The Futurity of the Archetype

Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. ~ Mark 10:15

The climax to the Letter on the Magician is the transformation of the Child or Puer archetype into the Self archetype represented by the Magician.

Analogy and Play

The value of an analogy depends on the quality of one’s experience. But the method of analogy corresponds to “concentration without effort”. Specifically, the analogy is either directly intuited or it is not. The rational intellect is of not help, except as preparatory work. This preparation requires the accumulation of experiences and study of the teachings. Only in that way can the faculty of immediate perception of analogous correspondences be developed. We read in the Letter:

The practice of analogy on the intellectual plane of consciousness does not, in fact, demand any effort; cither one perceives (“sees”) analogous correspondences or one docs not perceive or “see” them. Just as the magician or juggler has had to train and work for a long time before attaining the ability of concentration without effort, similarly he who makes use of the method of analogy on the intellectual plane must have worked much —i.e. to have acquired long experience and to have accumulated the teachings which it requires — before attaining the faculty of immediate perception of analogous correspondences, before becoming a “magician” or “juggler” who makes use of the analogy of beings and of things without effort as in a game.

As a form of “play”, the method of analogy becomes almost childlike. The child plays rather than works, yet he is concentrated, with a complete and undivided attention. Hence, the Arcanum of the Magician represents intellectual genius which Tomberg defines as the

vision of the unity of beings and things through the immediate perception of their correspondences—through consciousness concentrated without effort.

The Inner Child

Analogously, the attitude of the child needs to be our attitude when approaching the kingdom of God: to once again become whole and undivided. To be sure, that does not mean at all to become puerile; to be child-like is not the same as to be childish.

There is chatter today about awakening the “Inner Child” as though that were some difficult, not to mention desirable, outcome. If you pout when you don’t get your way, you have awakened it.

No, psychurgical practice is the transformation of consciousness rising from plane to plane. Hence, to become again like a child means to recapitulate the childlike qualities at a higher level of consciousness, i.e., intellectual genius. The child “carries only easy burdens and renders all his yokes light.”

Harmony and Equilibrium

Tomberg refers to Carl Jung and Friedrich Schiller to illustrate his point. The Magician represents the man

  • Who has attained harmony and equilibrium
  • Between the spontaneity of the unconsciousness (as understood by Jung)
  • And the deliberate action of the consciousness (as an “I” or ego)

In other words, this state is the synthesis of the conscious and the unconscious elements of the personality. This corresponds to the process of “individuation” as described by Jung. This is the passage from Essays on a Science of Mythology by Jung and Kerenyi referenced in the letter.

The Science of Mythology

One of the essential features of the child-motif is its futurity. The child is potential future, hence the occurrence of the child-motif in the psychology of the individual signifies as a rule an anticipation of future developments, even though at first sight it may seem to be a retrospective configuration. Life is a flux, a flowing into the future, and not a stoppage or a back wash, it is therefore not surprising that so many of the mythological saviors are child-gods. This corresponds exactly to our experience in the psychology of the individual, which shows that the “child” paves the way for a future change of personality.

In the individuation process, it anticipates the figure that comes from the synthesis of conscious and unconscious elements in the personality. It is therefore a uniting symbol which unites the opposites; a mediator, bringer of healing, that is, one who makes whole. Because it has this meaning, the child-motif is capable of the numerous transformations mentioned above: it can be expressed by roundness, the circle or sphere, or else by the quaternity as another form of wholeness. I have called this consciousness-transcending wholeness “self.” The purpose of the individuation process is the synthesis of the self. From another point of view the term “entelechy” might be preferable to “synthesis.” There Is an empirical reason why “entelechy” is, in certain conditions, more fitting: the symbols of wholeness frequently occur at the beginning of the individuation process, indeed they can often be observed in the first dreams of early infancy.

This observation says much for the a priori existence of potential wholeness, and on this account the idea of entelechy instantly recommends itself. But insofar as the individuation process occurs, empirically speaking, as a synthesis, it looks, paradoxically enough, as if something already existent were being put together. From this point of view, the term “synthesis” is also applicable.

from Essays on a Science of Mythology by Jung and Kerenyi
H/T: Matthew Anderson for locating the Jung/Kerenyi passage.

Entelechy and Synthesis

This passage from Jung and Kerenyi illustrates Tomberg’s points beautifully. The child is not the goal, but rather points the way to the goal. In an instinctive way, the child unites the opposites of the conscious and unconscious elements. That is, it is the analogy of the Self, which is the culmination of the individuation process.

The self is the result of a synthesis, viz., of the conscious and unconscious elements. It is also an entelechy, that is, that actualization of a potential. In other words, the Self exists first as a possibility, but the work of synthesis makes it actual.

Note how this esoteric understanding of actualization differs from conceptions common today. The Self represents Wholeness; it is transcendent, not empirical. The Hermetic path leads to wholeness, to a single unified being.

Contemporary ideals of self-actualization involve realizing different empirical possibilities in oneself. Hence, one can be a baker or a rocket scientist, a lover and a mother, a man or a woman, at will. The only requirements are desire and opportunity. However, it is clear that none of those choices represents wholeness, but only an abundance of parts.

The True and the Beautiful

Friedrich Schiller describes the same process in a different way as the synthesis of:

  • Intellectual consciousness which imposes duties and rules
  • The instinctive nature as the drive to play (Spieltrieb)

The true and the desired [the word is “intention” in the German] find their synthesis in the beautiful, which has two effects:

  • It lightens the burden associated with duties of the true
  • It raises the darkness of instinctive forces to the level of light and consciousness

So whoever sees the beauty in what is true cannot then fail to love it. Then the element of constraint imposed by duty will disappear, becoming a delight instead. Keep in mind that not just any desire is beautiful, but only those which correspond to the true nature of things. When this is achieved:

Work is transformed into play and concentration without effort becomes possible.


Notes on Translation

Here are some recommended important translation changes. One deals with the understanding of myth on page 15, which should be replaced with:

These are myths, i.e. in the first place historical symbols referring to time, and not symbols expressing the unity of the worlds in physical, metaphysical, and spiritual space. The Fall of Adam and Eve does not reveal a corresponding fall in the divine world, within the heart of the Holy Trinity.

“False friends” in translations refer to words that appear to be the same in two different languages, but whose meaning differs. In this case, the word “moral” has, in English, the connotation of ethical behavior, but the word in French has a wider meaning. In this case, “moral space” makes no sense. Hence, a better rendition would be “spiritual space” or perhaps “intellectual space”. As an example, Dante’s Divine Comedy provides an elaborate spiritual topography as an expression of the unity of the worlds.

Another false friend is “geniality”, which means in English: “the quality of having a friendly and cheerful manner.” However, in French “genial” is related to genius. Now, the archaic meaning of the word in English is “characterized by genius”. So, in the translated text, the word should be understood in this archaic sense.

As a side note, the Philokalia means “love of the beautiful” in ancient Greek. Schiller merges the experience of the beautiful with the idea of the Good (as duty). Curiously, modern Greek translates kalia as “good” rather than “beauty”.

Analogy by Papus

Among angelic minds, according to the authority of Dionysius and St. Thomas, the glory of our theology, that is highest which by its intelligence understands with the fewest concepts and forms what lower minds understand with many and varied ones. ~ Pico della Mirandola, Heptaplus

In the Letter on the Magician in Meditations on the Tarot, we are referred to Papus’ description of the method of analogy:

The open recognition of the relationship of all things and beings has engendered an exactly corresponding method of knowledge. It is the method generally known under the title THE METHOD OF ANALOGY; its role and its import in so-called “occult” science has been illumined in an admirable way by Papus in his Traité éleméntaire de science occulte.

This is my translation from the French of the chapter on analogy in Papus’ book.

Analogy

After having determined the existence in antiquity of a real science, its mode of transmission, the general subjects which it preferred to study, let’s try to push our analysis further in determining the methods employed in the ancient science that we have seen to be Occult Science (Scienta occulta).

The goal pursued was, as we know, the determination of the invisible through the visible, the noumenon through the phenomenon, the idea through the form.

The first question that it is necessary for us to resolve is to know if that connection of the invisible to the visible truly exists and if that idea is the expression of a pure mysticism.

I believe I have sufficiently made apparent by the example of the book, previously stated, what a study of the visible, of the phenomenon was in comparison to a study of the invisible, of the noumenon.

How can we know what the author wanted to say by seeing the signs which he used to express his ideas?

Because we know that there exists a consistent connection between the sign and the idea that it represents, that is, between the visible and the invisible.

Likewise, we can immediately deduce the idea by seeing the sign. Likewise, we can immediately deduce the invisible from seeing the visible. But in order to discover the idea hidden in the print character, it is necessary for us to learn to read, that is to say, to use a special method. In order to discover the invisible, the occult of a phenomenon, it is also necessary to learn to read by a special method.

The principal method of Occult Science is Analogy. By analogy, one determines the connections that exist between the phenomena.

Three principle methods can lead to the goal of the study of man:

  • One can study man by his organs and their function: this is the study of the visible, study by induction.
  • One can study man through his life, his intelligence, and what is called his soul: this is the study of the invisible, study by deduction.
  • Finally, one can consider, reuniting the two methods, the connection that exists between the organs and their function, either between two functions or between two organs. That is study by analogy.

In this way, if we consider the lung, the science of its details will teach us that this organ receives air from the outside, which undergoes a certain transformation in him.

If we consider the stomach, the same science will teach us that this organ is charged with transforming the food that it receives from the outside.

The science of the phenomena stops there; it cannot go further than the observation of the Fact.

Analogy, seizing these facts and treating them by generalization, that is to say, by the method opposed to the method of the detail, formulates thus the phenomena:

  • The lung receives from the outside something that it transforms.
  • The stomach receives from the outside something that it transforms.
  • Therefore, the lung and the stomach, exercising an analogous function, are analogous to each other.

These conclusions will appear more than bizarre to men devoted to the study of details; but if they remember this new branch of anatomy that is called philosophical anatomy, if they recall the analogy perfectly established between the arm and the leg, the hand and the foot, then they will see that the method that led me to the above conclusions is only the development of what preceded the birth of philosophical anatomy.

If I have chosen as an example the analogy between the lung and the stomach, it is to guard against an error that is made very often and which closes to everyone the knowledge of the Hermetic texts. That is the belief that two analogous things are similar.

That is completely false: two analogous things are no more similar than the lung and the stomach, or the hand and the foot. I repeat that this remark is one that is no longer important for the study of occult sciences.

The analogical method is therefore neither deduction nor induction; it is the usage of the clarity that results from the union of these two methods.

If you want to know a monument, two means are available to you:

  • Go around or rather crawl around the monument while studying its smallest details. You will thereby know the composition of its smallest parts, the relations that they affect between them, and so on; but you will have no idea of the wholeness of the edifice. This is the use of induction.
  • Go up to a high point and look at your monument the best that is possible for you. You will thereby have a general idea of its wholeness; but without the least idea of the details. This is the use of deduction.

The flaw of these two methods jumps to the eyes without the need for numerous commentaries. Each one of them lacks what the other possesses. Reunite them and the truth will be produced resoundingly. Study the details and then go to the top and begin again so that it will be necessary, you will know your edifice perfectly. Unite the method of the physicist to that of the metaphysician and you will give rise to the method of analogy, the real expression of the ancient synthesis.

To do only metaphysics like the theologian is as wrong as doing only physics like the physicist. Build the noumenon on the phenomenon and the truth will appear!

What to conclude from all that? It is necessary to conclude from it that the challenging book, in its critical part, demonstrates for all time the vanity of philosophical methods with regard to the explanation of the phenomena of high physics, and demonstrates the necessity to constantly keep in front of you the abstraction with the observation of the phenomena, condemning irrevocably in advance everything that remains in pure phenomenalism or rationalism.

We have just taken a new step in the study of ancient science by determining the existence of this absolutely special method but that must not yet be enough for us. Indeed, let us not forget that the goal that we pursue is the explanation, however rudimentary that it is otherwise, of all the symbols and of all these reputedly mysterious allegorical stories.

When, in speaking of the analogy between the lung and the stomach, we generalized the facts discovered by experimental or inductive science, we have elevated these facts by one degree.

So, I am asked if there are degrees between the phenomena and the noumena.

It suffices from a little observation in order to realize that many facts are governed by a small number of laws. It is by the study of these laws considered under the name of secondary causes that the works of the sciences bring.

But these secondary causes are themselves governed by a very restricted number of first causes. The study of the latter is moreover perfectly disdained by contemporary sciences which, relegated to the domain of sensory truths, abandon their research to the dreamers of all schools and all religions. However, it is there that Science resides.

We have not have to argue for the moment who is right and who is wrong; it is sufficient to note the existence of this triple gradation:

  • Infinite domain of FACTS.
  • More restricted domain of LAWS or secondary causes.
  • More restricted domain of PRINCIPLES or first causes.

We can summarize all this in a diagram:

analogy pyramid

This gradation, based on the number Three, plays a considerable role in ancient science. It is on it that is largely based the domain of analogy. We must also pay some attention to its developments.

These three terms are found in man in the body, life, and will.

Any part whatever of the body, a finger for example, can be removed from the influence of the will without ceasing to live (radial or ulnar paralysis); it can moreover be, by gangrene, removed from the influence of life without ceasing to move.

There are therefore three distinct domains: the domain of the body, the domain of life exercising its action by means of a series of special drives (the great sympathetic, vasomotor nerves) and localized in the blood corpuscle. The domain of the will acting through the special drives (voluntary nerves) and having no influence on the organs essential to the maintenance of life.

We can, before going further, see the utility of the analogical method for clarifying certain obscure points, and this is how:

If any thing whatever is analogous to another, all the parts of which that thing is composed are analogous to the corresponding parts of the other.

In this way, the ancients established that man was analogical to the Universe. For that reason, they called man the microcosm (small world) and the Universe the macrocosm (large world). It follows that, in order to know the flow of life in the Universe, it suffices to study the vital flow in man, and reciprocally, in order to know the details of the birth, growth, and death of a man, it is necessary to study the same phenomena in the world.

All that will appear quite mystical to some, quite obscure to others; also, I ask you to have patience and to refer to the following chapter where all the necessary explanations on this subject are found.

The State before the Fall

In the right order of nature, the flesh is subject to the spirit and not the reverse. ~ The Cloud of Unknowing

In Letter III: The Empress of The Meditations on the Tarot, we learn the three effects of the Fall of Adam:

  • toil
  • suffering
  • death
Arcanum After the Fall Replaced Before the Fall
Magician Toil Mystical Union with God The mystical spontaneity of the first Arcanum is that relationship between man and God which was before the Fall.
High Priestess Suffering Directly reflected revelation or gnosis The gnosis of the second Arcanum is that consciousness which was before the Fall.
Empress Death domain of life or creative, sacred magic Sacred magic is that life which was before the Fall.

With these clues, we can return to the first Arcanum of the Magician to unpack it. First of all, the principle of this Arcanum underlies all the others, viz.,

The connection between personal effort and spiritual reality

More specifically, the Magician reveals the practical method for this relationship to the other Arcana. It is insufficient to know cognitively; personal effort is also required. The fundamental principle of esoterism, which shows the way to the experience of the reality of the spirit:

  • 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

Hence the first practical task is to learn concentration, which is “the suppression of the fluctuations of the mental substance” (Patanjali). In practical terms, these fluctuations are the intellectual and sensual imagery that occupies our minds. The arise spontaneously, scattering attention; that is the opposite of concentration.

Calm and silence are the conditions for concentration, when the mind is free of the spontaneously arising images. Therefore, the cultivation of inner silence is the necessary prelude to any meditation on the Tarot.

If the Magician—the first Arcanum—underlies all the other Arcana, then the World—the last Arcanum—unifies all the other Arcanum into a Whole. However, it is not so simple, since the World, when analyzed, actually comprises four Worlds. These four worlds are the background for psychurgical practice, leading from the Fallen state to the State before the Fall. These worlds can be characterized like this:

  • Action: The world of sensual and intellectual imagery.
  • Formation: The destruction of this imagery, i.e., the emptying of the mind
  • Creation: The Silence necessary to receive Revelation from above
  • Emanation: Pure creative activity

Do you see how this ties in with the esoteric principle of the Magician?

In the fallen state, the mind is perturbed with the spontaneously arising fluctuations of sensual and intellectual imagery. In this state, the mind is attached to the lowest plane of toil, suffering, and death, as it cannot conceive of anything superior.

The practice of the destruction of this imagery leads to the next plane of awareness, the world of Formation. This is the task of concentration. However, this task is no longer experienced as toil; on the contrary it is effortless.

When Calm and Silence are achieved, we can enter into the world of Creation. Without Silence, knowledge require suffering: intellectual doubt, moral quandaries, illusions. However, in this state, gnosis is possible since a calm consciousness is the perfect reflection of the revelation from above.

In the fallen state, the World is experienced as oppressive, a system of unchanging laws, the plaything of ineluctable destiny. In the world of Creation, life returns, and the world is understood once again as a creative work of art. This means, in the end, that the Universe is Open. It cannot be encapsulated in any system of laws, or scientific theory, or in a catechism. This is how the project begins, although it never ends:

The Arcana of the Tarot are magic, mental, psychic and moral operations awakening new notions, ideas, sentiments and aspirations, which means to say that they require an activity more profound than that of study and intellectual explanation. It is therefore in a state of deep contemplation—and always ever deeper—that they should be approached. And it is the deep and intimate layers of the soul which become active and bear fruit when one meditates on the Arcana of the Tarot. Therefore this “night”, of which St. John of the Cross speaks, is necessary, where one withdraws oneself “in secret” and into which one has to immerse oneself each time that one meditates on the Arcana of the Tarot. It is a work to be accomplished in solitude and is all the more suitable for recluses.

The Minor Arcana

Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him. ~ Isaiah 43:7

These are the meeting notes for 15 January 2018.

We reviewed the topics and themes that we discussed over the past year:

  • Solovyov, Berdyaev, Bergson, Jung
  • Dante
  • Boehme
  • Concentration without effort
  • Second birth, initiation
  • Centering prayer, meditation, Aurobindo
  • Spiritual vision. Based on Thomas Aquinas and the Law of correspondence. How our sensory experience corresponds to a spiritual reality
  • Hinze, Gichtel, Chakras and the planets

We then discussed possible themes:

After discussion and thoughtful meditation, we decided to make the study of the Minor Arcana as the group project. This will incorporate all the themes discussed to this point; moreover, it will also bring into play the other possible themes listed above.

Of course, as we learned in our Bodhisattva studies, this is best accomplished as the union of Intellectuality and Spirituality. Hence, our meditations must be on something concrete. Specifically, everything must be tested to separate what is of God from what is from “sins, whims, and personal ideas”. Initially, it will not be systematic; each one of us should follow his own interests first. There is no particular hurry.

Since each suit corresponds to a Cabbalistic world, it is necessary to be clear about the characteristics of each of those worlds. In order to provide some background, I will provide this introduction to the worlds, along with some suggestions for further study.

Then, within that world, the pip cards will correspond to the Sephiroth. The picture cards have a different purpose. Furthermore, the worlds interpenetrate, so that the Sephiroth at one level may have a different connotation from the world above or below it.

Keep in mind that the passage from Isaiah from the epigraph reveals the nature of the four worlds.

Azilut (Emanation). This is the unchanging divine world. One is called to that world, as Beatrice called to Dante. This should begin with the Trinity. Eckhart’s and Boehme’s understanding of the Trinity are helpful, as is Solovyov’s as described in Lectures on Divine Humanity.

Sophia, too, as Wisdom appears here. There is a collection of Solovyov’s writings and descriptions of his encounters with Sophia. Bulgakov wrote a short book as an introduction to Sophia.

Mouravieff may have something to add on these ideas.

Beriah (Creation). This is the world beyond space-time, pure consciousness, or Heaven. The world of the higher angels. Pure spirit or thought. Some philosophers have attained to an understanding of this level.

Relating to the named angels may be helpful, starting with Metatron. Dionysius on the Celestial Hierarchy, also St. Bonaventura. The Meditations mention two works by Rudolf Steiner.

Yetzirah (Formation). This the Corporeal world. Also Eden. I’ve found that Wolfgang Smith’s distinction between the Corporeal and Physical worlds is very helpful. He shows that the corporeal world of our ordinary experience, is on a higher plane than the material world studied by physicists.

The features of the body at this level are: Impassibility, Subtlety, Agility, Clarity. (Look them up if you don’t know them.)

Boehme’s description of the Fall of Adam and Eve may be helpful, in showing the transition from corporeality to physicality.

Assiyyah (Action or making). This is the world of man’s making, a factitious world. After the fall he became dense and acquired a material body (“coats of skin”). The upper part of this world is the natural psyche relating to the lower intellectual and emotional centers. Then the descent is to sensations, instincts and the body itself.

Safeguarding the Mysteries

Klein Bottle
Spiritual questions, or debates over the superiority this of that tradition, can be resolved neither by personal predilections nor by empirical and historical considerations. These issues can only be addressed from the understanding of metaphysical principles. It is curious, though symptomatic of the contemporary human situation, that everyone feels competent to opine on spiritual and political matters, although they would not dare to say anything at all about quantum physics or algebraic topology, topics much simpler to understand.

One such principle is that knowledge is being, “to know is to be”. In order to know something of spiritual depth, one must become deep oneself. Frithjof Schuon wrote a book titled The Transcendent Unity of Religions, the point of which is that although on the human plane, different religions may diverge widely, at the level of principle, they must needs converge. Thus, for example, the Catholic monk Thomas Merton can rightly claim that he has more in common with a Zen monk than he does with the average Catholic in the pew.

Hence, the importance of spiritual practice is more important than just knowing doctrines or philosophies. This is what separates the Metaphysician and the Hermetist from the ordinary philosopher. The great Hermetist of the 20th century, Valentin Tomberg, in the Meditations on the 22 Major Arcana of the Tarot makes this clear in the following passage: (p 122, my translation)

The goal of spiritual exercises is depth. It is necessary to become deep in order to be able to achieve the experience and knowledge of deep things. And it is symbolism which is the language of depth — so that these are the arcana expressed by the symbols that are the means and the goal of spiritual exercises, from which the living Tradition of Hermetic Philosophy is composed.

Common spiritual exercises create the common link which unites Hermetists. It is not common knowledge which unites them but rather spiritual exercises and the experiences they entail. If three people from different countries who had used Moses’ Genesis, John’s Gospel, and Ezekiel’s Vision as the subjects of spiritual exercises for several years were to meet, they would do so as brothers even though one knew the history of humanity, the other had the science of healing, and the third was a deep cabbalist.

What they know is the result of personal experience and direction, whereas the depth, the level that they have reached — without regard to the aspect and extent of the knowledge that has been gained — is what they have in common. Hermetism, the Hermetic Tradition, is first and foremost, a certain degree of depth, a certain level of consciousness. And it is spiritual exercises that safeguard it.