Meditations on the Tarot

2020-10-112020-12-05

Protection Meditation

And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. ~ John 1:5

The failure to harmonize the three soul functions opens one up to lower influences. Specifically, these are:

Those who base themselves on thinking alone or primarily on thinking, will become detached from conscience and will; they will become the prey of Lucifer. They will be easily seduced by ideas of grandeur.
When feelings predominate, Ahriman steps into the shadow of the Luciferic spasms. The fall into Ahriman’s kingdom takes place in this way. They become hypnotized and are prey to propaganda and deceit
In the case of gut vision, one becomes the prey of Asura. The stomach, the intestines, and the genitals, figuratively speaking, become independent. They develop a separate I of the body that makes it impossible to become a real person.

The Our Father prayers is intended to prevent the 6-petaled sacral chakra from absorbing these forces. However, for most people this prayer only reaches down to the heart, 12-petaled, chakra. This protects the head, but below that, there is still darkness and unconsciousness.
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2020-10-092020-10-09

The Bondage of Spirits

Ahriman’s-head-carved-in-wood-by-Rudolf-Steiner — Ahriman

In the essay On Magic, Giordano Bruno discusses the existence and action of non-human spirits. The practice of invoking god, demons, and heroes is the branch of magic called theurgy. He calls this the “magic of the hopeless” because they often become the vessels of evil demons. A safer practice is to learn to command and control lower demons through higher spirits. Valentin Tomberg describes theurgy in a similar way:

With respect to the cult of the “gods” and the iconolatry that this cult entailed, the “pagan” initiates and philosophers saw in it the practice of theurgy, i.e. that of intercourse with entities of the celestial hierarchies either by raising themselves to them, or by rendering possible their descent and presence on earth.

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2020-10-06

Christian Gnosis: Jacob Boehme

I was a hidden treasure, and I desired to be known; therefore I created the creation in order that I might be known. ~ Hadith Qudsi

Origen, Dionysius the Areopagite, Jacob Boehme, Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, Vladimir Solovyov and Nicolas Berdyaev, for example, show in their works a progress which is very advanced in substantially bringing together intelligence and the intuition of faith. ~ Valentin Tomberg

Jacob Boehme has to be termed the greatest of Christian gnostics. The word gnosis I employ here not in the sense of the heresies of the first centuries of Christianity, but in the sense of knowledge basic to revelation and dealing not with concepts, but with symbols and myths; contemplative knowledge, and not discursive knowledge. This is also a religious philosophy or theosophy. ~ Nikolai Berdyaev (Studies Concerning Jacob Boehme)

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2020-10-032020-12-05

Harmonious Development

People of the Future

There are two main lines of possible development:

People of the present, whose foundation is the 10-petalled lotus (the solar plexus) as well as research in science and humanities.
People of the Future, whose Soul foundation is the 6-petalled lotus (the sacral), develops with regard to the task of karmic research.

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2020-09-272020-10-04

Tomberg’s Teaching on the Chakras

Just over two years ago, an anonymous source sent me two large binders filled with loose leaf pages of revelations from Willi Seiß, founder of the Free Hermetic Christian Study Center. The text is title Chakra Werk. I was asked to do something with the Work. There was a period of time necessary to absorb the texts. And then, for the past year, I have been recovering from a health problem and am only just now regaining full strength, allowing me to return to these texts.

Seiß was an independent Anthroposophist who was concerned to protect and promulgate the works of Valentin Tomberg through the Achamoth Press. Achamoth Press has provided a valuable service in making Tomberg’s Our Father Course available in both German and English editions. Chakra Work is currently available only in German. Although the group that continues Seiss’ work is rather closed, it was never Willi’s intention to keep the texts private. Just the opposite. The text is available to anyone. The loose leaf pages imply that the work will be ongoing, simply because (as he writes) evolution, or spiritual realization, is incomplete.
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