The Holy Book of Thoth

In the Foreward to Meditations on the Tarot, we read:

For these are in essence twenty-two spiritual exercises, by means of which you, dear Unknown Friend, will immerse yourself in the current of the living tradition, and thus enter into the community of spirits who have served it and who are still serving it.

Miss Charlotte Cowell is one of those spirits who has been serving the living Hermetic tradition. First she translated and made available the books on the Tarot Majors and Tarot Minors by G. O. Mebes, whose teachings had influenced the Unknown Friend. We also read in the Meditations:

I have mentioned some Hermeticists whom I suppose that you, dear Unknown Friend, know of. But there are many others who ought to be named as guardians of the ancient tradition of the arcanum of inspiration. But what will the name of Shmakov say to you, for example? Or the name Roudnikova? These are names which, like the yellow leaves of autumn, repose in forgetfulness beneath the immense white shroud of snow which covers pre-revolutionary Russia.

So last year, Miss Charlotte made available in English The Solar Way by Nina Roudnikova.

This year, she has made available The Holy Book of Thoth by Vladimir Schmakov in a beautiful edition with colour plates! Our Unknown Friend recommended Shmakov’s book very highly and now English speaking Hermeticists can read the same material.

The Five Ways to God

The misconception is that the so-called 5 proofs for the existence of God are supposed to be so compelling that anyone, or even a robot, will know that God exists by following a syllogism. By that standard, you cannot even prove that you yourself exist, or that your wife, husband, or lover exists; i.e., any being with an “I” or Self.

That is why Valentin Tomberg suggests instead to use the proofs as seeds for a deeper meditation. These are mine, but you should do your own. The quest for certainty is not satisfied by a scientific, mathematical, or logical proof, but rather in an entirely different dimension.
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Demonic Possession

Lucifer
lucifer

The Fall introduced distortions into the three functions of the soul: Thinking, Feeling, Willing. The centre of gravity fell from the Real I to the I of the personality. The function of meditation is to restore the proper functioning of the functions. In a series of lectures published as Inner Development, Valentin Tomberg describes the effects of meditation:

The general effect of meditation consists in the fact that what is spiritual in a human being descends. That is, the superconsciousness — the higher I — descends into the human personality, and the angel sends down the helping stream of his illumination in the form of “washing of the feet.” Just as Christ bowed down before his disciples and washed their feet, so in every meditation the angel bows down and washes the feet of the meditator.
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Secret, Arcanum, Mystery

Mystery

Hermetism makes sharp distinctions between three closely related ideas:

Secret
  • Secretum (secret)
  • Mysterium (mystery)
  • Arcanum

Secret

A secret is a fact, procedure, practice, or doctrine which a number of men agree to hide. There is no inner transformation required to know a secret. I can tell you where the treasure is buried; you can then find it and remain the same person you were before. A secret is hidden in the darkness.
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The Crown of Creation

Ace of Pentacles
Ace of Coins

But when the artichoke flowers, and the chirping grasshopper sits in a tree and pours down his shrill song continually from under his wings in the season of wearisome heat, then goats are plumpest and wine sweetest; women are most wanton, but men are feeblest, because Sirius parches head and knees and the skin is dry through heat. ~ Hesiod

According to Valentin Tomberg, the Minor Arcana represent an extension to the final Major Arcanum, The World. As such, they represent an ascent, known as Jacob’s Ladder.

The Minor Arcana of the Tarot represent the way of ascent from consciousness belonging to the world of action (the phenomenal world) through the world of formation and the world of creation to the world of emanation.

The suit of Pentacles corresponds to Assiah, or the World of Action. This is the mixed, or dualistic world. Not fully God’s creation, it is the result of Adam’s fall. It is ruled by Satan, the Prince of the World. Tomberg explains:
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