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Myth as Eternal Idea

The most profound thought is bound up with the historical, external figure of Christ. And the greatness of the Christian religion is that it is there for every stage of development. It is within the grasp of the most naive consciousness and at the same time it is a challenge to the deepest wisdom. ~ Georg Hegel

The story of Jesus’ three temptations in the wilderness, as described in Matthew and Luke, was commented on by Valentin Tomberg in all the phases of his public life. Hence, it will serve to demonstrate the consistency of Tomberg’s understanding. This will involve three steps

  • A brief summary of four works from different periods of his life.
  • The methodology used
  • An interpretation of the three temptations, highlighting any development and changes over time.

Tomberg’s Life Stages

The following works contain discussions of the three temptations in the wilderness. The different versions show a remarkable consistency, especially for someone who allegedly underwent a radical conversion.

  • Anthroposophic Meditations on the New Testament. These meditations were composed during the period when Tomberg was fully committed to the Anthroposophical Society. However, by the end of the 1930s, he was being eased out.
  • Inner Development. This is the English translation of a series of seven lectures delivered in 1938, when he was separated from the society. It seems that he believed that the Michael Community (a church inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s teachings) would be the bearers of a new future.
  • Degeneration and Regeneration of Jurisprudence. This was a thesis written by Tomberg in 1944 concerning his understanding of law and jurisprudence. By this point, he had entered the Catholic Church. Since the thesis was intended to be academic, there are no references to Steiner or other Hermetic teachings.
  • Meditations on the Tarot. Obviously, this is Tomberg’s mature work, and the one he wanted to be known by. Steiner plays an important role in it, but he is placed in a much larger context. The foundation of these meditations is the Hermetic Tradition from Hermes Trismegistus up through its manifestation in France up to the early part of the 20th Steiner, then, is one figure within that tradition, and not the sole authority as he is for the anthros.

By placing Steiner within a larger tradition, he cannot play the role of an extra “pope”. Thus, as Tomberg came to see, Hermetism is not in competition to the exoteric church but instead confirms its teaching. His task was to reconcile the two, which had been in conflict for centuries.

The church without the life of Hermetic teachings would fall into a type of humanism in which, for example, a pope would be more concerned about air conditioning rather than saving souls. And Hermetism on its own usually leads nowhere, as the examples of Crowleyism and the Golden Dawn show.

Philosophy

Tomberg adheres to the tradition of the true Philosophy, i.e., that which includes Plato, Aristotle, Neoplatonism, Medieval realism, philosophical idealism, not to mention Hermetism. Other ideologies like empiricism, materialism, atheism, and so on, are actually anti-philosophies, and therefore have no place.

As was explained previously, Philosophy teaches that there are three levels of knowledge. The highest is Intuition, or direct insight, which transcends even logical reasoning. To make an analogy, suppose Mike and Ike are at home, wondering if it is raining outside. Mike analyses the weather patterns and makes the case that it cannot possibly be raining. Ike, on the other hand, goes out the front door onto the lawn, where he can experience the rainfall.

So which of the two knows the truth? Clearly it is Ike. Your own experience should convince you of the futility of logical arguments to change someone’s mind, except perhaps among mathematicians.

Excursus on Hinduism

Since it is unlikely that Europeans will start building temples to the monkey god, they probably are referring to Yoga or the Advaita Vedanta when they embrace Hinduism. However, as we’ve demonstrated convincingly, the Advaita philosophy is compatible with the True Philosophy of the West—just search for Guenon, Radhakrishnan, Murti, or Bede Griffiths, inter alia, in these pages.

However, what was proper to the people of the Indian subcontinent is not necessarily proper to contemporary Europeans. The Vedanta is a static, ahistorical system, but Europeans have an historical consciousness. Now the yogis recognize that there has been a “Fall of man” from some Golden Age to our current situation; the entire reason for being of the yogic path is to restore that Age.

Yet, they have no explanation for how that Fall occurred. Just ask your neighbourhood yogi, as I have. The West, on the other hand, does have an understanding of the circumstances around the Fall. Because of that, it also has a better understanding of how to restore the primordial state.

There is no question of making a “case” through reasoning. Rather the task is to gain a deeper insight by intuition, similar to the way Ike determined it was raining. After having meditated on Tomberg’s explanation of the temptations in the desert, you can see that it rings true.

Method

In the Meditations, Tomberg explains:

[myths] reveal the archetypes which manifest themselves endlessly in history and in each individual biography – they are mythological symbols pertaining to the domain of time.

In other words, a myth is true, not simply because it describes a physical event at a certain instant in space-time, but rather because the event is recreated in human consciousness throughout history.

Hans Leisegang, quoted by Tomberg, claimed:

Every myth expresses, in a form narrated for a particular case, an eternal idea, which will be intuitively recognised by he who re-experiences the content of the myth.

That “eternal idea”, or “ideal” in Tomberg’s version, is the goal of the myth. The process was described in The Future of Intelligence. The myth starts with physical events, which is at the level of doxa or opinion. We then try to formulate the unifying idea that relates the various elements of the myth. Eventually, we may grasp, in a moment of insight, the eternal idea in the Mind of God, the Wisdom of God or Sophia.

Some want to insist on the details of the myth, as if the story could have been recorded by a camera crew. Then the story of the temptations could make a good Netflix show, with the image of the devil and beautiful depictions of the various temptations. And the audience would be on the edge of their seats wondering if the temptations would be accepted.

But in that case the deeper, or true, meaning would be obscured. Only when the temptations can be experienced fully in one’s own consciousness, as well as that of humanity as a whole, will the myth’s meaning be revealed.

There is no argument or proof necessary, but rather the “seeing” that it is true. The revelation is not the details of the story; rather, it is that moment of insight. Its truth is understood when it brings light onto one’s own situation as well as the human condition.

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The Conversion of Valentin Tomberg

Much ink (virtual and real) has been spilled regarding the conversion of Valentin Tomberg from Anthroposophy to Roman Catholicism. Yet, as we saw in the conversion of Rene Guenon, such a move cannot be understood in the conventional sense as the rejection of one thing and the adoption of another.

Nevertheless, there are those who are convinced that Tomberg rejected so-called New Age teachings to become a Catholic, and therefore attempt to follow him in that path. As a matter of fact, it seems that the Internet is replete with converts (or reverts) who are quite enthusiastic in promoting their new-found faith, usually to excess. While we think such conversions are a good thing in general, that is not at all Tomberg’s message.

In Letter XI, Tomberg explain his reasons for entering the Church.

The way of Hermeticism, solitary and intimate as it is, comprises authentic experiences from which it follows that the Roman Catholic Church is, in fact, a depository of Christian spiritual truth, and the more one advances on the way of free research for this truth, the more one approaches the Church. Sooner or later one inevitably experiences that spiritual reality corresponds—with an astonishing exactitude —to what the Church teaches.

He then lists several specific teachings:

  • There are guardian angels
  • There are saints who participate actively in our lives
  • The Blessed Virgin is real, as she is understood, worshipped, and portrayed
  • The sacraments are effective and there are seven of them
  • The three sacred vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty constitute the very essence of all authentic spirituality
  • Prayer is a powerful means of charity
  • The ecclesiastical hierarchy reflects the celestial hierarchical order
  • The Holy See and the papacy represent a mystery of divine magic
  • Hell, purgatory, and heaven are realities
  • The Master himself abides with his Church
  • The Master is always findable and meetable there

The Common Believer

Any cursory reading of the Meditations shows that it is replete with references to ideas, systems, books, and people that are certainly precursors to the New Age teachings of today. Yet Tomberg did not reject them in toto, not at all. To the contrary, he makes the remarkable claim that following Hermetic teaching to its depths led to his “conversion”. The reasons for this must be explored in what follows. But first of all, note that Tomberg does not claim any sort of superiority; rather, he acknowledges a solidarity with common believers, as expressed in Letter IV.

For the Hermetic-philosophical sense has more in common with the plain and sincere faith of simple people than abstract metaphysics has.

  • For the common believer, God lives; likewise for the Hermeticist.
  • The believer addresses himself to saints and Angels; for the Hermeticist they are real.
  • The believer believes in miracles; the Hermeticist lives in the presence of miracles.
  • The believer prays for the living and the dead; the Hermeticist dedicates all his efforts in the domain of sacred magic to the good of the living and the dead.
  • The believer esteems all that which is traditional; the Hermeticist does likewise.

Rejection of Alternatives

In the Introduction to Inner Development, we are informed that Tomberg initially tried to align himself with the Christian Community and then with Russian Orthodoxy.

The Christian Community was formed by some of Rudolf Steiner’s followers; they have no dogmas, although they have priests and seven sacraments. However, dogmas are not an affront to free will as the Community claims, but rather they are living symbols of a higher spiritual reality as Tomberg came to realize. Typically, organisations that reject dogmas tend to converge to liberalism.

Tomberg attempted to work with the Christian Community by introducing a cult of Mary-Sophia. Emil Bock reportedly said to him: “We have Michael, that’s enough! We don’t need Mary-Sophia.”

As we will see in the next section, that is absolutely contrary to Tomberg’s purpose and mission.

Orthodoxy lacks a complete hierarchy, in particular, the papacy which Tomberg regards as a mystery of divine magic. Russian Orthodoxy retains a notion of being the Third Rome, with an Emperor and the Patriarch as Pope. From the esoteric perspective, this is a caricature of the true teaching, whose real source is suspect. Most of the early popes came from the East; they were more aware of the celestial hierarchy and divine magic. Someday, there will be a Russian pope ruling in the first Rome.

The Blessed Virgin

Tomberg insists that the Blessed Virgin is real, as she is understood, worshipped, and portrayed in the Church. This means that he accepts the four Marian dogmas, not as beliefs but as a personal experience. These are:

  • Mary as the Mother of God
  • Perpetual Virginity
  • The Immaculate Conception
  • The Assumption

Although it is not so common today, when I was a schoolboy, we would attend yearly novena to the Blessed Virgin. We would be given scapulars or medals. Although I might not have fully understood their significance at the time, I have always lived in the security of Mary’s promises of protection. Tomberg describes the esoteric meaning of these promises:

Every Hermeticist who truly seeks authentic spiritual reality will sooner or later meet the Blessed Virgin. This meeting signifies, apart from the illumination and consolation that it comprises, protection against a very serious spiritual danger. For he who advances in the sense of depth and height in the “domain of the invisible” one day arrives at the sphere known by esotericists as the “sphere of mirages” or the “zone of illusion”. This zone surrounds the earth as a belt of illusory mirages. It is this zone which the prophets and the Apocalypse designate “Babylon”. The soul and the queen of this zone is in fact Babylon, the great prostitute, who is the adversary of the Virgin. … One cannot traverse it without the protection of the “mantle of the Blessed Virgin”.

Mary is celebrated as the Queen of Heaven. Tomberg has a deeper insight that takes that teaching much further. In Letter XI, he asserts:

The day when it is achieved will be the day of a new festival — the festival of the coronation of the Virgin on earth. For then the principle of opposition will be replaced on earth by that of collaboration. This will be the triumph of life over electricity. And cerebral intellectuality will then bow before Wisdom (SOPHIA) and will unite with her.

The Virgin will be not only Queen of Heaven, but also Queen of the Earth. Of course, this is confirmed in the Dogmatic Constitution, which calls Mary the Queen of the Universe.

The triumph of life over electricity refers to the Hermetic teaching of electricity, or electro-magnetism, arising from lower forces. Just as a reminder, Tomberg explains:

The fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil — the fruit of the polarity of opposites — is therefore electricity; and electricity entails fatigue, exhaustion. death. Death is the price that is paid for the knowledge of good and evil, i.e. the price of life amidst opposites. For it is electricity — physical, psychic and mental — which was introduced into the being of Adam-Eve. and thereby into the whole of life-endowed Nature, from the moment that Adam-Eve entered into communion with the tree of opposites, that is to say with the principle of electricity. And it is thus that death entered into the domain of life-endowed Nature.

Therefore, the next dogma will be Mary as Co-Redemptrix.

Way, Truth, and Life

Tomberg rejected Anthroposophy (although not Steiner himself), describing it as

a movement for cultural reform (art, education, medicine, agriculture) deprived of living esotericism, i.e. without mysticism, without gnosis and without magic, which have been replaced by lectures, study and intellectual work aiming at establishing a concordance between the writings and stenographed lectures of the master.

In other words, it has Truth but not the Life. It is locked in concepts, meaning that one learns the concepts first, then tries to have the experience, whereas it should be vice versa. Tomberg explained this in a letter to Bernhard Martin:

First they [i.e., Anthroposophists] have a world of formulated concepts and then try to arrive at experience. But the concepts hold them shut within their world: the spiritual world remains silent, because they are the ones talking about the spiritual world; they don’t let it speak. It’s otherwise with people [like Jung]; in silence they let the spiritual world speak. And the spiritual world speaks in symbols—i.e. in mystery speech—today just like before.

In other words, it is necessary to treat the concepts as symbols, as the symbol is understood in the Meditations. It is an invitation to a personal meditation, not a univocal concept to be learned. In Covenant of the Heart, Tomberg is more explicit:

Alas it happened, however, for reasons which we need not go into here, that Rudolf Steiner gave his work the form of a science, so-called “spiritual science”. Thereby the third aspect of the indivisible threefoldness of the Way, the Truth, and the Life—namely Life—was not given enough attention. For the scientific form into which the logic of the Logos had to be cast, and by which it was limited, left little room for pure mysticism and spiritual magic, that is, for Life. So there is in Anthroposophy a magnificent achievement of thought and will—which is, however, unmystical and unmagical, i.e. in want of Life. Rudolf Steiner himself was conscious of this essential lack. Therefore, it was with a certain amount of hope that he indicated the necessary appearance of a successor (the Bodhisattva), who would remedy this lack and would bring the trinity of the Way, the Truth, and the Life to full fruition.

Knowledge as Intuition

Tomberg is trying to get us out of our heads in order to experience a higher type of knowledge. In Covenant of the Heart, he explains:

truth is based on “intuition [which] is not attained through practical knowledge or intellectual consideration (reflection), but through direct experience of reality … ‘an evolving revelation from the inner being of man’ … and ‘a direct grasping of the being of things ….’”

He then goes on:

For those who experience it, this form of knowledge counts as the highest because it is experienced … as the result of the most profound contemplation and the greatest concentration, in comparison with which that of intellectual consideration and the practical knowledge gained by way of observation appears superficial. However, it does not count in the slightest way as knowledge (let alone as the highest form of knowledge) for the scientific disciplines—which, as such, lay claim to being of general validity. For the scientific approach is not to strive simply for the truth, but rather to strive for that brand of truth which is of general validity, i.e. that which can be comprehended fundamentally by everyone bestowed with healthy understanding and faculties of perception, and which should thus be concurred with. A scientific discipline—whether a spiritual-scientific or a natural-scientific discipline—does not want to, and is not able to, address itself only to those people who are capable of the concentration and inner deepening necessary for intuition. Were it to do so, it would then not be scientific, i.e. generally comprehensible and provable. Rather, it would be “esoteric”, i.e. a matter for an elite group of special people. In this sense theology is also “science” since, assuming the authority of Scripture and the Church are acknowledged, it can be comprehended and tested by all believers.

Direct spiritual knowledge achieved through intuition is personal—never general or universal, i.e. scientific in the conventional sense. That is why Hermetism is not one philosophical system among many systems, nor one scientific theory among other competing views, nor the foundation of a new religion. In other words, it is not expansive in the horizontal sense, but rather a matter of depth, i.e., a deepening of understanding.

Postscript

So, to simplify, we can define:

  • The Truth as the understanding of concepts
  • The Way as the deepening of that understanding
  • The Life as direct intuition

An example might be this:

  • Hegel’s system of Absolute Idealism, or perhaps other similar systems
  • Steiner created not just a thought system, but also proposed a path of spirit and soul development
  • Tomberg opens up the meaning of symbols and intuition
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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”.

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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.

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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.