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.
Source of the Teachings
More controversial is Seiss’ claim that much of the work was revealed to him from Rudolf Steiner and Valentin Tomberg in their postmortem states. Moreover, there are other sources which he refuses to reveal, at least not publicly, as he explains:
This [the sources] cannot be announced yet. This is necessary because too early communication of these connections would provoke attacks, slander and envy, as experience teaches. The content of these occult teaching letters clearly shows the way and the goal.
Apparently, Seiss wrote to Tomberg, around 1970, requesting a personal meeting, which was refused. Tomberg’s reason was that he was no longer the same person who wrote those earlier Anthroposophical writings, which were of particular interest to Seiss. As is known, Tomberg had converted to Catholicism and the Meditations of the Tarot was published posthumously. That text is much more impressive in terms of breadth and depth than Tomberg’s earlier writings.
My communications with Willi’s students confirm that the Meditations have little relevance to these notebooks. I have not yet found anything that indicates otherwise.
Value of the Work
So, then, why continue with the Chakra Work? The first reason is that Tomberg leaves gaps in the Meditations; otherwise, it might extend to one thousand pages or more. Examples include the evolution and formation of the world, the angelic hierarchy, and particularly the chakras. Although the chakras are mentioned in the Meditations, the treatment is rather cursory.
The second reason is that Tomberg did not specifically refute his earlier writings. Rather, he claimed that they cannot be understood as science in any sense. Hence, both Steiner and the young Tomberg texts must be understood as symbols for mystical experiences. In other words, science can be expressed only in terms of concepts, whereas symbols go much deeper.
That would explain Tomberg’s turn to Platonism, which teaches a higher form of knowledge than the conceptual knowledge of the rational or scientific type. Steiner had identified two different strands of spiritual thinking: the Platonic and the Aristotelean. In the Medieval period, the Platonic is represented by Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Bonaventura, while the Aristotelean by Saint Dominic and Saint Thomas Aquinas. Pope Sextus V likened Bonaventura and Thomas to two olive trees and two candlesticks giving light. Both are necessary, Bonaventura for the path of Love and Thomas for the path of Knowledge. For Plato, the ideas are transcendent whereas for Aristotle, they are immanent. Both are true.
Teaching on the Chakras
Keeping those factors in mind, I will review and summarize Section ST of Chakra Werk, entitled “Tomberg’s Teachings on the Chakras. There are about six dozen pages in that section.
When we did the Our Father Course online last year, I felt it was necessary to update the original commentary with appropriate passages from Meditations on the Tarot and Covenant of the Heart. I will take the same approach in regards to Section ST.