacratissimum.

This is a very, very painful topic and I do understand the enormous distress suffered by those whose hearts are pierced by the betrayal of the faith within the Church in recent decades. These forms, like the Tarot, become the Runic gateway not only to our unconscious but also to the outside. But year by year, my engagement with the Church’s Sacraments, with continuous study of MotT and Tomberg’s Catholic legal writings etc led me away from the East and Rosicrucianism without the Church. And before Anthroposophy, I was steeped in the East, most particularly the Eastern theosophy of Alice Bailey but also figures like Krishnamurti and Meher Baba who I cherished.I agree that it is likely that he did not any version of Indian spirituality as a serious choice for Westerners. I think many of those drawn to the New Age – like you and me – possess a religious sensitivity that has not been served by the often -Protestantised forms of Catholic practice these days. Bhakti spirituality in Hinduism also exploded only after Christ, not due to any direct contact with Christianity, but possibly because of changes in the subtle cosmic environment resulting from the Incarnation. Sometimes I am just glad that my own blog deals with very little with current affairs, so that I can easily keep silent about current affairs.

I rather enjoyed this book this second time around (second time finishing, 3rd time starting it) -- and that was really amazing. This was related by the Anthroposophist Sergei Prokofieff in a book hostile to Tomberg – The Case of Valentin Tomberg: Anthroposophy or Jesuitism? And yet there are tantalising indications that Tomberg’s opus has, in fact, received some kind of support from the highest echelons of the Church, including the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and the Papacy. He quotes the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali in the context of Concentration without Effort, placing it in the company of Western philosophical and Catholic traditions of inner work. And what makes the tarot potentially more useful than other alternatives is its visual nature, as well as the way in which it results in a temporary structure—in the form of the cards spread across the table—that can be scrutinized from various angles.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.

In a Hegelian like synthesis (without the chaos of Hegel), this author runs the gambit, a real cornucopia of meanings, picks and chooses, guides our way across them in argument leading us on a possible path, an interpretation of a huge sum of human knowledge to the point at which portals break down, words become invisible and you understand more than yourself.

And in that sense, despite archetypes or despite language, we literally have the world through these forms. 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. The only thing is my paperback version is a mess - from my scribbled notes and highlighting - I can be cruel to books I love -- I think I'll have to get a hard bound version at some point. Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item.